Fun Stuff!

Sometimes, you just need to laugh about your life and how others view you.

Character

The past few weeks, I have had a strong impression that we need to be focusing on character. This is the beauty of homeschooling. Along side math, spelling and science, we can teach them and learn together to be good people.  I came across Michelle Duggar's Character Qualities chart. I think we are going to start this in September. I love this! There are 49 qualities. With each quality the opposite of the quality is listed.

The Perks

Year two of homeschooling for us.  I am really seeing the benefits and enjoying the freedoms this year.

Perks of year two in homeschooling

We are more organized

I am more flexible

I am more confident in my abilities to teach my children.

We can have a nice ebb and flow. I can really push the kids hard, and get a lot done, and we can take off a week or so when illness creeps in, or we have a busy week.

The boys know what to expect and what is expected of them.

We are busier and busier every passing month.



Keep at it out there. If you have the mindset to homeschool your children, you can do it as long as you have faith. Faith and doubt cannot exist in the mind at the same time, as one will always dispel the other. -- Thomas S. Monson

Socialize....

Socializing, one of the fore most concerns of people when you tell them you homeschool. They ask,     " What do you do to socialize the children?"

This is my first reaction that I suppress until I walk away and they are out of earshot

 

 

I cannot blame people though, it is just a natural question to ask. A lot of the reason we send out little ones out into the world, is for them to learn how to interact with others and how to act appropriately in public situations. They only difference, I think, with homschoolers is, we would like to teach our children how to act in various situations, and to help them strengthen themselves and their values, so when they are out in the world, they have the self esteem and knowledge to handle things with grace and care, not by being thrown into the fire and learning from hurt feelings, damaged hearts, and punishments. Don't get me wrong, children learn and socialize just fine in a public school setting. I am not down grading or looking down upon those who have their children in school out side of the home, I am simply giving my side of the story.

 

 

 

This article explains things a lot better than I can, and makes it easy to understand.

Prepare

We are slowly merging into our next school year. I feel a lot more confident and sure of myself as we venture into year two of our homeschool adventure. I bought a 10 drawer organizing cart and made labels for each drawer. I will have to take pictures once I am all finished. I love organizing and sorting. It makes me feel sane and somewhat in control. Each one of my boys has their own drawer, a drawer for finished work, one for crayons, one for colored pencils and crayons, tape-glue-and scissors drawer, craft item drawer, stickers--playing cards and extra items, and a paper drawer. A place for everything and everything in its place!

I am also trying to plan out, with the boys, what we will be covering, as well as a tentative schedule. Last school year, around Valentine's Day, and a few other holidays, we studied the holiday, typed out what we learned, and made fun treats and crafts and gave them to friends and family. The boys really enjoyed doing this, so we mapped out different holidays and planned to do the same things through out the year. It is a fun way to learn and share what we learn with those we love.

I am also planning for those tough days. I came across this on Pinterest and thought I should share it and have it where I could re read it when those days surface.


"So what do you, sweet homeschool mom? When you’re on the brink of burn out and ready to call it quits?
Try this.
Take a deep breath. Go somewhere you can be alone. Fall on your knees and cry out to God. He led you to this place. Surely He can take you by the hand and guide you through these hard times.
God knows you don’t have it all together. He knows that as hard as you try, you’ll never have it all together. But listen, He didn’t call you to this life because you had it all figured out, He called you because He wanted to do a work in your life and the lives of your children. Trust Him. Let Him do His work, it will be your greatest blessing.

Heavenly Father, it’s so easy to get caught up in the busyness of life. Help us to remember to keep focused on you and to put you first in our lives and everything else will fall into place. Remind us that even those these days seem to drag on forever, the years pass by so quickly.  We must cherish the little lives you’ve entrusted us with. Though we may not say it often enough, thank you for the opportunity to homeschool our children. We know the lessons and memories will go well beyond a textbook.  Lord, please give us strength and courage to face another day. Remind us that a happy child is more important than a clean house. Thank you for loving us enough to give us new mercies each morning. In Jesus’ sweet name we pray, Amen."

Best of luck to all you homeschool parents ! 

Read, Write, Discuss

My 7 year old has been a slow started on reading. His one year in public school focused more on phonemes, syllables and testing than they did actually reading. So, I took the TJed approach and made it simple. I read to him. Then, I had him read to me basic Dick and Jane books. This past week I started having him keep a journal. I did this just to have him simply write words he knew, then I had him write words he read about in his book or in a book I read to him. He quickly progressed and by the end of the week, he was writing his own sentences. I am not worrying about spelling or punctuation right now. He spells what he knows and what he does not know he tries his best. It has been wonderful. Last, we talk about what we have read to make sure comprehension is taking place. It is fun to talk about books you are reading. The boys often come up with new endings or what if type questions. It gets their minds moving!

A New Outlook

One thing I have learned over the past few months, is that the life of a home schooling family is ever changing. My husband and I went to a meeting the other night, where a woman spoke to many of us "new" or "younger" home schooling families, who had home schooled for 22 years. It was refreshing to hear some one speak who had taught her children at home, and had children who had graduated and gone on to live their lives.
  Back to basics, back to basics, back to basics. It is as simple as that. We were all reminded to get off the the public school conveyor belt, and remember why we decided to homeschool in the first place.
 I was brought back to the Thomas Jefferson Education approach. I follow this plan loosely, but it is a great plan.

7 Keys of Great Teaching
There are seven principles of successful education. When they are applied, learning occurs for any learning style or interests. When they are ignored or rejected, the quantity and quality of education decreases.

1. Classics, Not Textbooks
2. Mentors, Not Professors
3. Inspire, Not Require
4. Structure Time, Not Content
5. Simplicity, Not Complexity
6. Quality, Not Conformity
7. You, Not Them

She added an 8th, which has stuck in my mind. Faith not Fear. Fear is the work of the adversary,  who wants us to fail and wants us to be scared that we are not doing enough or a good enough job. We need to have faith in our selves and Heavenly Father to do the best we can.

Other things that that helped get us back on track:

Read. READ READ READ READ READ. Read to your kids.

Then Discuss.  Talk while you are reading. Don't get upset at interruptions and encourage conversation about the story at hand.

And last, write. Once the child is old enough, have them write about what they have heard.

These are great concepts that have already taken shape in our home. I cannot believe how amazing and effective they are.