The emperor has no clothes on

One of the summer projects I have as a homeschooling mom is to preread a few key books my daughter has scheduled for her curriculum. In the elementary years, our literary adventures were a pleasure romp—wonderful stories of kids living in other places and times, biographies that inspired us, gripping mysteries that we couldn't lay down until we finished.

But with each passing year, I've had to be more attentive to screening out titles that I think would not be good for her, not in line what our aims are for her education, character development, and spiritual growth. When she was little, she would have nightmares for weeks after seeing something as innocuous as “Willie Wonka” or a good old World War II movie.

I realize that every child is different in their development, tolerances, and so on, and thus, we shape our curricula choices to that. And admittedly, my student is on the conservative side and I'm aware of the impact of troubling material on her.

But with the advent of high school and the prevailing pressure to get a “well-rounded” education, to be college-prepped and whatever else, I've thought that she needs to read the literature “greats” and delve deeper into the works that have shaped our world.

And yes, I still think some of that is important. Some.

I took up The Great Gatsby to preread, and, not having ever read it, was really primed for a true literary experience. I'd read all sorts of comments from Christian homeschool reviewers, from positive to glowing—one even declared it to be her favorite book. It appears on most recommended homeschool book lists. According to secular reviews, it apparently stands at the pinnacle of great writing and example of “the best.” One even claimed it to be the quintessential American novel.

Huh? Am I missing something?

It's a story that serves a buffet of pitiful and not very original destruction and despair of man without God. Lust, adultery, betrayal, materialism, selfishness, murder, disillusionment, alcoholism, cheating, strange alliances...the list goes on. Maybe that was the author's point; indeed, the reviewers pointed out that this was a compelling picture of the Roaring 20s. Maybe the writing was excellent; I really did savor the author's mastery of words. But the lack of redemption—that element which makes story, story—was missing.

I'm using Gatsby as an example here; there are many books that fall under this type of writing. But I'd like to ask a question. Why do we read things like this? As a Christian, how does this line up with the command in the Bible to “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” (I Thessalonians 5:22)  Or how about: “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.” (Ephesians 5:11, 12). To consider ourselves or our students as not “well-educated,” not able to really understand the true issues at work behind the human experience if we don't explore such books, is, in my opinion, unthinking. Is this education? We're not supposed to be determining our values and creed from other people's views or experience, even if it comes cloaked in fine writing or compelling story.

I think the emperor has no clothes on.

Did you know that the Bible says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)  Pretty stiff words. And yet I'm really concerned that by just accepting a book—or anything, for that matter—touted as “good” or “great” even from a trusted source, we may be failing to discern what really IS good and evil.

I can see plenty of destruction and its analysis in a daily dose on the news, if it's understanding about the depravity of man I want. (And I say, “there's nothing new under the sun”!)

Rather, there's a lifetime of good reading available out there—classic literature—that challenges us, changes us, and calls us to higher places. Is this not what we want for our children? I think time is too short to be spending it on things that don't have lasting value by Kingdom standards. Yes, I want my daughter to have a good education. Yes, I want her to be prepared to deal with the difficult and challenging world out there. But it seems to me that this is done by growing her mind and spirit on the good food of goodness. A diet of darkness produces darkness.

So I've been challenged to reexamine our “diet” and see how I can do a better job of evaluating it based on the overlay of God's standard. My student will not be reading Gatsby or others like it in our school, and I'll be searching for some more of that life-changing good stuff.

Time to evaluate

I'm enjoying a breather of a few days to catch up after a busy, busy May...and before a busy, busy June.  Next week is our church's Vacation Bible School, then a homeschool conference, and a couple of weeks with our families.  It's been wonderful to get my house clean, take time to cook appealing meals, have more time in the Word, and watch the grass grow.

As a homeschool mom, though, it's hard to put aside thoughts and plans for the coming year.  I no sooner finish one year than I'm prayerfully planning studies and schedules for the next.  And while I would truly love a mental break from it all, I'm grabbing the chance to analyze what worked and what didn't for us.

I ended this year feeling particularly drained and overdone, out of touch with myself and our home life.  Some of the outside commitments I made took more planning and execution than I anticipated.  We had to adjust our curriculum and scheduling a number of times.  Various deadlines kept me forging ahead, and I never seemed to have my week planned well for anything.  This was a year that SweetPea and I needed to do a lot of talking and processing to help her work through life.  Family health issues took their toll on our daily life, and I just lost my motivation to "get out there and get 'er done."  To say it simply, I ran out of gas.

So in looking ahead, I'm making some decisions.  I've only got a couple of years left in our homeschool journey and I want them to be good ones.  I realize that I can't control what life brings, but with the choices I do have, I want to make sure that they're well thought-out.  I've been guilty of taking on too many outside activities, some in the name of giving my daughter a well-rounded education or neat opportunities, or pitching in to run programs and events.  Both SweetPea and I have felt the inner exhaustion of not enough break time to synthesize, savor, and appreciate the full value of our experiences.  More isn't always better.

Gratefully, she and I are of the same mind.  We're going to have more of a 'home' focus (you know, the first part of the word 'homeschool'!) and leave room for the relationships and activities the Lord would have for us.  We're already feeling a gleeful sense of relief at the prospect.  I'm going to work on four things...

Peacefulness.  (Focus on following the Lord's lead and be guided by His peace.)

Intentionality.  (Think it through before I do--whatever!)

Ownership.  (Keep the control I properly should have for our time, activities, energy, and goals.)

Margin.  (Keep some space for fun and rest and spontaneity!)

And to start our summer off on the right foot, tomorrow we're intentionally and peacefully going to enjoy some margin at a lake with some dear friends!

Some thoughts from a high school seminar

We ended a very busy week with a full day yesterday attending a homeschooling-high-school seminar put on by our state organization.  I'm a semester late on it, but c'est la vie.  Better late than never!

Thankfully, I'm not too far off track in what I've been doing for record-keeping, grades, etc.  However, we got a lot of new information about after-high-school options, testing, etc.  Right now I'm overload about all the stuff you have to do for a college degree, but at least we have a lot of choices now as to how to get that done.  I'll cross that bridge a bit later.

In no particular order, these were some of the points about high school I thought noteworthy:

• All the same reasons you chose to homeschool for the elementary years still apply.  Don't give in to fear.
• Don't let 'college' drive your life or your homeschool.
• Don't be driven by the calendar--consider a 'gap' year after high school.
• At Ivy league schools, 1% identify themselves as born-again Christians.  If you send your children to Rome, don't be surprised if they come back Romans.
• Character is pre-eminent!
• Whatever character flaws your child has will come out even more in high school.
• Any tendency to laziness and other character flaws in your child really show up in math.  (Good heads-up.)
• Education is discipleship and all of life is education.  Do as many field trips as you can.
• Don't spoon-feed them.  Make them take responsibility for their own education, help make them to be a self-motivated problem solver.
• In public schools, they cover only about 80% of the math textbooks--so don't feel you have to complete a book in a year.
• There's a huge dearth in America of students headed for STEM--S=sciences, T=technology, E=engineering, and M=mathematics.
• Enrollment of students in military service academies who were homeschooled is 5-10%.
• Attach the Word of God to everything we teach.
• To quote Vodie Baucham, "If you need to go to college, do it fast, cheap, and close to home."
• We need to teach our children how work; we need to change our definition.  When you work, you bless someone and bring glory to God.
• CLEP test scores are good for 20 years.
• Kids will rise to high standards if you set them high.
• Colleges look for students to have had American, British, and World Literature.  Always teach literature in the context of history.
• Outlining, timed essays, and research papers are important to learn.  Homeschooled students are typically not good at taking notes--make 'em learn!
• Engross your children in the book of Proverbs.
• In a study, millionaires said their reasons for success were 1.) honesty, 2.) supportive spouse, 3.) self-control, 4.) hard-working, and 5.) gets along with people.  Having a college degree was #16 on the list.

Well, there was lots more.  I came away filled with thankfulness once again that we have had the privilege of homeschooling, and with a renewed sense of 'God is with us'!  I don't have to do this in my own wisdom.

Onward and upward!

A silver lining

What's white and cold, comes in fluffy mounds, kids love it, and you can have too much of it?

No, it's not ice cream.

I'm staring out at our third 'occurrence' of it this week, piled coldly on top of every tree and bush, looking lovely and seasonal and, well, sort of defiant.  "There's more where I came from!  You just think spring will be here in a few weeks...Punxatawney Phil is only a rodent.  What does he know?  I am the Snow, I cover all."

Ahem.  No, I'm not really morbid, just feeling a bit confined.  The white stuff has defined our life this week--church cancelled, quick-get-to-the-grocery-store before the next round, too cold to walk, not too cold to shovel, and shovel, and shovel.  Daydreams of warm beaches with silky white sand, the smell of green things, and hot sun on my head interfere with school and pots of hot soup.  Flip-flops, sunscreen, iced tea, and crickets...sigh.

But back to reality.  The confinement has actually been really good for me--I've steeped myself in high school planning and praying, a much needed exercise.  I sense the Lord leading us to a more out-of-the-box approach for SweetPea's last three years, so with little distraction I've been able to read or reread some good homeschooling books to lift my vision a bit.  I'm loving Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+U+La.  Barbara Shelton brings you back to the spiritual reasons we homeschool and encourages you to truly follow His lead--bravely--and not settle for the safety of a pre-scribed plan.  After a semester of frustrations on many fronts, I've concluded that both of us are chafing at the constraints of someone else defining what our studies should look like.  It worked wonderfully in the elementary years, but now that she's beginning to discover some of her God-given interests and abilities, I think it's time to customize the system a bit!

I'm rereading A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Van DeMille (wow, if you were public-schooled, you ought to read this!), and The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.  This last one is specifically for the classical homeschool model, but I have found some wonderful stuff in it, not the least of which is a great reading list for high school.

Anyway, I feel a bubbling of excitement in me of new things, of adventure with the Lord, of seeing in actuality the promise of homeschooling at its best for SweetPea's best.  God is able, is He not?  I don't have to pull this off myself, I think I just need to get out of the way and let Him lead.

Yay!  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Ready for it to be done

Well, I don't know about you, but SweetPea and I are ready to get back to a schedule.  We decided this morning that neither of us does very well with too much free time and no limitations on things like eating, computer, etc.  (I can't believe I'm saying this.)  Seems like we default to the laziest and easiest thing--which is really wonderful, don't get me wrong.  We needed it after such a busy semester.  But now we're both, shall I say eager ?, for school to begin again.

We had a wonderful Christmas with our snowy-mountain getaway with family.  Got to get my fill of the darling baby, enjoy our traditional Scandinavian food, and drink in the incredible scenes everywhere.  I'm sorry my whole family couldn't be there, but as we usually have no one with us for Christmas, this was very special.

If I were an unschooler, I would say that SweetPea did school nearly our whole Christmas break.  She's been on a photography frenzy...setting up a new photography blog, learning the ins and outs of Adobe PhotoShop and doing a beautifully creative job, poring over her new digital photography books, reading and absorbing everything she can get on others' blogs, online tutorials, etc.  She's researched cameras both online and in the stores to see what she needs to be saving her money for, read reviews, and committed to a savings plan to get it soon.  And yes, I'm going to actually use this toward an elective credit.  It seems to be the quintessential homeschool mom's dream-come-true:  student teaching herself because of her own passion for the subject.  How do we make that happen with math???

So a couple more days of hang-loose, then 2011--here we come.

A "CCC" week

CCC?

Catch-up, Creativity, & Cooking!

I decided we just had to take a break and regroup--the house, our schooling, but most of all, our inner selves.  When I melt down over little things, that's a sure sign I've got to stop and fill my well.  I've been doing too much 'melting' lately, so I made the executive decision (O, wonderful freedom of homeschooling) to have some fun and rest time...and it's been wonderful!

Catch-up on home tasks, paperwork, gifts to mail, raking leaves, phone visits, rest, thinking, reading, talking

Creativity - some space just to play...piano and guitar, writing, jewelry-making, photography

Cooking - I'm having SweetPea shadow me in the kitchen, something that seems to get bumped a lot of the time due to other priorities.

I even had the blessing of attending our ladies Bible study yesterday, something I usually can't fit in.  Since most of the families in the church homeschool, the kids do their independent school studies for a good hour, then have a fabulous romp for another while we do our study.  Yesterday it was Capture the Flag in the wintry cold--so fun to see the breathless laughter and red cheeks.

And we get to end the week with art class and a Scandinavian Christmas Fair.  Too fun.

It might be hard to get back into the rigors of algebra and all the rest next week, but I'd have to say "mission accomplished."  I think I'll have to ponder the idea of adjusting our schedule to have a week like this regularly.  Just knowing it was out there waiting for me every few weeks would be bliss.

Scheduling a teen's life

A couple of weeks ago, I finally made the decision that I should no longer be micro-managing SweetPea's schedule.  I've been trying for a couple of years now to really get her to see the 'big picture' of our week and month, to learn to plan ahead and take ownership of what she needs to get done when--with little success. 

So I put together a planner for her and told her that from now on, she's responsible to keep it up-to-date.  (Bold move!)

I give her a pretty new 3-ring notebook, added a bunch of blank tabs and notebook paper, then gave her some time to do an artsy spine and cover to insert, and to personalize the dividers.  I went to Donna Young's website and printed out big double-spread calendar pages on card stock, front and back, then had her spend some time putting in all the important dates from my calendar for the coming year.

You know what?  She loves it!  It's now her "Life in a Notebook" and I have successfully passed the baton!  :-)  Each Monday morning we sit for a bit and update all our comings and goings, check in on projects, brainstorm ideas, and talk through what any given event will require.  I suspect that deep down somewhere she's an inveterate planner like her mom, and I'm having the fun of drawing it forth!

A great writing curriculum

Honestly, I can't believe how I've let my blog slide these past few weeks.  Chalk it up to that old 'busy' excuse--truly.  I take solace in noting that others around here are in the same boat!

We've finished up our second week of school.  Wow, those first few days were tough!  Neither of us wanted to do it.  But we've finally hit our stride again, not finding it so hard to get up early, discovering once again that we really do better with a schedule.

 I have to give a huge thumbs-up for the WriteShop curriculum!  I'm very impressed.  It's very detailed, leaves nothing for you, the teacher, to have to figure out, even to check-off lists that enable you to grade each assignment objectively.

Best of all, I love the process it leads you through, beginning to end.  The student must not only edit their own work--at least twice per assignment--but they must know why.  It requires a thoroughness that I can see will develop excellent lifelong writing habits.  I also love the way you can adapt the assignments to your core curriculum.  In a word, I'd say it demystifies the writing process.

So far, so good!  I'm happy to recommend it.

Apologetics today

We had a great opportunity today to hear Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis) do a presentation for students on defending your faith.  Wow, these guys have certainly done their homework!  I've heard and read much on the topics they present, but it was fresh and so well presented.  My favorite part was the discussion on DNA, how they have discovered that the DNA code is really a language--complete with counterparts to letters, words, and sentences.  God is so awesome!

I need to do some more browing on their website, but I'd certainly recommend it as a fabulous resource for homeschoolers.  He told us that very shortly after the news story came out recently on the "we finally created life in the laboratory," they had an article posted addressing it in detail.  The website is:  www.answersingenesis.org. 

Now I want to go see their Creation Museum in Kentucky!

Snow and school

It's a cozy night to stay home...a snowstorm rageth outside (16" predicted over the next 24 hours!)...a fire crackles in the fireplace.  It's a typical Colorado spring snowstorm, wet and sticky and heavy.  Lots of shovelling tomorrow, prayers for Hubby as the makes the trek to work, hot soup and a quiet day of school (if we can concentrate!).  We might need to build a snowman, don't ya think?

It's been a good week.  Though all the credit goes to the Lord and His mercy, it also helps to have the prospect of a long and lovely spring break ahead of us.  We're headed for a visit to AZ in a few days to see our families and enjoy that famous sunshine.  All three of us have been showing definite signs of needing a break!  So I can rather smugly smile at the snow piling up and know that it might well be the last one I'll see this winter.  Ask me if I'm sorry. 

SweetPea and I have been studying the pre-WWI era in our studies, the tangled and desperate affairs across the globe that erupted in that horrible war.  We've had some really great discussions this week about governmental leadership, the 'masses' and what moves them to go one direction or another, slavery, and these end times.  Truly, history does repeat itself, and it seems also that the great and terribly hard-won lessons of one generation don't carry over to the next.  Why is that??

She's also been reading through a book of short biographies of all the presidents and has been quite struck with how rare it was to have one who really governed with wisdom and left a legacy of good.  Again, we've had a chance to contrast man's idea of 'ruling' with what God has instructed in His Word.  Plenty of points to bring up about our own times!

I love homeschooling!  What a wonderful opportunity to help our kids become thinkers, to understand the deep issues of life and see them by God's light.

With high school beginning in just a few months, I'm starting to research what I'm supposed to do and how.  I found a wealth of stuff on the HSLDA website, and I'm digging into Barbara Shelton's Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+U+La.  Wow, what an amazing resource!  It'll take a while to process all that's in it, but I love her focus on really being led of the Lord for each step, for new and fresh thinking about His design for my daughter's education.

Time to call it a day.  Thank You, Lord, for Your wonderful love and kindness.  It is a very great privilege to belong to you and to be the object of Your tender care.

 

 

Some good stuff in school

It was slow going last week trying to get back into the mental mode of school, but we did it.  Both SweetPea and I are glad to be back at it--we just seem to do better with a schedule.

We finished a very interesting book last week, Dr. Jenner and the Speckled Monster.  It's the story of smallpox, the ghastly impact on our world over the centuries, and the discovery of the vaccine that literally conquered this "monster" and changed the world.  I highly recommend the book even as an adjunct to a science program.  In fact, it's a fascinating read for anyone, and certainly throws a different slant on history.

I've said it here before, but I'm really delighted with our math curriculum, Teaching Textbooks.  I hear comments regularly from SweetPea of how much she likes the pace of it, the clear instruction, and how well she is understanding the foundational concepts of each topic.  Thank You, Lord!  This is music to my ears after a couple of years of curriculum-hopping to find what would work for her after we finished elementary Singapore.  I think we can just stick with it now through high school and expect good results.

And this week we will begin Great Expectations by Dickens as a read-aloud.  From the looks of the study notes, we'll be awash with new vocabulary.  A decidedly wonderful way to learn words! 

I'm using Writer's INC this semester as the basis of essay writing study, reading and discussing each of us with our own copy.  I love this resource and have been trying to use it more as a study text for some time, so this is a great chance to do that.

So we're off to a good start for 2010, and I'm so thankful for this amazing privilege of homeschooling! 

Some Christmas reads

This week we've read aloud "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever"--what a fun book!  We laughed and cried with it, and said to each other how well written it was.  Very good message of how the church has portrayed Christianity, not always in the most clear or welcoming light.  I'm glad for the fresh reminder of Christ's unconditional love.

I remembered we have a very old copy of "The Christmas Carol," annotated for school studies way back when, so we're going to read this aloud as a family in the next couple of weeks.  Who doesn't know this story by heart--with all the many spin-offs we've seen or heard?  But there's just nothing like pure Dickens.  I subscribe to The Writer magazine, and in the most recent issue, one article pointed out how excellent Dickens was at characterization.  So we'll piggyback some writing study along with our Christmas enjoyment.

(Ever the homeschoolers, right?   )

A visitor, a play week, and a good book

A fun week on the way...no school!  One of those privileges of homeschooling.  We started school early in August to be able to take some time off during the year, this week being one of them.  My beloved aunt, who is like a big sister to me, is coming to visit from AZ and we're gonna play.

I'm looking forward to endless cups of tea and some rollicking laughter.  I don't know if it's our chemistry or what, but my aunt and I can laugh till we're crying.  I'm due for some of that!  She is one of the neatest people I know and one of my all-time heroes.  (She was The Agent that introduced my beloved Hubby to me!)  She had a long career in missions, serving in South and Central America, retired now, but still full of the joy and zeal of the Lord.  I'm glad SweetPea is going to have the chance to just soak her up this week and glean some treasures.

And wouldn't you know it...we're welcoming her with SNOW!  We're due for some tomorrow and more later in the week.  Seems too early somehow.  Ah, well, once our yard is really cleaned up from fall leaves (they're still falling), then we can go into "cozy" mode indoors.

We just finished reading Escape Across the Wide Sea as a read-aloud.  It follows a French Huguenot family in the mid-1600s who have to escape religious persecution and end up on a very long journey to freedom.  While the book was neither really long or deep, it was a very compelling story, based on a true story.  We learned about the slave trade, sugar plantations in the West Indies, and how the French Christians finally found a place to put down roots in America.  A good story--I'd recommend it!

 

A prayer friend

Of the many things I'm thankful for--and that's a lot!--I'm so very thankful for a special friend God brought into my life early on in my homeschool journey.  She's a kindred spirit in the truest sense, and the Lord has grown a precious friendship between us through the years.

One of the greatest things we share besides our love of the Lord and His Word is prayer.  Every Sunday that we're able, we have a phone prayer time over our coming week.  We pray over our schools and kids, our husbands and schedules and stresses.  Even just the freedom to talk out our needs and concerns helps to unburden our hearts or clarify our thinking and faith.

And wow, what a difference it makes in my week!   Not only does God answer prayer! but as the week unfolds it is no end encouraging to know that she's praying for me about whatever specific needs I have.  We have gone through many deep waters together...illness and serious health concerns, job layoff, support group crises, spiritual attacks and oppression, discouragement and weakness, parenting issues, homeschool stresses and needs...the list goes on.  We've had a safe place to talk it all out and know that nothing but love and support are there for us.  Thank You, Lord, and thank you, my friend.

We've seen the Lord's faithfulness and VICTORY through it all, whether the answer comes right away or has been a process.  It's become a commitment that we can't afford not to do, even with our busy schedules.

So I strongly encourage you to ask the Lord to give you a prayer friend if you don't have one.  I think homeschooling is a 'front-line' work of God that the enemy targets any way he can (you know what I mean, don't you?!), and in such agreement God promises to show His power.

"As iron sharpens iron, a friend sharpens a friend."  Pr. 27:17

This 'n that

It feels good to back to our routine!  I guess we all function better that way around here.  The weather is mild enough to be out and walking regularly with sunshine to lift the winter doldrums.

School this week looks like this...

- The waning years of the Roman Empire, the invasion of the Huns (we're using both the Usborne Encyclopedia of History and the Kingfisher History Encylopedia--they compliment each other very well)

- Very interesting read-aloud on St. Patrick called "Flame Over Tara," excellent description of early life and Christianity in Ireland (I don't think I'll ever view St. Patrick's Day quite the same)

- Planet study and Moody videos on our galaxy and space

- Newspaper journalism/analysis and writing practice

- Oral presentation prep for our support group class on (I can't give away the topic lest any class participants might be reading this!)

Not to mention...SweetPea's practice and rehearsal for a special spring piano concert on Baroque music, the set-up of the latest of our animal menagerie--a hermit crab, and the start-up of her first little business--jewelry-making.  We have a friend who runs a homeschool bookstore who sells cottage crafts and is willing to see SP's stuff.  (I think I can count it as economic study, right??)

I'm having fun experimenting with my new pressure cooker, although I think I can safely say "timing is everything."  Did you know that by overcooking meat it actually gets dried out?!  But if you keep on cooking it it finally falls apart and gets tender.  ha!  Who would have thought?  Sounds like some kind of a safety net to me.  But I have had a couple of good successes so I press on with the pressure!  (Bad joke.)

Have a great week!

 

Heads-up for homeschool moms

I had the funniest dream last night.  I was at a homeschool conference and had paid $15 to attend some kind of unspecified special session.  We were all seated in an auditorium when the presenter and two helpers instructed us to all put on our coats.  There was a flurry of activity as we obeyed.  Then on the floor at the bottom of either side of the stage the helpers turned on two tall black smokestack-looking machines, which hummed and puffed out some kind of mist.  The presenter told us all to lay down as best we could in our seats, snuggling down in our coat-blankets, that the mist was going to help us all go to sleep. 

By now I was thinking this was all pretty weird, so I was fighting the effects of the sleep-mist, looking around and trying to figure out what was going on.  The rest of the gals in the auditorium started passing out poppies-of-Oz style.  I struggled to stay awake, on my guard, while most of the alloted session-hour went by.  I was getting pretty mad by now at the false advertising and waste of our money. 

At the end, the presenter woke the audience and said,"Okay, ladies, this is what this was all about.  Most of you moms never get enough sleep so we thought we would build a nap into your day. You may go now."

Ha!  So either I was really tired...or you need to go and get a nap!! 

Homeschooling an only

Every so often SweetPea and I have to have a pep talk about her being an only child--this week was one of those times.  She would love a sibling and since that's just not a probability, we have to go back to the basics--God has defined our family as it is and how do we live richly and with contentment within that definition?

I can't blame her.  It's often a lonely road and we are challenged to bring about that balance she wants.  We live in a neighborhood with no kids she can play with and puppies don't talk, P.E. is really boring (like how exciting is jump-rope?), we have to be careful not to be too demanding on friends and not to feel pushed to do too many outside activities to compensate.  All cousins and extended family live in another state.  Her mom has to be mom and teacher and friend and playmate, and when you're the whole student body, there's just not a lot of room for mess-up!

I've often told her she is having a unique opportunity to become good friends with herself.  People often live lives filled with so much activity and other people that if ever they are faced with significant aloneness, they are at a loss.  So I encourage her to write and develop all kinds of creativity...and to get to know Jesus, who is her best Friend.

I've grown to trust the Lord's leadership in her life, too.  Since her life is appointed as it is, He is arranging experiences for her that are tailor-made to teach her what she'll need to live a successful life.  For example, I keenly miss the lessons she would learn about unselfishness and care of others that she would have if she had brothers and sisters.  But she is learning these same things in friendships, both by experience and by observation.  And she'll certainly learn such things when it's her turn to be a mom, won't she?!

When it comes to homeschooling, I do feel pressure to "do it right" this first time around since it's my only time time around!  I'm working on that.  Part of me would love to just take a whole year and do all the fun and unschooling-sort-of stuff Right Brain whispers to me.  Alas, Left Brain usually shakes such nonsense out of me and we press on.  BUT, SweetPea told me just the other day that she is really enjoying all of school this year so I have no plans to rock the boat.

God is good!  I'm thankful He didn't leave me out of this fabulous journey of homeschooling.  One kid or many, I think it's one of the most exciting things going on the planet.

 

Timeline idea

I wanted to share a neat idea for a timeline that we're using this year in our history studies.  It's actually a composite of several I'd read about.  It requires the continuous-feed computer printer paper--you know, the kind none of us uses anymore!  Don't tear it apart, just tear off the strip with the holes and count out a page for every hundred years from 5000 or 6000 B.C. to now (a good idea is to use only one page for the early couple of millenia--we don't have much of a record of history then).  I split my timeline into two sections at 1 A.D. just for ease of handling.

Then draw a continuous timeline about halfway down through all the pages and label the 100 year marks.  I also made 50-year marks.  Write the B.C./A.D. year at the top corner on each side of each page.

The kids can add timeline dates either vertically or horizontally and color-code them using colored pencils for different categories--political, births and deaths, religious or scientific events, civilizations, etc.  They can draw pictures, paste in graphics, use stickers, whatever.

You can then keep it in a manila pocket folder.  The great thing is, they only have to have it opened to a double spread at any one time, but can stretch it out for the "big view" anytime.  It's working great for us and I envision this as something that can be used and kept for years.

Happy timelining!

 

Summer's end

We've been back to school for a week now, but I must confess it's been slow going for both of us. Summer ease has spoiled us for a disciplined routine--we're too quick to give in to the lure of a break for any reason! It'll come, I know, I'm just loathe to let go of the simplicity of sunshine and play.

Don't you love August? Red, juicy tomatoes and perfectly ripe melons, peaches that drip with each bite. The din of crickets at night. Flowers exploding with color everywhere you look. Gardens that are finally yielding the fruit of your hard labors. Green, green, green. Thank You, Lord!

Our studies this year, 7th grade for SweetPea, include Sonlight's Core 6, Saxon 8/7 math, Apologia General Science, and some fun add-ons. I'm pleasantly surprised with Saxon. We've done Singapore and Horizons and had heard a fair bit of negative press about Saxon. However, we're finding that the explanations are solid and clear, daily problem set varied, and good review presented. Even the drill seems good for her this year as a prep for Algebra next, so I'm pleased. Best of all, she loves it! This from my non-math girl.

So...by God's grace, I'm expecting a good year. He is so faithful.