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Well, forgive me for the delay with any updates about our new homeschool year we’re in the midst of here! Once we kicked it off at the beginning of September, we’ve been very occupied finding our groove, with our new schedules. Things are quite different for us this year! With the kid’s respective ages and levels, life has opened up new and exciting opportunities, of experiences and learning, for all of them. Not to mention new territories for us parents! We have a high schooler now, for example, and with it comes all kinds of things. But the younger ones are also following their passions and gifts, more so than ever.

Some of you may know this, but for those of you who do not, we are year round homeschoolers. We keep a lighter (academic) schedule in the summer, and begin a whole new school year/grade levels, in September. It’s always a very, very exciting time, as we love to plan out and begin a new school year! We’re really blessed that our kids are enthusiastic students, who love school and learning. This coming school year, was filled with more anticipation than ever, and it’s been as CrAzY and exciting of a ride, as we expected.

I always take the kids’ new school photos on the first day of school. This year, it was almost a week later, but we got it done. We have also ‘always’ taken their portraits in the school room, at the side of the cabinets. But if you follow our blog, you may be aware that we drastically changed our school room set-up, and those cabinets are gone! You can see the old and new set up of our school room, as well as the style of school photos we were taking in all previous years, in this recent post.

So this year, I did all of the kids’ school photos outside. These photos will be in the sidebar quite soon, so that new comers can see the kiddos who make up our homeschooling world. In this post, we wanted to share with you a little about their (book) subjects they are studying this year, as well as some other little interesting tidbits of information. In coming posts, we’ll be sharing a lot more, including activities/learning experiences outside of their academics, some deeper thoughts and observations I have had as a homeschooling parent, and lots of other fun and interesting homeschooling related posts. We hope you’ll join us for it all, with discussion and sharing of your own!

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This is our oldest daughter/student, Alexis Grace (14). Also known as {A} around the blog here. She has been homeschooled (not necessarily at home…right? lol), since 3rd grade, and just started 9th grade this year. We can’t believe we have a high schooler now! That means I worked hard over the summer, researching, and piecing together a serious 4 year college prep plan for her. And maybe panicking, just a little. The girl scares me, and excites me, and makes us all proud, all at the same time! She has huge aspirations, and her heart set on really great colleges. We cannot let her down, and we believe in her, because she is so unique in her focus of her life at her age. She is so faith-filled, determined, intelligent, tough, independent, and firm on the path she is laying out for herself. What fascinates me, is it’s all a far cry from anything her father or I ever dreamed for ourselves, or were interested in. But that’s why each one of us has our own calling, and why it’s important as homeschooling parents, to help shape our children’s character, and foster the calling they feel God has put in their heart, as the work He has meant for them to do, in their life. It’s all about guiding and supporting them, to be the people they are meant to be.

Throughout this past summer, Alexis taught the 4th Grade Religious Education at our parish (2 weeks), and ran the games activity for the kids of Vacation Bible School (1 week.) She also earned herself a Catholic High School scholarship, that has covered all of the expenses of her academic and extra-curricular school year. We’re proud of her, and grateful as well!

This school year, as a high school Freshman, Alexis’ courses are: Language Arts (Alpha Omega /LifePac), Algebra (Math-U-See), Biology (Apologia), History/Social Studies (Streams of Civilization-Volume 2 Cultures in Conflict Since the Reformation), Latin (Latina Christiana), Spanish (All Bilingual) , Art and Music (Piano – private lessons, and the Recorder – all kids at home.).

Alexis is also playing sports now, for our town’s public South High School! She is really involved there. That is a whole other exciting post. I could easily ramble, so I’ll save it, but suffice it to say it’s been really wonderful for her so far, and exciting for us. It is extremely time-consuming on a daily weekday basis. But I’d say we best get used to it and keep making it work.

In the light of sharing all of their subjects in this post, I feel it’s important to mention, that we live our personal faith, which is Roman Catholic. So it’s not a subject the kids study for school, but more something we are always teaching them, and they are always living and learning it as they grow. Just as we still are as adults, actually. That said, they do begin each day all together, with a Scripture, discussion, and prayer. As a tool, we still really love Living Faith-Kids!!

JackMichael (9), the first-born of the triplets. Also known as {JM} around here. He and the other 2 have the same academic subjects of course, being in the same grade level and age. As I said, I’ll be posting more about what they love to do outside of their academic studies, and I’m excited to do so, because they are all so unique, with their interests and personalities. And yet, the differences from within their unique selves, meld together so well with each other. It’s fascinating to me, to observe, frankly. But anyway, for today, here are the subjects all 3 of them have this year:

Language Arts (Alpha Omega / LifePac), Math (Delta / Math-U-See), Science (Exploring Creation with Astronomy-Apologia), History/Social Studies (Christian Liberty Press / Our Nation Under God, and, History Stories for Children), Writing Strands, Spanish (All Bilingual), Latin (Prima Latina), Art and Music ( Recorder – all kids at home).

Olivia Faith (9), the second triplet born. {O}, which we tend to call her 1/2 the time, ourselves. The boys especially, refer to her as “O”, a lot. And you know what she calls them, when she’s talking to the both of them? “Boys”. It always cracks me up, because there is such a motherly air about the way she says it. So….our own little baby boom is “O and the Boys”, I guess. It has a cool little ring to it, now that I think about it. : ) Oh, speaking of their names, and {name initials in brackets}, I know we’ve been a little all over the place with it. The thing is, using initials for any sake of privacy or protection, is pretty irrelevant by now, considering they’ve been on TV a few times now, (related to our Catholic faith) as well as the newspaper, for different things. All times with full names. On the flip side, I have found myself continuing to use their initials in brackets sometimes, for the sake of brevity. As you can see, my posts tend to be perhaps a little lengthy, so I need to use all the brevity tricks I can. : ) The kids are all well aware, lots of people know who we are by name, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true. (Especially around our town, and the people we meet and run into in person.)

Shane Jacob (9), the last born of the trio.

(Reaching for ‘brevity’ now………..). Shoot. I forgot what I was going to say. Ummmm. Oh yeah. You see that beautiful little school desk in the background? That is Michael’s, from when he was a little boy!! What a treasure, huh? That sweet and sentimental little antique is going to be another blog post coming up, that I am planning, as well. There’s some story to tell, and some specific things that are part of the desk, that you will not believe!! Michael’s antique school desk, is not the only one we have to show you, either. So if you’re interested, be on the look out for that post too!

homeschooling-new-year-5 I am glad I thought of doing a quick ‘class picture’ of sorts, while we were at it. I sure love my class!!

Honestly, I’ve struggled a little with this homeschooling section of the blog, right along. It’s a lifestyle to us for sure, but one that is just so normal to us, I think…”What is there to blog about?”. But I know there is LOTS. Lately, my realization of that has really broadened, and in the process, I have realized why I am not as active in this section. Which is crazy, because I so passionately love homeschooling my kids, and living this life I do with my family, that it hardly makes sense. But I see now where it comes from, and I think I’ll be sharing those thoughts very soon too.

So stay tuned!! This homeschooling section should be picking up steam, real soon! You should know, we love comments and hearing from all of you! But if you are a homeschooling blogger as well, we especially encourage comments with your blog-linked names, so that we can visit your stories and shared, comment, and connect with you all as well. Our hope and goal is that we are all an inspiration and encouragement for each other, in raising and educating our children, as homeschoolers or not. homeschooling happens to be the route we have happily taken, with a deep love and passion for it. So our posts will derive from that life we live, as a homeschooling family. But proving a great education, however any of us do, is the more common thread. So thanks so much for stopping by, and please DO again! God bless you all!

Gosh, I promise I’ll work harder on that brevity thing, too.

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Getting to this first post on our new blog has been weeks coming, and by golly, I have butterflies!! We’re so excited to get blogging! I have to tell you, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when we finally decided to really set up a blog. Naturally, my clear visions and particular-ness lead to extensive customization. In the last couple of weeks, I have been to technical places I’ve never been before (and never wanted to!). But thank goodness for a sweet-little-know-it-all in MO, who helped me through the more in-depth technical stuff a great deal. Through her big heart, she has given me her time and ingenious technical knowledge, with the charity and patience of a saint.

I’m sure I’ll be the main blogger of our family, although our oldest daughter would like to submit posts now and then as well. Michael, my husband is not fond of typing, but is often over my shoulder with his own input on what he wants to say, or any input he has on mine. (Which I love, by the way). I, personally, tend to be wordy. I am working on the skill of brevity, but I can’t promise much. lol. I am an artist by nature, and frankly, details and clarity are important to me. But I can promise LOTS of photos along the way! I couldn’t help myself there if I tried, and thankfully, I don’t want to.

It occurred to me to start blogging about our life at the beginning of the traditional school year. The thought really intrigued me. But truthfully, I was far more excited to LIVE the carefully planned out coming months of what was going to be an exciting homeschool year for us. (Adding to our oldest homeschooled daughter, our 3 new Kindergartners!). Looking back from this point in time, I wish I had, because there’s so much I would have loved to share along the way. But blogging about it now would be an overwhelming task. Perhaps in a future post I can share some photos of our most exciting pre-blogging events.

Here’s what’s behind our blog name: House of Joyful Noise.
Of course, it is in Biblical reference to Psalm 100.
Does it mean we are all 100% happy, 100% of the time? Ummm….no. While it is true that there is LOTS of joyful noise in our home, such as learning, laughing, conversing, singing, pretending, playing, rejoicing, reading, planning, and creating, (I’m sure I missed some), of course we also have days when someone is feeling, well, less than ‘joyful’. Sometimes more than one of us, or even all of us, all on the same day! With everyone having a mind of their own, and I think some kind of gene thing, that urges us to passionately express everything, it’s bound to be loud around here. On those days, my husband and I try to remind ourselves, that our home is crazy and noisy, because there are children in it! How blessed we are; for a perfectly quiet home, would be a home with no children. So there is joy in the noise for us – if we can simply remember to remember that. (That’s the trick sometimes.)

Our multi purposes for blogging:
1) For our supportive and loving family and friends in our life, some long distance or as busy as us, who care to be updated on a more regular basis, as to the little things we have been up to.
2) To offer something back to other homeschooling families, some of whose blogs inspire us with their thoughts for the day, creative projects, or blessings in their own lives.
3) As another way to record our daily family memories and history, as we learn and grow together in so many ways, and help us reflect on a somewhat daily basis, the little things in life worth celebrating, and just taking a moment to give thanks, and in a way, ‘say it out loud.’ Naturally, these will be bits and pieces of a given day, and not everything happening in our life. (That’s just impossible. And unnecessary.) I hope to find the time (if I manage my time well) to blog at least a few times a week.

As a family, we strive to live as simple of a life as possible. But there are mundane tasks and business agendas that have their place in every day, too. There is also the stress that life can bring, that can only be dealt with as gracefully as possible. But this blog will be focusing on the blessings we have been given, the learning and growing that we do, the moments we cherish, and the glory in the details of life, that no matter what, CAN be found in each day, if one is only willing to look for, and see them. It’s the little things, that put the ‘happy’ in our hearts.

– The Richard Family

So Here We Go, Blogging!

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