We are in the midst of a tumultuous week with Vacation Bible School, a 5-year-old birthday on tomorrow, and dentist/doctor appointments.   I had spoken previously about our science projects taking off.   Well, with a VBS theme of Power Lab, we’ve been “bells of the ball” this week.   My husband’s made great geysers out of diet soda and Mentos candy, and the kids have come home each night pumped about the worship and whatever craft they completed.    They’ll take the show on the road in a couple of weeks, and by the time they get back, we’re within a week of the “official” start of school.   Did time fly by, or was it just me?   I don’t think I got half of the projects done that I set out to complete this summer.  Oh, well, they’re not going anywhere and neither are we.

I’ve started with the annual start of school fever.   I’m finished buying curriculum, minus a book or two.   Planning gives me the same energy that shopping gives some women.  Even the kids got excited this year about getting new planners.   I guess I can say that this was one idea for ordering our day that was tremendously successful.   As for my own planner, I definitely fell for packaging in buying my new Mom’s Plan It.   This planner has tear-out grocery lists, a huge plus for me.   However, as a scrapbooker at heart, I think what I really fell for was the opportunity to use these stickers:

As I got home and started to play with my new toy, I couldn’t help but look in more detail at the stickers, and about the larger implication of what is deemed important to today’s Mom:

Parties, birthday and otherwise (27 stickers)

Lunch dates (18 stickers)

Dinner dates (an additional 18 stickers)

Haircuts (18 stickers)

Games (school-related—18 stickers)

Phone calls (9 stickers)

Play dates (9 stickers)

Weekend getaways (9 stickers)

There were 54 total school-related, non-game stickers, including school events, class parties, no school and half-day stickers, open house and field trips.    However, I couldn’t help but think, what does this allocation say about the new millennium mom?  I don’t begrudge anybody a hair cut, but sadly, the message seems to be that a “busy mom” might be busy because she’s far more consumed with self interests/indulgences than with any higher callings of wife and motherhood.   This is echoed in current feminist agendas that look upon the stay-at-home mom with disdain.   I know personally I’d be a lot wealthier if I had a dollar each time someone looked at me and asked something along the lines of, “Do you work at all?”   Translation: Is staying at home with your kids all day all you do?   What’s even sadder to me is my own emotions as I answer the question.  As I continue to grow more comfortable in this relatively new skin, I find that I, somewhat proudly, respond with a detailed list regarding my work history and current income-bearing pursuits (I always state first that we homeschool—hooray for some level of redemption).   I am convinced that as a community of women, we’ve bought—hook, line, and sinker—into a lie that says that something is wrong with a woman whose primary goal in life is to minister to her family.   There is even a television show—the 1,000,000^th reality show—featuring stay-at-home moms who decide that they want to “see what they’ve missed out on” for a time.   I’ve never watched it; having worked “a real job” and then coming home to the “real-est” job I ever had, even the commercial preview bothered me.  I would love to ask them, what do you think you missed?   Your interests and passions being sucked right out of you with all kinds of organizational policies and politics that have nothing to do with why you’re there in the first place?  

Believe it or not, I didn’t mean to go there when I sat down to write this entry!   I’m preparing for a conference with the topic, “Are You Willing to be Peculiar?”, and I guess that this must be the abundance of my heart right now.   What I meant to say, and had to remind myself of after writing all of this, is that I’m thankful that most of these stickers will land in the notebook of a soon-to-be 5-year-old.   However, the stickers I used were the ones that are most important—to me and to God.   They deal with the uplift of family, of ministry to them and to others.   Every drop of water I pour, every nutritious meal I prepare, matters to Him.   May He bless my efforts to serve Him in my own small way.

Well, I must run.   There is a cake to buy, and the oldest wants to develop her beauty store with some purchases from a supply store—ah, the teenage years, but that’s a story for another post.   I’ve not checked in with my college kids yet, and we are only halfway through with VBS.   Like Dawn at 4sweetums says, we’re crazy busy, but all good!

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water
loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen;
   even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

                                                                                                                               —Leonardo DaVinci

Carol at Three Little Ladies asked me which one of the kids got to experience all of the “simple science” that I spoke of before, and my response would be that all three went somewhere and did some part of the three trips.    My husband took the youngest out to a nearby wildlife refuge to see alligators first-hand.   She survived the gators, but lost the battle of composure against the deer flies (as big as they were numerous).  

It’s amazingly hot so early in this Texas summer.   May was unseasonably cool, but as I write on today, June 8th, we hit 97 with little rain in sight.   Last summer it stayed so rainy in this area until I did not have to use the sprinkler once during the summer.    As I dragged out the hose already twice now, those days feel like a distant memory.   Even the frog in the picture waited until evening to seek out a cool place under the dwarf hollies.

The dance recital and its associated stresses ended on yesterday with a wonderful performance.    This has been such a special year for us, and if you’d like, you can read more about it here.   Through all of the trips here and there, the fees, the costume money, the last-minute stitching, etc., I had waited for the moment when I could say that this season was over.   Yet, I have to confess that I felt a bit melancholy yesterday afternoon while packing the car after the recital.

On last Monday, we joined one of the local homeschool networks on a tour of Leonardo DaVinci’s works at the natural science museum.    I was only familiar with DaVinci’s artwork, but my husband’s thinking was that DaVinci would have had as many as six professional jobs in this modern era—artist, scientist and inventor, military weapons expert, politician, sculptor and welder.    In marveling at this man’s incredible gifts, it also occurred to me what the mind is capable of when it doesn’t have to conform to conventional wisdom.   This man studied the wings of birds and bats to design fairly sophisticated machines hundreds of years before the Wright brothers put Kittyhawk on the map.     He learned to write Latin backwards in order to keep anyone from stealing his ideas.   His horse statue, his Mona Lisa, and his Last Supper remain timeless works of art.    Where might I have gone if Romans 12:1-2 had sunk deeply into my head and heart as young child?   Where could I go from here?   How far might our children advance if we nourish their God-given passions without trying to find out what page in the workbook this particular lesson fits?     What moments might I look back on and realize just how often I missed the spiritual and academic forests of learning for the [worksheet, page number] trees?

After a week like this, I’m glad we’re hitting the beach for a few days, and I am looking forward to relaxing for the first time in about 5-6 weeks.

yadot uoy ot sgnisselb detimilnu s’doG fo ynaM

(I won’t tell you how many minutes it took me to write that out, but I can safely say that DaVinci need not quake in his boots just yet!)

For several years now, I’ve worked with a local homeschool group to facilitate the Iowa Basic Skills Test, and it’s that time of year again.   So, for the past week, I’ve been seeing bubbles (as in penciled circles denoting right answers).   Though we don’t test as a normal part of school, our kids take this test every other year.   Personally, I don’t want a PSAT or SAT exam to be the first time that the kids sit down to a standardized test, and I use the tests for my own sake rather than using them to draw conclusions about the kids.   I can remember a couple of years ago when I realized, after viewing their test results, that our particular math curriculum didn’t stress measuring, and so we had a good time in the summer with the Keys book on measuring.   (I never realized that stop signs were so tall!)

My conclusion, based upon the parents I encounter each year, is that these tests become the parents’ tests, perhaps to a larger extent than the children’s.   At least that’s the attitude I pick up through smiles and pleasantries mixed in with fear and uncertainty.   These were my thoughts as I prayed, and my co-facilitator, obviously on the same page, uncharacteristically began to minister to the moms before we began testing.   With tears in her eyes, she spoke of how the most important thing was that our children love the Lord and allow Christ to shine through them.   My words before that—and it had never clicked in my mind this way before—were that tests, curriculum, and other items are tools to help us equip our kids for God’s kingdom.   Later, the co-facilitator fretted about crying in front of the kids, which, in her mind, only made them more nervous and scared.   I assured her that her words were very much in season and that what the children saw was her heart for them.   I think this is a word for all of us as we enter next year, and especially for those who might be getting started for the first time this year.   I’ll continue to reflect on this as a test for what to buy, if anything—is it helping me minister Jesus?

Monday and today were the only days of “real” school that we had, given the testing schedule.  As I realized that next Friday would have theoretically been our last day, I’m trying to figure out where 2-3 weeks went(?!?)   We will cease several subjects, and we’ve always continued math and reading through the summer, but history?  Science?   We’ll have to carry over a bit past where I wanted in order to be at a comfortable place for me.   We have a “normal” week next week, and following that is a holiday week, compounded with all the activities associated with the annual dance recital.   Following that, we’ll start our summer, which is increasingly looking like a lighter version of spring.  I think at this point I probably need to be on the listening end of some of those time management sermons I preach to my daughter.

  The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.

Mary McLeod Bethune

Be warned that this won’t be a how-to on Charlotte Mason’s approach to education.   There are plenty of websites and wonderful blogs that elaborate on her methods and practical application.   I am writing to remind myself of where we started in our journey, and to bless anyone who reads this at this time of year when so many are making decisions about homeschooling, curriculum choices and transitions, and how to facilitate learning in the home.  

Every now and then I’ll hear parents speak of how they are reading books to their children, almost as punishment.   “They’re on a restriction from television, and so we’re reading books to them.”    Though I know the intent is good, I find myself cringing at the thought—when did reading a book become something you do when you’re in trouble?   The conversation continues.   “I quiz them to make sure that they’ve been listening, and they actually enjoy the books.”   I’m thinking, are you surprised?

Because reading of good books—living books, to use the appropriate terminology—is so fundamental to everything else we do, I take it very much for granted.   What would our school day be without rich literature?   Sadly enough, it wasn’t always this way.  I remember how we started, and where we were when we embraced Charlotte Mason’s approach.

Planted seeds are amazing.   We had never heard of homeschooling, but while visiting friends with our oldest child, then a baby, our unwitting mentors shared with us their homeschooling journey with their own children.  For some strange reason, they also “loaned” us a couple of books, and we became, equally unwitting, fertile ground.   For various reasons, we've never seen them again.   Talk about people being in your life for a season and a reason.   Fastforwarding seven years, I remember us making the decision to homeschool, while I was still working and we hadn’t “formally” begun.   Back then, our daughter used a homeschool curriculum that is fairly common in Christian schools, and she had monumental success with it.   In fact, she was successful and bored.   After completing her work within 10-15 minutes, she’d leave the table and watch television for hours, if left unchecked.    As an aside, one of our biggest homeschooling challenges was, and sometimes is, getting her to press in when school isn’t easy.   Those early successes, I sometimes think, hurt perhaps more than they helped.    Anyway, in those years spent in traditional school, we read to our children typical preschool reading—Dr. Seuss, First Steps to Reading, etc.   Though fun to share, this time together was still lacking, although I didn’t think so then.  

A student by nature, I began to read more and more about homeschooling.   One of the books the couple shared with us was Sally Clarkson’s Educating the Whole Hearted Child.   I would return to this resource many times, but after turning only a few pages, I began to grasp the idea of a living book.   One day I had the children turn off the TV and come and read with me.   They were accustomed to reading their favorite “twaddle;”  I, on the other hand, was a bit nervous because this time I pulled out one of my childhood favorites, Little House in the Big Woods, a bit thicker than they were accustomed to sitting still for.  I didn’t read this series myself until I was in 3^rd grade.  As I read, I noticed them sitting still, being introduced to Laura as a new friend, and listening intently.    When I stopped that day, and over the next several days, they would ask for more.   This was what I thought school should be—not boring worksheets, not forced time at the table or anywhere else, but excitement, anticipation, and curiosity.   I also remember one of our son’s first narrations as he told his dad about the bugs that came through Laura’s house and ‘ate every green thing.’  Less than five years old, he was quoting the book exactly on this part.   I became an instant believer in Miss Mason’s educational approach.

Fastforwarding a few more years, the one constant amidst whatever changes we make is great literature.   Our kids haven’t memorized every important date in history, nor can they quote phonics rules.   They are learning how to learn, a lost art in today’s educational process.   The kids love to read, and instinctively take books with them everywhere.   Their thoughts and conversations are full of those things that are noble, trustworthy and of good report, in large part because of the ideas that come from living books.   I also love hearing them recall stories and lessons learned from books they’ve read years ago—another mark of quality literature.   I have more on living books in this post, also listed as a favorite, in response to an African-American mom’s questioning whether a Charlotte Mason education was appropriate for African-American children.

We are still challenged with some of Miss Mason’s ideas.  We don’t get outside as often as she prescribes, and we certainly don’t stay outside as long as she prescribes; laying the same groundwork of a 19^th century countryside mentality is not without its challenges living in a 21^st century metropolitan area.   Our art studies could stand more focused effort.   There are still places where we use curriculum that are in disagreement with her teachings.   Our masterly inactivity is sometimes not so masterly and too inactive (translation: we could all stand more discipline from the television).   Yet overall, my task is much simpler having gone this route.   There isn’t as much curriculum to buy, and I can free myself from the teacher’s guides and limitations of the traditional school environment that I know from my own educational experience.  My primary job, with the good Lord’s help, is to shape the environment such that the kids’ minds can feast on ideas.    From where I sit, this is learning.   It’s not always fun and games, but it sticks.  Ideas are chewed upon, digested, and revisited years later.   Those things that are noble, trustworthy and of good report are the outpouring their hearts and minds, and I couldn’t ask for more.

Apologia Science—Zoology II (Swimming Creatures)

Making Math Meaningful—Pre-Algebra

Bob Jones Kindergarten Phonics

A Reason for Handwriting

Introduction to Logic How to Read a Book (updated 4/22/08)

Mind Benders Critical Thinking Puzzles

On the list to buy (although I’ve not purchased these yet):
Apologia Physical Science (w/ the DVD which Karen at shawtime convinced me to buy)

Vocabulary from Classical Roots

We will again use Rod and Staff with the older two for Grammar.   I like  English for the Thoughtful Child for younger children, which is more aligned with Charlotte Mason’s principles.   I think, though, that perhaps I’ve seen too many of my college students’ papers, and I’ve seen too many problems with basic grammar.   Hence, once our kids hit 3^rd grade, I am a diehard fan of a diagramming-heavy grammar study with opportunities for written narration weaved throughout the learning.

We will use the second half of my own curriculum in History.   In the last few weeks, I’ve talked to both kids about where I see their history studies going after next year.   I was so blessed and pleased when they both decided to keep notebooking in the same way that they’re covering American History now.   Our son even began shopping for his pages!   It may cost me a few dollars that I didn’t have to spend, but it’s worth it to me to see them taking ownership of their learning.  

The books really are the backdrop for what I truly want to do this year.   We will add apologetics as a part of our reading plan for the oldest, and I’m excited about the opportunity to interact (and learn) with her over questions about our faith.   We will also work on outlining, test taking skills, and research skills.   The youngest can now read one-vowel words.   We’ll continue to build her phonics awareness and hopefully establish a rock-solid foundation for a love of reading.    Our son has his hands full, too, but I will focus on these pivotal points with the girls.

What I didn’t list were the books we’ll buy and/or borrow—lots and lots of great books.   A girlfriend of mine wrote me the other day looking for more good books for her African-American son.   She said that her son was using our Developing Christian Character series (see here) and devouring The Journal of Joshua Loper.   She was right; it is ridiculously hard to find quality resources, particularly with black boys in mind.   I can remember years ago subscribing to an Essence magazine (Essence caters to black women) reading club for children.   The first couple of books I received were wonderful picture books and Afrocentric retellings of classic tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.   Then I got two books from noted authors—rapper-turned-actor Will Smith and pro basketball star Shaquille O’Neal.   This is a sad statement about 1) American obsession with celebrities that propels them from whatever they were doing before stardom to points of influence in any arena, and 2) what some view as quality literature for children.   Incidentally, building upon my first point, the Scholastic warehouse in our area holds half-price sales twice per year.   I was so very disappointed when, as a free gift for my purchases, the sales rep gave me a copy of pop star Madonna’s children’s book.   What’s sadder is that the rep was so proud of the fact that they were sharing the books with all the public school systems because of the valuable lessons it could teach children.   Maybe I’m the crazy one, but I thanked him and told him to hang on to the book.

I know from visits about that some of you are listing your curriculum finds as well and giving me great ideas and thoughts for the future.   I look forward to seeing your choices as well.