I think we're just going to go ahead and read the story.

We've always been those crazy parents who read to their children straight from big books, really big books like classic novels and histories. And when we read to them from the Bible, we read straight from the Bible, like from the big leather-bound, grown-up looking book straight off the nightstand.
And you know what, we're gonna keep on being those crazy parents, because what started out as an inkling and a cool idea in our home, has turned into a way to educate our kids, based on hundreds of years of experience of people throughout western civilization. That sounds exciting, right?

I'll back up here a bit and try to say what I'm saying. Over the last  few years, I've been thinking a lot about why young kids nowadays aren't always taught the same level of things kids were taught decades and centuries ago. Why were kids once trusted to learn two and three languages before the age of ten, not to mention straight, not watered down, history and literature, along with scientific theory and math facts and equations before? And why are kids generally not trusted with these concepts, subjects, and experiences now until they are much older? I am really asking here. I don't have the answers. I know there are a lot of answers to this, and some of them have things to do with advancement in education and the creation, production, and marketing of super fun and useful workbooks, manipulatives, and instruction manuals. And some of the answers may be good answers like trying to teach kids things they are interested in, so they will grow up and love to learn. The answers go on and on and on, I'm sure. But thankfully, these answers really aren't what I have to deal with finding right now. All I am trying to focus on here is what style to use when educating my kids this next school year. It's getting close to curriculum ordering time! I need lessons plans and material, not answers to all of the random, nerdy life questions I have.

So what I've been doing is a whole bunch of late night reading on classical education and modern education. I have a desire to take advantage of this "sponge" period my children are in, before they grow out of it. Young children have an amazing ability to memorize and to grasp onto new languages and facts in a way that people rarely hang on to as they grow and start moving into different developmental stages. So, we are moving more towards the classical end of the spectrum in our home. We are using books, riddles, rhymes, and songs to teach what has started to be known as only higher level education. We are bringing in more language study, more poetry and classic literature, more histories, and we are going to work more theories and facts into our study of science, math, art, and music, so that when our kiddos get older, and move away from the "sponge" or grammar stage and into the logic or "now what do I think about or do with all that stuff I learned as a tot" stage, they will be filled up with stuff, and not have to bother with square one of learning everything, at the same time when they would rather be thinking "why, how, what, and Oh!....Now I get it!"

So, I know this is a little ambitious and probably a little vague. I guess I could sum up this whole post by saying: we are excited about next year and all of the knowledge we hope our kids will be exposed to and hold on to. There are so many educational theories and styles out there, and I really don't think there is only one right or good way to go. In addition to classical education, I am a big fan of Charlotte Mason's teaching style, and I find a lot of cool ideas in Waldorf curriculum. Classical isn't the only good choice. But when you make the decision to homeschool, you also need to decide how you're gonna do it, so you get the daunting and exciting task of choosing the path your children will take as they learn. There are so many paths to take, and I think it is important to choose a great fit for your children, for your family, and for the teacher. There's my disclaimer to all of these strong points I'm making about our choice to go in one specific direction.

We are going to set the bar high and not work with too much "twaddle", as Charlotte Mason would call some of the reading material and kids workbooks of today. Kids don't always need to be spoon-fed little teeny bits of things we want them to learn later, sometimes we can just teach them the things now, while their minds are young, and their memories are at their best. Kids have done it before, so why not my kids now? Again, I'm seriously asking. And don't get me wrong, I love a good children's book as much as the next Mama, but they don't all have to have pictures and simple sentences, do they? How about a good princess picture book as a simple treat at bedtime, and then the next morning is full of quiet listening to history time. We have been running a little test around here to see how this will work out as we shape our curriculum around classical education next year, and so far, we are blown away by the bits of knowledge kids keep with them. They can understand big words. We don't have to stop reading a book to a child to say, "This big word mean this....". I mean, this isn't how we taught them the small words, no we just spoke the words and then they understood them in context, which is much simpler and much more effective. So, we can go ahead and just use those big words! They'll catch on, and they'll understand much more of the stories we read to them if we aren't always stopping to explain this and that to them. Just read the story.

20 minutes to make our day

I found myself becoming guilty of one of the things I said I would never do as a parent, and I'm not referring to driving a minivan, though I am guilty of that, too. What I'm referring to here is that I became a barking, angry, stressed out parent in a world of chaotic breakfasts and bag forgetting and orders to get your shoes on NOW again and again. No matter how early I got up in the morning, it seemed that those last five minutes until we had to get out of the house in the morning on our way to preschool, to a homeschool  trip, or even on our way to the homeschool room in our own house by our early scheduled start time turned into a rush. And a rush was not a good way to begin our day. It left my kids confused, disappointed, stressed, tired, and it left them with their needs not met well from their mama at the very beginning of a busy day, and chaotic mornings left me feeling defeated and tense, before any schooling or cleaning even got underway. That was not for us, so we stopped doing that and tried something different.

And now what we have is 20 minutes of bliss. We don't have perfect days. We don't always go according to plan. And we certainly don't do everything all sweet and proper and correct, but we do our best around here to get a calm, quiet start to the day now. At first, this was a bit of a challenge, as a new routine often is with small children, but after a couple days, we began to begin our days in a much better way. After teeth are brushed, beds are made, breakfast is cleared away, and we are all dressed for the day, I set a timer for 20 minutes, and the four of us all go to different parts of the house to do something quietly and calmly on our own. Everyone gets to choose what they do, but I give them suggestions and tell them that electronics (other than tag reader pens) are off limits; television and video games make my kids way to jittery and/or spacey in the morning to be a good idea before school.



Morning quiet time choices include reading quietly to yourself (a good book that teaches you something), writing or copying a letter to a friend or relative, working a puzzle, playing a board or card game (yes, kids can do this by themselves....quite creatively, actually...), playing with blocks or manipulatives, sitting doing nothing, or working on an art project. And I have to say that a little organization goes a long way with kids' games.



We put our broken game boxes in the recycle bin, put game pieces in labeled zippered bags, and then used address label stickers to label the boards of games. Now it is more reasonable to keep the kids accountable for only getting out one thing at a time and then putting it away neatly. Sigh.

I use our 20 minute morning alone time to lesson plan for the day, catch up on letters or emails, and really, just to breathe in my favorite room in the house with a cup of something warm. This doesn't mean the kids don't have access to me. Of course they come to me with questions about a word in a book or for help with a puzzle piece or even for a hug, but in theory we are all doing something on our own. I think it is good for them to have time to be alone, but not entirely alone. I'm right there if they need me, and they know that, and I think they even like that a little.

So when the timer goes off, we start our school day relaxed and ready to join back up together. The kids actually all look forward to doing something together again. Imagine! A little quiet can go a long way. I don't think it is necessary to homeschool children in order to make morning a time for meeting kids' needs and preparing them for their days by filling them up with calm and love and security, but the decision to homeschool the kids has certainly made it easier to slow down our mornings. I'm sure there are many great mothers out their who keep their cool in the morning when heading out the door on a tight schedule, but for me, it was difficult on many mornings to be sweet and chill when the clock was ticking and there was a kid who was panicked about not being comfortable in her shoes, while another was in need of a new diaper at the last minute, and yet another was needing to talk about something super important to her in that moment. So for us, we made our mornings work better with a clear early morning schedule and 20 small, sweet minutes. And I hope this time is a step towards our kids learning how to spend time with family in a home, while not always doing the same thing. Quality time doesn't have to be all or nothing, as in we are either talking to the person next to us or we are ignoring the person next to us and talking to a friend on the Internet. How about just sitting and enjoying someone's company without always feeling a need to fill up the silence with something? I know I am pretty old-fashioned and probably have a silly, dreamy view of after-dinner time with my family, all the girls sitting in different parts of the room, one embroidering a pillow, while one plays cards with her daddy, and another reads a book of poetry.....BUT even if we can't go back in time to a slower paced world and my girls may never learn to embroider seat cushions like Jane Austen characters, we can still learn to share a house and enjoy each other's company, whether we are doing something together...or not. Clearly I have big hopes for what our 20 minutes in the morning will teach us as family. Not sure if they will all pan out, but for now the 20 minutes are working out pretty well for our mornings, and good mornings tend to make good days. Right?

Three Kids, a Volcano, and Blueberry Muffins

We learned about rocks in our kindergarten class last week, which for little kids means: time to collect rocks and time to talk about HOT LAVA! I expected kids to get a kick out of picking up rocks and talking about their similarities and differences, but what always surprises me about my dear, sweet little girls is their fascination with lava. They love to play "Don't Step on the Hot Lava", and this is a pretty serious game since apparently there is a whole bunch of lava on our living room floor on most days. And I thought they were so unique to have come up with this game all on their own, but ya know, it's everywhere. Kids love this game. Real kids play it. Book character kids play it. Television show kids play it. And so, what did we just have to do as part of our rock week? We had to make a volcano. And let me tell you something: this took me back to my second grade class. Oh the smell of baking soda, vinegar, and clay all mingled together was like being eight again. Except now it was my kitchen that stunk.





We had a sweet homeschool friend join in on the volcano fun. Many hands made light work. I was pretty impressed with how well three kids got along as they worked to make one shared volcano. Isn't it great when moments of sharing and team work happen? Sigh.

And we ended up with a volcano that was not only solid, but also fabulous. Can you tell girls made this?

So since we were going to be working in the kitchen that day anyway, my oldest child (the one with a love for the Food Network and the cookbook shelves at the public library) wanted to do some baking for an after school snack. We went with stone ground whole wheat blueberry muffins (they look healthy, are pretty healthful, and they were so very, very good). Thank you to two sweet fellow mothers and friends of mine for picking up the blueberries at the store for me. You can see we put them to use. Isn't it funny how something as simple as someone picking up something at the store for you can brighten up your day? Motherhood is absolutely amazing and sweet and wonderful, but it is also hard and even lonely at times. I hope I can always make time for other mothers to catch up over coffee (either in person or sometimes over the phone...), help each other clean up toy room floors, and pick up blueberries at the store for each other. It really does make a difference in my day, and hopefully in my friends' days. What a great way to end our rock and volcano unit week: with muffins that look like rocks, but taste great. 

CrockPot Math Post taken over by rant. Sorry.

One of the topics I've read about in homeschool articles and books is the idea that the time of the genius and prodigy is disappearing in many school systems. The idea behind this is that many schools (not all...) are set up to create well-rounded jack-of-all-trades students who graduate having a grasp on all subject matters, which is great, right? I mean, what can be more useful in life than having a solid understanding, if not a mastery, of all subject matters? Well, okay, but what about the kid who has a special gift for, let's say, understanding light and shapes and has the ability to work towards creating artistic masterpieces to inspire the world, not to mention to support her future family in a job created around her passion?...should that kid have to spend hours upon hours trying to learn, let's say...advanced algebra, if algebra, beyond its basics is uninteresting, frustrating, and stressful for that particular student artist? Can hours spent in algebra tutoring, when the child could be painting and studying style and art history instead, really be worth it? There are only so many hours in the day, and if a child or older student has a desire and a real gift in one particular area, why are we pushing that child to give up time which could be spent working on that gift and asking her to put the time towards dabbling in all subject matters? And why can't a 16 year-old be trusted to know, declare, and prove to her parents and teachers that she is a gifted scientist and should be allowed to invest most of her time and educational resources into excelling in that field? Does a chemistry whiz kid really need to spend more than half of her school hours on other subject matters? Certainly there are reasons for her to spend some time learning about grammar and social studies and such, but more than half of her learning time? Is that really the best choice for her? (Clearly, I am really passionate about exploring these questions...you know, the girl who loves to write but spent her high school career obsessing over a need to excel, which meant, for me, that I wanted to get A's in not just English and History, but in all of my classes, and all of my classes included Chemistry and Algebra. No where did I get the idea that it is okay to not be the best at everything. Either I was a straight A student, or I wasn't one of the best students, in my childhood mind (and I'm betting my childhood mind didn't come up with that on my own, although I do only have myself to blame for even caring if I was "one of the best"). I don't use all of those subjects now. I don't. I know we all hear, "You're gonna need this someday." But, ya know what: Ten years out, and I haven't needed to work with the periodic table yet. But, I have been sad when I think back on the time I could have been writing, reading, learning about the craft that I love, live, and work with everyday. It's sad to me that I spent so much time stressing and banging my head against my palm as I stared at my chemistry book, while trying to get Scarlet O'Hara and her world out of my head. And, I was no genius at all, and certainly no prodigy, so when I consider what that would be like, to be put in a world of required classes when all you want to do is work with an amazing gift and ability, something to share with the world, well that is just a tragedy. I think so anyway. Of course there are kids who enjoy learning about many different things and want and need to work with all subject matters equally. Not everyone only leans towards one or two particular areas, and that is great, pretty greater than great, actually. That is a gift in itself.  And not everyone knows what they want to do at a young age, and those kids should not be forced to choose before they are ready. What I'm saying here is:  Education shouldn't be one size fits all. I look at my three kids and am amazed at how different they are, and the idea that they could all be made to fit into the same course load and curriculum is pretty astounding to me. This thought makes me so thankful for those teachers out there, other moms, and members of the "village", who take an interest in children as individuals and help them to identify and work with their particular gifts. How cool are those people? I know I'll never forget certain teachers for encouraging me to step outside of the box and be heard. I cannot tell you how much I hope my children have that kind of encouragement, and it's gonna start with me. I'm pretty sure I will fail at many things in my life as a mother, but I sincerely hope that embracing the variety in my children and their educational needs will not be one of them. Matching socks and never getting annoyed at bedtime....yep, I'll fail at those every now and then for sure, but hopefully I won't fail in embracing the differences in my children.

Wow. This was not what I was planning to write about at all. I was planning to write about my five year old not liking math, and how we are encouraging her to learn math in fun ways. I was going to talk about how important it is for kids to learn everything, even the things they don't love, and there I ended up going the total other direction. So, let me say this, just to pull the two poles together here and make myself clear: It is important to me that my kids learn about all subject matters. Just because they may not love math, doesn't mean they don't have to work to understand it. Math is important. And if one of my children turns out to be a grammar hater, well, she is still going to need to learn how to write and speak intelligently and clearly. HOWEVER, one of our reasons to homeschool is to allow our kids to work with their natural abilities, gifts, and interests. Their education can be shaped around what they enjoy and do well. We can push them and challenge them toward greatness, I hope.

Um, yeah, so here's what I would have said before the rant took me over:

Our Kindergarten gal loves to cook. So, her math time has been all about cooking lately. Our girls especially love fun cooking tools, like these adorable tea cup measuring cups. We're still all about all things tea party around here. We're learning about measuring, addition, subtraction, and greater than and less than all through cooking. And this works much better for her than a worksheet. It works much better for me too, because once math time is over in the morning, we tend to end up with dinner cooking in the crockpot. Our three girls especially love when I let them "invent" their own meals. Last week, they made up something called "Favorite Dish". Each girl put in one favorite ingredient in the crockpot during a math lesson. We ended up with butternut squash, apples, and country ham.

We threw in some honey, cinnamon, and butter, and let me say, considering the kids picked out the ingredients, it could have been a lot worse. Math tasted pretty good that night.






Whew. My fingers are tired. Thank you for making it to the bottom of this page. Really. :)

We're gonna need a bigger table, more patience, an extra jar of peanut butter, more games, an upgrade on our ability to laugh at life, several more puzzles, and a peppermint mocha every now and then, for starters.

Okay, so I started this little blog to share all about our neat little year of homeschooling our eldest, our kindergarten gal, our first little student, the one to ease us into the whole homeschool journey. But here we are, doing what we do. We're adapting, we're growing, and we are trying our hardest to go with the flow of doing what works for our family. Long story short: our youngest two are now homeschooling with us. That's right. Here we are a-homeschooling two preschool gals and a kindergarten gal. We've got us our own little academy.

So here's what I know so far about teaching more than one kid and on more than one learning/grade level: it's a lot of work. Man, it takes time, and it takes focus and patience, love and creativity. It takes ideas and organization....and.....AND it takes letting something else go sometimes. Last week it was my schedule, and this week, well, so far it looks like it's the laundry's turn to take some time off.

But, I'm glad to report that we are learning. Our kindergarten student is learning about the War of 1812 (her choice, not mine), and she's learning that just because she knows how to write doesn't mean she can now chicken scratch her way through her writing lessons. (Yes, I just said chicken scratch....just like a real life teacher....). Our pre-k student is learning that it is okay if everything is not perfect. She's learning, or beginning to learn that mistakes don't always have to go into the trash can or go flying through the air on a balled up wad of paper; they can be corrected, fixed, or sometimes adapted into something way cooler than what she began with. And our teeny preschooler is practicing taking turns (not her favorite), improving her sign language skills, and learning sounds made by each letter in the alphabet.

Usually the kids have their individual school time, but sometimes we all learn around the table together, and some of those times, we even find a way to do this without chaos. And those times are pretty great.

Everyday's a Field Trip (or can be)

When people ask me why we homeschool, I have a super hard time trying to respond. Because for us, there are so many reasons that I guess the only good answer is: I can't think of a reason not to. No, no that's not the best answer. The best answer really is: It works for our family, and we are confident, confident as can be, that it will work out amazingly for our kids' futures. But this is never a clear enough response for the curious, and I totally get that. It is vague, and it is not really all that helpful in helping others to understand one of the good reasons for instructing kids outside of our society's school systems. So here's one of my very favorite reasons for homeschooling: We can take this show on the road whenever we want. When I look back on my childhood and on my education, I can say with confidence that I learned more about history on family trips to Williamsburg and to Mayan ruins, and even to a wonderful little local museum than I ever learned in a classroom. Of course, it helped that my mother loved to get her children involved in hands on activities while learning, and my dad is an excellent teacher and a closet history geek, but it also helped to see history. Our family trips to a hands on museum helped this self-proclaimed science novice to get excited about the oft times cold and yucky subject matter. A classroom is not always the best way to learn, and it is pretty cool to not have the obligation to put my kids in one five days a week. Of course, most days my kiddos are in our little schoolroom, but ya know, just having the option to pile into the car or put on our boots and go for a nature hike any ol' time we want is pretty inspiring in itself.

So we've been on a trip. Our second big trip of this school year, and we've found a pretty even balance between well-laid plans giving way to chaos and well-laid plans falling into place in a neat little package. I can tell you that our biggest challenge of doing school on the road is not exactly completing kindergarten lessons, but it is entertaining the two little sisters and finding them ways to grow and learn while worksheets are completed and reading lessons are worked through. I want this trip to be enriching for all of the kids. I want them all to learn. 

So we have been very creative, and very, very messy at times. I have had to learn to let it go when toys and craft supplies are strewn across the hotel bed. Playtime and art time is good for the littles, and that is much more important than me keeping our space clean and organized at all times.

For this trip, my goal was to keep a good even mix of desk work and learning from the environment. We went on nature walks and learned about the local trees, flowers, and wildlife. And because these were all things my kids were not used to seeing back at home, there were so many questions. Some of which I knew the answers to, and others we had to jot down for research later. Out of all of our activities on this trip, I think our nature walks taught the kids the most. At the end of the day, we try to make a habit of discussing what was learned that day. I love this time, when it happens, because it tells me, in their own words, what my children took in that day, what they really took in, not just what I think I taught them. And this week, they feel they are experts on St. Augustine grass and cows. Random, but pretty fun.

Comfort and Joy

We are all about comfort and joy around here, especially during the Christmas season. And that means everything from preparing whatever we want for Christmas Eve dinner, no matter how nontraditional, to letting the only man in our house wear his worn out, out of date, and too short sweat pants when friends come over, without so much as a whining complaint from the mommy of the house. The man loves those darn, comfy sweatpants, and Christmas ain't about clothes, no matter how much I enjoy them. I just can't get into the whole hustle and bustle of a stressed out, over-booked Christmas season. I am celebrating the birth of Christ, for goodness sake, and for me, I can do that much better without deadlines, maxed out credit cards, and exhausted and over-stimulated kids. Now that does not mean we are a bunch of couch potatoes during this season, and it certainly doesn't mean we are perfectly chill at all moments, never giving into stress and material temptation. We just try to stay focused on what really and truly matters, or rather, on what really and truly should matter to us. And this holiday season has been pretty joyous and super comfy. Even when we are learning about insects in our kindergarten class and wondering why our live ants haven't yet arrived, we are doing our best to cherish the moments.

And cherishing the moments during Christmas time usually comes with all sorts of school time festivities. I gotta be honest here and say this is one weakness of mine, remembering to incorporate seasonal celebrations and projects into our curriculum. I have to keep remembering that our curriculum was created to begin any time of year, which means it does not follow seasons, holidays, and all those fun childhood school time festivities found in public and private school settings.......so, it's up to the mamas to plan and follow through with the fun. Here's a little of what my kindergarten gal did to celebrate this holiday season (of course her little sisters also enjoyed the fun of some of these activities):

My daughter completed five days of sharing during her final week before school ended for Christmas break. She came up with one thing to give, share, or do for someone every day. Her sharing activities included donating some of her dolls and stuffed animals to a local charity and making sweet treats as a surprise for daddy. One of her strengths is gift giving and surprising, so she loved this week of sharing.

I also wanted her to have some kind of festive play date or event, something to give her the same kind of fun experience she would have in a classroom setting Christmas party if she attended a large school, so.....we had some friends over to decorate cookies.

Fun, sweet, sugary, and not even messy....not messy because we used snowflake, angel, snowman, and dove cookie cutters, which all make for cookies that can be decorated with all white icing and white sparkled sugar. We aren't afraid of messes around here, but it is nice to find a fun way to avoid food coloring when possible. We ordered pizza, the kids all decorated a plate of cookies, and then we finished off with a viewing of the classic Rudolph movie. Our kids had more wheat flour and sugar than they usually have in a week or maybe even a month, but hey, they had fun and they understand it was a special treat. I think it's so important that kids learn to appreciate special occasions and treats for what they are: special, once in a while gifts or indulgences, things to be thankful for and excited about because you don't see them all day and every day.

And then there is the Christmas and winter decorating. This year I realized that when we are decorating our home, we are also decorating our learning environment, so we made sure to make use of calendars, count down to Christmas displays, and seasonal manipulatives. Our favorite Christmas time addition to our house was a basket in our living room which holds our Christmas and winter storybooks, movies, and music. This helped to decorate our house for the season in a small way, while also reminding us to stop throughout our day and share a book or short movie with each other while the season matched up with the stories.

Add some of our favorite homemade spiced tea into the mix, and we had a pretty great season filled up with bunches of comfort and joy. Happy Birthday, Jesus!