Have you Checked out my Avon Site?

Right above here you will see my "Buy Avon From Me" page. Yes, this is a shameless plug.

I love Avon products, BUT I'm not that fond of pushy sales people at my door. HONESTLY I've not had any pushy sales ladies and the one Avon lady I had years ago I LOVED! Such a sweet grandmotherly lady who took in my kids and I as if we were her own and treated me like a super star.(I was a very young homeschooling mom at that time with 6 year old twins and a highly active crazy loud 2 year old)

Because of this experience I wanted to become an Avon Rep. My goal is to service my homeschool community. Hopefully I'm known enough around here that they will feel comfortable being honest with me and letting me know if they would like to have an Avon service or not.

Another thing I liked about Avon this time is that I can do my work online. I'm an online shopper. I love Amazon. I buy silly things like laundry soap and dishwashing soap from them even. I mean two day free shipping AND it's coming to my door. I love it!

Avon does the same thing. Okay, not free two day shipping, but free shipping with a small $30.00 order and many times I know of a free shipping code for holidays or other occasions I can share.

Avon at your door, no pushy sales person, no reason to get out of your jammies (yes as a homeschooling mom there are times I'm in my jammies all day) to get your beauty products.

Speaking of which....I just have to share. A few weeks ago I had declared pajama day in our house. It's not often that we even have a day that we are not going somewhere, but this particular day was free of appointments, co-ops, music lessons, you name it. I lounged in my jammies all day. Imagine my horror when a knock came at my door. I send one of the kids to investigate praying it's UPS. No, it's our regular mail man. This of course means I need to sign for something.

He is not the nicest mail man we have had, and maybe it's our very long driveway and impossible gate he has to come through but his humor is usually not there with me. Of course, I'm trying to figure out what he is going to think about my jammies, and if I can find a good excuse for wearing them. Well, I didn't I just tried to laugh it off, with no smile from him.

My teenage daughter answers the door and he asks for her mother. Knowing I'm in my pajamas she stammers a bit and is speechless. He repeats, "It's not hard to get your mom is it?" She calls for me, remember I'm trying to figure out how to instantly be changed out of these jammies, but nothing worked. I hear him say "Now that wasn't hard was it?" UGH!

So, it's been a few weeks and I wasn't feeling great so I went ahead and declared pajama day again. You know what's coming don't you? Yup, he had to come to the door again. I didn't even bother. He probably thinks I live in my plaid jammies. Oh well.......I'm homeschooling for a reason right. :)

Back to my Avon.....you and I might be a lot alike. I prefer to talk to people via email, I prefer to visit online. I think I'm very much a people person and I love to chat and smile and drink coffee. I co-lead a very large co-op in our community and have the homeschool resource library just outside my house. I'm pretty versatile. Plus I'm not here to make tons of money. Some would be nice, I'd really like to find my niche in helping my husband out while staying home, but I also just like having something worth while to do. My girls are getting older and I'm trying to set a better example for them then was set for me. I'm a keeper of my home, a instructor of my children  and a help meet to my husband.

So, now that you know a bit more about me and why I chose to sale Avon, I hope if you are considering trying their products you will want to shop at my store, knowing that if you dislike anything for any reason I will do everything to make you happy with your purchase or as Avon says, I'll make sure you get your refund.

Thanks for letting me put in my shameless plug.

Now.....off to rally the troops for a little more school on one of our NON-pajama days! Mr. Mailman, your welcome to come by today if you like.

What we are doing for our Freshman Year

It's hard to believe as I type this that I have two freshman. It means we are only a few years away from completing this journey with them. Does learning ever end? It hasn't for me. I'm constantly repeating school. Thanks to homeschooling I think I've finally figured out that 1+1=2, in theory, unless you change what the number 1 stands for in that case it throws my whole theory out. Oh well! Maybe by the time Rebecca is a Senior I'll get it. :)

So, I promised yesterday I would write what we are doing for Highschool this year. It's evolved quite a bit since finding Easy Peasy Homeschool. Did I mention how much I LOVED all her links and direction. I've never met this woman, but if I do I will hug her! This has revolutionized our year.

So stay with me, I'm going to go by subject, tell you what we have done so far and what we are doing now. In a few cases its simple, in a few it's a little over the top to follow.

We will start easy!

Math - Math U See (I love the old versions)
Kahn Academy for explanations, videos and practice when needed.

History - We LOVE Notgrass World History! In all honestly I've not looked anywhere else for history for these kiddos. Not to say I wasn't looking before I found this but it's just perfect for my kids!

So, now it's going to get a little tricky

Literature - World Literature
We are using Notgrass World History which also comes with a literature program. It is great literature BUT, we haven't found a huge discussion on the literature. I felt they needed a bit more. After all we have been following Adam Andrews Teaching the Classics up until now. WHICH I LOVE!! Nothing will replace him, however with my 5th grader still needing a lot of my attention literature just wasn't going how I wanted.

So.....
Easy Peasy to the rescue! We followed her link to GA Virtual School for 9th grade Grammar and Literature.
It's been a win win for us.
And to find SAS Currciulum Pathways (which is FREE to sign up for) and see all the resources we have to fill in.....it just doesn't get any better.

Just to be clear we are still reading the literature from Notgrass World History AND completing this online course with GA Virtual.

Now, on to one of the trickiest of subjects for us.

Science - We are doing Biology this year.

We started the year with Biology 101 and LOVED LOVED it! My freshman devoured it, literally. We were done with it quite fast. We were following the accredited version of this course and instead of using library books as they suggest we were using Apologia Biology and The world of Biology by John Tiner. We still finished early. Like I said, they devoured it. I have no doubt it's due to the Biology 101 course. They are still telling everyone how much they loved it.

 So, I'm trying to figure out how to make this course keep stretching. After all they are suppose to have a full 180 hours in order to count as a credit. Sigh.... WAIT.....here comes Easy Peasy again! I have told you lately how much I love them?
I've checked out a few of her Biology recommendations and I'm so excited.
First we have Biology 101 from the Education Portal
Next we have Biology from GA Virtual
Finally we have SAS Curriculum Pathways

Can you believe all there is on Biology for FREE! Interactive educational whoop de doooo!

Thank you Easy Peasy for showing us the way!

Bible
Now my kids do some intense Bible Study with Notgrass History AND Awana AND Bible Study. Not to mention our fantastic co-op class on God's Heart for the Nations.

Art
They are also completing an Art History Course at co-op with  Meet the Masters!

Music
Just so you don't think I'm not doing enough with them.....hahahha.....they were also just accepted into our local Youth Orchestra.

Did I mention we are trying to fit in Institute  for Excellence in Writing? Looks like it might be a co-op class soon so I'm slacking in that area!

Loving Easy Peasy Homeschool!!

If you haven't checked out Easy Peasy Homeschool you should!

I have two freshman in high school this year and a 5th grader. I can't tell you how this has revolutionized our schooling. It's a fantastic FREE website that points you to all sorts of amazing websites on the internet. Each of these so far in our journey have been quality free learning sites. I can pick and choose as I go along. It's all in my control and yet the quality is hard to be beat.

Disclaimer: if you use some of the science sources that are free, please realize you should view them first. There is a bit of evolution in them. In my opinion my kids are well grounded in creationism and it's okay for them to see what others believe and question it. I encourage my older ones to question!

Here is what my 5th grader is doing and I should say LOVING!

Math Facts - Easy Peasy
Math - Math U See for workbook

Science Videos and fun stuff - Easy Peasy
Science Workbook - Abeka

Health - Abeka Workbook

Reading - Easy Peasy
Writing - Easy Peasy

Grammar - Schoolhouse Teachers Daily Grammar

Thinking Skills - Easy Peasy

Year 1 Easy Peasy
Bible
Art

We are also use her History as supplemental since we are doing History in Co-op.

As you can see, this is a very full curriculum for my 5th grader and she loves following the days lessons along with fun links. I love it too! Can you tell yet?

Tomorrow I'll tell you what my Freshman are doing this year. Stay tuned