Don’t you just love Pinterest? Part of my recent blogging absence probably has a little bit to do with my obsession with that site. It does, however, making pulling together resources a SNAP!
On Monday we begin a 3 month journey into Ancient Rome. Here are the resources I plan to use, at a glance. Just click on the image to go directly to my Ancient Rome Resource board. :-)
Home education has been an unimaginable blessing to my family. I love everything about it! It has truly changed my life and given me a community of wonderful, caring, like-minded people (in real life and online) to journey with. But if I had to count my blessings literally, I would say that the following things are the 10 gifts that home education has given us.
1. Time – Before we started home educating, time was my enemy. My life was a daily frenzy and I felt every day was in bondage to the school system. Your mileage may vary, but I felt like I literally had NO time. It was a rush early in the morning to get everyone up, fed, dressed, and out the door. Dropping one child at the local elementary school and then another at preschool. Back home with the baby for 2 hours and then back to pick up the preschooler. Home for about 2.5 hours, then time to walk up to the school for my elementary child. Then it was homework, dinner, baths, bed….repeat. To say that homeschooling has given our family the gift of time is an understatement. We have more natural rhythms for sleeping, waking, learning, and playing.
2. Family-Centered Living – Family time was a precious commodity before home educating…all time was! We could only sneak in 30-60 minutes a day of family time during the week if we were lucky, and then what we could get on weekends (in between other obligations, chores, and time at church). Now we are done with the formal part of our day by the early afternoon (and we have casual mornings as well), so we can spend the rest of the day enjoying time together. Meals are not rushed, we have plenty of time to play games, and watch shows as a family. We have all drawn closer and it’s a blessing without measure.
3. Knowing Your Kids – Don’t get me wrong, I have always known my kids, but now I *really* know my kids. I am intimately aware of their moods, interests, abilities, and difficulties. That’s not to say that other parents are not, or that it’s not possible to know your kids that well in a traditional setting, I can only speak to my experience. Home educating naturally provided more opportunities for me to know *my* kids better.
4. Differentiated Instruction – Because I know my kids so well, I can now offer them differentiated instruction. This is the new buzz word floating around the public school scene, but homeschool parents have known all along that kids learn in different ways. We all do. I know what works for my son will not work for one of my daughters. I can still follow a philosophy of education, but tailor it to meet the needs of each child. It’s very gratifying to know that I can perfectly tailor the education of my children, not only according to interest, but by ability/disability and process.
5. Individuality - By tailoring an education for each child, I allow them the freedom to be completely unique and individual. They can pursue their passions and literally become who they want to become. I am already seeing diverging paths and interests in my kids, and I can give them the gift of being who they were created to be.
6. Creativity – Creativity is valued in our home. We seek out creative ways to learn, express what we have learned, and how to spend our time. We use all kinds of things – building with Legos, acting, exploring nature, and art – in our daily educational pursuits. I encourage my kids to think of creative solutions to problems. I encourage them to create, period, and we have the time and ability to do so.
7. Leisure – Contrary to popular belief, I am not a slave to my children’s education. I do spend a lot of time planning and a lot of time teaching…that’s true. But honestly, the daily teaching is only a little more time than I used to spend doing homework after school. If I was already re-teaching everything my kids had learned that day, why not just do the teaching to begin with? Also, I am in such a great community, I have people who are willing to watch my kids and give me a break, and I do the same for them. I have MNO opportunities galore, book clubs, and downtime at home. I am definitely blessed! My kids have down time as well. They have the gift of time, remember? We all have more time to spend doing things we enjoy.
8. Peace – Leisure time brings peace. Life in America runs at a furious pace, and we have opted out. Yes, I am busy with learning and extra-curricular activities, but the pace never feels like it did before. My entire life is graced with more peace, especially peace of mind. I know who my kids are with at all times, I know what they are learning, I know they are deeply connected to their family core. Beautiful!
9. Choice – Choosing how to educate your children is a gift, no matter what you choose. We should all be fighting together for educational choice. Home educating is just one option among many and parents need to be educated about all of their options. I am a big fan of vouchers, and charter & magnet schools. Options are always a blessing. Being able to opt out of the system…my favorite choice of all!
10. Purpose – I don’t know about all home educating parents, but this choice also gave me purpose. I feel empowered by my choice to teach my children. I feel that in choosing this path, I literally stumbled onto my destiny. I always wanted to teach, but felt discouraged as I grew older at the obstacles teachers face in the school system. I knew I would feel cheated of the opportunity to really teach. Educating my own kids has opened my heart and my mind. It’s like re-educating myself, while receiving the gift of seeing my kids “get it” day after day after day. What more could I ask for?
Yesterday was the official start of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). We are participating again this year. Well, three of us are, anyway; Zoey opted out this year. However, since my kids were scattered all over town yesterday and things were hectic, we got our formal start this morning. We went over the five elements of a good short story or novel, and they began developing their stories. I am so proud! :-)
It’s not too late to sign up and join the fun. The Young Writer’s Program is perfect for younger students and this is a wonderful homeschool project. Heck, it’s a wonderful project for anyone. I am determined to finish my novel this year. I will post weekly updates on Saturdays with our word count progress. Cole set a goal of 10,000 words, Sydni chose 5,000, and I have to complete 50,000. EEK! Wish us luck.
I read a LOT of books when I was beginning the journey of home education. I found myself with a child who would not be going back to school after his first grade year, and two little girls who were preschool (and younger). EEK! I had some freakout moments. And then I read, and read, and read some more. Some of the books were really helpful and some were not. Here is a list of the books that (IMO) offer the best advice and ways to devise a plan. In no particular order…
1. How Children Learn by John Holt. I could read just about anything by John Holt and find it helpful and informative. I just happen to think this is the best of his books.
2. Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp. This is an essential guide. It can literally help you devise a plan for your child’s education and it offers some sage advice along the way. However, home learning needs to be tailored to what works for *your* family, so as you read any book, realize that adaptations and changes are part of the process.
3. What Your _________ Grader Needs to Know (Core Knowledge Series). These books are excellent resources! If you are concerned about benchmarks and what a typical course of study may be at any grade level, they’re awesome! They tell you what your child *should* know (according to whatever standard, take it with a grain of salt). If you feel like you want to “stay on track” then these are the books for you!
4. How to Get Your Child Off the Refrigerator and On to Learning by Carol Barnier. Hands down, this is one of the most helpful books I have read….ever! It is loaded with useful tips and actual methods to help you teach a child who may have a hard time sitting still or dealing with a traditional class setting. It’s bloody brilliant. Not only that, but she allows you to copy and print some of her best ideas from the back (for personal use only). Love, love, love!
5. Games for ___________ by Peggy Kaye. She has several of these books and I actually recommend reading the individual books (Reading, Writing, & Math) over this general learning book which takes snippets from each of those. You can read about homeschooling all day long, but what you really need are fun and creative ways to approach the idea of learning. These books offer that.
6. A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola. Whether you plan to use the CM method or not, this was the book that lit my heart on fire. There are some stodgy chapters – some religious, some just, well, stodgy. Those are mostly in the beginning and you can skip them. The rest of the book is just a beautiful, peaceful treat. It was this book that made me realize how relaxed and lovely our days could be. It helped me realize that quality in education is not the same as quantity. It inspired me and it set me off on the right path. If you take nothing else from this book, take the peace with you into your homeschooling days. As an added bonus, there are some excellent games (old fashioned fun!) for rainy/icky weather days when kidlets are getting restless. My family especially enjoys “Cat Tiggy.”
I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t work out last week AT ALL. I got extremely busy and I was a little tired. One day led into another and before I knew it, a whole week was GONE. I did watch my calories, but I am up a pound anyway. However, I am retaining water (if you know what I mean), so I might actually be down a pound of two that I am unaware of yet. I’ll keep you posted.
I did hike for over two hours today to kick off a new week and get back into my groove.
The dirty details:
Week 1 Weight: 215.6
Week 2 Weight: 214.2
Week 3 Weight: 212.2
Week 4 Weight: 209.6
Week 5 Weight: 211
Gain of 1.4 since last week, but down 4.6 overall.
I do feel stronger and leaner, so I am interested in seeing if there is a difference in measurements when I reach a month since I took the first ones. I did have two sodas this week as well. I caved. I think it’s PMS just getting to me, coupled with some stressful life stuff. Bleh.
That’s all for now folks….more next week.
