Beautiful Blogger Award

The other day I received a nice surprise from Vanessa at Chrysalis Island.  She sent me a Beautiful Blogger award.  Thank you so much Vanessa.  I really appreciate your support ever since I “met” you.  At Chrysalis Island you can read her adventures and insightful perspectives on home educating her two children in Australia.

There are 3 rules associated with the Blogger award.

1.  Add a link and note of thanks to the person giving the award.
2.  Pass the award on to the bloggers whose blogs you love (15 tops)
3.  Share 7 things about yourself.

There are several blogs I enjoy reading.

1.  Angela at Cityschooling shows the benefits of living and homeschooling in a big city.  We moved to a big city the last couple years and I am still learning to incorporate local resources.

2.  Joelle at Homeschooling for His Glory is always a delight to read.  She is homeschooling her two young boys in a city not too far from where we live.  I love the pictures she posts of her boys.

3.  Richele at Under the Golden Apple Tree is a great resource.  Her blog is full of interesting and thoughtful reviews as well as insight into homeschooling her children.

4.  The Fischer Family at The Road Not Taken describes their adventures in Malaysia.  They work at a school and their chilldren have transitioned from homeschooling into the school.  Southeast Asia is close to my heart.

5.  Jacqui at Jacqui’s Thoughts blogs about her life and her adventures in homeschooling her 8 year old daughter.  She is a music teacher and a huge hockey fan.  We met years ago and have been blessed to know her.

6.  Charlotte at Momma’s Thoughts blogs about her struggles with chronic illness while homeschooling her daughter.  I also met her years ago and she is lovely person and a great friend.

7.  Elijah at Elijah’s Thoughts is one of my favorite blogs.  It is written by my 8 year old son.  I love the recent poem that he wrote.  He also recently redesigned his blog and now has a books background.  He loves to read.

8.  Luke at Luke’s Ideas is a joy for me to read.  It is written by my 6 year old son.  His background design is whimsical which suits him very well.  He loves to write and talk about Roblox.  He started blogging at age 4 and I love looking back at his thoughts from previous years.

7 things about me…

1. I love homeschooling my children.  There never was any question about it.  I wanted to homeschool my kids before they were born.  I love teaching and it makes no sense for me to hand that over to someone else.
2. I love planning too.  Figuring out what to use and how to put it to good use is also something I enjoy.  Did I mention that I have mounds of planning to do before the next school year starts?  
3. I am considered rigorous and an unschooler.  I completely buy into the unschooling lifestyle, but at the same time I have whole days of structured learning starting at Kindergarten.  Learning doesn’t stop when “school” is out for the day.  It is just a jumping off point to delve deep in interests.
4. I am a trained Speech-Language Pathologist.  I “retired” when my oldest son was born.  I worked for several years with children from birth through fifth grade.
5. I love languages and desire to pass that along to my children as well.  We are learning several different languages.  My background gives me knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet as well as an ear for different sounds and necessary tongue placements.  
6. So far I have lived in three different countries.  When I lived in the USA I lived in 11 different states all over the country.  Alaska was by far my favorite.  
7. Missions are a focus in our homeschool.  We study missionaries, countries, cultures, and languages.