Getting the hang of it

I think it is safe to say that after 5 months we are getting the "hang" of homeschooling. Here is a picture of my sweet girl working on her history timeline. So far we have worked our way from the Incas, Atzecs and Mayans up to the Revolutionary War. I can honestly tell you that I am learning much of this history for the first time. Oh, I learned the facts and a few important dates, but I never really internalized it and understood the real motivations behind many pivotal events in American History. I'm laughing at the pictures of the tv character, Arthur, in the background. My son is obsessed with drawing and he loves to watch Marc Brown draw Arthur. My five year old's rendition is pretty good, don't you think?

I am learning to relax and let learning be our guide. I am also finding that lapbooks are a great way to commit a lot of information to memory. In a previous post I mentioned a shark lapbook from a Magic School Bus chapter book. Here is the finished product:

I'm also very proud of the fact that even though I do not like math, my daughter has been progressing well with third grade math. We have all of our multiplication facts committed to memory, and we are doing well with division. She is most proud of her knowledge of Roman Numerals and a mastery of money -- we like to play store to learn how to make change!

Now, all of this has come with a "price" to our family.... our home is markedly messier, the laundry piles up a little more, and the kitchen table has been permanently transformed to a work table (we would like to convert our playroom to a school room this summer, but no time for that now), and I have less time for myself. But the peace I have from knowing my child is in a loving environment all day where she is learning at her own pace and loving most days makes it all worth it.

It is also amazing to me the people and opportunities God places in our lives to carry us through any season of life. I have a dear friend from church who invited us on a nature walk today. She is quite knowledgeable about the outdoors and had wonderful things to share with us. I have lived in this particular area of Georgia for five years and had never been to this nature area. She provided a scavenger hunt for the walk, and my daughter promptly pulled out her camera to take photographs of all the things we found. Nature is really full of some wonderfully amazing things if you take the time to look around you.

More importantly, it was a time for us to spend time with a good friend, and also time for us to enjoy the mother-daughter relationship and appreciate everything God has given us.

So, here it is 5:15 p.m. and I am hoping the dinner I set out to thaw is actually thawed, the children are playing outside pressing leaves for daddy, and I can barely keep my eyes open because I'm so tired. But, I can honestly say that for now - life is good!

Why is always the children that suffer?

Our world is such a dangerous place, full of so many evils and bad influences for our children. The family should be the one place a child feels safe and loved. In my own life at this moment I can tell you about three families that I know of who are going through painful divorces, all where children are involved. Tonight I even found myself asking God how He could allow this to happen to some children who are very special to me? All I can ask if that if you read this post, please say a prayer for all children who are being affected by divorce and its aftermath. While I know several families that have gone through divorce amicably, I now know several that have not been so nice and the CHILDREN SUFFER. These children, who did not ask for any of this, are the ones who pay the steepest price.

So, while I was mostly consumed with my day with my two children, maybe I should have spent a little bit more of that day in prayer for the children who will not be in a loving and safe home tonight. Just a little something for us all to think about.

Revelations of a Homeschooling Mom

Tonight, as I was researching ways to enhance our study of George Washington, I had a revelation. My daughter learns best through reading quality literature. When she was in PS, she (and I!) were always frustrated because there wasn't enough time to read for pleasure. When she came home in the afternoons there was always homework to do -- most of it mind-numbing -- things like word searches, fill in the blanks, and copying your spelling words five times even if you know them already! By the time she could make it to a good book she was just too exhausted to read. When she did read a book (I will use the first book in The Little House series as an example), her teacher told her she needed to read it through twice before she took an Accelerated Reader test on it because it was worth so many points and she couldn't possibly have understood it all in just one reading. WHAT?!?!

Since she has been homeschooled she has read wonderful books such as "The Skippack School", "The Matchlock Gun", "Pedro's Journal", "Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims", "Pocahontas and the Strangers", "The Corn Grows Ripe", "A Lion to Guard Us". AND..... she has read the first five Harry Potter books! Wow. Talk about an education! This is just the list in the first five months.

I attribute a lot of this learning to our wonderful curriculum from Sonlight, and also from my research of the writings of Charlotte Mason.

Another revelation I had was that, in just a few short months, my daughter has come to like math. Today, she actually told me she loved a certain type of problem we were doing and could she just do a whole page of problems like this? WHAT?!?! Horizons Math is just fabulous... the lessons are broken up into six small sections that are achievable. The student is introduced to concepts slowly and over many lessons, and this repetition helps build confidence and mastery. The problems she liked today? The Distributive Property. Enough said.

I am kicking myself for not making this decision earlier. My soon to be homeschooled Kindergartner will benefit so much from the mistakes I made with my first child. I am just thankful God led us to this point and has provided for me to be at home and educate my children. I am blessed.