Jan. 2, 2007 - An interview with Amy!

For those of you who have been reading Reforming Motherhood for any length of time, you'll know that until recently, my dear friend Amy blogged here with me.  Don't we miss her?  (I assure you, I ask her frequently if she'd like to start blogging again, and her answer is always a firm NO. :()  Some of you have asked about her in comments or emails, so I thought I'd conduct a little "interview" of sorts with her so that you can be updated on what she's up to. 

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Hey Amy!  Thank you for joining us.  First and foremost, (because I know everyone wants to know) how are you and that baby?  Give us as many details as you can about this pregnancy and your precious little one.

Hi guys!  Long time no write.  I don't usually do interviews with anyone less famous than Oprah, but since it is my dearest friend Stacy who asked I am happy to oblige (for a small fee).  I am happy to do it as I am a regular lurker on all your blogs but (I must confess) do not comment that often.

I am so happy to report that the baby in my womb and I are doing well.  I love to feel the strong kicks and am so thankful that everything is and has gone as well as it did with my three boys. I am scheduled to be induced THIS WEEK!  We do not know if it is a boy or a girl.  (I am dying to know of course and can’t wait until I find out!) 

I have contractions all the time and the baby is really low (it feels like the baby is between my knees) but I am not worried as this is how it went with my last baby.  It just means (for me) that when things do happen they happen really fast and pretty easy.  Nice, huh?  

That is pretty much all there is to report on that… you know how it is at the end of pregnancy. I have a million little complaints and it is hard to be patient, but as God so clearly points out in His word, we do not know when labor will happen! And in the meantime, I get to thoroughly enjoy sleeping through the night!

Thanks!  I am SO with you on the "dying to know" part.  :) 

Now, will you tell us how your first year of homeschooling is going?  What curriculum are you doing, and what has your favorite subject/resource been?

With our oldest, (who just turned 6 at the end of October), we are doing a mosaic of things and I am really happy with our choices. We seem to have found the things that work best for Aidan. As far as what level, he is doing a mixture of Kindergarten and First grade work.

For history and read-alouds, we are using Sonlight, and I am happy with the books and schedule.

For our readers and phonics we use the Phonics Museum from Veritas Press.  At first, I was not super happy with it, but I've learned to just pick and choose what I think he needs to do instead of trying to do what the teachers book says.  Since I've made that change I'm really happy with it. The readers have really captured his attention in a way that other books (like Dick and Jane, for example) would not have.

For math, we are using Math-U-See and I love it!   Aidan loves it but I really love it.  I cannot believe that I did not learn math this way!  It has taught me so much already and I am so thankful to have found this program!

Our church has an awesome catechism/Sunday school program, so I haven't added a Bible curriculum as I feel the lessons and memory work are enough for right now. We just daily work on Bible memory and catechism.  In addition to going over it at breakfast I have him write out his verses to practice his handwriting.  I am happy with this. 

I guess I can’t say what my favorite is because I am happy with it all for right now!  (Is it because we are only on week 16? :))

Give us a peek into a day of school with Aidan.  What is your schedule?  And what are the younger boys doing while you're schooling Aidan?

I have been amazed at how intuitive homeschooling has been.  Maybe it won’t be when we are doing more and at higher levels, but I thought that once I "really" started school I would be constantly checking lists and schedules and working hard weekly at charts etc.  Instead, we go about our week plugging away at each subject and at the end of each week I am pleased with what we have accomplished.

And of course much of what we do is ripped off from you wonderful homeschooling moms who are so gracious as to blog about your homeschooling life.  I wonder if part of our ease is because I have been reading and observing how other families do it for the last six years!

Our schedule goes like this:  At breakfast we go over our memory work.  If it seems the boys are rowdy I have them do their chores.  If they seem calm and happy to stay at the table, I have Aidan write out his scripture verse (only a part of it at a time) and I give Luke (4) a worksheet.  Ethan (my VERY BUSY 20-month old) gets to color or have a snack or a toy (hopefully still in his highchair).  This does not last very long, but long enough so that at the end of the week Aidan has written all of his verse. That is my simple goal for him in this area right now.

After I have cleaned up the kitchen and started laundry or whatever I needed to do, we all go upstairs for our school time.  We begin with Ethan's "school", and we all do it together.  We sit on a mat and sing a song we learned at the library and then do an action rhyme or song (like Going On a Bear Hunt or something). 

For Luke, we read his "school" book from Picture Book Preschool.  We are only doing this because he really wants to "do school" when his big brother does.   I am amazed, though, at how much he is learning by simply being around while we do school with Aidan.  While we're doing Luke's school,  Ethan either stays with us for the book (if he is doing well) or goes into his room with a gate (if he his not).

Finally, we do Aidan’s school.  Aidan gets distracted really easily so we all separate for this.  Ethan is in his room with toys; Luke does either an activity in a bag or some other "station."  This is when Aidan reads out loud to me.  He reads six pages a day and we try to do it every day.  At first, I was trying to do the whole book and he hated it (and I hated nagging him to be diligent), so I reduced it to ten pages.  One day, my husband did school with the boys while I was at the doctor and he thought I only did five pages and it went really smoothly for them.  Mike told me five was enough and so we made the change.  Aidan was no longer grumbling about it!  He immediately began to enjoy this part of our day.  Then when he turned six, he informed me we should change it to six pages.  (I will not be surprised on the day he announces he wants to do the whole book again!)

After Aidan's school time, the boys go outside or around the house for some active play.

Before lunch (if it works time-wise) we do the table work (if we had not done it after breakfast) or we do math or reading comprehension.  Luke and Ethan either do worksheets for fun or play dough or something.

Right before "naptime", I read from Aidan’s read-aloud and/or from his history.

After naps Aidan and I do math together if we had not done it earlier in the day.

Any additional thoughts before you go?   

I am really thankful that actually "doing" this homeschool thing and not just reading about it has only strengthened my resolve that it is the right thing. No one else would or could pay this much attention to what works for my sons and what is best for them.  In the end the younger ones get a better deal, too.  Most of the time when I am "doing school" with these sweet boys it is with their arms around my shoulder or mine around them.  And that's exactly how I want their childhoods to be.

 Amy, thank you so much for taking the time to "stop by".  I know our readers will love hearing about you and your full days!  :)

I love you, my dear friend. 

Nov. 19, 2006 - Praying for the nations

When we were in the process of adopting our son from Guatemala, we bought a set of maps at Costco.  We put the world map on top of our table and then covered it with a clear tablecloth.  We spent a lot of time pointing to Guatemala on the map, and showing our children where it was in relation to where we live, and talking about how daddy and mommy would go there to pick up their new baby brother.  In addition to all the attention Guatemala got, our map made for great conversation when we had guests over.  Where have you been?  Where would you most like to visit?  Where do you not have a desire to travel, ever?  Which country would you like to learn more about?  Which country would you adopt from? 

I soon tired of it covering our table, so I moved it.  (Perhaps because my husband's favorite game was to quiz me on geography and countries, and I tell you, those are not my gifts. :))

It now hangs on the wall near our kitchen table.  We're using it for something a little different these days...

We came home one night recently after hearing the Uganda Children's Choir sing.  Our children were anxious to talk about the children from Uganda; what they looked like, how they sang and danced, and where was Uganda?  I said we would find it on the map when we got home.  And then I suggested that we should remember to pray for the country of Uganda, because so many of the children there are homeless and orphaned.  The following night we pointed out Uganda on the map, and prayed after dinner for the people of Uganda.

This experience made me think: we should do this more often.  So I ordered the book Operation World by Patrick Johnstone.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this book, Operation World is a global prayer guide.  It is a wonderful resource that informs readers how to most effectively pray for each country.

We've begun using it, in conjunction with our map, to pray for people around the world.  My original idea was to have one of our children choose a country- by pointing on the map- each night as we sat down to dinner.  Then after dinner, Mark or I would thumb through the pages for that country and choose one or two prayer requests, share them with our children, and go around the table, each of us taking our turn to pray for the needs of that particular country. 

My original plan of every-night-after-dinner isn't happening.  After all, we're still trying to get into the habit of having family devotions after dinner, too.  And we often forget that.  I suggested to my husband that we do it every other night (the night we're not doing family devotions, we'll pray).  But so far we're averaging about once a week.  (Which is more than what we were doing before!)

We have prayed for the countries of Uganda, Russia, Brazil,  Japan, Madagascar and Canada-- each at the request of one of our children.

There is such value in giving our children a heart for the nations; in taking their eyes off the world as they know it and praying for those who are orphaned, dying, living in tremendous poverty, and worshipping other gods.  It has been a joy for us to hear the prayers offered up by our children on behalf of the people from these countries. 

~Stacy

Sep. 22, 2006 - Another craft idea

Are you familiar with those bags of Chex Mix snacks?  You know, the ones with the chex cereals and the bagel chips and all that yummy seasoning?  And all the different flavors they come up with?  They've got the Traditional flavor but then they also have Honey Nut and Peanut Butter and Caramel Crunch?  Here.  These:

Mmmm.  I like those.  I personally prefer the salty ones but I realize some of you may be prone to the sweet varieties.  There's only one part of those party mixes that I don't like.  The pretzels.  I appreciate all the other stuff, but the pretzels I can do without.  My children eat around them, too.  My husband will eat the pretzels but only because he wants a snack and all the 'good stuff' is already gone. 

Recently I was munching away and ended up staring at the remaining pretzels in the bowl.  I tried to convince my brother-in-law to eat them, and he ate a few, and then I had this great idea so yanked the bowl away from him to rescue the pretzels.  The next day we made these projects:

Now scroll back up and look at that Chex Mix bag pictured above.  See the other type of pretzel offered?  We didn't have those last time!  Next time we're making houses.  With windows. 

 

~Stacy

*I realize some of you may not eat Chex Mix, or may even like the pretzels that are in these.  But you can still get crafty.  There are always cheerios.  Or buttons.  Or pennies.  Or little pieces of paper cut out in the right shapes.  And you can skip the cars and make trains!  (What child wouldn't think that would be fun?) :)

Sep. 18, 2006 - Easy (and fun!) craft idea

May. 5, 2006 - A Filing of Ideas

So now whenever I read or hear of an idea, curriculum, book, game, anything homeschool-related, I grab my box, my favorite pen, and an index card (sometimes some scissors, too- if I want a picture of the item) and go to town!  This has been a great resource for me to go back to already- when I think, "What was the name of that book...?"  Hopefully it will continue to be a resource for us in the years to come, too!

~Stacy

Apr. 19, 2006 - Sweet Success!

I also began an official table time. A practices his writing, L is working on letter pages and E has various things to play with that he gets only during this time (or he does art J). I have found we get more mileage out of their attention spans by changing locations and venue.

So there is my success story. I feel like it has really been a group success in that I could not have reached this homeschooling milestone (of actually starting J) without the help of my friends on and offline. So thank you for your help and encouragement. My family is reaping the benefits!

--Amy

Apr. 6, 2006 - Our alphabet pages

We're not actually homeschooling yet, as our oldest is only four.  So instead of schoolwork we end up doing a lot of projects.  The purpose behind this one was to help my daughter learn her letters and to have fun in the process.  We go through the alphabet, one letter at a time (currently we're on P), and spend some time with scissors and magazines, cutting out all the P's we can find (we do capital letters) and all the pictures of things we can think of (or find) that begin with the letter P.  Today our daughter (and daddy!) worked on her P-page.  She starts by writing the letter on the page. 

Then they found lots of P's as well as pictures of a puppy, peanut butter, pillows, peas, pants, paints, pizza, peaches and pens- all on a piece of pink paper.  They even glued a penny on.  When we finish a page we hang it up in our living room.  (We're using 12x12 paper, though, so we're quickly running out of hanging room! :))  Here's a picture I took of one of the inside of our front door:

We have lots of fun with this.  We did our F-page on a piece of foil.  Whenever we can we cut out pictures of family and friends and put them on our pages, too! :) 

~Stacy 

Apr. 4, 2006 - Current Struggles

Some things go right, some things don’t.  Have you noticed this?  Well here is a struggle I am having as I am just barely getting started in this world of “official” homeschooling.  Let me just interrupt to say that I get that homeschooling starts the minute one becomes a mom, but you know what I mean.  Anyway, I am now actually trying to accomplish some goals with my boys, well my two older ones anyway.  And can I just say, I NEED MORE HOURS IN THE DAY!  I think it is hilarious that I am even saying this because I know many a mom who are looking at the clock waiting for the day to be over.  And I will admit that in that last bit while we are waiting for daddy to come home, I have been known to be clock gazing.  But really, I am finding it very difficult to do very little purposeful “bookwork” with the boys.  So, please tell me you wiser women who have been there (as I am VERY green at this) does it get easier?  Does something magically click into place and the one page a day that I am teaching my oldest to read and the few worksheets a week that we try to do turn into more?  The issues I am having include 15 month old upset because he is not getting attention, the child I am not working with interrupting, a dirty diaper, a nose that needs wiped and various other mishaps (someone gets hurt, or stuck, or someone calls, or I spill my coffee, I really could go on).  Now, I know that I need to train the baby.  And I’m working on it --I am.  Don’t worry.  I believe God’s Word and I know that I am the boss and that baby can learn to be content not being the center.  I am working on it.  But anyone who has been there knows that training the baby means stopping what you are doing and in order to do that.  Thus we don’t get far.  And I have to deal with mommy guilt too.  Like “is this asking too much that baby plays ALL ALONE (or with only one brother) for 30 minutes?”  And, if we do accomplish that how much can I really do in 15 minutes per boy?  I think my motives and goals are reasonable.  I am not trying to keep up with the Jones’s really I’m not, I am simply wanting to capitalize on the fact that my five-year-old is wanting to learn to read and when we can focus enough to do it he excels.  And my three-year-old relishes the 15 minutes of sitting on my lap “doing school.”  I have found the excellent web site preschoolersandpeace.com and I am beginning to employ some of her excellent ideas.  I’m just asking will we get there?  Will it happen?  Or am I too far to hope to arrive anytime soon? 

I have to be honest and say that I am really embarrassed to write this.  I mean, I believe in well-trained children.  I believe in self-discipline.  I believe in reading God’s Word and asking for His help.  But the paragraph above betrays that my practices are not lining up with my beliefs.  I could delete it and you would never know my struggles.  But I want help and stories of others who have been at this beginning stage more than I want to look like I’ve got it all together.  Plus a little humility never hurt anyone.

-Amy