Here’s our starting line!
My two stars!
This guy earned a starting QB position this year.
This one’s a defensive coach’s dream!
Run Forrest Run!!
Have a blessed Friday!
What goes on behind the doors of LearningRx?
There are so many wonderful things that happen once you enter the doors of a LearningRx center.
Upon Graduation at the Jacksonville Center your hands go here:
These little guys cover the walls in the waiting room…..
As I sit and look at these I ask, “How can these be all over the internet, not just the walls?”
Since we homeschool we are at the center early and it is often a little quieter when we are there. But after school? It’s a hub of activity as kids are bussed in, moms bring kids in, parents talk in the waiting room or use the computers in the back. Information flows like a stream. I love all the activity and the one-on-one time I get with other moms.
I met another homeschoool mom this week. Oh, how we need to encourage one another! So much weight we carry upon our shoulders!
This month we are planning a MOMS NIGHT OUT at the Jacksonville center. I can’t wait! Here is their Facebook page!
Have a blessed and brainy day!
To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/
What’s up with moms being sick?
I arose Friday morning at 5am to a horrible head cold. Searching in the medicine cabinet I found something to make me breathe and go back to sleep. I then rested until noon. Zombie-fied I emerged from the bedroom again seeing a sign on the door “Mom’s Sick. Enter and you face Dad!!!”
Now is that love or what?
I spent all of Friday in bed and then had a little energy Saturday. All for one of my kids to have a 101 fever that evening. Easter was spent at home then a few hours on the beach. Maybe the salt air would kick it out of our systems.
Apparently not. Monday found me with a horrible sore throat and no voice by 5pm. I bathed my throat with everything I could think of inside and out in hopes Tuesday I’d have the energy of a newborn pup.
Nope.
No voice. One kid to school. Three others started on their homeschool work and back to bed.
Can I just tell you how thankful I am to have an iPad because it home schooled my youngest today. Grammar, Math, Compound Words, Telling Time, Reading and Sight words.
Hello. Goodbye and back to bed. There really should be a law against moms getting sick!!!
Maybe I’ll have a voice tomorrow. Until then…..ta ta!
Cognitive Skills (LearningRx)
Understanding Learning Challenges….
When we began LearningRx I can honestly say I had no idea what cognitive skills really were. As we have progressed through the progress I am beginning to have a better understanding of what cognitive skills are. I describe them as the way I (or you) think and process information, the nutshell version. The bigger definition encompasses the active process of taking information in:
1. Attention
2. Processing speed (I always think of this when my kids are waiting for me to spit some thought out and they say,”Mom! What?”)
3. Working Memory. (Who couldn’t use more of this? Oil on the gears is how I think of this…holding onto information while we use it…like walking into a room and forgetting why you are there or completing a task)
All of these are called active processing.
Then comes higher thinking:
1. Logic and reasoning
2. Auditory processing
3. Visual processing
4. Long term memory
Then all this good stuff is stored in our knowledge bank (brain) so we can retrieve it when we need it. For all you parents out there think of remembering where your keys are, having grocery lists in our heads or remembering that one thing we forgot while running errands. In kids it shows in spelling, testing, writing or speaking.
If our skills are weak we can’t focus, homework takes too long, our reading is poor, or we have trouble recalling previously learned information. In my oldest child I have noticed a huge change in his self-confidence and his ability to control his emotions as well as his school work. He also takes more personal responsibility after 24 weeks of brain training.
I am excited and looking forward to the time I can train. My dream day now consists of a day where I can remember the things I need to do without feeling scattered and flustered. I’d be a better mom, wife and teacher!
Then I could eat bonbons and relax on the porch.
Have a blessed Easter!
To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/
Exposed
Some of you know of my strange but loving obsession with farm fresh eggs. I love the ones that are multicolored. Each one is unique, yet the same. This morning I was cooking eggs and something struck me about there being three left in the carton. An odd number, three.
A divine number.
So as I cooked I looked over at the cracked eggs and thought how much like the eggs my life is.
It’s all broken, slimy, crooked. Oh, it often looks neat from the outside but when you look inside? Hmmmm…..makes a girl want to run and hide. Or does it? Maybe it’s in this broken slimy place that I feel God’s radiant love shining into my life. He doesn’t expect me to be perfect, knows I can never be even when I strive for perfection. I really believe when I stop pretending I feel Him the most. I take off all the masks and allow His light to fill me. The slime seems less slimy, the edges less rough and the crookedness a uniqueness given only by Him.
What about you? Are you hiding? Can you feel the freedom of letting “perfection” go?
Rest……..
When do we, as moms, rest?
What does it look like?
This morning I dropped one off at school and am sitting on the back porch with two of my other kids. It’s 76 in Florida. The wind is blowing. I hear the neighbor’s wind chimes. It’s peaceful. But I have a million things running through my heart, soul and brain that I “have to do”. Why can’t I stop and soak in the morning? When did I forget to rest in the moment…the one where Jesus lives….the now, the I AM??
My third-born lost two teeth last night. So we’re sitting here looking up what teeth are made of. We’re talking about enamel and dentine. We’re homeschooling the way I want to homeschool……checking out the things we are interested in. Today it is teeth. Tomorrow it may be poop, who knows!!!!
After talking with my good friend “The Scooper” I chose to rest in the day. Math can wait. Language can wait. Teeth are the topic of the moment.
Now we talked about “belonging to” instead of just “believing in” God.
And now we’re off to brush teeth, eat breakfast and begin our day.
But this morning’s breeze is balm to my soul. The Holy Spirit’s breath on my exhausted soul and body. Love from the Father. Birds chirping remind me that He is the Creator of all things, the author and perfecter, the finisher. My striving means nothing……. for it is in repentance and rest my salvation is found and it is in quietness and trust I find my strength. (Isaiah 30:15)
Rest today sisters. Rest today dear husband. Rest today dear Scooper. REST.
Hello there…
It’s been a long time since I’ve visited my ole blog. Life has been crazy busy and I haven’t had much to say. It’s been crazy February weather in Jacksonville. Yesterday was 88 and Saturday the high is in the 60s. My sweet husband and I will have been married 16 years tomorrow. Friday night date night!! Yea!! It’s hard to believe 16 years and four children, the oldest being 13, have gone by like the wind. God tells us our time here is fleeting and although the days sometimes seem to crawl, the years fly.
So Happy Anniversary to my sweet hubbie tomorrow!!
I love you.
I’m Published! Happy Dance…..
After working with the corporate marketing team at LearningRx we’ve finally gotten their cover for the next issue of Life Changing. I’m excited on so many levels. It’s the first time my photography has been published in a magazine, our family’s story is exciting and I believe in my heart of hearts LearningRx can help strengthen anyone’s cognitive thinking skills. I am passionate about them, passionate about what God is doing in my life as it relates to LearningRx and passionate about the difference it is making in the lives of my children. #3 Son just finished his first 12 weeks and will take a break while #1 Son finishes his 24 weeks and Baby Girl begins another 12 weeks concentrating on reading. Did I tell you she has decided to skip her reading books and now concentrate on reading “My First Encyclopedia”? She’s pronouncing words like “cold-blooded” all by herself. I am super-thrilled for her. She also gets to train with her favorite trainer, Renee, again! And I am learning how to train her at home as well.
The last few weeks has held much sorrow for our family as dear friends have lost loved ones. The presence of death around our family has had both my husband and I in constant prayer. This ray of light (LearningRx) among the sadness we are sharing with these families is truly a gift. I look forward to what God has planned for our family and LearningRx. Jumping for joy!!
To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/
A School Bus
This morning I was walking Sparky….our giraffe, when a school bus went FLYING past me at the speed of light.
I literally stood out in the road a bit to see if the driver would slow down. I mean, I was walking the giraffe!!!
Did he/she?
Nope.
They went flying past me, swerving just a bit, as to avoid having human and giraffe splattered all over their bus. That would be messy.
I called and reported them. My giraffe was mad. So was I. We do have kids in our neighborhood. That is why there are school buses.
It will be interesting to see what kind of response I receive. Next, I’m bringing out our elephant.
What others have said: