Memoria Arts~ Life in the Making

Smack in the middle...

Pardon me while I wipe the salt play dough off my hands.

Sit down, grab a cup of lukewarm coffee. It was hot, I promise.

Ann sent me looking for beauty yesterday. I'd show you what I found, but my camera is having a "moment". Honestly, I'm not sure I'd have had the time to press shutter and catch it.

My head quakes with pressure- this ache has been playing around my temples for days- and the noise! Oh, the noise! It burns around the edges and sets me so close to fuse, explosion waiting on tip of tongue.

Chaos.

That's pretty much it. Nutshell, crisp and clean.

Daylight Savings Time has played mischief with sleep, children rising grumpier, and I know a week will pass until it calms down again. We've been at the learning, pushing, counting, wondering at facts, and while I enjoy that, the questions, endless round, come five o clock and dinner pushing on, tear at the fabric of my sanity.

I'm smack in the middle of everyday life.

I pause, hard stop, and shift.

Email clanging gives reminder that I am privileged to pray for others, with praise, with concern, with care.

The laundry is full to brim because of a little girl who hasn't quite managed the whole process yet, but oh how close she is! How she tries! And how proud I am of her...

(but if the boys could kindly keep their socks some vestige of white, the muddied washer and I would thank them. And don't get me started on their bathroom...)

And all the salt dough crumbles scattered across the floor mean we had a wondrous adventure across Mercury's skies...

I'm smack in the middle of everyday life.

Outside, storms threaten. Elections, votes, causes, concerns, illnesses, economies, lost jobs. How I know the face and color of the recession storm so well- have I not lived it these last fourteen months? The squalls, they crash and buffet.

I took the kids to find some beauty yesterday afternoon...to scramble over the hills and dales of an Appalachian fall in full bloom. I don't remember much of it. I wanted to snap pictures, gather a bit of scarlet and gold, find a snatch of beautiful. But Josiah, dear heart, had gone all day without napping, fussy as could be. David had somehow managed to remove both shoes and sweatshirt before sneaking into car, and barefoot and bare headed, came bounding out of car at the park. A return home for needed articles, and back to the park. The bigs were in a veritable grump. Nothing pleased, nothing soothed. Wild things, indeed, tromping angrily through the forest.

A sigh bubbled up.

Over in the corner, my husband was showing the children this wizened old tree, where some of the roots were showing. The detritus of autumn was all about, red, gold, green, brown, thick and fragrant. I paused to listen as he said told children how the roots went as twice as deep and wide as the tree above the earthen floor- I could see the truth of it in the gnarled roots we could see, maybe a quarter of the trees root system? It was a scattered conversation, and then the kids went crying and wilding again. We didn't stay long.

But for some reason, that tree has stuck with me all day to day. That tree, smack in the middle of the hill, the chunk of earth worn away from a side, but still standing tall and straight as the day is long. Holding against the storms that washed that chunk away.

Do I have that kind of root system?

That's why we search after beauty. That's why we count His days. So that we can dig deep and stand tall. Smack in the middle of our chaotic days, right where God wants us to be.

With salt dough mess on our hands and lukewarm coffee.

Blessings to you, dear friends, smack in the middle of life. May the Lord strengthen and keep you!

The playroom/learning room redo...

I've been talking about it all summer, and now it's finally done!

Our learning room/playroom is in our half-finished basement, which is both cinderblock and drywall. We haven't been able to drywall the whole thing yet, so we've just been using it in its present state. One side is my husband's office and my space for making an artsy mess, and the other side we turned into a playroom about two years ago. As the kids have gotten older, the needs for the space have changed. Clearly, if this space could be turned into bedrooms, we would have done so- but the only windows downstairs are not 'egress'-able (too high off the ground and too small to slip through) so we would be horribly against fire code if we did so. It's a toss up.

For the longest time all of the toys were kept in this space, with the bedrooms being left only for sleeping and reading. That has changed over this summer. It is now more a half-and-half situation. The boys now keep their Legos, Lincoln Logs, building blocks, and cars in their room (it is a shared space- Ben and Isaiah share a bunk bed and David sleeps in a toddler bed). We've found this to be working well, since the older boys (or bigs, as we call them) can often build elaborate cities and towns without having to worry about David the Destruction Crew knocking them down- they can just shut the door while David plays in the living room with his own collection of cars. Sibling fusses have gone way down! Most of Lorelei's toys are in her room now, with the exception of her cooking things and dress up clothes, which all the kids enjoy. The criteria for what stayed in the playroom/learning room: It had to be store-able within what we had (off the floor) and two, it had to be able to be played with by the highest average of children. So, Lorelei's dollies moved to her room, but her cooking stuff stayed because the kids like to play restaurant together. Make sense? All of the toddler/baby toys stayed downstairs, because that is where they are most needed. 

The biggest goal for this redo was to get our learning materials accessible without being, well, accessible. Part of the reason the art supplies have been packed away up high (and hence, entirely unused) is due to the seriously high toddler to mommy ratio and nightmares that David the Destruction Crew might find the paint in an unsupervised moment. This has truly been a struggle for me as I want to create a lifestyle of learning and exploration, but I also have the very practical aspects of lots of little hands that need a lot of supervision. I also wanted to transition the playroom into a much more dedicated space for learning.

Here's the tour.

This is what was in the room before:

(looking away from the door)

(looking at the door)

Looking this direction (at the door) there is a 3 foot tall cubby bookcase directly to your right. It used to have cloth/canvas containers with toys in them. It is now our learning bookcase, and all of the curriculum we will use this year is located there, plus art supplies, nature journals, pattern blocks and other things, plus a dedicated cubby for the littles (as we call them) with Lauri foam and other Montessori-type activities just for them. My eldest Ben, is a definitely a visual learner, so I've labeled everything for him.

 

Here is what it looks like afterward:

 

Here's a few close ups of the learning shelf:

 

 

On the storage:

I found these lockable containers at W-mart. (I just realized they are all un-locked in this picture! heee) I liked these the best because none of the littles have the dexterity to open them but the bigs can open them just fine. I've already noticed their 'create'-ing going up because they have easy access. I also like being able to see it all and tell at a glance which box is 'out' at the moment. (One has paints, another playdough, and so on.)

On the school desks:

There is heavy debate about these old friends in home-school blog-land. "No need to re-create school at home!" etc. I tend to agree with that sentiment. However, they do have their merits. Ours were all collected for free or pennies on the dollar. In terms of actual learning being done in them, we spend a lot more time at the table than anywhere else. I have found them useful in one-on-one work, especially with Isaiah, because the 'boxed in' feeling helps him to focus and I can sit directly across from him and sort of 'block-out' the rest of the world as we work together on something individually. In a house where there is precious little personal space for the kids, their desks are their one possession that they can 'claim'. There are all sort of personal treasures stuffed in the cubbies below, and I leave them alone. (Although, sometimes I sneak a peek- I enjoyed finding a very, very elaborate map that Ben had drawn across pages and pages in his sketchbook. Lorelei's mostly has baby clothes and princess stickers. I have to check Isaiah's often, since his favorite possessions often revolve around dirt and things from the garden!) 

Bits and pieces:

My mom found the calendar at a teacher supply store last week, much to the delight of Ben our weatherman. He has been very diligent about switching the numbers and things around to the proper day, and particularly delights in putting up the weather cards each day! It's very sturdy- made out of nylon with super strong Velcro in the pockets, and the plastic pockets are double stitched. The alphabet cards are from K&Company (a scrap booking company). The cloth cubbies and cubby system you can find at Target. (It's technically closet storage, I think.) The rest of the furniture you see is probably from IKEA, with the exception of the tall bookcase, which was built by hand by an old family friend. The table is a folding table that raises to three different heights, which I've only ever seen at Sam's Club. 

For honesty's sake, here's what the room looks like right now- I'm glad to see it in use. Ben has been building a very elaborate weather station today all across the table with pipe-cleaners, large books, and some of the cooking toys (used as reservoirs and pumps and things).

 

Pulling me up by the boot straps...

Convention.

Balm to a homeschool mother's heart. Sometimes.

Other times, a distraction and a burden that pulls us away from what we need to do for our own family.

This time?

Just what I needed.

It is so fascinating to attend these now as a second-generation home schooler. I remember the infancy of homeschooling in our area. I remember when there were only a few curriculums to choose from and woe to the poor kiddo who couldn't handle the bookwork inherent in those work-book based curriculums. And now? Take your pick. Unschool, eclectic, Charlotte Mason, Trivium, Classical, on and on and on and on. And just as many vendors for each...enough to make a brand new homeschooler's eyes pop and get burn out before they even start. I loved this post by Elizabeth...it summed up so perfectly what I think about it all, essentially: stay in your own lane. Do what works for you and your family. And bathe everything, and I do mean everything, with prayer. One of the questions I get so often (when mamas find out that I am second-generation) is "I've switched curriculum for my child, because I thought this or that was better suited, but am I setting this child up for failure? What did your mom do? Did she switch curriculum when she schooled you?" I understand this fear, don't get me wrong. But inwardly, I smile. I think I experienced five or so different curriculums over my homeschool adventure. I remember the year when Saxon math was first published, because it was such a godsend for my math-addled brain. I was failing with Abeka, and both me and my mom were knocking our heads against the wall trying to understand why I just wasn't getting it. And now? Take your pick of math programs! So many different ways to get to the end point, and all of them good. I tell these mamas not to worry- that I seemed to turn out alright...and that I have the double degree to prove it (not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but passing that university benchmark seemed to really bring them peace!)

To me, the beauty of homeschooling is the unique and inherent flexibility in it. As home schooling has moved more main stream it seems like that facet of it has been a bit forgotten as people try to 'do school at home' instead of moving into a lifestyle of learning. There is a huge difference. I love that I can tailor things to each of my sons' unique needs. Ben thrives with a 'typical' workbook education with lots of nature walks and art and music thrown in- nothing gives him more pleasure than working through his math book. Seriously. The kid finishes his last lesson of AO- Horizon Math K about three weeks ago. (There are two workbooks for each of the elementary years.) "Mommy, when will I start my third math book?" Me: [Flabbergasted] "Uh, well honey, we're on vacation. I am going to get your math book at the convention in two weeks. Can you wait till then or do I need to get it now?" Ben: [thinks hard] "Well, I guess. I want to know more. I know lots about clocks now. And money. And counting. See? 1, 2, 3 [Counts all the way to 100]." He takes to learning like a duck to water. He really likes knowing things. Isaiah is a different story. With his SPD and fine and gross motor skill delays, typical schooling is hard. But I don't have to do typical with him! We do Handwriting Without Tears, Math U See....and lots and lots of reading. He loves to look at books, he loves to memorize and sing...he needs to see and touch and feel through his school day. He's learning in his own way, and that is just fine. I'll be curious to see what Lorelei and David will be like when they get to this age, what their learning styles will be...it's such a fun adventure. And there is nothing cooler than seeing the lightbulbs go on!

I feel so blessed that I have my mama to mentor me through this homeschooling adventure. She has a wealth of knowledge that I can draw from. That being said, it is hilarious to go to convention with her as a Grandma, because she is such a Grandma! Bragging on the kids, buying them rubber band rockets and t-shirts...just all around spoiling them rotten. I love it!
 
So what 'filled up the tank' so to speak?

There are always a ton of good speakers...this year was no exception. But I really, really needed to hear Dianne Craft speak. She's a nutritionist, and the whole weekend she was focusing on the connection between food, allergies, and behavioral/chemical issues. One whole segment was on Sensory Processing Disorder alone. We have known, Isaiah's pediatricians have known, that he has serious food allergies. And we've removed as many triggers as we can. But Dianne had the 'missing piece' of the puzzle- what we need to put back in to his diet to balance out all the stuff we've had to take out. James and I sat in those workshops and scribbled like mad to catch all the notes, she had so much information to give. I was so blessed. Interestingly enough, although we've easily accepted that Isaiah has allergy related behavior issues, it never dawned on us to consider that Ben might have some of the same allergies as Isaiah...I'm not sure why. But as James and I were listening to Diane speak, we kept looking at each other and mouthing "Ben?" So it looks like another round of elimination diets might be happening around here...to rule out some obvious allergies. She also really made me consider that I have not been taking care of myself properly, and I am dealing with some really stupid issues. Stupid only becase they are easily fixed with careful diet, but I haven't been taking that time to care for myself. I haven't really been paying attention and just going. But after the convention, I decided enough of that. A family member's issue with heart and high blood pressure scared me right out of my lack of care...so a new adventure.

All in all, it was great. I am glad I went. I'm glad that James got to go with me. I feel so blessed to have a husband that takes the time to be involved and help me make these decisions. The thrill of the 'find the used curriculum' hunt is ten-fold much more fun when we're doing it together. It got to be quite the competition.

Of course.

My very pregnant body did not like the convention. Not. One. Bit. But it was so worth it. And now I have six weeks to relax and recover! (Just let me stay in my denial, alright?)

Pictures and philosophies...

My mom's computer has a virus, so I can't post any pictures...but as soon as my favorite Geek gets it all fixed up, they will be forthcoming...so many adventures. We've been having a blast....and rumor has it that more than a few people have asked to be adopted for Grandma Camp next year after seeing the pictures on Facebook. Ha ha ha ha. I'm not sharing! *laughter*
---------
Just a short little note today (all that fun we're having, of course):

This weekend marks the end of my first year homeschooling my kids. (In case you haven't read here long, I was home schooled myself.) I have a feeling of both accomplishment and trepidation. Two things I am thankful for in the tough year we have had: the flexibility of homeschooling, and secondly, the way homeschooling has brought us together as a family. I've known these benefits to homeschooling intellectually for years (how could I not?), but this year is the first year I knew what a benefit they were on a much deeper level. We strive for an atmosphere of learning always, but I was so thankful that we could pick up and go while we waited in endless doctor's waiting rooms...how we could car school as we took Daddy to endless interviews...how it was okay if we just needed a rest from the craziness and take a day a day off. And how, at the end of a discouraging tough day for us all, we would all curl up on the couches and disappear into far off lands via our reading together, and all that stress would fall away. We've had shared adventures together in conjunction with our learning that have knit us together in a time that would commonly divide and scatter a family. It has been such a integral component of our family surviving, even thriving, through a difficult time. I am so grateful.

I am amazed at the ground Isaiah has covered. Ben is such a curious kid that we almost have to tell him to stop learning and exploring and discovering some days...about the only thing he even sort of struggles with is writing, mostly because he doesn't want to have to stop 'doing' for those short few minutes. But Isaiah? Due to his Sensory Processing Disorder, he could barely sit up straight in a chair, let alone hold a pencil and write. Again, teaching him at home is uniquely suited, as his therapy didn't stop when he walked out the therapist's door- we brought it right home and kept working with him, kept providing him the tools he needed- attention that just would not be possible in a more formal school setting. Could you imagine a teacher letting him doing his handwriting upside down underneath a table facing up, because he could 'feel' his shoulder, arm, and wrist that much the better with his body pushed into the floor? Incidentally, I cannot recommend Handwriting Without Tears enough for any kid, but especially kids with gross and fine motor skills difficulties, sensory issues, etc. And what incredible improvements he has made over the year! I am excited to see where he will head next. I'm excited to see where they both will head next.

I've been thinking about my 'philosophy' of home schooling a lot this last month or so, as I've evaluated what went well this year, what hasn't, and on and on. I think I am still in the formulating stage, but I ran across two posts yesterday that just resonated. I can relate very much to this post by Elizabeth, except that in my case I was recovering from a life-threatening miscarriage and she was healing from a life threatening labor... I was so very struck by the fact that we have come to many of the same conclusions, but the endings were very much different. I just can't agree with what she had to say more. I am at peace, and I am grateful. And that's what I want to remember, first and foremost, about this homeschooling adventure- I need to leave it in God's hands...He will direct and guide and it will be okay. The second piece was by Susan of High Desert Home. I can't tell you how much I shall miss Susan blogging, but I am praying that she leaves her archives up because if I started to print off all the articles that have encouraged me over the years, I'd need a few notebooks...one of her next to last posts was sort of an outlining of her learning philosophy. James (my husband) and I both read it and found ourselves nodding at so much of what she has said...and again, as James summarized, it's not about us educating, it's about God teaching...and we need to keep ourselves out of the way. That's where the trepidation comes in- I know myself enough to know that I often get ahead and get to going to much and get a bit crazy, and that's the last thing I want to do. So that's my prayer for this next year- that I'll stay in my own lane, going the speed that God wants me to go, avoiding the potholes that so easily entangle me. (To paraphrase a verse.)

First stop, the refueling station. At last year's convention, even though I was very familiar with it all, I felt like a deer in the headlights...there was just way too much too absorb. This year I am excited- I know much more about what I want to learn about, and books I want to add to our family library. There's a couple of workshops specifically about teaching multiple age groups and with toddlers underfoot that I can't wait to attend.

See you next week!

Adventuring...

We've had a stretch of sunny days, and it's been wonderful! These are from our long nature walk this morning.

 If the heavens declare, let's get out there!

Home life...

Outside:

Inside:

    Lots of learning happening this Monday morning. David has learned to walk! He has been balking at it for quite some time- he's been more than capable of walking on his own for about two months now, but this weekend he began doing it up and down the hall without realizing he wasn't holding on to the wall. With this new found freedom, he began to go from kitchen wall to living room coffee table, and now, he's walking just about anywhere on his own. All in the space of a weekend. It always amazes me to watch that light bulb go on and how fast the change occurs. He's pretty much conquered going up and down the stairs safely in the same weekend (which is always a challenge for our littles with our split level).
    The next big milestone is potty training Lorelei. I think it will go totally different with her than it went with the older boys- I've learned a lot about it since then, and what does not work. I think I am a lot more relaxed about it too. She is definitely ready- I think I could have started a few months ago- but I learned with the boys that is better to wait until lots of traveling and schedule uproars are over (like through the holidays) so that there are long stretches of uninterrupted time at home to "get it".
    We started back on the school schedule last Monday, and it's been going well. This time around seems a lot calmer from start to finish- we start about the same time each day after the morning routine is finished (make beds, wash face and hands, brush teeth, and I've cleaned up the kitchen and started the laundry). Starting with the morning circle time has definitely helped- it really eases the transition. We start with our Bible reading, and then some of our Sonlight readers. After that we move into math and handwriting work, language arts. It's usually lunch time after that is done, so we break for lunch, and then the littles go down for naps while I read some more to Ben and Isaiah. After that, it's quiet time for the boys, where they are allowed to 'read' on their own on the couches, and I work through my tasks for the day while the littles aren't under foot. By 2:30 or 3 the littles are awake and the bigs are allowed to play. Sometimes we go out for a while if the weather is warm enough, and run errands and go places like the library. I am sure this seems self evident- routine always helps- but with the wacky appointment schedule that Isaiah had last semester for therapy (that was completely out of our control and couldn't change) our school days looked nothing like this. Now that the new year has arrived and I was able to get with the secretary, most of Isaiah's appointments now fall after 1pm or later, and most are scheduled for the same day. It's made a huge difference! I've started Teach Your Child to Read in a 100 Easy Lessons with Ben after it being highly recommended by every homeschool mom I talked to. What we had been using before really confused me and seemed haphazard. This is very straight forward and clearly delineated. I do think it's funny that I am such an English geek, but the mechanics of actually teaching someone how to read were lost to me and I felt like we were moving to a point where Ben was beginning to dislike reading. I feel much better now. We did add in some math for Isaiah- a Kumon workbook that works through the numbers from 1-30, in addition to continuing to work math counters like beans and blocks and cars and cheerios (and, well, anything can be a math counter). I think this will help me really see if he's 'getting it' and progressing before I start him in on a 'formal' math curriculum. I love this aspect of homeschooling- that I have the freedom to go, "hmmm....let's try something a bit different and see if it works better for you". It's neat to see Isaiah finally getting some of the sequencing skills- his therapists and I both have been really trying to focus on it.

Weaving the threads...

    Our first semester of home schooling is wrapping up this week, and I find myself looking back over the last five months and evaluating how things have gone so far. The most noticeable thing for me has been the flexibility inherent in a home school curriculum. We technically started school July 2nd (which I chronicled here) and will end this Friday, Dec.19th. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed at the fact that Ben wanted to start early- while I didn't feel unprepared exactly, I felt like I wasn't quite ready. Homeschooling with babies underfoot is quite the undertaking, and I won't deny that. This was my primary fear, I think, as we began: could I keep everything balanced between the needs of my school children and the needs of my babies? I think we found a sweet spot with that about late September, early October, and we've followed a similar rhythm of routine since then. But back to the flexibility: We worked from July to the 1st of August, at which point we went on a vacation to celebrate my best friend's wedding. Unbenowst to me, I began to miscarry during that wedding weekend. By the time we returned, the roller coaster of losing the baby and the surgery began, stretching from the 11th of August to the the 23rd, with the surgery falling on the 20th of August. A whole month was "lost" (but not really, upon examination). My mother was able to pick up with the children during the last week of August, and schooled them for a week and a half until I was feeling well enough to return to teaching them. We then worked, with decent regularity, for the next two months into November. It didn't feel that way at the time, actually. Isaiah had multiple therapy appointments on different days and covering two towns in the process (vision, speech, physical, and occupational). It seemed like everything was all over the map, literally and figuratively. Looking back at my homeschool journal, though, we got through the lessons, as planned- fitted in around the multiple car trips and appointments. Our school day probably didn't look very typical, but that's fine- that's what homeschooling is all about. We stopped schooling again in the middle of November, in part due to Thanksgiving break, but also to a week of doctors' appointments and sickness. We picked back up the first week of December. All this to say, according to the 'traditional' school calendar (using our local school district for reference), we should be at week 17 in the lesson plans. Amazingly, we are right on track for the year, ending at week 17, right on schedrule. This is the beauty of homeschooling- I can't imagine what this would have looked like if Ben and Isaiah had been in a traditional school setting. Just thinking about signing Isaiah in and out of school for therapy appointments makes my eyes cross. Sonlight has been a great fit for us this semester, in so many ways.
    Ben, so far, is doing very well. We are still struggling a bit with reading, but it has come along steadily. I am trying to find the balance between 'fun' and required to help encourage him in this area. Writing is similar- his handwriting is improving steadily (he's using the first grade curriculum from Handwriting Without Tears, which I can't reccomend enough.) He absolutely loves math and science, and would double or triple his math lessons regularly if I let him. (I do sometimes, but I am more concerned with mastery and understanding over speed.)
   The enviornment that home schooling provides for Isaiah is so, so important. Everyday he gets highly individualized, tailored instruction from me at his skill level,  something that would not be available in a traditional setting. With his Sensory Processing Disorder, he struggles with some of the basic skills: following directions, sitting erect in a chair, holding a pencil properly and applying appropriate pressure to the the paper, sequencing- all are a struggle. He lacks the muscle control that a normal kindergartner would have. We have yet to start a "math" curriculum with him but continue to do 'real-life' counting in conjuction with physical activity, like counting to ten while hopping. Both are very important for his development right now. And by helping to integrate his body with his mind on multiple dimensions, it helps with the sensory processing. (In short, SPD kids struggle with integration- where is my body, what is my body doing, what is my brain saying to my body.) He's whip smart, which you probably wouldn't notice if you could only see his failure to perform typical kindergarter skills. He is interested in science, and is almost reading (he has picked it up much faster than Ben has), and if his muscle control wasn't such an issue, would probably write stories. Right now he settles for writting long scribbles that look like sentences. (And while he thinks he's not doing anything, he's actually doing a lot. Just having the patience and control over the pencil for that long and leaning all the scribbles in the same direction says a lot for his prewriting skills.) He seems to struggle very much with sequencing both in the logical and practical sense: like beginning, middle, and end (this happened, and then this happened...), math skills often show skipped numbers or no understanding of which number comes next or before, and when you lay colored beads in a pattern, he can copy it exactly, but can't figure out which colored bead would come next in the sequence. So we're gonna keep working on that, both here at home and with his therapists.
    It's gone a bit better than I expected, and a bit worse for the wear. I see things that I will definitely change for next semester that (hopefully) will allow things to run a bit smoother. The boys definitely need a folder to keep their language arts and Explode the Code work in, because I am so tired of trying to figure out who has done what when and how! (Especially since I make copies!) Isaiah will probably start with Math U See in January- we'll see how it goes there. It seems to make a lot more sense to his brain, than, say, Ben's Horizon (Alpha Omega) curriculum. I really want to adjust our morning routine so that we finish our 'home' routine and then move into our 'school' routine with less bumps and breaks. I think that I am going to focus most of our reading assignments during that time and then move into the individualized work from there. We'll see.

-------
In a related vein:

• Kevin (Elise's husband, of A Path Made Straight) has done a great write up on how they choose literature for their boys, and gives a ton of great suggestions. I think this will definitely help me in the "fun" reading category!

• Tonia did a series of "field notes" that cover what she is currently experiencing as all of her children are moving into the middle school and high school years. She offers an important perspective from someone who has been at this adventure for a while.
• Ann has a ton, and I do mean a ton, of homeschooling posts, all of which are encouraging and inspiring. Sometimes when I have a really rough day, I go re-read the archives to get refreshed and encouraged and ready for battle again. Highly recommended.
• Molly, of Mommycoddle, wrote such a clear, concise, 'this is why I homeschool' article on Momformation that is just dead on. Great article to hand to family members and the like at those requisite holiday gatherings who are questioning your sanity for homeschooling.

Alphabet soup...

 

Learning and Growing...

A prayer for my children:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
-Phillipians 1:9-11

Ben is about to lose another tooth; it is the second one this month. School is going well- we've finally found a rhythm and routine for each day that is flexible yet structured enough. We had a hilarious time this morning with playdoh, the "s" sound, and snakes. Lorelei often spends time at the table with us while we work, and I am amazed at how much she is picking up. Each week her speech is developing exponentially, getting so clear and girl like and not all baby babble. She's finally got enough hair on top for a "knot-knot", or as she is saying "pitty nah-nah mah mommy" (pretty knot knot like mommy). Although, mine, I am afraid to inform, does not stick straight up like hers does, Bam Bam style. I asked my grandmother to teach me how to knit while I was in Colorado, and I am beginning my first project- although, I've gotten no farther than casting on. I can't seem to get the first row to start right at all. I get a few stitches in, and then half of it falls off, and ends up looking like a jumbled mess. Even David is getting in on all the learning action these days, as you can see below.

Adventuress...

It has started in a rush, a whir of excitement and pencils and pens and books. "Teachable moment", right? We had discussed with Ben a few times that instead of going to a public elementary school, we would start schooling at home. He understood, to a point. When he asked when we would start school, I'd describe it to him as chronologically as I could....after "the whole summer!", "Lots and lots of sleeps!" Always trying to speak with as much enthusiasm as possible. When we came home from convention, we explained to Isaiah and Ben what the books were for.  The books sat and languished behind the couch neatly arrayed in baskets. I hadn't had a chance to really go through the curriculum, to organize, or to plan. We were busy with summer! Playing in the pool, blowing bubbles, going to the park once, twice, sometimes three times a day.

Then the questions started. "Mommy, when can we start school? Today? Tommorrow? How many sleeps, mommy? I like school." I put him off for maybe (?) a week and a half, possibly two. Something clicked about the millionth time he asked. We could start today, or tomorrow, we could do it in the park, we could do it however and whenever we wanted. I had forgotten this reality and luxury of homeschooling. (Which is quite funny, being formerly homeschooled myself, but I digress.) So there we went, in the middle of a harried morning, with Dad rushing out the door to work and me eying what seemed like an insurmountable to do list of chores after a vacation time. (Why is that? Why don't the chores do themselves? What do you mean the pile of clothes that have been shoved into bags are wrinkled and dirty and must be washed?) Off to the land of knowledge, paved with books, lined with freshly sharpened pencils, and led by the intrepid adventuress formerly known as momma. A few steps into this land, and I found old friends waiting.  How could I have imagined the delight I would feel at introducing new  travelers to this land? Why did I wait so long? Why did I question my  map-reading skills so? 

And so it has gone for the last week and a half. A routine (long sought, but never quite achieved before now) emerged, a rhythm and pattern to our days that has been sorely felt in times past. We start our days with school, after beds are made and our morning chores; we do seat work for about an hour (math, handwriting, etc.); Lunch for the children while momma reads aloud; then the littles go down for naps, and the boys get to do the fun, messy parts of schooling- science experiments, painting. They trundle off to the playroom, and I get my lunch and go over the next days assignments. It's almost too easy. After knocking my head against the wall for so long regarding a regular routine, about character training, about attitudes, here the solution has come and fallen in my lap. Ben's whole attitude and outlook changed in a matter of days!

Oh, I realize that not every day or week will be so good, or blessed, and many may be the time that I step out on the path without consulting my Guide...but I pray that those incidents will be few and far between. I  also draw immense benefit from the fact that I was homeschooled and I have my mother with which to consult; this is not unfamiliar new territory for me like it might be for someone else. The main curricului have changed very, very little since I have gone thru. I can tell at a glance what will work for my kids, because I've used nearly all of it myself: KONOS, Abeka, Saxon Math, Alpha Omega, Math U See...they are a familiar list to me, and I can detail exactly what I like and dislike about each one. I'll admit that my copy of a Well Trained Mind is dog-eared.

In the end, I decided upon Sonlight Core K with Advanced Readers. Because I am teaching both Ben and Isaiah, and they are so close in age, I felt that this would be the best fit. I could have gone a bit more Classical combined with Charlotte Mason (ala Ambleside Online) but I also knew that for my first year, I needed everything spelled out, already scheduled, so that we could just pick up and go. I know for my own self that I would burn out quickly if that was not the case. The beauty of this type of curriculum is that I can do the same thing with both kids, and fit it both to their needs. Isaiah has a keen mind, but it is not reflected in his writing skills due to his physical difficulties with SPD. An average teacher would glance at him and probably write him off as ADHD or something, and fail to understand his needs.I love that the Core K is right at his level, and it's okay if he is doing Pre K handwriting work- one is not dependent upon the other as it can be in a more "traditional" curriculum. Ben, on the other hand, is assigned slightly more difficult work than the instructor's guides suggest.

So here I enter a new title, a new hat: in addition to momma, boo-boo kisser, book reader, lego builder, and many more, I am now, adventuress. I do pray I will be a wise teacher, and that I learn from the best of all, my own dear Teacher that guides my days.

{Isn't the one room Oak Hill School House delightful? I was struck by the fact that if one homeschools, very little has changed from then to now! My husband posted more pictures of it here.}