Archive for the ‘Homeschool’ Category

We had the opportunity to serve at Feed My Starving Children a little while ago.  It is a great organization that uses adult and child volunteers to package nutritious meals for starving children all over the world.  We were fortunate to have the organization come to our area and “set up shop” close to home.  I was able to go with Cade and Ella.  Cade was less than excited when we left, but he was quite touched by the experience when it was done.

Sporting Hair Nets

A FMSC Employee Giving us Instructions

Ella Focusing on Placing the Bag Under the Funnel

Ella Scooping Powdered Chicken

Cade Weighing the Bag

You can go to FMSC.org to find out if you have a location near you to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children.  Cade was most proud of the fact that in our 2 hours of volunteer time the group that we were with packed enough food for 47 children to have 1 meal a day for 1 YEAR.  That’s pretty amazing!!

Blessings to your family,

Things seem to be ever-changing around here.  We find something that works for a time and then shift to something else as the need (or want) arises.

So, here’s what is working for us right now with our chores.  I wrote about how “Day Chores” were working well for us here.  Those have continued to work well for us so I have integrated that into our new chore charts.  I actually downloaded charts from this site so as to not reinvent the wheel.  They are pretty basic charts with the days of the week and then I make a list of their chores for the week that they can check off.  For example, Cade’s chores every morning before breakfast are getting dressed, making his bed, and getting 5 pieces of firewood brought into the house.  Every other day in the evenings  he has vacuuming the kitchen or helping with dishes.  Then his “Day Chores” which are once a week are vacuuming his room (I really like our stick vacuum for the kids:)), shaking rugs, taking out the garbage and dusting.

I know that there is some debate about whether to tie an allowance to chores or not.  For us this has seemed to work well.  The kids get 25 cents for every year old they are at the end of the week if they have completed all of there chores with a happy heart and have done it well.  This has also given us the ability to have the kids take responsibility for their own money.  It cuts down on begging for things in the store because they can spend their money but once it’s gone, it’s gone.  This has also made giving more meaningful to them as it is truly their money.

We also give the option of “bonus” chores from time to time.  The kids can choose to do the chore or not.  They get extra compensation if they choose to do it, but they don’t have to.  I haven’t had them turn me down yet:).  They do have to decide whether they are going to do the chore BEFORE they know what it is though .

So, that is what is working for us right now.

I have consistently struggled to remain consistent in blogging ~ at least I’m consistent at something:).

I have a hard time justifying my time blogging unless most everything else is already done.  Kirk and I joke about the mom who sits blogging while her kids are running around her screaming, the dishes are stacked in the sink and the bills sit unpaid.  Or the mom who creates scenarios to have great pictures and stories for her blog but not for the family experience itself.  It is a balance that I struggle with.  I think there may be a phenomena of really nice looking blogs out there with homes that suffer because of it.

I understand the draw of blogs, pinterest, and skype while being home day in and day out with little ones (and homeschooling).  I think it is important to connect with others.  It can be incredibly encouraging to be in touch with those in your same life stage.  I have one “Skyping friend” in particular.  We bounce ideas off each other and share our joys and struggles through out the day.  We share resources which is really helpful with homeschooling.  I also know that what can be a great thing and helpful to my family can also be a time waster and negatively impact our days.  It’s so easy to sit down to ”research” for curriculum ideas and not realize how much time has gone by.

We don’t have great TV reception and we opt not to pay for any services so internet is our means of getting news.   A while back my speakers went out on my computer and it has honestly been a time saver for me.  News videos just aren’t the same with no sound:).

I’m just hoping that my home looks better than my blog…not from a decorative standpoint but from an investment standpoint.  I hope that our family blog captures a glimpse of our family life instead of me creating a blog to make us look like a great family.  I hope that one day my kids can look at the blog and remember memories we’ve had togther instead of looking and wondering, “who is that family??”

Just a thought.

You know when you hear someone speak and you decide you’re going to implement every last thing that they suggested…and then you get home and you really can’t remember much of anything that was said, and you seem to have gone back to just the way things were before?

There was a speaker that I listened to from a conference we went to a couple of years ago.  There was something that I took away from her talk that we still utilize today.  Her name is Melodie Sterrett, and she spoke on “The Balance of Loving Discipline“.  I remember liking most of what she said, but I really couldn’t tell you any specifics anymore except for what she called “Whisper Prayers”.

It’s such a simple concept and yet it is something that really has been such a connection point with our children.  Basically, whisper prayers are prayers that you whisper in your child’s ear while you are in their bed tucking them in at night.  It doesn’t seem all that monumental, but it gives you a chance to be one on one with your child.  It’s the time that I take to think through the day and thank God out-loud for the things I see taking root in my child; to really speak a blessing over them.  It can also be a time that we pray for what can be worked on as well.  Sometimes apologies are made or we laugh about our day.  Many times, after the prayer, the child will ask some deep question that otherwise wouldn’t have been addressed.  Each of our kids love when we whisper pray.

I thought this coincided so well with the “Gentleness Challenge” that I’ve been following on “Women Living Well“.  Whisper prayers can be a great place to start.  A place to maybe confess some of your faults to your child and pray together.  It may be a place to have some healing begin in a strained parent/child relationship.  Or it may just be a place to strengthen an already strong connection.

With the addition of Sawyer to the family and our home-school year starting many people have asked, “How do you do it all?”  Well, the truth is, I don’t do it “all” and many days we don’t even get to “most”.  So, with that disclaimer aside, there are somethings that are working for us right now.

Quiet Time: We start our “official” home-school day with quiet time for everyone.  This allows the kids to be in a good habit of having time with their Bible, and it also gives me the necessary time alone with God before we dive in.  Right now we do that for 20 minutes.  Each child is alone in a different room with a Bible or devotional type book (except Addie who just sits on her bed).  Cade many times uses this time to work on his AWANA verses.

Day Chore: Then we move onto our “day chore”.  Each day we have 1 chore that takes us less than 15 minutes, and we all work on it together.  On Mondays it’s vacuuming (the kids do their own rooms with the stick vacuum while I do the living room etc).  Tuesdays is shake the rugs/wash floors and so on.

Time with Addie: Then it is math time for Cade, and Ella gets to choose something to play with Addie.  Then it is Ella’s math time and Cade plays with Addie.  This has been so good for Addie as she gets concentrated time with each of the older ones and they are helping to teach her how to interact positively.

Taking a Walk: Another positive for us has been taking the double jogger stroller and taking the 4 kids for a walk after lunch…even though it often takes more time to pack up than actually take our walk.  Today we counted 19 caterpillars, 4 grasshoppers, 3 butterflies and 2 snakes:).

We are usually done by lunch-time with our schooling, being Cade is 1st grade and Ella in Kindergarten.  This gives us flexibility in our afternoons and many times I’m napping with Sawyer while Addie naps and the other two utilize their free-time they’ve been waiting for all day.

It isn’t fancy or rocket science, but it’s what’s working for us right now.

As I was finishing my blog post from yesterday, Kirk sent me this video.  It seemed perfectly timed and a great reminder…for everyone, but especially homeschoolers.

We got a chance to see Todd speak at the Minnesota homeschool conference (MACHE) in April.  He had great reminders about not believing the lies that most homeschool moms do.

This is the second year that I’ve done this activity with my kids and the kids I nanny for.  They really enjoy it, and I think it helps them think about the Easter story a little more.

This activity represents Jesus being covered in oil and spices and being laid in the tomb.  After you bake the rolls Jesus disappears (melted in this case) and the tomb is empty.  This is a great way for little minds to begin thinking about how surprised Mary must have been Easter morning.

All you need is a tube of crescent rolls (the tomb), marshmallows (Jesus), cinnamon & sugar mix (spices) and melted butter (oil).  Lay out the crescent rolls.  Have the kids roll Jesus in the butter and then the cinnamon/sugar mix.  After that they wrap the crescent dough around the marshmallow.  You may want to help them seal all the edges otherwise the marshmallow seeps out.  Have fun hearing the kids say, “What happened to the marshmallow?  Where did Jesus go?”

We also talked about the marshmallow being white and how that represents the fact that Jesus is pure and free from sin.

Have fun making your crescent roll tombs!

Don’t you love traditions…especially this time of year?    Isn’t that part of what made childhood fun and nostalgic?  I have found that I “borrow” other’s ideas better than coming up with my own.  So, here’s some we’d like to share that we’ve picked up from others along the way.  Most of these are for Christmas, but there are a couple for other times of the year.

Little Cader

• Taking a picture of the kids every year in Mommy or Daddy’s shirt or dress. As you can tell from the pictures I haven’t been exactly “on top of ” doing this each year.  I was just excited Kirk still had the shirt in his closet!  I’m thinking that this would be a good beginning of the school year tradition.  I’ve see people do this with an article of clothing from a great grandmother.
• Sleeping in front of the Christmas tree in the living room. This always sounds so fun!!  We have never actually done it, although we have plans to this year.  I think I get to the evening that we are supposed to sleep on the floor and it doesn’t sound quite as wonderful as when it was planned:).
• A stocking for Jesus. I just ran across this one this year, and I am the most excited about this one.  We have an extra stocking up for Jesus this year.  What are we putting in it?  Everyone is to write (or draw) about what they have done that was kind or helpful to someone else.  Then we will read their “gifts to Jesus” before we open our gifts as a family.  I love that!!
  
  
• Gingerbread House. Every year for the last 5 or 6 I have made a gingerbread house with my kiddos and their good buds who I nanny for.  It really isn’t hard (it can be time consuming…just plan accordingly).  Here’s a great recipe, and the cement icing really works.  Here’s the template we use for cutting out the pieces of the house.  It is very basic and simple.  You can get much more extravagant if you’re feeling adventurous.  I’ll have to post pictures after we do ours this year.  The kids LOVE the decorating part and it makes a great centerpiece or decoration.
• Night of Lights. On a night where you know you can sleep in the next day, take the kids out for a stroll to find houses that are decorated with lights.  Bring some snacks (popcorn etc) and enjoy seeing what others took the time to put up.  You could make it into a scavenger hunt or a counting/graphing game ie. see how many snowmen you find etc.  Don’t forget to check out the beautiful stars if it’s a clear evening and you get out of the city at all.
• Operation Christmas Child Boxes. This one has to be done more around Thanksgiving time, but it is such a fun thing for each of the kids to pick out stuff for a child their own age and prepare a box for them.  It really helps them think beyond what they might be wishing to get for Christmas.  We also went on YouTube and found videos of kids receiving the boxes to help the kids really so how excited the kids are for their box of goodies.
• Gifts from Samaritan’s Purse. This is the first year we have done this.  The kids just seem to accumulate money between birthdays and holidays, and we wanted them to have a fun way to give some of it away.  Samaritan’s Purse (who also does the Operation Christmas Child boxes) sends out a catalog before the Christmas season where you can pick out a variety of items from shelters, to mosquito nets, to medicine to purchase to be given to those in need.  Ella picked out 2 little stuffed lambs, and Cade picked out a soccer ball this year.
• Popcorn for supper on Sundays. A friend of ours had this tradition growing up.  It gave his mom a break, and the kids thought it was great.  I haven’t been able to sell Kirk on the whole idea yet:).

So, what are some of your traditions?  I love hearing what people do, and be warned that I might “borrow” your idea in the future:).

Cade is almost 6, and he’ll technically be Kindergarten age this Fall (where has the time gone???).  Kirk and I have always wanted to home-school.  It is such a natural fit for us as I love to teach and that is my background, and Kirk is self-employed.  At this point, we just can’t imagine being tied down to a school schedule, and we are loving the flexibility that we have as a family.

I have been leery about starting any formal curriculum with the kiddos as I am not a fan of seat work and worksheets, and I don’t want to recreate a classroom setting at home.  After all, one reason we are home-schooling is that we get to learn by living life…gardening, cooking, building, playing games, fixing the car, and just enjoying being a family.  I do think there is a place for curriculum, but especially for Primary grades I think less is more.  All that to say that we are loving one curriculum and that is Five in a Row. Basically, you read classic picture books that capture your children’s imagination, and you read it together five days in a row (hence the name).  Each day you can pick and choose one or more of the suggested activities within the curriculum.  You can do as little or as much as you want, and the kids fall in love with the stories!  Everyday that we open the book the kids (and I) pick up on something different in the story.  We focus on something new each day that brings the story to life again.  Another thing I love, is that the kids aren’t learning mundane facts, but they are learning things that stick with them because they are engaged and they assimilate the information into their lives.  For instance, Ella today in Walmart was listening to her flip-flops because of the story A Pair of Red Clogs.  She said “Kara Kora, Kara Kora” because that was how the girl’s clogs sounded in the book.

Lentil was one of our favorite books.  We experimented with charcoal drawings (messy but fun), now are the proud owners of a harmonica, and we visited the local Memorial Park as a family.

Ella & The Statue of Liberty

POW/MIA Monument

Cade & The Bald Eagle

It was pretty chilly that day so we only spent about 10-15 minutes at that Memorial Park, but in that time we talked about The Statue of Liberty in New York given to the USA by France, the sacrifice of many soldiers, what a monument is, what POW and MIA mean, the Bald Eagle, our flag and its symbolism, freedom, war and so much more.  This kind of thing happens every week with Five in a Row and you usually don’t even leave the house!

If you are looking to ease into something with your little ones whether you are home-schooling or not, Five in a Row is a great place to start!