Using it!

Teaching my oldest (6 years old) to read has been more fun than I could have imagined. Once he has learned to be an independent reader, he can go and learn and do anything he wants. It's like seeing him unwrap a present (very slowly!). Today, he put what he has learned into practice and did a scavenger hunt for me. I love this boy! 

1. Mom, go to the backyard.

2. Mom, go upstairs

3. Mom, to to Aaron's Room

4. A pillow for me to rest!

Life with Boys

From the excitement over a frog, to the many expressions, 

to the failed potty training attempt, 

this pretty much sums up our life with boys! 

I've really enjoyed hearing and sharing stories with other moms of boys at 

The MOB (Mothers of Boys) Society! 

This is how WE do it

The emphasis is on "we" because the beauty of homeschooling is that you can do it however if works for your children and your family. From the Fall of 1983 when little Katey walked into Kindergarten at Franklin Elementary School in central Illinois until the Spring of 2006 when me and my pregnant belly walked out of the music classroom in Kewanee, Illinois that I had taught in for six years, I had been on a schedule...a tight one. Thankfully, I enjoyed most of my time in school. When I decided to homeschool and set up a classroom, I naturally went towards the traditional look to which I was so accustomed. Some homeschoolers like to just pull out some books on the kitchen table. I find some comfort and security in having a special place in which so teach my children. We'll often plop on the couch to read books, take lots of field trips out and about, but a lot of the "book learnin'" happens in this room. It was meant as the formal dining room for the house, but we are far from formal people! So, it has made the perfect playroom in the past and now a school room.

This is the school room in it's "before" state. Imagine every toy, and most of the books on the floor and the chairs huddled together with a blanket over them making a "cave" and that's what it looks like once the students arrive for the day. What makes this work for us is the Aaron's workbooks book are within his reach on the shelves. I write the day's school goals on the board (most days) and our job is to have them all erased  by the time daddy gets home from work.

 

If we were ever able to do those goals on the board straight through, it would take about an hour and a half. But, we have to deal with some slight disruptions (pictured above). We take breaks when we need to and I try to go with the flow of the day. Sometimes we don't make it to everything on the board and that's okay. I've learned to try and make realistic goals for our school day. Thankfully Aaron is a very motivated learner. Often, he'll take it upon himself to go further in the book than was planned, which gives me a littler more ease when he says "I don't feel like doing this now...". When I get that response, sometimes I push him to finish the page, but most times I say "Okay, we'll look at it again later." 

We've chosen Horizons for our Math and Reading/Phonics curriculum. I think it's thorough and fits well into our day. I keep these within his reach so he can go and grab them when we have some time for our schoolwork. To help round out school we participate in a science club that we have once a month and I teach a weekly music class with Aaron and other kids his age. We have bible verse memory goals and a journal to write in occasionally. And, we try to fit some art in there somewhere, not our strong area right now! 

But, my favorite thing to do by far is to read with him. I'm enjoying reading great literature as much as he is. Sometimes he'll snuggle up with me, which is great. But, more often these days he wants to keep moving (he's a boy!). He'll go do a puzzle, build another "cave" or even do his math workbook while I'm reading. At first, I was a little unsure of how he could listen to the story and be doing so many other things at the same time. But, I'll stop every now and then and ask him comprehension questions, and sure enough, he's (usually) listening right along with the story. 

Right now we're reading old, worn copies of "The Little House on the Praire" series. These books were read to me by my mom when I was little. It's a special thing to use the same books to read to my boys now! 

But, there's always room for new books. I got this rendition of "The Wizard of Oz" at Kohl's for $5 (part of their Kohl's Cares books). The  imaginative writing and captivating illustrations had us putting aside the goals for the day to sit and read this all in one day. Even the little brothers plopped down for a while to take a look at this one! 

This is how it's working for us now. A year from now I'm sure it will look completely different. Even with all it's many twists and turns, I'm loving homeschooling!

Real Food, Real Good, Spring Rolls

Real Food, Real Good, Spring Rolls

This post has nothing to do with homechooling, on the surface anyway. But, the more I get into homeschooling, the more I see how everything in the home weaves itself into schooling...dinner prep included!

A few months ago my husband and I changed our eating from what we thought was fairly healthy, to real food eating...garden to table kind of eating. First we watched Forks over Knives (on Netflix) and found quite a few other documentaries on the subject. Then, we found 100daysofrealfood.com, which challenged us to take a serious look at what we put on our table and into our bodies. Each week we would change a little more and more until now we have only have a few items (spaghetti noodles, rice cereal, tomato paste, olives, ketchup) that we buy and are in packages or cans. Some people think this kind of eating is crazy, you may think we're crazy, we probably would have called us crazy a year ago. But, crazy is as crazy does, I guess! I've lost 53 lbs. and counting and we both feel much better eating a plant-based, real food diet. Each week we make a batch of black bean tortillas from whole wheat organic flour and black bean puree using this tortilla press. We've replaced bread with these tortillas. The kids have peanut butter tortillas for lunch most...okay every single day. We use them for quesadillas, cut them into wedges and bake for tortillas chips and we recently came across these baking tins to make taco salad bowls. 

A few weeks ago I was in the mood for spring rolls. We eat rice, beans and sauteed veggies a lot around there. It's a quick and easy real food meal, but it needed some pazazz. In the past I would get a box of frozen spring rolls. I haven't yet gone to the store to see the ingredient list on those, but I can only assume it's long and hard to pronounce. So, I just took the tortillas we already made, rolled up a filling, and baked them. They came out great! The entire family (except my 5 year old who has a short list of foods he likes) loved them. They make great leftovers and freeze well. 

Make tortillas

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup canola oil 

1 cup cooked black beans

2 cups warm water

1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix together the flour, salt, and oil. Blend the beans and water in a blender and add to the flour and oil mixture. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Preheat tortilla press. The dough will be fairly wet and "goopy" in order to make thin and pliable wraps. Using a spoon, scoop the mixture and press. This amount of dough should make about 20 wraps. Or, just use store bought tortillas or roll wraps!

Filling

1/4 head cabbage

2 cups kale

1/2 cup mustard greens

1 cup of baby carrots

1 cup or celery

1/4 of red wine vinegar to taste

1/4 tsp ground mustard (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand, but I think the cabbage is a good base. Mince vegetables in a food processor and place in a large mixing bowl. Add vinegar, salt, pepper and dried mustard and mix. Cover and place mixture in fridge for 30-60 minutes. 

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Place a spoonful of mixture onto each wrap, fold the sides in and roll over. Place the roll on a baking sheet. Bake 30-40 minutes or until rolls are crispy. Serve with whole grain brown rice, sauteed zucchini, and lentil sprouts (use lentils in a sprouter like this one.)  

Chapter Book Challenge

I'm taking up the challenge from The Homeschool Experiment blog  and making a plan for reading chapter books to Aaron (almost 6) this school year. I started reading chapter books to him when he was 4 and I love snuggling up on the couch and reading to him. I look forward to when the younger ones can join in on long chapter books. As part of our homeschool curriculum we chose the Sonlight Core Curriculum, which is a great bunch of read-alouds (including bible, history, poems and chapter books) with a plan and a reading/writing curriculum. It makes the overwhelming choice of what great books to read to your children simple. You can purchase the entire curriculum with books, or take a look at their book list and find them at your library or order on amazon.

September: Little House in the Big Woods (purchased a Unity Study for $2 from here)
October: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
November: The House at Pooh Corner
December: A Grain of Rice
January: Gooney Bird Greene
February: Detectives in Togas
March: Henry Huggins
April: Owls in the Family
May: The Case of the Gasping Garbage
June: Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

Other Chapter Books we've enjoyed:
Charlotte's Web
Stuart Little
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Dolphin Treasure
My Father's Dragon
The Hundred Dresses
Twenty and Ten
The Boxcar Children
In Grandma's Attic
Mary on Horseback

Learning throughout our day...

"These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." (Deut. 6:6-7 NIV)

I read this verse in a devotional this morning and it reminded me of how we are "doing school". The biggest lessons (spiritual and educational) are learned in little conversations throughout our day.

First Day of Kindergarten

We had a great official kick-off to homeschooling. We spent the morning at the Austin Zoo. Here are a few "highlight reels" of our day.  

Our four little bears. 

Still felt the need to be "schooly" with a scavenger hunt. We quickly gave it up and just looked at the animals! 

Yes, we did see some actual animals at the zoo, just got better pictures of pretend ones. 

Happy Schooling! 

A square peg in a round hole

The first lesson we learned when I eased our family into homeschooling earlier this year is that square pegs don't fit into round holes. But, the lesson wasn't for the kids, it was for me. I tried to fit my four little square peg boys into a regimented, traditional classroom round hole. Rookie mistake. And although I had been warned of this rookie mistake, I have a bad habit of trying mistakes on for size.

Here's a typical homeschooling lesson plan when I first started:
1. 9:00 am: Put baby down for a nap. Sing "This is the Day that the Lord has Made! Let us Rejoice and be glad in it!". Mom, I don't want to sing today! Aaron, sing the song, keep a steady beat on your lap. Rejoice....BE GLAD!
2. Calendar time: Turn around the number for today and discuss the month, day and year. Boys, don't touch the calendar, Aaron has to learn what month it is! Wait, the baby's up from nap already!? Okay, I'll wait a minute, maybe he'll go back to sleep. 
3. Reading Workbook: Complete Lesson 2. Why is it four pages long? Okay, it's four pages long, we have to do four pages because that's how long the lesson is. Aaron, sound out "b-e-d". Why is he flopping on the floor!? Oh Lord, my son will never read. I heard a 3 year old reading the other day, why can't my 5 year old read one word?!? Oh yeah, the baby...
4. Math: Lesson 5. Okay, I can nurse a baby and keep Aaron on track in his math book and keep the twins from pummeling each other. Boys, share! I'm huuuungryyyyyy!!! Don't bite your brother. What's that smell? ...........Okay, school's done......When does Kindergarten enrollment begin!?!?!?!? 

Shhhhhh....

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10

It still took me a good month to finally take God's chill pill and realize that I could just do school with Aaron during the littler kids' nap time in the afternoon, or in the evening, or the weekends. And, that any success we experience is because of Him and failures are not that big of a deal. Since then things have gone much smoother and our days go a little something like this: 

Mom, can I do my reading workbook? Sure. Can we do a puzzle? Sure. Will you play balloon volleyball with me? In a few minutes, I'm coloring with your brothers right now and then I have to change the baby's diaper, and switch out the laundry, and clean up the kitchen. Aaron, you need to do your math before lunch. Okay. Hey boys, let's walk down to the park and collect rocks and bugs and sticks and things along the way. Yeah! The speed limit is 55, but I'm going 45, how much faster can I go and not get a ticket? Mom, can I say my memory verse? Do it! 

You get the idea. And, no, not all the tantrums and "what is happening!?" moments have gone away and I am "guiltily" thankful for Netflix and that they will sit and watch a show whenever things get too crazy. But, I feel like I can handle the craziness because the big picture is more eternal. My boys are learning to be respectful, obedient, to encourage each other, to take it slow, to learn and grow as you go throughout each day. I'm learning to be respectful, obedient, to encourage them, to take it slow, to learn and grow, and depend on God to see us through each day. Patience...ahhh...patience. I want to teach them patience more than anything! My boys will receive a well rounded education (I know, I'll need of help when it comes to teaching grammar!), but I'll strive to set the bar on something more eternal.

Behind the Scenes Homeschooler

“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes selves with everyone else’s highlight reels." Steven Furtick

We've got a little boy turning six in two months and about a year ago we decided that we were going to homeschool. Why? is usually the next question. The short answer is because that's the direction that God has lead us. Many families find success in public and private schools because that is the direction that God has lead them. Most of my friends we met when our kiddos were just two years old are happily gathering school supplies and excitedly waiting for that first bell to ring. I'm happy and excited for them! I'm sure their children will thrive because they have parents that pray over them and love them and God is with them, too. It's just not the direction we've chosen. 

A lot of people who ask me about homeschooling like the idea and would consider it, but don't feel like they can based on their "highlight reel" perception of homeschooling. My Pinterest homeschooling board is filled with cute, fun ideas to teach concepts...I've done very few of them. Maybe the people I talk to think they have to have the patience of a saint, the craftiness of Martha Stewart and the knowledge of...someone really knowledgeable. I've learned that homeschoolers don't need any of those things. Just a love for their children, the desire to do it and a supportive family and friends really helps.  I hope this blog can serve as a record of our family's journey and also a behind-the-scenes, real-life view to others considering or just plain curious about homeschooling. 

The long answer to our decision began three years ago when I had never even considered homeschooling. I had heard of homeschooling. I had met a few families that home schooled and their children were awesome. But, I had never considered it for our family. Then, two years ago I started getting nervous seeing pictures of people putting their kids on school buses and thinking of sending my kids to school one day. I didn't understand why I was getting nervous...wasn't this the plan? I put my teaching career on hold when our first son was born to stay at home with our children. I never regretted that decision. We'd send our kids to Kindergarten and when we had sent the last one off then I'd be able to restart my teaching career. But, once again in our lives, our plan apparently wasn't lining up with God's plan. Once again, God was bugging me about something that I wished would just go away. And, once again, I knew that God's plan was always better, even when it seemed impossible. 

I loved teaching. I taught a classrooms of 25+ kids music for six years, but the idea of teaching my own children at home was terrifying. I spent the next six months struggling with the question to homeschool, public school or private school our children, all the while my husband is blissfully unaware that this thing called homeschooling even existed. I didn't want to tell him it existed. Then it would be out in the open...where discussions happen and the possibility of us actually homeschooling might take root. 

After it became obvious God wasn't going to stop bugging me about this, I told my husband that I had been struggling with this question. "Honey, there's this thing called homeschooling, you teach your own kids...at home. I have no idea how it works or why I'm even talking about this, but thought you should know...it's out there." It's out there alright. We started reading books about homeschooling and the discussions came and the possibility indeed took root. I talked with some Christian moms who had sent their children to public school and another Christian mom who was homeschooling. I wanted to hear about both sides of the fence in hopes that our decision would become clear. Honestly, I was rooting for public school. But, of course, our final decision was to homeschool. 


Our first son, Aaron, turned five in October of last year. Although school usually starts in the Fall, we decided to start Kindergarten in January. Part of the decision was because he and I were ready for it. But, honestly, the behind-the-scenes truth was that if this homeschooling thing was a total failure, I could still send him to public school in the Fall. However, in the past few months we've found a lot of freedom and flexibility in homeschooling. Thankfully we still have that freedom in  this country. Other countries are not so lucky, but more about that in another post. We look forward to building our children's education on a solid foundation of Jesus Christ. Also, selfishly, I am excited to spend this time with my boys (I've got three younger ones) and see each light bulb of learning come to light. It's as exciting to me as seeing them take their first steps. 

And, a bonus to starting early is that Aaron is so far blissfully unaware that his best friend who lives across the street and the vast majority of his other friends are getting to go to the "big school". I haven't talked about it. I also haven't not talked to him about it, it's just something that hasn't really come up.  So far, when people ask him when he's starting school, he just says he has school at home. It's completely normal to him and I don't want him to find out that we aren't as normal as he thinks we are...not yet.  Another behind-the-scenes truth...we've got a fun family field trip to the zoo planned for the first day of public school in case word gets out that he's not going. 

So, although we've been homeschooling for a while now, it feels like this has just been the warm-up lap.  When Monday comes and goes and he doesn't come and go from the big building down the street, it will become more real. And, although homeschooling has been a blessing to our family and it's working really well, the uncertainty of this decision creeps up on me every now and then. But, we live by faith and rest in His blessed assurance. 

Up next...how school looks for us.