::this week::

This week has been an amazingly quiet last week of summer for us.  I've only had to leave the house two times this week and one of those times was for our co-op's Mom's Tea last night.  This is the quiet before the storm (the storm being a busy school year) and it has been enjoyed by all.

This week we have...

...enjoyed the company of some friends for lunch one day ~ the girls played dress up ~ the boys played Risk

... gotten the vast majority of our stuff ready for our school year

...gotten my co-op classes ready

...made lots of pie crusts, pancake mixes, tortilla dough, beans and fruit crisps for the freezer

...watched the political stuff on TV and had great discussions with our children

...played with neighborhood friends

...watched our onion seeds grow ~ even gave them a hair cut

...prayed for those in the path of hurricane Isaac

...received some transplants from one of my husband's client's son

...dreamed and planned ~all in my head~ how I'm going to spend this weekend tending to the garden

...missed our first born ~a lot~ but have enjoyed the excitement in his voice when we've talked

...worked out some ideas to help keep our home clean this school year

...thanked God we are in a different place physically and emotionally than we were last year at this time 

Wishing you and yours a very gentle and blessed weekend!

Preparing for High School

Four years ago I thought the world would end if I didn't do everything just right for my child's high school years.  But I had a wise friend tell me jokingly that I liked to work too hard.  Well, I don't like to work too hard so I started listening to her (she had already graduated 2 students) instead of others who were just beginning the high school journey.  I'm so glad I did. 

Both Josiah and Gabriel are in high school.  Josiah in 11th grade and Gabriel in 9th.  There are a bazillion and a half ways to home school high school.  I'm going to share just few things that have worked for us and the curriculum that my guys will be using this year. 

{Gabriel - 9th grade}
We start the high school years assuming our children will go to a traditional college. For me it is much easier to prepare to go to college and then not go than to not prepare and end up scrambling the last year or two of high school to make sure we have enough credits and the transcripts are accurate. 

With Us:
Bible
English From the Roots Up
Rip the Page

Independently:
Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
Apologia Biology
Notgrass American History and Literature
Rosetta Stone Spanish

At co-op he will do a Biology lab, a nutrition class that I will use as part of a Health credit, a creative writing class and an American History Art Appreciation class. 

He will also be a part of our local Drama club again this year. 

{Josiah - 11th grade}
Part of the reason we don't mess around the first two years of high school is that I want my children to have the freedom to do internships, part time jobs, take dual credit classes at the college or just explore a hobby or dream more deeply the last two years. 

With Us:
Bible
English From the Roots Up
Rip the Page

Independently:
Teaching Textbooks Algebra 2 / Geometry
Notgrass American Government
Economics
Entrepreneurship - Josiah has an opportunity to be a part of a ministry that will help train him to fulfill a vocation dream of his.  He's been accepted into the training program and will be raising the money he needs.  We're using this opportunity to put together a business class for him.

At co-op he will do a geography, a nutrition class that I will use as part of a Health credit, a creative writing class and an American History Art Appreciation class.

He will also be a part of our local Drama club again this year.

{A few last thoughts}

There are several things that have helped make homeschooling high school enjoyable instead of overwhelming.

The first is that my guys are pretty diligent.  They don't all come by this naturally - they've worked very hard at developing this trait.  So, I don't have to nag them everyday....just occasionally.

The second is the support of our local home school community, especially our co-op and drama club.  I don't have to worry about science labs, we have a mom who loves to do those kind of things and even taught science for a while in public school.  Over the years my high schoolers have taken writing classes, geography, Spanish labs, platform speaking and electives such as photography. 

I don't have to worry about my children not feeling comfortable speaking in front of people because there's a group of dedicated moms who work with them each week in drama.

So if high school concerns you just know that you can usually find a way to get help with the subjects you are uncomfortable teaching.  And if your child is already a diligent student you won't have any problems homeschooling high school.

Feel free to leave ideas for home schooling high school in the comments.

 

Preparing for Jr. High

By the time my children get to jr high they have all been proficient readers and understand math concepts (not just memorizing math tables).  If they were not, our goal would be to get to that point.  We'd still do fun stuff.  But if my jr high student really didn't understand some math concepts then I wouldn't be concerned with him being on his grade level and barely passing.  We'd be working on those concepts and then "catching up" is easy. 

They have had a variety of history and science that we've done at home.  They have also had a variety of literature, geography and other classes complements of our co-op. 

So, Phoebe will begin the 7th grade and she'll actually be doing a lot of the same stuff that Benjamin is doing just at a higher level. 

In the morning we'll start with Bible reading, English From the Roots Up, and Rip the Page.  Then she, Benjamin and I will do Prairie Primer and Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space together.


For her independent work she'll do Teaching Textbook Math 7 and Apples vol. 2

At co-op she'll take Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space, a literature class, art and an American History Art Appreciation class. 

She also will take Drama on day a week and will have dance 3-4 times a week.  This is her first year in our local Ballet Company.  We're trying to not let it overtake our lives and stay calm about the time commitment.  She's just going to have to be extra diligent in her studies and chores in order to get it all done.

Preparing for elementary

I've already admitted that we're pretty laid back in the younger years.  And that continues through elementary.  In early elementary we focus on reading and math.  We also do some literature, history and science. But my focus is on learning to read and enjoying it and understanding math concepts. 

Since Benjamin is now in 5th grade and can read well and enjoys it and understands math concepts I'm looking for areas that need improvement before moving on to jr high next year. 

This year we'll focus on spelling, grammar and cursive writing more than we've ever done.  We'll be using A Reason For Writing for handwriting and Apples for spelling.  The other thing we will do is do more essay and creative writing pieces.  I'll use those to teach grammar and spelling.  I've found that my children can often remember more from having something corrected than by doing page after page of a workbook. 

Each morning we'll read the Bible, do English From the Roots Up and Rip the Page together.  For Bible we just read the Bible, a book at a time, and talk about it.  We've done English from the Roots Up before but it's been a few years so I think it's time to repeat it as the children are older.  And while we did Rip the Page last year we didn't do nearly as much as I wanted to. 

Then Benjamin, Phoebe and I are going to do The Prairie Primer together.  I'm super excited about this.  The last 4 years have been really hard on us and I really haven't done any fun unit study type things with Phoebe and Benjamin.  So each day they'll have a couple of chapters of the Little House books to read on their own and then we'll do some fun stuff together.   This is also where I'll get our writing assignments and history from.   

We're also going to do Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space together.  I'll be teaching this at co-op and I think it will be fun to do at home also.

Benjamin will begin Teaching Textbooks Math 5 for his math.  He is so excited to get to have his math lessons on the computer.  Teaching Textbooks has a feature where the student can just input his answer into the computer and the program will grade it for you.  I chose to not use this feature.  I let my kids watch the lesson and do the practice problems on the computer but then I have them work out the regular problems on paper and I check them.  It's more work for me but I want to make sure that they are not missing the same concept over and over and I want them to learn to show their work. 

At co-op he'll have geography, nutrition, board games and drama classes.  All of these classes will be fun, hands on classes without any homework.

As I typed this out it looks like a lot (at least to me it does) but it really isn't and if he works diligently he should be able to be finished each day by noon. 

The diligence part will be the hardest part.  Benjamin is, after all, a 10 year old boy.

Preparing for College

Tomorrow morning we'll be taking Christian 8 hours away to go to college.  I'm filled with many conflicting emotions, but God has been faithful this last month to give me just what I've needed to assure me that He will take care of my child.  Going so far as to let us meet a sweet couple from the town of 21,000 people that the college is in while on vacation in Colorado on a train we weren't even supposed to be on. 

This preparation has really been going on for the last 18 years as we've tried to help Christian listen to and follow God's promptings...even when that differs from what we see or want or think.  You see, I've thought for many years that Christian would be a writer of some sorts as an adult.  He is a veracious reader, loves language (in fact he just bought a book about the origins of English words and has been reading it for fun), has written several novels just for fun and his dream summer job was working in a local used bookstore. 

About 2 years ago he told me he wanted to be a jeweler.  How do you even do that?  Can you really make a living doing that?  This is what came out of my mouth when he told me.  I know, not my most encouraging mom moment.  But as we began searching out the answer to my first question we also got the answer to my ridiculous second question.

So for the last year or so he's been preparing to go to jewelry school.  He's been talking to local jewelers (several have been extremely kind and have offered lots of wisdom).  He's taken 4 of his 7 academic classes as dual credit classes at our local community college. We've visited the college... twice.  He's been filling out scholarship applications and pinching his pennies. 

We've spent the last two weeks getting together everything he needs for his dorm.  If you have a girl, your list will be much longer because they like to decorate.  Boys, well at least my boys, don't really care.  When I asked Christian this morning what blanket he was going to take he said, "I haven't decided yet?"  ok, I guess you'll know by tomorrow.  The list of things we bought included XL twin size sheets, 3 pair of jeans, hand towels, sneakers, paper plates and bowls.  A sweet lady on Freecycle gave us a dorm refrigerator and a microwave.  My sister loaded him up on toiletries. 

 

The big dilemma was popcorn.  We are a huge popcorn eating family.  We make it on the stove almost every day.  But Christian can't have a hot plate in his dorm room.  I've also asked my kids not to eat microwave popcorn based on some of the things I've read.  We do eat it occasionally, like when we're at some one's house and they serve it.  But I really don't want them eating it everyday. 

 

I've heard that you can make your own microwave popcorn but I don't like the idea of using paper bags.  So, I was pretty excited when we found this recipe for making popcorn in a glass bowl. 

 

And, guess what? 

 

I just bought a "new" glass bowl and lid at Goodwill for $1.50 last Saturday.  I already have two but I just couldn't pass it up.  Now Christian can take this one.  We don't like to put plastic in the microwave so instead of a vented microwave cover we're just using the glass lid...propped up with chopsticks. 

 

Popcorn and chopsticks...essential college preparation...who knew?

 

 

 



Preparing For Preschool

We're pretty laid back in the early years. Most of my children's education in the early years comes in the form of us just answering their questions.  Because children are full of great questions. 

We don't have a school room, so school stuff is all over the house.  I have little areas in the dining area that we put what we're using this year.  The rest is in boxes in the garage.  I really like having everything we're using handy.  It also helps me not to over buy. 

I went ahead and printed up all the pages I'm going to use from LOTW for
each letter.  Then Phoebe put all the pages for 2 letters in each folder.  Now I
don't have to remember to print things up each day or each week.

Esther is very interested in letters.  She often says, "How do you spell D?" When we answer, "D"  she gets very frustrated.  And then she repeats her question.  So I repeat my answer.  Which, of course, leads to more frustration.  I realized recently that she means "How do you make D?"  So I've decided to use Confession of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week program.  I'm not doing all of it.  Some of it is too advanced for Esther and some of it she already knows.  I'll just use it for ideas for a letter each week. 

I also printed up 5 copies of each level for the Ready Writer and put them
in a folder.

I also have some Handwriting Without Tears stuff that I want to begin introducing.  Again, there's too much busy work here for us but I really, really like the consistent terminology they use...and I already have it.   I'll just use this as part of our letter of the week.

I have some Ready Writer worksheets that I've printed up for her to do. My older children did these and enjoyed them.

This is the book shelf that is at one end of our table. 
The bottom shelf holds some games that we
play often.  The next shelf is for Esther's "school" stuff. 
And the basket on the 3rd shelf holds her glue, markers,
crayons, and misc. art stuff.

Esther can count to 5 pretty consistently so we'll just continue counting random things like apples at the grocery store, books on the shelf, etc. No need to buy special counters to learn to count.

Benjamin, Phoebe and I are going to work our way through The Little House on the Prairie book series and I found a couple "My First Little House" books for her.  And we'll also continue to read random picture books before naps each day.

So other than that her time will be filled with play do, Legos, potato heads, marble mazes and hanging out with the rest of us.

I have absolutely no academic expectations for her.  If we get to the end of the year and she can still only count to 5 and doesn't know any more letters I'm totally okay with that.

So, what do you do during the preschool years?

Preparing our for our school year

I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking our school year and for the next couple of weeks I'll be getting things together to hopefully have a smooth year.  This year I have a 3 year old (preschooler by some standards), a 5th grader (elementary), a 7th grader (jr. high), a 9th and 11th grader (high school) and a college student (who is leaving Friday). 
I thought I'd share some thoughts and ideas for schooling over the next couple of weeks.  We won't start our "official" school year until after Labor Day. 

As I've mentioned before, there are as many ways to homeschool as there are homschoolers.  I'll be sharing what has worked for us in the past but remember these are just my thoughts and opinions.  Homeschooling is very personal so feel free to share what works for your family in the comments even if it is completely opposite of what we do.  Just do it nicely, please.

In our culture we tend to label people and put them into little boxes.  There are many labels we use to describe homeschooling approaches.  Let's see there's, classical, school in a box, school at home, unschoolers, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, Waldorf, and eclectic...just to name a few.  Our family is none of these and yet we have aspects of all of these approaches in our home. 

I want to encourage you to throw off  the labels and just do what you believe God is telling you to do in your school and for your children. 

If you click on the schooling link on the side bar it will take you to all my homeschooling posts.

why I love play do

Play do seems to be one of those "toys" that parents either love or hate.  I happen to love it.  Now, it could be because we've had wood or tile in our house and so our play do doesn't get stuck in any carpet. 

My kids can play for hours with it - once they get out of the eating it stage. 

Here's some things that Gabriel and Phoebe made with Esther...

Long after Esther was done, they were still at it...making Smurfs...

...warrior Smurfs...

...and a cray wide eyed warrior Smurfette...

...for hours. 

Don't think play do is just for preschoolers. 

Eagle Project number 3

Gabriel has a self imposed goal to be the youngest Eagle Scout in our family.  Which means he needs to complete his requirements before he's 15 years and 8 months.  I think he'll do it  (although he's banking on Benjamin not breaking his record). 

So Saturday he started the physical work on his project.  His project is at the same historic house where Christian's and Josiah's projects are. He's adding on to the rain water recapturing system.   The house sits in a public park with hiking trails.  The "beautification" committee of the city has planted quite a few fruit trees around the house and they will use this to help water them.  It's kind of cool that the city would plant fruit trees instead of non fruit trees.

No project is without obstacles.  First there was a crepe myrtle tree that had to be removed.  So Carl took Gabriel and our other boys to pull it out before the work on the project started.  On their first scheduled work day (back in May) they found conduit running right where they wanted the frame to be.  So they called off the work day, called the electrician and then waited.

When they started digging on Saturday, they found a stump that was exactly where one of the 4X4's needed to be (they don't have much wiggle room since the electrician decided that Gabriel could just shorten the width of the frame instead of moving the conduit).  Most of the morning was spent hacking and sawing the stump.  

Supervisory crew?  Just kidding, you can see by Josiah's grubby clothes that they are all taking turn working on the stump.

The frame is coming together.  tip: when you slide pieces in, it works best to slide each end evenly instead of putting on end in place and trying to hammer the other end in place.  just in case you wanted to know.

The house and park will have a total of 440 gallons of water storage available to them.  Now, we just need rain.

The girl's and I came and brought lunch for the hard working guys.  We stayed and played for a while.

Next weekend they will do all the plumbing work and the project should be done.  Gabriel still needs a couple of  Merit Badges but I think he'll finish these before the end of the year.  He's pretty motivated. 

our week away

We had an amazing week while on vacation in Colorado and thought I'd share some of our week with you guys. 

Our first stop was Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. We all took turns throwing tomahawks.  I was the worst - even Esther hit the stomp more than I did, of course she was closer.

Then we stopped by Capulin Volcano near Raton, New Mexico.  We walked into the center and the older boys took Esther around the rim. The view was amazing.

Twenty-six hours after leaving home we arrived at Eleven Mile State Park in Colorado.  Half of that time was driving through Texas.  It was almost midnight when we arrived so we pitched our tents in the dark.  This is what we woke up to... beautiful skies and scenery.

After a day of rest, we went to Garden of the Gods. Where I realized that I didn't have my camera card and would have to take all our pictures on the phone.

We took the cog train to the top of Pikes Peak, or at least tried.  It started sleeting and hailing about two thirds of the way up.  They closed the summit.  It was the first time all summer they've had to close the summit. 

Pikes Peak wasn't the only place that had rain that night.  Our campground had a gully washer...we slept in the van...viva la 12 passenger van!

The next morning we started our fire with wet wood, twigs and .... a hair dryer. (the hair dryer is never packed for actually using on hair when we go camping, too many other important uses like blowing up air mattresses, starting fires, drying out sneakers...you get the idea)

The railway was kind enough to let us transfer out tickets to the next day.  So after spending the morning doing laundry we went again to the railway.  This time we made it to the top.  I was completely in awe of God's Creation. 

We went to St. Elmo which is near Tincup Pass and is over 14,000 feet in elevation.  What's so important in St. Elmo, you ask? Chipmunks.  Lots of them.  All wanting to be fed.  By hand.  Or hair. Or tummy.  Or leg.  Or whatever.  However, I must warn you that if one startles you it is not socially acceptable to sling it...it might hit a toddler or something ... and probably not your toddler. 

Some of us waded into the creek near St. Elmo.  Another warning, the water at 14,000 feet is cold, very, very cold.



On our way home we stopped at Glen Eyrie Castle which is the headquarters of the Navigators.  I would love to go up there sometime and actually stay in the castle.

We also stopped at Focus on the Family and spent time at Whit's End.  The kids loved going on the 3 story slide and eating in the soda fountain.

We had lots and lots of down time.  That's probably one of  my favorite things about camping.  You can just hang out at the campsite and not feel like a slacker and no one is saying they're bored because they can always go on little hikes. 

As much fun as we had, it's always good to be back home.

we're back {kind of} and a beret tutorial

We're back from vacation although not completely plugged in just yet.  But I wanted to let you guys know that I have a super fun beret tutorial over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. 

I'll be back in this space a little later this week.