"Life is Full of Wonderful Things"

I read somewhere that teachers spend hundreds of dollars each year on classroom supplies.  It appalled me then how little we pay teachers and how much they give to their classes each year.  Now, this little statistic hits closer to home.  Actually, it hits me directly in the pocket book.  Now, there are many things I want for my children to assist them as they learn but we're a one income family.  We have to stick to a budget. Yikes!

If you missed it, I recently published Energy Book 1: Jasmine.  Any extra income earned from selling eBooks will go towards my homeschooling budget.  While it's easy to wander into day dreams of historical trips and camps that cater to the kids' interests, realistically, some of the fun basics would be nice.

Here's my list.

It's hard not to be proud when a child does something well. 

This school year brought a huge amount of frustration and stress for us.  After many unfortunate occurrences, I switched to homeschooling my oldest son, Spencer.  Spencer is diagnosed on the Autism spectrum so without training in descalation techniques, knowledge of stress indicators, understanding the difference between positive and negative reinforcers etc, adults tend to make matters worse and label him a problem child oblivious to the fact THEY are the root cause of many confrontations.

Without getting into the messy details, the situation deteriorated to the point where Spencer refused to write anything.  He would cry, refuse to hold the pen/pencil, rip papers and workbooks, and even threw a chair.  When I finally had him legally in homeschool, I had no other choice but take Spencer back to square one and rebuild his love of learning.