In August, our oldest son went away to a University...nothing causes more growth and change in a family than to have one member of the family embark on an adventure like that! We made our kitchen table smaller so that we wouldn't feel the impact of not having the oldest at our family mealtime gatherings. Cell phone calls and making care packages became things we cherished.
Almost instantly, I noticed a change in my oldest. He became the confident young man I knew he was capable of being. You see, when someone has been homeschooled since the very beginning, they wonder to themselves how they actually compare to the rest of the world. Sure homeschool mom's and dad's think their kids are way ahead academically...but the kid often needs to be convinced for themselves. For my son, it was not until he actually was in a classroom setting and found himself competing well with his peers did he gain that confidence.
The other day he urgently called me and asked me to "Pray!" because a class he needed to take in the spring was already filled to capacity. Then later he called me back and told me that at first he sent the professor an email and then actually went to a class the professor had just finished teaching, introduced himself and the professor allowed him to join the class roster. He said, "See Mom, a man needs to seize the moment if he wants to get some things in life." (I smiled to myself, knowing that he had come a long way in a few months, to actually have the confidence to present himself to the instructor and ask to be added to the class.)
Also, I noticed our 2nd oldest son begin to grow and mature over night. Sure, at first he tried to assert his new found position at the top of the son chain of command on his younger brother but the past few months has seen him begin to take control of his education. He is actually accomplishing more in a school day realizing that he is now preparing himself to be able to go to college one day.
That is what we hoped they would do, isn't it? To take charge of their lives. I am humbled and amazed that it seems to be happening in front of my eyes. I guess I really did think they would stay little forever.
Sorry to get so behind in blogging! We have been busy graduating my oldest son from homeschool! What an amazing journey homeschooling for the entire time!!! Now he is preparing to leave for college in 3 weeks and I still have 2 sons at home to continue our homeschooling adventure. But I want to warn ya'all...It hurts. When you have never put your kids on a bus and you are a close knit family....I am already tearing up at the thought of him going away to school. God has a plan though and I have a need to trust in His plan and be still. His strength is new every morning and I am just starting to look toward the new school year with joy! (It is amazing how much junk a homeschool room can accumulate in just 2 months time.) I have a ton of curriculum to sort through and get down to basics since all my guys are now in the high school years. (Why I kept some of the elementary curriculum was because I enjoyed it so much!!!)
Anyway, I'm back and will hopefully update you on our journey to get ready for the new school year.
Some people have disappearing socks at their house...but at our house: PENCILS DISAPPEAR!! Whenever I ask everyone to grab their stuff for school, no one can find anything to write with. Now, ya'all don't judge me for mot buying them...I buy them every September. But by the end of October they have vanished from the face of the earth!
I once saw a Funniest Home Video about someone hiding a video camera to catch a thief...So I thought I would play detective and spy on the guys last week to see where the pencils where disappearing and here's what I came up with:
1.) We have one son fascinated with the electric pencil sharpener. It seems he likes to write with one inch tall pencils and sits there and creates one after the other.
2.) My boys like to take pencils with us when we take a drive...needless to say, I found a huge pile in our vehicles!
3.) Underneath the boys beds I found a treasure trove! It seems that they like to draw in their rooms at night.
Sooo, consequently, I bought some more pencils and have restricted the new ones to the scool room. Now we will see how long it takes for these to disappear!
We are all getting up a little slower than I anticipated in my scheduling but so far so good with keeping us on track otherwise. Instead of starting at 8am, we pushed it to 9 am. But the best part of the day has been opening up the Word with the boys. This week have been in 2 Chronicles Chapter 1-7. I pointed out to the boys that Soloman did not keep the law that God had prescribed for His kings to keep and that was one of the reasons the kingdom of Israel was divided. He married numerous foreign wives, multiplied silver and gold and chariots from Egypt for himself, and did not make a copy of the law in his own handwriting...All of those things were spoken against in Deuteronomy Chapter 17: 17-19. This reminded us of the words that Jesus said in John Chapter 15 that we are to "Abide in Him". Read His Word, know what He requires of us and spend time talking with Him in prayer. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abided in me and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you." (John 15:5-7)
Oh, may we spend more time with him and learning from Him each day!
FINALLY! I just finished a daily homeschool schedule for our family! Whew! It was hard to figure out who would do what when but I think this will work. I have a 12th grade son, a 10th grade son and a 6/7th grade son. (Actually the 10th grade son is probably 9/10 too...they are both September birthdays and tend totake their time more than my 1st one did.)
I don't know if I can figure out how to share with all of you what I did because I'm not computer literate and so I made a five columned paper and wrote it in with colored markers. I made a copy for each of us so we all know what to do. Tomorrow will be our trial day and I'm hoping it will not need tweaked but will flow smoothly. You would think that after homeschooling since the beginning of time I would have this figured out.....! It just seems that each year I need to relearn lessons that I should have figured out years ago. I cannot begin to tell you why I do it but my whole entire homeschool experience has been one of two steps forward, three steps back!
How else would you explain why I use a curriculum successfully one year, change curriculum the next year...then go back to the original the following year because I realized my mistake! I tend to do this over and over. Why do we second guess ourselves? My prayer this year is that I will stay at my Father's feet and not change anything until I have bathed it in prayer. This entire year has been soaked in prayer and so far I can already see the difference from the years that I have flown by the seat of my pants. I just got a book by Jim Cymbala called "Breakthrough Prayer". It is a compilation of the things Pastor Cymbala has learned on his journey through prayer over the years. I love that! I know I have been on a journey reading all I can and underlining every verse possible relating to prayer and to think of a Pastor on the same journey...that is exciting!
Well, I'll let you all know how our day goes tomorrow!
My dad had a heart attack at the end of August and it sent me into a tailspin when I should have been getting our school stuff ready. (Thankfully he is o.k. now!) I can't believe how fast the first 3 weeks of homeschool have gone by! Yet, we are still barely scraping by! I find myself re-copying the work not completed over and over! But on Friday I finished our new chore chart for the school year...that alone should speed up the organization process around here. Being the only woman in a house full of men is hard because they have no problem letting Mom do all the work unless we have the chart up and enforced. Also, while all my guys are watching the movie "Gettysburg" today, I hope to plan our daily school schedule. It has always helped us to have our days somewhat structured. Whenever we fly by the seat of our pants it seems that only the bare minimum gets done.
Hey guess what?! We got rid of the satellite television in August! I cannot begin to tell you how that affected our school year last year...and not for the good, I am sad to say! I prayed long and hard for our deliverance and after one year of t.v. subscription we are free again!!! Now the evenings find us enjoying the serenading of my youngest on harmonica or oldest two on piano, guitar or violin. The guys don't sneak down to the t.v. all day long to watch the zillion shows they had taped on the dvr. PTL!!!!
SO, I look forward to really hitting the books hard next week and holding the guys accountable to finish their work or do homework in the evening to make sure their finished. I'll let you all know how it goes! Kathy
My son went on his first mission trip 2 weeks ago and I have been a blubbering baby! We have homeschooled for his entire life. He is 17 and I have two other sons at home to keep me company; but whenever he calls or I see him or have to say good-by...I am a cry baby! Thankfully, he is still in our state with a touring mission choir and I have been able to see him but I wonder if other homeschool moms have gone through this? I mean, maybe because I never put him on the school bus when he was younger...it might be harder to do as they get older. I keep thinking to myself "Get a grip woman!" Really, I don't know how moms of soldiers make it...
Anyway, I just wondered if other homeschool moms have felt this almost mourning feeling? I know it will only get harder in the future to deal with my sons growing up and embarking on their own lives. I can't even try scrapbooking as a hobby because I know that looking at baby pictures makes me sad. Do you know what I miss?? Naptime snuggly sleepy heads with tiny toes and baby feet. (All my sons have feet bigger than mine by now!) I miss chocolate milk moustaches...they are now becoming replaced with the real thing. Maybe I am just in a 40's crisis time of my life? Maybe I need to corner my husband and convince him that I need another baby around here? Maybe not... I am just thankful that I still have my three boys and I still need to live in this moment and trust in God to take care of these feelings when I commit my way to Him. I know I can trust in Him to bring to completion the work he has started in all our lives. Just keep me in prayer ya'all. I'm gonna go get another kleenex.
My sons are all very out going and friendly with their peers...But as the teenage years have started, I have noticed that one son is struggling with making friends. It is not that he is not winsome and fun to be with with. I think he is TOO friendly, TOO overwhelming maybe.
He is my middle child and often competes with his older brother for attention of friends. This causes him to be very annoying while vying for attention. I also notice that he manipulates conversations. Have any of you had to teach your children how to respond correctly to friends?
As I prayed about it, I realized that maybe we need to focus on Friendships during our devotional time. I found an old copy of a Navpress book called "Friends and Friendships" that I hope to go over with the boys.
What a blessing to be able to start over. I am so looking forward to our new school year; but I still wonder if I am ready. A couple of years ago, I went to a Season of Prayer day at another homeschool mom's house. What we did was spend the day laying our next season before the Lord and asked His direction and guidance of our plans. Let me tell you, that really impacted me...but the enemy extinguished alot of the neat things I planned that day. The Lord still remembered what we had talked about though and would you believe I found my notes I had taken that day and it is even more relevant to our year this year than it was in 2001!!!!
So, I have again gone before the Lord and hope to implement all the plans I had forgotten. This year I am implementing a schedule for all of our moments...the boys, my husband and I. The first priority scheduled is time in prayer: Psalm 90 says in verse 12: "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." That is my daily prayer because I have been the kind of mom who just let's days slip by and I look around and often wonder what I did all day! Well, I will let you know how it goes.
How do any of you help your teenagers find friends? My 16 year old son is such a blessing to us. But lately I have been wondering if he is feeling depressed. We have homeschooled his entire education and I think he is beginning to feel lonely. We are also between churches and so he is not involved in any youth group. The few friends he has that homeschool are so busy in their lives that he is with us most of the time... Come to think of it, alot of them probably feel as he does. It seems as time goes by the ranks of homeschooler teens seems to dwindle in our area; people turn in the towel by high school. So I wonder am I doing what is right for him....
What do all of you do to help your kids find and connect with others?
It has been too lazy around here the past few days. Everyone is still sleeping in and I'm still planning for school to begin next week. Since I do my own lesson planning, prayer and reflection over what we have accomplished has been occupying my days.
We currently homeschool 10th grade, 8th grade and 5th grade and have been homeschooling for over 12 years. When I beginning this blag site and was asked what type of homeschool I have been leaning toward...the word "other" was the only fit. Maybe I should have chosen "The Goulash Approach"? We seem to incorporate a bit of everything over the course of a year.
As a school year begins, it seems I am either textbook or unit study bent. January always brings in twinges of classical, unschooling or Charlotte Mason depending on how burnt out we are by then. Keeping the flame of interest in education alive is what I try to bring in as the winter months begin. Around April, it's a rush to finish skills in areas I feel are still lacking. Then by May we are ready for vacation til the end of August.
This year, homeschooling 10th grade, 8th grade and 5th grade is quite a span but they can blend well on their own levels. We have been reading "Little Women" and "Little Men". It has caused me to want to incorporate some kind of family newspaper into our schooling. I have considered making it more of a topical kind of thing each week; but it's still in it's planning stages. We also are starting a Shakespeare Unit.
Dealing with Testosterone is the major hurdle for January. The boys have too much energy that is distracting their days into chaos. Sometimes it reminds me of our roosters constantly pecking at each other for dominance.
So, I go to the Father and ask his wisdom and am trying to listen to the ideas and direction He gives me. I hope to start full swing next week.
grade son. (Actually the 10th grade son is probably 9/10 too...they are both September birthdays and tend totake their time more than my 1st one did.)
It just seems that each year I need to relearn lessons that I should have figured out years ago. I cannot begin to tell you why I do it but my whole entire homeschool experience has been one of two steps forward, three steps back! 
