JESUS IS COMING SOON! MARANATHA LORD!
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Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the black horse and the copyright notice.
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Well, I don't know how many of you read my blog, but if you do you might be interested to hear that I have other pages around. One is on MY SPACE, one is on YAHOO 360, one is on MY HOMESCHOOL PLACE, one is on LAPBOOK LESSONS.
I try to post on all of them on occasion, but honestly I keep up this blog at homeschoolblogger much more regularly, and when I do update those others, its often something I've already posted here. Still, if you are curious, go ahead and click on those links above.
JESUS IS COMING SOON! MARANATHA LORD!
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Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the black horse and the copyright notice.
If you don't see a video here, give it a few minutes to load.
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Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the black horse and the copyright notice.
Okay, someone told me this was an empty window, but when I view it its not empty, it has a You Tube video on it. So, if you don't see the video, wait to give it time to load, if you still don't see it, try reloading the page. Its short and its worth seeing.
JESUS IS COMING SOON! MARANATHA LORD!
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Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the black horse and the copyright notice.
Do this! Do that! Check this item off the list and move on to that one! Make the child sit at the table until ALL of those math problems are finished! Make him read this because it is the next thing in the book! We do not have time for the art project today, because Math, Phonics, Grammar, Spelling, and the like took too long!
What a horrible task master we have been under!
How did I get here? What is going on? Is this what want out of homeschooling? I am so tired. Frankly, I am fed up with this. Where are the leisurely nature walks? Where is the laughter? Where is the love of learning? Is my purpose in homeschooling just to get the work finished?
You can probably tell that I am that I need to make some changes in the way I home school my kids. I have been feeling burned out lately, and it seems like the joy of homeschooling is escaping all of us. To answer the questions I posed above, I will need to give a little background information.
I strongly prefer the classical model of education, so I am loosely following the course of study outlined in The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. Now, I knew we could not follow EVERY suggestion made in the book, but still I wanted to sort of stick to the outline, studying Ancient History and Life Science in year one, Middle Ages and Earth/Space in year two, then moving on to early modern History and Chemistry in year three, and finally finishing up with late modern History and Physical Science in Year four. Then I planned to switch to a five-year plan, using the Mystery of History series, and spreading the science out a little more to cover it in more depth. It sounded like such a wonderful plan!
Unfortunately, my two youngest kids did not master reading in preschool like Susan Wise did back in the early 1970’s when her mom Jessie was teaching her. No, my kids actually spent their preschool years doing preschool stuff… playing outside, picking flowers, running in the sprinkler, learning colors, shapes, numbers and letters, playing with play dough and doing puzzles. Even if I had wanted to teach them to read, my son’s speech was so delayed that it would not have been possible. So he started Kindergarten actually needing to do Kindergarten level work! Therefore, we had to spend a good portion of our day covering phonics and reading; this is something the schedule in the Well Trained Mind does not take into account, just as it does not take into account that your family actually has to do more than JUST homeschool. There is laundry to be done, meals to cooked, and dishes to be washed. There is church to attend and co-op classes to plan. In my home there is a High School student who needs teaching too, and there is a part time job to work at on top of all of it.
So here we were, fully half of our day being taken up just trying to master reading and math. Then we would find ourselves squeezing in History and Science when we could. It did not bother me much, and we were having fun. We did something for History each day, sometimes it was reading followed by a narration, and other times it was a History related art project, or map work, or even a cooking activity. The first year worked out pretty good, except that half way through the year we had to pick up the pace to finish our History book before summer, so we skipped extra activities on many lessons. Then the second year started, now in addition to teaching my son, my youngest daughter was ready to start Kindergarten. We moved along enjoying ourselves for the most part. Then about a month ago, I sat down and looked at where we were in our History book. We were so far behind! If we did not pick up the pace we would NEVER finish in time for summer break, in fact, we would be lucky to finish before October! So we doubled our efforts, we would read, do our narration, and then do our map work in the same day. The only “projects” we did was the coloring pages, never the more fun activities. We stopped reading the additional books on the chapter topics. We even gave up taking a couple of days here and there to review the history memory cards, and instead just pushed ahead to the next lesson.
Science was rushed along in a similar way, reading the lessons, doing the experiments, and leaving it at that. No notebook pages, no extra activities, nothing that was not absolutely necessary in order to be able to say we “did” the lesson.
We pushed along like this, and each day I felt less and less joy in what I was doing, and each day my frustration level increased. I did not blog about homeschool much during this time. Instead, I just posted photos and blogged about things like Easter egg hunts. I was so exhausted after DOING homeschool each day that I did not want to think about it afterward, let alone blog about it!
Then, last weekend I woke up, as if out of a bad dream, and came to my senses. I looked at my children, and realized that they were as burnt out as I was. They were not having any fun, and they were not remembering much of what we were rushing so much to do. I asked myself, “Why is it so important to finish Middle Ages History this year?” Did I honestly think that my child would be asked when applying for college, “Why did it take you five years to finish the Story of World series instead of four?” Who was I trying to impress? Who decided that the grammar stage of the Trivium should last exactly four years? Who decided that learning should take place from the first week of September and stop the second week of June? From where did I get this arbitrary schedule? Would it not make more sense to take longer to cover the material, but to have my kids enjoy it and retain what they learned?
I realized that my thinking was all out of line. I had read that the last volume of Story of the World was not good for kids who were younger than 4th grade level, so I had even started making plans of other ways to cover history the 4th year. It did not occur to me that maybe I should just take more time on the first three volumes and then begin again with Ancient History in the Mystery of History series.
Therefore, I decided last weekend that I would stop this nonsense, stop being dictated to by some schedule invented by someone else in an entirely different situation than my own, and start doing what works for us.
We are still following a classical model, we LIKE that. The difference is that now we are not trying to push forward and keep to some silly schedule of when to finish with each step of that model. Instead, we are just doing what comes next. We are relaxing and enjoying our extra projects again. We are reading literature about each time period in History, just like we used to. We are doing our art projects.
We are also revamping our approach to science. Instead of boring lesson response sheets where all the kid does is answer questions, we are going to slow down on the interesting space units and slowly assemble a lap book, read library books, and try to visit our local observatory. We joined ENCHANTED LEARNING so that we would have access to lots of neat printable graphics and minibooks to put in our lapbooks.
I don’t know when we will finish the Middle ages study… we might finish it this summer, or we may finish it in November… but we WILL enjoy it!
I have many other thoughts swimming around in my brain, but I was intending to write a blog post, not a book, so I will stop now, and maybe write more some other time.
JESUS IS COMING SOON! MARANATHA LORD!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi friends, if you need to silence the music just hit the play/pause button on the player in the right sidebar, just below the copyright notice.
I woke up this early this morning, because I have decided I need to get serious about my exercise program if I am ever going to lose weight.
Any way, as I stepped outside I was instantly struck by two things... the first was the cold. It was about 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside... Brrr! My winter coat felt terribly thin! Now to some people back east 20 might not seem like a big deal, but around here that is considered COLD!
The second thing to strike me was the beauty. Everything was white and sparkly. I started my van so it could warm up (to take me to Curves), then I got my camera and attempted to capture some of the splendor. I am afraid my camera did not really do it justice though.
This first Picture is of my poor frozen snowball bush.
Next, I zoomed in on one twig of the snowball bush.
Here is one of our Rhododendron bushes.
Now Here are two of our Laurel bush.
And, some of our pasture:
Last here is a slide show that features these, as well as some other pictures that I took this morning:
It seems that the gains we made on Samuel's ability to pay attention and concentrate have been lost over the holidays and we are back at square one. I explain what he is to do and make sure he understands, then I go away for 20 minutes and come back to find that he HAS NOT DONE A SINGLE PROBLEM!!! He has just been sitting there, frozen in time or something.
This is our first week back to close to a full schedule though, so I expect that he will improve when he gets back into swing of things.
Originally I had this week scheduled as a full week... but I decided to reschedule First Language Lessons until next week, and only do science at the co-op, I have already covered the information with my kids, so I will go over it quickly at the co-op and move on to the experiment phase. It seems with Samuel's struggle to read at a reasonable pace, combined with his tendency to daydream during math, things just take too long... I might have to drop a few of the extra things and just focus on the basics for awhile so that we don't spend 6-8 hours doing school! I don't want him to feel like I've chained him to his desk!
This week at co-op we will be covering the water cycle, so the experiment consists of boiling water and collecting the steam in the pan lid, then watching as it condenses and drips back down. I sure hope some parents will volunteer to help out so I don't have to worry about any kids getting burned!
Well, I work tomorrow at my housekeeping job , and I have homeschool to do also , so I'd better sign off.
On my last entry, I asked for opinions about what kinds of things should be posted on this blog, and it seems everyone so far says they enjoy getting the lovely Mish Mash of topics I post on.
So, while I'll keep up my other blog to have one place for posting ONLY things like Bible studies and devotional thoughts, I will also cross post those things here. Those who don't want to read them can just skip over them.
I think I will be starting a new category though... specifically for Bible studies and devotions.
After work today, I will come back and post again, including a cross posting of my first devotional thoughts (which is already posted on my other blog).
Well, I am gearing up for homeschool to start up once again... We have all been having such fun on holiday... part of me hates to see it end.
But we usually have fun with schooling too, so I'll get over it.
I have to make sure we are ready to go, that things are assigned on Homeschool Tracker, and lists are printed, and old work is graded..etc..etc..etc...
I was thinking the other day that I wanted to focus this blog more on homeschooling, but I also enjoy writing about other things... so I am going through an evaluation of what should and should not be posted here. I would like to hear what those who read my blog think... should I narrow the focus only to homeschooling related themes, or should I continue to post whatever is on my mind at that time?
Either way, I have also started another blog I hope you will come to visit it HERE. Though I may begin cross posting if enough people tell me they want me to keep posting other things here besides just homeschool related stuff.
What you will find on MY OTHER BLOG right now, is a post on what the point in being a Christian is. That post is a perfect example of things that I have a passion to write about, but that are not specifically about homeschooling.
So after reading it, please leave a comment either here or there, about whether you think I should put things like that on my homeschool blog or not.
And, if you are kind enough to tell me what your opinion about that is, allow me to say...
Its been awhile since I took time to make an entry about my family and the happenings around our home. I thought about trying to catch up on everything we've done over our holiday "break", but it would really take a long time to write all that. Instead, I thought I'd post a little slide show of favorite photos taken over the past month or so, and then begin to post again on a regular basis.
So here are a few shots of the last weeks of 2007:
Today was our first day "back to homeschool" after taking all of last week off. Although I was determined to complete a full day homeschool, I looked outside to such a beautiful sight that I just couldn't resist taking pictures.
Our Misty Morning
The only way to get these shots was to face directly at the sun, so the light kind of overwhelmed my camera a little. I played around with different settings to try to get the best shot.
The mist of course, is all the dampness evaporating in the warm morning sun.
Of course, I couldn't coop my kids up all morning either. So here is my son enjoying a misty morning bike ride. (PE)
This last shot was taken from about 500 50 yards away. It was a good test of how well the zoom lens can focus at that distance.
To any who saw the paragraph before, no I don't have a super camera that can shoot that clear at 500 yards! What I do have is a tendency to keep my fingers down on the keys too long!
A record of our homeschooling journey (and my random thoughts), as we look to the Lord to show us the Path Of Life. We are a homeschooling family with a strong leaning toward the Classical and Charlotte Mason styles, but since we blend the two philosophies, along with whatever other ideas we like, we classify our homeschool as eclectic.
Our School Mascot
As you can see, my kids adopted a school mascot, feel free to feed him an apple or brush him by clicking on the button that says "more".
Copyright
Unless otherwise noted, all writings and photos posted on this weblog are copyrighted in 2007-2008 by Thrice Blessed and/or Path of Life Christian Academy and can not be copied or used without permission. (Original comments posted by readers are not included in this copyright).
Click on the button below to find out about the greatest homeschool record keeping software on the market, and my personal favorite Homeschool help (other than scripture and prayer!).
I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THE PLUS VERSION! IT IS WORTH EVERY PENNY AND THEN SOME!
I am a nice blend of cat and dog.
I'm playful but not too needy. And I'm friendly but careful.
And while I have my moody moments, I'm too happy to stay upset for long.
Mr. Potato Head You have your ideal of how things should look, but youre flexible enough to allow for change. You are not bothered by changing methods, mid-course if necessary. You use an eclectic combination of curriculum sources. Visit my blog: http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.org Take this quiz!
so the experiment consists of boiling water and collecting the steam in the pan lid, then watching as it condenses and drips back down. I sure hope some parents will volunteer to help out so I don't have to worry about any kids getting burned! 
, and I have homeschool to do also 
, so I'd better sign off.
