Our homeschooling adventure - Homeschool Blogger

Mon, 5 Feb 2007 17:05:00 -0600

testing????

I have tried to post three will this come through?

Busy Busy Busy

Wed, 8 Nov 2006 14:26:00 -0600

Wow, what a busy week! I know I said that last time I wrote, and I was behind. I am all caught up and still getting things done, but nothing is slowing down. This week has been crazy! Tomorrow I start Christimas shopping! Can you believe it is here already? I take a day off of homeschooling and children and head down to the fairground to a craft and christmas show, and lots of things to buy! It was a ton of fun last year, I hope it goes well this year! This week my oldest son started studying to be baptized, what a blessing that he wants this to happen also. I am very happy for this. And very greatful! Life will probably remain busy through the holidays....So how does everyone deal with the busyness of things?

Busy life

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 13:32:00 -0600

Life has been busy lately, which makes me feel as if I am behind! I keep planning to blog daily, but not everything has been good. First we had to battle head lice. Mind you not a fun thing to battle. But I did find some great resources online for it. I think the best site for that was www.headlice.org. It gave us a ton of ideas on how to get rid of the buggers and dispelled some myths, like they DON"T jump. Now that was a few weeks ago, and thank goodness those lil buggers are GONE!!! My aunt, who was a hairdresser for years gave me the most useful advice, treat her hair, then twenty-four hours later treat it again! :) I had to treat it twice in one week and was so shocked to see them back.

Next came my migraines. Boy those sure set you back. One child was sick, then another, then me. I ended up at the doctor near the end of this. The appointment was for allergies that had been diagnosed weeks before, and the allergy medicine worked great for allergies, not colds. :) At one point my father had a heart catherdization (sp?) and so that day was filled with worry. He is fine, but they needed clear pictures of his heart, and that is the only way to get them. My sons also had their joing birthday party last saturday and all the planning that went into that, during the preceeding weeks.....What a busy life it has been! In the process of all this a most amazing thing was happening. My daughter started classes for baptizm. She was baptized last weekend, on Sunday at church. What a blessing to see your child growing in the Lord!

So in this process we have fallen behind, and in this process my house has been trashed, and in this process, my oldest has lost all motivation to work. He is just recently 10 (last sunday same day as sis's baptizm) and he has no desire to do anything in a timely manner. Nothing! It took him almost two hours to shower, dress, feed his pets, and eat breakfast. All things that could take 45 mins. to an hour tops. As for Schoolwork? Well we always do the math, spelling and language first...hmm...we are not finding time for anything else at all in this process, because it takes him ALL DAY to do them. Or he will loose the book he is supposed to read (the one that goes back to the library today....hmm...guess who gets to pay for it) It is all a discipline thing in my eyes, but how much grounding from this or that can you do?

Today for the first time in this month, though planned 4 other times, we are meeting a homeschooling family. They have homeschooled longer than I have. And I am looking forward to it. But I am almost scared to go to meet with them. This 0 year old has me at my wits end. But in 45 minutes we will be at their home. :) Luckily we do have the math, language and spelling done for today....but it is only just now getting finished. So I guess I am looking to ask, how do you all handle interuptions to the schedules? How do you re-motivate your children after a hectic month or so of illness, and other things?

Really in my heart I know the Lord wants me to do this, as each time I start to question myself, I find all the reasons and answers to why this is so important. I just could use a boost of ideas on how to turn this into a fun and enjoyable learning environment for him, in which he knows his work needs done, and does not procrastinate in doing it. :)

Favorite things about homeschooling

Mon, 9 Oct 2006 16:44:00 -0500

Okay I read that someone did a blog on their 10 favorite things about homeschooling. :) This got me thinking. Not sure if I can come up with 10. I am not always that creative, but here goes what I think my favorite things about homeschooling are.

1. A flexible schedule. That is one of the best things about homeschooling. We have a flexible schedule. Wether we have to move things around for vacations, or have to change things for doctors appointments. We have control of our schedule. And I no longer get that mid week letter from the school that says "Tomorrow" some award or meeting. So that leads to #2

2. Not having to deal with the public school system. I remember doing that and among the fact that all the sudden they thought I knew nothing about my children, they also had control of all the time in our lives. I like not having to deal with them any more.

3. Vacationing when we want. Hmmm....these three seem very related. :)

4. Picking the curriculum. :) I love that I have control of what the children learn. But also

5. WHEN and how they learn it. How much time is spent on it. Also not teaching them more than they need to know, until it is time for them to know it.

6.Being able to do things hands on. Things you would not necessarily think of too. :) Like making playdoh numbers, or shaving cream numbers. :)

7. Exploring nature and going for walks on trails and making it part of science!

8. Getting out of bed, when we are rested, not to early, so we are tired and dragging all day.

9. The fact that my son is so much more relaxed than he was in school. So much more enjoyable. :)

10. I think there are more but I want this to be the most important part, GOD is part of our studies. The Lord is part of all our work. I can do a devotion, we can pray, we can read our bibles, and noone, can say not to. It is our choice.

I think probably in all one of the best things about homeschooling is living in america we have the freedom to do this, to make our own choices and the freedom to mold our children into wonderful, caring, lawabiding, people that serve the Lord.

Sharing

Thu, 5 Oct 2006 12:34:00 -0500

Well I obviously am not good at blogging daily. But I do try to come up with something interesting to say. Today I noticed I had a response to my last blog and I was so excited! Someone actually read what I wrote! Thank you for the response!

So today I had a question to ask and I am hoping that someone out there will give me some guidance on this. :)

I will freely admit I was raised a very spoilt only child. At least in the respect to what my three children would see. I grew up in a 4 bedroom, two bathroom house. Just my parents and I. I never had to share a room, never had to wait for a bathroom, and never was anything crowded in our home. I believe the house was only 1500 -1700 sq feet or so, but it only had 3 people living in it, so it seemed rather large, and compared to the home I have now, well......it was larger.

I have yet to figure out how to organize a shared bedroom. Organization was not a strong point of mine a child or teen. I remember we moved into an apartment my junior year as my parents built their new very large home (5,000 sq ft). The apartment was just a 2 bedroom and 1 and a 1/2 bath home. It was still fine for us, though I had a freezer in my bedroom and the large roll-away bed from the old houses spare bedroom. Everything of mine was mostly in storage. But I did not have to get rid of anything, because in the new home there would be room for it all. So no need to organize or get rid of things, just pack them up an save them for the year. And that is what we did.

I remember marrying my husband and moving "some" of my stuff to his home. He had a two bedroom 1100 sq ft trailer. With two baths. I filled his cupboards and his closets. Never thinking I had to much "stuff".

Now I look around me and I think "we have TOO MUCH STUFF" and I am not quite sure what to do about it. :) Mostly I can clean up and organize and I am getting better at getting rid of things. But my big problem is my sons room. I love the idea of a large family and I don't think my home is too small, just to cluttered. :) But how do I decide what things to not have in the boys room? How do I convince them of the value of sharing that room and loving and respecting eachother. :) I can tell them how much God wants them to love and respect eachother and I can read them scriptures, but I know when they head into their cluttered room, even they get frustrated. I want them to know the value of being siblings, the value of having eachother. See I can't give them a home as large as the one of my childhood, (though mine was up for sale at the same time this one was, and in our price range, just noone purchased this one) But I can give them eachother and a respect for eachother.

They have the one thing I did not have as a child, siblings. :) Now I can tell you I am not sure if I would have enjoyed sharing a bedroom or not. I had the second largest room in the house and boy did I like my "stuff". I don't necessarily see that as a good characteristic in me either. :)

So my question today is how do you organize a small room with two rambunctious boys and all their things in it? How do you as a parent convince those boys of the value of respecting eachother and eachothers belongings? And how do you convince them that it is okay to get rid of stuff?

Productive day and classrooms

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 14:33:00 -0500

Today was pretty productive day. :) I find that if I relax, follow a tentative schedule and bring out lots of new manipulatives and books, that I can re-spark and interest in my children. Todays favorites, a book made by an old Kindergarten teacher my older two had. I pulled them out the year my dd was in Kindergarten. Mrs. R. loved my children, but dd was also the 8th child she had taught from this family. She was very supportive of my homeschooling and wanted to give me tons of resources. She also was a very devoted teacher whom spent hours at the school making up new "books" for the children. All that she made up with her Word program. I have color books, site word books and alphabet books. Today I handed my son an alphabet book so he could put it in his desk. He was so excited. I gathered together some other resources I have that teach the alphabet and brought them from my storage filing cabinet, to the new classroom.

Speaking of classroom and desks. I have never thought that homeschooling had to look like a classroom, but this year we decided to give it a try. Since we could not build and extra room onto our home. We moved furniture around, turned the porch area into a t.v. room, and turned the living room into a classroom. There is not much room for entertaining, but it seems to really work for us. The children love the classroom and they all wanted their own desks. The older two have some old fashioned desks that went to storage last year. My oldest ds was given his when he was 3. It is a special desk to him. One of those old fashioned desks with the wood top, and metal storage area. The top is hinged. Well my uncle and cousin found them at an sale of old school furniture. It was not in great condition, so they bought it, brought it home, sanded it all down to the fresh wood, and the clean metal and painted it just for my son. He felt so special. Later we found one that needs work for my dd. It is pink and has some paint peeling that we want to refinish but she loves it. The children really wanted to get those desks from storage and use them in the classroom. The only thing was I did not have one for youngest ds. He was very upset by this. So last week while visiting another homeschoolers house, I saw that she had four very nice desks, that were a bit different and newer than what we have, but along the same lines. Another mother asked her where she found them. It was a local business that often gets in old school desks and sells them. Dh and I had been by there many times and not seen any. But lo and behold we ran by there that evening, in the rain, and sitting outside were some desks. This one is made from a durable plastic resin and metal. The business was closed but dh went by the next day and was able to purchase one for $5. What a deal! He brought it in, we cleaned it up, and I think ds has been sitting at it every second he can since. He loved being able to keep all his books in one place and having his own place to sit to do his work. How long will this last? I don't know, but I am glad to find something that makes my lil man feel special. :)

So this all got me to thinking. What types of areas do you have that you do your schooling at? Do you have a classroom area? Do you all sit around the kitchen table? Or on the couch? We still curl up with books on the couch. And some activities are still done at the table. :) Since I have a new table, we tend to bring in a folding table for art projects. Do you have a seperate table to eat at and a seperate table for school? Do you have reading areas? Quiet areas? Play areas?

I think sometimes we do need to have different areas, partly for us, and partly for the children. Having different areas helps us to focus on whatever it is we need to do at the time we are in the area an not be distracted by other things. :) I found if we school in the kitchen than I want to do dishes and clean my counters. And of course the kids love it if I get distracted. :) So tell me about your homeschool environment! I would love to hear all about it!

Just a little ramble

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 13:02:00 -0500

Well I doubt this post will be filled with great wonderfully moving thoughts. :) I just had to write a bit about today. Nothing grand or wonderfully moving happened. But we did get a major bulk of our work done this morning and finally had time to start reading "The Story of the World, Ancient Times" I am really excited to be sharing and reading this book with my children. I also purchased the activity book to go with it and have looked through many of the activites anticipating the chance to do them. Though I am not shocked at all by my childrens reaction. My boys only want to play. So the reading time was very tough on them. They brought out some lego toys and paid more attention to them than to the reading. We also started the first activity, the history of my family activity. My dd was so excited to be able to make a book about her family. My oldest ds is okay with it, not looking forward to it, but not dreading it. :) I am hoping a good story from grandpa in the interviewing section will peak his interests some. :) The youngest ds can not write yet on his own, so I am helping him with his if he chooses to do it. I am not pushing it. He is only in Kindergarten, I asked him to color his front page and he is working on it. I told him that when he interviews his family members he can just give them the interview sheet and have them fill it out for him, but that he needs to listen to their stories. I am really looking forward to hearing what information they get back from family members.

I have a very large extended family and thought about incorporating them in on the project, by sending them an interview page and each child writing a letter to them expressing that they would like them to fill it out and send it back for their family history book. Hmmm...That idea just came to me, I will have to pass it on to the children.

The other plans for our day is to finish freezing up some tomatoes and also make another batch of homemade salsa. :) I have not found any way to freeze or save it, but If anyone has some suggestions. I was given the recipe by a hispanic friend and she has never canned or froze it. I am very tempted to try. It is all fresh, tomatos, chili's, onions, peppers and cilantro. It is a wonderful fresh recipe.

I don't have a great inspiring thing to write about and hope to at some point again, but I just got to thinking about how great this day has been and how wonderful it is that we have chosen to homeschool. Yesterday afternoon the children all started a lego village and today they have new plans for it. They spend time together playing nicely during the school year. The summer months are so hectic and seem filled with other children and mine tend to not get along as well. But during the school year they all help eachother and spend time together, getting along better than ever. What a great testimony for our homeschooling. :)

Schoolroom update

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:54:00 -0500

I was looking through my old blog pages from last year and saw that I had posted our thoughts on a schoolroom. Well that did not seem to work out the way we had planned. We still have rafters, were even lucky enough to get some insulation from our church, but have yet to come up with the funds for other things needed in the building of a schoolroom. We even looked into renting our home and moving to a larger home. Not one thing worked out and we figure the Lord has his own reasonings for this.

So here we sit in our little home, only little because of all we have in it, and wonder how to make it more educationally friendly. Our home is about 1200 sq ft. We live here, with our three children, and mil. Last year I packed up bookshelves of books. Totally 21 boxes. This was to sell the house. It did not pan out. So we want to bring thiese books back. The idea came up that we have a small den study type room and a larger living room. The small den is actually and enclosed half of our front porch. The room is maybe 8-9ft, by 10 ft? The living room is 16* 13, not a huge difference but a significant difference. Dh did some measuring and figured our couch could fit in that tiny front porch area, and across the room we could put the t.v. Hmm...we don't watch it much. We do have a few sitcoms, dh and I like, but we don't even have very many channels, so what would it hurt? Then the t.v would not be in the main living area, and not a main focal point in our lives. (a problem for older ds, he thinks he must always watch t.v.) We would also put the stereo in there. IN the process we could bring home the rest of the books an bookshelves. It would open a wall to be lined with these and filled. We could put a table in the middle of the room and do our studies at it, with little desks off to the side that the kids could do their studies without being bothered by their siblings. (they like their little desks, presents from family members years ago, old time school desks, to play at, these are currently in storage and they asked if they could be brought home) We like to do crafts and things and could have a wall to display them. The piano would not have a couch sitting in front of it and would be easier to access. :) We would take our big recliner and our glider putting a table and light between them in the "school" area and have a reading area. Something we all could benefit from.

There are some drawbacks to all this. One if you decided to watch t.v. you would be sitting right on it! lol...Also the computer is in this particular den area, it would need to be moved. But there is not a hook up for it in the house. We would have to call and get the phone company to come and either re-route things or hook the two phone lines together. (we have a business phone and a home phone line, only one is active as a cost measure we canceled the home phone a year ago, all outlets through the house are home lines, except the one that has the dsl and business phone on it) It all seems workable, but also odd. It would make things more interesting if we decided to entertain guests. As the sitting area would only be a couch and maybe we could pull a chair in there. :) My oldest ds mentioned that we often have friends over for the superbowl (child thinks ahead, and and loves football). He was concerned as to how that would happen. Honestly it probably would not be able to happen. Or would be more difficult if it did.

So last night weighing in all the pro's and con's I sent up another prayer to the lord and asked him to show me a sign that this was the best idea for our family. If it was I am sure he will show us, if it is not a good idea I am sure he will show us. :) I don't mind at all being excentric or odd by changing things around. Personally I would rather have a library than a family room any day. I still like the t.v.....love HGTV, even though I don't have it any longer. But the t.v. is not something we need to have on all the time in this house. Reading grows your mind. AT this time, that t.v is taking up space in the largest room of our home. My boys are building with legos on the floor in front of it. The radio is on, still playing the cd over and over that youngest ds must lear for the christmas play at church. We are not missing the t.v. at all. :) Hmmm is that my sign?

The begining of another year.

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:26:00 -0500

It is the begining of another year, okay, well it is 12 days into that year. What a rocky start! We are doing 3rd grade with oldest ds, 2nd with dd, and K with my youngest ds. Oldest Ds started the year up with all the resistance in the world. Boy did he fight my every single thought, my every single lesson. Everything that was to be done on a daily basis. He really was testing my authority as his parent. And it got old fast. My dd loves to school and does not tend to follow others. So for the most part, other than talking to her brother instead of waiting for him to finish his work, she has done great. She even gets her work done quickly so we can do "fun things" in the afternoon. Oldest ds is not like that. He will procrastinate till the cows come home. We live in town, so I don't expect any cows today or any day soon, but I do know he will continue to procrastinate. He had me doubting myself by the first week and I have done this for 2 and 1/2 years, going into my third year. And really he had my youngest ds, whom is a handful anyways, testing me also. Not wanting to work and acting in much the same manner as his older brother, as he looks up to him. What a test. The week had me worn out. And the second week we all became sick, with a cold my husband had brought home. So the second week of school wore us out even more.

So last night I took time before going to sleep to just sit down and pray. I was given scriptures to read, for the daily reading, in my womans devotional bible, that I myself could not understand how they pertained to me. I just was unable to comprehend how Ezekial pertained to me. I did understand that Jerusalem had sinned and I know I have sinned, but I did not know how that was laying out for the answers I needed about homeschooling. So I prayed more and more. I remembered that this bible had daily devotions in it, part of why I picked it up, not just the read the bible in a year plan in the back that I was following. (no I have not stuck to it daily, a sin I confess, I don't talk to God on a daily basis as I should, I try to do to much on my own.) I thought to look at the next devotion in the part of Ezekial I was in. Hmm...It said Monday on the top of it. What a coinicidence! It was about the Sacraficing the Children, the verses were Ezekial 16:20-21. By the end the author of the devotion, Dorothy Patterson gave a good testimony for moms "keeping the home and rearing our children." She wrote "Nothing has Challenged my body and mind any more or showered mor rewards on my heart and soul than investing my educatoin, skills and energies in the people I love most and want most to succeed." What a thought. As I read that I thought of all the times the boys have tested me, and even my daughter has tested me in the last few weeks, but also of all the joys that have come from having them here with me all day.

I want them to succeed, I want them to learn, I want them to be a great contribution to the world. So last night I prayed, I asked the lord to forgive me for becoming so stubborn myself. I asked him to help me listen to my children and to help me to find a way to guide them with a calm voice and help them to find things of interest in our schooling and our lives. I also asked him to help me to be a better wife, to help my husband to have patience with us. All things that are so needed in our home on a daily basis. I felt a wonderful peace come over me and I went to bed.

This morning I woke, feeling better than I had in many days. (I was terribly sick from that cold, it moved to my chest and really has bothered me) I took a moment to make some tea, and get myself ready before waking the children. We started our day with some chorest that I never get accomplished. Put in the christmas CD youngest ds is working on learning for church. Read a devotional with my dd at the couch and started our day. (ds has misplaced his devotional and will be looking for it soon) Oldest ds is still procrastinating. He probably always will. I am going to pray on that though. I have faith he can not procrastinate. Youngest ds worked hard on his studies, put up a bit of a stubborn streak, but not about school. (he wants to jump rope in the house, hmm...no not here) My dd has worked hard. Today we might actually get to start on our "fun things" as dd likes to call it. :) I do believe just that lil prayer has really helped to make things flow much better here.

The end of another year

Thu, 1 Jun 2006 11:31:00 -0500

Well today marks the technical end to another year. Why do I say technical? Well we have our 180 days required by the state in, but do I think I could ever stop teaching them? We were going to head down to Indy today to the childrens museum, but a lovely migraine knocked me out of the loop for a bit. We were able to get the few basics done that were needed, but not take a long trip. So today I am feeling better and by tomorrow I plan to drive us down to Indy. :) And spend a day just learning whatever they guide me to wanting to know. When I was a child and my parents took me to visit the museum, ususally once a year, we would start on one floor and either work our way down or up. (there are four floors to the building) We would make a day of the musuem. Be there from open to close. And other than having to go from one floor to another, there was no directed guideance from my parents. That is my plan for tomorrow.

I have also been doing some thinking about my blog, about how little time I spend at my blog. I spend time each day online, answering emails, but I don't spend time writing on my blog. Then I figured out why the other day, I want my blogs to all sound very well thought out and to make sense to someone. I read blogs of others, blogs about why homeschool, about why not to. Blogs about different types of homeschooling and different curriculums. As I read these I love the stories shared and then I think often, "am I doing enough?" Well after time to think that out, yes I am. No maybe we had to chuck our History curriculum last year because it just did not hold our interest. Maybe multiplication and division was hard this last year. Maybe we had point in reading that we were really struggling just to pronounce each word right. But we made it through all of those. We got books from the library on Historical events, stories that take place in the times of history we were interested in, wether fictional or non, when Ben Franklins birthday came we looked up strange and silly facts online. We have gruelled over multiplication and division. One child struggles to get the answer, but he has the concept, the other was so bored waiting to learn it while I was off in the corner with the first that she taught herself. As for reading we never have stopped and those stumbling blocks become less and less of blocks each day. We found science everywhere, got a bird feeder just to watch the birds eat and ended up with a stack of books trying to identify them and learn about their living habitats. We found a park with a stream through it that we spent hours walking along and learning about everything living in the stream and along the banks. My children even taught me about poison ivy this year. A feet my father could not teach me for years, I just avoided all green stuff, but my oldest took a picture for me, so I could put it in my memory. He figured out that I have a memory for sight things and since I needed to see this particular thing often that was the best way for me to know what poison ivy looked like.

Yes I might question myself and think I am not doing enough, but I seem to be doing things okay.

Lastly I had a thought today as I sat down here, the older two of my children whom are only 14 months apart were not wanting to play with their brother who is collectively 3 and 4 years younger than them. I remembered back to a simpler time, when the oldest were toddlers and the youngest was all new and wrinkley and they told me "mommy he is so boring, will he ever play with us?" I smiled as I listened to them trying to get away from the one deemed "boring" again. Not because he was small and wrinkley, but because his dinosaurs had just destroyed the barbie/action figure-indian villiage set up on my dd's bed. Time changes quickly. And what a wonderful blessing my children are.

Thank you for listening to my rambling. And I hope your days are blessed with much joy.