Hello homeschool.

Here we go. Yesterday was our first day back with our Classical Conversations community and today will be our first day back with me teaching since before Christmas. I am still totally bummed that Christmas break is over but I am feeling excited about our new semester.

Over our break I spent a lot of time thinking about why we homeschool, what we have been doing, what we could be doing better or just differently, etc. I also have been re-reading my favorite homeschooling book of all time, Educating the Wholehearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson (I can't recommend this simple gem of a book enough).

I know for me, the final decision to homescool had little to do with education really. I really started considering it after finding out how large the class sizes were in our public school kindergarten classes locally, But, ultimately, I feel like I have fairly smart kids who would probably thrive in most any educational environment. And while I do believe that homeschooling has a huge benefit academically (extremely small class sizes and curriculum tailored specifically for each child!) for me my reasons had more to do with our family relationships, teaching my children from a Biblical stand point, and character training.

So, this semester I really want to get back to our "homeschooling roots" so to speak and focus on what is important. Because of that, some of my homeschool goals moving forward include:

1. A morning meet-up time with mom and all the kiddos after chores where we all sit together to pray, work through a devotional, and connect before we hit the books. I think it will be beneficial to start our day off together, putting God first. And I also think it will be a good routine for us (as routine and structure are two things I want to improve on in our home).
2. Right after this time I plan to read to the kids. Sally Clarkson said she always started off her day doing a devotional with the children and reading to them... that way if nothing else got done that day, it was still a successful day! I love that!
3. In that vein, one of my goals is to focus a lot more in reading and good books in our homeschool. We will do this through lots of mom reading aloud both picture and chapter books, daily quiet reading time, and listening to audio books. 
4. For the rest of our schooling I want to really just focus on the basics. Math, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, and daily memory work review. 
5. I want to give my kids lots of blank space to play. Room and time to play together, get bored and be forced into creativity. Give them a lot of time to play with each other. 
6. And lastly, not worry about what other people are doing in their homeschools! It is great what everyone has the opportunity to do and we all have different priorities. For right now I want to put my blinders on and focus on what God has set before me, right now, with these 4 people.

So, we will see how it goes! I believe with God's grace and maybe a little coffee as well that this mama can have a good homeschooling semester!

Curriculum Choices for 2014-2015

Well our 2014-2015 homeschool year is off to a great start. We "officially" began Monday morning and have been plugging away since. Next week we will add in our Classical Conversations community that we will attend once a week on Monday mornings. And the week after we will add in our weekly homeschool P.E. class on Thursdays. It has been nice to kind of ease in to school adding more each week.

My cute students hard at work!

I have been meaning to do a curriculum post to share what we are using this year. I love reading these posts from other homeschool moms because it gives me ideas to keep in the back of my head in case something isn't working. Hands down one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is the ability to change things up if something just isn't working and try something new. And we are doing that a bit this year with some changes to what we have used in the past! So, without further ado, here is our curriculum line up for this year...

Max (2nd Grade)
Phonics- A Beka Letters and Sounds 2
Language/Grammar- First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind 1 (finishing up from last year) and then starting level 2
Spelling- Grade 2 Rod and Staff Spelling
Reading- Various books, they do about 30 minutes of quiet reading time everyday
Math- A Beka Arithmetic 2

Sophie (1st Grade)
Phonics- A Beka Letters and Sounds 1
Language/Grammar- First Language Lessons 1
Reading- Various books, they do about 30 minutes of quiet reading time everyday
Math- A Beka Arithmetic 1


Subjects we do together
History- Classical Conversations and we will use Story of the World (Vol. 3 and 4) and books from the library to go along with our weekly history and timeline sentences
Science- Classical Conversations and books from the library to go along with science memory work. We are also using this Magic School Bus Science Kit since it also goes along with a lot of what we are learning in CC this year.
Art- Art With a Purpose Artpac 1
P.E.- homeschool co-op class, swimming lessons, and monthly homeschool gymnastics class (and ballet once a week for Sophie)
Music- Classical Conversations and piano lesson once a week

My biggest surprise this year was using A Beka for phonics AND MATH! We have been using Saxon math and have had no issues with it. However, Sophie used A Beka phonics last year at their co-op and they were both begging to do the worksheets. After looking at A Beka math at a friend's house I knew it would be a great fit for my kiddos. I had stayed away from A Beka initially because honestly I had only gotten negative reviews on it from other homeschool moms. But, the style of it just appeals to my kids and really works for our family so I am excited to give it a try this year!

I am also going to be doing some preschool work with Jack this year but I definitely am not going to push it and we will just work at his pace. I got him some little Rod and Staff workbooks and he has enjoyed working through those a bit and being like the big kids. 

I am really looking forward to this year and growing and learning with my very favorite people. I do not take for granted the opportunity to educate my children and be with them all day everyday! 

Why we homeschool...

At the end of this current school year I found myself totally discouraged. So discouraged I found myself actually researching public school and private school alternatives... Despite my discouragement I told Nick I would give it another year and see how it went. Then maybe we would give a university model school a try (where students go to school two days a week and then parents act as tutors the rest of the week at home) next year.

Then this week I hosted a end of year wrap up party for homeschool mom's at my house. We were blessed to have a couple of experienced homeschool moms who had graduated several children from their homeschools. We also had a few moms share their successes from this year. I heard several stories about the closeness of these families and especially how close the siblings were to each other. I found myself saying, "this is why I wanted to homeschool..."

And then it hit me. I had forgotten why I had chosen to homeschool. I had gotten wrapped up in all of the "academic benefits" and totally forgotten the rest. Our culture is obsessed with academic excellence and whenever I chatted with people about our choice to homeschool it became about academics. If they agreed with my choice they would list the academic benefits. If they didn't agree with my choice, I would list the academic benefits... Desperate to justify myself and for approval of our choice.

But, here is the thing: I don't really homeschool for academic reasons. At the risk of sounding over confident I think I have really bright children who could achieve "academic success" in almost any setting. In fact, despite numerous studies stating the success of homeschoolers there is a chance my kids could receive a better education somewhere other than in my home.

So, of course I was feeling discouraged. I was doing something really challenging without ever thinking about why I was doing it..So, after chatting with my friend Crystal this morning, she suggested I create a "mission statement" for why I homeschool so I would have something to look back at throughout the year and be encouraged by.

I decided to start out by listing out my reasons and thought I would go ahead and share what I came up with!

We homeschool because...

• We value family unity and want our children to be each other's best friends
• We believe that developing character in our children is more important than academics
• We believe that God has called parents to teach our own children about Him throughout the entire day
• We want to give our children the time to explore their own personal interests
• We want to give our children a low-stress childhood with lots of time to play and imagine
• We want to be the ones influencing our children along with other adults we trust and respect rather than our children being influenced mostly by peer pressure
• We want to physically and emotionally protect our children during their young and formative years
• We want to be the ones with our children during their "best" hours of the day when they are awake and alert and ready to learn
• We want to determine a schedule that is best for our family and not be at the mercy of the school district
• We want to give our children the opportunity to have friends of all ages based on shared interests and values rather than just age
• We want to choose resources for our children that are glorifying to God and beneficial to them as individuals

This is just a handful of reasons that I came up with this morning. I am going to try to put my top reasons along with my husband's into a mission statement and then I will share that here!

*Disclaimer: This is why WE homeschool. I do not believe that everyone has to homeschool in order to achieve the ideals listed above. I just believe for us personally that this is the best way to do it at this time.  :)

In Light of Eternity

It is only 9:30 in the morning and I have had kind of a hard day. Max has had some major attitude and the little math poject I had planned... well, it didn't go according to plan. I grabbed my phone to check my Facebook really quick (aka... breathe for a second so that I wouldn't yell at my children...) and the link to this video popped up. It was just what I needed to hear. I hope it encourages you today as well.



After watching this, as soon as I hit "publish" we are going to head to the couch for storytime and snuggles and then we are going to go meet Daddy for lunch... And I am going to try to remember the reasons for why we are doing what we are doing!

The "S" word

The "S" word... If you are a homeschooling mom you probably already know what I am talking about... SOCIALIZATION. It is the first question everyone asks when you admit to homeschooling your children (or planning on it) and probably, if you weren't homeschooled yourself, probably one of the first questions you asked yourself!

People are curious as to how a child who stays at home and isn't surrounded by 30+ same aged peers everyday will fit into the world after highschool graduation. In some ways it is a valid question... most of us have met one or two homeschooling families in our life that are just a touch on the kooky side. However, let's remember that despite their kookiness the children probably did grow up to be somewhat functioning members of society... And we all know a few public school wierdos as well... let's just keep it real here people...

Even though most of us have asked the big socialization  question ourselves at one time, once you begin homeschooling you start to dread the question. You dread it because probably from the first week you started homescholing you realized how ridiculous it really is. You have not locked your child up Harry Potter style in the closet under the stairs. You still go to church, family events, the grocery store, and on a really good day you yourself might spend a few minutes chatting with your own children (I kid).

And we are validated in our decisions when our kiddos walk up to another kid in the Chick-fil-a play place and ask them their name and if they want to play "horrible angry space creatures" with them. When they order their own drinks at a restaurant and tell the waitress "thank you". When you are around other children their age who go to school and realize that maybe your kids aren't complete weirdos and you aren't the worst parent in the world for avoiding the big yellow bus.

Deciding to educate your children at home can be a hard decision to make. I don't think any of us come to it lightly. And feeling constantly like we must defend ourselves to the outside world certainly doesn't do a lot for our self-confidence. So, I just wanted to take a minute today to encourage all of my fellow homeschool mamas that we are doing okay! It is okay to feel defensive sometimes and there will be days when we question if we are doing the right thing. But, isn't that true in all areas of motherhood? Be encouraged friends! People might question why we do many of the things that we do, but let that not be a determining factor in our decisions. 

When I need an extra dose of encouragement in homeschooling I love to look at Deuteronomy 6:5-9. I don't think there is a more beautiful picture of what educating your children at home can look like out there- 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Sophie School!

I wrote awhile back that probably the question I got asked most often when we decided to homeschool was about what we would do with Sophie. I shared my answer here.

For the past month or so Sophie has started begging to "do homeschool" too. She has let me know she wants her own workbooks and activities. Since then I have passed her some little preschool activity books or printed off worksheets from the computer. And she has enjoyed that. But, I don't have a ton of extra time for lesson planning these days and started thinking, "why not take advantage of her interest?"

So, last week I decided to spend a little bit of money and have the planning and work done for me and I purchased All About Reading's Pre-Reading Program.

The program starts with identifying letters and then moves on to sounds. I think a lot of this will be review for her but I wanted to err on the side of too easy and ensure she has the basics down rather than rushing her to the next level. Plus, my husband lovingly reminds me every time I purchase homeschool materials that there are several more children coming up that will use whatever I buy!

I am really looking forward to seeing how Sophie enjoys this program. After reading lots of reviews and searching the options I felt that this one was probably the best fit for her.

I will update on how she likes it! One of the best things about homeschooling is being able to switch gears or start things at any time! So, if she decides she is not ready for this and we can set it aside until later or we can go through it quickly and buy the next level in a few months!

Fieldtrippin' Homeschool Style

Yesterday we got to go on a fun field trip with our homeschool group to the Daniel Boone Homestead in Definance, MO. I, being the great mom that I am, forgot my camera. So, my sweet friend Crystal was nice enough to share a few pics with me. The kiddos had a great time. I was a little nervous because the field trip was right during Jack's nap time... but overall he did great!

The kids got to make candles, play some frontier games that the kiddos used to play, learn about woodworking (and try out the saw!), and learn about gun powder. So thankful for a fun day of learning with fun homeschool friends!

What's in the Bible?

Have you all seen any of the What's in the Bible DVD's? We love them in our house! They are made by Phil Vischer (Veggie Tales, anyone?) They are funny for the kiddos and the adults and our kids have learned a ton about the Bible while watching them (yep, we now talk about apostasy at the breakfast table at out house!)

As of right now there are 9 DVDs with more coming out. (They even have a Christmas DVD!)

 I decided to start using them this week in our homeschool. The What's in the Bible website has a parent's section with a study guide (only for DVD 1 so far), flash cards, coloring sheets, crafts, etc...

Each DVD has two parts so each week we will watch one part of a DVD and then do any corresponding worksheets or crafts. I will also be watching along and taking a few notes so that I have some Bible trivia questions to ask the kiddos! I am excited and I know the kiddos will love it too. Win win.

On an unrelated note. I found a few good reads online this weekend I thought I would pass along...

How My Child Went from Homeschool to Harvard and Yours Can Too is a super interesting editorial written by a homeschool dad. While I don't homeschool my children so that they can be genius athletes who attend ivy league schools I still found a lot of his insights to be valid and interesting. He really hits the nail on the head when he points out that it is PARENTS not the government who are responsible for raising and educating our children.

How to Raise Brothers that Remain Friends be Jessica Bowman over at the MOB Society is a great read and really touched my heart as one of my highest priorities as a mom is cultivating relationships between my children (and that IS one of the main reasons we homeschool).

Also, if you didn't know, my baby sister has a blog! Go visit her here.

AND, if you head over to Beth Moore's blog today you can leave a scripture based prayer in the comments section for the election tomorrow and whoever is selected as President. Then tomorrow all of these prayers will be available in the comments section of the post and we can all be praying throughout the day for our nation.

And Happy Monday Everyone!


 also linking up at Women Living Well!

Ain't no party like a homeschool party...

... Cause a homeschool party don't stop! Do you have that song in your head now?

This past Friday we hosted a little Halloween party for some of our homeschooling buddies. Party planning was a snap thanks to Pinterest! I think a good time was had by all. Here is photographic evidence...

Craft idea found here. Food ideas found here, here, here, and here. Games found here and here.

Homeschool Update

So, we are about 9 weeks into our Kindergarten year since we decided to do school year round. I posted back in June what we were planning on using in the different subjects. And just thought I would update and share how it is going and what we have tweaked.

We ended up ditching our science curriculum pretty quickly. It was great but it was just too much for Max this year. So, we stuck it back on the shelf and will try it again later! Instead we have just spent time reading and learning about wherever Max's interests are in science (which are all over the place! But, lately has centered around storms). We also haven't done a whole lot in the way of Geography outside of pointing to things on the map when they come up and learning the continents.

One thing we added that I hadn't planned on doing has been a lot of memorization. We came across a poem a little while ago that seemed fun so I decided to read it to the kiddos. They memorized it right away and started asking for new poems! I was just amazed at how quickly and easily memorization comes to them. They are little sponges I tell ya! So, we have been memorizing shorter poems (mostly about animals of course!). We also memorize a Bible verse every week and have just started memorizing the Operational Definitions of Character Qualities.

I am honestly not trying to sugar coat it but outside of a few pouty moments initially, when Max would rather play Legos then sit and do his math book, things have gone swimmingly. We have managed to not have any crying melt downs (on either side!). Sophie and Jack are great during school time and we haven't had any issues with that. I think the key to our success for our family was starting slowly and adding in one subject at a time. It was much less overwhelming on all sides and no one seemed to notice when subjects were added in.

No doubt we will hit a few bumps along the way but so far we are off to a great start and feeling really grateful that God has led us down this path. It really has been a great opportunity for me to step out in faith and for our entire family to grow closer together.

What about Sophie?

Surprisingly, since we decided to homeschool the #1 question I have gotten is "What are you going to do with Sophie? Will you teach her preschool or will she do Kindergarten with Max?"

Something along those lines... So, I thought I would kind of share my game plan and what I believe about educating for preschool!

Nick and I have found that the "school of thought" when it comes to education that we most agree with is Classical Education. Read more about it here. So, I basically believe before age 6 kiddos really don't need much "formal" education. So, we will continue with Sophie doing what we have been... teaching her the alphabet and letter sounds through play, songs, and everyday conversations. Learning math through playing and talking about everyday situations. We will continue to read to her every book she will sit through, playing games, and answering all of her questions about the world.

I don't force my kiddos to sit down and do worksheets or book work at this age. Any handwriting practice that happens is simply because she wants to do it and we stop as soon as she gets bored. For now I think the best thing for Sophie's handwriting is encouraging lots of coloring and drawing to work on her fine motor skills and then when she is 6 (or wants to) we will start to get serious about handwriting.

Sophie is actually at a huge advantage though because she likes to be involved in my school time with Max. So, she learns a lot through listening. And I do have some little workbooks for her so that whenever she wants to sit down and "do school too" she has some stuff to work on. Although more often than not she just covers the workbooks with stickers... but hey! That is fine motor skills, right?

Whenever Soph is ready and knows all of her letters and sounds I will have her start on the Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics books. But, that could be in a few months or not until she turns 6 and I am perfectly happy either way. Educating my children is not a race to make sure they are reading before all the other kids. And I never want to make them feel like they are being used to make their mom look good.

So, that is our current plan for our little Sophie bug! If I had to guess I think she will probably learn to read earlier than Max because she is showing more interest but I am fine either way. She is always welcome to join in whatever we are doing and if she wants to sit down and do book work we will make that happen. But, for now, we are having fun and enjoying her childhood!

Homeschool Curriculum

Photo Credit

Since our family is planning on homeschooling next year, Lord willing of course, I have been doing some major curriculum research. When we first decided to homeschool I had only heard of a few different options so I didn't think that choosing one would be too difficult. Well... it turns out, there are TONS of options. And lots of the options are great! So, now I am having the difficult task of choosing! Who knew this would be so difficult?

God is so good though. He has given me a life FULL of homeschoolers. My sister-in-law, my next door neighbor, many dear friends, and what seems like most of the women at our church all homeschool. I love that I have been able to ask around about people's real life experiences with different curriculum. And I know that everyone has different personalities and our children all have different strengths and personalities. But, it is still nice to hear some first hand experiences.

My friend Crystal offered to let me tag along with her to a curriculum expo at the end of March so hopefully getting to see some of the options I am considering in person will be helpful... or at least will help me narrow it down!


I am linking up at The Better Mom.