I have homeschooled for sixteen years. Our oldest recently graduated from college, another is a sophomore in college & our youngest is in 7th grade. I would like to offer encouragement to those who are just beginning to homeschool, as well as those whose children are considering college. It takes commitment to remain in homeschooling for the long haul. I would also like others to know that their homeschooled children can succeed in college and in their personal and professional lives. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 6 Nov 2007 08:46:00 -0600 Tue, 6 Nov 2007 08:46:00 -0600 I have a dear friend about ten years younger than I.  She has five children ages 5-15 & she homeschools.  They live in a big farm-style house on 100 acres.  It warms my heart to picture her homeschooling her children.  I think about how she bakes muffins, reads to her children, plays dress up, tends to all the "pets" they find on their land, memorizes Scripture and makes meals for her elderly neighbor. She doesn't necessarily do all those things everyday!  Her children observe her serving others cheerfully and they, too, have become servants.  Why do I write this?  I write it because you are all doing that in one way or another.  You are devoted to your families and to directing the education of your children.  It warms my heart to read about all the wonderful things you are doing that are unique to your families.  Scripture commands us "to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn."  We needn't ever be jealous when one family has discovered an important new method of homeschooling & all their children seem to be doing well.  We should rejoice with them!  We don't have to pattern our homeschool after there's.  God has a unique plan for us & entrusted us with our children.  I thought about what the "broader" picture of rejoicing with those who rejoice is. Children who are home with their parents and are being trained by their parents can certainly affect the world in which you & I live!  Have you ever been in a store or business & a young person has waited on you cheerfully?  They dealt with you honestly and went the extra mile in helping you?  Where did they learn to do that.  Hopefully, at home!  When we rejoice with others, we are encouraging them to stay the course.  Anyone out there ever need encouragement?  Ummm....how about me!  It is so easy to lose our focus & get into the comparison trap.  Most of the time, what someone else is doing, may not work for us for many reasons.  We can still rejoice that it works for them!  I also want to mention that there are wonderfully trained public-school children whose parents care so I don't want to insinuate that we've got the market cornered on that.  I know some of those children.  We can rejoice with them also.  Are you a rejoicer?  Are you a mourner?  Do you pray for other homeschooled families?  I need to have an attitude of rejoicing with other homeschoolers.  It may truly be an encouragement to them.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/421983/ Tue, 6 Nov 2007 08:46:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/421983/ It is sometimes hard to believe, but one day, young mothers, you will have some time for other things.  None of the "other things" is as important or precious at raising your family, but these times can still be very sweet! I have taken an interest in growing herbs.  I've dabbled in it before, but didn't have time to tend to my fledgling plants.  Now, the time has come!  I am slowly adding to my "gardening" by the pot on my enclosed porch.  I love growing things!  You can take the girl out of Iowa, but you can't take the Iowa out of the girl!  Years ago, my mom gave me several embroidery squares that she had carefully stitched.  Each square contains a different American wildflower.  I put them in a container & stowed them away in my closet & thought, "someday, I'll do something with those."  I was reading my Martha Stewart magazine & there was an article on embroidery or "crewelwork."  I'm afraid it has becoming a lost art, along with so many other wonderful skills.  I remembered the squares my mom had made & took them out.  What a treasure they are!  My mom is 85 now & I told her that I am finally doing something with those squares.  I purchased some frames & will frame a few.  The others will become pillows.  I wanted her to know I was doing something with them.  I have several more & I plan to give them to my daughter & my two nieces.  We are a family of boys, but the three girls in the family will cherish them, I'm sure.  I never would've imagined that with just one child left at home who is almost thirteen, that I would run out of time each day.  I do!  I love it.  I'm busy with all those things that I stowed away in the closet of my mind.  One activity that is giving me much pleasure these days is preparing for my first grandchild, a little boy, who is due to arrive in January.  I love buying him things & boxing them up in care packages & mailing them.  The man at the post office laughs because each package gets heavier.  Last week's package weighed ELEVEN pounds!  My husband, son & I went to a university football game last night.  I now love football. Thankfully, from my cheerleading days, I know at least something about football!  On Tuesday, we're driving up to our older son's college.  It is his 20th birthday.  I'm just not ready to not see him on his birthday.  I've gotten to be with him for 19 birthdays &I'm just not ready to give that up yet :)  We're taking him to dinner & he is excited about that after many frozen pizzas in his apartment!  I am very glad that I still have one to homeschool.  I still love it.  I am also happy to be doing some other things.  I feel younger now than I did ten years ago.  I enjoy walks with my husband and leisurely meals.  There's so much in life to enjoy!  Savor the moments! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/416540/ Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:00:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/416540/ I've always believed that age is just a number.  I know that certain ages are considered milestones in ones' life.  Certainly that should be the case with this particular birthday.  Fifty, that's right one-half a century!  Why do I still feel like a little girl inside?  Should fifty year olds do karaoke with their twelve year old sons?  I say, "absolutely!"  I actually have a few songs down pretty well so when my twenty year old son came home from college last weekend, he was my captive audience.  He gave me a faint smile & some eye rolling of course, but I know he loves me & appreciates that I enjoy life.  Of course a fifty year old birthday would not be complete without a girls' lunch.  A group of my best homeschool mom buddies gathered at a restaurant for laughter & silly cards.  A few were alittle hilarious; others extolled all the wisdom I must surely possess at this grand old age, yeah right!  One of the best parts was just looking around & seeing the faces of moms who've stood in the trenches with me for all these many years of homeschooling--through times when we thought we just wouldn't make it.  We did.  Through concepts we never thought our children would learn.  They did.  Through hoping & praying our precious ones would find a mate.  They have.  Through thoughts of wondering if we would ever have any time to ourselves again.  We do.  Lunch was topped off by a huge chocolate peanut butter sundae with eight spoons.  Almost everyone had a bite, except those who were trying to be good.  It's alright to try to be good, but balance is important, too, and today I dug right into the chocolate.  I walk alot so just a few trips around the block and I'll be good to go.  Sometimes moms will pass in and out of your lives.  I believe those seasons are ordained by the Lord.  He places people in our path for a reason & on occasion rearranges those associations.  That needs to be okay with us.  When we see those who've come & gone from our lives at a later day, the catching up is surely sweet.  So as for advice from a fifty year old young lady:  Let God ordain your connections.  He know best even when we think we do!  A special thank you to Melissa, a fellow blogger, for convicting me to get back to my blog!  Thank you, Melissa!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/407893/ Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:52:01 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/407893/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/407890/ Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/407890/ Tonight we pick up our daughter & her husband at the airport.  They are flying in for the weekend.  They are away at graduate school.  Our son-in-law was asked to compose an orchestral piece to commemorate the centennial celebration of the university from which he graduated.  It was certainly an honor.  After many months, the overture was completed & now he & my daughter are returning for its debut performance by the symphony orchestra this weekend.  Following the concert, a reception will be held in his honor.  Can you tell how excited I am? In addition, I will see my daughter for the first time in 7 weeks.  During that time she has grown from 16 to 23 weeks pregnant.  If my grandson will cooperate on cue, I hope to be able to feel him as he moves around.  Apparently he moves all the time so my daughter may grow weary of me keeping my hand on her tummy :)  This precious couple was homeschooled, graduated from their homes & went on to graduate summa cum laude from college.  Did we always do everything we needed to do in our homeschool?  Dot every "i" and cross every "t?" Absolutely not!! Did we attempt to create a learning atmosphere & a love of learning in our homes?  Absolutely!  I am a parent in three very distinct seasons of life at this time.  The above is one season.  Our oldest son is a sophomore at a university 2.5 hours away & is living on his own now.  It has been a pleasure to see him mature, make responsible decisions & actually study for tests!!(Any moms of second-born sons, out there??)  :)  So in one breath I pray for my married daughter, her husband & our soon-to-be grandbaby & in another breath pray for my son in college & everything that goes along with that. In my third season, I am a homeschool mom of a 7th grade son.  I'm in the daily trenches just as you are.  I do find it easier now, of course, to get things done as we have fewer interruptions since there is just one in our school now.  In this season, there is more time for science experiments, reading, watching science or history on TV, etc... I was thinking how each of my three children's homeschool experience was (and is) different & how that is okay.  The Lord can guide me to make it what it needs to be for them in accordance with His plan for them.  I needn't spend time lamenting that I did this with this child & not with another.  It is what it is and it can be what it needs to be for that child.  It is easier to say this since I have seen that it works.  One bad homeschooling day, week, month or year does not need to define your homeschool experience, but rather will shape what you need to do next.  Press on!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/395045/ Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/395045/ In an earlier post, I mentioned "smorgasboard days" of homeschooling.  These are days in which you set aside textbooks and select random things to study.  These are days when much real learning takes place!  My oldest son used to refer to these days as "Milk and Honey" days.  My youngest son calls them "Salt and Pepper" days.  With much excitement, we set aside our textbooks today.  We began our day with Bible reading--a good way to start any day!  As my son ate his breakfast, I read aloud from an excellent book by children's author Jean Fritz called, THE GREAT LITTLE MADISON.  I highly recommend anything written by Jean Fritz whose genre is biographies and historical fiction.  In particular, this book by Fritz has truly enlightened us as to the difficult beginnings of our country.  We may be inclined to think that once the Revolutionary War was won, our Constitution was ratified and Washington became president, that it was smooth sailing from there on.  Not true!  There were attempts by various New England states to secede from our Union.  Presidents Jefferson & Madison had to constantly to battle with Federalists who desired a government more in the style of Great Britain's.  We had continuing problems with England and France at the same time eventually leading up to the War of 1812.  God's hand was upon our country in holding it together through tenuous times.  This wonderful book provides detailed information about the early days of our country. Back to our smorgasboard day!  My son & I walked around our house pointing to common & proper nouns which ended up in somewhat of a race.  Next we moved onto an outline map of the world where he filled in the seven contintents and four oceans.  We tossed a coin onto a large world map & wherever it landed that is the country we had to look up & discuss.  Or coin fell upon Greenland, the largest island in the world.  We'd known about Greenland's beginning during the time of Eric the Red, but we learned other interesting facts about this little-known country.   My son LOVES professional football & is in a fantasy football league with his dad & some other homeschooling fathers & sons.  I clipped an article out of yesterday's paper about the Dallas Cowboys/New York Giant's game.  I handed him a highlighter pen & asked him to highlight the most relevant facts in the article.  Then I asked him to narrow it down to the five most important facts.  Next he pointed out nouns and verbs in the article.  This is great note-taking practice should he attend college.  You have to be able to condense what an article or a teacher is stating.  Finally, he had to figure pass completion percentages & percent of total yards in passing for each team.  He loved this!  And just think--it's actually MATH! We also got out our Bibles & took turns calling out Scriptures & practiced quickly looking them up.  Out of that activity, we were reminded of a beautiful verse in Zephaniah.  How many of us would say to ourselves, "I think I'll read something in Zephaniah today?"  I know I wouldn't be inclined to do that yet it yielded this gem of a verse:  "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." v.17 How many of you have a need to be "quieted with His love?"  I certainly do!  As we ate lunch, we watched a program on the Travel Channel called "Passport to Europe."  I love watching this show.  Today the host was touring the Tuscany region of Italy, mainly Florence.  She toured the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio(important place in Renaissance history), a museum housing Michelangelo's statue of David & gave information on the foods of the region.  We put in our picture disk from my daughter & her husband's recent trip to Florence & found the very same locations shown in today's program.  One exception:  these pictures held the beautiful faces of my daughter & son-in-law.  Before we called it a day, we played a game of "Rummy Roots" which I'm sure most of you are familiar with.  Knowing some basic Latin is a great thing!  It is truly a vocabulary builder.  My son won today!  Will we continue to do textbooks?  Yes, we will. But we will regularly combine it with days such as today that provide us with the variety our spirits need & more readily make allowances for the Lord to lay things on my heart to do with my son that are educational, as well as fun. In closing,  some of you know I am going to be a grandma for the first time.  This is more exciting than I could ever imagine.  The ultrasound was last week & it is a BOY!!!  This makes number 11 grandson/great grandson for my mom.  My son-in-law is one of eight boys so this makes number 9 boy for their family.  The only problem I have is that since I found out, I am finding it difficult not to shop.  I found the most adorable outfit in Baby Gap, some blue jeans and a fleece at Old Navy and a few other things @ Target.  I know, I know, they grow quickly, but I'm the grandma & I can't contain myself! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/389256/ Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:32:01 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/389256/ For those of you who may be studying place value, which is all of us at some point, here is a very simple idea that helps to cement the concept of place value for our students. You simply take some poster board or cardstock paper & cut out some rectangles of whatever size you like.  Write the numerals 0-9, one number on each rectangle or square.  You will want to have several zeroes, several one's, two's, etc..... Oftentimes, children may have difficulty writing a number such as one hundred, twenty-three million, four thousand, six.  The confusion can come when there is a zero in a particular place value.  I dictate a number & my son must arrange the numbers correctly.  It helps so much to have this visual aid.  To add to the fun, we sit on the floor & do this & he sets his timer for 15 or 20 seconds & we try to beat the clock.  It is also great for your memory--I need help here!!--as you have to remember the number.  We have the squares scattered on the floor so you also have to hunt a bit for the correct number.  In just three days of this "game," any confusion that existed is gone.  Plus, it was fun & a nice break from the books.  Guess you call that " L-E-A-R-N-I-N-G." http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/377185/ Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:22:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/377185/ Imagine that you've homeschooled your children for 16 years and within a 24 hour period two of your three children have left home to follow the Lord's leading for their lives.  It is certainly a very happy occasion on the one hand, but also an occasion that can leave parents a bit numb & "fragile."  We had a wonderful week with our whole family moving our daughter & her husband to their new apartment out of state.  There were many highlights like watching my husand, son-in-law, son & a friend precariously coax an expensive piano up a very narrow stairway to their apartment in 100 degree weather.  We ate alot of great food, took in a presidential museum, attended a professional baseball game & my own personal highlight was a day at the mall with my pregnant daughter shopping for maternity clothes.  Of course I thought she looked adorable in everything so it was hard to draw the line & stop for the day!  We arrived home on Friday & our 19 year old son quickly did his laundry & then off to college he went.  Before we left, I had set a wastebasket out in our laundry room.  It had been our daughter's little teddy bear wastebasket when she was little.  It was old & needed to be cleaned & put away.  My husband walked into the family room carrying it & asked whose it was & what I was doing with it.  That is when we both had an official meltdown.  I could barely get the words out that it had been our daughter's.  The tears came & they needed to come.  I had been holding them in so as not to upset the happy week we'd all been having.  You think so many random thoughts:  Will my children remember everything we've taught them?  Maybe not, but they can still be alright.  It's kind of funny because I actually thought of telling my daughter to be careful going down their apartment steps as though she were still three years old! Thankfully, I held that thought in, but I did pray asking the Lord to help her not to fall down the steps!  Well.....once a mom always a mom, right?!?  I spent yesterday getting organized for our new school year.  That is always fun.  I love new schoolbooks. And yep, I open them up and smell them!  In my next post, I'd like to share about a few things we plan to do this year.  As you begin another year of homeschooling remember that His grace is sufficient for you because His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.  We can ask Him for anything!  Even, "Lord, will you help YOUR child to not get their b's and d's turned around or Lord will you please help YOUR child to not get so distracted?"  I remember praying many time that He would just give me one little shred of encouragement regarding their progress & He was always faithful.  God bless. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/372576/ Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/372576/ I love living in the South, but boy oh boy has it been HOT this week!  It is too hot to be outdoors and our plants are wilting.  Normally, it would be a great time to start back to school; however, we still have a trip to take.  We're moving our son to an apartment for his second year of college & then we're moving our daughter, her husband & our grandbaby-to-be  out-of-state for graduate school.  Lots of hyphens in that last sentence!  I look forward to seeing the city where they will be living & am excited that we will spend a week there seeing the sites.  I'm beginning to feel my emotions rising to the surface at the thought of my older children leaving, but we are thrilled for them.  So many things go through your head.  Will they remember all the things we've taught them?  Probably not everything, but that's okay because God can handle it.  I have been praying that the Lord will heighten a Holy Spirit awareness in them with regard to placing checks in their spirits concerning the many new situations, new people, new activities that will be before them if it may not be something that He wants them to be a part of.  It is so easy when you find yourself in a new place to become involved too quickly or perhaps in things that are not His best for you due to loneliness. God can use the lonely times for our good & teach us so much during those times. We are not to be fearful in new settings for He did not give us a spirit of fear.  We must be willing to be sensitive if we do not have peace about something.  It's coming back to me now!  I do remember talking to my older two about having "checks in their spirits" on more than one occastion.  Okay, I'm feeling better now!  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/367185/ Thu, 2 Aug 2007 22:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/367185/ My blog has a brand, new look thanks to a much younger friend and fellow Irishwoman who knows how to do these kinds of things.  I come from an Irish background and wanted my blog to have a peaceful, Irish setting.  Thank you also to one of my blogger friends for noticing because I wasn't aware that my friend had changed my blog yet.  You see, we are very busy this week getting our 19 yr.old son ready to move to his very first apartment this Saturday.  He is transferring to another college; thus the move.  We will be moving him in this weekend; followed by moving our daughter, son-in-law and grandbaby-to-be out of state on Monday.  We are trying to redeem every moment with them before they move.  This past weekend was spent helping our daughter & husb box up things.  It was probably one of the more livelier packing events since all the brothers, my husband & I and our son-in-law's parents were there also.  Between our daughter & her husband, they have NINE brothers.  Yep, a full house!  What makes it so special is that we've all been friends for a very long time. The brothers, our daughter & her husband & their parents go back several years.  Our kids have grown up in homeschooling & church together.  As we all sat in church together this past Sunday, the youngest brother who is five, sat nestled between our daughter & husb somehow sensing that the time is short.......How do you prepare to let your children go?  How do you move them away & then come home without them?  I will let you know because I am not sure I have that figured out yet.  You know how to pray.... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/365497/ Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:12:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/peaksandvalleys/365497/