100th Post, Co-ops and a little less stress! LOL

So I just realized that my post that I wrote yesterday was my 100th post on my blog!! That's pretty cool and I never thought I would get this far. :) Eventually I would like to turn this into a book so I will have it to look back on when Brenna is grown with a family of her own. I'll have to find a place on-line that I can do that. I have so many thoughts and struggles and things that have happened, all in this one place. It's the closest thing that I have to a diary I guess.

So today we had our third co-op with the homeschool group. I haven't been writing much about that. We've been having a great time though and the kids are all so wonderful. Like I said before, we are doing a patriotic theme this time and they've been learning about George Washington, our flag, money and the symbols of the USA. The kids in Brenna's class are voting as well - for their snacks for the following week. They have a good time doing that. :)
Next week we are not doing co-op (it's a one week break between the six weeks that we are doing). We will be going to the island for a field trip to the sea turtle place. I've already 'called off' for that day at my Grandma's so Brenna and I will be able to stay the entire time and participate in the picnic afterwards. I have not been able to take Brenna on a field trip in quite a while. Lisa has taken her the past few times because I have had to go to my Grandparents. I called my Grandma today and told her that I will not be there next Wednesday.
My predicament that I am in, with taking care of my Grandpa, does make it kinda hard to do the things that I would like to do. But Brenna and I deal with it though and she knows that we have to take care of her Papa and that's our 'job' (and a very rewarding job I might add that teaches her a lot). She's such a big help too. She has her jobs there and usually helps me with her Papa's lunch and helps me clean a little as well. Not very many kids can say that they get to spend just about everyday with their Great-Grandparents. She will remember that for the rest of her life.

Today at co-ops we had our Mom's chat, as usual, and discussed the different grammar curriculum's that we all use. Since I do not use a grammar curriculum just yet (most Mom's in my chat have kids that are older then Brenna), I just sat and took in all the information. I did get quite a few great ideas for things when Brenna gets a little older.
I also was able to have a one-on-one conversation with a mom who has five daughters and has been homeschooling for about 13 years. Through our Mom chats I have come to realize that we are very similar in our homeschooling methods. She is not one to force anything on her daughters, just like me, and when she sees one of her kids really struggling with something, she backs off. She is the one that I actually got the idea from with Brenna's spelling curriculum. When I talked to her today she told me that she did not start spelling with any of her kids until they were either in the 2nd or 3rd grade. I told her about all of the trouble that I have been having with Brenna and she told me to stop and to not push it.

So I think that I have decided to back off of our spelling curriculum. I actually had a conversation with Brenna tonight about it and she told me that she "does not like a book telling us what to do" and she thinks that we need to come up with our own spelling list. So I think what we will do from now on, for the rest of the school year, is work together on her spelling list and come up with about 10-15 words a week to study and then take a test on Friday's. We'll see how that works.

As for her math though, I told her that we will continue to do that on a daily basis and she seemed fine with that. It really is very easy and things that she already knows how to do. That just means we should be able to fly right through it.

OK, time for me to go to bed. I could stay up for another couple hours debating what I should or should not be doing but I need to rest my brain. LOL This stuff has really been stressing me out. I guess I should just follow my heart a little more and not stress out so much about this stuff.
Like one Mom in my group said, "You have six years to teach reading, writing and basic math. Anything else they learn is wonderful but don't stress out about it that much."