By Kate, on April 5th, 2013% 
Wow, it has been awhile since I’ve updated on our homeschooling.
Confession time!!
I’ve been in a funk. Every once in awhile I get flat with schooling. And this is one of those times. So I’ve been looking at how to inflate our school.
HOMESCHOOLING THIS PAST SEMESTER:
One child HATES language arts but does great in math.
One child HATES math but doesn’t mind reading.
One child HATES anything that isn’t video games.
One mom feeling tired and lifeless.
THINGS I’M DOING:
Cursive has been so much harder with my younger boys than with any of the other children. They buck and they cry (yes, we’ve actually had tears) and they are convinced they’ll never be able to do it. We tried writing weekly letters to Grandma (“I don’t know what to say!”), writing out the scripture verse they are learning (“I can’t read this so I don’t know what it says!”), writing out fun directions (“It’s taking me too long, I’ll be 147 before I’m finished!” — I’m thinking we have a couple with the spiritual gift of exaggeration).
(Image courtesy of Arvind Balaraman/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
So, I found and bought this one last try for a curriculum. It’s touted to be 1 year only (HOORAY!) and to teach the children to read various cursive writing as well as write. And it is called (hoping it lives up to its name) Cheerful Cursive! It is not the font I wanted (Pentime has a really lovely style) BUT it was quick and didn’t require teaching from me. Granted it is for 3rd graders and I have 6th, 8th, 10th graders, but I don’t care! It’s quick and fun and I don’t get complaints at handwriting time.
We’ve used Learning Language Arts for Literature for the entire 23 years we’ve been homeschooling and I’ve loved it. I still do. BUT my one child who hates language arts needs some help with something different and we will be taking the coming year to do Literary Lessons from The Lord of the Rings. It is a style of book the boys love and I wanted to work through this altogether. So, although it was expensive (for me… I haven’t spent more than $75 a year on homeschool supplies in a very long time), I’m hoping it will help my language arts hater to get past his hump.
We are recycling our history from the beginning once again. We are almost 1/2 way through with our study of Ancient Egypt and then will progress to Ancient Greece.
 (Image courtesy of Victor Habbick/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
Now if only I could find an exciting, dynamic and interesting teaching program for science, I’d be fine. I really dislike science and just don’t teach it fun. And I think my boys would really thrive and learn with better teaching. My older children were very uninterested in science so they handled my blah teaching just fine and learned what they needed to learn mostly on their own (in the junior and high school levels). But I need to up my game for the younger boys. Just wish I knew how. Suggestions?
We are beginning our recycle of OT history overview to line up with Egypt. This is a curriculum Kevin designed and I implemented years ago as part of a 5 year rotating curriculum.
You may be wondering why I’m starting new stuff in April!?! Well, since we school year round, when we jump into the next year’s books just depends on when we finish. And we’ve finished some stuff and need to change others.
Here we are in a nutshell. I’m praying for energy and renewed focus and joy. And I’m going to take a nap right now to help it happen!
Blogs I might be linking to:
Menu Planning Monday, On The Menu Monday, Erin Branscoms, Marital Oneness, The Better Mom, Multitudes on Monday, Hear it On Sunday, Sharing His Bounty, What Joy Is Mine, Playdates at the Well, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time Warp Wife, Funky Planet Frequent Flier Club, Encourage One Another, The Welcoming House, Legacy Leaver Thursday, What’s Up Wednesday, Thought Provoking Thursday, Hearts 4 Home, Thankful Thursday, Thankful Thursdays, Thankful, Thankful Thursday Brown-eyed Bell(e), Big Family Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays, Feasting In Fellowship Friday, Fellowship Friday, Homemaking Link-up Week-end, A Little R&R, Pieces of Amy, Homeschool Mother’s Journal
| Original content here is published under these license terms: | X | | | License Type: | Non-commercial, Attribution, no Derivative work | | | | License Summary: | You may copy this content, and re-publish it in unmodified form for non-commercial purposes, provided you include an overt attribution to the author(s). You are not permitted to create derivative works. | | | License URL: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ |
By Kate, on January 10th, 2013% 
Order:
“A condition in which each thing is properly disposed with reference to other things and to its purpose; methodical or harmonious arrangement: You must try to give order to your life.” (dictionary.com)
I originally thought my word would be Joy. It has been part of my life focus for the past 19 years. But, truth be told, I hadn’t prayed about it. I just assumed. DUH!
When I actually talked to the Lord about it and listened to Him giving focus and direction this past 10 days, I realized He was working on something different for me. He opened my mind to the whole “It’s Time For Martha!” theme for my blogging as He directed me to the need for ORDERINGmy housework.
But it went beyond that. God’s order doesn’t just reach into our homemaking. His order reaches into every aspect of our lives. And He wants to touch every part of MINE. He has pointed His finger on a number of issues in my life that are OUT OF ORDER.
- my housework
- my eating (not eating a lot, just all the wrong things)
- my exercising
- my homeschooling (plans so easily get sidetracked and we are seldom getting beyond just the basics)
- my time in the Word (I’ve seldom been snatching more than a few minutes each day and haven’t spent time really studying or meditating on the Word for over a month)
So, see…ORDER is the word of the day/week/month/year for me!
God is a God of order and beauty and rightness. These are the character qualities of God I am working to build into my life this year with this focus on Order. I would LOVE your prayer for me and your encouragement and your help or insight!
May God be magnified in my journey this year!!
Blogs I might be linking to:
Menu Planning Monday, On The Menu Monday, Erin Branscoms, Marital Oneness, The Better Mom, Multitudes on Monday, Hear it On Sunday, Sharing His Bounty, What Joy Is Mine, Playdates at the Well, Back to School Monday, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time Warp Wife, Funky Planet Frequent Flier Club, Encourage One Another, Living Well Wednesdays, The Welcoming House, Legacy Leaver Thursday, What’s Up Wednesday, Thought Provoking Thursday, Hearts 4 Home, Thankful Thursday, First Day of My Life , Thankful Thursdays, Thankful, Thankful Thursday Brown-eyed Bell(e), Big Family Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays, Feasting In Fellowship Friday, Homemaking Link-up Week-end, A Little R&R
By Kate, on November 2nd, 2012%  Things I’m working on!
Well, I haven’t posted on homeschooling in awhile so I thought I’d do a post for today.
One of my sons has been struggling with language arts. He doesn’t enjoy reading at all and he finds all areas of language arts to be onerous. We’ve been trying out different books to see what will work best for him, to continue to stretch and teach him yet not stress him. I think sometimes we forget that STRETCH does not have to = STRESS. We are still looking.
We’ve come full circle on our history curriculum. This week we’ll be restarting our study on Ancient Egypt. Joel barely remembers our study of it last time and the other two don’t remember it at all. The problem is, I tend to loan books out to people and forget who I loaned them to and find myself missing stuff when I need it. So I’ll be using the Kits for Kids at our library to fill in our gap as there is no $$ for curriculum right now.
Everyone is ahead on math right now and that’s encouraging.
Joel is on target for his biology and constitutional law but Micah and Seth are behind in science (my bad). I really wish I enjoyed science. 
We go in spurts. Some spurts we get TONS of school done and pull ahead. Other spurts we barely maintain and find lags in certain subjects. After 23 years, it all comes out in the wash by the end of the year and it all gets done. But I have also found, after all these years, that stressing out over it just doesn’t get our work done faster, better or fun-er. So, I’ll not stress and keep going.
 Day 6 of Giving Thanks
Not doing a separate post but just wanting to mention how very very thankful I am to have the opportunity to homeschool my children. To have them home with me 24/7, to be able to see character problems right away and jump in immediately and work to deal with it. I love getting to really know my children and help to encourage them in their passions and ‘bent’.
So, thank you, Lord, for the opportunity you’ve given me in homeschooling my children!
Blogs I might be linking to:
Menu Planning Monday, On The Menu Monday, Erin Branscoms, Marital Oneness, The Better Mom, Multitudes on Monday, Hear it On Sunday, Sharing His Bounty, What Joy Is Mine, Playdates at the Well, Back to School Monday, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time Warp Wife, Funky Planet Frequent Flier Club, Encourage One Another, Living Well Wednesdays, Legacy Leaver Thursday, What’s Up Wednesday, Raising Homemakers, Thought Provoking Thursday, Hearts 4 Home, Thankful Thursday, First Day of My Life , Thankful Thursdays, Thankful, Thankful Thursday Brown-eyed Bell(e), Big Family Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays, Feasting In Fellowship Friday, Homemaking Link-up Week-end
By Kate, on September 20th, 2012% Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. Prov 22:6
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deut 6:4-9
 By Jdebney [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons One of the things I’m most thankful for in my life is being able to homeschool my children. I really love being with my children all the time. Sure, there have been times when I needed some time away, when if one more person wanted one more thing from me I was going to SNAP! But we all have days like that – no matter if you homeschool, send your children to a school or are single!
The opportunity to build into my children’s lives, to train them, to disciple them, to find their bent and pursue it has been a joy.
Over the years I’ve had many reactions to the fact that we homeschool. The most predominant response was, “Wow, I wish I could do that, but I don’t think I could handle my children all day long.” I wonder how much of that response comes from the fact that parents often have to spend lots of time UN-TEACHING what they have learned at school. Not the academics, but the attitudes.
I get to see their character flaws (unfortunately, many of them come directly from ME — do not pass Go, do not collect $200!) and work on specific ways to change them. A lot of what we do is teaching godly character qualities in our children. Lots of scripture memory, lots of practicing good speech patterns and behavior (to build new habits), lots of prayer for the Holy Spirit to work in all of our lives.
So I am praising the Lord that I have been able to homeschool these past 23 years. And I am looking forward to the next 7 years until we are done. I pray for God’s grace, wisdom and discernment and joy to let Jesus live through me in training my children.
Blogs I might be linking to:
Menu Planning Monday, On The Menu Monday, Marital Oneness, The Better Mom, Multitudes on Monday, Hear it On Sunday, Sharing His Bounty, What Joy Is Mine, Playdates at the Well, Back to School Monday, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time Warp Wife, Funky Planet Frequent Flier Club, Encourage One Another, Living Well Wednesdays, Legacy Leaver Thursday, What’s Up Wednesday, Raising Homemakers, Thought Provoking Thursday, Hearts 4 Home, Thankful Thursday, Raising Mighty Arrows Thursdays, First Day of My Life , Thankful Thursdays, Thankful, Thankful Thursday Brown-eyed Bell(e), Big Family Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays, Home Focused Friday, Feasting In Fellowship Friday, Homemaking Link-up Week-end
By Kate, on September 18th, 2012% 
One of the things that we love to do in our home is talk scripture. Anyone who knows us, knows that you really CAN’T be in our home for any length of time without talking scripture.
The thing that has been on my heart this year with homeschooling is our bible curriculum.
Over the years, we’ve made our own. On a 5 year rotation we study:
- heroes of the faith (choosing 36 people from the scriptures to look at, one a week)
- overview of the Old Testament, complete with timeline (following the book Charts of the Old Testament – a GREAT resource!)
- the inter-testament period and the teachings of Jesus
- the New Testament church
- overview of church history from NT to present
The thing that I’ve come to see that was lacking in our curriculum was Major Doctrines of the Faith.
This fall, we are studying those major doctrines, and we are starting from the Apostle’s Creed. I’m excited to see what kinds of conversations and study in the Word this will bring up. And I’m excited to see our younger children step up to join us in our biblical discussions.
Blogs I might be linking to:
Menu Planning Monday, On The Menu Monday, Marital Oneness, The Better Mom, Multitudes on Monday, Hear it On Sunday, Sharing His Bounty, What Joy Is Mine, Playdates at the Well, Back to School Monday, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time Warp Wife, Funky Planet Frequent Flier Club, Encourage One Another, Living Well Wednesdays, Legacy Leaver Thursday, What's Up Wednesday, Raising Homemakers, Thought Provoking Thursday, Hearts 4 Home, Thankful Thursday, Raising Mighty Arrows Thursdays, First Day of My Life , Thankful Thursdays, Thankful, Thankful Thursday Brown-eyed Bell(e), Big Family Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays, Home Focused Friday, Feasting In Fellowship Friday, Homemaking Link-up Week-end
By Kate, on August 28th, 2012%
Purchase my e-book
“Cut It Out! How I Feed My Family of 10 for $500 a Month Without Coupons“.
 one room schoolhouse Another homeschooling year begins. This is our 23rd year of schooling and the first year since 1995 that I only school 3 children. My senior is technically finished with all her requirements for graduation but she is going to be doing an online photography course that will give her a certificate in photography. She is very excited and the course is very extensive.
Our schedule this semester goes like this:
Joel:
- Geometry (1st semester), Algebra II (2nd semester)
- LLATL Gold book – American Lit
- Bible – Major Doctrines/OT overview/how to lead a bible study
- History – 1 month finish Am, start Egypt
- Science – biology
- Essay/research paper writing
- Constitutional Law
- Meet the composers
- P.E.: cardio/weight training
Micah:
- Algebra I
- LLATL Grey book
- Bible – Major Doctrines/OT overview/how to lead a bible study
- History – 1 month finish Am, start Egypt
- Science – General Science
- Essay/research paper writing
- Music theory
- Meet the composers
- P.E.: cardio/weight training
Seth:
- 8/7 Math
- LLATL Tan book
- Bible – Major Doctrines/OT overview/how to lead a bible study
- History – 1 month finish Am, start Egypt
- Science – General Science
- Essay/research paper writing
- Meet the composers
- Speech Impediment work
- P.E.: cardio/weight training
Much of their work is done independently but there are still a few classes I teach together. I’ll have 1 high schooler, 1 middle schooler and 1 in elementary school. And we still are doing our schedule of 3 weeks on, 1 week off, 3 weeks vacation at Christmas, June & July every other week and 3 weeks off in August. We actually end up doing a full school year’s worth of work in the Aug-May months so we have never been behind, even if we break more than expected.
What does YOUR school year look like with your children: homeschool, private school, public school?
Blogs I might be linking to:
Menu Planning Monday, On The Menu Monday, Marital Oneness, The Better Mom, Multitudes on Monday, Hear it On Sunday, Sharing His Bounty, What Joy Is Mine,Playdates at the Well, Back to School Monday, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time Warp Wife, Funky Planet Frequent Flier Club, Encourage One Another, Living Well Wednesdays,Legacy Leaver Thursday, What’s Up Wednesday, Raising Homemakers, Thought Provoking Thursday, Hearts 4 Home, Thankful Thursday, Raising Mighty Arrows Thursdays, Thought Provoking Thursday, First Day of My Life Thankful Thursdays, Thankful, Thankful Thursday Brown-eyed Bell(e), Big Family Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays, Home Focused Friday, Homemaking Link-up Week-end
By Kate, on May 30th, 2012% As most schools are finished or finishing, we are gearing up for our summer school schedule. We school year round for a number of reasons:
- too much is lost over a 3 month hiatus – we simply continue on and skip all the review lessons in a new book
- it helps to keep a schedule and, thereby, a better attitude in the home
- we get to do things either special projects or unfinished work
- it keeps limitations on outside activities/playtime, which can cause overstimulation and irritable attitudes
During the regular school year (Sept-May) we school 3 weeks on, 1 week off. In the summer we school every other week. This still affords lots of fun play time but keeps us plodding along.
This summer we are working on:
 cursive  math  America History  science  reading How are you and your children spending your summer?
Linking to:
Back to School, Homeschool Journal, Big Family Friday
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By Kate, on March 15th, 2012% Homeschooling. I am so thankful that I can homeschool my children!
We have had such a jolly time these past 23 years. Sleeping late, doing school in pjs, hanging out on my bed when I had morning sickness, taking off the first day of snow to play, taking one week off a month, having a timeline of freezer wrap going all around the room on the walls, making pyramids out of sugar cubes and tornadoes in soda bottles.
I love having my children with me all the day. I cannot imagine not having them at home. Sure, there are 5 mornings once a year when the house is empty (VBS) and it is very nice, but this is NOT something I would want to have more than just the once a year.
I don’t just love my children, I love being with my children all the time. I love their personalities, their quirky ways, their goofy humor, their intelligence, their strengths and even their weaknesses.
To be able to live in a place where I am free to educate my children and to disciple them to love and follow Jesus has been one of the richest things of my life.
So today, I am thankful for homeschooling and that we have spent 23 years (with another 7 still to go) enjoying such a worthwhile adventure!
Linking to:
Thankful Thursday, Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Hearts For Home Thursdays , Thought Provoking Thursday, First Day of My Life Thankful Thursdays, Back To School Monday
| Original content here is published under these license terms: | X | | | License Type: | Non-commercial, Attribution, no Derivative work | | | | License Summary: | You may copy this content, and re-publish it in unmodified form for non-commercial purposes, provided you include an overt attribution to the author(s). You are not permitted to create derivative works. | | | License URL: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ |
By Kate, on February 23rd, 2012% One prompt from the Homeschool Chick for this theme is:
Questions/thoughts I have…
As I’ve been thinking and praying about helping my younger children (particularly the boys, as I feel Elizabeth has a good handle on where she is going) work toward their strengths and desires for life, I’m wondering what I can introduce into our school curriculum.
We’ll be starting (we delayed it from January start) a Constitutional Law class after spring break. My 14 year old is very interested in being a lawyer, so we want to do this class and work on more critical thinking classes with him. I’m thinking that in the fall (when he is 15) we’ll begin him on some classes at the local community college – particularly the public speaking ones.
My 12 year old had a real bent toward engineering (although he would say inventing) and is very analytical. I’m not exactly sure what I should look for in terms of classes to help him excel in this area. I would love to hear suggestions on this!
My 10 year old is still young enough that I can’t quite see where his heart lies in terms of jobs. He’s still in the stage where one day he wants to be a trash man and the next he wants to be a doctor and a movie director.
So these are my questions that I have been mulling over lately. Lots of prayer and trusting the Lord to lead me in my academic pursuits for them.
Linking up to:
By Kate, on February 22nd, 2012%  It’s mid-February. It’s cold, it’s dark, it’s often snowy. Do you feel trapped? Are you cross? Are your children cranky? Does the thought of schooling fill you with “Oh no, not again” thoughts? Are you experiencing homeschool burnout?
Everyone goes through burnout. Public school kids do, private school kids do and homeschool kids do. AND homeschool MOMS do! The question is, where do we go from here?
Some things we’ve done to get over the hump of February doldrums are:
- take a winter break from school
- take one day off a week until spring break and do something FUN on that day
- take a break from the regular academics and do a 1 month unit on something FUN
- let each child choose a study in an area they really want to do and let them do it independently while dropping 1 hard-core subject for 2 weeks
- start a craft time
- plan and begin preparations for a spring garden
- get out the sleeping bags and let the children slide down the stairs
- let them rollerblade in the living room
- take 1/2 day a week for “early out” and set up a play date with friends
- do service projects with shut-ins in your church
- do service projects within the community
- take swimming lessons
- if your church has a gym, take the bikes there and ride around for a morning
- have Wii tournament as part of school
- have a dance time each day
- learn archery
I’m hoping this will spark your imagination! These days don’t have to be dull and dark and drab. We can use this as an opportunity to INTENTIONALLY add fun to our homeschool days! 5-10 days of dropping a subject won’t mess up our school. Taking some time to enjoy some fun will help to clear out those cobwebs from our brains that seem to suck the mental energy out of our children AND ourselves!
Linking to:
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