Summer 2013

What a fun, BUSY summer!

We definitely kept ourselves occupied with plenty of activities over the past few months.  At the end of May we took a family vacation to Mammoth (our first trip there, we had a lot of fun!).

June brought family from out of town whom we hadn't seen in quite some time.  We had a great time swimming and were also able to visit LEGOLAND (the boys were ecstatic since we'd never been, they'd been asking to go for awhile).

At the end of the week we visited the beach (a big treat for the boys since Mommy is NOT a big beach fan!)

We were also treated to fabulous seats at an Angels game :)

Lots of fun memories made that week!

July included Vacation Bible School for the boys and myself.  Nathan was old enough to be involved in a class this year, the class that I was asked to teach :)  What a great week!

July also marked our Joshua's 6th year!!  (SERIOUSLY, where has the time gone?!?!)

From mid-June to mid-August the boys took swimming and karate lessons.

Mid-August both of my sisters came into town and we went on our annual lake trip with my family.

While we were there our baby turned one!

Finally, after we got home from the lake, my sister Michelle wanted to go to Disneyland before she headed home (besides the heat it was a fun, but exhausting, day!).

PHEW!  That last picture really sums it all up :)  What a great few months!  So much fun, in fact, the boys decided one morning a few weeks ago that we needed to get back to our school work.  We are currently two weeks into our new school year and they are doing GREAT!  (We completed one week before we left for the lake trip and picked it back up after we got home.)  Looking forward to the rest of this year!

On My Heart

They had been dating for awhile.

She suddenly found herself hungry and tired all the time.

16 and in high school she knew in her heart what it all meant, she was pregnant.

Knowing that she needed to take care of herself and her unborn baby she went to see a doctor.  The doctor examined her and told her that she was, indeed, pregnant.

Then he said, "You know, you have options."

She looked at him in disbelief, "No doctor" she said, "That isn't an option for me."

4 short months later, and only 21 days after her 17th birthday, she noticed she was starting to show as she slipped on her wedding dress.

That was 30 years ago this month.

That woman was my mother and that baby was me.

As I sit here and read articles about abortionists who murder innocent babies every day, my heart throbs.  Innocent lives are being taken every day all in the name of "a woman's choice".

As I read through this recent trial against Kermit Gosnell my head spins.  How can this be possible?!  I cry every time I think about those poor innocent babies being ripped from their safe haven and brutally murdered.  

How can so many people believe that these precious babies aren't actual human beings forming in their safe, warm womb?  The mere idea boggles my mind!

I am passionate about this topic because, if my mom had decided she wanted to wait a few more years to have children and decided to abort me so she could finish high school and go to college, I wouldn't be here today.

I would be passionate about this subject even if my mom had been in her twenties and married when she became pregnant and gave birth to me.  Abortion is murder, period.

How can anyone not be outraged by this scenario?!  Why isn't this story all over the news and on the front page of newspapers?!

Is this any better than the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust?  I don't think so!  These precious children can't even try to defend themselves.

I am so outraged and hot headed about this topic that I, a white Christian girl who attended a private Christian school all the way through high school, chose this as my topic to debate in my speech class my freshman year at a very liberal city college.  Oh yes, nerve wracking to say the least but I did my research so well that I debated the issue with my opponent until he was out of answers.

I can still remember doing the research for that debate.  I found images and videos that I still can't get out of my mind.  Why aren't more people being shown these same images?

Images of an unborn baby's heart beating only a few weeks after conception.

Video of a baby of only 12 weeks gestation trying to swim away from the murder weapons that "doctors" use to complete this "procedure".

Along with this disturbing report I also read a story about a woman who used to work for Planned Parenthood.  One who saw these images first hand and is now Pro-Life.

If more people were required to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before they made this decision we would have less abortions.  Most women make an appointment to have this procedure done without even considering the other options they have open to them, such as adoption.

Please join me in prayer as the court comes to a decision on the fate of this abortionist.  

School vs. Homeschool

I just have to share this with you all.  Mr. Joshua had a hard time yesterday, not wanting to complete any of the (what should have been quick since he is so good at them) worksheets I wanted him to complete.

Mind you, these are not long handwriting worksheets (he hates those the most and since this is not something he struggles with by an means I minimize that work).

These are his new All About Reading worksheets that are pretty much all reading games.  (More on that later... I decided to switch things up after much thought over spring break.)

Anyway, we were having a good day yesterday and only had a couple more things to do so I let them take a break and then planned on finishing things up.  (Granted, this could all easily fit into one hour but I break it up into 15-20 increments.)

When it was time to finish he had a melt down.  He started telling me how he didn't have to do these things at his school...

So, I put everything on hold and we had a discussion.  I asked him if he liked homeschooling (because up until yesterday he has had nothing but good things to say about me being his teacher at home, park days, CBS, trips to Disneyland, etc.) he said that he did like it but he didn't like doing all the "work".  He went on to explain that he got to play all day at his school.  I said, "well, you're right, you did get to play at that school because it was preschool and that's pretty much all you do in preschool but now you're starting to work on kindergarten stuff, remember?"  (A short two weeks ago the kid looked at me and said, "mom, I think I'm ready for kindergarten stuff."  I said, "well that's good since you've been doing some kindergarten stuff."  to which I received a very large, warm smile :)

It was at this point that I decided to tell him how regular school is different, how their days are scheduled.  **Side note here: my goal is not to make school sound bad because they may eventually have to attend a school for one reason or another and I'm sure they'd do just fine.**  I went on to explain what a typical kindergarten day at school was like, complete with worksheets and coloring, recess, lunch and more worksheets.  I then explained that teachers send worksheets to do at home with their Moms and Dads in the evening.  He looked at me very seriously and said, "that's horrible!"

I have to remember that the picture he has in his head when he thinks of school includes playing with friends, having a snack and doing crafts.  He's never been in a classroom full of students listening to lessons and working on their assignments.

This is something that I need to remind myself of pretty regularly because, although we are all enjoying so many aspects of this new lifestyle and I still feel that this is exactly the path God led me toward, I doubt our decision sometimes.

I have read several blogs over the past five or six months and so many of these moms have shared how they had questioned these same things in the beginning of their journeys.  I know I'm not alone and I know that my husband is more than behind me in all of this; any time I voice doubt he tells me over and over how happy the kids are and how well they're doing :)  (I am a BLESSED woman!)

As with any decision we make as parents I know I'll face times of doubt.  Just as we doubt our decision to vaccinate or not vaccinate (or have an alternate vaccination schedule for that matter), or what daily vitamins to give them, or if they're eating a balanced diet.  If we were sending them to a school, any school, I would question if it was the right one or if they have the right teacher.  From the moment we know we're expecting these little blessings we worry; it never ends!

Just as I do with all of these other concerns, I will lay this down at the feet of my Savior.  At least I know he has everything under control!

 

Spring Break 2013

For the past couple of months Craig and I have been planning a road trip to visit family and friends.  Unfortunately, last week Craig found out he has to go on a business trip the week we were planning to be out of town.  After reviewing his schedule (with this new information) he found that this week was the only time he could take some time off so we decided to have a staycation.

Josh then proceeded to contract a stomach bug... surprised?  Nope!

So, the first couple of days turned into Craig and I taking turns going out and having some time to ourselves.  He went golfing, I got a pedicure and massage :)

Wednesday Josh was feeling better so we took the boys to a local park and had lunch and fished a bit.

 I still can't get over the look on David's face in this picture... HILARIOUS! 

Thursday we decided to visit the aquarium.

 Getting to view a squid up close :)

We then found ourselves stuck at home again on Friday when the bug Josh caught decided it wasn't done torturing the poor boy.  Thankfully it seems to finally be leaving his little body and we might actually be able to attend our church's Easter service and our family dinner/egg hunt!

Overall it was a nice relaxing week with a lot of time spent with Daddy :)

At Home with a Purpose

Since I can remember I've wanted to be two things (besides a wife to an amazing husband): a mother and a teacher.

I can't describe in words how incredible it feels to be living the life of my dreams.

Did I ever imagine that I would be doing so in the comfort of my own home? Absolutely not!

Does it feel amazing? YES!

Living this lifestyle has completely changed my outlook on parenting. I'm no longer just their mom that plays the role of cook, maid and chauffeur. I'm the one they look to for the answers to their every question. I'm no longer having to ask question after question wondering what my son learned at school that day and hearing, "nothing".

It is so much fun watching Josh learn to read and learn new math concepts.  Math is something he really enjoys, mostly because he finds it easy and that means it can be done quickly :)

In fact, the week before last we were in a bit of a rut and Josh was dreading his Language Arts worksheets each day so much that I decided to spend last week just doing a letter a day in his Writing Without Tears book and math.

I also printed out some fun math activities from Homeschool Creations; the St. Patrick's Day "Tracking with Tally Marks" and the Angry Birds Roll and Graph worksheets with die.

 You can tell from the expression on his face that he enjoyed our week of math.  That look of excitement is what I love about homeschooling... when something isn't working we reevaluate and make it work for us.  I'm also loving the fact that none of the kids are required to complete any school work this year so we are taking our time and figuring out what fits best into our lifestyle.

 We continued with our read-alouds which is still one of his favorite things about homeschooling!  When he saw the cover of this Magic Tree House book he ran and found his coon skin hat that his Grandma and Grandpa bought him so he could look like Jack and Annie while he listened to the story :)

  That was last week, this week we are taking our Spring Break.  I'll try to post some fun pictures from our adventures with Daddy soon.

Butterflies

Thanks to a certain uncle (thanks again, Piet!) the boys and I embarked on a butterfly journey back in January.  Our family really enjoyed watching the caterpillars change each day.  We marked the arrival of our caterpillars by creating a couple of our own:

The boys would check on them every day and were very excited when they made their way to the top of the cup to begin their chrysalis stage.  

A couple weeks later we came home from church to find one of our butterflies had completed his transformation and had emerged.

Unfortunately, even though we were lucky enough that all 5 of our caterpillars arrived alive and completed their transformations, we did not get to witness any of them emerge from their chrysalides.  Even though we were at home (besides the first one while we were at church) we were either sleeping or working on something in another room/outside.

We observed our 5 beautiful butterflies for about a week and when the weather was nice and warm we decided to let them go.

To wrap it all up we did a butterfly craft:

Research Research Research

Choices, choices, choices....

Reviews, reviews, reviews...

Do your research about homeschool curriculum choices.  CHECK!

For someone new to the home education world the choices for curriculum seem endless.  So, I got to work, doing my research about every type of curriculum I could find.  Any moment I had; when the boys were playing outside, when they were napping, or after they were in bed I would crack open my laptop and do some more reading.

The wonderful thing about homeschooling these days is the opportunity to discover all of this from the comfort of my own home, on my computer... most of the time in my pajamas :)

I quickly discovered that there are several ways families go about educating their children at home (or on the road).

Some of these methods include:

*Traditional- where your day at home resembles that of a public/private school setting.

*Charlotte Mason- instead of using traditional textbooks you read "living" books (a.k.a. novels, biographies) to bring that information to life for your child through read-alouds and/or readers. 

*Unschooling- when you don't force the child to learn anything they aren't ready or showing an interest in learning, it's a student-led approach.

*Unit Studies- you implement all subjects into a unit with one theme/topic.

*Eclectic- taking from several different approaches and creating your own unique experience.

These are just some of the many examples that I've read about in some books and/or blogs over the past few months.  

Once I had a handle on the different methods I did some experimenting with the boys at home, getting into a routine and figuring out what works for us.  As homeschooling itself isn't for everyone, one homeschooling approach that works for one family may not work for another.

I quickly found that although I love working within the traditional school method (because, let's face it, that's what I grew up doing and how I was taught to teach) my boys could only take so much of it.  After the first week of doing calendar time and worksheets together it was no longer new and exciting and they didn't want much more of that and I knew we needed to change our approach a bit.  I know part of their reluctance toward this approach is their age and short attention spans so I decided to try breaking up the couple of worksheets I wanted Josh to complete in a day (usually only 2 or 3... Nathan only a little when he feels like joining us, since he's only 3) in 15-20 minute increments.  I also stopped doing a full calendar routine every morning, which they seem to appreciate.

One method that I was very interested in during my research was Charlotte Mason's approach.  I know from my own experience that history didn't come alive until a professor in college told us the information in story form and we didn't have to read it in a textbook and fill out countless worksheets.  I then started reading the Magic Tree House series to Josh and he LOVES being read to and remembers the historical parts of the stories better than I ever thought he would.  

So, after looking at a couple of different curriculums that use this approach I have decided to use Sonlight's program as the Core of our curriculum. This will include read-alouds and using "living" books for History/Geography.

We are, however, taking a traditional approach to Language Arts and Math with Horizons (since there are just some things that are best taught through worksheets).

As for Science I'm still a little torn.  I have heard wonderful things about Sonlight's science program but I'm intrigued with Apologia's science program.  Apologia uses a notebook approach and has recently included junior notebooks for children in primary grade levels.  Since I am holding off starting Sonlight's Core units until Josh's first grade year (until Nathan is a bit older and I can use one core for the two of them) I decided to start with Apologia's Swimming Creatures of the fifth day along with their junior notebook.  (Notebooking along with a student-led approach since Josh specifically requested to learn more about the ocean this year :)  (I also got a good deal through Christianbook.com with their overstock discounts.)  I will then be able to make an informed decision on what science program to go with later.

So for now, call us Eclectic ;)