Our First and Only Year of Homeschooling Has Completed!

Wow talk about a crazy and interesting year! It has been a mix of emotions this whole year. Now dont get me wrong I have loved homeschooling and seeing Hunter grow and Tate wanting to learn right behind him. Kylee has done awesome in public school and I haven't ever had to worry about her and her grades. She was a 7th grader in 8th grade math so had some hiccups there but she learned and passed for the year so yeah to that!

I will say one thing homeschooling is hard! Freakin' hard, so hands down to those that have done it the whole time. It takes a certain parent to be able to do this for multiple years. I am glad I did it for this year and Hunter has really grown in maturity and how he handles things with being frustrated and overwhelmed. He attended a Wednesday homeschool off campus group and did well. He is very good at making friends and being social which is good. He has really excelled in many areas of his studies especially reading and writing. We did butt heads often and one thing that made it hard was Tate wanting to be involved in all aspects. Hunter didn't respond well when Tate got really loud which was OFTEN! As I look back though it actually go pretty well and he did learn which amazes me that I actually taught him a few things ha! 

With going into next year and public school I at least feel comfortable to remove him if necessary from public school if things occur that I dont agree with or if he has any trouble. Here are some pictures of our journey this last year. 

 

 

 

Of course farm life was a big part of our homeschooling. Daily chores and tending to the animals. We did soccer for a bit and stopped for awhile but we will be starting back up next month.  

 

Yep sometimes we did homeschooling on the counter while I made dinner to finish up our day if we slacked.

So all in all we survived and he learned! Kind of nice to know HOW he learns and his learning potential. It will help me as I keep doing some teaching here and there this summer and to know how he is doing in school next year. So he learned this year how to read rather fluently. He is on 1st advanced sight words, he learned about the solar system, continents, the presidents along with sentence structure and punctuation. He can also write his own sentences and have them make sense :)  He loves to know what all needs to get done for the day so he likes "plans." His math skills are great! He can add and subtract, estimate, figure out most word problems. He also learned about money and telling time. Amazing how fast they learn! I can't wait to have some one on one time with Tate to get him going as well. Just need to always remember learning can and should be fun! 

-Aisling Farms

God's Timing...

So when I get the same question alot it shows me I should probably just "blog about it." I know people are curious as to why we chose to stay put...for a bit only. Well, so will keep it short.

Aisling Farms is moving south....

So yep the title doesn't lie on this post. This post wont be fancy but more of an explanation as to WHY we chose this road. Some people are shocked and some have known we have wanted to move more south for a few years now. We knew when this came out and people became aware that we were going to have people not so happy with us and not understanding and asking the "why" but honestly so many reasons but one main reason is that we prayed about it as a family and talked about it alot as a family. Once we kind of started talking about it more it was almost like God just started to slowly put the pieces together for us way faster than we ever imagined. There was no need to discuss with others til we knew it was the right timing for our family and that we were going to proceed when we knew for sure we were. I feel that not all decisions people will understand and that is ok but we need to go where God calls us and I feel that we might be going in a direction that God wants to use us. So here is the big news...We are moving to Kentucky.

So yep your probably scratching your head wondering why? Well if we get the house that we put an offer on I can show you why. We love the farm life and we are expanding it basically. We call this current farm our "pre farm." We have learned alot that is for sure and we have also learned how much we enjoy this type of lifestyle for our children. So people still ask well why move if you have a farm? Well, we have some personal reasons that I dont feel everyone understands especially if those people are from the area but also my mom and many family and friends will be a within driving distance to visit them. I have missed being closer to that side of my family so I am excited to be closer than 4-5 day drive or a long flight. We enjoy a slower pace of life and southern hospitality. There will be pros and cons to every place but I never wanted to live in WA the rest of my life either and I have lived her way longer than I ever imagined. It just isn't the state for this conservative christian family. Laws and rules are changing rapidly in not a good way. We have our kids to think about and raising them in an area that is more accepting of our values and morals. I love small communities and knowing our neighbors. We also are looking at a property on 25 acres where we can expand our farming adventure in a place that is known for farming and supporting farmers.

Hubby's job made this where we chose now to do this. We have the chance to just pick up and move without worrying if a job is waiting for him. (dont worry we made sure that if a time comes and he needs to work closer to home that the opportunities are there) We wanted to do this a few years ago but owning a business locally made that dream impossible. So yep that is why we chose now.

So this is an exciting time and some people are supportive, excited and see it as a great opportunity and some are the opposite but this family I can say is rather excited and of course I have already dived into the farming groups for the area on facebook. I liked how welcoming they all were! I am glad about this because we actually have never been to Kentucky and I haven't seen the house in person but I did view it on a live chat and do a tour. I will say this is probably the most scariest part. I am thankful that I am already starting to make connections there and it is also a HUGE homeschooling supportive state. I am not sure what my plans are with that but just knowing that is great too. I have researched my tail off about the area and even spoke to a retired police officer and the currenty county sheriff about the area. I have researched the crime, schools, farm life, just about everything you can think of I have looked into. Only thing I have to make sure still is that house is on the bus route but if not no biggy. I have seen the actual road on google earth (cool app by the way) We have about 100 pictures of the property, house and even the neighbors houses ha! One big thing that helps is our agent for there is my husband's best friend and I am sure he is sick of me asking him questions by now but it has made some sleep less nights that is for sure. Colin will be visiting though before we sign final paperwork on a house and doing the inspection etc.

I will update once I know more but as of right now we put an offer in on a house and our house is on the market. I will say this has been rather hard with hubby so far! So I will take all the support you guys can give me right now! I feel a bit better and have met possibly the future church we will be trying out . This has helped me tons talking to some church folk :)

I hope you guys will stick around for this next chapter in our lives...I am exhausted so if you have questions let me know! Also my chickens and rabbits are coming with me and we will still be called Aisling Farms! There are many of you locally I am going to miss so dont make me sad ok !   :)



-jen

Rants of the day...

Somestimes I just have to blog about it cause I literally can't stand it anymore! Two things have been driving me nuts lately so here goes nothing! Comment if you would like but hopefully this will hit home with people and the things that have been coming my way lately.

Rant #1: I am so frustrated these days with human society in general! People are so blind lately as to what a company does to "hide" the facts or to "point fingers" at others for blaming instead of taking the blame for YES the mistakes THEY made. I would feel much better about a company that admitted to their mistakes and lack of knowledge and informed consumers on how they were going to fix these mistakes. Going into hiding and pointing fingers and blaming the "I got scared" card is NOT how a company should respond. Doing so does not speak well of their integrity and their passion for being transparent to their consumers.

I dont see how people are so blind and gullible to what is being fed to them as consumers. Companies need to cut it out and start taking the blame of their lack of knowledge and then either change for the better or be transparent in their to consumers so the consumer can make their own judgement call. I have many people that I know that sell and use products that have chemicals in the labels. They choose to still use those products ok that is fine but at least they know and can make their own judgement calls. They can't say they were not told that chemicals were contained in the products. This is a choice each person makes and should have the option to make.

New Chicken Brooder

Well, hubby kicked me out of the garage...his half garage I should say. He was tired of the smell even though I never smelled them that much and he really was sick of having his garage items in a metal 8x10 shed. He decided to let me have the shed all to myself and my chicks if I gave him back his garage space. He "pitched" the idea to me and well sounded good. I told him my worries like how were we going to heat it, safety wasn't an issue and how on earth was I going to clean it since standing up fully straight isn't an option.

So his "vacation" home he cleared the shed and we talked about the design and what we could do with using the resources we had here on the farm. So here is the "before" shot of the shed all empty.

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