We are in the process of turning the upstairs of our garage into a schoolroom.  We hired the same construction company that built the garage, to finish it up for us.  They have worked so hard all week and have gotten the upstairs done, with just one closet door that has to be installed remaining.  We will do the rest of it.

We are painting the ceiling white, and putting a clear coat on the wood paneling.  Rich and I have always admired log cabins and we love the look of the wood.  

I decided to paint the trim sage green.

We still have some work to do, painting and then clearing out the stuff we had stored up there.  We are putting desks and chairs in the room, and a chalkboard.  My xanga pals have convinced me to get some of my nature photographs enlarged and framed for the walls.  I want to put verses and Bible posters on the walls, too.

I especially want the room to be peaceful, organized, and simple.  I want it to inspire learning.  Missionary Amy Carmicheal called her school building “The Happy Knowledge Place”.  I like that!

We have a sliding glass door, that leads out to a balcony.  It is a gorgeous view out to the woods, the long pond, and the chicken coop.  We are going to put two rocking chairs (that we already have) out there.  One for me and one for him.  

See the mattress by the sliding door?  I sat there last night with Sarah, looking through old Country Living magazines, while Rich and the boys worked and the others played with Thomas trains on the balcony.  It was a nice family time.

The most exciting part of the design is the “play pen”.  It is a nice roomy area for Seth and Sarah to play in during school.

Grace is standing in the big roomy closet that still needs it’s door.

I’m so thankful for this room.  We hope to put it to good use, teaching and nurturing the children.  

Happiness is interrupting Mama’s history lesson with a little dancing on the table.

I went to Target yesterday and bought the boys each a “first day of school shirt”.  I had gotten Grace one the other day when we were out together.  I also went to a children’s second hand store and got Sethie his slide.  It was very inexpensive and it should help keep him busy when we are working on school.

I got each of the children a school supplies container with crayons for the three younger ones.  (including Seth)  I got each of the school children scissors, a ruler, pens, glue, and paints.  The containers are labeled with each of their names and make quite the stack!

So, the big news is that we did decided to homeschool Caleb.  We have him in Kindergarten, David is in 2nd, Grace is in 6th, Ethan is in 7th, and Jacob is in 8th.

We had our first day yesterday.  We organized our notebooks and did a few worksheets.  I read them their History lesson about Leif Ericsson and they each made a notebook page about him.  We reviewed oceans and continents, and the days of Creation.

This morning, Caleb is already working on his school pages in my room, at the little table and chairs I picked up at a 2nd hand store.  We are slowly getting organized.  In fact, we recently decided to move our school into the garage.  We have an upstairs room that we are finishing, to put all of our school furniture and materials in.  I am looking forward to having the house for a HOME and the garage for our SCHOOL.  Two separate spaces.

I’ve only been up for an hour and my head is spinning already!  I hope to update this site often, since I will be spending so much time schooling the children.

“Reading Mrs. Wilder’s contributions, most folks doubtless have decided that she is a college graduate.  But, ‘my education has been what a girl would get on the frontier,’ she informs us.  ‘I never graduated from anything and only attended high school two terms.’  Folks who know Mrs. Wilder though, know she is a cultured, well-educated gentlewoman.  Combined with inherent ability, unceasing study of books has provided the necessary education, and greater things have been learned from the study of  life itself.”

From the book, Little House in the Ozarks

Caleb painted this last week, didn’t he do a nice careful job?

I’m so excited because our new curriculum for next year should be here any day now.  I ordered it last week….all from MFW’s website and all their suggestions for everything except Math.  We will continue using Teaching Textbooks.

I’m thrilled that Davy will be joining our school.  So happy!  I do need to order him a cursive writing book, I will get it from A beka.  He is starting 2nd grade with me, just like Grace was when I started homeschooling her.

I still don’t know what to do with Caleb.  It’s the strangest thing.  I go back and forth.  Now, I know God MUST have a plan for him.  Please continue to pray for us as we figure this out.  Rich wants to put him in public school, so we are leaning toward that.  But part (a big part) really wants to keep him home.  I’ve never liked the feeling of David “missing” from the rest of us, but he had his speech issues and we felt that public school served his condition and was necessary. 

Well, when our box of stuff comes I’ll take a picture.  I remember last year doing this and teasing the children that we may as well begin right away……….

Realistically, though, I am TAKING A NICE LONG BREAK SO I CAN ENJOY MY NEW (and probably last) BABY.

We only have a few pages (really, just pages) of reading left, the rest of L.A. and just a few lessons of math to go for Jacob and Ethan.   I’m so happy with how this year has been.  We’ve kept on track all year long.

The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.

– Henry Ward Beecher

I bought this book, and then went out to Costco and bought two more of them in the series.  I thought I would recommend them, here on my homeschooling blog, to children who want to learn more about the food they are eating.  As a homeschooling mom, my children have a lot of experience in grocery shopping, as they follow me from aisle to aisle, looking for the best deals and best foods to feed our growing family.  Also, my husband loves taking us out to eat, and the restaurant version of this book is very fascinating.  Not only are there “eat this, not that” suggestions in all the books, but there is also teaching on all the downfalls in restaurant and packaged food, such as high fructose corn syrup, unhealthy fats, and empty calories.  They have read and learned about the “bad stuff”, but there is plenty of advice about the good stuff.  We are encouraged to “eat the rainbow”, eating healthy fruits and veggies in bright colors.  The authors make us laugh with the wording of the text, and there are plenty of pictures to look at.  Even Davy knows which foods are “on the good side, or on the dark side”.  If Jacob has one of these books in his hands, he is sure to read most of it out loud to us.

“I learned that some restaurants sell food that is really bad for you.  Outback Steakhouse got an “F”.  Their baby back ribs are the worst food in America.  IHOP got an “F”, too.  Their omelets have 1,150 calories.”  ~Grace

“I think the books are fun to read because they have all these restaurant foods, and they say what’s good to eat and what’s not.  I’ve learned that the worst food is Outback Steakhouse ribs.  Then I learned that you’re supposed to eat the Fazoli’s Fettuccini Alfredo, and not the Cheesecake Factory kid’s pasta with alfredo sauce.  On the chicken sandwiches you’re supposed to eat the chick-fil-a chargrilled chicken club sandwich and not the Panera Chipolte chicken.  I think you will really like these books.”  ~Ethan

“These are the most interesting books on food that I have ever read.  They help you find the best choices at restaurants, grocery stores, amusement parks, etc.  For instance, I learned that the worst food in America is Outback Steakhouse’s baby back ribs.  The worst salad is California Pizza Kitchen’s Thai crunch salad, with 2,115 calories.  One 3 Musketeers bar has forty grams of sugar in it.”  ~Jacob

We are on week 31 of our 34 week school year.  We have that “end of the year” excitement and renewed interest in finishing well.  In three weeks we will be done with History, Bible, Reading, and Science.  We will have a few more weeks of Math and Language Arts to do, but we are not discouragingly behind, thankfully!

This school year has been the best for me, as I have settled into the homeschooling way of life, and realizing that most of what was making me anxious in previous years is just not important enough to stress me out.

I love to have the children home with me and we are learning every day.  Formal schooling takes the morning hours (generally), but life learning is all day long as we learn to love and care for each other and our home.  This is only my third year but I have already seen so much to make me believe that this is the life for us.

Right now, my burden is Caleb.  I simply don’t know what to do with him next school year.  David has enjoyed going to public school for Kindergarten and First grade, but we originally placed him so that he could have help with his speech.  Caleb will be five on July 9th and my heart says “keep him home” but realistically I wonder if I could handle homeschooling all five of them, plus mother a toddler (Seth) and a baby (Sarah).  So, I ask for prayer and wisdom.

It’s not easy, but nothing worthwhile is easy.  The Lord makes us willing and supplies what we need to get through each day.

Click here for printables

There are four pages worth of different printable activities, but most of them are for younger elementary school age children.  I printed off one for my kids called, “The Legend of St. Patrick”, which has 9 facts about him and then a vocabulary list, and fill in the blank.  We’ll all do it together, later today.  It’s pretty easy, but it’s better than nothing.  Maybe we’ll go to the library to see if there are any good books on the subject.  Anybody have any recommendations?

Are you wearing green today?

Are you making corn beef and cabbage?

I wish I were more on the ball…I’m wearing pink and I’m not sure what we’re having for dinner yet. 

Homeschooling this year has been the best so far.  I’ll be back soon to write more about our experiences.

SO, how’s school going for all of you?  Please write and let us all know what’s working and what’s not!

Jacob, Ethan, and Grace are doing really well.  I’m finally buckling down and being strict about them finishing all their day’s work.  So often, in the past, I would say, “oh well, Grace didn’t get to math today.” and after a while we would be hopelessly behind. 

Now, at the beginning of the week, I make 3 copies of our week’s schedule.  They write their name on top, and they each cross off what they get done as they go along.  I’m so thankful that they are independent workers.  I am here with them, but I don’t have to help very much….I just answer the occasional question (like, “How do you make a cursive “R” again?”)  I do read and explain new things at times, too.

We have verses to memorize from Romans so I printed them out in large font and taped them to the wall.

I also hung up an Abraham Lincoln poster that I bought this summer.

David goes to public school, but I’m taking the time each morning, as we wait for the bus, to read some Scripture to him.  Oh how I love those times, just the two of us.  

For read-aloud time we are working on The Bronze Bow.  However, I don’t have time to sit and read aloud (there are too many distractions) so I bought the book for my ipod.  The children all enjoy listening to the story.

We’ve been checking out beautiful art books from the library, along with history books (Jacob read one about 9/11 during that week this month).  I’ve been taking Honey for a Child’s Heart with me to the library, to find good, well-written books for them.  Of course I also allow some “fluff” books as well, for fun.

I come across quotes quite often, about education, so I am going to try to be better at sharing them on here.

Does anyone need any A Beka math things?

(warning: venting post ahead)……

The Lord has been stirring up my heart in regards to homeschooling and PRIDE.

Ugh.  Have you seen it amongst some of “us” homeschoolers?  It’s sickening.

The education of a child is not anything to get all crazy-proud about.  We just need do it, quietly, naturally, gently, without fanfare, without tooting our self-glorifying horns, without standing on our soapboxes and clearing our throats.

My aunt Colleen and I have had great conversations about homeschooling.  Now, she is one down to earth homeschooling mother. When I talk to her, I feel encouraged.  I don’t feel like she’s trying to “fix” me or my “methods”…(methods, what methods?  LOL)

In all my days, these past few years as a homeschooling mom have lit a fire in me, to learn for the sake of the LOVE OF LEARNING.  And never, never, never to be proud of “my knowledge” or my children’s “knowledge”.  Yuck.  I think the goal of a teacher is to foster a love of learning in her students and then watch them bloom.

The Lord is teaching me to let go of my own desires, and my own control, and to BE AWARE that HE is growing my children and only using me as an instrument.  There’s a reason why Jacob, Ethan, Grace, David, Caleb, (and eventually Seth) have the interests that they do.  How exciting to cheer them on, encourage them, help them discover their passion and watch God lead them all?

But, back to PRIDE, ugly, ugly, evil pride.

We all have healthy pride.  There’s nothing wrong with a healthy pride in one’s own family, country, blessings, etc.  But, when that ugly flesh rears up and wants to BE NOTICED, wants to BROADCAST itself, it’s wrong, it’s a sin which needs to be repented of, and we ourselves can even be blind to our own pride!  But God notices, our thoughtful loved ones notice it, and there will come a day when it is exposed.

So, out of fear of GOD, I pray today that He will keep me from it.  And if any of you notice it in my life, in my walk and talk, in my writing here, than come on over and slap me silly, okay?

Rich’s mother homeschools her kids and she never says a word about it!  She doesn’t care!  She just does it her way, in a simple child-like faith, which just LIVES and doesn’t try to evaluate EVERY little thing.  What a waste of time. 

Really, why do we even talk about it?  “Hi, I’m Shanda.  And I HOMESCHOOL”.  WHO CARES?  The question is, do I love Jesus Christ?  Do my children love Jesus?  Do they love each other?  I’m talking about pride here, as the motivation.  I mean, I have a homeschooling BLOG so obviously I’m talking about it…but, for the purpose of encouragement, not to toot my own horn because I have pride issues.  LOL  ( I do have other issues, but that’s another story).   

I read this last night in an old devotional book….

“I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”  1 Cor. 2:2

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do His commandments; His praise endureth forever.  Psalms.

The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.  James 3:17

Knowledge PUFFETH up, but LOVE edifieth.  1 Cor.

Christ crucified, and He alone, is the power and wisdom of God.  Him all Christians should make their particular practice to study well.  Were our faith built on human wisdom then surely carnal philosophers would be the greatest believers; whereas they are sometimes the worst infidels, or, at best, the most silly and faithless people in times of distress.  And besides, their being puffed up is another evidence that they have not the true wisdom; for the wisdom from above is only with the lowly and babes, who pray for it earnestly. (Proverbs, Matthew).  What would all knowledge avail us, then, without the knowledge of Christ!  One spark of pure love yields more power than all the stores of empty human learning.  May the Lord Jesus shed His love abroad in my heart, as, whatever others may do, Him have I determined only to know, and Him have I determined only to serve:  his love to the cross I account for my greatest wisdom and glory.  Carl Bogatzky, Golden Treasury for the Children of God

What we need to do here on earth is live the life God in His mercy gave each of us, and to enjoy it, and to glorify HIM as we do.  Education helps us do that. 

I think a lot of us are in for a big surprise when our homeschooling children grow up and we finally see what kind of influence we really were on our precious gifts from God.  Yep, lots of surprises are ahead.  We will reap what we sow.

I LOVE YOU GUYS!  Thanks for letting me vent.  I feel better now.  Pray for me and I will pray for you.  I would love your thoughts on this topic. 

~Shan