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It always amazes me that Trey has such a thirst for knowledge. And I’m thankful that we have the internet so that he can soak up all the knowledge he wants. What prompted this post is this. We went to Rhiannon’s choir concert last night. There was a cute little boy there with cochlear implants. Of course, they are very visible. Trey asked my sister what they were (I already knew because I have a friend who’s son has one). She told him and it seemed to intrigue him. He went home with my other sister and she sent me a message saying that whenever he got to her house, he just had to google “cochlear implants”. He wanted to know how they work. Now mind you, this kid is only 7 years old. Just last week, he was telling me about nanobots. He is just a super smart kid and I am so glad I chose to homeschool him. I know he would have been so bored in a traditional classroom setting. And I know some people think that homeschooled kids are “antisocial” but that’s not true at all. Trey will talk to just about anyone and he loves interacting with other kids.

Now, I’m not saying my other two kids aren’t smart. They are very intelligent kids. But they never just voluntarily looked up anything educational LOL. All 3 of my kids are very different and I love that about them. It definitely keeps things interesting in my house haha. I’ve been blessed with some pretty awesome kids.

Before I go, if you don’t mind, please take my poll. I am just genuinely curious as to how people find my site. It’s totally anonymous. I also want to know so I can get my blog out there more so I can get more visitors :).

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me, Uncategorized

Photo post!

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I got the chance to go to a local garden and get some excellent shots. When I got there I saw that they charge $25 for photographers. However, I am guessing that is for people who are taking portrait photos. They didn’t charge me the $25 even though I had my Nikon out. It’s not technically a “pro” camera even though it is a dslr. I also didn’t have large equpiment with me. Just my normal size camera bag. It seems that since there’s so many photographers now, venues have started taking advantage of that and instead of charging just a general admission for photographers, they are charging them a higher fee. In a way, I can see why they would do that. But then again, there are some places that are just outrageous in how much they charge. I was looking at a local venue to shoot some senior photos and it was going to be $50. For one, I would not be getting paid for the photo shoot (It’s my graduation present to her) and two, I would only be using the facilities for maybe an hour or so. I wasn’t even wanting to go inside the building, just use the grounds to take photos. I understand charging some kind of fee, but $50 just seems a little steep to me. Oh well, there are plenty of beautiful places to shoot photos for free.
Here are the shots I got this weekend.

And if you don’t mind, if you get the chance, please “like” my photography facebook page 🙂 Southern Captures by Nikki

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Family, me, rant, Uncategorized

frustration and lack of patience

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There are so many times I have just thought about giving up on photography because I don’t think I’m good enough. I know that any skill takes awhile to perfect, but I just get so discouraged sometimes. This especially happens when I look at other’s photography facebook pages or websites. I see how awesome their photos look and I want mine to look just as good. It’s frustrating.
But what I have to keep telling myself is “You are improving and you’ll get there eventually.” I see so many people out there who are doing photography as a profession who really shouldn’t be. I don’t want to be that person. I want to be proud of my work. And of course, like most people, I am my worst critic. However, I can say that after looking at some of the photos I’ve taken over the past 10 years, I have greatly improved.

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Family, Homeschooling, me, Uncategorized

my random homeschool post

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I have learned a lot homeschooling my youngest. I learned that I love having him here. I love the fact I get to control his education. And the fact that my state doesn’t require standardized testing is also a plus. I pray that that law doesn’t change. My older two go to public school, by their choice. However, my daughter (she’s in the 6th grade) wants to homeschool next year. My oldest is in high school and I think he likes being around his friends, which is fine with me. My daughter has friends, but I think she’s a little envious that her little brother gets to stay home all day. However, I told her that she will have to do her school work and she’s not going to just sit on the computer all day. She will do her school work, and help me around the house. And of course, she’ll have time to do what she wants as long as she does her chores.

The public school my kids go to is actually a great one. But it’s still a public school so they are required to take standardized tests every year. I think it’s starts around the 3rd grade. The teachers spend most of the year stressing the importance of these tests and doing test prep. Yes, I realize the teachers are required to do this. I don’t think it really benefits the children though. The teachers put so much pressure on the kids to do well that they get stressed out. My oldest was never really that stressed, but my daughter gets extremely worried about the tests. So I guess I will start researching some affordable jr high homeschool curriculum. I may start out using Time4learning like I do with Trey and then supplement it with other stuff. The thing I love about homeschooling is that I don’t have to limit what or how they learn. Trey loves science so we look up things online or he finds documentaries on netflix about animals. He’s currently really into snakes and other reptiles. We also visit the science museum quite often. He reads and comprehends what he’s read very well. When he was 6, they tested his reading and he was on a 4th-5th grade level then. He is a very inquisitive child so he is always asking questions. Lately, he’s been asking me the definitions to random words LOL. He is also mildly interested in social studies. The only subject I struggle to get him to work on is math. But I’m going to order some math workbooks that someone recommended last week and see if that helps. He is ADHD and has a hard time focusing and so he needs a lot of one on one teaching. He just couldn’t get that in public school. He didn’t like going to school at all but when I say “It’s time to do your school work”, he just says “ok” and never argues with me. Even if we have to work on math 🙂 .

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