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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Our Homeschool Learning

After years of looking for and researching curriculum choices it was finally time to decide to actually order something. This actually felt quite overwhelming, I was so concerned that I needed to make the right choices and now there was a lot of pressure.

Daddy is extremely supportive of homeschooling our children, but is more of a pick what you want and than just let me know kind of person. So, really it was all up to me to find something that would work. I looked into so many different things and couldn't decide what to go with.

I asked my really good friend what she was planning to use this year (her kids are slightly older than each of mine) and she gave some great ideas that I thought could also work for us. So, here is what we have gone with (we are only 1 week in, so things could change):

We start out with a calendar binder. I got this idea from 1+1+1=1

They write out the date on the calendar, trace the day and month, graph the weather conditions, the temperature and fill out our 100 days of school tally. They really enjoy doing this part.

Next we do our Bible time. I chose to go with Children Desiring God's He Established A Testimony. It is meant for Sunday School classes but is easily adapted to a weekly format by me.
This curriculum will take us through the entire Old Testament and than there is another one to go through the New Testament. This week the kids worked on Creation and put together a creation timeline.

Next was time for Math. I (with a suggestion from my friend) went with Math-U-See's Primer. It is great so far and I can really see it being the perfect fit. We watched the first lesson on the DVD:

And then Dude does his lesson in the workbook (he really enjoys using the manipulatives:

The next thing we do is Language Arts. Right now, because Dude has mastered writing his letters and is working on lowercase, I decided to add in some sight words using the Dolch Word List (something I had never even heard of until my friend mentioned it).
This week our words were "a" and "and". I am amazed at how well he has grasped these. I sent him to find them in a book the other day and he did very well! Although, I never thought about it before, when I wrote out his cards with the sight words I used a regular "a" and in most books it has the old typeface one. I will have to pay more attention to this.

Lastly, we are doing Science. Kind of. I am just finding a science topic he is interested in and than each day we are doing a science experiment about it. Last week, Dude was facinated by the fog one morning and wondering where it comes from. This led us into the concept of evaporation. So...this week science has been about evaporation! We did our first experiment, pouring water outside and tracing around it to watch it evaporate.
Before:

and our After:

All in all we are having a great time and accomplishing everything we have set out to accomplish. School is taking us about 45 minutes to an hour each day. Not long in time but we are learning as much as I'm sure they are learning at school in the 6 1/2 hours the kids are there. So, we spend in a week about 4-5 hours doing "school" (less time than most kids are there in a single day) but that's the joy of homeschooling! I have realized that there is only so much that Dude can retain in a day. If we try to do too much he won't understand anything, so we do just enough that he is constantly learning. That is only the actual scheduled sit-down learning time, we are constantly teaching/learning all day at home.

They are also learning to be contributing members to our famiy by completing jobs around the house. At age 4 1/2 Dude is now the "vacuum guy" and he is very good at it! He doesn't miss a thing! I am so proud that they are learning so much more than just "school stuff". Strawberry is learning to do laundry, she is my little homemaker in training.

I love Homeschooling!!!!!!!!!



For His Glory!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

It's Finally Here

It's finally here, it's actually here! Having made the decision to homeschool our children when our oldest was only 6 months old, it was a very long wait to actually start doing it, officially atleast.

When Dude was 6 months old, I started to look into some information on homeschooling. I reached out to some friends who had been homeschooled themselves but also is the president of HSLDA Canada. Really, everyone needs a great friend like this :) He passed along some great information and studies about homeschooling. It actually became a fairly easy decision for us! Now, while I completely respect the decisions any of you have made for your children, we just could not knowingly put our children in the public school environment (cue paranoid government rant). Anyways, our decision was arrived at very easily. The only thing that seemed like a con at the time was the whole idea of "socialization", we have since come to view this in an entirely different manner and now realize that socialization is NOT being surrounded by 30 kids the same age as you all day, everyday. But, at the time we thought about what we thought was socialization and Daddy and I realized that all of our friends throughout school and the ones we have remained friends with, were ALL from our church...not school! This was very reassuring to us that we were making the right decisions for our family.

Well, since we arrived at this decision quickly and easily....now what?!?! It was kind of like a wedding and we were in that middle of planning lull. We had made the decision and now just had to wait 4 years!?!?! Oh boy, as a very type A, over-organized, slightly anal person this was a lot to ask!

I have researched, read, studied, read, watched videos, read, etc all about homeschooling in the last 4 years. I also found some homeschooling blogs that I loved and started to follow and slowly build some lessons and worksheets from over the last few years. I researched lessons, and curriculum so much that everything began to just blend together, I knew too much!!! There was sooo much to choose from and unfortunately now I knew about everything that was available. What else was I going to do during the last 4 years of waiting to start homeschooling? I will expand on what we are using and how *I* chose it in my next post.

So, cue Monday September 10th, 2012....OUR FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!
yay! It's here! I can finally put everything I have learned in the last 4 years to good use.

Dude is a Kindergartener!!!

Strawberry is a PreSchooler!!! (really that just means she wants to participate, so I make extra copies for her)


And last but not least Linebacker is in "totschool" (just to include him)


Actually getting started was so exciting and the kids were very receptive and really enjoyed it.

And just a fun picture of what happens a lot around here, at the end of our photo session a royal rumble. And as usual, instigated by the youngest.





For His Glory!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Our Journey

It all started many years ago, Daddy and I are highschool sweethearts! We started dating at 16 years old, we got engaged after highschool and married the following summer when we were both 20 years old.

The 'odds' (and the world) were against us, being so young. But that didn't matter to us because God was for us! We knew it wouldn't be easy starting out so young, but we placed our trust in God to lead us in our marriage and to be at the centre of it.


In the fall of 2003 (1 1/2 years into our marriage) we decided to try to start a family. You'll soon find out why I said "we". Well, we're both 21 almost 22, this shouldn't take long, right? We're in our prime, right? WRONG!

Month after month of nothing! We had friends who started dating, got engaged, got married and had a couple of kids all during the time we were trying to have 1. It was heartbreaking. We never went to the doctor about it, I think out of fear of what we'd hear.

Anyway, spring of 2007 (yes - 4 years later) Daddy calls me on his way home from a friend's house to see if I want anything. "Sure, salt and vinegar chips and rootbeer, please" I said. These are things I never liked before, and I didn't catch on to that. Daddy arrived home a short time later with my snack and a pregnancy test! Apparently this wasn't the first odd thing to make him wonder. I was shocked, but obliged.

POSITIVE!!!! what?!?! positive???? How can this be??? We found out I was already about 10-11 weeks along.


So, back to the "we" issue. In 2003, when we decided we wanted to start our family, we didn't consider God's timing for our family. So, in 2007 GOD decided it was time to start our family. We were thrilled! We didn't understand the timing than but I am starting to grasp it now.

Our little Dude entered the world in December 2007. He was our greatest miracle!

Now, here is how I now understand God's timing (but didn't until even a few months ago):
Dec. 23, 2007 - Dude is born.
Jan. 2008 - My Dad is diagnosed with advanced cancer.
Mar. 2008 - Daddy and I sell our house (after only 6 hours on the market) so that we can move in with my parents and take over the house expenses.
April 2008 - My Dad passes away.
May 2008 - we move into my parents house.


Now fall 2008, because of our budget being in a really good place, we decide that I will not return to work and instead will become a stay-at-home-mom. This is something that could not have worked had we still been at our house. Now, we have the entire house for us and my Mom and brother live in the granny-suite Daddy originally built for us.


Now, because I was at home, Daddy and I were convicted to homeschool our children. I now realize this was all part of God's Will for our lives and His timing is everything! If it were up to our timing, we would not be able to homeschool our children, or even be home with them everyday.

This has been shown to me even more so since Strawberry and Linebacker each came about after a single month of trying.


And now...another single month of 'trying' has us here:

Baby 4.0 is due March 2013!




For His Glory!