The Royal Way

Strewing

2010-10-09T21:08:00.005-05:00

Strewing is a term that unschoolers use to describe what interesting things they are leaving around for their kids to discover. That definition is provided by Sandra Dodd. You can read more about strewing here . So I have been strewing. We bought an ant farm a couple of years ago which the kids found the other day. We filled it with sand and caught some ants to put in it. We wanted a queen ant and some eggs. If you order ants you only get worker ants. So we got out our Pets in a Jar book and looked up how to catch ants. We didn't get a queen ant but we did get some eggs. Lacey, Lily and Kyle helped catch the ants. We watched the ants build their tunnels and carry the eggs to a separate nursery. Lacey and Lily spent a lot of time looking at the ant farm with a magnifying glass. A couple of times we were even able to see a little black dot inside the egg that we believe to be the little baby ant. I checked Kyle out some books on drawing and bought him a calendar that he can color and make. We started reading Little house in the big woods. We built a diorama of a jousting tournament (something else I had bought years ago and never got around to doing). I took Lacey and Lily shopping. We went in flower shops and looked at flowers, we spent a good bit of time in an old antique store here in town, we visited a pet store and talked to the owner about her different pets. The antique store was especially interesting, we looked at old kitchen utensils and farm equipment. Then I picked Kyle up and we all went to the library. At the library I showed Kyle where the joke books and dinosaur craft books were and he spent a long time reading and then telling us all jokes. I also checked out some books on Native Americans to leave laying around. No interest in them so far. My Aunt and Uncle just started a blog about building their house so I showed the blog to the kids and we read it together. It was pretty interesting, so far we saw how a foundation is built. Kyle really like the pictures of the trucks and crane. We created a family blog. I left colors and alphabet coloring books around and I found an old electric calculator that the kids have all had a ball playing with. We found their felt board in the garage and made felt pictures together. Its been fun.

Six things I learned from unschooling

2010-10-05T05:35:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to decide what to do about school. Should I keep unschooling? Or go back to school at home? Or maybe somewhere in the middle? While thinking and planning and praying I made a list. I found the list yesterday while flipping through my notebook and thought I would post it here. My list.

What I learned-
1. Kids want to learn- it really is true kids do want to learn. The may not want to learn what I want to teach them but they do have a desire to learn.
2. Everything is learning, even when it doesn't look like learning-
I learned maize is corn. I learned that from watching the movie grown ups the other day. I also learned that it is almost impossible to go a whole day, let alone a whole week without learning something. And It doesn't have to be working fractions on a piece of paper to be math, it may just be realizing that if you have twelve crayons you and your two sisters can each have four.
3. My kids want some structure to their learning- Okay not all my kids but Ashley definitely does. And Kyle and Lacey like workbooks. Especially if they can do them when they want to.
4. Learning should come from as many real experiences as possible- Life really is the best teacher. Just letting them live life, surrounded by people, going shopping, visiting friends, playing on the computer, going to church, cooking or doing chores, all these things teach them how to really live in the world.
5. Don't think more is better, often less is best- Its better to focus on a few things that they really enjoy or love than dabbling in several things that they don't care anything about. I think we (teachers, parents, society ?) have gotten the idea that information is power and that we may leave out some vital piece of information that is going to somehow prevent kids from living a productive life. So we try to cram as much information as we can into their heads, hoping that we can give them that one magical piece of knowledge that they need to be happy, useful adults. But I don't know what they are going to need as adults, will they choose a career in science? Or maybe one requiring mathematical knowledge? So how can I predict what they need to know? Maybe it is better to help them develop their interests and help them learn to find the information they need as they need it.
6. Leave plenty of time for play- sometimes they do their best learning while they are playing. And Besides they are only going to be kids once and for such a short time. I need to give them time to play, to dream, to wonder. They have a lifetime to think about jobs and bills, relationships and responsibilities, but only a few short years to build a fort, fight monsters and dragons, be a princess or hang out with friends. I want to nurture their childhood and enjoy it- it passes so fast.

What our week looks like

2010-10-04T23:29:00.002-05:00

Man! Today was busy! We started our morning running. I got up early (for me) at about 8:30 and me and Shane and Kyle did a real fast sweep of the house. Once the house was reasonably straightened the kids ate a bowl of cereal and we rushed out the door to our Enrichment classes. I wanted to get there a little early so I could visit with some of the other moms and check out the share table. I am glad I did, I was able to get video about Rembrandt tat looks pretty interesting. I also got the kids a couple of vhs movies. After our classes we went to Jacksboro ( about an hour drive) to pick up Ashely's friend Kelsea. She is going to spend a few days with us. Ashley is very excited, she has really missed her since we moved. And I had a nice visit with my friend Suzanne (Kelsea's mom). After we got back from Jacksboro I woke Shane up and talked to him while he ate. Then we ran some errands (read that as we made up an excuse to drive around awhile just the two of us) and then we sat outside on the patio for a little while. After Shane went to work a cleaning bug bit me and I cleaned the house. It really needed it! I mopped floors and dusted and swept, folded clothes and even swept the driveway! I really do love a clean house. While I was doing all this Ashley's friend Sara came over to spend the night. After giving the little ones a bath and a snack we watched Survivor and The Modern Family together. And now I am sitting here writing my blog, all the little ones are asleep and I can hear Ashley and her friends laughing in her room. It is very, very nice.

Tomorrow I am meeting my friend Dee ( Sara's mom) at the library and then we are all going over to their house for a little while.

Wednesday a friend from our church and a friend of his are coming over to play some board games or maybe Who's the man with us. Ashley and Kelsea want to go to the mall so I am going to try to drop them off there in the morning for an hour or so while I go to the library and go get the oil changed in the van.

Thursday we have our first Burkburnett Park Day! Yeah! Very excited about that. We will meet at 10:30 and right after park day we will drive Kelsea to Decatur (hour and a half away) to meet up with her mom and at the same time we will pick Donna up! I cant wait to get her home. I miss her so much.

Friday no plans that I can think of. Rest maybe lol.

Unschooling is NOT unlearning!

2010-09-25T18:44:00.007-05:00

Okay, I really need to rethink the words I use!! Somehow my kids (Ashley and Donna) have gotten the idea that I am against learning and education! What?! Since we have been unschooling for about 7 months now, I understand it and love it and get it more and more. Maybe I should call it Child Led Learning? or Self- Educating? I don't want my kids (Ashley) to think I don't want her to learn. But is it working you ask? Well if you understand what unschooling is all about- learning something because you want to not because a teacher/ parent is making you learn it- then YES it is definitely working! And while she will vehemently deny it, Ashley is my biggest success story. Ashley insists on doing school work, she picks out her language and math and she chose to take a science class and a sign language class through our homeschool group. I don't have to nag or prod her to do her schoolwork, so I should be on cloud nine right? But it really annoys me that she thinks I am against education! About the only part of schooling we argue about is the stuff I try to assign her, which is stuff she sees as unschooling. The stuff I assign her is not actually unschooling, it is things like how kids learn, ways to learn without traditional textbooks and traditional schools. So should I just drop it and let her believe that the traditional way of learning is best and I am just anti- education? I don't know. I want her and all my kids to feel the excitement and wonder I feel when I learn something I never knew or see something I have never seen. I want them to find something they are passionate about. I want them to see life as an adventure, an exciting and wonderful gift that we are given and to love life and learning. But I am DEFINITELY not saying that we unschool anymore! We are homeschooling- just very untraditionally.

Unschooling and Relationships

2010-04-24T16:51:00.005-05:00

If the kids learned absolutely nothing by unschooling I have to admit I'd still maybe choose to unschool simply because of the change it has made to our family life. I know that makes me sound like a terrible parent, like I don't care about my children's education, which of course I do. I do want my kids to have a great education but what is the point of education? Isn't the whole purpose of school to prepare kids for life? And isn't the best way to prepare for life is to simply start living? At least that's what all the unschooling sites, books and blogs seem to say. So instead of sitting down to fill out pages of arithmetic problems we go grocery shopping, we bake cookies or play monopoly or life. We count and multiply and measure and weigh things. Instead of reading science textbooks we have been studying our turtle (which we released last week after an explanation how wild animals are meant to be wild and don't really do well with long periods of captivity) and taking long nature walks, and examining different bird nests.

And in between the cooking and the games I realized kinda all of a suddenly how much better everyone seems to be getting along. I guess it's not surprising when I think about it. Without realizing it I created the same environment in my home that I was trying to get away from by homeschooling in the first place. One of the main reasons I started homeschooling was because I wanted to be with my kids. But spending all day doing math and reading lessons, trying to corral the little ones long enough to teach the older ones doesn't really count as quality family time. And by the time the school work is done the kids just want to be free to do what they want, free to go outside or watch television. And I just want some quiet time. But now they ask each other to play games, they watch t.v. together. Kyle and Ashley reads to Lacey and Lily. Donna watches shows with the little ones. And it seems like we have time to do all the things we wanted to do but never had the time. One example of this is playing cards with the girls and my dad. He comes over at least 3 or 4 times a week to play spades with me and the girls. It's so nice to see a real bond between him and the girls forming and I have learned so much about my dad and my own childhood during these card games.

I think the reason I like sonlight so much was because it did help make school time seem like family time. In fact I still enjoy reading my sonlight books to the kids. I think I've taken the relaxed time we felt while doing history and extended it to all our subjects. I struggle with whether or not the kids are learning enough but everytime I start thinking about going back to our old school ways something happens to encourage me to keep unschooling, at least one more week.

Two books every homeschooler MUST have!

2010-04-18T17:45:00.000-05:00

There are two books that we have used over and over through the years. I would say that every homeschooling family would benefit from these books. One is Pets in a Jar by Seymour Simon and the other book is Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. Both books are excellent to have on your bookshelf, especially if you have a kid that's always bringing some critter home.

The first book, Pets in a Jar, explains how to set up different habitats using gallon size jars. We have used this book so many times over the years. We have kept ants, tadpoles, frogs and toads, crickets and earthworms with it's help. All my kids with the exception of Ashley have brought home some critter at one time or another.

The other book is a great resource for studying nature in general. From birds to turtles, trees to rocks this book is really great for leading children to learn about the world around them in a very natural way. I love the way it leads kids to make discoveries on their own instead of me just telling them the information.

I've never been much into nature study but these two books have really helped. Lately I have been making a concentrated effort to get the kids more involved with nature. Maybe it's because the weather has been so nice, but I just really want to be outside more.

Turtle Shells Bleed??!!

2010-04-16T18:13:00.003-05:00

Did you know that turtle shells bleed? Or that turtles have 5 toes on their front feet but only 3 on the back. Did you know that turtles eat worms? And tomatoes? And hot dogs?

I didn't know any of these things until my dad brought a turtle home for us. Lacey promptly named the turtle Franklin ( of course), Kyle named it Raphael, after the teenage mutant ninja turtle. Every morning we take him/her/it outside to walk around and enjoy some fresh air and we dig for worms to feed it. We have learned a lot about worms also by doing this. Like where the best worms are, and for some reason we found that we have better luck the earlier we dig for them. Why is that I wonder? Do they burrow deeper later in the day? Also we learned that we have better luck closer to the ground and under bushes. We don't seem to find as many the deeper down we go. Oh and one day while we were digging for worms we found a really weird something. I don't know what it was. Worm? Centipede? Baby snake? I have no clue. It didn't look like anything I'd ever seen before. It was smooth like a worm but moved like a snake in a way. It slithered back and forth but also could go forward or backward. If agitated it struck out kinda like a snake. My dad said it was a centipede but it didn't have any legs. Shane said it was a baby snake but it was red and yellow without any black. And I don't know if snakes can move backwards! Anyway we feed it to the chickens but now I wish we had kept it a while. There is still lots of discussion about just what it really was.

Anyway back to the turtle. We also discovered that Franklin/ Raphael prefers fat long worms to the skinny ones. And he'll eat grub worms but he doesn't seem to like them very much. Sometimes we'll put him in a puddle of water to swim around for a while. He doesn't seem especially thrilled by this but Lily insists that he wants to go swimming so I let her put him in occasionally.

One day we decided to draw pictures of him. That's when we discovered that he had 5 claws on his front feet but only 3 on his back. That seems strange to me so hopefully we can check again the next time we draw him. Kyle and Lacey drew some really good pictures! I told them to really pay attention to the shape of his body and the color of his shell and body. They even drew the way his shell has a scalloped edge instead of a smooth edge.

Today we learned that their shells actually have blood and nerves in them. We learned this because Lily accidently dropped him and a tip of his shell broke a little. We saw blood and examined him and it looked like the blood was coming from his shell. We looked up on the computer about his shelland sure enough turtle shells can bleed! So now we are handling him much more carefully.

I think he is getting used to us. He'll walk around even if he sees us and he'll come out of his shell while Kyle is holding him. I think we'll keep him another week or two then let him go. I sure am enjoying having him aroung though.

How Children Fail ( Book Review)

2010-03-28T21:18:00.000-05:00

This book was REALLY REALLY good! I strongly recommend it for anyone interested in teaching kids or anyone interested in learning how kids learn.Well, actually this book is about how kids don't learn. That they don't learn by memorizing facts to spit back out on demand, they don't learn by force, fear and coercion. It really helped me see some things that I do thinking that I'm teaching them when really I'm just wasting my time and theirs. It was so funny reading about the ways children fool their teachers and remembering doing the exact same things when I was in school. And on the flip side reading about some tactics that teachers use and realizing that I have done some of the very same things to my own kids. I think even if I don't stay with unschooling this book and this experience will make my a much more relaxed and a much gentler homeschooler.

A Little Socializing

2010-03-26T19:38:00.001-05:00

Today I took the kids to a play day with the Carthage Homeschool group. I met up with a friend from church and her 12 year old daughter there . The kids all had a great time. The older ones hung out, talked and walked to the store. Donna (16) had a very good discussion with my mom who joined us for the play day about the merits of unschooling. I think mostly my mom tried to convince Donna that sticking to a schedule was important so you learn to be responsible and be on time for a job. Donna's main point seemed to be that school is oppressive and depressing. She's on the second chapter of The Teenage Liberation Handbook, hopefully she'll get the idea that learning is fun and exciting as long as it's done at the students pace and a subject that the learner is interested in. I helped Donna out by pointing out people we knew that went to (public) school who were still unable to keep a job because of tardiness. Oh and by the way my mom totally supports my homeschooling (even my unschooling) her and Donna just enjoy sparring back and forth!

After we got back from the play day I picked up my nephew Noah and he and Kyle rode their bikes together. I got bored so I went outside with Lacey and Lily and watched all the kids ride their bikes together. While they were riding I started looking in the trees and noticed a bird's nest. That led to us walking around the block trying to spot bird nests in the trees. We spotted so many! I never really noticed how many bird nests there were around here. Well, that led to a discussion on bird nests: Why are we seeing so many? Why are they so high up? Why are some so much bigger than others? I wonder if there are eggs in the nests. It was very cool. Like a totally unplanned nature/ science moment. Then they met up with the neighbor's grandsons and rode bikes together, played baseball and then spent the evening roasting marshmellows together. I think Kyle made some good friends today.

Donna and Ashley meanwhile decided to play 2000 ( a card game) together. This is a little surprising because they aren't much for hanging out together unless it's with other people also. I hope maybe this will become more of a habit.

All in all we had a great day! It was so nice out and so nice just being with the kids!

Unschooling Update

2010-03-18T15:38:00.000-05:00

Well, Donna and Ashley are starting to read The Teenage Liberation Handbook ( at my requests). I waver between being whole- heartedly sold on Unschooling and missing my old school methods. I especially miss the conversations I had with the kids about history and religion. We still have lots of conversations but probably not ones as deep or meaningful. I'm really trying to respect the kids as people and trust that they will learn and grow. Whenever I begin to have doubts I flip through The Teenage Liberation Handbook or the Unschooling Handbook and I ordered a couple of other books also. I have no qualms concerning Kyle or Lacey they seem to just thrive in this relaxed environment. Kyle is always doing some type of math. He loves counting! And lately he's been asking lots of questions about times tables and fractions. Lacey is constantly writing. She loves writing her letters or copying words I write for her. We are all trying to get more involved in life, especially church. We have a great event planned this Saturday called Street R.A.G.E. (Reaching All Generations Effectively). Ashley wants to get involved in it and I'm hoping Donna will as well, but I'm not forcing the issue. I'll try to post about it Sunday or Monday.

Kids and Shakespeare

2010-03-10T14:16:00.001-06:00

Well, I think I mentioned in a previous post that Donna was reading Romeo and Juliet and getting interested in Shakespeare. Yesterday after she had read awhile in her book ( No Fear Shakespeare) she watched the Reduced Shakespeare Company again. Kyle, Lacey, Lily and Ashley watched it with her. Kyle and Lacey LOVED it! They laughed so much. The two of them ended up watching it several times, fast forwarding it and rewinding it to their favorite parts over and over again. After they had watched it so many times I was about sick of hearing it, they mercifully decided to give it a rest. I have to admit I was greatly relieved but then they really surprised me. They began acting out their favorite scenes! Their favorites seemed to be from Hamlet. Later that night Kyle was still talking about the different plays and how funny it was so I started looking up Shakespeare for kids on the Internet and came across The Animated Tales of Shakespeare from BBC. Each episode is about 30 minutes and I found where we could watch the complete episodes on YouTube. So we ended up watching Midsummer's Night Dream and Hamlet. The cartoons were pretty good! I can really see unschooling being great for the little ones but I'll admit I have my moments of doubts with the older two.

What we did this week.

2010-03-05T23:26:00.000-06:00

Well, I think we had a very productive week. We accomplished so much, not everything was academic but still worthwhile and fun. Here's some of the things we did this week; played lots of spades, started teaching Kyle to play chess, played bunches of games (hungry hippo, math bingo, storytelling, chess, spades, 2000, and settlers of catan. We also painted Ashley's room, ripped the carpet up in the dining room,and gave Donna her first driving lesson. I started potty training Lily. I read lots of books to the 3 younger ones. Today we started reading Mrs. Piggly-Wiggly. It was SO funny! Kyle played Lego's alot and today he got out a measuring tape and started measuring the different things he was building! I was really surprised to see him do this. He even asked a bunch of questions about it, like he knew what inches were but not centimeters so after I explained centimeters he remeasured everything in centimeters! He also read a bunch of books on his own. He played outside. Oh, and we decided to paint planets on his wall so we got out a bunch of books on space and looked up each planet and read a little about them, mostly how big each one was and what color. He is very excited about helping to paint them on his wall.
I feel pretty good about it so far. Tomorrow we are going to try to go to a historical demonstration/ reenactment. I don't know much about it but it's free and hopefully the kids will like it.

Our Unschooling Experiment

2010-03-02T22:53:00.000-06:00

Well Monday we officially started unschooling. It's scary and exciting. Right now I'm calling it an experiment mostly to ease everyone into the idea of it. We have been on vacation the last 2 weeks and were supposed to start back to school Monday. I spent the 2 weeks reading everything I could find online about unschooling, I also read The Unschooling Handbook and The Teenage Liberation Handbook. I ran across the Unschooling Handbook at a used book store and since I've been interested in unschooling for a couple of years now I figured I'd buy it and try to work some of it's ideas into our curriculum. But this book just spoke to me in such a powerful way that well, one thing led to another and before I knew it I was suggesting this experiment. That led me to ordering The Teenage Liberation book online and after I'd read just a few chapters of the Teenage Liberation Handbook I felt hopeful that this could work.

I also spent the 2 weeks watching my kids, praying, thinking, and planning. This is some of the things I've come up with. First there are 2 things that -I don't know let's just call them principles that I try to live my life by. First, if I'm not happy about something in my life figure out what is bothering me and why and change it. Second, Almost nothing is written in stone. I can always change my mind. So I knew I wasn't happy so I started thinking of ways to change that. And one of the things I wasn't happy about was that I always feel/ felt so hurried and pressured. I realized how much more relaxed and happy I felt on summer breaks and my 2 week breaks. I watched the kids and realized the seemed happier on our break, more relaxed, not as whiny. Also I noticed how much more time I had. Time to read to the little ones, cook, or play games with the older ones. How I felt just free to really enjoy my kids, my husband and my life. At the same used book store I also bought some books about Shakespeare. I've been wanting to start introducing Shakespeare to the girls. One book is No Fear Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet and the other is a collection of condensed versions of his plays. Well I left the No Fear book lying on the table and Donna picked it up and began reading it. She really liked it! If I had assigned this for her to read she would of hated it! I'd planned on reading it aloud to her and Ash. Anyway this book sparked an interest in her that I really noticed. Since then we've watched a modern adaption of his play The Taming of The Shrew ( 10 things I hate about you) and watched a DVD called the Reduced Shakespeare Company. This was SOOOO funny! We laughed so much! Neither one of us understood it all because we aren't very familiar with his plays but it gave us both a desire to read more of his plays! I noticed that Kyle spent alot of time building things with Lego's and playing outside. And Lacey and Lily both spent time coloring, helping me cook and looking at books. Lacey is always asking how to make letters and how to write this word or that. I noticed Ashley and Donna both liked to take long walks. Ashley likes to cook. Of course they both like watching T.V. and playing on the computer and texting their friends.

So I came up with 2 rules for our Uncshooling Experiment.
Rule # 1- No TV or computer until after 3:00 Monday- Saturday
Rule # 2- Everyone has to read at least 1 chapter in addition to their Bible reading everyday. They can choose any book they want.
So what have I learned so far? That learning is FUN! That kids do want to learn. That I have been destroying some awesome books by forcing my kids to read them. I've learned alot about my own school experiences and how little I actually learned in school. And I've remembered how great my kids are. How smart, funny and insightful each of them are. I look forward to this way of learning and if I change my mind? Well, nothing is written in stone.

Our Wizard Of Oz Party

2009-10-09T14:59:00.000-05:00

Well, today we had a Wizard of Oz party. I have been reading the book to Kyle, Noah and Lacey in school and since Kyle and Lacey had never seen the movie so I told them when we finished the book we would have a movie party. It was so much fun! First let me say that I love the movie but dreaded reading the book. But I think the book is even better than the movie! I highly recommend reading this book to your child. But anyway back to the party. Anytime I throw a party I go to this site

http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/html/party_ideas.html it has ideas for almost any theme imaginable. Anyway I bought some green decorations ( to represent the Emerald City) not alot just a few to give the place a party atmosphere. And we had a green theme to our snacks- green jello, green kool - aid and green cupcakes. We played "melt the witch and get her broom stick". This was a frozen cube with a popsicle stick decorated like a broom stuck in it. They loved this game. And we played follow the yellow brick road ( musical chairs with yellow poster board to stand on instead of chairs to sit in). And we popped popcorn and watched the movie. Even the older kids joined us in the party- just to get out of school I suspect. But Donna and Ash had never seen the movie either. We all had a great time. BTW- we don't do this every time we finish a book but I just thought it'd be fun especially since my kids Had never seen the movie. And it worked out perfectly with this being our last day before break.

The site I mentioned before had so many great ideas I think I may throw Lacey A Wizard of Oz birthday party in May!

Another School Year

2009-10-07T08:36:00.000-05:00

Well, we are in our 6th week of school and it's going soooo good. Of course I love the books we are reading ( mostly Sonlight, naturally), we are doing several things different this year. The first big change I gotta mention is that this year I'm teaching my sister's 2 kids also. So I'm teaching 5 kids ( ages 15,15,12, 8 and 7) plus I got the 2 little ones (4 and almost 2) running around. I thought it would be really, really hard and some days it is, but most of the time it's great. I found out the key to schooling so many especially since they share alot of subjects and I have 2 separate group times, 1 with the older three and another group time with the younger 2, plus separate reading lessons with the younger 2, in organization! I'll post more about that in another post though.

The second big change this year is we are trying out a new schedule. We are going to try out year round schooling. So we will school for 6 weeks and then take 2 weeks off. I know normally it's 6 weeks on 3 weeks off but I'm doing it this way because for one thing we didn't start school until September, also I want extra time off in the summer. Actually the kids want extra time off in the summer. I decided to try this schedule for several reasons: 1- I don't like going anywhere like zoos, museums or parks in the summer because it's too hot and crowded. So this way I can plan that kind of things during our off time. 2- The kids get bored with so much off time and then they get to bickering and arguing or nagging me half to death to take them somewhere. 3- I thought with schooling so many this year I might need several mini breaks for sanity sake. Which brings me back to the point of this post. This is our last week before our 2 week break. And I'm very excited about that.
I already have several things planned for our break.

1.I plan to have a fancy tea party with Lacey and my sister Becca and her little girl. We are going to go all out- dress up, make fancy finger food. I think it will be so much fun!
2. I plan to go shopping and out to lunch with a friend ( and maybe a movie)
3. Me and my mom and Becca plan to go to dinner and a movie.
4. If I happen on a pretty day go to the park
5.Maybe the zoo.

But that's it I don't want to spend the whole 2 weeks running and busy.
Well that's it for now. I'm off to read The Wizard of Oz to the kids!

Sonlight

2008-09-19T14:24:00.000-05:00

We finished core 6! It was really a great core and we learned so much! I was tempted to rush through the end so I could hurry and get to core 7, but I felt like I would be leaving out to much important information. We did end up skipping a few of the readers and read alouds, which I hated to do, but we took our time on Story of the World.

Next week we get to start Core 7. I've been dying to start these books! I'm especially excited about the Bible portion. I didn't really like the Bible in Core 6 and we dropped it about halfway through. It wasn't that it wasn't good stuff, just that my kids have been raised in church and they already knew so much of it that they found it kinda boring. The Bible portion in Core 7 looks really good though. I think it will focus more on discipleship, which I think they need.

Last year and this year (so far) have been the best homeschool years we've ever had! I'm a little surprised because both years I've had little ones underfoot. Last year we had a two year old, plus I was pregnant AND we took in a foreign exchange student. With such a full house and so much going on it would seem that schooling would be a little.... difficult? This year we have a three year underfoot plus a 9 month old baby. Both little ones are very demanding. I mean I always read about families with these perfect little kids that play or color contentedly while the mom homeschools her other 8 kids in perfect peace. Yeah, not so much at my house. Usually the littlest one is crying to be held or trying to color on the older kids papers, yelling at the top of her lungs "No! I don't want my own paper! I want to color Ashley's!!!!" or (as Lacey is doing this year) repeating EVERY word I say because "I'm teaching too, Mommy!"
But even with all the distractions these have been the best years! I think part of it is that I'm more organized and experienced but I have to say I think most of the credit for the great year has to go to Sonlight. WARNING! THE REST OF THIS IS GOING TO SOUND LIKE A PAID ADVERTISEMENT FOR SONLIGHT! ONLY PROCEED IF YOU ARE PREPARED FOR A LONG SONLIGHT GUSH! First of all, I just love this curriculum! I love the fact that my days are all planned out. I used to want to design my own lesson plans ( I can't remember WHY I wanted to do this. Surely I had a reason?) but then real life would get in the way and I'd end up behind. Not so with Sonlight! I just open my Instructor Guide and start teaching. Everything is laid out for me. And the books are so interesting! I love the discussions we are having. I love that the kids aren't just filling in blanks in a workbook but reading about interesting people and places. I like that they aren't just learning what happened, but why it happened and how it affects us today. In the past it seemed I struggled so much just doing the basics, math, language, spelling, that we didn't even get to the other stuff like history or science. Or I'd get frustrated and ignore the basics for more fun science and history projects. But with sonlight it just seems like everything comes together so perfectly! I think a big difference is that I'm so excited about what we are learning that I stay motivated to teach. Even on bad days when the kids are rowdy I look forward to sitting down with the kids and reading and talking together. Sometimes our discussions turn very serious and we talk about abortion, the need to put Jesus first in their lives or the current presidential campaign and other times we can't hardly keep reading because we are laughing so hard about something we read. I think it's drawn our family closer together and given me such insight into the personalities of the children God has blessed me with. I love that Sonlight is unapologetically Christian. I love that the goals they have so closely matches the goals I have for my kids. And they don't just set goals for you they back their goals up with real life ways to reach those goals. For instance I want my children to develop a heart for missions. Well Sonlight introduced me to a India mission project that will help teach illiterate women to read. I really, really love their support forums! I have learned so much from them, even though I mostly lurk.
I love their super fast shipping and their friendly customer service. I wish I had started using Sonlight years ago. Back then I just couldn't see spending that much money on it. Now it seems like such a small price to pay for all the benefits we get from it. Out of everything we are doing or have done in the past Sonlight is the only curriculum I have ever used that I totally love. I'm really so thankful that God lead me to Sonlight and that is honestly the end of my gush- for today. Anyway we have revival tonight and I gotta get the kids ready. I want to post about Hurricane Ike and how we fared the storm but I need to load some pictures- maybe tomorrow?

Our First Week of School

2008-08-23T09:30:00.000-05:00

Well, we started back to school Tuesday. We had a really great week! I was so nervous about teaching 2 Sonlight cores, but it wasn't a problem. We started each day by 9:00 ( Lily has decided to be an early riser). As the kids ate breakfast I would review the 21 Rules of This House. This book is great! I especially like rules 4, 5, and 6: We consider one another's interests ahead of our own. We speak quietly and respectfully with one another. And we do not hurt one another with unkind words or deeds. I think it made a BIG improvement on the attitudes and especially on how the kids treat each other. This only took like 10 minutes each morning. We are using Sonlight 3 for Science. So I also read that while they ate. I worried this would be to easy for Donna but I think I'll be able to adjust it to her level. By then they were done eating so we did our spelling. We are using Sequential Spelling. I like it but it takes my son WAY longer than the girls and they get a little bored waiting for him. I don't want to have to teach this twice so they'll just have to wait. I have to use a dry erase board to teach this so I bought Lacey a small board and she does her "lessons" on that. Her lessons consist of her drawing lots of 0's on the board. I tried showing her how to make a little a but she was so not interested!

I did learn a neat trick to keep Kyle from mixing up his b's and d's. I got this tip from the Sonlight forum. I told him b has a big belly and d had a big derriere. I had to explain a derriere was a big butt, which of course he thought was hilarious. So now he likes going around saying d has a big butt. At least he hasn't mixed his letters up again!

After Spelling the girls went off and did their seat work while me and Kyle worked on his Sonlight. Lacey sometimes listened in to the Bible and both kids liked Curious George and Make Way for Ducklings. He enjoyed The Boxcar Kids, which I was afraid he wouldn't like. Thankfully the chapters are pretty short so he doesn't get bored with it. Kyle likes Hero Tales okay. He likes it way better if I let him interrupt and talk about everything that's going on. That's a little hard because by now Lily is getting cranky and ready for her nap. After his Sonlight, we work on phonics and his reading lesson. By this time Lily is usually taking a bath so we sit on the bathroom counter while he reads to me.

After her bath he does his seat work and I nurse Lily while I read SOTW to the girls. They color a page from the activity guide while I'm reading. Lily lays down for her nap and we do our map work. Then I read I, Juan de Parajo to them. This is a good book. I don't like it as much as Catherine Called Birdy but it's pretty good and both girls are (pretty much) enjoying it. After that they go finish their seat work. And I correct Kyle's seat work. I know once we start Core 7 it will take me longer because then we'll have Bible and hopefully language. This week for language I just had them start a journal. I'm trying to establish a nighttime routine of them reading a chapter in their Bible and writing in their journal each night before they go to bed.

Well that was our week of school! Hopefully next week will go as smoothly.

Lily's been busy!

2008-08-13T10:49:00.001-05:00

This has been a busy week for our Baby Lily! Monday she pulled up by herself! We were so surprised because she STILL can't sit up by herself yet. She can sit fine but if she falls over, she's like a little turtle on it's back, and can't get back up! With all her sisters and her brother it's amazing she can do anything we all hold her so much! LOL! So when she grabbed ahold of the side of the bed and stood up we were just shocked. Of course, then we all started clapping and cheering and it surprised HER so much that she fell back on her bottom. Then she figured out it was a game and she'd stand up and we'd all clap and cheer, she'd sit down and we would get quiet. Then she'd stand up and it would start all over again. Now how smart is that! She's just brilliant, I tell you!Then yesterday I thought she had a piece of paper in her mouth and while I was feeling for that I discovered a TOOTH! Her first little baby tooth. It's so beautiful too! And she's really been practicing her crawling technique. She has about mastered the combat crawl and has started developing the hand- knee maneuver. Once she's on her hands and knees though she tends to just rock back and forth. We aren't worried though, I'm sure she has some brilliant plan in mind. Lily is the last of six kids and she takes her job of keeping us entertained very seriously!

Box Day!

2008-08-09T08:46:00.000-05:00

My Sonlight Box Came!!!! It actually came yesterday afternoon. I wasn't expecting it until at least Wednesday! I'm so excited! I was literally dancing around the living room. It was like Christmas morning when I was a kid. But you have to understand I have a serious addiction to books. I love books! All books! Any books! I love kid books, textbooks, used books, funny books, sad books, biographies, fictional books,history books, science book and religious books. The kids were looking at me like I'd lost my mind. But hey this is my first Sonlight box day! And it's like 45 brand new, never been read before, crisp, clean, BEAUTIFUL books! So I can't wait to get them all out and put them on my shelf, except my shelves are all too full soooo... I gotta go Monday and buy another shelf! I think I'll but 2 more, because I want to put all my school supplies on them and my scrapbook stuff. That will give me 5 full length book shelves ion my dining room!
Anyway soo excited thought I'd share, but I gotta run.

Our Typical Homeschool Day

2008-08-01T22:04:00.000-05:00

This will be our 6th year homeschooling unless you count the 2 years I homeschooled before sending the kids to christian school. But I don't count those years. So anyway school will start for us August 18. I'd like to say we're super organized but well that's just not us. This is what our day generally looks like.

I wake up anywhere between 7:30 - 9:00 it all depends on the baby. Whatever time Lily(7 months) wakes up I get up. Most often that's by 8:30 but when she sleeps late so do I! I love the mornings! Lacey (3) is usually in bed with me and Lily and we spend anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour (depending on how long we slept) playing, tickling, snuggling. Lots of times some of the other kids will hear us and come join in the fun. Sometimes I set my alarm and get up but that usually only lasts about a week. Once I drag myself up, I check my email and ebay. Then I get the kids something to eat if they haven't already made something themselves. Usually the older 3 are up, dressed and playing on the computer. The older 2 girls 14, and 11 usually have their chores done. I'm especially strict about that on school days. I try to be schooling by 10:30 or 11:00. As you can tell we are very relaxed!

We start with group work. This has changed over the years but right now we are using Sonlight for our group work and that is Bible, History, Geography, and read alouds. Last year Donna(13) and Ashley(10) did Core 6 ( world History part 1) and Kyle(6) listened in as he wanted. I bought the story of the world activity book and had the kids color the pictures while I read to them. Even Lacey (2) would listen and color pictures. This year Kyle will start his own core (k). I LOVE Sonlight! I could go on and on for hours about how much they learned and how great it was, but I'll try to restrain myself. LOL!

After group work we split up for what I call seat work. For the oldest 2 I make up a weekly schedule with all their work on it. It has all their subjects (Bible, reading, spelling, math, language, spanish, misc.) and I write what they have to do by each subject. They take their schedule and do the work on their own if they have any questions or need help they come ask me. The rule for us is the kids do all they can on their own then I help with what they can't do. I AlWAYS have to help with language so this year I'm planning to do language as part of group work. Since Kyle is still learning to read and needs more help I do his a little different. I tear out his work sheets (abeka math and language) each day and he sits at the table or at his desk in his room. He also has reading lesson and phonics that we do together.

The kids take lots of breaks. Kyle and Ashley are usually done by 2 or 3. Donna doesn't get done sometimes until 5 or 6 but she doesn't like to be rushed and takes more breaks. We stop for lunch when we get hungry. Sometimes they work fast and get done earlier and sometimes we are still doing school at 7 or 8 at night.

Our School changes almost constantly because life changes almost constantly. LOL! Last year we had another baby. We also had a foreign exchange student living with us. So this year will probably be a little different from last year, but that's what is so great about homeschooling, I can adapt it to fit my life!

We go on field trips, park days, etc. whenever the mood strikes us or whenever something catches our interest. Last year we met once a week with some homeschool friends for art and science. I hope to be able to do that again.

Shane's work schedule has changed this year. He'll have to work Tuesday- Saturday so we probably will only school Tuesday thru Friday. And leave Mondays free to spend with him.

Anyway that's the plan we'll see how it goes.

Amazed

2008-07-28T18:42:00.000-05:00

Hi blogworld!

This will be my first post and I thought I'd write about something that has really been on my heart the past few days. And that is how I am just amazed at God! I mean just when I think he can't amaze me any more he goes and amazes me all over again!
So why am I so amazed at God? Well it happened like this a couple of weeks age we had a revival that really stirred me to spend more time in prayer. So I was praying and telling God how I wanted a closer walk with him. And how I try to pray but it seems like my prayers are just words floating around. Do you ever feel that way? Like your praying and no one is listening? Don't get me wrong I know He answers my prayers, meets my needs and cares for me... But day by day I didn't feel like me and God were communicating. So I told God I felt like I was doing all the talking and asked if he'd talk to me back. I told God how a conversation should be two people talking back and forth and it didn't seem like he was holding up his end of the conversation. You might be surprised I'd pray that but He knows how you feel anyway so you might as well just say it... right?Now don't go getting nervous I'm not about to tell you the face of Jesus appeared to me in my soup and gave me the winning lottery numbers! But I am going to say God has been revealing himself to me more and more.
Like the other day I was driving along feeling very sad and depressed. And I was praying/ talking/thinking about how I have no true friends (which isn't true BTW ) and all my friends are busy with thier own lives and kids and no one but my husband REALLY loves me but he's working 70 hours a week and doesn't have time for me. And I'm all alone and even my kids don't want to spend time with me. So you can see I was in quite a mood well just then I'm sitting there crying(sad I know) when a song came on the radio. This song said almost exactly what I was saying. And It was just what I needed and I realized I don't need someone with me ALL the time. I need some time where it can be just me and God ( and of course one or two of the babies). And maybe God made everyone too busy to go with me because He wanted to go and have my full attention for a change. And I was amazed all over again that the God of the whole universe would even care enough to go out of his way to initiate a time alone with me AND even send me this little song to cheer me up. Isn't God just awesome!

Just call my name by Third day

It's been so long since You felt like you were loved So what went wrong But do you know There's a place where you belong Here in My Arms

Chorus:
When you feel like you're alone in your sadness
It seems like no one else in this whole world cares
And you want to get away from the madness
You just call My name and I'll be there
You just call My name and I'll be there
The pain inside Has erased your hope for love
Soon you will find That I'll give you all
That your heart could ever want And so much more

Chorus:
When you feel like you're alone in your sadness
It seems like no one else in this whole world cares
And you want to get away from the madness
You just call My name and I'll be there
You just call My name and I'll be there You just call My name You just call My name Call My name say it now
I want you to never doubt The love I have for you is so alive
Call My name say it now I want you to never doubt The love I have for you is so alive You just call My name You just call My name You just call My name The love I have for you is so alive The love I have for you is so alive You just call My name You just call My name You just call My name

Well this story may not amaze you but It sure made me feel like God was doing exactly whatr I asked and carrying his end of the conversation.