It Went Really Well!

First day down...it went really well.  As expected, Z was a bit of the wrench in the works at some transition points, but I hope that will work itself out as he gets used to the schedule and expectations.  If anything, the girls were disappointed we didn't do more.  All in good time.

Here are my cuties on their first day of school...totally homeschooling it in their bare feet.

Back to School

Today is our first day of school, but I wrote this post last week and scheduled it to post today, so don't think I'm so on-top-of-everything that I can pull off the first day of school and a blog post on the same day.  Just keepin' it real.

There are two really big changes to school at our house this year.  First, we're trying out a for-real schedule.  As in, each subject has its own starting and stopping time like a brick-and-mortar school.  Of course, I'm going to be flexible, knowing that keeping a schedule with a 2-year-old involved is a farce.  But we have to have some kind of structure or school will take all day and nobody will be happy (especially the teacher).  So we're going to try this and see how it goes.  Please pray.

Secondly, and much more tragic, we are doing away with quiet time.  I know I'm going to go through all the stages of grief over this one.  Since A was tiny, I've had at least some point in my day when everybody was either asleep or playing quietly in their room for a fixed amount of time so that mommy could regroup and stay sane.  All my friends know that our day revolves around quiet time.  Can't do play dates during quiet time, gotta be done before or start after.  Quiet time has been sacred around here.  

But again, I don't want to be doing school at supper or after, and Z is not going to play happy for all of the sit-down, reading types of subjects we have this year.  I have to use his nap time to get some of them done or it will be pulling teeth.  Please pray.

If everything goes (relatively) smoothly today, I might have energy to post back-to-school pics for your enjoyment.  If you don't hear from me again for another month, though, well...at least you'll know why.

Kickin' Off the Summer

We've been busy finishing up school for the year with all that means.  Our last day was Thursday and we did a quick celebration with some cupcakes and an attempt at making sno-cones with a Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine (epic fail!).  Then I quickly shooed the children to play so I could get busy preparing for our next guests.

I'm very excited that we have the opportunity to host a mama and baby from Bolivia through Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project.  Baby B arrives tonight with her mom and a translator.  They will be with us for about two weeks while she has heart surgery to repair a birth defect.  We are blessed to share the hosting with another family who will house Baby B during the post-surgery recovery weeks.

It's always a big task to prepare for guests, but I really enjoy sharing my home.  This time we'll get a crash course in Bolivian culture and pediatric cardiology.  I hope to have time to give you updates and share God-stories as we witness them.  Such an exciting way to kick off our summer!

100 Day

We recently celebrated 100 Day at our little homeschool.  I could not be more relieved to have reached this milestone.  We had done "number of the day" activities for every number leading up to this big culmination of the marvelous phenomenon that is 100!  If I ever have to do "number of the day" again, I think I'll move to Mars.

Making necklaces with 100 cheerios

Showing off our hats with 10 groups of 10

How far is 100 steps?  Can you see them waaayy down there?

Second Generation Fear-Fighters

Okay, so just a few more thoughts on fear because we have had a big dose of it around here this week.

I know it is my responsibility as a parent to prepare my kiddos for the real world where scary things sometimes happen.  I have procrastinated in a bad way on some basic safety stuff because I don't want to introduce the very kinds of fear that I sometimes struggle with.  Can't I keep it all sunshine and roses for them?

I finally bit the bullet and covered fire safety during school last week.  We got cartoonish books from the library, I downloaded fun activity pages from the internet, we went to the fire station for a tour and cheesy photo ops, we made a race out of practicing our escape plan from the house.

My all-too-grown-up firstborn wasn't haven't it.  She knew good and well that fire is scary, painful business and she made it known that talking about scary stuff was not fun and games and she didn't want any part of it.  We had an uphill battle (that we're still fighting) to convince her that preparation is a good tool for fighting fear.  Knowledge may be power, but it was not very comforting to her.

By mid-week, I had the opportunity to hand down my fear-fighting tools (see what I did there? fire-fighting, fear-fighting...never mind).  As she cowered in her bed, unable to sleep, I told her about how we use truth to fight fear, putting it on like a shield and sword.  I spoke God's truth over her and gave her the tools I've used so often...talking to God about the fear, being the boss of our thoughts and making them obey the truth, singing true songs, and praying for others to take the focus off ourselves.

I picked up a new tool at the ladies' retreat I went to last weekend.  The speaker told us not to ask "What if...?" but "What would a good God do if....?"  I decided to lay this tool on the table for A.  We went there out loud because I knew her little female mind had already gone to the worst case scenario (though her worst case scenario was much easier to talk about out loud than mine).  What would our good God do if all your stuffed animals burned in a fire?  What would our good God do if our house was ruined?  What would our good God do if we got hurt trying to go out the window?  He would provide above and beyond what we could ask or imagine and let us tell the story.  Maybe that story would help someone else love God.

I don't want to pass on fear to my kids.  I'm praying hard about how to tell them what they need to know without filling their hearts with fear.  But I'm so grateful now for my own fear struggle and the tools of truth I have been given.  I wish they didn't need them, but I'm glad I can pass them down to my daughters especially, for this seems to be a battle uniquely faced by women.  I pray my girls will wield their weapons with growing trust in their power.  Together we are mighty Princess Warriors of Truth and the lies of fear will not hold us! (cue patriotic musical crescendo)

First Day of School

Before our house guests arrived, we had our first day of school.  I got our schoolroom all ready the night before with a fun new sign inspired by a Pinterest find.  I don't think I've ever shown you, loyal reader, our schoolroom.  Ta da...

That's my gumball sign.  We added gumballs with our ideas for making school enjoyable (i.e., being kind, waiting our turn, helping each other, listening, etc.).  I can't put much on my walls this year because Z enjoys ripping it all off too much.  Shouldn't every schoolroom have a baby gate, by the way?

These are my craigslist find cabinets.  J and my dad installed them earlier in the summer.  They are fabulous!!  J also installed our roof flashing turned magnet wall.  He's a handy guy.  I like the magnet wall because I can put independent supplies in a pencil pouch hanging from a hook on the wall.  The girls can get to them anytime.  I've also got a planning calendar up and my own notes for the week.  There's also lots of room for posting their creations and school work.

This is the other end of our schoolroom, but it's really more of a play area.  But I wanted to show off my map wall.  Strictly decorative purposes because the maps are from old National Geographics.  Again, I'll go lower with more maps when I know Z won't tear them off.

I told the girls we would be taking first day photos and I loved the results!  A asked to stay her in pj's all day, including for photos.  Then she took one photo and was done.  So very A.

C asked to put on her fanciest dress, wanted a headband and a bow, then wanted a portrait session for the next 20 minutes with silly faces, serious faces, good smiles, bad smiles.  Every bit C right now.

Getting lice the first week of school has definitely put a damper on things, but I'm so glad we homeschool!  We'll keep going, keep practicing our nice attitudes, getting down routines and figuring out realistic expectations.  Hope your year gets off to a smooth, sweet start!

Busy Thanks

Just so you know, this is what our week looks like:

• Sunday - church; signed up to volunteer in children's ministry each week; spent afternoon reclaiming house from atomic toy bomb that exploded during parent's weekend project (see below)
• Monday - first day of Kelley Academy (another post); just the fun stuff along with an orientation to our materials and expectations; library run
• Monday evening - orientation meeting for student exchange program (another post)
• Tuesday - more fun back-to-school stuff; our slow day this week
• Wednesday - meet and greet for A's one-day co-op program
• Thursday - first day of actual curriculum for school; church volunteer training in the evening; pick up exchange student at airport 
• Friday - school, and help the newest addition to our family get acclimated and rested and ready for her first day of school in a new country next Monday

Somewhere in there we need to repaint our living room, because we had a total paint debacle last Saturday and ended up with a giraffe print on our walls.  That may be an exaggeration, but we certainly can't leave it with the two-tone polka dots we inadvertently created between three cans of what was supposed to be same color of paint.

Oh, and in the background, I'm co-organizing my biannual family reunion for the first week of October; trying to figure out where we're going to do Awanas this year, and what class I want to help with that.  I'm hosting bunko in two weeks.  My parents are moving into our neighborhood the week after that, and we are thrilled to be helping with that transition.  I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting, but God always brings them back to mind before it costs too much.

I think I might be certifiable, but instead I'm really excited about what's going on in our world this fall.  I'm excited about school, I feel ready and able to serve in ministries that I've been taking advantage of, we're going to broaden our cultural horizons at our own dinner table, the kids are at fun ages, Grandma and Grandpa are comin' to town!  We're in a really good place.  

Yes, there are stressful things going on, and the swirl of activity might make me a not-nice mommy every now and then, but Colossians 3:15 is vibrating underneath it all and I am thankful.  So thankful.

Nature Center

I promised pics from our field trip to the Science and Nature Center.  Here they are (not quite two months late).

A's "giraffe" shell that she admired in the hands-on exploration room

C showing off the rock that caught her fancy.  Yes, this was the pose she chose.

Climbing on the concrete lilypads

Following big sis

My little paleontologists

Their favorite part of the day - throwing pebbles in the pond

Paradigm Shift

J and I were discussing school philosophies recently and the topic of memorization came up.  In the homeschool waters I swim in, there is a lot of emphasis on young children being able to memorize facts as a way to organize information so that they can process and manipulate it as their brains develop those abilities.  While I maintain that there is value in memorizing because of the physical exercise it provides to the brain (neurons and synapses making connections and all that), J opened my mind to a new paradigm that I hadn't realized was upon me.

He (and lots of other smart people) realize that memorizing facts is no longer a necessary or useful skill.  In a literate society in the information age, we have the entirety of human knowledge at our fingertips in an instant.  There really is no need to memorize the Presidents, the periodic table, or prime numbers to 100.  We told our teachers that we would never use that information in real life.  But now the students tell the teachers that they'll find it on the internet if they should ever need it.

I'm still wrapping my head around what this means for the way I teach my kids.  I know it doesn't change my goal of teaching them how to learn.  A very wise friend recently told me that it is more important to teach my children skills than content; great content is a means for teaching the skill.  It's more important to be able to know how to learn, but while we're at it, let's learn great content.

I'm babbling here as I think through it myself.  This article--the web kids manifesto--that J shared with me really does a much better job of communicating the generational shift.  The scary part is that it probably is shifting even faster than whole generations.  The way A learns and gathers information may be outdated by the time Z approaches the same skills.  Read the article.  It really will help you see information in a new light and ponder the ramifications for the way our kids learn.

Coming Up For Air

Long time, no blog; I know.  We moved our stuff into the house last Monday and we've been knee-deep in random chaos since.  The movers didn't arrive at our house until almost 4pm, so we were doing good to have beds put together in time for the kids to go to sleep around 9pm.  Last week was unpacking upon unpacking.  Most of our essentials for living have been put in their proper places, though a few key things have yet to reveal themselves.  Having professional movers was a wonderful luxury, but they certainly don't label boxes the way I would.

Z had his four-month well-check with a new doctor last Thursday.  He weighs 15 lbs, 10 oz.  I don't remember the exact numbers, but he is in the 93rd-96th percentile for length and about 60th for weight.  He's started some cereal and really likes it, though the delivery can be a bit frustrating.  He's seriously attached to the sucking reflex, so having to take the spoon out of his mouth to reload makes him scream like a girl.

After three weeks off from school, I concentrated on getting our new schoolroom up and ready over the weekend and we hit the books again on Monday morning.  The workbox system I'd been wanting to try is working out wonderfully!!  I'll try to write more about it later.  We're having a fun science week... drawing rocks in our journals, making our own "fossils", and this afternoon we're going to make a volcano.  We also tried our hand at making an ancient Roman dessert and all agreed that we're happy to live in the modern age of sugar.  It's so wonderful to have all my resources back and not be limited by having to keep the house clean for people to come see it.

Just wanted to come up to the blog surface and give a quick update before ducking back down to keep swimming.  Next week, I think I better keep a promise to a certain almost-3-year-old that we would start potty training when we got to the new house.  Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

Nesting

Some expectant mommies feather their nest by painting the nursery, sewing bedding, picking out clothes.  Me?  I buy shelves and organize!

Don't get me started on the saga that is the mismatched IKEA shelves.  Apparently, holding out to buy the same piece from the same line at the same store doesn't do you any good if you wait too long.  They no longer offer that color, size or door style.  I was absolutely disgusted.  You cannot begin to imagine how much the lack of symmetry bothers me if I open the door to that obsession.  So I hid the new shelf in the corner as best I could and filled it up.

I'm planning to do school in the dining room next year, so now all of our school resources are in one place.  I did such a good job of purging the shelves that I even ended up with room to grow.  All of our art supplies are here, too, and I've got the table covered with a cheap clear, vinyl tablecloth so it is ready to go when they want to grab a bucket of supplies and some paper and create.  It's fun that both girls are at an age where I can trust them with this now (at least at the table).

I covered some diaper boxes in fabric and filled them with board books on the lower shelves for little hands to grab easily.  In theory, our littlest will understand the concept of "no" and "don't eat the books" by the time he can reach the third shelf.  My two lower cabinets have locks on them that A can operate by herself and that's where I'm going to put her school workboxes.  More on that later, but I'm super excited about this method of organizing our assignments.

What you don't see is the extra purging of toys and books I had to do in C's room so that I could move some of our grown-up books onto the high shelves in there.  This has been a process, y'all.  I still need to reclaim some wall space in the dining room for hanging art work, maps and posters.  That will be a gradual migration of our current decor to the living room, I think.  Then some major wall patching since we have some shelves anchored to the wall.  That's probably why I haven't started with that yet.  All in good time.

For now, I'm quite pleased with the results and trying to restrain myself from breaking into the school goodies too soon.  We've already enjoyed the ease of doing art at the big table with supplies at arm's reach.  And they can help clean up, too.  Isn't it a cozy, particle-board nest?

Total Mommy Cleanse

For the last 36 hours I have been holed up in a local hotel room all by myself.  I'll pause a moment to let the full magnitude of those last three words fully dawn upon you.  It has been blessedly silent.  The clack of my keys is the only noise I hear as I try to document this wonderful retreat in the minutes I have before check-out.

I asked for this weekend several months ago, knowing I would need a concentrated block of time to plan next year's school curriculum for A's kindergarten year.  So I ordered my books and lugged them along and have spent my time familiarizing myself with the schedule and books, filling in extras, planning field trips, and surfing forums for great ideas.  I feel like I'm in a good place to start this fall, considering I will have minimal capacity for further planning between now and then.

But I have also relished the independence of this weekend...eating my meals whenever and wherever I wanted, not sharing the food on my plate, and being able to read a book in silence while I ate.  Waking when my body was ready, bathing at my leisure, watching tv without consideration of its audience, popping in and out of my car for multiple errands within an hour.  All these things help to detox my mind, my attitude, my motivation and fortify me to return to the hardest job I'll ever love.  It's a total mommy cleanse and I didn't have to drink anything nasty.

Many, many thanks to J for making this time possible.  Thank you for investing in our children while I was away, for caring about their education and supporting me in homeschooling, and for loving me enough to know when I need a good cleanse.  I promise to only do it once a year.

School Progress

We're about ten weeks into the first year of homeschooling.  That includes one intentional week off and several unintentional days off.  Naturally, we are behind on what I had planned for us thus far, but I'm pleased with our progress.  It feels good that I am learning along the way as well...about myself, my daughter, our relationship with each other.

I saw a light bulb moment this week as we practiced skip counting by 2's.  That was so encouraging to see her get it and think through it.  We've been working on counting to 100, and now we're moving into skip counting for math.  We've talked about the color wheel for art and had some practice blending colors. We've begun handwriting a little earlier than I planned, but she's doing well.  We need more free practice, though.

About three weeks ago, we hit a total wall with reading lessons.  I called my sister for advice while A bawled in her room.  I knew I couldn't give up because it would reinforce her giving up.  We were at an impasse.  My sister gave me a very encouraging pep talk and some great advice.  Unfortunately, it was heavy on the "make learning fun" ideas, which are my Achille's heel.

It was true, though.  I was trying to make A learn how to read like I would study for a graduate exam.  Just trudge through the dry workbook, check it off for the day, and be done.  I totally lack in the "fun" department.  So we took a week off, then spent another week just reading through BOB books.  This week, I only have two workbook lessons on the plan plus some phonics bingo, BOB books, and new library books for her to read aloud.

We're using a new chart that shows her what we're doing for school each day and she can stamp it done when we are done.  It also has space for an attitude face at the bottom of each day (another of my sister's great ideas).  She gets three chances (two eyes and a nose) to change a bad attitude before the face ends up frowning.  If we make it to the end of the day with no frown, then it gets a smile.  I printed out a hundred chart and posted that where she can stamp how many books she has read.  We've made it to 12 in a week.

I'm learning to be flexible.  She's learning to talk to me about what she's feeling instead of digging her heels into a nasty attitude.  I'm learning that breaks are good and I have such incredible examples of well-done homeschool.  I still need help, and will always need help, with making learning enjoyable.  I need to take that into account when I choose my curriculum.  My goal is to foster a love for learning and that won't happen if it's no fun.  I'm so glad we started this year, to have this ramp-up time, this learning curve before kindergarten.  I know I'll keep learning about us as the years progress, but I'm grateful for a practice year.

First Day of School

Today was A's first official day of homeschool!  We've been looking forward to it for a while now.  Here's the excited girl in her first-day-of-school dress.

We did art and reading today.  For art, she practiced drawing rectangles so she could make stick people with "muscles."  We also made a first day of school time capsule and filled it with a sample of her handwriting, her painted handprint, a piece of yarn as tall as she is, and a drawing she made.  If I remember where I put it, we'll take it back out in the spring to marvel at her progress.  Here's our little art student...

And our eager tag-along

C decided today that she wanted to try sitting on the potty.  I was amazed that we managed to accomplish any goals for the day in spite of 3-5 trips to the bathroom so she could sit on the potty and play with the toilet paper.  Hopefully, she'll forget all about it for a few more months.

We've been doing reading all summer, so it was nothing new.  Even though I know A has a big capacity for words, I'm still impressed at her progress and how quickly she is catching on to each new phonics rule.  Today, I introduced the "nch" and "tch" endings.  She read with confidence, "Tex will clench his drink in his left hand.  Tex will crunch his thin chips and sip his soft drink."

Throw in the usual dishes and laundry, some time playing baby turtles on the floor, giving "swimming" lessons in the ball pit, and letting the little mommy put her big kiddo to bed and you have a very full day.

It's no trite thing to say that God gets all the glory for the success of this day.  I absolutely cannot do this in my own strength.  To God be the glory for the things HE has done!!

Overwhelmed

I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately.  Lots of transition and new beginnings at our house.  I've been putting together a sketchy lesson plan for our first year of homeschool and trying to pull together some activities to keep C busy while I do lessons with A.  That has taken up a lot of my personal bandwidth this summer.  (That's how nerds communicate their capacity to process information.  I try to speak geek with my hubby whenever I can and sometimes it overflows into meat space.  That's where nerds have to interact with real people in real space instead of over the interwebs.)

We're also in the midst of changing our guest room/office into a playroom/guestroom.  We've moved the bedroom suite out and brought in a sleeper sofa, thereby insuring that no one will ever sleep overnight at my house again.  I'm trying to clear the room of it's old purpose and figure out it's new purpose without spending any money.  For now, that means a mountain of papers that need to be shredded or filed.  The encouraging thing is that if you wait two years to file your paperwork, a lot of it will be obsolete by the time you file and you can just throw it away.

Once the paper is clear, I'm wrestling with what I really want to put in the room so that A can enjoy it vs. not wanting C to decorate my walls with said enjoyment.  I enjoy these kinds of dilemmas and the energy that comes with a new configuration, but it's been keeping me up at night and that's not cool.

The reason we're changing the room around is to accommodate a new home group that we'll be leading this year.  I found out last week that we don't start the new group until mid-September, so that has helped me breathe a little bit.  I was thinking we only had two weeks to figure out the new room, what our group is going to study, our schedule for the fall, find a sitter for the group's kids, etc.  Two extra weeks helps a lot.

But I don't handle transition very well.  I sleep better when everything is settled.  I want the decisions to be made, the schedule mapped out, duties delegated, prep work done.  I want to have a great beginning for our new school year and our new home group, and I want to think it through enough that we finish well, too.  Until we're off and running, I'll be fidgeting with ideas and questions, wondering what the optimal solution is to each scenario.

I've been listening to podcasts from our previous church and have been reminded that unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain (Psalm 127:1).  I don't like spinning my wheels, so I pray we've heard rightly, that we'll keep our ears tuned to His voice and that God will be glorified in our home, through our family.  And if God is building it, it seems much less overwhelming.

School Plans

In case you didn't know, I'm really excited about starting school in earnest with A this fall. I've been reading some great books recommended by trusted friends who have been homeschooling for years, trying to wrap my head around the different philosophies, methodologies, programs and curricula available. It's quite overwhelming. I feel very blessed to have so many wise Christian sisters who are further down this path already and can shed light on potential hazards and helps.

Some helpful reading I've been doing:

Top 100 Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy - great section that explains the general philosophies of homeschooling as well as quizzes to help you understand which style might work best with your family's needs and goals; then a fabulous wealth of info on all manner of curriculum and how they rate on criteria that are important to you

The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise - we've definitely gotten on board with the philosophy of classical Christian education and this book is soooo helpful! Detailed recommendations by grade and subject that are realistic and attainable. I felt infinitely better about starting with a 4-year-old after reading the appropriate parts of this book.

Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt - neat book about how to choose books for your children that will nurture their heart and mind; includes age-appropriate lists of titles to look for

So for this fall, my broad goals are learning to read and write. We're going to do one at a time, starting with reading. Then we'll start in on formal handwriting once she's comfortable with reading. For reading, I'm using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise (available at my local library) and we invested in a set of BOB Books beginning readers. I'll get all our other easy readers at the library, cross-referencing the recommendations in The Well-Trained Mind and Honey for a Child's Heart. We're going to read, read, read, read. I'll read aloud to her, she'll read aloud to me, and she'll read on her own. We've already been ramping up our reading time and I love that our house is littered with books.

For handwriting, I went with Zaner-Bloser's handwriting style (mainly because the book seemed very thorough for the price). I think this will be fairly straightforward, but that could be my naivete talking.

I plan to pepper in some math and science in the form of everyday, household exploration. We'll also read lots of library books with math and science stories/concepts, thanks to the incredible lists in my reference books. I sprang for Family Math for Young Children because I do not just randomly generate great math ideas, and while my husband does, I'm betting he won't be around when I need to pull a math lesson out of my hat. I'm also hoping to have fun with art using Baby Lambs Book of Art. Both of these books will span multiple years and children.

Last, but certainly not least, we will read the Bible and lots of books about the Bible. I was gifted a beautiful story Bible when A was born and am just now realizing how highly recommended and wonderful it is. We've also got a great church library that I hope to work through repeatedly. Somehow, I want to gather the family together for this part of our education. I'm not sure how it's going to look yet, but J is working with me on ideas of how to merge our schedules for this all-important responsibility. We want to start on character training too, so I got Character Building for Families. Review said it was naturally scripted, concise and easy to do with little prep. Sounds like a good way to tackle the most important part of our children's training, doesn't it?!

As usual, I have probably bitten off more than we can chew. That's part of the excitement, I think. I'm going to maintain the broad goals for reading and writing, and establishing a family time for imparting biblical wisdom. Anything else we do will be gravy. Rich, exciting, calorie-dense gravy that will also probably be full of messy lumps. After all, I'm learning right along with her.