Moving house, moving school and leaving school.

So, obviously its been a minute since I have been on here, we have had a LOT going on.  We moved from out cute little red brick home on main Fort Bliss to a duplex in the 108's community ( still on post, kinda. no gates to go though, total time saver!)  While we did lose a room and basement, its been a MUCH nicer setting.  We have a rock wall enclosed back yard with a gate next to the house, attached garage for storage and project area, a very large storage room inside the house, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a very good sized dining room, living room is bigger and no carpet!  SCORE!  All that hard work, stress, wanting to strangle people because they didn't listen, and a few glasses.... ( I mean bottles) of wine and it paid off!  Our son has shown SO much improvement too with allergies, way less sneezing and I hardly have to dust... like dusting a normal house, not one that has cracks that go outside all the time and when the wind slightly blows, a mound of sand enters. Another bonus, we packed our house up and paid a few guys off craigslist to come and load the truck then unload... SO MUCH EASIER. Well worth the $140.00! And, we only had one mishap, the entertainment centers drawer cracked and broke inside, good thing I got some wood glue and it can be fixed, and it will be like new again :) And for those that know me, NO I didn't even get mad at the guys... the one dude looked like he was even scared to tell me Adam said but he did and I was very calm about it... I mean, it didn't cost that much when I bought it brand new... the things from Meijer from crying out loud :) Wood glue can fix it no problem! he looked very relieved after I was cool about it.

With moving to a new home, the new school in this area does not have room for our son.  Since Kindergarten is not actually required by the state of Texas ( and I find that SO ODD!), we have been having to drive Landrick to his school.  Fine, no big deal, but we have been having issues with massive headaches with him since we got here... and they have only gotten worse. And when I say worse, like crying because his forehead hurts so bad.  So after again, more visits to his PCM here at the Mendoza Clinic, his doctor recommended that he be seen by Peds Neurology at the Army hospital, and I couldn't agree more.  So while we wait for that, after long talks, a little planning and such, we have begun the journey of trying to homeschool our son ( well, mostly me since my husband works during the day).

Now, imagine my shock when I started looking for homeschool curriculum to teach him... OMG... seriously?!?!  This stuff is expensive and a family that is on a VERY tight budget, like us, its almost impossible to afford. I have searched and searched and with help from a few friends that have also given me leads to grants or funding for military families, we have to be a member of the HSLDA for at least six months before we can apply for any funding to help military families.  The HSLDA is a homeschool based legal defense membership so basically, if someone, like CPS or the State of Texas comes knocking on my door, I pick up the phone and call them and they represent us for being able to legally homeschool our child.  The state of Texas has daytime curfew laws... insane right?  So if a nosey neighbor or chatty patty has a problem with it and decides to say that we don't sent our child to school and he should be in school, well guess what sister, too bad. I have legal team ready and waiting for me to defend our rights.  While it only cost $120.00 a year to be a member of the HSLDA, its still $120.00 we dont have right this second ( come one taxes...) So, once we get a few extra dollars in the next month or so, thats where all that is going. Then, by the time the next grant semester approaches in the fall, we will have been a member for at least the six month time frame and can get some help with paying for the curriculum for our son for the Fall if need be. ( and thats a very real possibility)

As you can see in this photo below, the cost for this curriculum just to get started, is close to the $500.00 mark... then we pay per month for the rest of it in monthly payments, $132.00.  If we could do monthly payments for just the full thing it would be so awesome, but alas, we can not.  What is great about this K12 online, is that it comes with ALL the supplies, ALL the teacher/parent information on each lesson plan and ALL the curriculum you could need.

So, what we have done, is we have set up a website on Go Fund Me and we are hoping that anyone can help us with this new journey. I am going to leave it active until the end of February as I would really like to get hims started by then with a full set of new curriculum here at home.  Our goal amount is $800.00 and here is why; Between the starting funds for the curriculum, and our son was utilizing an iPad at school for certain things, this is where this amount has come from. As he did this, for general classroom and his speech and language stuff with apps that the teachers used on the iPads and he responded so well with it, that we hate to take that away from him.  We just don't have the funds to do that right now.  So, the cost of the two items combined is that $800 dollar mark. And, thats taking into account that we can get an iPad Air ( larger screen for his issues with his eye and visual impairments) for a much cheaper price here on post at the Military PX at Fort Bliss.

If you are interested in donating, even if its only a few dollars, we would be ever so, so grateful.  And as always if you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me or contact me via comments here.

The website to donate is located   HERE   through Go Fund Me.

As always friends, old and new, and family members, thank you for your support and following us on our daily shenanigans!

~Heather