Homeschool Wednesday 4/13/11

I love the freedom you have homeschooling. Not only can you teach your children above and beyond what the normal schools do, you can have fun doing it too! Today we finally finished our compost! We did a vermicompost back in October(we did Botany for science) and you are supposed to harvest it after 2 months. OOPS. It took us 3 days but we finally did it and started our next one.

This is the done product.

Toby searching for worms! Such a good compost harvester

Malaki and Toby tearing paper strips to make the new compost. Malaki has a fever and he's still helping out. Such a good sport!

This is what the compost looks like before its ready.

Homeschool Wednesday 4/6/11

We got to visit the police station today for a homeschool field trip. Hopefully this is the only time my kids get into a police car (:

Homeschool Wednesday

Homeschool Messes (copied from the AOP website.)

"Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin" (Proverbs 20:9)?

   Do you ever feel like you pick up messes all day? As a homeschooling parent, I quickly learned not to wait until the end of the day to clean the house. Walking through each room throughout the day, I continually organized and put a few things away as my children were studying. If I didn't, I knew I wouldn't have enough energy left to tackle the mountains of laundry, dishes, and clutter before bed.
Keeping our lives clean from the messes of sin also takes a continual effort. In the Old Testament, only the clean were allowed in the temple to worship before the Lord. Today, we must come before the Lord daily and allow Him to cleanse us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Keeping short accounts with God keeps the messes of sin from building into mountains and destroying our relationship with Him.
    Is your spiritual life full of clutter and messes? Are there issues that God has prompted you to clean, such as seeking forgiveness from a family member or disciplining yourself to live a healthier lifestyle?(hmmm...kind of goes with our weight loss Thursday!) Don't wait until tomorrow, next week, or next year to start obeying the Lord. Start today and rediscover the joy, power, and strength that come from living a clean life before the Lord. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).
I got this weeks 'Homeschool Wed from  AOP. Go here if you arent familiar with this company or want more info! We use AOP for Language arts, History, and Bible.

Homeschool Wednesday 3/2/11

So I got my HomeSchool Enrichment magazine in the mail today and started taking a look through it right away. I came across a very encouraging article written by Lea Ann Garfias. This article reminded me partly as to why I started home teaching and why we felt our family was lead to do it by God. You may not totally agree with everything she says but it really makes you think...hmmm..why am I home teaching? Take look! You can also go here to see more of her thoughts.

Why Would You Want to Do That??

  It should have been a simple question for me to answer. Why didn't I have a simple answer? What was wrong with me? I cleared my throat, hoping my mind would clear with it. No such luck.
  I was trapped like a rat in my McDonald's booth. Mom was munching her chicken fingers across from me and making small talk with the manager. Said successful manager turned out to actually own this franchise and another across town. She had just finished touting the joy of her career, her husband's successful career, and her beloved nanny came together to give her the life of her dreams. Radiantly, she turned to me and said. "So, what do you do?"
  I had been dreading that question from the beginning of her monologue. I had seen it coming, and I had been sinking further and further down below the yellow table, hoping it would hide me, my stained t-shirt, and my ponytail too. Again, no such luck. "She Homeschools!" Mom piped up, encouraging. I wilted further. Then, the manager/owner/nanny-employer turned her eyes penetratingly upon me and demanded:
  "Why would you want to do that?"
  In that moment, I loathed myself. Really, truly, I was so ashamed that I just wanted to hide under my southwest chicken salad. But she waited, cold as the iceberg lettuce, as I inwardly berated myself.
  I'm a homeschool grad. I am rearing four well-adjusted, never-institutionalized children. I'm a home-education writer, reviewer, and consultant. And I could not, at that moment, give One Good Reason why I would want to do that!
  The fact is...Some days-and this happened to be one of them-I don't really want to "do that."
  Home educating is just plain hard. It hurts. It makes me cry. I get lonely, even.
  Home educating is a thankless job. My husband wants me to do it and has the most invested in this project, but even he forgets to throw me a parade every night. I still do not have my medal for being a Homeschool Grad from The Persecuted Years in America. So I am not holding out hope that the Second Generation is getting trophies here on earth, either.
  Home education is a 24-hour-a-day, 356-day-a-year job, especially for those of us "real life" and "year-round" classical educators. What was I thinking? Teaching constantly all the time, "when I rise up, when I sit down, while I walk in the way..."? Where is the vacation or break there?
  Home education disqualifies one from the Martha Stewart Homemaker of the Year. Some days, I just want to scream, "I can't take this mess anymore! Get you people and all your stuff off my floors and out of my house!" Living 24/7 in the same space with children who are home all day is a recipe for home clutter disaster.
  Where do I put the books? I keep tearing down the bookshelves and building bigger bookshelves, but it is never enough for all the books!
  Home educating is very tiring. That is the thing. I just get tired. Tired of grading papers; tired of listening; tired of answering; tired of picking up; tired of holding; tired of wiping; tired of reading; tired of fixing; tired of correcting; tired of correcting again; tired of answering again; tired of reading; tired of listening again...I am so...so...tired...so tired..
  "Why would you want to do that?"
  It was particularly hard to answer Happy Career Mom that day because I was a Very Tired Home Educator at that moment. But after some more sleep and deeper reflection, I remembered again why I want to do that.
  I love watching my children grow and learn! When I tell our personal homeschool story, I mention teaching my firstborn for "just one year" and then becoming addicted within those first months. It is true. I watched him put letters together to make words; I held his hand to write and watched him form his name on his own for the first time; I saw his excitement at writing number sentences like a mathematician. These learning moments and other milestones became precious to both of us, like watching a baby's first steps. I don't want someone else to teach my children about the fall of Rome, the martyrdom of Tyndale, or the theory of relativity. These are ours to share.
  I love being with my own children! OK, truth be told, I do need time away from them all to refresh my spirit and re energize myself once a year or so, but I could not imagine sending my four offspring away every day. They are important people in my life whom I love an cherish. This time with them is already going by too fast; my firstborn is more than half-done with his time with me. These are days to cherish.
  Home education is a superior educational model. My children benefit from a very small class size and frequent one-on-one instruction, utilizing the mentor ship model. They are trained early on to learn from a variety of resources, including reading and researching from classic works and primary sources; interviewing knowledgeable people; attending cultural events, festivals, and concerts; and observing and experimenting. They spend the bulk of their day not only on reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also on entrepreneurship, home economics, home repair, and music, This educational variety and life training simply would not be possible had they been institutionalized. Home education gives my children greater educational variety.
  My teaching focus is different from that of a classroom teacher. I am not concerned that my children score high on a test; they have never colored in a circle in their lives; I don't care if they forget every date and most of the names, or if they never learn to spell(I never did), or use their fingers to cipher (I sometimes do. It didn't help for calculus). I am after a greater goal: character, not acclaim; wisdom and understanding, not mere knowledge; work ethic, not riches; service, not popularity; godliness, not grades. That's not to say some of those other things aren't important-they just aren't the focus.
  Different results call for different means. This is a sowing and reaping principle. If I wanted the same thing as Happy Career Woman, I would do the same things she is doing. But since I have a different goal, a different vision, and a different calling, I must be different. My life should be lived in a radically different way. My children, if I want them to be completely different from the culture in which they live, must be trained in a completely different way. How could I do the mainstream thing and expect different results? I must also have faith that God will reward my patient planting, watering, weeding, and tending to reward me with a spiritual harvest which none can take away.
  Teaching my own children is a calling. I am called of God to be the mother of my children (1 Timothy 2:15). Keeping my home, including training my children and managing our family's resources, is a responsibility on which our testimony hangs (Titus 2:3-5). This is not a task to be taken lightly. My very God has given it to me.
  Most importantly, and perhaps I don't say this often enough, my husband and I have come to the conviciton that God's people should rain their own children. As my husband says, there is no wonderland for everybody; difficult trials and family situations make this just t rear each child in godliness and uprightness according to His Word. We believe God's admonitions in Deuteronomy 4-6 are still applicable to His people today, calling us to pass on our life of faith to succeeding generations by how we teach and live with them daily. We believe that the promises of Proverbs to the family who imparts knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to their young are still to be claimed today (see particularly chapters 1-4). And we further believe that the example of the New Testament believers builds on these principles (see especially Paul's epistles to Timothy). From the beginning, God's chosen method of education has always begun with the family.
  Two years ago, my husband took us to visit his homeland of Peru. For the children and me, it was a mind-altering experience. Seeing the truly poverty-stricken and destitute people living in close proximity to the well-off was a sharp contrast we have never erased from our minds. Since we look so obviously American, flocks of begging children accosted my own children to buy their candies for pennies, leaving my children heartbroken for their plight. As we drove down the streets, we could not bring ourselves to look full upon the cardboard houses stacked on the dirt hills. When we flew back to he U.S. and drove into our driveway, we sat in our minivan a moment just gazing upon our house. "It looks like a mansion now," my son said.
  My husband said at the supper table last night that I could put he four children in school and get a job if I wanted to bring in another paycheck. That would increase our income so drastically that we could then put the house up for sale and move to a better neighborhood, even live in a home that doesn't need any repairs. My husband could buy a new sedan, instead of driving the beat-up Toyota Tercel. We could buy electronics for everyone and go out to eat frequently. But non of those things are needs to any of us anymore, he reminded us. With food and raiment, we are content.
  I am working for something much more valuable than a paycheck, a house, electronics, or social status.
  I never got to share with Happy Career Mom why I would want "do that." By the time I gathered half my wits about me, she was called away to manage the restaurant. I am thankful, however, that the Lord used that conversation to remind me of the importance of knowing why I do what I do...even when the going gets tough.
written by Lea Ann Garfias

Homeschool Wednesday

So this week I'm really feeling lead to talk about ,"How do you know your doing the right thing?" There are times we are doing our school lessons and I feel very frustrated and lost. My feelings come to ask, why am I homeschooling? If I'm just going to be frustrated with my children and yell at them or they aren't going to listen to me, why not just send them to school? This is on bad days. On these days I'm like this picture above. Go to my room and just pray for patience and God's direction. Then we have good days and my children are very obedient and do all of there lessons with no problems. My favorite is when we are driving somewhere and a question is asked from one of my children that goes with a lesson we did. Or even better they point out something learned from a previous lesson. Its like whoa!! You were listening to me! Now I don't have anything against school. Public or Private. We send our daughter to a public school and we checked into private schools before we started homeschooling. We just go with what we feel God is leading us to do at the time. We know for sure that what we are doing is in God's will right now. That's not to say that it won't be His plan in the future for our children to be in a public school again. He may call us to do that. We will just pray about it every year and go with God's direction. It always seems to fall into place better when we go with God's direction.

Now for those of you that also home school. What do you do on those days that just don't seem to fall into place? Do you keep doing your school? Do you just stop and change pace? I tend to get so frustrated I have to stop for at least awhile. We pick it up after a bit and try again. or we might move on to another subject if the case is what we are trying to learn. I also notice if I'm not giving my full attention to them we tend to have a bad day. Well let me know your thoughts and we will get through what God is calling us to do at this moment together!
Katrina-

Homeschool Wednesday

For this Homeschool Wednesday I wanted to talk about incorporating other people into your homeschool. We have a wonderful church full of all sorts of talented people. We have a large group that homeschools and help teach different subjects. We just met with one special lady to talk about a state we were studying for History. Don't be afraid to let other people help you teach your children! Just because they aren't in school doesn't mean they cant have other teachers besides you. Lets face it, you don't know everything right. It really helps to be able to go to someone else and say 'Hey, can you help my child with this or can they ask you a few questions'. Also don't be afraid to join homeschool support groups. We have a wonderful support group through our public school system. I know GASP, public school system! This is a great group and in my area since we have to met with a teacher they help with the legal end. They don't get into my business and don't force me to do what they think is right. They help me improve our studies. Our teacher we have gives me ideas and resources. He will let me borrow school books, if I want. They set up field trips and most of them are free and go quite well with what we are learning. He actually counts our field trips as our face to face meetings we have to have. So my overall thought today is use other people when you can! And not the way that sounds...lol. Older people will enjoy that your asking and professional people will enjoy they get to use their talents.

I also want to mention what I've been struggling with in homeschool. I can't stop comparing what they are doing in the public school with what I'm doing. I just want to make sure we are on the right track. But then I think, come on now! We're learning Latin. We took a  whole year to deeply focus on Botany. So If you're having this problem too, just let it go! I'm sure you're doing fine. If your child is behind they will catch up eventually, but most likely I'm sure your child is ahead or right where they should be. Make your homeschool what you want it, that's the beauty of homeschooling right! Teach the basics but if you have time add to it and tailor it to your child's needs. That's why most of us are homeschooling in the first place right.

Homeschool Wednesday

  For this Homeschool Wednesday I get the pleasure of highlighting a new book. We of course love new books in our family as do most families. I love this book because its not just empty information. Its called 'Frederico, the Mouse Violinist' written by Mayra Calvani and illustrated by K.C. Snider. Learn the parts of the violin with Frederico, the Mouse Violinist!
  Frederico is a tiny mouse with a big dream: he wants to become a violinist. Each day he watches as Stradivari makes his famous violins. Each night, he sneaks into the workshop to play. But the violins are too big! Then, unbeknown to Frederico, Stradivari sees him playing and begins carving a tiny device. Could it be a famous Strad especially for Frederico?(summary taken from Mayra's blog)
 This book has fun activities at the end. A great book to pair with a homeschool music lesson on violins or just a bedtime story. The pictures are bright, colorful, and engaging. The story is fun and you don't even realize your learning. My kids really enjoyed the activity page at the end. They could match the word with the picture about things they learned from the story, such as which part is the scroll on the violin. They enjoyed learning the different parts of the violin and who Antonio Stradivari was.  You can go here to Guardian Angel website to purchase this book for yourself! You can also follow Mayra via her blog here.

  These are my options and I was not compensated in any way for this review. I received a PDF copy to review.

Homeschool Wednesday

So we live in the Midwest and this is the most snow I have probably seen in our area in my lifetime...at one time anyway. Our homeschooling day is kind of off today. We have dad and sister at home today. My thought for homeschooling today is how it is never the same each day. I plan out my lesson plans weeks ahead of time and something always happens that it doesn't go as planned. Someone gets sick or something gets cancelled. I will try and plan field trips and on those days we don't plan a lot of school so if it gets cancelled my lesson plans get all thrown off. In homeschooling I have learned that you have to have wiggle room. I have learned to have patience in knowing things aren't always going to go as planned. Ive only been homeschooling for a few years so I am definitely not a seasoned homeschooling mom but I am learning as I go and I have a huge support group to draw knowledge from.

My tip for the day is to enjoy life's interruptions. Don't get annoyed that things aren't going as planned. If your homeschooling day gets messed up, you can make up for it later. Just enjoy your time with your children and don't worry about it too much!

Homeschool Wednesday

So Ive been thinking, I have been doing this blog but don't get to put any of my thoughts about what we do the the most. Homeschooling is pretty much our day every day, even weekends. I'm going to start writing a little bit of my thoughts on homeschooling on a new Wednesday post. I'm trying to figure out how I would like this blogging thing to go. So most Tuesdays we will do our video series, which we are still trying to figure all out,  I hope we can get them posted to the blog next time and not just Facebook. If you want to see the video series go here to the Facebook page.  Wednesday I will do a little homeschooling thought, and Friday I will do a review for something day and hopefully once a month on Friday I can do a giveaway/review! Sounds like I'm getting on the ball with this whole blogging thing huh!? Just be patient with me as I play around with designs and ideas. Thanks!
Katrina-