30 Minutes Devoted to Thought Brings About Education

November 29, 2017

I am currently very slowly reading a book called "The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had" By: Susan Wise Bauer.  And it said something that really struck me. So I wanted to share.

"The first task of self-education is not the reading of Plato, but the finding of thirty minutes in which you can devote yourself to thought, rather than to activity."

The author even recommends scheduling a set time for it 4 days a week. Maybe doing exactly that will help me make progress with the stack of books that I have on my nightstand. What book are you reading right now to keep yourself learning and growing?

And Nature Study Comes to Me

November 26, 2017

I got to spend Thanksgiving visiting my family and sister in Arizona this year and while we were enjoying the lovely warm fall weather and letting the kids play at the park nature study found me.  I discovered a beautiful moth with tiny golden crescents on its wings laying on one of the picnic tables.  Being out of town we certainly didn't have our nature notebooks or anything with which to record the discovery.  But I did take the time to point the creature out to the children and appreciate delicate thing we call life.  Today I am grateful for beautiful bugs.

They Slept Through Singing Time

October 25, 2017

After a trip to the dentist to get all the kids teeth cleaned, we started with singing time.  And this is what homeschool looks like at our house this morning.

Who knew going to get your teeth cleaned would wear out my youngest two so much they would fall asleep during music time.  Kyrilene slept right through the music and voices in my arms while her brother passed out on the floor next to the dog who didn't even twitch when we started our music for our morning singing.

"Handel is Still Alive!"

October 17, 2017

Today while reading his history lesson in "This Country of Ours" Chap 33; Treysen looks up and yells 

"HEY MOM GUESS WHAT?!!" 

Then when he realizes I am standing right there, and he says a smidge quieter

"Handel is still alive!" 

My response is "umm well...." and he continues

"Well, what I mean is he is alive during my chapter in my book mom, He's like 2 years old and living in Germany, but that is SO COOL, right mom?"

and I couldn't agree more. It made me smile, so I had to share.  A fine example of the science of relations.  I love to see our composer study and our history lessons suddenly click and make sense for my son.  It gives me hope that we must be doing something right, and it encourages me to continue.

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them...or at least Me

October 8, 2017

So I have found Kyrilene carting around a 'Birds of Utah Field Guide' book many times over the last several weeks and today at quiet time she says to me

"Mom want to see the pretty bird in my book?" 

Does anyone know how hard it way not to brush that aside with a that's nice dear now get in bed? SO HARD. As I tucked her into bed for nap time with her book I asked her to show it to me again and I asked her to tell me about the colors.

"This one is my favorite, it's going to be my pet." she says.

As I looked at the picture of a black-billed magpie I couldn't help but think really of all the colorful birds in this book this is the one? So I told her its name and studied the parts of the bird with her for a few minutes. And I think it truly took a child to remind me that there is beauty in all of God's creations, even and especially in the common magpie. She has now named this picture Ana (from Frozen) and we are going to watch for them on our next trip to the park, I hope they haven't all migrated already. But if so she may find another bird to appreciate that day.

Sea World VS Solar Eclipse, and Eclipse WINS!

August 21, 2017

Seriah says if you compare the solar eclipse to Sea World the solar eclipse wins. I love that this girl loves science.  We watched the Solar Eclipse this year from Rexburg, Idaho at the kids Grandparents house.  It was so worth taking them up for it.

It's All It's Cracked Up To Be

August 12, 2017

It's our first official egg. It is cracked from being laid on a hard surface. So we cracked it into Tupperware to keep in the fridge until tomorrow. The kids are now arguing over who gets to eat it and they more than willingly fell all over each other to help get the nesting boxes all settled with chopped straw for the hens.

Nature Study is Saving Mom's Sanity

August 11, 2017

Nature Study and a husband who thinks it is important for the kids do saved my sanity today. All five kids trooped out the door holding their nature notebooks, colored pencils and giant excited smiles. While I get to have a few minutes to just breath before they return. I love that I have such a supportive husband.

Oh the Whining!

August 10, 2017

Day 4 of school finished. Kids are in the tub. I have so little brain power left I couldn't even come up with anything to do on Minecraft. I sure hope my younger two kiddos can discover the joy of knowledge soon, because the constant "I'm all done with school" or the "I don't want to do school" whine has about done me in.

Caught in the Act

June 11, 2017

You know you are doing something right when summer break starts and your kids decide to re-read Shakespeare for fun without you. I just found out Treysen and Clarissa are reading 12th Night together just because they want to.

"I Need to Paint. That is My Job."

May 9, 2017

So Kyrilene came to me this afternoon when quiet time was over. I had just finished telling all the kids to pick their next thing from their lists for school, and she says: "Mom, I need to paint. That is my job." I loved this and she had a great time watercoloring scribbles all over her paper.

It reminded me of a quote that I love and wanted to share: "We might as well declare that a child should not speak unless he put his words into poetry, as to declare that he should not draw because his drawings are not artistic." Anna Botsford Comstock

What an wonderful reminder that a toddlers self expression with paints is just as important to her as my own artistic pursuits and attempts are to me.

The Chicks Get Names

April 5, 2017

So the kids have been naming our baby chicks. I told each of them they could pick one to name and I even suggested thing like fried and nugget and BBQ. Haha. The kids were less then impressed. So far they have given me the following:

• Clarissa named a Java (black and white speckled) Dalmay
• Seriah named her Ameraucana - America
• Treysen named his Delaware - Dela
• Kyrilene named hers Tweet Tweet

and then there is Jeremiah's. He came to me and said mom I picked a name for my chicken. He also picked a white Delaware one and he said "That is Green Goblin" then he starts giggling.  So my thought for the day:

"Your son might be a superhero fan if...."

You Know Your a Homeschooler When...

March 24, 2017

You know your a homeschooler when....one of your baby chicks die and after crying and being sad all the kids are excited to have a dissection class.

"I Am A Child of God" in French

February 9, 2017

So we started learning "I am a child of God" last week in French as part of our foreign language studies. It is so fun to listen to my kids playing and singing that song. I even have one daughter who thinks we should sing it in sacrament once we know the whole thing. Of course whether her not as outgoing siblings agree with that idea could be a whole different story.

Jeremiah Stays Home Experiment

January 11, 2017

Oh man, what an intense day it has been.  Jeremiah has been asking to do "school with mom" for a few weeks now.  I finally gave in and let him join us for homeschool today.  It changed the way the whole day went having him home with us.

My emotions ran the whole gambit from delighted to have him home and enjoying how excited he was or certain things, clear to not being sure I would survive the "Are we done yet?" questions because he was hoping staying home meant video games and it didn't.

We got to singing time, calendar time, handwriting, phonics, scriptures, math, history, and poetry.  What a list.  Plus he has been getting up too early in the am for the last few weeks, so we are letting him stay up a whole hour later than normal.  I sure hope that a later bedtime will stop the 4:00 am wake up calls.  I am so looking forward to everyone going to sleep tonight. Especially me.