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A new Blythe store for all of your needs!  Accessories, shoes, socks, handmade hair accents and so much more!  I also will be adding coolcat scalps, licca bodies, customizing tools, and eye chips for quick access locally.

I have taken over DollyMolly’s accessories store as she is super busy with her new dolly venture. 

I hope to be open within one week with a great grand opening sale!  So stay tuned all of you Blythe lovers!

talk about bad blogging! geez.  So where have I been?? everywhere and nowhere.

Busy homeschooling my little man

and my big guy is graduating this year which means lots of senior activities, getting ready for Penn State, and all of the other “stuff” that goes along with it.

This summer I got to meet the Dudley’s for the first time since I was about 3.  What an amazing experience!!  We then went to the Bahamas on a cruise ~ awesomeness again!

Sadly I had to give up my photography business this past fall.  I have become too sick to do it anymore.  I still take pics every day but , now am a MWAC and am loving it!

and lastly playing with dolls LOL!!  I have a major Blythe addiction going on!!

This year we made an almost instant decision to homeschool our youngest son Derek.  This was an educational and social decision on what we felt would benefit Derek.  He needed a lot of one on one and was moving into a classroom of over 30 kids.  That scared us.  With a co-morbid disability of Aspergers, ADD, SID I had a strong feeling he would slowly start falling through the cracks.

I knew my job of 12 years would disappear this year, so we took the leap.  PA has very strict homeschooling laws and requirements (still crossing my fingers I did everything right).  I am running a full curriculum of History (including PA history), Civics, Math, English, all the way to Fire Safety.  He also has to provide the school district a Standardized Test since he is in 3rd grade.  At the end of the year I will drop my portfolio off at the school, pray I did everything right and pray some more that my son is benefitting from homeschooling.

Halfway through I can say he is so much happier.  There is not any anxiety trying to fit in or dealing w/ a peer he does not get along with.  That would consume Derek.  We do not have flourescent lights bothering his eyes. A friend tapping a pencil and distracting during a test.  It is a much more controlled social environment too! We have gym weekly with a very large homeschool group – over 50 children! We have field trips and monthly Enrichment Days.  Derek and I are starting a lego club for our homeschool group.  I am thinking he is more socialized now than he was before. 

For education, I have chose not to buy a boxed curriculum.  I chose to devise my own based on a few books (Well Trained Mind and What Your Third Grader Needs to Know).  This has been very tough.  There are general Standards that your third grader should study the Mayflower.  In my opinion, they should start history in the beginning.  The beginning of man, the Nomads.  So I have been running a double track of History and of Science.  We do weekly chemistry experiments but, also study plants, animals, etc.  This spring we will be planting a garden and that will be part of our studies.

I love homeschooling Derek.  It’s a ton of work.  More than any other job I have had.  More than photographing a wedding, more than being a Business Analyst for a top telecommunications business.  Every Sunday I draw up our weekly lesson plans only to have some of them fail or not be completed.  But he is happy, he has someone to answer his questions, he is learning, and he can do his math in pj’s.  Life is good!

Our classroom at Christmas.