our Homeschooling Journey

Switching Gears Mid-track

2009-09-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

The reason I haven't blogged in a while is nothing surprising - we have been busy! Life can be that way as you all know, and with 4 little ones at home, it doesn't seem to let up. And then just for fun, after all my hard work lesson planning and getting organized for our homeschool this Fall, we decided to make a major switch 8 weeks into our school year. When things just aren't working, it is time to fix what is broken. Our homeschool year was perfect on paper, but in practice it wasn't working. So make a switch is what we did. My dear 7 year old who is anything from typical, was not being helped with the 3 younger ones' constant interruptions in our school mornings. My well-planned out Classical curriculum and lesson plans were great in my eyes, but they just weren't working for our family at this time. So with much prayer and research into EVERYTHING possible, even putting him back in school this year, we decided to switch gears mid-track. So, what are we doing now? We are using Bob Jones distance learning the remainder of the year. So far, we love it! It is not like being in a classroom as some distance learning programs we have seen. The teacher is speaking directly to the at home student vs. filming a live class of which you are a part as in Abeka DVD. The curriculum is solid - from a Biblical perspective and academic, I believe. The lessons are fun, and for the first few week he even asked to do the lessons over something else - which is pretty remarkable for my reluctant student. The main thing for us is that it allows me to deal with all the "distractions" of my preschoolers and toddler while not disrupting his flow of lessons. And I still get to keep him at home! I am there to help as needed but am not constantly needed. There is a lot of teacher planning despite the online lessons, but the nerd in me loves this aspect. I can spend more time organizing and planning. Inviting an online teacher into our home acts somewhat as a buffer between me and my son as it is not always me telling him what to do in his lessons. He knows there is another authority out there asking him to do this stuff vs. me making up endless requirements (in his mind). I will keep you posted but for now, if you find yourself in a similar situation or with a similar student, I highly recommend BJU Press distance learning.

They have courses K4-12th. K4 - 6th grade come in packaged curriculums, and for 7th-12th, you can purchase individual subject modules. For the younger grades, you can switch out a few subjects depending on their grade level. For example, he is taking 1st grade Phonics and Math but 2nd grade Bible. We did this as I felt he needed some foundational review in Phonics & Math before moving forward. He also has classes in Heritage Studies (their name for History/Geography), Science, and Spelling. I let him choose the order of classes most days and give him plenty of breaks in between so that he still retains a little control. Most classes are short - 15 minutes - before doing the independent work. Math is 30 minutes of class time and Phonics & Reading is 45 minutes to an hour. This does not include the independent work. A 15 minute Bible class can easily extend into 45 minutes in our case, but it doesn't need to. He is actually spending more time doing schoolwork than before, but he is enjoying it more. And it is easier for me to set goals and rewards up b/c there is an objective standard by which I can measure whether he has finished his work. When I was the sole teacher, this was more difficult to do.

Some reasons why we love homeschooling!

2009-09-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

Teaching the little ones to do their chores cheerfully!

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Taking a break from lessons - playing outside in the morning rain!

Enjoying an afternoon tea party while reading Alice in Wonderland. Is that the Mad hatter?

Sissy "reading" to her baby Tommy!

Playing Indians after reading about Columbus' discovery of the New World

Preschool Week 2

2009-08-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

We are going through ABC Memory Book with my 4 and almost 3 year old this year. This week was B, and to reinforce the letter we made a B on construction paper and glued dried beans onto it. This helps with small motor skills and letter recognition.

Tot School Week 2

2009-08-06T13:53:00.001-07:00

One thing we enjoyed this week in Tot school was to make a "mat man" with the wooden letter pieces that our 4 year old uses to learn her letters. These are sold through Handwriting without Tears to teach letter formation. This activity entertained him for quite some time.

This last activity was intended for the toddler and preschoolers, but how much fun the older kids AND their homeschool friends had. The 5 - 7 year old crowd actually had more fun with this than the younger ones. It is very simple :) Get a tupperware container of water. Put some dish soap in it for bubbles. Get a bunch of kitchen tools out of your cupboards that they can measure, scoop, and pour. And voila! You have instant recreation for at least an hour - who needs expensive toys?!

Tot School Week 1

2009-08-06T13:14:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted for a few weeks, so there will be several new posts added. This year for the first time, I decided to be intentional about doing preschool with the younger ones. It is so easy to focus on the "school age" child(ren) that sometimes the little ones can get left out. I realized that all the fun stuff that I did with my firstborn are not always being done with the next two. So, in my lesson planning last month I also planned out a 12 week lesson plan for my toddler and preschooler. Thanks to the Tot School webpage for some great ideas and help in being intentional with this age. It basically looks like this: Daily circle time, craft activity several times a week, daily preschool workbook or handwriting lesson, and short reading lesson for the 4 year old. These pictures are from our first week of school. They had fun with the letter A using painters tape and then painting over the letter only to uncover it later and reveal the letter A. They also enjoyed sponge painting different shapes and animals with washable tempera paints.

"Nature - Deficit Disorder"

2009-07-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article on the cbmw (Council for Biblical Manhood & Womanhood) blog. Clickhere to read. I can remember growing up on a dead-end street with the woods next to me. Most of my free time as a young child, I remember spending riding bikes, climbing trees, and exploring the woods next to our house. It was a world all to its own. Thankfully, my children have a wonderful wooded paradise in our backyard that we like to call "Pooh's Hundred Acre Woods". But I admit that somewhat too frequently I have to send the children outside as opposed to pleading with them to come inside. It is a shame that technology, although a blessing, can also be a curse to steal the innocent delights of childhood from our kids.

Day 3 of 2nd grade

2009-07-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

We have completed 3 days of 2nd grade! So far as to be expected. I have had minimal resistance from the student compared to last year, although school is still not his favorite thing. But the alternative is much less appealing to him, so for that I am thankful. Some things I have learned in the past 3 days:
1. Having school with a 2nd grader, preschooler, 2 year old, and 14 month old can be akin to shepherding sheep. There is always someone who needs to be pulled back in the pen.
2. Keeping your sanity while a 14 month old is crying in the background, the 2 year old is grabbing toys from his sister, and the 7 year old who can't sit still is trying to do his copywork is enough for any Mom to consider the benefits of private school (but only for a moment :)
3. Not all babies like to play with baby toys!
4. Classroom management with a class of 30 same-age students must be a piece of cake compared to managing 4 of varying ages and attention spans under the age of 7.
5. 2 months is apparently a long enough time to completely forget all 1st grade Math and handwriting skills.
6. And God must have a sense of humor to have put me in this job!

Getting back in gear

2009-07-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

After taking half of May and all of June off, we are gearing up to start back to school. I spent all last Friday at a friend's house creating lesson plans and getting organized for the new school year. Every year I say this, but it is just so HOT down here, that I really think we should school all summer and take off during the Fall or Spring when the weather is so pleasant. But somehow even though we homeschool, the kids know that summer is a time to not do school. Nonetheless, we are starting back in 2 weeks. Scott Jr. & Rachel don't know this, but I don't think they need to find out until a bit closer to time. Scott Jr. will be finishing up some of his 1st grade work and beginning 2nd grade, while Rachel will be a preschooler. The other 2 are along for the ride! I found several resources helpful in my planning. One website being Donna Young's website which has a host of free forms and calendars and a great excel spreadsheet I used for my lesson plans. The other is Preschoolers and Peace which has given me some great ideas on incorporating my younger ones into our school time without making them feel left out. In case you are wondering what I decided since my last post, here is our "plan" for the core of our studies. I use that word loosely as I know man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps (Prov. 16:9).

Scott Jr:
Math - Saxon 2
Grammar - First Language Lessons
History - Early American History with Beautiful Feet
Science- God's Design for Science (Answers in Genesis) - Life
Copywork/Handwriting - Memoria Press Copywork books
Spelling - Spelling Workout

Rachel:
Rod & Staff Preschool workbooks
Learning to read with Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading
Kumon workbooks - she has been doing these with her Grandma this summer and loves them!

I feel good with a plan! Last year I was way behind the 8 ball in this area, and never took the time to get organized. I hope that I can continue to get away every quarter or so to regroup and reevaluate. It is so helpful!

Curriculum Planning

2009-05-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am a curriculum-aholic, if there is such a thing. I love looking at curriculum in catalogs and online. I feel like a kid in a candy store when I see all those good books out there to read and use in our homeschool! If only I could justify spending all that money, I would be buying a whole lot more. For the past month or so, I have spent hours pouring over curriculum catalogs, trying to decide on the just the right thing for next year. My husband finds the magazines in the bathroom, the kitchen, the bedroom -- they are all over. And for those of you who already homeschool, you know once you get on their mailing lists, they seem to bombard you with catalogs. For a little while, I was a bit overwhelmed, both at all the good choices out there and at the various methods and approaches to the same goal. Then I realized I was making it too hard. I needed to spend less time planning and more time praying asking God to lead us along the right paths. I also read a great little book entitled, When You Rise Up: A Covenantal Approach to Homeschooling by R.C. Sproul Jr. It is worth your time to read. Not that it is great literature or has great ideas for teaching your child to read and write, but that it is a call to return to Scripture as to why we homeschool. As Christians, we are called to train up our children in God's laws, God's precepts, God's ways. If our greatest desire is for our children to know God and to understand God and glorify him according to the way HE created them, this will dictate our "curriculum" choices, but more importantly, we will come to see more and more that our whole lives are about education. If you send your child off to public school, you are sending them off to be educated by the state. But the state's job is to educate their mind. As Christian parents, we are called to educate their whole being - their body, soul, and mind. And if our "soul will last forever" as the children's catechism says, then educating their spirit should be paramount. Everything I do should be done with the aim of my children growing in their knowledge of their blessed Savior, Jesus Christ, who died and gave himself as a ransom not just for many, but for you and for me and for my children. Our desire is not for our little ones to make a perfect SAT score, nor is it so that they would simply get a good job and follow the American dream. Our goal is that our children will know God and make him known to others. We want them to be as the Bible says, "shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16) I looked up shrewd on dictionary.com. Synonyms included "quick, discerning, perceptive". In other words, we want them to be critical thinkers, examining the world around them in light of Scripture. When they watch the news, when they read books, when they talk with their friends, or make decisions on what to buy, our hope is that they make wise decisions, based on truth. It is not JUST about reading, writing, and arithmetic. This is why we don't want to simply "school at home" but instead, we "homeschool". I get a little uncomfortable when public school Moms ask me about what we are learning in our homeschool because I am a little afraid I might be thought of as somehow not qualified to do what I am doing. But this book reaffirms that I am qualified. Why? Because God saw fit to give us these 4 little blessings. And as Mr. Sproul reminds us, what he calls us to do, he equips us. He has already given us all things necessary for life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3) When we talk to them when they rise up and along the way and when they lie down, we are homeschooling them. In the same manner as all of life can be lived in worship to God as we live Coram Deo, before the face of God, all of our family life can be considered homeschooling as we speak to our children about who God is and what He has done and as we model before them how God wants us to live, however imperfectly it is done. It is a freeing thing to know that just as God created each of our children individually, we can have a homeschool that is also just as unique as the individual personalities that make it up.

So, now you may ask, what became of all my curriculum shopping? Well, I am still working on it. But one thing has changed. My Bible and character training has moved from the bottom of the list as seemingly non-academic subjects towards being the core of all we do.

If my child can say all his multiplication tables with ease and his phonograms perfectly, but knows not the Lord, he is only a ringing noise. If he has the gift of writing and can diagram sentences perfectly but knows not the Father's love, he is nothing. If he scores perfectly on his spelling tests and can recite definitions of his pronouns, adjectives and adverbs, but demonstrates unkindness towards his siblings or disrespect towards his parents, he gains nothing.

Love is patient towards a slow child, love is kind towards a needy child. It does not envy its' friends' children. It does not boast of a child's achievements. It is not proud. It is not rude to a friend or family member, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered when a child disobeys for the 10th time, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (adapted from 1 Cor. 13)

What I Wish I'd Learned in History

2009-02-24T10:20:00.000-08:00

I love homeschooling! One of the big advantages of homeschooling, at least in Alabama, is the freedom to choose your own curriculum. My first grader has been reading about Winston Churchhill with Daddy through a wonderful book called The Happy Warrior. He is fascinated by WWII. And Daddy is happy that he has been able to get out his WWII games from his childhood and play with all the figurines again.

We have also been studying Ancient History this year with our base of the Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer. This led us over the past few weeks to do a unit study on China. Theirs is a fascinating history, and we have only scratched the surface. For those interested in resources on this subject, here is what we have used:
1. The Great Wall of China by Leonard Fisher
2. Modern Marvels of China
3. The Silk Route by John Major
4. Gladys Alyward
by Janet Benge
5. Hero Tales by Dave & Neta Jackson. This is a great compilation of stories of missionaries and historical figures that are inspiring, written in a devotional format. Several of the figures are persons who lived their lives as missionaries to China.

Alongside China, although not connected, has been our study of Julius Ceasar with the Story of the World again as our springboard. We borrowed a great book that we are reading aloud from the library entitled Julius Caesar, by Zachary Kent. Next on the list is Josephus for kids. I found a resource for this which looks great, entitled Our Young Folks Josephus by William Shepard. I will let you know after we have used it for a while.

Now tell me what 1st grader in public school has been exposed to such figures already as Alexander the Great, King Tutankhamen, Julius Caesar, Josephus, and already knows why the Trojan War was fought and who the first emperor of China was? I know I didn't learn that stuff, nor did I ever find history of much value as my teachers were all non-history types brought in to read the ever-boring "Social Studies" text from a textbook that smelled - (remember that awful smell of the school textbooks??)

A Tired Mommy's Journal

2009-02-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

This week has wore me out, and it is only Tuesday. Homeschooling my dear son has been a challenge to say the least the past 2 days. I feel like quitting. Both days, I think he has spent as much time in the "principal's" office (a.k.a. Dad's) as much as he has sitting down to do his school work. I have all these wonderful visions of how our home school should go, look and be. Problem is... it isn't much looking like I envision. Instead, the past few days have been filled with complaining, disobedience, sibling rivalry, one highly distractible child, and yes numerous spankings. Sometimes I just want to throw the towel in and say, "Lord, I am not cut out for this!" But I can't. And that is when I realize that I am in need of the Lord's grace more than ever. And that is when I come running to the cross, realizing that I am just like my precious children. I am the one with the complaining spirit, the one who isn't showing much grace to my children, the one who is impatient and critical. In short, I am just as much the problem as they are! Parenting is all about seeing our own need of the Gospel. We are in need every day, every hour of the cleansing and redeeming grace of Jesus. And my kids need to see that. They don't have to go far to see that I am not perfect. But what I do with my imperfections and where I take them is what they need to see. I hope and pray that they see me bring my sin and my weaknesses to the throne room of Jesus each and every day.

So often I lose sight of what is important. I am so overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of being a mom and a wife and a homemaker, the fact that my kitchen sink is overflowing with dishes sometimes seem more important than the emotional & spiritual needs of my children. I neglect to train them in the ways of righteousness because I am tired and would rather just retreat from the constant demands of motherhood. Yet, Christ calls me to persevere. He calls me to keep stepping forward, keep coming to him in repentance and faith, repentance and faith, that the Gospel may work in my own heart and in those around me. I am a work in progress. And so are my kids. And so are you. The good news is that He has already perfected those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). We belong to Him, and we already know the end of the story!

CJ's Preschool

2009-01-14T19:35:00.000-08:00

I am so blessed and give thanks to God for his grace in it all. My 2 year old CJ goes to "preschool at Grandma's" almost every morning while we homeschool. It is truly a blessing to have her living downstairs. Our routine is that after breakfast and chores, we take coffee down to Grandma, and CJ brings his "Sloan" (his stuffed elephant that he is very attached to) and his drink, and he goes down to play with Grandma for a couple hours while we get the bulk of our school finished. He plays with blocks, matches shapes & colors, does puzzles, plays with cars, has a snack, sits in Grandma's lap and reads books, and most of all gets undivided attention from someone who loves him. What 2 year old could ask for anything more than that? He loves his Grandma, and so do we. He is also potty trained! We started with him right around Christmas, and he took to it very quickly. He got big boy underwear in his stocking to spark interest. Now 3 weeks later, he is telling me when he needs to go and even stayed dry during his nap today. He is so funny about it - I was in hysterics this morning as he sat on the potty saying to me in his cute CJ way, "Mom, do you hear it?" He was talking about what was going in the potty, of course! This kid is really funny.

Back to school growing pains

2009-01-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

As a kid, I remember the first week back after a holiday being difficult. It can be hard to get back in a routine. As much as I had hoped that my son would be jumping up and down at the thought of new workbooks and a new beginning to school, it didn't quite go that way. Today, in our language lesson we were talking about days of the week and what we do each day. As I was writing down on the whiteboard what we do on Monday - school/ Tuesday- gymnastics and school, he came to the board and crossed out all the "school" words. I asked him how he was going to learn to read and write if he didn't go to school. I never did get a good answer, just that he didn't like school. Of course, I shouldn't really care if he doesn't like school, but if he doesn't like learning, then that is another matter. I should change my approach if the later is true.

Tuesday it took us 1 1/2 hours just to get through our Saxon 1 Math lesson. Of course, partly this was due to the fact that we were playing store part of the lesson. They eagerly stretched this part of the lesson out as long as possible, but it was a lot of fun. Nevertheless, I was a bit frustrated at having taken so much time for Math when we still had Phonics, Handwriting, Bible, and a Language lesson to go. So, the next morning, we skipped Saxon altogether and played Swamp Sum for math. It was apparent that he had forgotten most of his simple math sums over the holidays anyways. There is something to be said for year-round schooling.

Rachel is eager to start preschool. Since she will be 4 in just a matter of weeks, I decided to begin instructing her in her letters and sounds and teaching her to write her capitals this Spring. She was very excited about this, and we have been using a combination of Rod and Staff preschool workbooks, online letter print-outs, and Handwriting without Tears chalkboard and wooden letter pieces. It makes her feel grown up to have her own school stuff to do. I think she will like "school" a lot more than her brother ever will.

Back to School

2009-01-03T11:51:00.001-08:00

I spent yesterday taking down our Christmas decorations and our tree from our homeschool room in preparation for next week. Like most of you, we are winding down from the holidays and going back to school. My 6 year old doesn't think that is such a great idea; after all, who would after being surrounded by family, vacation, Daddy off work, presents and Christmas cookies for 2 weeks? My idea was that I would get to spend most of a day in preparation for our 2nd semester. This ended up being a couple of hours yesterday and last night going through our curriculum and making sure that we have enough days allotted to get through the material. My 1st grader doesn't know it yet, but his life is about to get harder. Of course, he doesn't know what hard is. My goal is that this Spring we will add Spelling 3 x a week and be more diligent about getting in Science & History at least once a week, preferably twice. For those of you who do homeschool, you will relate to me when I say that we have a few distractions around the house. Not only is my son of the ADHD variety, we have a preschooler, toddler and a baby which all adds up to lots of interruptions and distractions during our "school time". My challenge is to view those distractions as teachable moments and to help my younger children feel loved and included while making sure my 6 year old actually does learn how to read and write! (and prepare home-cooked meals, do the laundry, keep the house clean, and the myriad of other responsibilities). It can be at times a bit overwhelming. So in light of that, what do I desire this new year? I desire to understand more of the Gospel and how that plays out in my life and our family.

Just as it so happens, I was watching a video series of a Bible study we are about to begin this January at our church. The gal on the video, Tara Barthel, is speaking right to me. We believe in the sovereignty of God, and so it is no accident that I am supposed to be "leading" this Bible study. Surely I need this message more than anyone else. It is all about keeping the gospel central in our relationships. Sounds simple, right? I was convicted that I have not been doing this especially towards my children. When they do good, I praise them. When they do wrong, I scold them. I hear myself telling them, "Be kind. Love your brother. Obey your parents." These are all good things, but this is only part of what I should teach them. These things represent the law. She says the law is the "should" in Scripture, the "imperative". The Gospel is the "indicative" - "who God is and what He has already done for us in Christ." She gave the example of Colossians 3:12-14. Funny because I recently read that to my children in one of our devotions and was focusing on the law all the while without realizing it. It says "Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience..." But then, she asks where the Gospel is in all this. I looked at the verse and could not see it at first. Then I saw it in the beginning of the verse. "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved..." That is who we are as believers. We are his people, holy and dearly loved. How powerful! We cannot put on compassion, kindness and the like until we rest in the first part of the verse. I have been focusing with myself and my children on the "ought to's" and not on what God has already done for me. This is my prayer - that our family and homeschool will be characterized by the Gospel this Spring and not so much on the "ought to's". I will keep you posted.

2008-12-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

Since this is our first Christmas with our upstairs finished, we thought it would be fun for the kids to put up their own Christmas tree with their own decorations and so that the tree light could be seen from the street. The only problem was that it kind of takes up most of my homeschool room. So my creative husband and son rigged up the tree so that it would be on a rolling cart. The idea was that we could roll out the tree in the mornings for school and push our table back in place. Cute! Reality is that I don't have the energy to do that each day, so we just make do for the time being. We haven't finished decorating it, but each day we add an "ornament" from our Advent devotional. If you are looking for a neat advent devotional for your family, check this one out at Child Ministry International. It even has a coloring book to go with it. The upstairs room is my favorite room in the house - I think Scott & I might just decide to move upstairs and put the kids all downstairs someday.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

One of the Moms in our homeschool group organized a storytime at the Fairhope library for all the kids right before Thanksgiving. They had fun dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians and learning the history of Thanksgiving as well as making some fun crafts. The toilet paper roll turkeys were something we made for our family Thanksgiving table.

The following is courtesy of www.familyfun.com

CRAFT MATERIALS:
Flat wooden craft spoons
Tempera or acrylic paints
Paper towel tube
Scissors
Orange pipe cleaners
Black marker
Tacky glue
Red felt

Time needed: Under 1 Hour
1. Five craft spoons are required for each ring. Using tempera paint, color one of them yellow for the turkey's head, the others, a variety of colors (they'll be used for tail feathers).

2. For the turkey's body, cut a 2-inch section from a cardboard paper towel tube and paint it brown.

3. From orange pipe cleaners, shape a pair of short legs with three-toed turkey feet. Fit the legs through small holes in the cardboard tube, bending the tips inside the tube to secure them.

4. Use a marker to draw eyes on the face and use tacky glue to attach a red felt wattle.

5. Finally, glue the head to the front of the body and the tail feathers to the back.

A New Beginning

2008-12-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

I decided to begin a new blog specifically devoted to our homeschooling endeavors. So many times, friends & family ask me what we are doing in our homeschool, how we do it, etc. I hope that this blog will give you an idea as well as be a source of information and encouragement for my homeschooling friends. Enjoy!