Homeschool Funk Solutions

December 30, 2015

So I decided part of our homeschool funk since the move was that we were never getting out of the house to do anything hands on and fun. Well that is all about to change. I am stepping out of my comfort zone once again and planning field trips and outings for the rest of the school year.  Since I am brand new to the area and don't know where to begin when it comes to finding places to go for field trips I bought a book to help me.  And for those living in the Utah area is has been the best book for finding kid friendly places to go and things to do that I would not have come up with or thought of on my own.

It is broken up into sections like Historic sites, gardens and outdoors, playgrounds and parks, hikes and nature walks etc.  Purchased on a whim off a book store shelf because I needed guidance to get us out of the house this has been a wonderful little find and we now have field trips to get us out and exploring the area we live in from now until the end of the school year planned and on the calendar.  And let's be honest as a homeschooling mom if it isn't on the schedule it most likely gets forgotten and missed out on.  It is amazing how a little fun planned into things can make everything else just a little more energizing and fun. I am now actually looking forward to starting school again with the kids when our winter break is over.

Yoga With a Sumo Wrestling 2 Year Old

December 2015

Well, I tried Yoga this morning. I lasted a whole five minutes before the kids joined me. Nice because we can count it for PE today. Not nice because I only made it about seven minutes into the forty-five minute workout before it was too hard and I couldn't do it anymore.

Plus who can exercise with a two year old jumping all over you like a sumo wrestler? It's seven minutes more then yesterday. And that means I can last at least seven minutes tomorrow right?  Well maybe I expect that will all depend on whether sumo baby is in attendance as well.

Snow and the Kids Want to Know

December 14, 2015

My kids have grown up in the southern desert of Arizona up until now and this is our first year experiencing snow in the winter time.  So you can bet your boots I cancelled our morning school work when it started to snow and all the kids wanted to go outside and play.  Especially when they cancelled public school for Jeremiah too.

It started snowing last night and has continued on and still is snowing lightly presently. The kids are all outside having a snowball fight for their lunch break from school work.

One of the first things my kids did was only last about ten minutes before they had to come inside to get a second pair of socks on their feet and a second set of gloves for their hands so they could go back outside and keep playing.

Winter clothes such as snow shoes, scarves, mittens, gloves, coats and ear muffs what are those?  Things I have never before needed to purchase in my life and now I find myself in need to quickly go and outfit a family of seven properly for a snow and cold filled winter.

It's so funny because all morning I keep getting asked if we are going to have a "white christmas" like in the movies. We've got at least 4 inches maybe more.  It was so fun to sip hot chocolate this morning and watch from the windows as my kids discovered the joys of the winter season.

Joy's I remember getting a fleeting taste of when we visited my grandparents around December for the family Christmas party and there never quite being enough snow for more then a 12 inch tall snowman scrapped together with the sprinkling of snow on the hoods of the cars in the driveway.  Or one year when Showlow really got a lot the weekend we visited and we got to go sledding with my Aunt and have a proper snowball fight.

I am grateful for this moment for my children and for the memories it gives.  And I count my blessings today.

Sleepover's and Geography

October 30, 2015

I am totally loving listening to my 7 year old teach his cousin who is also 7 all about US geography while they do a puzzle during a sleep over. From telling Iowa and Ohio apart to figuring out where Virginia is because we have family there or the exact spot of the 4 corners. I am so humbled by how much he has absorbed just by the family discussions we have had.

We absolutely love this puzzle.  It has been the best way to teach my kids their US states and capitals.  Even Jeremiah likes to try and help put it together and I can just predict that Kyrilene will too in a few years.

School Break and Now They Play School

October 30, 2015

I tell the kids we are taking a school break starting today until after we move and what do I find them doing this afternoon? Playing School of course. Maybe I should give them a break everyday. We might get more done. LOL!

My Daughter Has Bangs

October 23, 2015

After working at home with my ten year old daughter for the last two months of school this spring and starting homeschool again in August after summer break I realized something I found super interesting.  My sweet girl has bangs again.  Just a few weeks after withdrawing her from public school and beginning our journey learning together in April I noticed that she had super short spikes of hair all over the top of her head and especially right along the front where bangs would normally be.  Since she doesn’t like bangs and didn’t have any before I asked if she had cut her hair on her own.

Mortified she insisted that she had definitely not cut her hair and so we tried to figure out what was going on.  Eventually after quite a conversation we discovered this.  She had been so stressed out and frustrated at school that she had started pulling her own hair out one hair at time whenever she felt over-whelmed and stressed out.  This feeling had apparently been just about all the time from the damage I could see growing back.

Now after six and a half months doing school at home I can finally see that we have succeeded with this issue at least.  She is no longer stressed out and pulling her hair.  It’s growing back.  The top is long enough it blends in with the rest and you can’t tell it was ever super short and spikey.  And her bangs while they still annoy her, they also no longer embarrass her whenever we go anywhere because they are proper bang length.

This is just one more thing that confirms to me that we really were guided to this homeschool path in order to figure out what is best for my kids.  Because as much as I might have days where I am stressed and could say, you guys make me want to pull my hair out sometimes;  A child, especially a ten year old child should never have to be that stressed out.  Hopefully now she will learn better ways to handle stress than this and we can move forward from here.

Botanical Gardens and Butterflies

October 2015

Our field trip this month was to our local botanical gardens. It was a lovely day that was not too hot which is a blessing in the desert. 

They had an amazing nature Lego exhibit going on with giant Lego sculptures of birds, butterflies and other wildlife. Unfortunately for my children their mother was in charge of taking the photos and the Lego's were not what I took pictures of.

I took pictures of nature. My favorite part of the entire trip were the butterflies. They have a special section at the garden which is a tropical butterfly habitat. In one portion you get the chance to see different butterflies emerge from their chrysalis and in an portion you can walk through and admire the lovely tropical plants and actually see the butterflies they have up close. We spent quite a bit of time in this portion of the garden and poor Jeremiah freaked out when he even thought a butterfly might be getting remotely close to him. However, the one that landed on his brother was just fine to laugh about and look at.

The rest of our walking through the gardens was at least as eventful, because of the girls decided that one of the small cactus looked soft and fuzzy so she was going to pet it. I bet that you can guess how well that went. Her father and I spent at least 15 minutes if not longer careful picking out all the teeny tiny stickers. It was at that moment I decided that every mom needs to carry a roll of packing tape or duct tape in her purse at all times, because if I had had a roll we could have taped her hand and pulled out all the offending spines quite easily. Trust as a someone who grew up in the desert, this works on tiny cactus stickers, I know from personal experience.

The kids also got a kick out of the chickens we found in a pen in the back corner of the garden. Apparently they are kept to help keep mosquito's down and to help fertilize all the plants.

We ended the day with some very tired kids and a botched family photo. Poor Clarissa wanted nothing whatsoever to do with smiling for the camera. The expression on her face shows sheer torture and you would think we had been punishing her greatly by asking her to sit for five minutes and smile for the camera. Oh well I am sure that at some future time we will all get a kick out of the fact that she refused to smile right?

Our final stop was the gift shop where we bought each of the kids a t-shirt to remember to day. My personal favorite when it comes to things to buy because: hey it's clothes, they will wear them out, the shirt won't break in two seconds, and the designs are usually unique. We also bought a wooden art project for them. Each of the older three kids got a 3D wooden puzzle butterfly for paint or color and put together for art the next day and they didn't cost me any more then if I ordered them from Amazon so I was very pleased.

Over all a lovely trip and some beautiful pictures. I think I might just have to start a nature book of some kind to keep a record of all the fun animals and plants I find on our field trips.

A Spooky Cooking Club Delight

October 8, 2015

Well, we made it through the girl's first cooking club project. Even got both the girls treats done on time. The kitchen was a disaster and we were all covered in frosting and cheese but we made it. HAHA! Thought I would share the results. Green-eyed monster cupcakes and a Cheesenstein Cheese Ball.

The recipes came from a Taste of Home Holiday Magazine and the girls had a blast making them.  I admit it was a bit more stressful then fun for me.  But we divided and conquered.  While I helped Seriah with her cupcakes, her father helped Clarissa with her cheeseball.


And it was after this that I swore decorative holiday themed food belonged only in a test kitchen.  Baking like this is definitely not one of my talents.

Mummified Apples Teach History & Science

September 2015

We have completed our first science experiment this month.  Our science book: Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology gave us a fun project as our first one.  We learned about the history of anatomy and physiology.  Then we learned about the ancient Egyptians and mummification.  After that we experiments with different mixtures and kinds of salts and baking sodas to see which ones would work best to mummify an apple slice.  And after sitting buried for a week in our coffin cups.  Here are our results.

Definitely a fun project and one I won't mind doing again when Jeremiah and Kyrilene get to that age and are ready to learn anatomy themselves.  What a great way to start science.

They Sweetly Wrench Your Heart

September 1, 2015

So Jeremiah asked me so sweetly this morning "Can I stay home with you guys?" I must admit it kind of wrenched my heart a little that he can tell something is going on here at home and he is feeling a little left out. He even told me he would do work with me and learn his letters and numbers and words. It definitely makes me question whether keeping him in public school this year is the right thing. Even though I was so sure it was when school started a month ago. I guess its time to pray about it some more.

My son Jeremiah has a condition call Koolen DeVries Syndrome that creates a bunch of medical problems and a wide range of learning challenges and mental disabilities.  This first year homeschooling I really wanted to start slow and focus on the girls and getting their gabs and struggles filled in and caught up before considering whether bringing Jeremiah home from public school would be the right thing.  As of right now he is getting OT, PT, Speech and other educational services through the school district and we both feel like this is what he needs at the moment.  Even if his questions wrench my heart.  It is a mother's job to make the hard decisions and do what is best for each one of her children isn't it?  And each one of those children might need something that is a little different from the others.

Schoolwork Doesn't Compete With Your Favorite Uncle

August 6, 2015

So I know it's probably crazy to even think of trying this but we tried it. School in Arizona started for us this last Monday the 3rd. My son is going to public school for kindergarten and we are homeschooling the older kids.

Well with a recent death in the family I packed up all our stuff to start and figured oh we will do it in the car, or there is time before and after the funeral we can get it done. As a brand new homeschooler I have learned something everyone else probably already knew. Math can not compete with wrestling your favorite uncle so don't even try. And don't bother with handwriting of any kind in the car or you will have carsick kids. Or at least we did.

So much for my first official week of homeschool this year. We are giving up and going to the aquarium tomorrow and then starting over next week. Hopefully it will be less exciting. I just wanted to share our little experience to bring a smile to all those who can relate and know the feeling.

Another School Year About to Begin

July 30, 2015

One more Meet and Greet for school finished. I think I melted into soup on the walk to and from the school. It is so hot today. Poor Jeremiah didn't want to go and after we got there he didn't want to leave. I sure wish I knew how to help him handle change better.

I can't believe school is starting again so soon. I am so not ready to end the summer yet. It's going to be an interesting year with him in public school and all my other kids homeschooling.  I am just not sure I am ready to bring home a special needs kid with lots of learning challenges while I am learning how to teach in general so he goes to school this year and we live and learn.

Our End of the Year Book Lists

Well, it is the end of our first couple of months homeschooling.  And time to check out how many books we read and enjoyed in the short time since we have started this adventure called homeschool.  Because we pulled the kids out before the end of the year, I wanted them to be doing something for school, but I wasn't prepared with our full curriculum to just dive in so I let them choose books off our shelves that they haven't read yet.

Seriah 5th Grade:

1. New Testament Stories
2. Ruby the Red Fairy
3. Amber the Orange Fairy
4. Sunny the Yellow Fairy
5. The Storybook of Legends
6. Fern the Green Fairy
7. Sky the Blue Fairy
8. Inky the Indigo Fairy
9. Heather the Violet Fairy
10. The Care & Keeping of You
11. Cinderella
12. I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii

Clarissa 4th Grade:

1. New Testament Stories
2. Sounder
3. Shiloh
4. Charlie's Monument
5. Tales From Hans Christian Andersen
6. The Care & Keeping of You
7. Cinderella
8. I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii

Treysen 1st Grade:

1. New Testament Stories
2. Spyro vs. Mega Monsters
3. Frog and Toad All Year
4. The Berenstain Bears: The Bears' Vacation
5. Woolbur
6. Somewhere in the Ocean
7. Mooncake
8. Don't Give This Book a Bowl of Milk!
9. Crocodaddy
10. The Berenstain Bears: Bears in the Night
11. The Berenstain Bears: Spooky Old Tree
12. One Duck Stuck
13. On the Day You Were Born
14. The Best Nest
15. Library Lion
16. Harry the Dirty Dog
17. I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii

Not a bad overall list for letting the kids choose their own stories and only working on having started in April.  This coming year with a full school year to read and lessons planned properly I am sure that our reading list will not only improve in quality but also in quantity.  I am so excited for the books to get here and for us to get started.

Crafting a Homeschool Education

“Should I homeschool my children?”

I think this is a question that is gaining more traction with parents over the past several years.  Personally it is a question that I have considered briefly several different times in the past.  Each time I faced the same feelings and questions that most parents do when considering this option:

• I don’t have a degree in education.  Am I qualified to teach my kids?
• Will I do more harm then good by educating them at home?
• How can I possibly re-create public school at home?
• What about socialization and letting them have friends?
• Will they be able to get into college without being an official High School Graduate?

How does a parent decide to homeschool their children?  Well I don’t think I can answer for every parent, but I can share my journey in reaching my decision with you.  It first began about the time that my oldest was getting ready to begin third grade.  She had struggled through second grade with reading and fluency and I spent hours everyday when she got home re-teaching homework that had not been covered well enough in class for her to understand.  Ultimately that year I figured I had helped enough and she would be okay, since her class work was getting done and it was only the testing she struggled with by the end of the year.  Fast forward to this spring as she began the second half of her fifth grade year in school.  I could tell there was something wrong, but I had difficulty figuring out exactly what it was.  My daughter seemed depressed and was quiet all the time.  She took to hiding assignments until the last minute because they weren’t something she felt capable of doing.  A chapter book like “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” was well beyond her reading ability.  She still preferred to read Rainbow Fairy books at about second grade level, and this was after the battle of wills it had become to even get her to read at home for her required thirty minutes a day.  I was beside myself with worry knowing that if I didn’t do something she was going to fall far enough behind that it was really going to affect her confidence and possibly her future if she needed to be held back a year or struggled in high school.

This same year her sister has been struggling with the fourth grade.  She clashed with her teacher and with the restrictions and lack of creativity in the curriculum.  I really hadn’t been paying much attention to “Common Core” until it hit our schools and started affecting my children.  As I started to research what it was and what it involved and asked my children how they were being taught different subjects in school I learned something that really opened my eyes to our current education system.  Not only were the teachers struggling with teaching common core either from not enjoying what they were required to present or because it was difficult to present, but it also made it impossible for the teachers (that we love because they work outside the box and really teach our kids well) to teach our kids, some of the best teachers have even given up teaching for a different profession altogether.  For example: so many restrictions were placed on my girls science fair projects this spring that it was no longer a fun science fair project but drudgery that everyone in my house groaned about and didn’t look forward to.

My son’s experience with first grade this year has been a rollercoaster, and while I couldn’t ask for a better teacher, because she is an amazing woman who not only manages to keep my son who is quite ahead challenged each day and engaged in school, but she also manages to do that with the kids who are struggling.  In a perfect world we would all have teachers that could reach our kids and teach them as well as she does and homeschool wouldn’t even need to be considered.  If you want to read more about his challenges read my previous post about drugs in school.

Finally I looked at the school’s calendar and schedule for the rest of the year.  I was surprised to find out that from January to May the only thing the schools are teaching our kids is how to take tests.  No new material is being taught.  They spent a couple of weeks doing drills and practice problems to get the kids ready for the upcoming test and then the following week they test.  Then this cycle is repeated until the end of April.  By the time they reach May both the children and teachers are burned out mentally and don’t do much until the end of school.

After much prayer, debate with my husband and pondering I came to the conclusion that I’ve had enough and so have my kids.  I talked with each of my girls individually and had them pray about the issues as well.  Together we felt it was time.  Our family was going to stand up and say “Enough.”  We were going to take back the control of our learning and education and learn how to love learning again.  With the decision made my family’s journey into the realm of homeschool has begun.  Where we go from here I have faith in the Lord to guide me as I begin crafting a new talent.  The talent of teaching my children and crafting a curriculum to fit their needs and interests.

Park Swings & Grammar

May 5, 2015

Took our Language Arts to the park this morning. It was such a beautiful morning. We got to swing, read, play, snack and write. My kids are going to whip me back into shape in no time if my sore muscles are any indication of what lays ahead. Turned a few walkers heads today reading with one daughter while to other played with her baby sister, but it was a great day.

Let the Lessons Gaps Begin

May 2, 2015

We discovered our first learning gap on Friday. Seriah came to a math lesson that covered negative numbers. Something she hasn't had in school before. So we paused and did flash cards for math that day.

Then I looked through her sister's book and found the lesson that covers it. We plan to go over that lesson on Monday. Sure makes me glad I have more than one year's worth of math books at home.

The Lord definitely knew what my girls were going to need and helped me be prepared in ways I probably haven't discovered yet. This is just one more example of His love and watchfulness in our lives.

If You're Gonna Teach, You Have to Study

April 29, 2015

So I started reading a book called "The Three R's" on teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. 

It has been a super interesting read. I am not quite finished yet, but I attempted one of the writing lesson ideas from it today with the girls. They have been completely burned out and dread it because of past experiences at school. I wasn't expecting much but I was floored with the reception. Both Seriah and Clarissa loved it and worked hard on it this morning. This is encouraging and gives me hope that my girls will grow to love writing and learning again someday, once we get past the burnout and defensive walls they have due to struggles and issues in the past.

And the 1st Grader Joined the Rest at Home at His Own Request

April 9, 2015

Well, Treysen has convinced me without even having to try every hard. He gets to be homeschooled next year along with his sisters. I ordered his math and Language arts supplies. He was so excited when I told him his books arrived last night. You would have thought he won a million dollars or something. I love that boy.

Homeschool Check Up

April 6, 2015

Did a mini check up with Clarissa this morning and asked her to tell me 3 things she liked and 3 things she would like to change about homeschool. It was great to hear "I have way more then 3 things I like mom, where do I start." and "I can't think of anything I want to change it's all good." I hope her enjoyment continues.

We Survived Our First Week

April 3, 2015

Well I survived our first week of homeschool. Clarissa is loving it, Treysen had a turn to try it one day, Seriah got to try it today and Kyrilene loves to chew on eat and destroy all various supplies and books she can get her hands on now. It's going to be interesting to figure out how to do with this with a toddler around.

A Personal Day turns into a Permanent Day

March 30, 2015

Clarissa took a personal day off from school today due to stress and we did a trial run of homeschool. I was really surprised with how well things went, and what an almost instant relief she seemed to feel. We have decided to withdrawl her from school tomorrow and let her finish up her school year here at home. I am so grateful to the Lord who has guided me every step along this path and helped me get the books and supplies I need to help her continue to grow and succeed at home. What a grand adventure we are about to embark on.

My 1st Grader's Experience With Pills At School

March 22, 2015

In January while washing laundry I found a little Ziploc bag with a assortment of different pills in it in the wash.  Not labelled in any way and each pill was different.  Needless to say I kind of freaked out a bit with my husband as we talked about how to approach the kids and handle the situation.  Fortunately for them it was a quiet freak out that they didn’t witness.  All they saw was the calm and composed approach we used to deal with it.  So I started with my fifth grader and the conversation went something like this “Hey sweetheart I was doing laundry today and I found something weird in the wash that isn’t mine.”  I showed her the baggie and asked.  “Is this yours or do you know anything about it by chance?”  She insisted that she had never seen it before and didn’t know what it was.  Knowing I can trust her because she is always honest with me, I moved down the line to my fourth grader.  Same conversation and same answer.  While it was a relief it was also more worrisome because now I only had my younger children left to ask.

When my first grader walked in the door from playing outside I asked him the same question.  His response “Are those mine mom?”  I calmly asked him to tell me a little bit about the bag.  “Oh, a friend at school gave it to me but I didn’t know what it was so I just put it in my pocket and forgot about it.”  Did he take or eat any of the pills? No.  Did he understand that this little bag was considered drugs? No, he face turned very pale and he insisted that he would never take drugs and didn’t know that medicine was drugs.  The details of the event were that another first grader had given him the bag on the playground during lunch time and told him not to worry about it because he would forget that he gave them to my son.  Fortunately, because we have a child with epilepsy and a heart condition we have previously instilled in all of our children how dangerous medicine can be and that if they take their brother’s pills or anyone’s pills without mom or dad knowing they could get sick and die.  Because of this knowledge about medicine and not the talk about drugs we had with my son, he was protected and knew better then to take any of the pills he was given.

My son’s teacher was contacted and the school principal got involved and I gave the principal the now partially dissolved pills from being in the washing machine to show the other child involved and the child’s parents.  Do I think the other first grader should be punished severely? No.  This may shock you and you may disagree, but at the age of 6 years old I firmly believe that this child didn’t understand that he was doing something so dangerous any more then my own 6 year old son did.  I only wanted to make sure that the child understood that it was dangerous and should never happen again.  Honestly, it could easily have been a daily pack from mom’s purse with her vitamins and a pain killer or something, but it was not something that I could just let go.

Now that it has been dealt with I have had the strong impression that I needed to share our story.  Not because I wanted people to tell me what they thought about how it was handled, but because children deserve to be protected.  I have always wondered when the right time to warn my children and teach them about drugs and medicine was, and I can honestly say that with the world the way it is today that as soon as they head off to school, or as soon as they can reach the medicine cabinet is when you should be talking with your children.  Tell them what medicine they are taking when they are sick and why you are giving it to them.  Explain what could happen if they took too much of it and help them understand that when you take something and you don’t need it because you are sick it is considered drugs.