I'm about halfway through my TOS magazine. I read a little bit each day. I'm really impressed with all the 'meat' they've been putting in the magazine. When I first started reading TOS when it first started, I was worried it was going to be full of too many adds and not enough 'meat'. They have really added a lot of great stuff! I love reading about other homeschooling families, homeschooling in the news, and great info on new curriculums out there. Not that I need more info on curriculums, but it's always neat to read what's out there now. :) Homeschooling has come a long way even since we began 10 years ago!

Today was a normal day around here. It's springbreak, but we've been doing some school anyways. When we were all sick we took a week off school, so I figure if we all feel like doing some school we may as well do it!

Everyone in the family is almost all better now. The flu bug we had was a wicked one. Alesia and I are still coughing, not as badly though. It's a cough that comes on as quick as a sneeze though! You never know when it's going to hit you. I've had a cough now for over 3 weeks. It's nothing severe though, so not anything I'm worried about. Just kind of sick of it. lol Alesia's had it for about 10 days now and we both hurt our ribs for several days because of it. What a pain! Literally! lol

Shaylah has taken up a new hobby. This is one of my 6 yr old twins. She's always loved flying things, birds, flying bugs like lady bugs, even flies. lol Well she walks around half the day now with our binoculars, searching for new birds. I really should dig out one of our bird books so she can start identifying them herself through pictures. So far I've been able to tell her what they all are, but I'd love for her to learn about classifying and research through this new hobby.  She has such a love for animals, and for learning.

The sweetest words said to me today:

Julia says, while I'm trimming her bangs this afternoon: "Mama, do you know what I love best out of all my toys, and clothes and everything? I love YOU best mama!"

  Awwweee... she's so sweet. How is it that God saw fit to bless me with such wonderful children?

The kids and I are still under the weather, but we seem to finally be getting over the worst of this nasty bug!

We've been busy making bunnies, and the kids have all been helping to make their own.

The ones I'm making are for my shop at HomemadeMama and then of course the extra's for the kids.

It's Knotty Bunnykins and Good Little Bunny Foo Foo

I'm hoping to make more 'friends' with the kids sometime soon, but the bunnies will have to do for now.

Ah, sick days. Thank goodness for homeschooling on days like these, when everyone is sick. No need to phone the 'school' to let them know my children will be staying home. No need to catch up on homework while they are too sick to even pay attention to anything more then video's on the tv as they fall in and out of sleep.

Only one other time has our entire family been sick, all seven of us. That was a horrible stomach flu that went through us like a rocket. That was years ago though, when the twins were just babes and still nursing so it didn't affect them much. It also left us as quick as it attacked us. Not this time. This time it's a nasty cold/flu virus that is hanging on for dear life! It started with me 11 days ago, and I'm still coughing. I was begginning to think I had allergies, and not a cold after all. Then our 8 yr old got hit hard with it, exact same symptoms as me right down to watery, itchy eyes. By day's end she also had a fever. Next morning, one of the twins, and our son woke up with it as well. By mid-afternoon, my eldest dd and our other twin had it. When hubby came home from work he was down with it too.

So today we spent the day with hubby snoozing in bed with one child or another, others laying on our bedroom floor with sleeping bags, watching video's I got from the rental place and yet others sleeping in their beds, too sick to even keep their eyes open to watch a movie.

We're learning about health care, how to have compassion for others, and being humble. ;)

We have been doing a lot of outdoor exploration and work this week. The weather has been beautiful for the past 10 days, after record breaking days of rain. We went through over 30 days of rain, with only one day off. We've been missing the sunshine and it's just been heavenly this week!

Today the 4 girls helped me plant about 100 bulbs in our new flower garden next to the 'man made' pond we're working on. We have tons of flowers coming up next to the house. We had planted a bunch of bulbs last fall. Within a couple of weeks we should have lots of daffodils and crocuses to enjoy! I just love spring!

The older ones and I have been teaching the younger ones all about money in our math this week. They have learned from 1 cent to the Canadian Toony (2$ coin). We'll carry on with 5$-20$ for the rest of the week and call it quits on that part of math for now.

In science we've been learning about volcanoes. Tomorrow we'll be 'building' one of our own. Should be interesting.

Monday and Tuesday we worked on sewing a teddy bear. Yesterday, Valentines Day, the girls all made heart shaped cookies with pink and purple icing. All made from scratch of course!

We've been enjoying the Valentines Day cards the children have received in the mail from other homeschooled children. It's become a geography lesson as they learn about where each family lives. :)

Or in our case, a one room school 'cabin'.

When we bought this place at the end of summer, we were not sure what we would do with the 'cabin' that was built above the large workshop. The workshop and house are about 100 feet from the house.

At first we had a border that was living there. He borded with us at our previous home so we said he could move with us until he found somewhere else. The cabin is not completly finished inside, so we didn't want someone living in it while we do the work.

So we had an empty cabin sitting there once he moved out. We knew we wouldn't be able to work on it for some months, so I decided we would use it for our school room. The cabin has a 'kitchen' with a counter and sink. It also has a bathroom. I knew this could work really well!

Have I mentioned that we are a family of 7 living in a 1200 sq. foot home? lol
This cabin has also become our play room and craft room! Last week we finally finished clearing it all out, moving our bookshelves and toy boxes in. Moved all our school books and my 'library' of books for myself and the kids.

So this week we've been doing school in our one room school 'cabin'. :)
It's working out REALLY well too. We have no phone in there, no computer, no distractions of any kind except work and play!

This week the little ones have been working like crazy in their writing workbooks and they've been making little books about vowels and such. Our 8 yr old is FINALLY wanting to read! She's been a struggle to work with as she had no desire to read at all. This was foreign to me because our eldest dd was reading by the time she was 4, and by 6 she was reading novels! Our son didn't learn as easily, but he did WANT to learn. Thankfully, our twins also WANT to read, so they've been much easier to teach. I am so thankful our 8 yr old is past this hurdle. :)

We've been doing some different things in art. I've been working on fabric piece art, so I've taught the kids how to do the same thing with colored paper. It's been a lot of fun. Of course they LOVE glueing.

Our eldest dd is working on a book report. She's been reading about George Muller. Great story, great man!

Our son has been working extra hard on a math workbook he has. It's carpentry math. He bought it himself and just loves it. lol This book meant for adults, but he's working through it very well. My hubby has said he would take over math lessons with the eldest two, so that's a load off my mind! Math has never been my strong subject!

In other news here on our homeschool/homesteading life. Soon we'll need to get our chicken coop ready for our first round of chickens. I've decided we'll just start out with 6 laying hens and go from there. I 'may' get a few meat birds, but I'm just not sure. One good friend says they are difficult to raise, legs can break etc.. Another good friend says it depends on the type you get and some you can treat the same as regular chickens, allowing them to go outside etc.. Just not to let them get too much exercise, and make sure they eat a lot more. So we'll see what I find out when I research some more. For now we'll stick with 6 laying hens. I'm thinking it would be neat to get a few different types. A couple of bantam for sure, as I've had these before when I was growing up.

Our eldest dd has been riding her horse almost daily, and I'm planning on getting more serious about my riding now that the sun has been shinning for days and the rain seems to have subsided. We had record rain falls here. 32 days of rain out of 34? Something like that. Not great riding weather!

Our eldest daughter took a beautiful photo of our two mares the other day, so I entered it into a photo contest at a horse site.

If you have a minute please come and vote for her photography!

When you go to the page you'll see the rating system below the photo.

Alesia's Photo

 "There is no greater gift a church can receive then to have a group of
families that take their responsibilities with such Christian seriousness
that they are willing to change their very lifestyles to raise up disciples
for Jesus Christ."

~Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian, newspaper editor and prime minister.

I thought I'd ramble a post about all that I've been reading lately. I just changed some of the "Books I'm Reading" links at my A Mother's Love journal and I thought before I delete the links to the books I've finished, I'd post a bit about them all.

First off, Get To Know Your Children by Marilyn Howshall. If you've ever read anything by Marilyn Howshall, you know how deep this woman is. I am provoked to deep thinking each time I open one of her books, even if it's only for a few moments while waiting in the car. I have been in a habit of keeping one of her booklets in my purse at all times so I can pull it out whenever I have to wait in the car for some reason. Her writings are the type you have to savour. If reading were a meal, Marilyn Howshall's would be a rich creamy dessert that you have to savour. It leaves you so full that you can't eat another bite and even if you tried, nothing else could compare.

I've read a lot of great authors over the years, but she really does beat them all. That's my opinion though. I like deep thought, some don't and I'm sure they would not care for her writings at all. They are also very deep spiritually, so they are not something a non-Christian would enjoy.

Now that I am finished reading Get To Know Your Children, I'm reading another one of her books called Become A Homeschooled Mom. No, I didn't write the title wrong. It's not Become a Homeschool Mom, it about becoming a homeschoolED mom. It's about educatiing ourselves, so that we in turn can educate our children. Let me warn you though, she doesn't mean the type of education the world preaches. She's talking deep, meaty education. The best kind of education. If you are wanting some really great material to read, check out her website. My links on the side of my A Mother's Love journal, with her book titles will take you there. Her prices are very affordable. Her journal, sent out 4 times a year, is also full of lots of wisdom.

Another book I am just about finished is A Mom Just Like You.

This is a refreshing book for any mom of many. I don't consider myself to have THAT many kids (she has many more then I do!) but I still gleaned a lot from her book. Her style is a bit different then mine, in our ways of schooling etc., yet in some of our ways we are similar. It's a 'real' book. Not fluff and stuff. It gives you an inside look at a family with many children and how their mama copes, and sometimes doesn't cope so well. She doesn't make things sound like it's always easy. I like that.

Before our move I had begun reading Created To Be His Helpmeet, but I'm only to about chapter 8. I've been there for quite some time. God has been doing some wonderous things in our marriage and He's been teaching us a lot 'hands on' so the reading part of growing our marriage is on hold right now. I guess that's the best way to put it. Sometimes if we read someone else's view/opinion on things, it can quiet His voice in our minds and our hearts.

Another book I'm about to start is Secrets of Successful Homeschooling. It is an e-book that has been put together by the makers of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Even though we've been homeschooling for 10 years, and we've found our own ways of schooling, I still like to keep up with new books and resources because you're just never too old to learn something new. Not to mention, I'd like to be able to pass on any great books to my kids if they decide to homeschool their children. I'll let you know what I think of the book as I read.

Speaking of the Old Schoolhouse Magazine. I'm really impressed with this magazine lately! I've read it off and on since it first came out. The changes they've made over the years have been wonderful. They now have articles about all kinds of things that can be of help to us homeschooling families! There's articles about other homeschooling families, articles about herbs, reviews on books for kids and books for parents. All kinds of great stuff! I've been really blessed reading through it. It's the only homeschool magazine which I subscribe to at the moment.

Oh, one last review. You may have noticed a new banner at the top of my journal. Dine Without Whine. This is a REALLY great resource! I've always enjoyed keeping a monthly menu, but since our move I just haven't had time to do it right. I used to sit down and make up a months worth of meals, then write out all the ingredients I would need for that months meals. Well this menu planner at Dine Without Whine now does it for me! There's a free week trial period when you sign up, and if you want to keep going with it it's only $4.50 a month after that! My time is worth MUCH more then $4.50! If her meals were weird or really different from the types of things my family likes to eat, then it probably wouldn't be worth it but her meals are very similar to the types of meals we make all the time anyways! But now I get to try out new recipes without all the work of finding them. I also like the fact that these recipes are tried and true. She also gives recipes for easy desserts, weekend brunches and even simple dinners for Sunday's using the crockpot and such. This really is a fabulous find! I hope some more mama's will be blessed by this service.

for another year.

It always comes and goes much too quickly. As my husband said today, so much preperation goes into Christmas, yet it always goes by just as quick. My goal is to keep the Christmas 'spirit' alive though, even now that Christmas Day is finished.

This week in our learning adventures we will continue working in our cabin in preparation for the new year. I have 4 bookshelves in there now, two are filled and I have more boxes of books to unpack. I'd like to have two shelves for school/teacher books and the other two for all the kids reading/exploration books.

The only bummer about it all is that we have no idea how long we'll be able to use this cabin. On the one hand I want to get it real nice and cozy, but on the other hand I don't want to get it just 'so' only to have to take everything back out again. We will be adding onto our home in the future, and when we do so we'll be making a library/den/project room and then we'll move everything back into the house. For now though, this will work as a great substitute. And really, it's only a couple weeks work for months of use. I guess that's really not too bad even if we do have to move everything to the house at a later date.

I've promised the kids that they get to have any free wall space to hang their art work. ;) I think that will be cute.

I haven't decided yet what we'll study once our holidays are over. I'm going to have to pray about it some more and also browse through our Five In A Row books.

As for my learning adventures lately. This week I'll be busy praying and seeking the Lord in what He would have me concentrate on for the New Year.
Each year I make up a list of prayers for others and our family. I make up a list of goals for myself. They are not 'resolutions', but simply areas in which I feel God is asking me to take a deeper look at, and make some changes. Each year end, I review the prayer list I've made the previous year, and the goals, and take note of what continues to need improving.

I've been doing this for about 8 years now, and it's very neat to see how things change. Each year I also look back on all the other years prayers and goals, and it's very encouraging to see growth, prayers answered and major changes. I think what's most interesting though, is all the prayers that get answered in ways I never could have imagined, but ways that are always so much better then anything I could have come up with!

God is good!

We have quite a bit going on this week in our learning adventures.
We have been reading a Christmas story each evening before bed. We try to stick with stories that show the true meaning of Christmas for the evening story time because the younger three are at an age now where they like to ask a lot of questions about Jesus, and our Father and heaven. I just love hearing their questions, and I am always amazed by how deep the thoughts of a child can be. It is no wonder that Jesus taught that we must be as little children.

This week we will not be doing any 'book work'. We have lots of baking to do, and we are also in the middle of revamping the cabin on our property to be used as our school/project/playing room! The cabin is about 500-600 square feet (I think?), with a small kitchen area and a bathroom. We've moved most of our bookshelves, and a bunch of tables in there so far. Our son has his trains set up on one table. I plan to use another table for cutting fabrics, and then there will be yet another table for doing crafts and our table time. I'm considering one other table to be used for activities that take time, such as large puzzles and scrapbooking. We have an abundance of tables and the kids love to sit for hours doing activities, so it works well to have work 'stations' set up like this. We'll be using this cabin for such activities until we can add onto our home. We recently moved from a 2600+ sq foot house into a much smaller home with less then 1200 sq feet, so this cabin will help out tremendously during these winter months.

This week we are also learning about remodling! LOL Our son has been ripping up the parkay flooring to earn some extra money for Christmas, and dear hubby had to rip out a shower and a closet to make room for some appliances. The kids have been fascinated by everything Daddy is doing and they all like to help in any way they can.

My dear hubby has several weeks off over this Christmas season, so we are taking advantage of both parents being home and working with the kids on any areas we feel can be improved. The two main areas are their chore assignments, and first time obedience.

For my own personal learning, I've been seeking God on what He would like me to set as personal goals for the new year. Each year around this time I pray and set out goals. Not resolutions. Things and areas I need to be praying about/for, whether it be for family, friends or otherwise. Also areas in my own personal walk with the Lord that need work. Areas in my parenting that need work, and in all areas of my life as a wife, Mama and daughter of our Heavenly Father. These are prayers I set out to remember throughout the year. Each New Year's eve I look over the previous years list and make notes on any prayers answered and areas which have been improved, and other areas that still need work. I've been doing this each year now for 8 or 9 years. I always pull out the old lists and go over them. It's good to see how God has worked over the years. So often I am amazed at how small my vision is compared to the Lord's. He never ceases to amaze me!

I have a regular journal in which I share about the ups and downs of my/our life but I thought it would be neat to have a journal in which I only share about our learning adventures.

When signing up for homeschool blogger, it asks which category you belong in, for example: classical, charlotte mason, unit studies, unschooling etc..

Questions like this always stump me, because really we do not belong in any of those categories, yet in many ways we belong in all of them! lol

We love many of Charlotte Mason's ideas and philosphies, we use Five in a Row and Konos a lot, so that covers Unit studies, we do a TON of hands on learning, especially here on our hobby farm, so in some ways I guess we are unschoolers, but then we do like some work books for certain things, we just don't adhere to the 'rules' the books place about how often and how quickly/slowly they are 'supposed' to be used. Some days our children spend hours writing in their workbooks, and often we do science experiments from our science workbooks. Then we may go days without ever cracking a work book open!

Since we've moved to our hobby farm, we've done more hands on learning then ever before. The children have hunted, caught and examined so many different 'creatures' since moving here. They've been learning all about baby bunnies, guinea pigs, horses, kittens, snakes, lizards, spiders, all sorts of other bugs and many different types of rodents. They've witnessed our young colt being gelded (neutered) and examined the insides of a rabbit (including the poor baby inside it) after a stray cat killed it and left it at our back door with only the insides and feet remaining...  

All these things are amazing learning experiences, even the gross ones!

The only writings I have ever read, which lay out my true feelings of homeschooling my children and the process of learning through life is Marilyn Howshall's writings.

Lifestyle Of Learning

Even then, Marilyn Howshalls writings do not depict everything I believe. I do not agree with 100% of what she writes, but then I do not agree 100% with anything I've ever read. Only the Lord can truly minister to us exactly what's right for each of our children. I really appreciate the depth of Marilyn Howshall's writings though. Depth is something I find lacking in many writings.