Maplewood Cottage Home-Lessons
• Oct. 5, 2009 - A thanks to all that share links!
Our home lessons are very eclectic -we use a huge base of links to develop our courses.
It has become a way of life at this point. My husband might see our lessons are stalling and he'll print out some new material for us to use... it's such a blessing because I personally get bored easily and need that excitement to keep motivated. There is a special thrill that one gets when they discover resources to add to their planned courses.
One blog that has been a wealth of great links that I'd not come across on my own is Strong Quiver - Eclectic Homeschoolers
I was especially blessed by the The Math Worksheet site
Please feel free to leave links in your comments to our blog. I'd like to update my side bar to bless others with the many links I have stored on my hard drive. |
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• Oct. 5, 2009 - In light of prayerful parenting- an article that blessed
I was browsing the Lifestyle of Learning site the Howshalls offer and was blessed by their article on recommended books for child training as well as the point that was made on using discernment.
I happen to have read most of the books that they suggest. And felt similar about the strong and weak points in each book.
I recently have done some more soul searching on our family's experience in training the children.
And feel that the idea of using spanking as the exclusive form of correction is not something we will be moving into. I'd been spending time under some teaching that was pushing spanking as the only truly biblical way of correcting the children and it became burdensome to say the least.
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• Apr. 2, 2009 - Final Decision that I have wrestled over these past weeks about our blogs
Update: The BLOGS must go on.
We experienced such a loss without our blogs. I really believe in "blogging to learn" as one homeschool family calls their blog ventures.
Starting up our concentration on homeschool again this fall and not having the blog to go to felt wrong.
So I hope to continue here this year and call our absence just a season gone by.
I have been so frustrated that I mistakenly deleted dozens and dozens of photos from more than one blog that I haven't added anything to them for a few weeks now.
I was organizing our photos on Photobucket into new albums to make it easier for Luke and Timmy to work with them. Of course there was a warning pop up that said If I moved the pictures into new albums I COULD delete them from places they were so I did check and didn't see them being removed. So I kept rearranging more and more. They were intact one day and then gone the next !
I took that statement could way too literally.
In the mean while we had some adversity in our lives and I have honestly been very confused these last few months about what direction to take with several things in my life.
This winter has been hard. Again based on our personal decisions to bring another little one into the world with little to no local support.
And be desperately trying to recover from the financial loss we've experienced.
Here is a very long story that I wasn't sure I would share recapped; we had a scare concerning a possible call being put into children's services.
Let me assure you it was based on non abuse issues! But since those things about us that are uncommon -at least to our area exist in our lives we are at risk of being 'picked on' by people that misunderstand/ or don't agree with us.
After Jonny was born I had an acquaintance stop by she and her husband had just recently taken on a position in leadership ( husband becoming pastor) of a little country church that had problems and was struggling to continue. ( and has since disbanded) In our brief conversation during her visit to the new baby she came to know that we were heating with the space heaters... she was concerned and felt convinced that the people at her church would want to pray for us. She asked them to pray and some gave some small amounts of money to gift us with -about 60.00 I felt I should not hurt them by refusing the gift and we were still coming out of the problems with the bankruptcy etc... 60.00 paid for a weeks groceries that we NEEDED. So I was thankful. I however did not know that this church has a 'busy body' type deacon's wife on the scene. Apparently this woman wanted to dig up suspicion about us and call children's services because we had no forced heat in the house with five children. And she did not like many of the other unique things about our lifestyle. She got onto our blogs.
Of course homeschooling and homebirthing were way too much for her. She even took offense that our family was recognizing the Hebraic feasts in place of a traditional Christmas. We are going through a time of study of the hebraic roots of Christianity -Jesus was a Jew -he was the Messiah that was long awaited -many Jews did not believe he was Messiah... but both Jews and Gentiles had believers in Messiah amongst them.
Jesus never forsook the Jewish feasts. He did however show us God's plan for redemption outside of our own good works and striving to live by the law for salvation. We all fall short of the law - ten commandments. Yet, we honor that special guideline that God gave mankind for living in thanksgiving for the life that Jesus gave to us by paying our sin debit with his sinless life.
Since we homeschool and homechurch we have that freedom to flesh out things -kinda live *it* ( whatever we are studying) for a time be it a week or a year of our lives... so for instance instead of Easter we are doing more of an observation of Passover and Resurrection Sunday this month.
Anyway this deacon's wife did not like that either and decided we were 'practicing' neo-judaism and considered that a 'bad' thing.
Maybe she also didn't like that we were letting our family grow as it will. I don't know. I guess she has never been a mother and has no understanding of birthing or even raising children. She has never had to face decisions for herself or her family or face responsibility for any failure in these areas.
Homebirthing around here is very taboo because there are NO direct entry midwives available and Certified Nurse Midwifes are only over the border into Mi or In. too far away for us... the hospitals and doctors are not so good either.
This is an A legal state meaning that types of lay/ homebirth midwifery are right on the edge of being illegal. A midwife can come under scrutiny and loose not only her practice and have huge fines but go to jail if the AMA decides to pursue her in anyway.
Even under the care of a certified nurse midwife I even almost delivered Timmy at home because I called hospital 3mins away from where I lived that I was registered to birth at with a certified nurse midwife and they refused me and said we had to go to Toledo Hospy because they were in the middle of pulling contractual agreements with the CNM and OB's.
My birth contractions were very close and by the time I reached Toledo I was about ready to push him out! After it was fully realized by them that I was seriously about to deliver I was 'allowed to' with five attendants scurrying around and Mike just making it back from dropping Luke to mom's boyfriends place.
Without going on a tangent -the way we birth privately just as a couple/family is NOT illegal and puts no one in jeopardy of prosecution.
We have a whole string of philosophical and physiological reasons of why we choose this but the practical ones are enough to see why we started going this direction. No childcare for our other children, no transportation available for appointments (other than that of which Mike can provide -when work schedule allows), and no money for gas ... no way to bring the baby home with the whole family present because our car did not fit the whole family after he was born could apply in our last birth. I could probably think of more- actually my neighbor has the same doctor that we have
She is about to deliver her fifth child and has shared with me about her interactions with this doc. WOW, I hope I don't have to use the doc in the future it will be a RIDE! this doc is practically forcing surgery on this 23 yo married woman. The doc just will not back down asking/ telling her over and over that she NEEDS to get her tubes tied. Where did patients free choice go!?! She is afraid now to have this doctor 'deliver' her baby and hopes to be visiting in IL where she is from when the baby decides to make it's entrance.
Anywho, The experience that posed the possibility of social services being called has left me being more protective of my family. Probably they would have dismissed any allegations but who knows what could be contrived?
I think maybe I will not ever blog again.
It is so hard to be who I am - I don't naturally stay anonymous... I like people and being personal.
And I trust in the power of God to protect without us hiding ourselves away.
I am NOT a perfect parent and would admit anytime to that but it is NOT in the best interest of my children to be taken away from their parents because we direct them differently than others would or because sometimes we are stretched with our physical abilities or because we are poor or because of any reason at all contrived by others. They are ours, given by God and the life that we live is allowed by Him for our strengthening and character development. I have no obligation to those that would derail that.
I decided to leave this blog here for my use in organization of our homeschool but my new posts will be for my viewing and our assessor's viewing only. And some of the old posts may be made private as well.
I thank all my true friends in Christ for following our journey over the last few years.
I feel that so much has been solidified in our lifestyle and am so thankful for all the lessons we have been through together. I have no regrets!
This is some of what I believe we've learned.
The Benefits of The Homeschooling and Homechurching Lifestyle
We have found ourselves homeschooling and homechurching in such a way that it is hard to describe.
We are simply living together as a G-d fearing family and expecting that the Lord will teach us His ways in His way. We have some routine yet have a flexibility in our days that commitment to a structured religious life outside the home would disallow.
What we have found is that each day has enough trouble to work through then to add the burden of fitting into the public school or churched culture.
When I was a younger Christian in my twenties I was very involved in the life of a mainline Baptist church. They offered a whole string of activities and ministries to serve in. I generally found these things enriching and a benefit in my Christian life. Having come from an unbelieving home I thought I needed to strive with all my might to serve under what was being constituted as godly ministry. That is the only way I felt I could be actively a part of the Christian family since my immediate family was not warm toward my new focus on learning the ways of G-d.
As time went by I also found a disconnect with many of the HUNDREDS of fellow believers that I loved serving as I served the Lord. This put a deep hurt in my heart. I came to realize that I did NOT want to raise my family in a like atmosphere. So I waited for my husband to come into my life. And when he did I can only best describe what happened as an emotional tearing away from many of the things that had made me feel safe in this world.
Honestly at first it 'felt' as though the Lord was not blessing us. But as we struggled through coming to terms with what the Bible was telling us what was the core of life and what we had been conditioned to believe we saw the way the Lord was directing and kept on that way.
We almost always have had some special 'assignment' that He has put before our lives. We know He is our Father guiding and directing in our daily lives. We also are assured that we are growing and have much maturing to do. Chastising comes when we are not yielding to the Spirit and we are assured we are of the faith during times of meditation on the word and in prayer.
Our children are very average children being raised by imperfect parents... parents that are even just recently understanding how to best train and direct them. We trust our heavenly father for their future.
Each family has unique yet not uncommon challenges before them. The way they decide to live through those things is what makes the difference.
Our weeks are often spent working around our leader's schedule that is presently dictated by his employment. If we want to know and serve our leader then we have to be flexible and available. We find one of the beauties of staying out of the mainstream is that we actually open up more time to be together as a family. If our children were being sent to school each day and then on sunday we were packing up and spending two thirds of our day at church we would not be together as a family nearly as much.
As a wife and mother if I need to be available at 2 am to touch base with my husband when he comes home and again at 3am to nurse the baby then I can be because I will not have the obligation to be up at 6am getting children ready for school. I can wake later in the morning at 7:30 and be much better rested. I can also do chores, meal prep., phone calls and paperwork in the early part of the day. Then after my husband has had a meal and some time with his family he will leave for work. I will have lessons and enrichment activities with the children with a light evening meal, story time and prayers before bedtime.
If our leader has a lot of changes in schedule though not completely easy on us we still are more able to accommodate those changes and continue to be learning together to live gracefully through the challenges.
Our leader also has the regular reminders of how much his family needs him. Keeping priorities strait is a bit easier for him as the desire to find a way to be more available to take leadership becomes stronger with seeing the need of his people... He prays for and works toward that goal with daily motivation.
If we need to focus for a time on any number of things basic to living like doing projects that make or save us money or care for the special needs of a family member than we have a little less holding us back from doing so or taking our energy away from that priority of focus.
Special opportunities to witness to and serve the unbelieving arise and we can take the assignment as a family. WE HAVE NUMEROUS OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE that are equal or greater than what a regular tithe to a church organization would be.
We are able to maintain a privacy about our lives that leaves less room for others to put
pressure on us to do as they do. A way which often has nothing to do with what the Bible tells us how to live.
Living the counter cultural lifestyle does draw attention without intentions to do so.
And then we have lessons of living in or through persecution. We believe that it is better for children to grow up knowing that the world at large is not loving and there will be opposition in life to knowing G-d and following Christ. Our priority is not to blend into the world.
There is a fine thread of the intrinsic knowledge of how to live in this world as a follower of Christ woven into our lives as we use our home as a place to be both sheltered from the world and instructed in living each day.
Each day we seek joy through serving Jesus and each other. Denying our flesh trains us for the future that the Lord has for us.
When we step out of our home and into the world it is our desire to be wise and useful. Being carefree and playful seems less important as each year passes. We enjoy His creation yet we know it is not ruled by Him at this time the Prince of the power of the air is roaming this earth and we purpose to not be devoured.
As we enjoy life with our family the young ones can grow in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord about how to walk in this world.
We are not convinced that attending a local church is favorable in maintaining the simplicity of normal Christian living. We understand that Biblical doctrine is often confused through the organized church.
Be it through the misrepresentation of the word of God or the correct explanation of the word yet a lot of inconsistent living in the body that comprises that local church. There are undeniable negatives in being a regular part of such a body.
Consistency to the word of G-d is always a challenge yet in the home it is easier to obtain.
These and many more reasons are why we choose the home.
May the blessing of the Lord be on your house and mine! |
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• Jan. 22, 2009 - Icecicles - our snow study
Noticing some beautiful formations of ice outside our window I tried to get decent photos.
This one was right outside our bay window.
And these were on the house across the street, the waterfall effect. |
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• Jan. 22, 2009 - More snow fun
• Jan. 13, 2009 - Give A Squirrel Some Pizza! - a true story
• Jan. 12, 2009 - Our New Family Van!
• Dec. 25, 2008 - Preschoolers and Color
• Dec. 25, 2008 - Sledding on a Snowy Day
• Dec. 17, 2008 - Worship-Sunday School
This is a picture I have held onto for years... it was part of a box of misc. sunday school helps I bought as a young adult from a church rummage sale. It now hangs on our great room wall.
The neat thing is everything is public domain now being 50 plus years old!
So I use a lot of these helps for our Sunday School time simply copying or laminating is preserving the material.
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• Dec. 17, 2008 - Simple Gifts
An old paper-doll set I laminated so the girls could play with it. My sisters had this same set when they were little my either me or my mom found it for .25 at a sale!
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• Dec. 17, 2008 - The Mitten - lapbook
An Aunt so happened to send a card with none other than mittens. And I had already printed Jan Brett's cards for sending. Staying warm and cozy is a theme here in our home this year!
We started preparing for the lapbook and activities to go along with the book.
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• Dec. 17, 2008 - Plans for the Holidays
We plan on enjoying the ten days daddy is home.
Starting this weekend we will learn more about Hanakkah. Counting the days.
'Lighting' a pretend Menorah.
Reading several books during the eight days to get understanding.
And making some traditional foods.
I wanted to do a full post about all the special things we may do and then I found this Growing in Grace post
and she did a great job expressing what Hanakkah for the gentile is like.
I also appreciated what the Wilson family shares.
We shared a few gifts each day.
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• Dec. 17, 2008 - Winter - Trees
• Dec. 16, 2008 - Prayer Please - Solutions
I think every family is constantly growing and seeking solutions to their 'problem' area and of course some families have things that are real burdens to deal with.
My heart especially goes out to the families that have dear children that have special learning and behavioral needs.
These area some resources that can give some encouragement and even if you can not afford special services they can give you as a parent ideas of what direction to go in.
Maverick Mind
Dianne Craft Child Diagnostics, INC
NATHHAN
One thing that impressed me about the Maverick Mind concepts is training the brain by giving it special exercises and then building upon that. Many things we deal with we think well I guess we just have to wait until the child 'matures' more but I am finding many things don't improve this way... though my eldest son in particular would be a great example of how some startling developmental issues have improved to a marked degree overtime I see he still has underlying problems that aren't just going away.
I ORDERED MAVERICK MIND FROM AMAZON INEXPENSIVELY UNDER $5.
I AM CONSIDERING SOME OF THE DIANE CRAFTS BOOKS.
AND I AM CONSIDERING THE NATHHAN SPEECH DEVELOPMENT GUIDES.
I am planning the new year around all the 'problem' areas that seem to have us stuck.
I am thinking more in terms of what each child needs rather than how to make things easier by doing group stuff. We certainly will benefit from this in the long run as they get over their individual hurdles then we can actually do more as a group then ever before.
Also instead of thinking of all the physically active things we can do in the Spring and Summer I am going to keep up with the mind stretching activities.
I am going through all my resources and making decisions on if and what to invest in.
I know I have a lot for the little girls to do.
Though a lot of the stuff I have for grade schoolers are possibly too challenging right yet for the boys. If I can take the basic ideas-subject matters and tailor the lessons in a way that they can work in steps toward a higher level of competency on the same lesson...I think this will keep us focused and able to see more progress. It is hard to recognize progress sometimes when you use eclectic base lessons.
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• Dec. 13, 2008 - Weather-lapbook
I was looking at my pdf.s for all the lapbooking stuff I'd downloaded from currclicks -freebies.
And we have a nice one about weather from HoC - Hands of a Child.
I am having Luke and Tim do one together... thought we'd do a little each week and let it run through the seasons of the year.
Luke sat a glass jar out to collect the rapidly falling snow last night and we measured precipitation by first measuring as snow and then after melted.
A full jar of snow quickly became a few ounces of water when brought in doors.
Observing that the ice in this cup will amount to far more than if it was light fluffy snow that filled it.
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• Dec. 12, 2008 - Lapbooking
• Dec. 9, 2008 - The Snowy Day
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats was a great read to open up our study on snow - water.
We did a few things suggested here at enchanted learning and used the worksheets from kidzone.
the water cycle
snowflake crystals
Worksheets
I also added some review on the creation and day of water... we used a few nice Rod and Staff books.
The First Heavy Snow Fall for our area - Dec. 17, 2008
Lina getting Dressed
Sophia
Out the Door-not much growing...But what a lovely pine.
Sophia deciding what to do with all that white stuff.
And the fun begins...
A little walk...
They were already crying to go in because they'd gotten frozen fingers after removing their mittens |
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• Dec. 2, 2008 - Storytelling
I decided to have the boys to do some storytelling regularly. I think this will help them become better readers. Of course there are many other benefits too like entertaining younger siblings and developing memory skills.
Tim did a great job retelling the account of Moses last night -one of his favorites from the Bible. |
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• Dec. 2, 2008 - Swiss Family Robinson
We have been listening to classics on librivox
Swiss Family Robinson has been such a treat for Luke - he is excited to be at the last two chapters and ready to move onto Treasure Island!
Don't miss out on this great public domain resource!
I also found that on The Homeschool Helper
there are many free unit studies outlined that are great follow up for reading through each chapter of a good book and adding to the discussion. |
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