Crafty!

Last week we had our homeschooling  buddies, Turner and Tripp, over for some crafting. Even though it was a week past Thanksgiving, we made the pinecone Turkeys we had been meaning to make for a month!



Also, we painted pinecones white and red and turned them into Christmas ornaments.

We also made reindeer antlers for them to wear. The kids put red dots on their noses and pretended they were Rudolph. There were 3 Rudolph's. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the 3 Rudolph's.

Catching Up

Well so long good intentions of keeping this thing updated! I guess 1st trimesters just take it out of me! Anyway, I have been meaning to blog for a while now, so I'll try to catch up now.

First of all, we just took an entire week off of school for Thanksgiving. It has been wonderful. It is so nice to read non-school books, and have plenty of time for making crafts and doing other things that are not official school work! We have really enjoyed it. This week has also taught me that we really do accomplish a lot in a given school day, although sometimes it doesn't really feel like it. Here's what I'm trying to say: school time itself is not very long, anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half (for my 5 year old and occasionally my 3 year old). Quantity wise, it's not much. However, during that small amount of time every day a LOT of learning goes on, and it was easy for me to feel this week when we did not do any official school work.

Secondly, I have been truly amazed by how much my 3 year old son is picking up just from hanging around during school time. He knows almost all of his letters and their sounds, he can count up to twenty and recognize numbers 1-5 at least. He is really absorbing so much, that is a huge benefit of homeschooling that I really didn't appreciate when we started.

Ok, I want to put in a plug for PCHEA right now. PCHEA is the area's Christian homeschool association, and we are so so so so so so so lucky to have PCHEA! The cost to join is around $30 for the year. The benefits are countless!! By joining PCHEA we recieve emails about interesting things going on around town that we would otherwise be totoally clueless about! We get discounted rates on field trips, theatrical performances, etc . . . Also, it has plugged us in to our weekly co-op, and it has introduced us to other homeschooling families. Honestly I can't say enought about it. I am so grateful for it! By far, the most beneficial thing for my regarding PCHEA has been attending the monthly Mentor Meetings in which homeschooling mom's get together to discuss a topic, and the monthly Mom's With a Purpose meetings which pretty much to the same thing. They have beenn so helpful!

There was a meeting this past Monday, the topic was curriculum for language arts (spelling, grammer, writing, etc  .. . ). It really got me thinking about what we will do when we finish up the curriculum we are using now. I know our current curriculum will not last us the rest of the year, we are over half way through curriculum, and we are only 1/3 of the way through the school year. So I guess we will simply start our 1st grade curriculum at that time. I have a running list in my mind of what I'd like to use. When I get it nailed down I'll post about it.

Ok, now I want to take a moment to say how proud I am of my daughter, Mandie, for her effort and progress in school. She is reading so well! She is counting, adding, subtracting, problem solving. I am so grateful for how hard she works and how well she is progressing!! Praise the Lord. Although she does sometimes feel like she's missing out on something because she's not in public school, I think she has glamourized public school in her mind somehow. I am always praying that the Lord would help her to be satisfied with her homeschooling, I know he has not called us to send her off to school, and I am looking forward to the time when she is grateful for that choice as well. I know it may be a while before she feels that way.

OK, blog, consider yourself updated!!

Coming soon, a blog about our school room!!

Pumpkin Patch

There is a little patch of pumpkin growing in our back yard. We didn't plant it, it arose out of the compost that we put down in late spring. For a long time I thought it was a watermelon plant, then it turned orange. Now the little harvest from this little pumpkin patch graces our front porch. Here are some pictures:

A few weeks ago we joined our other homeschool counterparts for a trip to the Amazingly Fun Family Farm for Homeschool Day. About 30 minutes into this trip I lost my camera in the corn maze. Thankfully someone found it and turned it in and I collected it on my way out, but pictures are sparse.

This was the hay maze.

The tire tower.

The Hay Slide

This is where I lost my camera. We also did the corn maze (that was exhausting!) Picked pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. The hay ride. A homemade jungle gym kind of thing. Petting the farm animals. Ummmm, I think that's it. The kids had a great time!

Thank the Lord I found my camera eventually!!!!!

Field Trip

Today we went to view Go Dog Go at the Texas Academy of Performing Arts (TAPA) with a group of homeschoolers. I liked the show. We have been reading the book since the kids were tiny (we read my old book from when I was a kid!) The kids really enjoyed it as well. Mandie told me she wished she was in it. I see acting classes in her future! Just before the show started, Matthew decided to watch from my lap so his seat was open. We were on the front row and several of the 'dogs' ended up sitting in his seat during various acts of the show. That was pretty cool. Over all it was a good little field trip!

How It's Going

Wow. So tomorrow marks 3 weeks. The days are flying! It's hard to recap the time in words because at this point there is not a lot of consistency to the way things are going. We are still sort of finding our way. A few days in particular have been pretty rough. However, several have been ideal . . . those are obviously my favorite days. Every day is at least productive. The inconsistency comes from our weekly schedule. At first I tried to do school every day, on top of whatever else we had planned. I have now learned that some days have to have less formal school time because of the activities on our weekly schedule. This is necessary for our sanity! Even though the week is full, I do not want to change cut anything out because it's very important to me that my kids like there life. I want them to have lots of opportunity to play and make friends.

Mondays are exclusively school days. I try to get a lot of really good work in on these days. Usually we work for about 2 hours in the morning.

Tuesdays are also heavy school days. Very similar to Mondays, except on Tuesdays we go to a homeschool playdate in Canyon at 1. That's one of the highlights of the week!

On Wednesday mornings we go to Bible study from 10-12. The kids study their Bible lesson, do a craft, and have time to play with the other kids at the study. Many of the children at this study are homeschooled kids. Mandie and I complete the rest of her school day in the afternoon when the boys go down for their nap.

Every Thursday from 12:40-4 we participate in our homeschool Co-op, called "Seekers". We do not do any additional schooling on Thursdays, but I do like to get some housework done on Thursday mornings. After Seekers we head to Paramount Church for ballet, then we go home to eat leftovers, because Thursdays make me way to tired to cook!!

Friday is another solid school day. I try to get to anything that may have gotten pushed aside during the week for whatever reason, When we finish school on Friday everything gets packed up and put in the school room, not to be thought about again until Monday morning! M and M have gymnastics on Friday mornings around 11.

School time at home is very productive. It's really amazing how much learning can be accomplished in such a small moment of time. I try to require absolute attention, and an optomistic attitude when I sit with Mandie for a lesson. If I don't have one or the other, the lesson ends and we start again when both of those objectives have been met.

Hoping and praying for more good days!!!

Day 4

Today was day 4 of homeschooling here at Dandelion Hill Academy!

Happily, I can report we have had a wonderful week so far! Monday, Wednesday, and Today we got up around 7:30. Got dressed, and gathered around the breakfast table for a healthy breakfast. While eating, we read our Bible story and sang our hymn for this week (Make Me a Servant) and reviewed memory verses.

Then we began knocking off subjects one by one, alotting 10 or 15 minutes per subject until all were completed. This only took around an hour, and the M's are responding very well to this time in the mornings. Then we are done. The rest of the day has been spent playing with neighbors,

playing in the backyard, crafting, etc.

Tuesday has been my favorite day so far!! On Tuesday, we got up and had breakfast, and then we gathered up some food and headed to Thompson Park. After playing on the playground for about half an hour, we went to the zoo right when it opened. (A great time to go because all the animals are out and eating breakfast).





We spent about an hour at the zoo (we even saw the turtles doing a little hanky panky . . . that wasn't great).



Then we went over by the lake, laid out a picnic blanket and had our snack. Then I nursed M3 until he fell asleep and I laid him on the blanket. Then M1 and M2 sat on the blanket to do some watercolor in their nature journals. The each drew something from the zoo. When Michael woke up we headed home.





I hope many of our schooldays look something like Tuesday!!!

Lord, you are so good! Thank you for your provision and love! Please continue to direct this process. We love you, Father!

Amen

Curriculum

Charlotte Mason's principles are a heavy influence for many homeschoolers. I have adopted her principles as the foundation of our curriculum, with a few beneficial changes that I think will be good for us. Charlotte believed that children under the age of 6 should not have any formal lessons. She believed in letting children under six spend hours outside exploring and discovering on there own. Developing a love for nature, and learning the laws of nature in reality. Even though they would not be able to describe or define these laws, they are developing a basic understanding that will be expounded upon later. She believed in short lessons, only 10 or 15 minutes per lesson at this age. She believed in varying lessons (switching from sitting and reading to something hands on before you sit and read again). She believed the formation of habits are as important as the lessons themselves (the habbit of paying attention, the habbit of doing your best, the habbit of neatness, the habbit of putting other before yourself, etc) She believed that every child should be a naturalist, each to their own degree. Finally, she believed in "living books", not text books. Living books are factual, however they are written in story form, not in the form of a text book. She considered texts books "twaddle". I will be doing formal lessons with Mandie; however, they will be short, sweet, and they will require her full attention.

 I expect that our formal school time will look something like this:

Daily Subjects:
Bible: story, memory verse, hymn

Math: Hands on math (using manipulatives, not too many worksheets)

Reading: This is the hub of our year. This reading will not really be done in a formal way, but I hope to spend a LOT of time on the couch with a good book. Matthew is always welcome to join us! Our reading list comes from the Ambleside Online List for year 0. Some we had, some we bought, some we will borrow from the library.We will use narration to determine reading comprehension.

Language Arts/ Phonics: We are using the Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics program that our neighbor gave us. Using this Mandie has already read the first 4 books in the program. We will also practice writing and spelling words from our reading books. And I have a writing curriculum that we will use occasionally to practice handwriting.

Weekly Subjects:
Nature study: this is a dedicated time outside with our nature journals in which we experience and observe nature. Each child will pick one thing to draw in their journal either with colored pencils or water color paints.

Art: craft

Music Appreciation: We will use the music list from the Ambleside Online program to listen to classical music 1/week.

Seekers: Seekers is a homeschool co-op that meets one afternoon a week. Parents take turns teaching. Mandie and Matthew will each have a reading class, an art class, and a P.E. class.

Matthew will be making an alphabet book similar to the one Mandie made at KU when she was his age. My goal is for him to learn his letter names and sounds. Also, I want him to sit and read with us as much as he wants to.

When I asked them what they wanted to learn this year in school, Mandie said she wanted to learn how to make macaroni and cheese all by herself. Matthew said he wanted to learn how to draw Woody Woodpecker. So I guess we'll do that, too. :)

I think the hardest part for me will be getting to bed early, so that I am energized and ready to go every day. I'm a bit of a night owl . . . my kids are not. My main goal this year is to get plenty of rest, and make school time the bright spot in our day.

What's in a name

After spending all kinds of time trying to do it on my own, I decided to let Mandie name our school. However, I did give her some guidelines. The conversation went something like this:

Me: OK, Mandie, what's your favorite flower?
Mandie: Ummmmmm . . . . . . . DANDELION!
Me: OK, let's use a word that describes something outside. Like mountain, forest, valley, hill, dale, field, etc. So it would be like "Dandelion Mountain", or something like that.
Mandie: Hill, I like hill.
Me: Are you sure, I kind of like valley, or maybe plains?
Mandie: No, I'm sure. I like hill.
Me: OK

Why I LOVE the Name

There are several reasons why I love this name. First of all, I love that most people consider a dandelion a weed, when in reality it's a perfectly acceptable salad green. Kind of like the way a lot of people consider homeschooling a non-option, when it's actually a very wonderful way to educate children (at least that's what I'm banking on!).

Secondly, when I picture a hilltop covered in dandelions it reminds me of this Bible verse: "You are the light of the world-like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house." Matthew 5:14-15. A major reason for homeschooling is to train up our children for God's call on their lives. I hope so much that they are, and will be the light of the world, and that the Lord will use them in whatever way He sees fit. I hope He uses me, too.

Third, I think it's so darn cute!

Thus, our school name: Dandelion Hill Elementary

Let the Journey Begin

In just 18 short days our family will officially begin our homeschooling journey. It has been a long time coming. I am anxious, but also somehow relieved by its arrival. When I first felt the call in my heart to homeschool I was skeptical about what I had felt. I had always imagined that my children would go to public school, and I had always laughed off the idea that I had the patience to be around my own children all day, much less teach them! But the seed had been planted in my heart, and the Lord used many conversations, books, sermons, and convictions to water that seed. Eventually I came to accept the idea that homeschooling was something my family could do, and my husband and I considered it to be a very real option for our family.

The Lord continued to ripen a desire inside of me to homeschool.  As time went by I began researching different homeschooling methods. I read millions of blogs about other families who were doing it. I tried to imagine how it would fit into our family, and I wondered what life would be like if we actually opened this door. I spent a lot of time questioning the Lord, asking him to clarify that this was His will for our family. He has answered so strongly that I am convinced that for our family not homeschooling would be a direct act of disobedience to the Lord on our part. We are not interested in disobeying, we want very much to hear his will for our life and react to it with a contented "yes sir".

I hope to use this blog to sort of chronicle our journey over this uncharted territory. I expect that as time goes by and our experience increases we will change our routines and plans as we continue to try to do our best in this endeavor. My prayer is that in all things done here, the love of Jesus Christ will reign supreme, and our children will grow to be ready for the plans the Lord has for them.

"The first step to getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are"

So our journey is beginning.