Mar. 18, 2007 - To Teach or not to teach
Have you ever been lost in curriculum. It is like a kid in a candy shop sometimes. I want alittle of this....and maybe I'll try alittle of that....until Wham! You have a huge bag of hodge podge and you never know what is right what will work . That pretty much has summed up alot of years for me. I know what one is doing and then doing something else for the other. ( I have 4 children). Unit studies have been a wonderful thing and I really have enjoyed them. This year we did Pace books. Its ok curriculum, not bad, not the best. But it has been steady. The children know what to do and what is coming. My husband loves them because I set daily goals and the kids know what is coming up for the next week and all 5 core subjects are covered. Math, English, Social Studies, Science, and Word Building are the main subjects. The books are easy to do and can be done in good time. I keep telling myself, schooling is not about the amount of time you put into your studies, or you put into workbooks or books. Its about the life applictions that go along with it every day. We all know that being in school is not a great source of learning, but LIVING life and learning to be the best God has intended you to be - thats what it is all about. It has been such a simple and easy year this year, that I feel as though I'm cheating the kids. Isn't homeschooling supposed to be about taking a subject and not only learning of it, but going on fieldtrips about it or doing homeprojects to confirm it. Like we did in our unit study. Or should I just be happy with the amount of time Im not fretting over making the unit study to "be all it could be." I guess what Im coming to the conclusion is, is this, Its home and relationships that matter the most. God will give our children all they need to continue on after us. My main focus is to train them in the ways they should go so that they will not depart from them. My # 1 job is to make wonderful men and women. Not perfect! Not always following the paths and ways I want them to go, but planting that seed of forever, and letting God do the rest. He promises to never leave us or forsake us and that is exactly what He will do! So I take a deep breath and know, they are all I have and my time is so little with them. Who cares about the simplicity of the curriculum, are they loving to learn and loving each other is the true lessons.
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Mar. 18, 2007 - To Teach or not to teach
Have you ever been lost in curriculum. It is like a kid in a candy shop sometimes. I want alittle of this....and maybe I'll try alittle of that....until Wham! You have a huge bag of hodge podge and you never know what is right what will work . That pretty much has summed up alot of years for me. I know what one is doing and then doing something else for the other. ( I have 4 children). Unit studies have been a wonderful thing and I really have enjoyed them. This year we did Pace books. Its ok curriculum, not bad, not the best. But it has been steady. The children know what to do and what is coming. My husband loves them because I set daily goals and the kids know what is coming up for the next week and all 5 core subjects are covered. Math, English, Social Studies, Science, and Word Building are the main subjects. The books are easy to do and can be done in good time. I keep telling myself, schooling is not about the amount of time you put into your studies, or you put into workbooks or books. Its about the life applictions that go along with it every day. We all know that being in school is not a great source of learning, but LIVING life and learning to be the best God has intended you to be - thats what it is all about. It has been such a simple and easy year this year, that I feel as though I'm cheating the kids. Isn't homeschooling supposed to be about taking a subject and not only learning of it, but going on fieldtrips about it or doing homeprojects to confirm it. Like we did in our unit study. Or should I just be happy with the amount of time Im not fretting over making the unit study to "be all it could be." I guess what Im coming to the conclusion is, is this, Its home and relationships that matter the most. God will give our children all they need to continue on after us. My main focus is to train them in the ways they should go so that they will not depart from them. My # 1 job is to make wonderful men and women. Not perfect! Not always following the paths and ways I want them to go, but planting that seed of forever, and letting God do the rest. He promises to never leave us or forsake us and that is exactly what He will do! So I take a deep breath and know, they are all I have and my time is so little with them. Who cares about the simplicity of the curriculum, are they loving to learn and loving each other is the true lessons.
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Mar. 13, 2007 - How fun is this
I was at church on Sunday and one of our dear military friends who is now stationed short term in Florida was standing there in the sanctuary. They moved a few months ago so I was so excited to see her. I have been keeping up on her on her blog site. She came to see very close friends who just had their first baby. She is a mother of 5, soon to be 6, and she came alone. How nice to see her and wow! What a sweet belly! She is having her 6th baby in a few months and how cute is she. It was because of the blog site here that I have been keeping up with her and their family. To her suprise though, I had not let her know I was blogging too. Well I m atempting to blog. :) When I get on line, I usually get on someones site and then I check out other friends on their sites and before I know it, 2 hours have gone by. I wish I could say I was an early morning blogger, but once my family is up, the races are off! So I tend to blog late at night. I am so excited about being here and getting to know more and more of you. If I could only figure out how to down load pictures! Yeeesh! This is rocket science. I have been trying for weeks to figure out how to down load pictures onto my site. Any suggestions?
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Mar. 12, 2007 - Wow, what a month!
Since I began blogging a month or so ago, we have had such an experience. Our little one of 7 came down with a horrible ear infection that left the ear and settled in the mastoid gland. The infection causes severe headaches and 3 hospital visits and a week of being in the hospital, it looks like we are coming up the hill. Our little one has been so sick and is doing amazingly great. Praise God for that. Ofcourse being in the hospital and everything else life is throwing us, school fell to the side. One great thing was we had amazing support and love from our church. I have been truly overwhelmed with the love and support they have given us as a family. What would we do without them. I was sooo thankful that we were back home and I was not teaching as I earlier wrote. I took a very short lived job working in a private christian school and praise God I decided to come back home. I can't imagine having to worry about the kids getting to school and all the junk that goes with it. God is so amazing. He knows the future ahead of us and He proves to me over and over again to just trust Him. In making the decision to teach, I had to trust. When I knew I wanted to come back home, I had to trust that He had a plan in it all. In this sickness of our little guy, youngest of 4, I've had to trust that God had this all under control. It is so freeing to know that no matter what He will be there and keep us. He will never leave us to sink, yet though it may seem that way at the time, He is ever faithful. To have us all home and not to worry about schools, or teachers was really amazing! Plus school is being caught up and we are now back on track. I LOVE MY JOB!! :)
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Feb. 10, 2007 - Yeah for Lap books
I'm telling you, since I have been back home schooling the children I have been praying for a new beginning and a new revival in my creativity and confidence in our homeschooling. Today, my 3rd grader was finishing up her science on amphibians and reptiles. I remembered how we use to do Lap books. I was glimpsing through Cindy Rushton's web site and I was inspired to do a lap book. Through alittle of grumbling, we began to create a lap book. She fell in love with the idea of the book. She really made a cute book about salamanders and frogs. We printed cute pictures off the internet of frogs and salamanders. We discovered an amphibian we never knew exsisted. The caecillian. It looks like a snake or giant worm, but it is an amphibian. She presented her book to her daddy when he got home and he was so impressed. He made her stand in front of him, give her name, and slowly talk about the book and what she learned. It was so much fun! See, for many years my husband was not supportive of my homeschooling. It has been an uphill battle for him to really get on board with my passion and desire to home educate. With in the last couple of years, he has really realized that as bad as our first two hated being homeschooled, the little 2 love it! He see's the love and excitement in their eyes about being with us and learning with us. Its kind of like, I went through the first two and the blessings are flowing out of the last 2. Funny how life is isn't it. When I say we have been on a journey, trust me. It has been a journey. However....Praise God for His new day! We are renewed every day in Him! And Praise God for lap books! !! Be patient with your journey. The Lord will giude you all the way. I can remember praying and crying out to Him asking the Lord to please let my husband be more supportive. I had an amazing gourp of ladies who prayed with me about our situation. I felt so alone most of the time. I longed for the husband who was right there with his wife helping and excited about the children being home and being schooled together. His traditional thought of schooling was going on a bus and going to school. That was "normal". Not having them home all the time. That was "not normal". When I began to teach this past fall at a small private Christian school, he was at the school everyday for lunch and dropping by all the time. He really missed us alot. When the Lord opened the doors for me to resign and come home this past Thanksgiving, he was right there supporting that. He see's that "normal" doesn't have to be so "normal" after all. Little by little he is being more and more supportive. Only God can do that! If He can do that for us, He can do that for you! Keep praying and focused. Hey, even try a lap book or two! :)
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Feb. 7, 2007 - Snowy Days gone by
Ok, have you ever had days where you just wanted to do work and the kids are just not wanting to sit and do it?? I'm singing your song..huh? Today was one of those days. We had a huge snow fall last night and all the kids wanted to do was hit the hills. So I bundle us all up and head for the hills! It took one hour for us all to cry "enough" and head in doors. We went to a friends farm and sled and sled and sled. What fun we had. Sometimes you just need to take the day and forget about the work and just do hands on with the family. After hot chocolate and some dry clothes we were good to go. It just makes me thank the Lord for even snow storms and the beauty the can leave behind.
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Feb. 7, 2007 - My First Blog Yeah!
Hello to you all. Here goes! I have been trying to find a format to enjoy sharing my life and encourage others in their walk through homeschooling. Homeschooling for me has been an amazing experience at times, a trying time, a dissapointment, but in the end it is about trying and trying again. So I hope that through my love of my family and my love for the Lord we can all share and grow together.
Blessings to you all and thanks for coming to my Blog,
DanaKay
