Living to Learn in the Saint Ambrose Academy

A tough lesson.

2012-02-06T05:51:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while. I've been dealing with many many parenting issues. I have actually been overwhelmed and drowning in these issues. Three days ago, I started really strategizing and journaling my way through these issues, and I thought I'd blog my results to share them with you all.

My first issue: both of my boys scream. They scream instead of talk whenever they are disgruntled about anything. When they scream, my mind goes to mush and I make illogical parenting decisions. We live in a small house and I usually just grasp desperately at things and give them to my children to try to shut them up as fast as possible so they do not disturb the peace of the others. Well, after one year, I have learned that pacifying my children with this, that, or the other does not work. I had to change my method of dealing with this. I have also learned that time outs and spankings do not work. Taking away toys does not work. These things might work in the moment, but do not have long-term lasting effects. These kids are still screaming. I need a long term solution.

So, what is going to work? I think I found it this morning.

I woke up. Immediately, my youngest hears me go to the bathroom for my first morning pee (I'm not fully awake yet), and starts screaming. "Man, there's no beating these guys to the punch," I think to myself. My mind is getting mushy before I'm fully awake. I go change his diaper and put him in the family room. He screams. I walk away. His screaming wakes up my 3 year old. So he comes out to the family room. Nevaeh, who is 7 starts pressing their angry buttons. Even more screaming ensues. My mind gets mushy. Then everyone decides they want breakfast. Lots of screaming for breakfast. I walk out of the room because I needed to regain some mental composure. Trying to overcome the mushy brain, I go to the living room to think.

So- I walk to the baby gate mounted at the family room. I stay as calm as humanly possible. I let them know that I do not know what their screaming means. That as soon as this room gets quiet and I hear everyone playing nicely, that breakfast will be ready. They will not be allowed to eat breakfast until the screaming stops. I walk away and I ignore the temper tantrum. Mostly from the boys- Nevaeh doesn't scream the way they do.

Guess what! It worked. Slowly, but surely, they quit arguing like monsters and quit screaming at me and started playing quietly with toys. So I hurried and made them some oatmeal and they came to the table to eat joyously.

Yay! That's what I need! We need more JOY in this house. I am determined to make this happen! More happy sounds and less mad sounds from these kids!

I know this is only one day. But I really needed to document this one small change, because this has been plaguing my life for one year now. I am pretty sure that anyone exposed to this much anger and screaming for 365 days straight (or more) would end up medicated some how. I'm just glad I've made it this far!

Finding Balance in Your Parenting Style: The Swinging Pendulum.

2011-10-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

My generation is a generation that has learned most in life from books (and the internet of course). Even our parenting styles are learned in books. Yes, we inheret a large amount from our own parents and grandparents, but we are the information generation, always trying to improve. I see so many parents in generations x an y struggling to change the world. We are going green, we are growing gardens, we are canning, we are homeschooling, we are private schooling, we are are making clothes by hand, and the list goes on.

As I have gotten older, I see that each and every one of my friends are struggling trial by trial and how to parent our children. Some think they have it figured out until BOOM- major domestic catastrophe hits. Some parents will desperately try a dose of everything to get past a difficult time in parenting. While I see others desperately cling to their "parenting stereotype." I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about- the mother who sacrifices her marriage, her life, and even her well being in order to adhere to her version of some parenting fad. The other parents are double dipping into many different parenting trends losing sight of who their family is and confusing their children. Many parents are like swinging pendulums, moving briskly from one extreme to the other. But where should we be? Finely balanced and yet non-stagnant.

We need to remember that strict adherence to labels are not always in our children's best interest. Each situation may call for a different strategy, or even each child may call for a different parenting style. Our friends and our social groups need no explanation for the path you've chosen. As difficult as parenting is, only a child's parents know what is in their best interest, and we should take the time to make choices that we will feel confident about. I know that during times of insecurity, I need to take a time out and look at the big picture: How is my lifestyle affecting my child? How is my diet affecting my child? Then I start narrowing in: How is my daily routine? Is there an actual problem? And one thing I often remind myself that with many of the growing pains of motherhood come, they will usually gently fade away if I give guidance and attention every day.

Even though I am simply trudging along just like you, I thought I would give my best advice in helping other parents avoid parenting fads and extremes; and great ways to just help your family get by.

1. Know your family values. As a Christian family, our values play a big role in our parenting. Taking the time to map out how that looks in your life makes a big difference in your day to day dealings with people, including your children.

2. Communicate and act out your expectations with your children. How are your children supposed to know how to act unless you teach it to them. This includes not just teaching them, but modeling the behavior that you expect from them.

3. Have consistent follow through. Be a man or woman of your word. Don't give empty threats or false promises. If you display lack of follow through, your child will not trust your words and is even more inclined to test your limits.

4. Engage your children, especially the young ones. Most of the time if my children are misbehaving, it is because they are bored or unsupervised. Since I work from home, a great way for my kids to stop fighting and have an enjoyable morning, is to get out the craft supplies and have some craft time at the table while I answer emails. Teach them how to have fun together. Let them have some conflict-free time. It relieves stress for the whole family.

5. Have a quiet time every day. Every day after lunch, my family has quiet time. Even when your child has outgrown naps, have them learn to quietly play or read in their room for an hour or just lay down and rest for some time every day. This is a true sanity saver and a good opportunity to recoup and get yourself together if your whole morning was a flop.

6. Be careful comparing yourself to other parents on facebook and parenting forums. Most people only post "happy pictures" of themselves on facebook. You seldom read moms and dads brag about their horrible parenting moments online. As wonderful as parenting is, it is hard. For everyone. Even the Jones'.

7. Make choices keeping the whole family in mind. It's so easy to parent to the extent of exhausting yourself our your marriage. Spouses need to talk regularly about parenting. Decisions should not be made only for the well being of one person in the family unit, at the expense of another person in the family. This helps to avoid over indulging just one person in the family and allows everyone to live in a healthy manor and have each of their needs met. There will be times when someone has to sacrifice something for the wellbeing of another person, but make sure there is balance.

8. Have wisdom to know when to change your strategy. Understanding that things take time, be consistent to a point, but know when change might be necessary. You've waited for the season to pass, and almost a year has gone by, and you are still at square one: this might be a good time to re-strategize. When you do this, do not lose sight of your whole family and your values, but don't be afraid to go outside your box. It's OK to try something that might not fit your parenting label.

I'd also love to hear from other parents as well. How do you keep from falling into fads? Do you struggle with your parenting label, style, or stereotype? What helps give you and your family focus? How do you stay balanced?

The End of an Era

2011-03-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Well, not to be too dramatic, but the end of an era is near. We are finishing first grade and going on to bigger and better things. Looking back over the past couple of years, I can definitely see that we have quite the funny style of schooling. We have lessons sorted out to go through (ish), and we give it our best shot. We don't "do school" every day, and I am often amazed at how much Nevaeh teaches herself at such an early age. When we began homeschooling, one of my main goals was to teach the love of learning so that she can become an independent learner with me by her side to help and guide her. My main motivation for this was the fact that my knowledge has a limit. There is also a lot of pressure on being someone's sole source for education and growth. Teaching her to make the most of everything around her, to have an inquiring mind, and to ask a lot of questions has already started to pay off. I am enjoying watching her grow and learn, as well as her baby brothers. This homeschooling thing might just work out better than I thought.

Liturgy and Motherhood

2011-01-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

Routine routine routine. I wake up each day around 2am with a prayer, "Lord, help me." And I nurse my baby, change him, and put him back down to bed.

4 am, I awake again, "Lord, give me strength." We nurse again. He fights sleep. He's teething. "Lord, ease his pain."

6:30, I am awake for the day, "Lord, be present."

I change two diapers. I prepare breakfast and begin answering the multitude of questions from my 6 year old, while cleaning the dishes that somehow manage to jump out of the cabinets into my sink over night. My two older children manage to scarf down their breakfasts and start shouting from the table, "I'm full, I'm done!" Before I've even had a chance to sit down and get started on my bowl of Corn Flakes. I shovel as much food in my mouth as I can as fast as possible, then start clearing away more dishes and help with the kids.

It's 8:00 am and they might watch cartoons for a bit while playing with toys in the living room. I try to get some paper work done and some chores: laundry (never stops), organizing toys, dusting, etc. Sometimes nothing gets done, because I might get sucked into the Facebook warp zone (Ahhhhh!).

9:00am: About this time every day, the kids start to blow a gaskit. I try for some structured play. We spend a few minutes coloring, playing a game, doing a puzzle or something like that while I nurse.

9:30 Change two diapers. Put baby down for a nap, and the two seconds that I am gone from the room, the other two fall to pieces. I come back, and pick up the pieces: Magically erase permanent marker from the floor (Where did they find that thing? I spent half and hour looking for that the other day!), and look for other damage. Spend a few minutes in the bathroom with Aidan talking about going potty.

10:00am Snack time. More dishes! Where did these things come from? Are these even ours?! I keep doing laundry and keep an ear out for the buzzer on our dryer.

11:15am Make lunch. Do more dishes, clean more of the kitchen, get baby up, and change two more diapers.

11:30 Eat lunch.

12:00 pm Nap time for Aidan and Liam. School time for Nevaeh.

This goes on till it is time for Dale to get home, when I finally set aside the chores for the next day to relax as a family. Sometimes I continue to quietly escape and do some laundry, and I slyly set up laundry date nights periodically with Dale. Thankfully, he doesn't mind.

People are always saying to me, "I don't know how you do it. It must be so hard to have 3 young children." Yeah, its kind of hard, depending on the day. The key to my success is my routine. Some of my friends have seen my routine posted on my fridge (I do this sometimes so that Dale can jump in at anytime to help without having to ask too many questions), and they feel sorry for me, as if it's sort of a drag. I guess it could be, but it depends on how you look at it. Did you know that there are people out there who do not have families who do this sort of thing on purpose? Yeah! They get up early and work all day, take moments here and there to pray, and even wake up at absurd hours of the night to pray. For Real. They are called Monks and Nuns. And. They. Do. This. On. Purpose.

Did you know that I did this on purpose? I know. Crazy, right? I wanted children. Even after I had my first child, and I knew how much work it took, I went and had a second and THIRD on purpose. Because I feel like I am called to motherhood, and while some people see my life as a drag, I feel the many blessings from this work. I admit, I wake up cussing a portion of the time when I am woken on the hour every hour to nurse some nights. But God is working on me. He calls me to prayer in those moments: when strength, sanity, and peace are hard to find. And from the start of my day to the finish, my work is never done just like the liturgy of the church. This is not a bad thing. This is a blessing. This is a reminder of a call to pray, and a call to look for the presence of God in my day. When I look around and see a clean house, I feel satisfaction and joy in the knowledge of the prayer that took place during those chores. And I find peace in the prayer that was needed for me to complete them (Because I have three children).

I am in a place now where I am looking for more. I am Anglican, and we participate in a liturgy bigger than a denomination. Every Sunday, we join in prayers with Christians around the world, and across time. I am doing my best to bring this through my week. I want to start incorporating the daily office into my routine so that my efforts can go a bit deeper, and a little bit outside of myself. So that I can take moments in prayer each day to step prayerfully outside the doors of my house to pray with and for God and His creation. Time is hard to find, but I think God has designed it so that my day should revolve around His. Because I have noticed in my prayer life how important routine is. Just like when my kids miss a nap or sleep in past their normal breakfast time, it throws the whole day off, and sometimes the whole week. I think we are all a little bit like children, and I am finding more and more value in the example the church has set in structuring our day.

The Right To Homeschool My Own Children

2010-11-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

A common theme in my life that seems to come up over and over is the question of, Is homeschooling fundamentally right or if it is our right to be able to homeschool. First off, let me say, I have a hard time when this topic comes up from idealistic and childless young singles who are out of touch of many responsibilities that parenting often brings. They are parenting's biggest critics who happen to be the most out of touch of most of reality. To them, I'd like to say that parenting is hard. Most of us parents do our best, and believe it or not, we are humans. And humans make mistakes. Even at our best. And you really have no idea how difficult it can be until you have made the journey yourself. It just makes me cringe.

Anyhow, getting back on topic: the right to homeschool. I had to ask myself, Do I really have the "right?" What gives me the "right?" The first answer I gave myself was that God not only gives me the right, but He gives me the responsibility. Not only does the bible tell me that I am responsible for teaching my children, but it gives me the responsibility to teach them about God.

Secondly, my constitution reserves things like education to "the people." See the tenth amendment. If you think that the tenth amendment means that it is reserved to the state, well then my state has a law protecting my decision regarding right to my children's education.

Ultimately, who is responsible for children? Who do the children belong to? The parents or the State? I believe that my children belong to me. They formed in my womb, which is part of my body. They are a part of me and I am responsible for their education. I have decided that they deserve the best. They deserve one on one tutelage. They deserve an education without limits. They deserve an education that does not segregate their faith from their daily lives. They deserve to not have to compartmentalize their lives and have the opportunities to develop a firm foundation of education in science and religion in relation to one another and not one at the risk of the other. They deserve to be parented by their parents. They deserve the best.

Now, there are a few arguments against homeschooling on if it is fundamentally "right." There are a few issues that have been brought to my attention and probably every homeschool family has been asked about these things.Topics such as neglect, abuse, socialization, bad curriculum, and bad parenting come to mind.

I'd like to start addressing this by referring back to my question on who is responsible for my children? I trust the government to enforce regulations and policies regarding our safety as citizens and protecting our well being. In most cases, homeschooling does not interfere with most children's well-being. Even though I am ultimately responsible for my children, I will humor the points brought up by others.

The case against homeschooling on grounds for abuse:

How many cases of abuse have been reported in homeschool? How many cases of murder, sexual assault, rape, or physical assault have been reported in public school? That's really all I have to say about that.

When parents are negligent and do not send their children to school, this is not considered homeschool. This is abuse and it can be reported. My state also requires that we send in attendance forms to help highlight these cases so that child welfare authorities can step in and investigate. A lot of homeschool moms that I know grumble at these requirements, but I can see how they can be beneficial for this very reason.

On grounds of bad curriculum or poor education:

In my state, public education does not solve this problem. You also cannot deny homeschooling based on the worst case scenario, when the average homeschooler receives a better education than most of their public school peers. This is shown in standardized testing and other studies regarding homeschool education.

On grounds of social isolation:

My children are some of the most confident social individuals that you will ever meet and they are far from isolated. We are very active in our community, my oldest daughter participates in sports, we go as a family to participate in events with our homeschool group, and my daughter does most things in life that help her develop most social norms which would be implemented in a school setting: waiting in lines, waiting for her turn to speak in conversation, eating with a group, etc. Our day to day lives are pretty common for most homeschoolers that I know of. Homeschoolers tend to be pretty active socially. And I often think that there is too much emphasis anyhow on the social aspect of education. I would like to be the person responsible for teaching my children the priority of “social lives.” And while it is fun and necessary, it is not prioritized over my child’s educational needs.

Even though I have humored some of you out there in showing the positive aspects of homeschooling, I hold firm to the fact that my children's education is my responsibility and choice and my government's. Public school, private school, and home school each have their benefits and each have their draw backs. This blog is not to say if one is better than the other. I do know that homeschooling is not for everyone, but it is best for my family. Each circumstance is different. I am thankful daily for my opportunity and I am doing my best to make it worthwhile for my kids.

Free Curriculum

2010-11-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

I try to keep up with the cheapest home school options out there. Education can be expensive enough even without paying for fancy curricula. This one was brought to my attention recently, and we have started playing with it. We are going to add it to our weekly routine somehow, and review it after some time has gone by. Until then, I thought I would list this free curriculum so that you can play with it too and tell me what you think.

www.theheadoftheclass.com

Falling into Autumn

2010-11-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

Last month we stumbled and rumbled, and I'm so glad we made it through it! It was a sure fire test of endurance and multitasking to see if I could really work at home and home school. I think we made it! We did not complete every single thing on the to-do list, but I think its for the best. I often forget how important the "nothing" days are. I think I need to remember to pencil more of those days into my calendar.

Looking back, October was so much fun! The key to success (for me), is writing out lots of to-do lists, keeping a day planner, and listing everything on my calendar (and actually refer to my calendar regularly). My biggest savior was my iGoogle page of all things. My email, my google calendar, and my sticky notes app all kept me in check. Google has taken over my world!

Some highlights of our month can be captured in a few photos.
We had our home school group costume party. Nevaeh dressed as a witch and Aidan dressed as a pizza. They had such a great time.

We also renewed our pass to the zoo and made our first couple of visits after a long zoo sabbatical Nevaeh was able to meet a few of her favorite book characters.

Have you seen my marbles?

2010-10-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

Ok. *Deep breath.* -Sigh-

Looking around.

{silence}

FINALLY.

Nevaeh is up stairs "cleaning" her room (aka, making a mess), Aidan is taking a shower (aka, painting the bathroom with his soapy loofa), and Liam is actually sleeping (believe it or not!). So, I finally have a minute to update. Looking back over the past couple of months I realize that some days, I think I may have lost my mind trying to tackle this endeavor. In that moment, I feel like I am doing my children a disservice by being the sole person responsible for their education, and I just need to give up. Thank goodness I have no other option right now. But, honestly, in that moment, my 'no other option' sort of makes me feel claustrophobic. Especially on those days when my "collicy" baby can't seem to find peace, my toddler's life starts to reflect a scene from Final Destination, and I have a work load up to my ears. School seems impossible on those days (or weeks).

Time has been hard to find. For school, for work, for chores, for anything. Some days, its a struggle just to get our basic needs met.

I was in the middle of one of those weeks this past week. I was cleaning Aidan's poop off the floor (thanks to potty training), while holding a crying baby, when I heard a sweet voice softly from the corner of the room. It was Nevaeh. She was reading to herself. It was such a beautiful moment in the midst of my crazy week.

Normally I would not think anything of this. She's great at picking up a book and making up words to go along with the pictures and while her story is usually really good, she is not reading the words printed on the page. But this time was different. She was going through the book and reading as much as she could and sounding out words that she didn't know (which is the cutest sound ever).

Those moments give me courage. Those moments help bring me back to the earth and restore my sanity.

This may not be one of those blogs where there is an inspiring message to get to. It's just real. Home schooling can be hard some times. And I am in the middle of those times right now. But I knew this would be hard, so I'm not too surprised. I'm trying to loosen up my expectations a little bit and let go of my worries. I am coming to learn, that in all reality, I am not solely responsible for the things my children learn. Because they are constantly learning from everything around them. So, I am responsible for putting them in a thriving environment and give them as many learning opportunities as possible. It takes a lot of pressure off of me during these early learning years.

I am trying to relax and take more time to enjoy this time when my children are small. Nevaeh is learning. She is not just learning, but it seems like she is ahead of where she should be (she'd be in Kindergarten if she were in public school and she is doing most things at a first grade level). So I am trying to take out more time to just snuggle up with a good book, or just snuggle at all. Or lay out in the grass in our yard and stair at the sky while airplanes and clouds go by. Those moments are part of why I home school, so I am trying to let those moments happen more.

Learning Styles

2010-09-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Learning styles were a 'new study' when I was in school. I had some pretty awesome teachers that tried a lot of different methods in efforts to teach each child in a way that they could learn the easiest. This was good and bad. I spent many days doing things that propelled my interest, but I also spent just as much time, if not more, doing things that completely bored me. This is not a new topic among teachers any more. It has become pretty much a given that, in a classroom setting, teachers will be expected to present the same material from a few different perspectives(well, at least as far as all my teacher friends have told me).

Three basic learning styles help meet the visual learner, auditory learners, and tactile learners. One thing that I have learned about Nevaeh, and I don't know if this is just where she is at developmentally, is that she is all three. When I was younger, I was more of a kinesthetic learner. As I grew older, I was conditioned by my high school and college environment to be more of an auditory learner. It was an absolute struggle. But I am a little bit envious of how Nevaeh learns things. For instance, if I were introducing a new concept, I would tell her about it, show it to her, then we would work it out together. She can learn a new topic from one style of teaching, but new topics become really concrete after spending time teaching in a 1-2-3 style mentioned above.

This makes me wonder if we are all naturally inclined to learn this way, and how much we are conditioned to learn in a way that is unnatural to us. I seriously wonder what our potential would be as a society if we followed the cues of our children more closely with the presentation of new ideas.

The curriculum at the Academy

2010-08-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

I keep getting asked what curriculum I am using. I guess this is super important to do in homeschool? Well, I'm not a fan. I actually searched and searched and have yet to find a curriculum that manages to fit our family. So, I opted out. Sure, it's a lot of work, but it's worth it! I do use a lot of cheap and free materials that have been very helpful. some online resources include:
www.abcteach.com
www.starfall.com
www.progressivephonics.com

And of course I take advantage of her interest in many cartoon characters (no matter how little TV you allow, there seems to always be a fond admiration-at least that I have noticed). I will use printables from PBSkids.org and the nick jr. website.

Of all of the materials that I use, the one I am loving most right now is a book called Learn at Home, Grade 1.
This book is just fantastic; it is full of ideas and worksheets and even has weekly lesson plans. I don't think they are enough to rely completely on, but it is a great jumping off point.

But I can not say this enough: USE THE LIBRARY! The library really does have so much to offer. It has saved us so much money and it has really helped my daughter fall in love with reading and research. I would say that the vast majority of our lessons include reading. Sure, we spend a small amount of time at a desk doing bookwork, but it is more important to me to be able to teach my children to learn. If they know how to learn, then they afford themselves endless opportunities.

Most importantly, Nevaeh is not yet 6 years old. Do you remember being 6? My husband hardly remembers his childhood, but I remember it to a frightening extent! I remember how I learned the most: playing dress-up, playing board games, playing with puppets, playing with paint, playing with play doh, playing by myself, and so on. Key word: playing. She's a kid. I really want to give her the space to be a kid. Yes, discipline and order are very important to me. Because of this, I set up structured play time. And we have house rules that she must follow. But it is so important to give her the space for her imagination to take her away. When I do this, I often find her pretending to be a waitress, and she practices writing while she takes my order at a restaurant. Doing this, she learns the role of serving and learns how to spell "hamburger" or "spaghetti." Or she decides that she wants to write someone a letter and draw them a picture. While playing outside, she gets side-tracked by the mail man and starts asking him questions about his job:
Nevaeh-"Hi! My name's Nevaeh. Who are you?"
Mail man- "I'm the Mail man."
Nevaeh- "What are you doing?"
Mail man: "Bringing your parents a package."
Nevaeh- "Why?"
Mail man- "That's my job. I deliver the mail and deliver packages."
Nevaeh- "Oh! I like you car."
Mail man- "Thank you, that is a special truck that I use to deliver the mail."

...and the conversation continued while Nevaeh learned all about the mail man, his job, and his family.

Did you know that part of kindergarten and first grade social studies is learning about professions? There is a whole lesson on firefighters, policemen, doctors, mail men, etc... And look, Nevaeh had a chance to learn all about the mail man and his job first hand! It is amazing how much day to day life lends toward the curriculum. I try to take advantage of these moments as much as possible. We are constantly making mental notes to remember a certain experience to talk about later if we do not have the opportunity to discuss it when it happens.

So you can now understand why I cannot always give a quick answer when I am asked what curriculum I use. Will I ever use a curriculum? I don't know, maybe. But right now, I really don't see the need for one. I really do enjoy putting together class materials and planning out our days (even if I plan to do nothing).

School is back in session

2010-08-05T18:52:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a break, school is back in session. (For some reason that phrase brings the opening song to Saved by the Bell into my head.) lucky us, our timing actually correlates with public schools so we are able to catch a break on back to school supplies! We took a break during the summer this year and concentrated mainly on reading. Nevaeh did a wonderful job learning to read over the past couple of months and even completed a reading program at our local library. The program gave us an opportunity to learn a lot of things and Nevaeh built a good relationship with the librarian. Nevaeh has also started doing chores around the house to learn about money. She is learning the value of saving , honest work, and learning to count her cash. She hopes that she can buy a new bike soon.

Aidan's summer accomplishments mainly revolve around the fact that he learned how to use a crayon and keep his art concentrated on just the paper instead of the table, chairs, and walls! I also learned that it saves my sanity to put him in his booster chair and buckle him in at the dining room table when it is time for him to engage in art work. Aidan is also mastering the major accomplishment of building his vocabulary! He is finally getting the guts to attempt using words instead of pointing and grunting like a cave man. This is a big relief to all of us ;)

But our biggest news probably has to be that we have a new addition to the family! Liam Killian was born July 13, 2010. He weighed 7 pounds and 3 ounces and measured 21 inches long. His labor and birth went very smoothly and he was born without any complications. I couldn't have asked for better. My recovery has been a breeze as well! Thank goodness! I just don't have time to be ill!

So, I will be blogging our adventures as often as time allots.

Sparks into flames

2010-05-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

My lack of energy has slowed down our schooling a lot, but Nevy seems to be pressing on. I think I may have accidentally bribed her to learn how to read. And I’m OK with that. She has been talking about going to school with the big kids and sitting in a classroom and all that jazz. So, I thought it might be time to sign up with the homeschool group that we have been visiting, and get her involved in the group’s classes. So, I told Nevy that she could take a class in the fall if she learned how to read over the summer. Well, we have been working on reading the Progressive Phonics books (along with her “fun” books), and her phonics skills had yet to develop, till she had some motivation. The day before yesterday, she sounded out words on her own for the first time. And my cup overflows! I had to keep myself from jumping out of my skin to celebrate! She is so proud of herself too.

So, we took a trip to the library this week and celebrated by getting a fun detective book (Nate the Great) and a book about our solar system (The Solar System, A TRUE Book) because she loves outer space. And Aidan finally picked out his first library book. We got information about the summer reading program, and started getting pumped about all of the stories that she is going to be able to read and fun activities going on at the library this summer. It makes me tired just thinking about it!

While I went to my midwife appointment yesterday, a friend of the family (Sunita) came to play with Nevaeh. They went to the park adjacent to our new church building and she made fast friends with a boy there and invited him to church. She got a little bit frustrated while learning the rules to “Red light Green light” but Sunita said that she seemed to overcome this easily enough after a little pep talk. Sunita also beamed about the ray of sunshine Nevy was for a couple of other children, when she bent down to tie her new friend’s shoe for him, and when she was playing and singing songs about Jesus with no shame at all.

Aidan and I were able to have a good time at my midwife appointment. It was nice to have some one on one time with him. He seemed to really enjoy it too. He babbled and babbled and just had a fun time playing and flirting with everyone. He really enjoyed being able to walk and hold my hand instead of riding in the stroller (that’s what I normally do when Nev is with us). He is becoming such a big boy! And he’s such a good big boy at that!

Sometimes I worry about the choices I have made (I suppose like every parent). I worry about Nevy resenting me for not allowing her to attend public school for various reasons. I also worry about my teaching skills and often wonder if she is missing out on anything because of the type of education that I am giving her. We can’t afford fancy curricula, and so most of the material that I present is patch worked together by myself. But then my worries are calmed when I get the feedback on days like yesterday. It really meant a lot to hear the stories from just a simple visit to the playground. Hearing those stories seemed to calm the worries that I tend to dwell on too often by showing me how Nevy is benefiting from school at home. And the moment she realized that she could read was monumental. She gained a new confidence in herself, and I gained a new confidence in myself. I realized at this moment that we CAN do this. This homeschool thing may work out after all. And sharing moments like that with her make it all worth it.

My First Post

2010-05-17T10:05:00.001-07:00

I thought it was about time that I started a home school blog. I mean, I have a blog for just about everything, why not make one for the life of my family! I’m not always good at keeping up with this sort of stuff, but I am going to do my best. I have the time at the moment to write for this sort of stuff, but I am about to have my third baby, and I expect that will keep me busy on top of homeschooling, my baby carrier business, my doula business, and being a Children’s pastor. So, if you don’t hear from me for a while, I’m off somewhere doing WAY too many things. I love it!

I guess I could start out with why I homeschool. Honestly, I thought I would homeschool when I was younger but when it came time for my daughter to go to preschool, I must have forgotten that this is something I wanted to do. So, I started looking for preschools. Well, we had recently moved to the “hood” but it bordered a really awesome neighborhood in Atlanta. I was hoping that we’d somehow be able to get my daughter into one of the billions of awesome preschools nearby. No such luck. So after the trials and tribulations of looking for a good school to send my daughter to, we decided to educate her at home.

I’m glad we started at her age, because it was easy. And FUN! I am glad things worked out the way they did, because the more I read, and the more thought that I put into it; the more I wanted to teach the kids at home. There are so many of our family values that are contradicted the way public (and many private) schools are run, and I really enjoy being the person responsible for my children’s education.

So far we have completed preschool and Kindergarten. Nevaeh (my daughter), has just started first grade material. But we are in no rush. She will be six at the end of September, so we do try to take lots of time between learning for fun adventures, leisure activities, lots of snuggles, and to give mom a break. This actually works out great, because Nevaeh tends to want to read a lot during her breaks and she spends a lot of time developing her own interests. So it’s working out.

But maybe I’m jumping ahead. I’ll tell you a bit about our family. My husband (Dale) is a priest in the Anglican church and I am the children’s pastor at the church. It’s a new church less than a year old in downtown Atlanta. We live in East Lake, just east of East Atlanta Village. We have two kids, and we are expecting another in the next 8- 10 weeks or so. Nevaeh is 5, and Aidan is 16 months. Our parenting style is pretty traditional. Discipline is important in our household, and we enforce our rules with time outs, loss of privileges, and repeat offenses get the mega punishments. We also reward good behavior with lots of praise and the gaining of privileges. We try to parent as biblically as possible, and hope that our parenting style is helping to develop people with a strong foundation that reflect our family values.

Our values center on our belief in Christ. As Christians, we try to take care of ourselves and the things around us. We do our best to teach our children to live minimalistic instead of being wasteful. We try to teach them to be conservative in our spending and generous with our giving. As a result, some of the surface things that you might see in our life style is a lot of second/third/fourth hand items in our household. I also make as many things as I can by hand out of whatever I can get my hands on. Occasionally, we will make our own soaps, we make as much food from scratch as we can, and we try not to waste. I cloth diaper my kids, and try to teach the understanding of toilet use from an early age (also known as elimination communication). We hardly watch TV, so we do not have cable. It was polluting our lives and thought that it would be necessary to get rid of it. We try to be very active in our community as much as possible. Hopefully my blog will reflect the lifestyle I have just outlined. If not anything else, it will be a good record of the goals set forth and things we have achieved over a period of time!

Anyhow instead of rambling, I’m going to end my first post and we’ll pick up the next time something interesting happens!