As they rise up

Thursday, May 17, 2007 - Almost vacation!

Good Morning fellow homeschoolers! Am I way too cheerful for this hour of the day? That is because in 1 week I will be packing for vacation!

In other news, we had a great day at homeschool yesterday. The girls saw that we don't have to do schoolwork all day to get it done and they cleaned their room! Maybe there was a harmonic convergence or something?! I wonder if we will get a repeat today?

OK I just have to add this. While I sit here typing I hear this sound, so I look up. The cat is sitting on the refrigerator reaching down and methodically knocking my magnets off while he plays with them! I guess I shouldn't accuse the girls of knocking them off anymore, huh?

Nancy wants to learn how to decorate cakes so that will be our summer venture. I volunteer to eat the mistakes!! I will post her successes.

So I have been thinking about prayer lately and how to deepen it without feeling like I am just using a lot of words to say the same thing over and over. I would like to develop my praise muscle if you will. I am working on this, if I have any breakthroughs I will let you know. The girls are so good at praising the Lord, and having faith. I try to learn from them.

Well it is time for me start breakfast, so have a great day!

Lovingly Ann

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007 - I could never homeschool

So many people I run into say this to me. I wonder if they think A. I am really ruining my kids chance at a future career or B. I am that much smarter than they are that I can confidently and accurately teach my kids all they need to know, or C. I am superwoman. I prefer B myself. But I know the truth. I am an average housewife of average intelligence and education. I do have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as my guide and a great calling from God to protect my precious children form the truth of the world right now. So I will attempt to explain how homeschooling works and is possible for many Moms.

OK first of all, homeschooling Moms are not SuperWoman in disguise. We are super women who choose to answer a call from God to keep our children home and let them blossom in the protective atmosphere of home. We struggle daily with scheduling and time management. More often than not our children learn in such a way that traditional schooling would not be all that educational for our kids. This does not mean however that we are recluses. We search our opportunities for our children to reach out and make connections with people of all kinds. For instance, my daughters are volunteering with an adult day care center calling Bingo and serving snack. Some people do sports, (my daughter would rather drown that do sports) some do 4-H. As many opportunities as there are for adults to be busy in the community there are the same for children, you just need to look.

My sister-in-law said to me that she didn't feel qualified to homeschool because her daughter was 4 and she hadn't even taught her to speak correctly yet. Let me just say that I am learning right alongside my daughters in many ways. I use curriculum and research. The first question we have to ask is "what is the purpose of education?". In my humble opinion it is not impart knowledge but to teach a child to find knowledge. So the question is not can I teach my child everything she needs to know but can I help her find the information and learn it? And that answer is a resounding yes. It may stretch me academically but I can do it. For instance I recently got over my fear of the Public Library, mostly because I have no money left to buy books, but also to help my daughter never have that fear. In a future post I will outline curriculum choices (there are so many that I often have to throw out entire catalogs in order to not see yet another good thing) and approaches to homeschooling.

Let me sum up this post by saying that we are all qualified to teach our children. We in fact are their first teachers. If I can teach my child to talk, a formidable feat indeed, and to eat, go to the bathroom, and dress herself why then am I not qualified to teach her to take knowledge off a page and own it, understand it and experience it? The simple answer is that I am.

I love homeschooling, that is not to say that it isn't the hardest thing I have ever done at times. I feel a special calling to it, in our case public school is just not an option that God allows. I know everyone has their own calling. In future posts I will cover curriculum choices, educational approaches, scheduling options, and time management as well as other subjects that come to mind or that people request.

Lovingly, Ann

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Monday, May 14, 2007 - May weather

Well fickle may weather is here. A few days ago it was in the high 80's and low 90's and this morning it is 45! I am cold but I don't want to turn the heat on because it is fore-casted to be in the 80's today. I am such a cheapskate!

We go on vacation for Memorial day weekend and the girls are starting to get excited about it. We are going north to the Adirondacks to a cabin in the woods. I can't wait! No TV, No phone, just peace and quiet. We are going to do nature hikes and lots of quiet time...I hope. I do have this thing with my ankle. It has been hurting me and I going to the Dr today about it. My Mom is afraid she will tell me to stay off it for a while, maybe I have tendinitis in my Achilles tendon? I hope it is minor.

Mothers Day was so much fun this yr. We fried a turkey (still a touch of southerner in us) and had family over. We also celebrated several family birthdays as well. Sean went to MEPS yesterday, he is joining the Navy. I am scared for his safety but very proud that he is willing to stand for what this country stands for.

Lets see, school? Oh yes that thing with books! Just kidding, it just seems hard to finish everything lately. We get done but it seems to take so much longer, I guess we all have spring fever. Well I intend to read throughout the summer, we won't do formal lessons but the girls wills till want to do science stuff and history stuff and we can practice math and grammar without paper. Nancy I think will continue her Latin.

I got my kit from HSLDA "so you're thinking about homeschooling" . So I can have an informational meeting to teach others about homeschooling. This is something the Lord has really laid on my heart to do so I am very excited about it.

Well I can't think what else to say so I am going to go for now. I pray everyone has a great day!

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Monday, May 7, 2007 -

Well here we are. It is May, almost the end of the school yr. A fact that the kids and I look forward to. Although I find summer difficult, all that time to fill and no lessons. Plus I need to spend time preparing for next yr.

I spent Saturday at a memorial service for a dear friend of mine who recently passed away. It was heartbreaking to see how much her husband missed her and made me thankful for my family's health.

Now about school. The girls are doing well with most things. They both hate math. Is there anybody out there who likes it? Nan really tries to get out of it and fusses. We are doing it one on one right now to try and get her to stay more focused. Sami is a little better but still fusses about it. Otherwise they love school. I can't imagine what I would do with my day if they weren't here to teach.

Now I am beginning to think about summer and what I can accomplish. I need to really sort through closets and drawers and lighten our load a bit. I feel so weighed down by stuff. I also would like to get the girls outside and maybe up to the lake more than I did last summer. Speaking of which we are going there for Memorial Day Weekend! I am so looking forward to it, no phone, well sort of but no one will call unless there is an emergency, no TV!! and just peace and quiet. we will hike and BBQ, and enjoy the world that God made. Only 3 weeks away!

For next yr we will be doing pretty much the same thing we are doing now. We do Latin for Grammar, Ray's Arithmetic (which is OK but slow), Sami does Explode the Code (she is in book 4 now!), copy work, (We use our AWANA verses), a great Bible Study I found called Exploring God's Word (books C and E right now), Apologia science (Flying Things of the Fifth Day), several history texts, and lots of literature, oh, and A Child's Geography of the World, which the girls love.

Anyway signing off...

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Thursday, April 26, 2007 - Is it almost May? REALLY??!!

Wow, this school yr has just flown. And once again it has been forever since I blogged, but life is so full right now. The girls are doing really well with school, though we need to be better about chores, and staying on task. I wonder if this is what God would blog about me? Ann is doing well at bible study but needs to learn to stay on task with faith and trust? LOL Anyway, just a thought.

We made an offer on a house and got turned down, we couldn't counter-offer, just not enough funds at the moment so we took the hint form God and decided to wait and save more money. Really where we live is fine, space-wise, I would love a yard for the girls to play in and to have a garden. I am going to do container gardening this yr and have already sprouted my seeds, time to plant them soon. I am growing peppers, tomatoes, basil and parsley. I think that is a good start anyway.

I have next yr semi planned and next time I blog I will Post my plan. I also have adjusted the cookie recipe to be a little lower in fat and will post those changes as well.

My son moved back home this month and it is nice to have him around. Although it is different, I have to remember that he is a grown up now, not a child. He will be 2o in 2 months! I know I am not old enough to have a 20 yr old!! When did that happen?

Someone posted a question about my Latin program, yes when I say the Sanctus, I mean the old Catholic prayers. My daughters love learning them, it is part history and part language. We have decided that next yr my 10dd will do Latina Christiana I and the 7dd will do Prima Latina, or LC if she is able. She is picking up a lot of the Prima Latina this yr.

I have been growing and spending more time with the Lord. It has been wonderful for me and my family. God has really used this time to heal some of the old hurts that I have been carrying around and opening my eyes to some of the things that I have believed that are not true. I recently finished reading Waking the Dead, and highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to revive their spiritual life. I may yet reread it, I am also flipping through Too Busy Not to Pray, and I recently read a great novel called New Moon Rising, and found out at the end that it was true story! It really moved me. I do not generally read a lot of novels, usually nonfiction is my style or the read alouds to the kids. We read Peter Pan, and now are reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Next will be Little House int he Big Woods, and I am not sure after that. I have tweaked AO to fit my family and we are very happy where we are. But that is for the next blog.

One last thing I found out yesterday that my dear friend has started a homeschool blog so visit her too. It is here- www.homeschoolblogger.com/lesasclan -- Funny after 2 yrs I still miss my Savannah friends.

Have a blessed day and remember that if you are not hungry for the Lord you should ask yourself what You have been snacking on.

Lovingly, Ann

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Tuesday, March 6, 2007 - A New Day

Well , it is a new day. I am not really even sure that anyone reads this but me and my God. I start each day with such optimism and then it seems to fizzle out. Today I am going to try to turn over a new leaf. I have been reading “Say Goodbye to Whining Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Children” and this morning I read about a parenting principle in which you simply state the emotion behind an action. Such as, “that was selfish” but no lectures, no yelling, and no further conversation. I imagine I should also point out positive things, like “that was responsible”, etc.

On a brighter note, dd10 is loving her Latin, she has learned the first 3 lines of the Sanctus. And dd6 has learned it by default, which simply means when she does the program she will only have the vocabulary to work on. I am so excited to be able to offer the girls such a better education, filled with rich literature, and meaningful experiences. I think we will soon look for rubber boots so we can head out for nature walks as soon as it begins to thaw and warm up a little.

Well, I am doing well to blog 2 days in a row! I am going to prepare for my day now.

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Monday, March 5, 2007 - Wow...2 weeks in a row!

Well here we are with another Monday. I never do as well on Monday as I do on other days. Although, ironically, it is usually our best school day since I am new for the week and have great ambitions as to what we will get accomplished. We actually got it all in today! Artists study, nature study, although this was weak since we needed a hen to study her feather pattern, and we do not have one. We will look at the rooster at the Farmers Market this weekend and study his. I also instituted a new rule this morning, which is if your chores are not done or not done with a pleasant spirit then no TV in the afternoon. And if you fuss about that then no Magic School Bus in the morning. I hope this encourages them to be better about chores. I do expect a lot of them in chores, compared to other kids nowadays, but they are home, and I need the help if I am to keep up with schoolwork etc.

We have an extra dog for a while. My brothers Pugle (sp?) is visiting while he is out of town. He is making me appreciate how calm and well behaved my older(31/2 yrs) dog is. He is not bad just a puppy and energetic. It is kind of like swapping kids with a friend for a day, when you have a 13 yr old and they have a 5 yr old. You forget how much energy they bring with them.

One thing I struggle with in school is keeping it interesting for them. We are going to make our own maple syrup this spring with a friend. But, I confess, I do not have loads of time to prepare and need to work on this. They love the literature and geography which needs little prep. Nature study needs more prep on my part so I need to find an answer for this. Of course as it warms up and we can go out and do nature walks again there will be more to look at. I need to find more local parks where we can walk.

I also need to find a way to make money. I have thought I could sell my bread, but I think you need a license to sell food... and I could baby-sit but then we have Spartacus and I wouldn’t leave my kids with a dog like him, he looks mean. I do not want a huge home business just a little pocket cash, and I stink at sales so Avon, Mary Kay etc are out. I will pray for God to speak to me about this and show me the way.

Until next time I find time to write...signing off

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Friday, February 23, 2007 - Cookie recipe

Great Harvest Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups Rapadura sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups rolled oats
2 eggs
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon milk
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, (I use bittersweet)

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. Beat together sugar and butter until well combined. Add oats, eggs, molasses and milk; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture; beat until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, scoop dough and drop about 3 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 F for 12 to 13 minutes, until just starting to brown around the outside. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets. Remove and cool on racks. Makes 24 giant cookies.

I can’t remember where I found this recipe so I can’t give credit where credit is due but it is not my recipe, someone else wrote it. I did change a few things, like the sugar, and I always use a little more oats than it calls for. It makes a cookie that is truly delicious, the chocolate really stands out because the cookie part is not too sweet. I found that if I used brown sugar I could cut it back to about 1¼ cups.

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Friday, February 23, 2007 - February catch up

So it has been a while since I blogged but I have been busy. I read an article about high fructose corn syrup back in December, (see the article here http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html). So I decided to cut it out of my families diet. Easier said than done. Also I am one of those that will start and totally go off the deep end. So the hfcs thing led to cutting out preservatives, and food colorings, you see where this is going.

How this ended is that we eat no boxed cereal (extruded and highly processed), no store bought cookies or bread anymore and hardly any sugar. What we eat is fresh fruit and vegetables, oatmeal for breakfast, or eggs, and canadian bacon, meat and homemade bread and cookies. I found an outstanding recipe for whole grain chocolate chip cookies I will post it later.

The amazing thing is, I have noticed that Nan has a much better attention span and is generally less excitable than she was before. And our diet was not bad before! I think we will stick with this now.

I also started reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and discovered Kefir. Which I love!! I got my Mom turned on to it now too.

Now for school...we have been having a good time with school. I finally feel like I understand AmbleSideOnline and its purpose. The girls love the history and geography parts, imagine that?! And I read A Midsummer Nights Dream to them and they were sorry it was over! What 6 yr old wants more Shakespeare? I love it!!! Also we have started doing what I call one room schoolhouse math, we drill orally and work problems out orally and then they do several difficult problems on the marker board as a brain stretching exercise.

Anyway that is all the news that is fit to print. I hope everyone is staying warm with the winter weather we have had here in the northeast.

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Thursday, November 9, 2006 - Catch up.

     Well it has been a long time since I made an entry but I am going to try and better about this.
     School has been going well. We have been reading a book called Paddle to the Sea, and the girls absolutely love it. They beg me for more each time I read it. Nancy keeps saying she is tempted to sneak out at night and read the rest.
     Sami is also reading better and better every day. It is such a neat feeling to be the one who taught her to read! What an honor I have being the Mom of these 2 beautiful children!
     In Nancy's corner, she is working on studied dictation. This means that we choose a passage, not too long right now because the goal is perfection in handwriting and accuracy and study it for punctuation, and spelling. When we find a word we think she is going to have trouble spelling we take that word apart and spell it in our minds and put it up on the board to really look at it and find other words in it. Yesterday she mastered responsibility! That is a huge word and a first she said she thought it was too hard. She was so excited when she got it! That was another great moment.
     Tonight my Parents and brothers and sister are coming over to celebrate Grandpa Howie’s Birthday. Daddy will miss it since he is at work in the evening but we are also getting together this Saturday to play Settlers! I can hardly wait.
     In other family happenings, my grandmother had a toothache this week which made her a little more confused and grumpy than usual, and ended up having it pulled. She is still a little uncomfortable, and has trouble chewing right now. Hopefully we are on the mend.
     I am going to spend some time this weekend really figuring out this blog thing so I can post some of my favorites. Wish me luck if anyone reads this. And feel free to leave me a comment.

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Saturday, September 16, 2006 - Our Holiday

The girls had a great time on our vacation. It was so relaxing. We spent hours sitting on the beach and playing in the ocean. The girls both turned brown despite the careful application of sunscreen, maybe it was the layer of sand they always had? They did seem to bring more sand home than they left behind each time we came back from the beach. At the cottage there is a bathhouse, a house outside with a showerhead in it, where you can rinse off or just shower, it is really cool. The girls love it because it is roomy and different.
When the beach got too cool we would go back to the cottage, a stones throw from the beach, and watch the waves crash on the beach and the boats bobbing on the waves. It is a very peaceful place. Which was something we all needed.

We got to visit with many of our family which was also nice. On Sat my In-laws received recognition for work they had done with families in the National Guard Family Support Groups, and we got to see a parachutist jump onto the field in front of us and a flyover by some helicopters which was not new to us, and some A-10’s which were. We also got meet some of the National Guard troops that my In-Laws work with and thank them for their service, without which we might not be so secure in our freedoms.
Nancy read Gulliver’s Travels while we were on vacation and Sami read some of the House at Pooh Corner, she really enjoyed it and kept wanting more. She also was lucky enough to have her Aunt Cathy read to her from a story book for Little Girls. I am always reading, usually several books at once so I will not list them here.
Now it is back to school and studies, which we are all looking forward to this year. Nancy and Sami love the new curriculum we are following, it is very heavy in literature, science, and history which they both groove on. And I think that makes the grammar, math and copy work lessons a little easier to deal with since they have the other to look forward to.

I will post a few of our vacation pics here for the family and you can email me if you want me to send you one of them. I am going to try and bee good about making regular entries here so everyone can keep up. Also please feel free to email Nancy (or me if you need her email address) she would love to get and email and answer it.

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Wednesday, September 6, 2006 - Off to the Sea

I always love, when you are reading a novel about England, how they describe vacations as holidays, and they always go off to the sea for holiday. So we are off today for our "holiday" at the sea. We will visit my Mother- and Father-in-law at their cottage in CT. It is a beautiful area and I am looking forward to the quiet. I am also looking forward to sitting back for a few days and just enjoying my girls. On Sat my in-laws will receive an award from the CT Natl Guard for their volunteer efforts with the Families, it was their way of supporting us while we were in the military and because they loved it they kept on. They have been a huge blessling to the families of soldiers in CT these past few yrs. So I am going to pack, and will post how our "holiday" went next week.

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Tuesday, September 5, 2006 - First Day

Hello, As I start this blog I am thinking of all I want to say. And there is so much. Of the many reasons we homeschool I think the most important to me is that we be the primary influence in our childrens lives. I see secular children and how they grow up too soon, and I don't mean give up childhood ways but rather learn to dress and behave in ways they believe adults do long before they are really mature enough to handle it. (I think everyone knows what I am getting at, I do not endeavor to keep my girls as babies, rather my goal is they mature at the rate God intends them to, not to please the world around them.) We began our homeschooling journey with little else than a conviction that it was what God wanted us to do. That was 5 yrs ago, since then my oldest daughter has attended 2 yrs of public school (k and 1st) due to health issues (mine) before I was able to pull her out and get back to business. My youngest has only attended a private preschool program at our old church, so I could work, and is now homeschooled full time.

     We use the Charlotte Mason method, though we are new to it this yr and we are looking forward to the new schedule. My daughters both love to read so it is really perfect for us. We use AmblesideOnline as our curriculum, (www.amblesideonline.org) we are doing yr 1, and Nancy, our older daughter will be doing some literature selections from yr 2. But first we will spend some time with family this week and enjoy the blessing that they are.

     A little about me? I never thought I would end up a homeschooling Mom! In fact until I was pregnant with my youngest I had never heard of it! But God worked on me and in his perfect timing opened my eyes and my heart to the beauty of homeschooling. I am married to a wonderful man who spent 10 yrs defending this Country's freedom and has now moved into the private sector to work. And I am blessed to be able to share in the twilight of my Grandmothers life. She moved in with us in 2004 because she was lonely, and we quickly realized that something was wrong. We have since learned that she has dementia which may or may not be Alzheimers related. I am fiercely patriotic, extremely conservative, and strive to show my love for God in all that I do and say. Unfortunately I fail miserably some days, as we all do.

     My primary reason for creating this blog is to share our homeschool journey with others; family, friends, and friends we don't know we have yet! I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and struggles.

Blessings

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