Life
Howdy, all! It has been a good year since I have been able to get into my blogging hops, and it’s great to see you all again! Many changes have occurred in blogland, and some major changes that I missed 😉 I won’t update the entire year in this blog post, but the past year will be interspersed throughout the next few wraps and frags, ok?
~I made the tough choice of migrating my blog back to a free hosted site instead of my self-hosted one. I needed to save the money because, frankly, I don’t make any money on my blog. So why continue to pay for it, right? I miss much of the highly customizable plugins and parts, but I needed something like the ‘coding’ bug to get me back into the blogging groove. It worked! It’s just a lot of work, and many of my posts still look silly. Have I mentioned how impatient I can be?? 😉
~The craziest part of my blog’s down time was the insane amount of spam I received!!! Hundreds every week, and they just wasted their time on a dormant blog!! They did get pretty creative:
You made some decent points there. I looked on the internet for more info abvout the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this website.
And that was posted underneath my homemade turtle recipe. That whole scenario just made me laugh!
~We are also loving watching this German house being build behind us. My little engineers are glued to the back windows whenever something new is being done. Mommy is a little slower, but I will be trying to keep my post, updated. Feel free to watch along: Building a German House!
~Just this week we found a bike for my son, who has been begging all year for one. There are trails all over our village (well, all over Germany, really) and they beg for a bike! I wanted to give it a try myself, and I haven’t been on a bike in over 10 years. I love the feeling of the wind in my face, but just hate the sensation of being saddle sore 😦
Homeschool
~Halfway through the year we had to do a curriculum change, and let me tell you, that throws a wrench in any schedule! I must admit, here and now, that I am a miserable math teacher. I hate doing math, I hated taking math in college (you know, last semester), and I hate teaching it. That all came to a head last month when my children failed their quarterly math exams. They just didn’t understand the concepts nor the problems and I know why. But this, THIS, is why I love homeschooling. You can jump ahead and move around when your students ‘get’ it, but you also don’t have to jump through hoops or fight any system for remedial training. I just have to swallow my pride and admit to my children that we all need help.
I enrolled both the older kids in to Khan Academy. It is a free, online website that tutors and teaches math. I chose to only allow the older two students to do math on Khan because their elementary courses adhere to Common Core standards, and I choose not to participate. But those Algebra and Pre-Algebra courses don’t, and that is exactly what we needed. The love it, they are learning, and their exams are coming back with A’s now! Thank you, Lord God, for letting me find this!!
~We are doing a bit of summer school this year in order to finish those math changes and to keep the kids moving forward with their typing. That being said, I have another year of paid services for two students through next year that won’t be used. Does anyone want to have a year of free typing courses for their kiddos on our Typing Club? I would give you the log in access for your student, but it will expire in July 2016. We have loved it and am pretty excited about graduating a couple of my students out of the program!
~I am looking at online academies for my high schooler. Does anyone have any experience with Bridgeway Academy? They are the accredited parter with BJU Distance Learning. I would love to do Veritas Scholars Academy, but I can’t afford that once I have 2 kiddos in high school.
~As I was going through my lists and prepping for our school year, I discovered that the folks at Teachers.io have updated and improved their product!!! I gave a review a few years ago, but had to re-write that post due to the awesomeness they added: Homeschool Schedule Resource.
Joining in with both Friday Fragments and Weekly Wrap.
Kay's Little Korner 
I don’t recall your views on homemade turtle recipes !! They must be interesting. I’ll assume it’s a candy type of turtle.
I first noticed Khan stuff on youtube some years ago. I tried helping a niece once and suggested she watch the many math tutorials on youtube. Turns out she just wanted to cram for a test. I thought of getting a degree in math but changed to engineering since the job market was better.
I am glad to see the Friday Fragments still going. Blogging has changed as it probably will again. I think the last time I read a post here you were prepare to leave for Germany.
Oh yea, turtles, just not ‘fer em, know what I mean’. Just kidding. Yes, they are my recipe for the desserts, which just made me chuckle at the stupid spam! I will be running through the FF posts soon. I hope things are going well for you! Feels good to ‘meet’ back up with old friends, you know?
Welcome back to blogland! I took a break myself and am glad to be back. I hope you can stop by:
http://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2015/07/tea-time-51715.html
Colletta
Your new blog site is lovely. Looks like you made a good hosting choice.
Thank you! In a sense, it felt like ‘coming home’ because I dabbled with WP and Blogger first before moving to a self-hosted.
My oldest daughter (age 9) will be learning to type this year. What program do you use for teaching typing?
I use Typing Club and you can read more about that in my review. I will need to keep you as the first runner-up because someone already stepped forward for those two slots. I am sorry!