With this post I will have completed an entire year of My Homeschool Journal which is a major accomplishment for me! Why is this an accomplishment? My want-to-do list FAR exceeds my time-to-do-everything-I-want-to-do list. You would laugh if you could see my to do list for my website alone. I could keep a staff of three or four busy full-time.

I’m really proud of myself for following through on this and not being distracted by the next shiny thing or cool idea that comes along. Truly.

Actually, this entire journal post is going to be FULL of major accomplishments in our family! Read on!

In My Life This Month

Like most Christians, our life is full of Christmas this month. We discovered that decorating for Christmas is infinitely easier with an eleven year old who understands how things work and can take initiative to do things the way she knows mom wants them done. No staying up until 2:00 a.m. to do the decorating without the 15 month old taking over or wanting to be held every second. No little child who wants to do everything her own way and wants to interject her opinion about ev.er.y.thing. we do.

She even proactively got the vacuum out and cleaned up the fake tree and garland mess when we were done decorating. (She used to run to the opposite floor when the vacuum came out!) Very thankful!

In Our Homeschool This Month

Caroline attends a co-op and each year they put on a Christmas program. Many of the classes perform a song or skit. Two years ago when her class performed, Caroline flat out refused to go up on stage. I did not push her because I didn’t think it was a battle worth fighting.

Fast forward to this year and she participated! She sang with her class! I finally got to see my little girl perform in something. It probably sounds crazy, but this was something that had really made me sad over the years. I was one of those moms who looked forward to seeing her three or four year old sing “Away in a Manger” in the church program or something like that. For a lot of reasons, nothing like that ever happened until this year.

On top of that, we stayed to watch the middle school play of “Christmas in Oz” which Caroline thoroughly enjoyed. It was funny and the kids clearly had a good time doing it. Now she wants to sign up for drama next year and be in the play! She only wants a small speaking part the first year, but she can’t wait to participate.

Praising God for such a wonderful turnaround in this area as well!

What We’re Reading

Caroline is all about the My Little Pony books as I wrote about last month. What is amazing to me is how much she is reading! She’s reading every night in bed, thoroughly enjoying it.

Again, another answer to prayer. Many years of prayers. The switch for becoming a reader was flipped and I’m so thankful.

What’s Working for Us

Church, people. CHURCH. Church is working for us. I’ve chronicled in many posts over the years our very long and hard journey with church since Caroline’s birth.

• When People Call Your Child Your Idol
• When Attending Church is Painful – Highly Sensitive Children and Adults
• Three and a Half Year Old Drama (and a Child Who Doesn’t Want To Go To Church)
• How We Ended Up (Almost) Unschoolers
• Discipling Children in Christ Outside the Box
• Gifted Children Who Don’t Fit Grade Level Parameters
• Hibernation Homeschooling
• Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith
• Thinking about Gifted/2e from a Christian Perspective
• Disciplining Gifted and 2e Children in the Christian Faith
• Gifted and 2e Children at Church
• Gifted and 2e Children Asking Hard Spiritual Questions

We have started and stopped attending multiple churches so many times over the past ten years. But church. Six weeks in a row. For us, this is an AMAZING answer to prayer.

Caroline is happy. She likes going there. It is just the right fit for us as a family. It’s certainly not perfect, but it works.  There is a lot more I could say, but I hope to write a follow-up post to this series on Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith at some point so I’m going to wait a bit and write it there.(Updated: Children Who Struggle with Church – An Update)

And not only have we been in church, but I’ve been able to SING. I haven’t been able to sing in probably ten years. Truly. I have always been a musician and singer. All the way back to middle school. And I could not sing without gasping for breath. It was the weirdest thing.

I don’t know if it is hormonal, something was out of balance in my body, if it is related to my Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and/or it has to do with the fact that my massage therapist has been working extensively on my throat lately, but I can sing. I am so thankful and praise God for this.

I’m Thinking About

I’m thinking about old-fashioned blogging. I’ve been thinking about it for months. Reading old-fashioned blogs that are chatty and personal. Discussing the changing landscape of blogging with other bloggers. If you took my reader survey this month, you know this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m looking forward to moving more in that direction and posting more informal posts more often. (Updated: Posts about Old-Fashioned Blogging)

I’m also thinking about unit studies. I’ve been wanting to develop unit studies for a long time. I am finally putting them together. David has created beautiful graphics for them and the pages are created. I just need to finish adding the content. Watch my newsletter for updates when the various ones go live. (Updated: Posts about Unit Studies)

On My Website In Case You Missed It

This month I added many Memory Games to my printables shop. Caroline gave these the “Caroline Seal of Approval” when she tried them out with both me and her daddy. You can click over and see all of the themes available.

May you be blessed with a wonderful month of joy!