Virtual Homeschool Co-Op: Introduction

An introduction is the next VHC assignment. It's mainly to introduce myself to the VHC community, but just in case you don't know who I am......

*WINK*

Introduce yourself: Tell where you are, Who you homeschool and How long you've been homeschooling:

My given name is Cynthia Renee', but everyone calls me Cyndi. Cynthia is only for formalities. My husband and I moved from my hometown to a small city in the same state and I was planning to go by my middle name. That didn't work out as I kept forgetting to put Renee' on everything. I guess I'm sticking to Cyndi.  :-P

I am a city girl from the "Heart of America" (Missouri.), but I was transferred to the South several years ago; Mississippi to be exact. This is definitely not my kind of place to live, especially with all this horrid humidity. Nonetheless, God is good!   :-)

I am homeschooling my 2 little lovelies: Adelle (aka Sugar Bear), 4th grade,  and Jonathan (aka Little Man), 2nd grade. Last year, I was helping a friend from church and homeschooled her grandson for K5. I also had my neighbor's 2-yr old tot for a couple of hours a day. Several years before that, I was babysitting my best friend's little boy and he got the benefits of homeschool while I gave Adelle her lessons. I am glad to say that this year, I am teaching only my 2. Whew!  

If you count K4, we are in our 6th year of homeschooling. I don't really count that very first year, b/c I mean, come on, that was a bunch of play and crafts and so much fun! Yes, learning happened in all of that, but I was not very intentional at all about it. Adelle's K5 year is when we actually "hit the books". 

Mission statement

I really never developed a mission statement. I know, 5 years in and I don't have a mission statement? I know why I'm homeschooling, which we will go into detail on that in a different post, but really, the bottom line is that the Lord of hosts led me here. I fought Him for 2 years on it before I said "yes".  Maybe I should develop a mission statement and jot down our goals, that way I can go back to it and remind myself why I'm doing this when I have those days where I want to pull my hair out and holler, "Why am I doing this?!?"

Yes, holler.

Let's just be honest... and my kids have seen me break down. It's not pretty. Hopefully (and prayerfully), the Lord is opening their eyes to see that Mama needs Jesus too and He helps her along the way.

What's your teaching approach?

I lean very much to the Charlotte Mason method of teaching, but my traditional side needs structure and some work sheets. I do love living books though.

We started out with a "box curriculum" for Adelle's kindergarten year, switched "boxes" for 1st grade, went back to "box A" for 2nd grade, complete with tears all year long. We're NOT going to go through that again so I decided to pick and choose from various "boxes" this year.

Poor Adelle... having to deal while this Mama was trying to figure all this out and Jonathan was just along for the ride!  LOL

You can read about our curriculum choices here. 

How has social media helped you (youtube, blogs, etc....)?
If you know me, you've heard me joke on several occasions about how YouTube is my best friend. There are a few homeschool families I peek at consistently, Just Sew Trish being one of them.

*Hey Trish!*

It's very encouraging to see that other homeschool families go through similar situations and even better to see how those situations are handled... and not only on youtube. I enjoy reading other people's blogs too.

I love to get ideas on how to organize everything, from books and toys to even how to organize one's time. I have really enjoyed learning how Andrea Mills organizes everything in her normal size house with a large family living in it.

And don't think for one second that I'm sitting on youtube looking only at homeschool videos. When I need to figure out how to do something, youtube is my go-to for help and instruction. I have learned many new skills watching youtube videos.

Now, I'm not sitting on the computer all day looking at videos and reading blogs. I do have children to raise and a house to run, but I have had to completely ban being on FaceBook or any of those types of social media, b/c then I am on the computer all day and everything else is neglected.

What are you excited about getting from the VHC this year?
I guess I hadn't really thought too much about that part. Like I mentioned above, I do enjoy getting ideas and being encouraged by other people being open and honest about life. So, I guess I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone in this community is doing.

And as I share and try to be as real as possible here, I hope and pray that I can be an encouragement to those who would read this little open journal of mine.


The purpose for the Virtual Homeschool Co-op is to collaborate with other homeschool families to broaden the body of community of knowledge. Learn more at http://virtualhomeschoolcoop.com.