C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R

It's been a few days since I've written, but I feel like I've been attached to the computer.  For one thing, I am attempting to write a book about the history of New York state.  Rory and I have been studying it this year for school, as it is a required course in New York.  I ended up creating my own curriculum for the year, based mostly on biographies and literature.  A friend of mine is actually using the curriculum with me, and we have gotten together for a few of the activities.  Anyway, I got to thinking that if I had trouble finding a curriculum I liked that was already put together, maybe there is a need for this sort of thing.  The curriculum I had written for myself was basically a list of books and activities organized into categories for me to follow.  I am trying to expand on this with some basic information to make it usable for other people.  I think I will try to publish it as an E-book, with options for paper copies if people don't have internet access.  If anyone would be interested in looking at what I have done and giving me feedback and suggestions, let me know - I would appreciate all the help I can get!

My other project is that I am "trying out" to be on a review committee for The Old Schoolhouse magazine. It is not a paid position, but they are trying to get a lot of people involved in reviewing curriculum and getting the information out to other homeschoolers.  They accepted my application, and sent me two of their unit studies to review.  If I end up being selected, I will be receiving free curriculum to review from different companies.  I am supposed to review the things on my blog, so you will all get to find out what I think about them.  The first one is a five-day study called "Expedition Australia," which we started this week.  It has all sorts of internet links, so we have seen videos and pictures of places and animals from Australia.  Rory has enjoyed being able to spend time with the computer.  He's also making a "lapbook," something I have heard about but never tried before, so there's a bit of a learning curve on my part!  I'll let you know when we're done how the week went.  The other study is about being a firefighter.  It should be interesting.  The fun thing is that these are things I hadn't really considered teaching this year, and it's giving us some variety in our studies.

On a house note, I finally got the trim painted in the kitchen!  Woo-hoo!  The last wall is finally done!  Now, I'm looking at the floor and ceiling trim....oh, well.  Also, the living room is looking rather shabby.  Boy, it's never done, is it?  Mike has informed me that if the kids and I will kindly leave for a week or so, he could get some of this done.  I'm not quite sure how to take this...Anyone up for house guests?

I've realized that Lily is a ninja.  She somehow managed to break a plant pot with her head this morning, with no visible marks on her head.  It took me several years of Tae Kwon Do classes to learn how to break a piece of wood with my hand without mauling it (my hand, not the wood) to pieces.  I'm a bit jealous. I guess it's a good thing she didn't become a model.  She could have missed her calling!