About Me

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I'm a Christian Mom answering the call to educate our children at home. You can also follow me at www.facebook.com/littleschoolofthewest and on Twitter @schoolofthewest

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

My Role as Nurse

While pregnant with this precious bundle I prayed that he wouldn't have to live with the same issues that his older brother deals with a couple times a year.  Unfortunately, he is now battling pneumonia for the second time in his short 5 month life.  This translates into breathing treatments around the clock for at least a week from the first sign of a croupy cough until the cough and/or bronchitis or pneumonia is resolved.

In other words, my husband and I have not been able to get a full night of sleep in over a week now and we are not out of the woods yet.  The virus began with Josh, regular treatments from the start for him helped prevent another battle of pneumonia for now but unfortunately David started coughing a few days later and even though we started up his nebulizer soon after, he was running 102 and had crackling sounds in his lungs once again after only two days.

During the last breathing treatment (receiving the scowl above) I was pondering all of the hats that mother's wear.  My role right now also includes nurse.  Since I became a mother and have dealt with these issues I have realized a new respect for nurses, especially those that are mothers themselves and not only have their children to care for but also their patients.

Through these encounters with bronchitis and pneumonia I pray daily that these issues my boys face will get better as they grow.  The Lord has great plans for them, so for now I will care for them to the best of my ability and someday (Lord willing) watch them walk the path that HE has set for their lives.




Saturday, January 26, 2013

Rainy Sick Days

We unfortunately have some weak lungs in our house.  Josh inherited his Daddy's asthmatic lungs and I fear David has as well.

Back in November Josh experienced his third bout of pneumonia and David his first... at only 3 months old :(

Last week Sunday Josh started running a low grade fever and had a suspicious cough by Monday morning and if you have any experience with lung issues you know that means starting up his nebulizer every 4 hours (for AT LEAST a week) UGH!!

Enter one of the many blessings I mentioned in Reasons for our Decision, not having to worry about missing too much school.  If he had been attending a traditional school he would have missed this entire week since you need to be fever free for 24 hours before returning and his fever was low but persistent all week.

The privilege of homeschooling allowed us to continue with our usual "school" routine.  I know, I know I'm the mean Mom who makes her kids do school stuff when they're sick but these are kids that act like everything's fine even when they have pneumonia and they're running a fever of 102.  (Beside the fact that at this age we are just doing a lot of read-alouds and a couple worksheets... that's it.)

To top it off we've had some rainy days in our parts which means no outdoor play.  (For those living in snow right now this is NOT a complaint, just a simple statement! ;)

My boys usually spend a good part of their day out in the backyard; pretending to be captain of a ship (their swing set) as they battle their enemy/shark (our yellow lab, Daisy), play basketball or soccer and/or ride their bikes and scooters.

With the cool/wet air outside I've had to keep them in so we ended up doing a lot of different crafts and indoor activities this week (we've needed to do crafts for awhile since we really haven't done any since Christmas).

 In the beginning of the week I received a board that I ordered (one I'm going to use to pin up some of their crafts) so I told the boys that we could make doors that have mail slots with the box it came in and they could deliver mail to each room.  They had a lot of fun being mail men :)
                                                             Nathan checking his mail :)

One of the crafts we did was make penguins out of paper plates (thank you, pinterest!)  Here are a couple shots of the boys coloring their penguins and the finished products below.





Josh discovered where I was getting my craft ideas from and saw this polar bear craft pinned on my board and thought it would be fun!  (We don't have black paint so we used brown for his face and claws and as an added bonus used some cotton balls for snow :)


 This one is because we are currently observing caterpillars.  (Another idea from pinterest but the link is currently not working... you can find it on their site if you search "Very Hungry Caterpillar".)

Finally, I sat down with the boys and compiled a list of things that they would like to do/learn in the year 2013.  This is what they came up with...


These are just some of the many activities we did this week.  We also read a Magic Tree House book each day (I bought 36 of the series through eBay and thought Josh would like them but I did NOT anticipate that he'd want to sit and listen to a story in its entirety every time we picked one up! We have already read through 10 of the books and we've owned them less than a month.)

Oh yes, and baby brother is now rolling all over the place... he started out on that quilt in the bottom right corner.  Fun times ahead!

All of these crafts will soon appear in our "school room" that I will blog about soon :)


Thursday, January 24, 2013

A Mother's Precious Moments

I'm not talking about those precious moments when all of the time and effort you put into your children and their character start to pay off; like when they actually do what you ask them to do after the first time you ask, or when they're so sweet to their sibling and your heart melts, not to mention all of the "firsts".

Nope, although those moments are absolutely precious, today I'm talking about those few precious moments us Moms get to ourselves.

Oh yes, those times when we actually get to take a shower without being interrupted.

Or use the restroom alone.

Those times are PRECIOUS!

We don't ask for much but that little bit of time makes a BIG difference in our day!

Husbands (unless they are stay-at-home Dads) do not understand this need.  My husband has gotten a dose of my reality a few times over the years but he simply cannot relate.

Most of the time, even if they are still sound asleep in the early morning hours or in the afternoon taking a nap, I'll think I hear little footsteps or hear the baby cry while I'm in the shower.

But TODAY... Oh today I got to take a wonderfully relaxing shower while ALL THREE boys took a good long nap :) :) :)

As I was taking that shower I began to think about how precious my alone time has become.

When I taught I knew that bathroom breaks were few and far between and they were something I did not take for granted.  I was, however, able to have a few moments to myself while someone else watched the children during recess.

This is no longer the case...

My life as a mother is ever changing.  I have experienced many "seasons" and look forward to the coming years.  At this point in time the season I am in is a very busy one and although I wouldn't want to change anything about it, I welcome these precious moments!




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Reasons for our Decision

In no particular order here are the top reasons Craig and I have decided to homeschool our boys:

* They will each get more one on one time than they would in any traditional classroom setting, regardless if they were attending a public or private school.  I feel very strongly about this one because Craig and I both had learning difficulties growing up.  If my Mom hadn't spent countless hours reteaching me the material I should have been learning in school each evening I would have been completely lost!  In many ways I wasn't only attending private school but was homeschooled, my Mom even had material for me to use during the summer months so I wouldn't get behind.  It wasn't until Jr high and high school that I adjusted to how I needed to learn material and by college I barely noticed that I learned differently from those around me.

* The boys will be able to learn at their own pace.  I know already that Josh is going to need more time to grasp concepts than Nathan.  If you've been following me on Facebook you know that Josh suddenly started to spark an interest for mastering the alphabet in October/ November and a short month and a half later started reading.  He has always been strong willed and unless he is ready and willing to learn to do something (potty train, try new foods, etc.) he just refuses.  Nathan, on the other hand, has been quick to learn new things because he needs to do exactly the same things his brother does.  Since we started homeschooling full time he began joining us every day instead of on occasion and is doing a fantastic job (to the point that he is trying to learn to read right along with his big brother)!  The beauty of the homeschooling situation is that Josh can be right on target with his peers and their grade level and Nathan can keep chugging right along with him.  I have a feeling that if we put Nathan in a traditional classroom setting we would get notes home because he would be the kid who finished his work before everyone else and proceeded to get himself into trouble.

* We can be as flexible as we need/want to be.  With so many family members living out of state we have visitors come our way at all times of the year.  Since our kids won't be in traditional school we can work around those special occasions.  I won't have to pull them out of school for dentist and doctor appointments either which will be really nice!

* One of the many things we knew we weren't going to be able to do a lot of if we sent the kids to a Christian school would be traveling, simply because of the cost.  We love to travel and as we got closer and closer to those impending years of private education I could see that part of our lives ending for awhile.  This made me very sad.  Except for the occasional weekend trip away we aren't ones to take big trips without our kids, I'm talking family trips to visit those that live out of state.  As I was planning a weekend trip to visit my sister in Colorado this past November my Mom made a comment about how I better do it now because once Kindergarten starts that's it, our lives will revolve around the kid's school schedules until the youngest graduates (more or less).  I knew this all along but hearing those words aloud really struck me!  Our boys are really close to their Aunts and Uncles that live out of state because we've been able to visit them on a regular basis and I hope to continue that in the years to come.

* We can travel during the off season when prices are, on average, lower :)

* Our boys will have a much closer relationship having learned together over the years, they'll be much closer than if they were each attending school in separate classrooms.

* I will get to be there for all of their AHA! moments :)  I loved this as a teacher and I am enjoying it even more with my own children.  There is nothing more fulfilling and exciting than watching a child grasp a concept for the first time!

* One thing that really struck me when I began doing more research about homeschooling is how well behaved so many homeschooled kids are (on average, I'm not saying they're perfect).  I think this is due, in large part, to learning from the example of their parents instead of from the behavior of peers their age.  I've seen it first hand in a classroom, and even if you've never taught a day in your life I'm sure you remember the class clown that got even the well behaved kids to giggle during a lesson on several occasions over the years.  Peer pressure is a powerful thing, even for adults.  

* We will be able to accomplish their "schoolwork" in the morning and early afternoon when they are at their best, no late night homework assignments/ projects.  This will be SO nice once they start playing sports, we won't have to come home from a long day and still have hours of homework to accomplish.  A lot of those nights working with my Mom when I was growing up were torture, for both of us.  I was tired from being at school all day and we would both get extremely frustrated.  (Not that I won't get frustrated with the boys over the days/ weeks/ months/ years ahead... just saying at least we won't be trying to do all of this in the evenings or late at night.)

* If we sent the kids to a private school I would have to get a full time job.  I would then be spending countless hours each school year teaching a classroom of up to 35 students, coming home each day exhausted.  I wouldn't have any energy for my own kids and that thought alone makes me sad.

* We can do unit studies on subjects the kids are most interested in.  If they are really enjoying a topic we can go more in-depth, there's no hurry... no "teaching to a test".  Along that same line, my hope is that learning will become apart of life for them, that they'll enjoy learning if they can expand their knowledge on topics that they are most interested in.

* I can use different curriculums for each child if I need to, every child learns differently.

* We won't need to spend more on uniforms for school (on top of tuition costs).

* We won't have to worry about them missing too much school if/when they get sick.  For just this school year alone Josh would have already missed two full weeks of school because of health issues (and it's only January!).  When these issues arise we can adjust our schedule and continue at any given time.

As I said before, these are just some of the many reasons we have chosen to homeschool our boys.  I honestly think of more each day.


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Boys

Let me start by saying, I love my boys!  Each of them are gifts from our Heavenly Father and I wouldn't trade them for the world!

That being said, I find it comical the reactions I get from people when we are out and about.  I get the "she must be crazy" look a lot more now that I have three kiddos in tow (5 and under) when I'm doing my grocery shopping.  I just grin at them and keep shopping.

{All the while contemplating what I would love to say to them if they actually had the gull to say something to me, "Yes, I'm a busy Mom of three... three children and a husband who need to be fed on a daily basis and just like you I purchase those food items from a store and because my husband works long hours at a job he has to provide for us these three handsome boys and myself go on weekly shopping trips." - my inner self can be quite sassy at times :) }

It's as if people believe I should get a sitter so I can get my shopping done in peace... and although there are times I wished I had waited until Craig got home in the evening so I could go on my own, I believe that this is my job and part of this job is to purchase and prepare meals for my family.

Don't get me wrong, there are days when I will leave the kids with Craig so I can make a quick trip or two but I don't think it's fair to always wait until he walks in the door so I can say a quick hello and walk out the door myself.  Between his commute and his daily work schedule my husband is gone at least 11-12 hours a day and I try to have dinner ready (or at least in the oven) when he gets home so we can enjoy some time together as a family in the evenings.

That being said, there have been many times over the years that I've gotten comments like, "Two boys? Oh I bet you're hoping this one's a girl!" to me while I was pregnant with David and out shopping with Josh and Nathan.  Once we knew that we were having another boy and I would reveal that news I would get, "Oh, are you going to keep trying for a girl?"

I get it, there is a special bond between a mother and her daughter that I would love to have but honestly, these boys have stolen my heart!  Not to mention the fact that God, in his divine plan, chose me to be the mother of these boys for a reason, he must think that I am a good candidate for raising Godly men.  (As I stated earlier... go figure, right?!  But as the saying goes, if you want to make God laugh tell him YOUR plans!)

Anyway, this has been on my mind a lot lately... well, because I've recently been getting a lot more of these comments and I wanted to share.

As for the conversations with these strangers that I have on a regular basis (one of which was at Disneyland yesterday on the tram) I tell them that I've always wanted four kids, regardless if they were boys, girls or a mixture of the two.  If Craig and I decide to try for another blessing and God chooses to add a girl to our family next time then that would be great... but if he chooses to give us another boy, well, let's face it- he'll fit right in!

 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

About Me

Since I have decided to completely redo my blog I thought I'd give a little background information on myself and my family.

My husband and I have been together for fourteen years.  We met at a youth group kick off the summer before my freshman year of high school and quickly hit it off.  We dated all through high school and college, deciding soon after high school that we wanted to get married but felt that waiting until after college was the best option so we could be financially stable.

We dated for nearly eight years before we were married and that has been over six years ago now.  I am more in love with this man today than I was the day I married him.  He is the kindest, most generous person I have ever known.

I've known since I was in elementary school myself that I wanted to be a teacher so I entered college with a distinct goal in mind and graduated with a BA in Liberal Studies and a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential in 2007 (completing my year of student teaching the first year of our marriage... while pregnant with our first son).

For the next three years I was a substitute teacher part-time, spending as much time as I could at home with our growing family.  We then ran into some financial insecurity when my husband was being laid off because of budget cuts.  It was then that my title became day-care provider.

The Lord blessed Craig with a wonderful job soon after he completed his last day at his previous job but I continued doing day-care full time for the next two years.  I decided not to go right back to substitute teaching because 1) watching my nephews was a stable job which created a more consistent environment for the boys and myself and 2) the cousins had a great time together.

Back to my family....

Josh joined us six short weeks after I graduated from college.

The Lord blessed us with Nathan two and a half years later and just five months ago David joined us and made us a family of five.  I knew deep down that Craig was going to be an amazing father but it is such a blessing to watch him with our children each day, teaching them to become independent boys who will, Lord willing, grow to become Godly men.

Yes, that's right, three boys.  I grew up in a household of girls and my husband a household of boys.  We always said it would be funny if we ended up with 3 girls or 3 boys to match one set of our parents but I never thought I would be the mother of three boys... but then again there are a lot of things I never thought I'd do as a parent (but that's another post for another day!)


Sunday, January 13, 2013

Our Decision

If I've spoken with you at all over the past couple months I'm sure you're aware that Craig and I have recently made a pretty big decision for our boys.

We've decided to Homeschool *gulp* (wait for imminent reaction)

From my short experience I have found that people have one of two reactions after they hear this news; some look at me when I share this information with admiration because they don't think they could ever do it themselves but think that it's great that I'm willing to jump in with both feet, others look at me like I'm crazy to even entertain the idea and think we're doing a terrible thing by educating the boys at home and think (or just start listing) all of the things they'll be missing out on by not attending a traditional school.

I get it, I was there just a few short months ago.

Before we had kids Craig and I were sure that when we did and they were school-age we would send them to a private Christian school.  After all, that's what our parents did and we were happy with the decision to keep them out of a public school.  When Josh was turning 4 and we were discussing our options, we discussed homeschooling but neither one of us had ever had experience with homeschooling and we weren't quite sure how we felt about it so we made the decision to send Josh to a private school and continue on that path until we had some other direction or we could no longer afford it... but which school should we send him to?!

Thus began our search for an "affordable" Christian school option in our area.  After deciding on one we began the process of enrollment.

Things were going great, Josh loved school.  He had a great teacher and was making wonderful friends.

Then God stepped in... and I say he stepped in because he quite literally kept putting people in my path who have/are homeschooling their children and absolutely LOVE it!  I knew the option was always there but, as I said before, Craig and I didn't know much about it and we really weren't sure how we felt about the whole idea.  There was that dreaded question of socialization (come to find out later that this is actually comical to homeschoolers because if we aren't careful with all of our extra-curricular activities our kids won't do anything but socialize!)

Anyway, I foolishly kept on my own path because, after all, that was the decision Craig and I had made    but I did mention to Craig and my Mom a few times that I was feeling a tug in that direction.  

Come the end of his first year of preschool and we started to discuss whether Josh was going to move on to a Pre-K class or Kindergarten.  (He made the age cut off and was physically/emotionally ready for Kindergarten but he could care less about learning the alphabet and with how rigorous our education system is now I didn't want to push him if he wasn't ready.)  We made the decision to give him the "bonus" year and enrolled him in the Pre-K class three days a week instead of two so he could prepare for Kinder.

We went on, had a wonderful summer vacation, added another member to our family and just two short weeks later it was time for school to start again.  A few days before the school year began I attended the parent meeting while Craig stayed home with the boys.  Come to find out that Josh would be doing pretty much the exact same thing he was doing the previous year, just three days a week now instead of two... hmmmm was that really going to prepare him for Kindergarten?!  (I mean, a "learning through play" mentality was fine for preschool but a Pre-K class should be preparing them more for the Kindergarten year to come!)

Let me pull back a minute here, when Josh was around the age of 2 1/2- 3 his Aunt Stephanie came home for a visit from college and had to do some homework while she was hanging out one afternoon. Josh insisted that he needed to do his "homework", too.  So, I pulled out a preschool workbook that I had just purchased and he sat with her at the kitchen table and did his homework while she worked on hers.  From that time on we would do "homework" whenever the mood struck so the idea of teaching him at home was not all that foreign to me... after all, we've been doing it for quite some time now.

Needless to say, I left that parent meeting a little uneasy that night because when I signed him up for this class I was under the impression that they would be preparing him for Kindergarten... the alphabet, letter recognition, etc.

I voiced these concerns to Craig when I got home and we were both unsure what to do at that point except see how he progressed as the year went on.  (Mind you, I was still planning on doing stuff at home with him.)

Suddenly, at the end of September/early October all of the flashcards and alphabet memory games, etc. that we had been playing at home started to click and his handwriting started to improve.  The desire to learn had erupted in this child and the teacher in me was ecstatic!

Craig was seeing a big change in Josh as well, just from what he was learning at home with me and that's when we decided to give homeschooling a chance.  My husband said to me, "if you are feeling a calling for this do some research and we'll discuss it and go from there."

That's all I needed.

I began by sending those wonderful women that I mentioned earlier an email asking questions about homeschooling and went from there.

I received a beautiful response from each of these women, encouraging me and filling my mind with a plethora of information.  It was then that it started, my obsession with homeschooling!  I couldn't get enough information about it!  (Still can't, in fact.)  I was doing countless hours of google, pinterest, and blog searches each night after the boys went to bed... and the afore mentioned mentors were gracious enough to answer countless emails full of questions I had.

It took one weekend of serious research and discussion with myself (I'm one that needs to talk things out... with anyone who'll listen), my husband and my parents (it just so happened that the weekend we decided to open this option up for ourselves was the same weekend I was going on a trip up north to visit family and go to a baby shower... so 5 1/2 hours of homeschool discussion up and 5 1/2 hours of homeschool discussion back down for Mom and Dad, needless to say they were quite sick of listening to and talking about this subject by the time we got home!) for us to make the decision to jump in with both feet because this was DEFINITELY what God was calling me to do!

I say this without a doubt because I have never in my life felt so sure about something.  I kid you not, I grew up in a Bible believing home with God fearing parents who faithfully brought us to church and sacrificed a lot to send my sisters and I to a very good Christian school, and I had heard countless people over the years testify that God was calling them to do something... I always thought, "ya, okay"... but no joke, I have never felt so sure that this is exactly what God is calling me to do.

It was after we made our final decision that a friend of mine steered me in the direction of a family member of theirs in my area who homeschools her children and is involved with a support group.  (I knew if this is what we were going to do I really wanted to be involved with a support group so the boys would have park days, field trips, etc. with other kiddos... and Mommy would have the support she needs to do this day in and day out :)  I am aware that this is by no means going to be easy and I want to have the support I'm going to need on those days when I'm ready to ship them all off to the nearest school!)  I promptly contacted her and she emailed me back later that night with information about the group and told me where they meet and that they were going to be meeting for a park day that friday at a park not too far from our house.  It was then, sitting in my living room nursing the baby, that I got weepy... my poor husband thought something was wrong... but I knew then and there that God had led me to this place and he was laying out his perfect plan for our family right in front of my eyes.

Initially we had every intention of letting Josh finish out the school year in the Pre-K class he started in September but by the end of November we were unsure that was the best decision.  (Partly because he contracted something from school which he passed along to his brothers which ended in pneumonia for both Josh and the baby at only 3 months old.)  I began asking Josh what he thought about continuing to learn at home and not attend his "big school" as he called it after Christmas break.  He was pretty excited about the concept of just learning at home (loving the idea of doing his worksheets in his PJs :)  So I called the preschool office... talk about nerve racking... and told them that he wouldn't be returning after Christmas break (luckily they were very understanding!)

There are so many things that we are still unsure about, like if we'll homeschool through high school or not, but we're sure God will lead the way.

So there you have it.  Our decision and how we came about it.  I have so much more to tell you but I will leave it at that for now.  I give props to anyone who actually read that entire story... as I explained earlier, I'm full of information right now and I love sharing this story with anyone who'll listen!

My goal is to share some of our homeschooling experiences with you all so stay tuned :)