• Oct. 9, 2008
Fun days
We're in the middle of our Fall Break. It's been lots of fun so far. I've made a concerted effort not to plan something out every day like I usually do.
We did go to the zoo and had a great time. We have a membership there so we can go anytime we want. This makes for a great experience because we aren't rushed. If we don't see every animal exhibit that's OK...we know we'll be back. The kids played hard on the Jungle Gym and Trina loved the swings!
We have just been enjoying lazy days of sleeping in, watching movies that we reserved on Netflix (we just signed up for Netflix as a compromise after getting rid of our cable). We got Spiderwick Chronicles, The Bee Movie and Iron Man (for Edwin). Much time has been spent out of doors, riding bikes, building "rivers" with neighborhood friends, etc.
I took Ryan out for a special Mommy-son date to the symphony with our homeschool group. It's focus was on percussion instruments. It was a really nice time. The conductor did this really neat thing where she divided the audience into three sections. Our section was instructed to take two fingers and repeatedly drum on our open palm. The next section had to rub their hands together. The third section clapped their hands on their knees in a fast rhythm. All together this sounded like a rainstorm. It was just incredible. This was Ryan's favorite part of the whole program.
Today Ethan, Ryan and Tessa have been making "ships" out of Ethan's legos. Even now, Ethan is constructing several different tracks for his ships. I just love seeing them so deeply engrossed in activities like this.
I am re-reading Mr. Popper's Penguins to Ethan (we love this story), and am reading Ralph and the Motorcycle to Ryan. Tessa and I are finishing up God King, which is part of our Sonlight. I think she has enjoyed it more than she lets on, but is ready to move on to something else. I am reading her next Sonlight reader, Theras and His City, and I am really, really enjoying it. It's a very engaging story and has a lot of great scenarios for discussion. I am also reading The Egypt Game, which is the story of two girls Tessa's age who have a passion for all things Egypt and end up getting in trouble when they go too far with their game. I think Tessa will really like it.
As for personal reading, I am reading Lessons from the Classroom: 20 Things Good Teachers Do by Hall Urban. Edwin read this book and has sung it's praises. Though written to public school teachers, this book as information that is applicable to anyone who teaches. So far, it's really good stuff. The first chapter is on enthusiasm and letting that shine through to truly inspire your students to love learning. I needed the reminder. :) I can't wait to finish it.
I am also intrigued by a concept that I read about on the Well-Trained Mind forums. It's about how we schedule our days. It's called "loop scheduling". You make out a list of everything you want to hit on your ideal day. You then strive to do "school" in three hours (you don't have to have a time restriction, but this is how I am going to approach it)...for us it would be from 9:00-12:00. Wherever we get at 12:00, we stop and the next day we pick up where we left off on the list, if we didn't finish it the day before. This prevents only hitting the same subjects every day, and the trap that we all fall easily into of dropping history, science or whatever because we didn't get to it. Instead of starting with the same thing every day, despite what didn't get finished the day before, you just continue where you left off the next day and loop back around to the beginning of the list. This ensures that everything gets done with regularity and you don't have the guilt of feeling behind, or the guilt of leaving stuff undone completely. I'm excited to try it after our break.
Sunday after church we leave for a week in Crossville, TN. We have a week with our timeshare there. Apparently there is nothing there to do except hike (which we love to do). The fall leaves will be at peak during this time so it is going to be glorious. I am glad there is not much to do, because we can just hang out as a family and play games and enjoy being together. There will lots of good reading time, the kids will love the indoor pool, and we won't be spending a bunch of money. We're trying to pay of our ginormous mountain of medical debt. I'm looking foward to some chill time.
I am struggling right now with wanting to pull the boys out of school. I love their schools, I love their teachers. It has nothing to do with the schools. I just miss homeschooling them. Tessa and I are having a lot of fun with this new group we are part of that is all Christian families in the area. I hate the boys not getting to do all the stuff we are doing. I want them to get to be with these kids and build strong friendships with them. But we have definitely determined to homeschool them next year. Edwin wants his evenings free for bible studies and to go door knocking, etc. If he does this, he won't see the kids much if they are at school during the day. I don't want to yank them away from their routine at school right now. They know they are coming home next year, I just have to be patient and continue with where we are right now. Which is still good. They have still been able to do a lot with us and our HS group. I will still miss the schools next year, though.
I don't navigate this site well. I will try and post some pictures later, if I can figure out how to do it here. Till then...
Have a great week!
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• Sep. 12, 2008
Time for an update!
Well, a lot has happened since I last posted.
I have a new baby, and this changed my homeschool dramatically. I became so very sick with her and deeply depressed because I was unable to care for my children. So about that time I made the decision to put my children in the public schools here.
I was slightly apprehensive, because on all of the homeschooling forums and blogs I've been a part of have pretty much blasted any form of public education. I had friends and family members deride me for my choice. It was a dark, dark time.
A week before they were to start school, I received the devestating news that my Dad was dying of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is lung cancer due to the exposure of asbestos. My father worked in a boiler room his junior and senior years of high school for the company that his father worked for. The asbestos stays dormant in the body for 20-30 years and by the time it presents itself, usually it is too late. This was crushing to me in the extreme. Dad and I were very close and it has been so very hard without him to talk to. The extreme sickness with my baby and the crushing grief of my father's illness and death just took the wind out of my sails. I do not regret putting my children in school during this time.
I am very grateful in some ways for my public school experience. It caused me to come down from my sanctimonious perch from on high regarding homeschooling and public schooling. There are flaws within the schools, I can not deny that. But there are flaws within homeschools too. It's just most people don't talk about it. I discovered that all teachers are not "perverts", as Michael Pearl has claimed. Most teachers, in fact, love their jobs and love the children they are teaching. They do some absolutely amazing things, despite the shackels placed on them by an oppressive government. And homeschooling is not the golden ticket to Godly children or a peaceful home. Godly parenting is. Many Christian families across the country have their children in public schools and have wonderful, mannerly, Godly children.
As a result, I feel highly annoyed when I encounter homeschool snobbery. Most will pay lip service to the fact that it's not a sin to send your child to public school, but if you spend any amount of time talking to most of them, or reading the comments that are made in various forums, it seems that perhaps they need to reevaluate what they *really* believe about it.
So here I am, and I have kept my two boys in public school again this year. I could not have asked for better, more caring teachers!
Tessa, though, is being homeschooled this year. But I am homeschooling not because I'm competing with public school, or to show how bad I might think public school is, but because I truly enjoy homeschooling and simply, because I want to.
I am not sure what next year will bring for the boys. I may pull them out and homeschool everyone again since I have some exciting plans to start a cottage school and because I want to take several trips. I may leave them in until fifth grade, and pull them out then.
Until then, though, I am just enjoying where we are this year. The boys are thriving and happy, and I am enjoying my time alone with my two girls. I joined a new homeschooling group that is really starting to take off and I am excited for all of the fun things we are going to do.
Right now I am in the middle of planning an enrichment class on Ancient Egypt. We will make a model of the Nile River, carve a model of the Sphynx from floral foam and then paint them with textured paint, we will make pyramids with a cut-away wall to show what a tomb looked like. We will also enjoy an Egyptian feast and make Egyptian costumes, among other things. I can't wait!
I hope to keep more up to date with this blog to document my homeschooling ideas and activities, and to keep track of the afterschooling activities I do with my boys. I am about to start Sonlight Core 1 with them, to coordinate with the Core 6 Tessa and I are doing. I am doing intensive phonics work with Ryan, and doing a Chess curriculum from WinterPromise with Ethan. Lots of fun stuff going on!!
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• Oct. 17, 2006
Musings
I love history. I love reading about real people and the things that happened to them in their lives.
Right now I am reading a book about Abigail Adams. One of the things that has captured my attention and my admiration is the determination by Abigail to learn, even in an age when learning was frowned on and discouraged for females.
It is distressing to me that so many people take for granted the ease with which to learn in this day and age. I think of the times when people did not have access to books the way we do today, and how much people would have given to be able just to read. So many of us have that ability and far superior resources at our fingertips, and we do not use them. In an age of television, computer games, video games and other media resources, I believe people are becoming lazy and lax in pursuing a good education.
I think of people like Abigail Adams and Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan who had to FIGHT to obtain their education. We live in an age where we can teach ourselves anything we want, and we don't necessarily have to attend a university to obtain it. I am so thankful for this privilege! May I never take it for granted, and may I ever strive to teach my children to be thankful for it. It is not drudgery! It is a gift!
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• Oct. 16, 2006
One of those days, I guess...
Sometimes I get so frustrated at all of the diversions that come up from day to day preventing us from being able to get our schoolwork done.
I know that it's all part of the home education package. After all, we don't do this to be like the government schools or to be on their schedules. Last week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent at a homeschool campout. This was great, and much needed. My children met lots of other friends and it was good for me, as well. The rest of the week was spent caring for my niece and nephew, whose father is currently serving in Iraq. They left just a little while ago. It was good to do that, and I am glad I did. But now it's been a week since we've done any schoolwork. And the bad thing about that is that it is always hard to get my kids re-focused on school when they've had any type of extended break.
Oh well, I guess that's why we home educate...to have the flexibility to live....life.
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• Oct. 8, 2006
I didn't exactly intend to start a new blog...
...but I signed up to make a comment on someone else's blog and evidently when you do that, you become the proud owner of a blog on this site.
I am intrigued with the idea of having a blog solely directed at education, and think I might like to try my hand at it.
I home educate three children...my dd9, my ds7, and my ds4. I was fortunate to begin my home educating journey with The Well-Trained Mind. A veteran home educating friend of mine strongly recommended the book. I must say, at that time in my life this book was a gift. I had no clue what I was doing, and did not know where to begin to pick out the "correct" curriculum. This book became my compass and it gave me the confidence I needed to continue forward with my plans for home educating my children.
Although I will be forever grateful and reverent of that book, I recently read a book that took TWTM a step further. I recently read The Latin-Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell, and am in the process of "switching over" to the recommendations in his book.
For the most part, the main thing that I have been struck by and am inplementing with fervor is putting Latin in it's proper place in my children's learning. Everyday I start with Math, and follow it with Latin. If I don't get anything else done, I make sure to get those two things accomplished. I am convinced that the study of Latin will train the mind and prepare them for anything else they may encounter in the furthering of their education. Aside from that, I've discovered a personal passion for Latin...it's just great FUN! (I know I sound like the world's biggest nerd).
The next biggest adjustment in my thought processes and way of doing things is subscribing to the Multum non Multa approach..."not many things, but much". Instead of trying to learn every subject under the sun, we are trying to focus on a core of subjects and endeavor to learn them well. This is somewhat hard for me to do, because everything interests me and too, there is always that fear that you are missing something important. However, I am really beginning to see the wisdom in not crowding out their little brains with so many different things to learn, and giving them the peace of mind of focusing on just a few things and the freedom to learn them well.
