My Fenced In Family - Homeschool Blogger

Homeschool Crew

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:05:00 -0500

I am happy to report that I was chosen as one of the 100 reviewers needed by The Old Schoolhouse for their special focus group! We are being called The Homeschool Crew, and you can read the blog devoted to our project at The Crew Blog. It contains a list of the vendors that have signed up (so far!) to offer their products for review.

I'm excited about getting started and can't wait to share my reviews with you all.

On another note, I'd like to invite everyone to visit my new blog over at my new Fenced in Family web site. My husband and I are trying to start a small family-based homeschool business. We don't have anything for sale yet since we're just getting started, but we plan to offer craft materials, e-book format lesson plans on certain "elective" subjects, and more. I have lots of ideas that God has given me, and I'm looking forward to sharing them with my fellow homeschoolers.

I've posted on the new blog about a variety of things. I'd especially like for you to read the entry titled To The Edge of the Universe and ask that you please leave a comment if you have any thoughts on the subject. I'd love to hear what your children think too!

School or Not

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:32:00 -0500

It's amazing how school goes around here. I feel like I'm constantly making schedules, tweaking schedules, and making lesson plans. Just when I think I've got everything working well, something happens to change or interrupt. I think it's God keeping me humble.

Last week, my two older boys spent the week with my parents, so of course we had no school. I had everything ready to get back into the swing of things when they came home. We started yesterday morning with Bible and then math, and things went very well. Just after math, we heard "honk honk" from the driveway. A good friend had brought her children over for a visit unexpectedly. We hadn't had a visit from them in probably three months, so we were all very happy. While they were here, Nicholas (who had a cold) went to bed and fell asleep. He slept for two hours, waking up just a few minutes after our friends left. He had a fever then, so I couldn't possibly make him do any work.

Today, we have an appointment this afternoon, I had to sit on hold with the phone company for quite a while this morning (our phone service has been static-only since Saturday! I called them from the cell phone, which gets horrible single here at the house), and all three kids still have colds! So I don't see much point in trying to do any school work.

Nicholas did ask some Bible questions this morning that I intend to answer, so at least we'll cover the most important subject.

It just seems funny to me sometimes how all my visions and plans never come to pass. It reminds me to put my faith in Him and not in the plans of my own mind.

Erskine Family

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:47:00 -0500

Have you heard of the Erskine family? They operate the web sites for Homeschool Radio Shows and Homeschool Freebie of the Day. Our family has been listening to the radio programs they provide (for free!) for over a year now, and we have all learned to love them. I'll admit, at first it was difficult to get everyone to sit down and listen to them, but now the kids ask for one almost every day. Their favorite recently was on Lewis & Clark. My all time favorite wasn't a program exactly, but a song–The Little Red Caboose (chug chug chug!) Even the baby likes that one.

The Freebies they give away each weekday are wonderful for any homeschool family. Mostly they are Ebooks but occasionally you can get an audio program. Recently I downloaded an ebook on cutting hair that was published in the 1950s. I've been cutting the family hair (well, not my own!) for several years now but have never felt like I do a good job. The ebook gave me quite a few tips and ideas to get a better look and showed me how to cut based on an individual's unique shape. Some of the freebies are pure fun, like the ebook The Secrets of Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, while others are educational and cover topics from astronomy to history to sewing and quiltmaking.

Each freebie is available for only one day, so you have to be quick. I had a terrible time remembering to go to the site each day (even with the wonderful Head's Up reminder that the Erskines send out each Monday). I finally hit on the idea of making the Homeschool Freebie of the Day page my browser's homepage. Now it loads each time I open my browser, and I never forget to download the freebie!

Just Mom & Baby

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:26:00 -0500

Well, it's an interesting morning. The two older boys left with my parents yesterday and will be spending a week with them. (They live about two hours away.) Jon's at work, so it's just me and Robert this morning. Things are quieter than usual, and I'm seeing a lovely lack of books and toys on the couches.

The last time they went to spend a week with Mama and Papa was December last year. They left the evening after we had Nicholas' seventh birthday party, and I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with Robert. I went to bed and cried after they drove off. I knew they'd be fine, of course, but I missed them so much already. It was the first time either of them had gone to spend the night with someone in two years. (We had done a lot of moving, so there hadn't been enough stability to be doing things like that.) Everyone kept telling me to enjoy the quiet and enjoy being alone, but it was simply too quiet in this house! On that Monday with Jon at work and the boys gone, I didn't know what to do with myself. I dug out old home video tapes from when James was about a year old and Nicholas was four. They were so cute and sweet!

Of course the next day, Tuesday, Jon took off work early to go with me to an OB appointment. That's when they admitted me to the hospital because of extremely high blood pressure and I didn't get to leave again for a week. Robert was born that Friday. I promised Nicholas I wouldn't have a baby while he was gone this time!

This week, I actually have some plans for filling the week. Now that I'm doing freelance writing, I've got a couple projects I can work on while they're gone. I'm also planning to complete our Konos lesson plans for the rest of the fall and maybe even start on the spring ones. I'm going to try to finish up the Bible Institute course that I've been working on since July. I won't be getting bored this week.

Years ago, when James was about nine or ten months, Nicholas spent a week with Mama and Papa and James stayed home. He would climb up on our couch and look at Nicholas' picture hanging on the wall. He'd just stare and then look at me questioningly. It was so cute that he knew Nicholas was gone and wondered why. I'm curious to see how Robert acts as the week goes on. I'm sure he'll enjoy the extra attention anyway.

Family By God

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 16:01:00 -0500

As you know from reading my blog, I have three wonderful sons. Nicholas is now 7 3/4, James is 4 1/2, and Robert is nine months.

When I was pregnant with Nicholas, a lady I knew told me about the book by Sheila Kippley Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing. I loved the book and I find it fascinating that God has provided a means of conception-suppression when babies are young. I began to learn that birth control pills (which I had taken for a year before becoming pregnant with Nicholas) don't prevent conception, they just prevent the completion of a pregnancy. My husband and I decided that I wouldn't take birth control pills any more. We took a Natural Family Planning course from Couple to Couple League, which is a Catholic organization that teaches couples how to monitor the wife's fertility in order to space children without tying God's hands through sterilization or chemical means of birth control. (We're not Catholic but appreciate the information we received from CCL.)

I became pregnant a second time when Nicholas was almost two but miscarried at about seven weeks. It took us another nine months to get pregnant again (and we were really trying!). James arrived when Nicholas was 3 1/2 years old. He was a difficult, fussy, high-need baby and I decided I never wanted another baby. Though we chose not to do anything permanent, we used barrier methods of birth control for three years.

Right after James turned three, I thought one day, "I'd like another baby." I was convinced it just had to be a girl the third time around! Of course, Jon said, "Okay!" About a week and a half later, we were having some money problems and I told him it probably wasn't a good time to get pregnant and that I wasn't sure that I wanted another one anyway. God had His way though....it was too late, I was already pregnant! Robert arrived when Nicholas was seven and James was 3 1/2.

In all three pregnancies, I developed pre-eclampsia which became worse each time. Because of it, Robert was born six weeks early, weighed less than four and a half pounds, and had to be fed by syringe for over a week before he figured out how to nurse. His weight gain was very slow, and he only weighed seven pounds at three months old. Around 4 1/2 months, he started gaining well and now weighs a healthy 16 pounds.

What I'm getting at is that I question this "family unplanning" thing. I believe that God wants us to prayerfully make each decision in life, including whether to have another child and when. Given my history of pre-eclampsia and also given the fact that our financial situation is not great, I wonder if the "no birth control/planning at all" way of life is the right choice for us.

I would love to have more children and still hold a glimmer of a dream that I could someday have a daughter. There is definitely room in my heart and life for more children. My primary hesitation is my health with finances being secondary.

Quiverfull Family Blog is holding a contest to give away five copies of Craig Houghton's book Family UNplanning. I decided to enter the contest anbd give the outcome to God. If He wants me to read this information and lead my life a certain way, I'll get the book. If not, I believe that, too, is a message from Him. I'm thankful for the path He's put me on.

Mom's Apron

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:07:00 -0500

This isn't homeschool related, but I wanted to share a link for an apron giveaway on a friend's blog. Go to Sallie's Seaside Tales Blog for a chance to win either a Regency Apron or an Amish Apron Pattern from Amelia's Aprons.

Growing up, my mom never wore an apron, but my grandmother always did. Every time she cooked, she'd tie on her apron. She kept them in a drawer, and her sister (who lived right next door) also had a drawer-full of aprons. They were the 1950s style "half" aprons that went from the waist to around knee-length. My cousin (whose grandmother was my grandmother's sister) and I would dig out those aprons and have the best time wearing them and playing restaurant or house or anything else we could think of. My favorite was a green one, and my cousin's favorite was an orange one made from a sheer, gauzy material. Not sure that one had much practical-use!

When my cousin's grandmother passed away, we couldn't find any of the aprons. When my grandmother passed away, I could only find one blue one. I still have the blue one, but I've often wondered what happened to any of the others.

I actually prefer a full length apron, though–with a bodice and a long skirt portion. I think it looks nicer. Check out that Edwardian apron on Amelia's Apron–absolutely beautiful!

School Year 2008-2009 Has Begun!

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:16:00 -0500

We officially started our new school year on Monday, and things are going quite well. Because of all the time we took off last winter when Robert was born, we didn't have a real summer break this year. We continued with lessons about three days a week on a very loose, minimal schedule.

Last week, I decided we'd start back with a full schedule on August 18. No more fiddling!

The Old Schoolhouse Planner has been invaluable in getting my year started. I scheduled our school days using their Weekly Planner 2 page and scheduled our household cleaning tasks (some of them) using their Family Chore Chart page. I'm not a neat housekeeper by nature, I NEED some kind of schedule (prominently posted) to keep me on track. I've been off track for a long time, and the Family Chore Chart has finally gotten me back on the right path. Since I printed it out, I've cleaned both bathrooms (in the last week, it's a miracle!), the kitchen floor has been swept every day except Sunday, and I even mopped the kitchen and one bathroom. That may seem like another day at the office for many of you, but it's a big deal for me.

I'm going to share my daily/weekly school schedule in another post. Having this prominently posted has made our school days go very smoothly. We all know what's coming up next, when we'll get breaks, etc.

Yes that's a shameless plug for the TOS Planner....I love it! And no I don't work for them...

To ease back into our school year, I bought an audio unit study on time from Homeschool Radio Shows. I've been getting the weekly free program from HRS for over a year, but in the last few months, I've begun to love them more and more. We listened to a very good program on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which had my kids sitting on the edge of their seats. When I saw that HRS was releasing a time unit study, I thought it sounded fascinating. How DID worldwide standard time come about anyway? I wanted the unit study for my own education as much as for the boys.

We're nearly finished now with the main part of the study and have enjoyed working on the lap book and listening to the stories. There are several additional stories that we can listen to next week as well. After that, we're going to begin the Konos unit on Stewardship....which includes a section on time! Though I knew we'd be working on Stewardship this fall (I made our "lifetime schedule" way back in 2005), I did not realize that it contained a section on time. So buying the Homeschool Radio Shows time unit just when we're about to begin the Konos Stewardship unit was a complete coincidence (undoubtedly orchestrated by God).

Another interesting thing God did regarding time studies.... I recently received a copy of the spring issue of TOS which I hadn't seen before because my subscription had lapsed. In that issue, which I just received Tuesday, there is a wonderful article called The Science of Time and Sir Sandford Fleming. Sir Fleming is the man who had the idea to place the entire world on standard time in 24 one-hour blocks. It had never occurred to me before beginning this unit study to wonder how exactly the whole world agreed on time. From the TOS article, I learned that India and the middle portion of Australia are not on standard time. They are a half hour off from the rest of the world! Can you imagine? I think it seems especially strange in the case of Australia. When it is 5:00 in eastern Australia (Sydney) and 3:00 in western Australia (Perth), it's 4:30 in the middle of Australia. Very weird!

One more note on time zones: The entire country of China is on ONE time zone. I tried to figure it out, and I think that if the sun rises at 6am in Beijing, which is where I assume they base the "proper" time from, it doesn't rise until 9am in the far western part of the country. If it sets at 8pm in Beijing (in summer), it wouldn't set until 11pm or later in the western portion.

We're leaving this evening to go on a trip for the weekend. We'll be going to Dayton, Ohio, hometown of the Wright Brothers, to visit the Air Museum at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We studied the Wright Brothers and flight in general as part of the Trust unit in Konos this summer.

We're also going to spend a couple days in Jeffersonville, Indiana (just across the river from Louisville, KY) to attend a special birthday celebration for the pastor of our church headquarters there. Her name is Rev. B.R. Hicks, and she will be 90 years old a week from today! She still preaches at least one service a week and is a wonderful servant of God, a beautiful example of Jesus on earth.

While there we'll go to the Louisville Zoo (our two youngest boys have never been to a zoo), to the Louisville Slugger Museum, and to the Falls of the Ohio. It'll be our first vacation in two years, and we're all very excited!

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine digital

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:15:00 -0500

The Old Schoolhouse has gone digital!

About a month and a half ago, I discovered that TOS is now available in a digital format, completely integrated into the internet but viewable even when you're not online. Unlike other digital versions of print magazines, TOS Digital retains all of its gorgeous graphics and maintains the feel of its print edition. It is easy to browse page by page or you can easily jump to whatever page you want.

One fantastic feature of the digital version is that if you're looking at the table of contents and see an article you'd like to read, you can simply click on its title and be taken directly to that page. You can't do that in the print edition!

All web site links, in articles and in advertisements, are "clickable" the same way. This makes it super easy to go to a web site that interests you.

Perhaps the best feature of TOS Digital is its price. You'll save about $10 off the print edition, which is excellent for all of us budget-conscious homeschoolers!

The Old Schoolhouse Planner

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:00:00 -0500

Ever full of exciting, original, and usable resources for homeschoolers, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has come out with its own Schoolhouse Planner.

Where can I begin to describe this planner? It's everything you would expect and so much more that you would never expect! The table of contents alone spans three pages.

Forms, Forms, Forms

Forms, charts, and organizational tools abound in the Schoolhouse Planner. Forms vary from the extremely broad "Twelve-Year Planning Pages" to the detailed "High School Hours Tracking Log" and "Daily Recording Sheet" in two formats. In between you have every type of form you can imagine, plus many more that I guarantee you've never thought of yourself! Weekly plans, progress reports, test score records, and many more. Nearly every form comes in at least two formats so you can pick the one you like best. Some are set up to record information for only one child, while others include space for multiple children. Forms to record unit study information and forms for unschoolers to record life learning events are not left out of this amazing planner.

The Schoolhouse Planner also offers pages for keeping track of Bible Verse Memorization and other Memory Work (such as poems and speeches). I personally love the inclusion of these pages as I definitely need the help keeping track of what memory work my children are doing!

Household management forms are also included, from chore charts to food inventory lists, from a babysitter's information sheet to a page for recording your family's health. I cannot begin to list every type of form available, but rest assured that the list is nearly endless.

Educational Resources

The Schoolhouse Planner is not just a planner! Every major document from United States history has been pulled into this one volume–Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, Louisiana Purchase, and many more. You will find a timeline of inventions, two lists of the Presidents (one with their Vice Presidents and one with their wives), and the periodic table. This planner will last for years in resource value alone. Any time you need a certain resource for your schooling, you're almost certain to find it within the pages of the Schoolhouse Planner. Let's say you're studying the Civil War, the planner contains both the Gettyburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. No more searching the web for these materials, just go to your planner.

Recipes

More than two dozen recipes are another "beyond the planner" feature. The fare varies from the simple (homemade cornbread) to the fancy (risotto with artichoke hearts and shrip). Your family could try two new dishes a month for the next year and still not wear out the offerings in this cookbook...I mean, school planner!

Encouraging Articles

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is famous for its unending supply of informative, encouraging, and inspiring articles. The Schoolhouse Planner is no exception. It is chockfull of articles on a variety of subjects for parents of toddlers to parents of high schoolers.

I thought I was getting a planner to help me organize my homeschool day, but I really got a cookbook, a magazine, a history book, an atlas, and a lifetime supply of all the forms and charts that I could ever want.

TOS has really outdone themselves with this planner. Within an hour of downloading it, I had printed off about 20 pages that I wanted to use for planning. I placed several of them into clear sheet protectors and used 'sticky tacky' to hang them on the wall. We now have a convienent way to keep track of what lessons we accomplish each day, what books we read, and when certain chores get done–no more asking "When was the last time I mopped anyway?"

These are 247 pages that I will never exhaust!

West Virginia State Fair

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:08:00 -0500

The 2008 West Virginia State Fair is just around the corner. This is a nine-day event held every year near the city of Lewisburg, WV. There are basically three sections to the Fair: The competitions, the races, and the carnival.

Competitions are held in virtually every category, from livestock of all types to biggest ear of corn, from needle crafts to cakes and pies. You can view entries from all over the state in each category. Beautiful quilts, elegant hand-knitted shawls, intricate cross stitch samplers can be found in the home crafts building. All manner of vegetables, fruits, and grains are located in the garden building, which is air conditioned!

Last year, my family especially enjoyed the animal exhibitions. We saw sheep, cows, goats, pigs, rabbits and horses of every type. Some of those rabbits looked like they'd stuck their little claws in an electrical socket! (This year I'll remember to take my camera.) We saw a team of eight draft horses hitched to a very tall carriage. It was a beautiful sight with the strong, regal horses pawing the ground and shaking their massive heads, manes flying and bells and harnesses jingling. We could almost feel their power coming through the ground.

We also had the opportunity to watch a miniature pony race in which women dressed in fancy dresses and hats reminiscent of the Kentucky Derby drove tiny carts hitched behind their ponies. The contrast between the elegantly dressed ladies and the tiny carts with tiny ponies was quite comical!

Each year, visitors to the WV State Fair have a chance to see a cow give birth at the Mooternity. We waited for a while last year but weren't there at the right time....maybe this year!

Exhibitors not only show off their animals, produce, and handcrafted items, they also demonstrate their crafts. I enjoyed watching a woman spin wool into yarn on a spinning wheel and on a drop spindle. She was so kind to show both and explain how they work. I was carried back in time!

Can't wait to go again in just a few short weeks...!