I will hopefully post my weekly wrap-up on tomorrow, but in the meantime, I wanted to share the amazing trip we had to Fossil Rim in Glen Rose, Texas.   For a little over $50 for the five of us (including a bag of animal food), this was the closest to Africa we might ever get, and it was a memory for a lifetime.    Keep in mind as you view the pictures that these were taken with our daughter's digital camera, with limited zoom abilities.   In short, you're looking at the animals as we saw them--next to the car and dangerously in our faces.   In several pics, you see the rain on the car windows as a couple of these animals got a little too close for me.    By the way, can you tell how excited we were to feed giraffes? 

I am so late in posting this, but I've been admittedly preoccupied with starting school tomorrow.   I'd been so busy detailing every ounce of the now high schooler's curriculum and plans until I had an eye-opening experience today sitting with my son.   As we began to talk through his planner and plans/ goals for this year, a couple of things occurred to me.   First, he needed the level of detail that I had poured into the high schooler's work, and I'd failed to give it to him.   Even when I looked at the daily schedule I posted in the sidebard, I realized that I'd completely left out his history.   The other revelation was a bit more startling: he doesn't have enough to do.   Don't get me wrong; he has quite a load, and I don't want his day jam-packed with school, but I know that he'll dance around the house and distract the oldest unless I can keep him busy to a certain extent.   Leaving him to "masterly inactivity" doesn't always result in projects that don't detract from someone else's time and personal space.   UUUGGGGHHHHH!   Well, we're starting, ready or not, and that includes Mom.

The Not-Back-to-School Blog Hop (see here) featured classrooms this week.    As I said, the day to post was yesterday, so I'm late, but I thought pictures of our school would be a fun post and a keepsake for me personally.   So, here goes.   I listed the word "schools" in the title as a plural deliberately because the kids have literally split themselves into two areas of the house.

Elementary School

A bit of background about the house is necessary to really appreciate our school environment.   We bought it pre-homeschooling, and so, in my opinion, it is not homeschool-friendly.   Yet, it had the one thing I wanted after leaving a home with two small children and one living room/ family room combo: space.   God blessed us with a humongous kitchen.   This is our dining area within the kitchen, and it's where our 6-year-old completes her school work.   There are plastic bins against the walls where we've not bought the cabinets that will prayerfully one day grace this area.   Our maps are mingled in with the room decor as I strive to balance function and fashion.    I wrote some time ago about this room pre-paint.   It was new house white, and over the years it drained me to sit in it.   Now, with a fresh coat of paint, it's a welcome spot for me to move about in, and it's the room where I spend the most time.   So I selfishly work to keep it pretty as well as functional.   

So, as I said, if we'd bought the home after we began homeschooling, we'd probably have looked for something different.   But, there are some purchases that made the transition easier.    One was this neat table with built-in storage.    I get a kick out of opening this when people come and ask us about homeschool.   They're always amazed at how many resources we have stored away. 

Another treasure for us has been a slow, but steady establishment of learning corners.   In this same kitchen is our early learning center, which is obviously evolving as our "early learner" evolves.   What you can't see in the pictures is a Dora kitchen center that is in this same area, our remnants from the science kits that we've purchased over the years, and this little crate, full of puzzles, books, and blocks.   When the youngest was smaller, these helped keep her occupied while the older two worked at this same table.   Now, the crate is an occasional, purposeful trip away from books and more formal academic learning. 

Middle and High School 

Our older two decided a couple of years ago that they enjoyed school in the dining room better, I think in large part because the chairs were more comfortable than the wooden chairs in the kitchen.    The only problem is that this is the first area people see when they walk into the home, and it never looks this good.   Normally, there is some combination of work everywhere waiting to be corrected, books that are opened, and/ or crumbs from the latest snack.   I feel bad when the little bit of unexpected company we might get makes a comment like, "Oh, it's great to meet somebody that keeps a home like I do."   They're not talking as if they want to eat off the floors.    Oh, well.   It's one of a number of sacrifices in order to give the kids an unbelievable educational experience; I'm okay with being perceived by relative strangers as one who can't keep a house.

 Below is the view from the other end of the table.   If you notice above, the Peterson's Field Guide sits on the table closest to the window.   Though it's hard to see past the solar screens, outside the window is a bird feeder.   One of our greatest joys has been to try and identify the birds that come our way.   Though 75% of our visitors are some form of sparrow, every now and then we get a rare visitor, and I never mind stopping to find out who he might be.

Off to the right is the desktop computer and a stereo that is the foundation of a budding music center.   I love to play "urban gospel," whatever that is, in the morning as the kids are preparing to come downstairs, and then classical during composer study.     The oldest doesn't like music while she's working, so I have to become creative in what I play, when I play it, and for how long.

Well, this is where we change history.   I hope others will share their homeschool environment.    I may not link into the Hop; last week,  over 100+ people posted a link, and it quickly got overwhelming for me.   At any rate, I know the next few days will fly by, and I wanted to get this posted on tonight before bed.   Too much later and I will have successfully jeapordized my ability to get up fresh and ready to meet the day.   Goodnight, and God bless. 

Recently, a follower of mine “tweeted” (twittered? Twitted?) a link to a homeschool conference video.   The particular topic of the video was, “What did Your Kids Teach You this Past Homeschool Year?”   As humbling a thought as this is for many of us who pour hours (not to mention dollars!) into curriculum and who sweat over flawless execution of our plans, it is very real.   I should correct myself: it is very real if we are willing to step out of self and embrace the fact that we are not the only vessel through which education can flow.   So, I thought about my own year, and what my children taught me.   At first, the answers were superficial, and I almost felt silly.  Yet, a spirit willing to learn something new led me to delve deeper, and I was left with such a spine-chilling sense of purpose until I thought it might bless you, too.   This is what my kids taught me on last year, and each year, for that matter:

Patience is not just a virtue; it is life and breath to your home environment.    Whether you are entering year 1 of your homeschooling journey or year 101, it is your journey.   Though some will take it as their personal responsibility to tell you what you should do, where you should be, and how you should have gotten there, what will be most important is to create an environment where your children can learn.   Set goals, even stretch goals, but be open to your children’s needs, their challenges, and the way that they learn best.   You will gain far more this way than by following a strict list of have-to’s.

Field trips in-the-moment can be very effective, but on a budget, a living book will free both the body and the mind.    Not too long ago, our own trial with temporary unemployment during this recession left me somewhat depressed about all of the trips and tours we did not take this year.   As an aside, our area offers a number of free/ low-cost trips and tours, but I prefer an in-the-moment excursion that enhances our current studies to a field trip just for the sake of a field trip.   This means that our field trips often take us away from our immediate area and require planning and budgeting.   We were not able to do that this past year—a real source of frustration and anguish for the way that I like to educate.   Yet, one of my favorite bloggers described best what can happen when we experience learning through quality literature (if you read the blog regularly, you’ll recognize this from my sharing it before in a previous post):

‘Music, art, animals, nature, politics, literature, poetry, equations, Rome, Iceland, Ireland, the moors, the sea, metropolises, machinery, the universe, the past, the poor, royalty, Heaven and earth...you name it, they have dipped their hands in the chest and pulled out something of value as they have explored truth and beauty in the world around them.’

                From LindaFay’s HigherUp and Further In, “Ask and it Shall be Given You,” May 25, 2009

Taming the tongue is harder than taming a lion.   This applies not only to how we speak to our children, but also to the negative self-talk we fall prey to when things are not going well.    Once those plans go awry, it becomes easy to embrace what others might have said in a moment of sheer brainlessness:

“Maybe you aren’t cut out for this.”

“I’ll never be able to…” (or worse, thought about our children:) “You’ll never be able to…”

Come against the attack of the enemy, confess what the Lord says about you and your children, and step out on His renewed grace and mercy.

It may be the song of an unfamiliar bird, not the travels of Odysseus, that inspires a child to explore and discover.   The end result is the same.   I love to plan.  I get excited about planning the way that some women get excited at a shopping mall or a lady’s night out.   But, I realize—though it took some time—that plans can sometimes get in the way of what I really want the homeschool experience to produce in our children: a natural yearning to know more, to grow more, and to be more.   When the kids run to the field guide to identify a stranger at our feeder, or launch into a discussion about some historical event or character (when I want them to do something else), this, too, is learning.    Just because it was not written on my outline does not belittle the value of a purposeful diversion or its power to catapult their interests and overall education.

When you cannot feel God’s hand in your plans, trust His heart.   Jeremiah conveyed it to us so very well, and my words will never be as eloquent as the Word of God:

For I know the plans that I have for you.   Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.    Jeremiah 29:11

May God bless you and quicken your spirits to the lessons He wants you to teach, as well as the lesson he wants your young ones to teach you.

 I read recently that people visit, and then revisit, blogs that give them a warm, relaxed feeling as they navigate through the site.   This sedated feeling includes a lack of busy, bright colors.    I'm seriously considering relocating my blog to another host for several reasons, mostly business-oriented, but I like HSB and the fact that you have to go a bit out of the way to find us.   In a very public Internet, it feels quite private.   We'll see.   In the meantime, I dumped Picasso for the more calming and monochromatic background.    How effective this will be is a story for another time.

Since the kids worked so hard to get their history pages completed, I thought I'd share a few final excerpts from their work.   Here are a couple of pages from my son's self-created book: 

'As a boy, Lincoln lived with his brother.   Not being in school for a year, his classmates encouraged him to run for Senator.   He was very smart, strong and honest.  Once in his store, he realized he overcharged a lady.   Abe walked 6 miles to pay her a few cents.   He decided to run for Senate.   Abe lost to Stephen A. Douglass, because not many people knew him.   We he ran for president Abe won against the same competitor.'

This is his illustration of Adolf Hitler.   (The five-year-old noted that "it doesn't look much like him."   I have to wonder who she thinks Hitler is and what she thinks he should look like).    Anyway, our son's words are:

'After World War I, Germany had many problems.   Adolf Hitler became chacellor because he made many promises to help Germany.   Really he only made it worse.   Many other countries had evil dictators like him.   Hitler hated Jews, people that were crippled and people rebelled against him.'

Below are the oldest's pictures.   The first is her rendition of a series based upon Jacob Lawrence's creation of visual narrative in the 1920's.   Her theme was "Lights."

 Finally, she crafted this poem following our visit to Vicksburg, MS and the Vicksburg National Cemetery.

Typical of my oldest, this took forever, but the results, I thought, were almost worth the frustration:

'Oh, that battle, it was hard and long

Especially for the Confederates, who sung a sad song.

All they tried to do was follow a command

But the Yankees kept blocking them, by sea and land.

The Confederates' zigzags just didn't work out

For the Yankees were ready for them, without a doubt.

The Yankees wanted victory, but also "the key"

Which was the Mississippi River, their major need.

At a time, the sides fought, 'til the ammunition was no more

And it was easy to see that death the battle had bore.' 

On next year, we'll continue to notebook--well, sort of.    I love the way notebooking enhances learning.   In order to be effective, the mind must process what's occurred and then translate it into something understandable, something wonderful.    Even with my "big kids," I love to have them write during class, and find it sad that the university forces me to teach from a presentation.    Watching a screen engages the mind in a very different way than writing.   

 I wanted to share a couple of great articles on making, or re-making, books as a tool for learning.  Amy Bayliss shared an idea that I'd never heard of (nor would my creatively-challenged brain have thought up) regarding turning a used book into a personal keepsake.    You might see more here.    There are other thoughts on book altering here.   For our purposes, I found a commonplace book concept (see here) which will free the kids from strictly writing their work and give them plenty of time and space to create.    This is not to devalue the writing process in any way; I know that, particularly as kids age, the ability to articulate a clear argument in both oral and written forms is increasingly critical.   The commonplace book, from where I sit, is the next step in them owning their own learning.    I looked up a couple of pre-crafted books via Homeschool in the Woods and Learning through History--so expensive!   So, we might see where we land with homemade books, much as we've done for the past two years.

I've finally reached a point of outlining the kids' day-to-day schedules.   As I posted earlier via Twitter, I am so glad that the Lord gives strategy, clarity, and peace as we submit our plans over to Him. 

Don't you just love that first-thing-in-the-mid-morning  inspiration?   Linda Fay posted a link to another blogger's entry on how Charlotte Mason's approaches connect our children to what is God's purpose for them while here on Earth.   Here is just a taste:

I believe Charlotte’s ideas and methods resonate deep within us on a core level. We do this because we want our children to live beautiful lives Coram Deo meaning before the face of God. No matter what their circumstances are in any given moment. We want them to live the truth in such a way that commends the law of God and commends true righteousness to all people (Jerram Barrs, Lecture 8, p. 3). We yearn for them to live a genuine life of beauty so that all who see it will give glory to God...We want our children to effectively demonstrate and communicate Christ’s lasting, eternal beauty to a lost and dying world–perhaps without saying a word...  

The rest of the article is here.   God bless you today.