With almost half a school year behind us, it’s not too early for me to begin assessing where we are, and where we might go next year.   I’ll have another year with a high schooler, a middle schooler, and an elementary school student, so I don’t see much changing in terms of my own time commitments.   We’ve had perhaps one of our best years since we began homeschooling seven years ago, and I know this has everything to do with me being humbled enough by last year’s dreadful results to submit myself to much prayer time with the Father.    He’s answered almost all of our plans with a resounding YES!—history/literature, as we teach it here, is seemingly leaping off the page (in spite of the fact that Mom’s ready to check the Iliad off our reading list—only 300 more pages to go!!  LOL), everybody is using the math resources effectively, and we’re in that sweet spot where everyone is learning from everyone else and everything.   As one example, our son has hit a point in his land animal studies that he’s supposedly focusing on spiders.   I say “supposedly” because spiders repulse him.   So I struggle getting him to look at the pages and grasp the concepts.   Almost as if God-sent, his little sister is reading Charlotte’s Web, so guess where he’s learning about the strength of drag lines, the process of egg sac production, etc.?   The coordination of these units was not my planning at all, but everyone is benefiting from keeping their ears glued to what’s happening around them.   Even the oldest is a step ahead in biology as she covers reptiles after interacting—from a safe distance—with Spot, our leopard gecko.

I’ve not been one to try and fix what’s not broken, so we’ll continue the same path on next year, for the most part.   I’ll add grammar via English for the Thoughtful Child, to the youngest’s plate.  I wanted to begin this year, but didn’t feel that she was ready for a larger amount of lessons than I remember requiring her to write.   I may place our son on a local homeschool debate group to help him use his propensity to argue effectively.     Because my understanding is that debate requires a lot of research and writing, it would probably replace studying history.   I’m still thinking about reading lists for both he and the oldest, which is, in part, food for thought regarding my current dilemma.

I am convinced that as homeschooling parents, we teach according to who we are.   Our passions become the areas that we teach best, and the place where we bring the most to the classroom experience.   The corollary is that there are other areas that we either don’t like or don’t understand (like poetry for me) that become hits and misses—perhaps less hits and more misses—in our school.  Incidentally, I think that traditional school teachers do the same thing, but at older ages, they don’t cover the full gamut of subjects the way that many of us do, so the results might not be as recognizable.   Because of this factor, we have to stay before the Lord regarding agenda.   What do I mean by agenda?    I mean those plans that have more to do with you, or other factors not germane to academic wisdom.    One example might be when you’re determined to prove to the in-laws that homeschooling is a valid alternative to a traditional school, and so you overwhelm a small one to create a “genius” who can parrot information, but has limited knowledge and understanding.     It might not be where you are, but I have had two years—this year and last year—of revelations.   This is after a whole-hearted desire to subjugate academic wisdom to spiritual wisdom.   How humble do I need to be, Lord?    I could detail all the places where my own borderline obsession with producing intellectuals got in the way, as well as all the consequential moments that I could have spent gingerly teaching and encouraging instead of panicking and frowning.   But I won’t.   I’ll speak instead about where we are now.   In the midst of a great year, as I mentioned before, is a high school science class that I don’t think is working.    I mentioned that she didn’t perform well on the first test.    The second was better, and her score was actually above the class average.   Her third test is this week, and she claims to be ready for it. But for a number of reasons that aren’t entirely her fault, this class has become her life.   The pursuit of a good grade means that she is having to study every day for several hours a day and doesn’t get to do hardly anything else.    That was not the plan.    I placed her in a virtual class in part to nurture a budding interest in a science career, and the amount of material thrown at her each week has all but squelched any affection for this subject area.   As I contemplated options over this past week, I had to come face-to-face, yet again, with agenda.    In the midst of our horrendous year last year, I bought into this class in order to give the oldest a peek into how a teacher would treat her that didn’t love her enough to put up with all the crap I did.   I thought it’d be one less thing on my plate.    Instead, I’m having to spend as much time with her on this, if not more, than I did before, and now we’re both dancing to the beat of someone else’s drum.   Spanking received, Lord.   I’ve considered just cutting our losses and going back to our Apologia studies, and I’ve still not shut the door totally on that option.   Yet, my husband, yin to my yang, verbalized the same concern regarding wasting money, which, with the year we’ve had, is almost unthinkable.    I’m more concerned at this point about what messages we’d teach regarding quitting every time something isn’t as we desire.   I’m also sorting through whether there’s another issue with me and agenda:  Do I struggle with releasing some control?   The high school years, at least if your kid plans to leave home, require that you begin to let go.   Am I ready for that?   I talked ad nauseum to her on last year about the calendar spinning on how many days she’d be “safe at home with Mommy” (inclusive of being able to push Mommy’s buttons, knowing just how much or how little to accomplish for Mommy not to fuss).   Maybe she’s not the only one who’s struggling with someone else in the driver’s seat?     Anyway, as I said, the reason this class has had mixed results as far as I’m concerned are multi-faceted.    So as I wait on answers that are beyond yes or no—answers that reveal God’s greater truths and more perfect plans for all of us—I am meditating on these words:

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;

be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek [4] my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.” [5]
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path…

13 I believe [6] that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol at ThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.  

From where I sat this past week,

As an individual, I…

would be able to better describe where my head’s been by writing about what’s happening in the other areas of life.   I am stuck on the 27^th Psalm; more on that later.

As a wife and homemaker, I…

am thinking about ways to stay mindful, at a “grass roots” level, so to speak, of who I am, what I’m about, and what this family should be.  Like everyone else, our lives get so hectic, and amidst all the busy-ness, it gets hard to stay focused on the basics.   I was so inspired by Keri Mae and her blog post regarding scripture wall words until I spent Saturday morning “decorating” the walls with God’s Word.   Keri writes so beautifully about the loves of her life until I continue to try and give her a bigger audience that she doesn’t want.     At any rate, now I’m embarrassed that I actually didn’t think of this on my own for all my enjoyment of interior decorating.    Then again, I don’t guess that you see these ideas much from my HGTV-watching days.    That’s a whole different post on what we find our minds.    In the meantime, I’m always one to say that the Word works if you work it, and so I’m putting it to work.  I’ll post pictures later of my initial efforts.

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

am feeling my hand to the plow lighten as we grow nearer our Christmas break.  The weather is just cool enough in the mornings to warrant a little extra snuggle time.   This has actually worked well for me as I am now up before the kids, with my internal clock still set to daylight savings time.   That will change I’m sure, but I hope to ride this wave right into December.

Our youngest is an amazing study in child development.   We wrapped up Leading Little Ones to God, and with the oldest reading so well, I thought she was ready for her own “real” Bible and a seat at the table with the big kids.   So armed with her own God’s Word for Girls (in pink, of course), she now joins the table.   Fro where I sit, we’ve gotten mixed results.   On one hand, she’s very proud of sitting among them, reading with little assistance, and using her own Bible.    On the other hand, even she admits that she’s not understanding as well, and she hasn’t yet learned to remain at the table and mentally engaged while the others are reading and sharing.   So, we’re having to train as we go, and I think the quality of our overall lessons is suffering.   Perhaps other lessons are more important right now, like having patience with someone who’s not where you are.   It’s in God’s hands, and we’ll wait on Him before I change anything.

Another thing the youngest does is to emulate her older sister in a quiet activity during read-alouds.    Though I struggled with this in the beginning, the oldest often whips out her sketchbook and creates new designs while I’m reading.   She says it helps her concentrate, and though I’d prefer that her eyes are on me, I have to admit that her narrations haven’t slipped one bit.   So now, we see that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.    The youngest gets her paper and is scratching out her designs as well.

I so appreciate friends with teenage girls.  Though I know that any parent of a teen in general needs a special grace, I also think that, because moms have been there and have such a passion to see our girls not make the mistakes we made, every ounce of passion and energy we have tends to be spent on them, and sometimes with no appreciation or thankfulness. Earlier this past week, I was able to pull such a mother’s ear and heart about how to have the tougher conversations with the oldest that even we as adults don’t always look forward to.   How do you give “constructive feedback,” as the corporate world calls it, to someone who’s still trying to figure out who they are?   How do you speak honestly to your teen’s skills (or lack thereof), and work ethic without crushing their spirits and dreams?   So after the reassurance from another mom that I was not going crazy (thanks, Marci!), I waited for the right moment.   It’s amazing how a less-than-positive word said at the right moment can have a totally different impact than when it’s said in frustration at an inopportune time.   I think that’s why the Lord calls it a word in season.

As a business owner, I…

am working on the elementary series and struggling with finding kids’ versions of certain stories.   UGH!   I’ll get there.   In the meantime, the revised version is coming together.   I’m also in prayer about making this easier for some.   The curriculum itself is priced lower than comparable works, in part so that parents can buy the books and enjoy the story with their children.  I also select books that can easily be found through a public library or, at most, via a used online book store.    I feel bad when parents write me and say that they liked the curriculum but didn’t get to use it because they couldn’t afford any books.    Yet, I know the reality of homeschooling is that people buy things all the time that, for one reason or another, don’t work for them.   There is a value to what I’ve done; it relieves the problem that most of us have when we try to find history that is told from something other than a Western European perspective--the stories aren’t all in one place.   I have no plans to give away my intellectual property.   Yet, how to get it into more people’s hands without compromising such that I’m losing money is an issue that continues to evade me.

  May the Lord bless your week as well.

If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol at ThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.  

From where I sat this past week,

As an individual, I…

am intrigued, for lack of a better word, at how various communities use social media networks.   Five years ago, I didn’t know anyone who blogged, or who used Facebook or Linked In or Twitter, etc.    Now, from my reading for my “big kid” classes, I’m learning that employers will actually Google potential employee candidates to get a better look and feel for who they are.  This means that any blog, “tweet,” or Facebook/ MySpace/ LinkedIn, etc. post that someone deems inappropriate, for any reason, might cost you a job.   On one hand, I can appreciate that managers might want to know who is coming into the organization.  On the other hand, is this fair, or is it intrusive?    Does this practice cut into a person’s right to his/her individuality, and the right to be a person with a life away from the job?   Who else is qualified to decide for me what my sense of humor can be, or what is acceptable content?  Such was my thinking on this past Sunday when our Children’s Director talked in a meeting about the need for each of us to be consistent no matter where we are.   Though not particularly computer savvy, she used her granddaughter’s skills to find another church worker on My Space who had something deemed as inappropriate on her “space.”    A part of me is thinking that this is a good thing; unless you live as a “double-minded” man, why would you be concerned that someone else might see the content of your site, wherever it may be?   Yet, another part of me is feeling rebellious, daring anyone to challenge me about what I choose to write or not write.     I think that what truly incensed me is that, right after she gave her presentation, our co-teacher stood up, giving her credentials (again) and talking about how to get kids excited about coming to class.   The fruit of all this wisdom, thus far, has been that she takes copious notes the whole time that we’re teaching, and then uses them to basically re-teach our lessons, via a review, during her Sundays to work with the kids.   I’d be fine with this—imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t it?--if she hadn’t had the nerve to constructively criticize what we do (or don’t do, as was the case) and if she didn’t keep throwing her educational credentials around.   Of course, she’s endorsed by the Director, and, I’m guessing from her age, she doesn’t use the social media networks, so she’s safe, right?    Then I laughingly told my husband that one or both of them probably read the blog.   He thought it’s probably a remote possibility, but it wouldn’t be a concern either way for me.  I’ve written nothing that I wouldn’t say in a face-to-face environment, given the chance.   That was a problem for me in the corporate world--I never wore my feelings on my sleeves; I aired them right out of my mouth! (LOL)    When a cooler head prevails, I can appreciate what is happening.   In truth, God has a standard, and wrong is wrong, whether it’s an electronic mishap or a failure to practice as you preach, but the double standard just feels wrong.  For as many doors as technology opens, one of the keys must be to Pandora’s mythological box.   Much prayer and fasting needed.

One workout while on vacation.   So sad, is it not?  I’ve continued to maintain my weight through pushing away from the proverbial table.

As a wife and homemaker, I…

am in the process of writing an article/ blog entry, wherever the Lord sees fit to place it, on what winning looks like.   We have discussed, during most of our vacation, why the Lord allows events to occur in our lives for what seems to be no apparent reason.  When I say “no apparent reason,” I don’t mean that things turn out badly; I mean that you move through something only to be right where you began, with nothing positive or negative to show for it.   Of course, we know Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:9-11, but what happens when you can’t see the good?   What happens when the plans don’t harm you, but don’t seem to help, either?   I’m sure this all reads like muddle now, but as I’m said, the words are coming…

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

took a very restful week off from all my homeschooling responsibilities and allowed us all to simply have fun.   I learned quickly that our kids are entirely too plugged in, especially our son.   Yet, as the slideshow below depicts, we did get some outdoor time, and it was tremendous fun for all of us.  

I’ve gotten a few questions about Glen Rose.   This region of Texas is known largely for dinosaur tracks and fossils, and the town has a number of hotels, non-chain restaurants, etc.   If you’re like our family and, for various reasons, feel more comfortable in a bigger city with more options, Fort Worth is just shy of an hour away.   As I said, for the money, this was perhaps one of the most unique trips the family has ever made.   My only disappointment was that we didn’t actually get to see any tracks at the Dinosaur Valley State Park (day two of the trip).   The Paluxy River, normally at a height of 1 foot in the area where the tracks run alongside it, was a staggering 10 feet high after steady rains that fell on the night before.   So, we’re already thinking about how we could schedule ourselves in Dallas/ Ft. Worth for early summer (the best time to see the tracks, according to the park guide) and take a side trip back to this area.  

The things we as parents do for our kids, especially as the heads of these homes/ learning environments, never cease to amaze me.   Guess what our son got excited about after we finished our science unit on reptiles?

We welcome “Spot,” our new leopard gecko.   I keep looking at his tank and shaking my head.   I’m sure that my parents are doing the same from an overlook in heaven.  I guess that, for the money we spent, I keep thinking that if I stand there long enough, he’ll come out from under that fake log and sell me some insurance.   As if this weren’t enough, our son, who traded in any potential bug/ spider affections for ballet slippers, actually handles the mealworms—mealworms that must be refrigerated, mind you (yes, you know where!)—with his bare hands.   The world has gone mad.

As a business owner, I…

am excited that the elementary school series (so far) hasn’t needed as much correction as I anticipated, and I can truly focus on enhancements.   One bit of constructive feedback I received was that the curriculum does not have as many kinesthetic activities for young hands, so I am looking forward to adding in more hands-on learning opportunities.   See?   I can take constructive criticism!  

I also have an opportunity to perhaps cross promote with another business that promotes history products, and I’ll submit the Harlem Renaissance unit study (see here) for review to the Old Schoolhouse Magazine later this week.

  May the Lord bless your week as well.

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? 

If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol at ThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.  

 From where I sat this past week,

As an individual, I…

am feeling good about this week after coming to a grueling slow down on last week.   We are, as of this morning, on fall break.   My primary agenda item today?   To sleep a bit later.   By Thursday, the kids were barely speaking to one another—a rarity in our home, but a true indication of how much we all needed a break—and I’m resisting the urge to make the kids reading during our time off.   I realize that I probably need the break as much, if not more, than they do.   I don’t want another item to do amidst my own plans, which include reading and—dare I think it(?)—scrapbooking, after a two-year absence.   We leave on tomorrow for a brief vacation, and I’m determined to enjoy some time to myself, even though I still have my adult classes.  

Still no workouts, but a very active day in the garden preparing for fall, with more planned for today.   I don’t care what anyone says, gardening is a strength workout unlike no other.   I didn’t get out at all during the summer—it was too hot and mosquitoes seemed to be thicker than usual.    One of our neighbors, a pastor, always laughs at us for having any landscaping in the first place.   His comment is that he ‘lets the Lord cut his yard in the winter and grow it in the summer.’   Of course, I see his yard and think the Lord’s looking for some shoe leather to show who He is.   Okay, that was mean, but I am sure others must have thought the same of us this year.   Thankfully, we’ve finally gotten the mulch high enough such that weeds are not a major problem, but the ginger plants I put down in the front needed more shade than they get in our yard, and so there was much dead undergrowth to clear out.   All the dwarf holly bushes needed trimming to be the same size, and one had to be relocated after a juniper tree grew over and into it.   Two of our three lantana bushes never returned to their former glory after last winter, and the superhero helped me pull these out of the ground, inclusive of the roots that grew an amazing four feet long—who knew?   I’ve not done anything to the back yet.   If the Lord says the same, this weekend we’ll put down mulch for the winter (such that it is here) and fertilize the trees for the fall/winter season.   Maybe then I’ll get the back weeded.   In short, can you say, “Whew?!”

As a wife and homemaker, I…

am increasingly aware of how much marriage requires that you die to self.   I have had the opportunity to minister to a couple of Christian women whose marriages are younger than ours, and the common element has been consistently an unwillingness to prefer others over ourselves.   This has to be one of the harder lessons of Christ, and we are sometimes even encouraged in churches that the Christian life is about us—a better life, a sweeter life, a happier life.  While that is, in part, true, I am convinced that we miss out on one of the fundamentals of the Christian life: giving sacrificially.   The Lord gave His only son.    The Word implores us to give.   Even Job saw his life turnaround at the point that he put his friends’ needs before his own—friends who, by the way, had talked about him like a dog in the midst of his valley experience.   Enough on that sermon; send your love offering to Paypal (smile).

I am back at the sewing table.   Our son’s legs have outgrown his old bathrobe, and apparently, according to retail stores, boys over a size 10 must have little or no need for robes or pajamas, for that matter.   Everyone has picked up that pattern shopping is a quicker to increase the wardrobe, so the oldest jumped in on the deal with a request for shirts, and the youngest looked at robes for herself, too.  Hopefully I can finish the son’s robe before mid-November.  I penned a second Hawaiian shirt for him (the first was too small before he even got to wear it), but never cut or stitched it, and now the season is coming to an end.   Plus, the shirt was a nice-to-have; the robe is a necessity.

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

am getting more and more in touch with my “story voice.”   I knew, somewhat instinctively, that stories come alive with different voices, instilling of personality, and even animation (though I’m not that great at it) when reading stories, especially to smaller children.   Seven years into homeschooling, it’s finally clicking that my ability to incorporate my story voice increases retention for both the young and the…Linda Fay speaks more about the power of our voices here. 

Anyway, when I’m preoccupied with the day’s responsibilities, I find myself rushing through the reading, and this year, I’m doing a lot of it!   I didn’t realize it until the youngest and I had a conversation after she didn’t do so well with a narration.   She stated, with all the sincerity of a small child who’s sad that she didn’t perform well but knowing that she could do better with some help, “You read too fast.”   I took her words to heart and told her to slow me down whenever I do it again.   Now I’m annoyed when she does it too often, but I stand corrected when I hear her narrations.   Lesson learned…

As I mentioned, we’ll hit the open road on tomorrow.  We’re off to Glen Rose, TX to see where dinosaurs once strolled in the Lone Star State.   I wanted to take this trip this past spring when the youngest worked on her dinosaur lapbook, but our purse strings said otherwise.    Our son is wrapping up Apologia’s Zoology 3, focusing on land animals.   Guess what he would have studied this week?  Dinosaurs!    Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?

I talked about the story voice helping each child.  The Iliad is coming together for the oldest.   This week, in putting together her commonplace book, she asked me how the war began in the first place.   I found out that I didn’t know; I always assumed it started because Paris stole Helen from Menelaus.   In truth, that’s the middle of the story.   The beginning was a “celebrity” wedding, and the jealousy of the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena (if I’m remembering correctly) over who Paris would think was loveliest between them.   Anyway, we chose to skip past each Trojan and/or Achaean who “was caught quickly, run down…and speared in the [name your body part]…and then dropped to the earth, and red death came plunging down his eyes, screaming, death swirling round him…” (Homer really needed to get out more; also, he couldn’t possibly have been married—LOL).   With some attention to my story voice, we’re making our way.  

Midweek this week, my MIL, a public school teacher, called with an invite for the oldest to attend a college fair—on the same day that she called.  When the Lord gave out spontaneity, someone else got my portion.   So I found myself somewhere between elated that this was another opportunity to attend one of the larger college fairs in the city, and overly sensitive as the last-minute invite felt to me like the teacher who felt that she had to rush in and save the poor, poor homeschooler.   With the superhero’s help in the transportation department, I decided to get rid of my oversensitivity and take the hand as it came.   It truly was a blessing, and as my MIL teaches at one of the wealthiest schools in the city (and therefore the school draws a lot of attention from colleges everywhere), a number of colleges were there that the oldest would probably not have looked at otherwise.   Now we have a wealth of information to sift through and my head is again swimming.   Wisdom, guidance, and discernment, Lord, wisdom, guidance and discernment.

I finally published my second Squidoo lens on Ancient China.   We’ve had fun this past week playing matching games with Chinese pictographs, completing word searches, and watching silkworms make silk.   I’ll put the pictures on the lens hopefully later this week.   Now if I could just figure out how/ where to get enough wind to make a kite fly.   

As a business owner, I…

am still working on the elementary series edits, and looking forward to getting the cover graphics redone.   I also need to complete an article for a Christian women’s magazine, but so far, the thoughts have yet to leave my notebook and assemble themselves eloquently in Word.   This may not have been the opportunity for me—yet more to pray about.   Rick Warren says in his Purpose-Driven Life that there are a number of opportunities that are good, but we must be wary of those that distract us from our purpose.  

  May the Lord bless your week as well.