A Sample of.... Why We Homeschool

I started this little series on my personal facebook page because there seem to be so many people that don't understand why we homeschool.  I thought I would share some of that stuff here.   Here is a little sample:

 

 People wonder why we homeschool. And, they are quick to assume we don't like public school. Of course, my husband works as an Assistant Principal in public school. The irony in that is profound (from both viewpoints... Haha). So I thought I would share some pictures that show why we homeschool. #1. This is Caden coloring. Look close... "Cc Compassion"... As they color we talk about the picture and how we can show compassion to others. We can instill biblical principles while teaching the ABCs.

This is a coloring book page. You may think of it as busy work but it is way more. This is when we take time to really talk about the biblical principles and the scriptures that back them up. This can also used as a copy work verse and in doing that the child learns to write neatly, proper sentence structure, spelling, reading, etc..

Individualized Learning.... Copywork tracer page that I make with a highlighter and the child traces... See how this can be used in beginning reading to practice sounds, etc.. We typically will read the page three times and then trace. I put these in a notebook and we do the read the same sheets for a few days a trace on the third day. I will add to this book daily so they are reviewing old information and adding new each day.

Teacher of the moment!!! Cutest teacher ever!

This is a page from a 4th grade math textbook by Rod & Staff Publishers. There is a sweetness and saturation of biblical content that I have not seen anywhere else. My kids are not fond of all the reading problems but I am in love. Be still my heart... Bible meets math!!

This is a page out of one of our language arts books. There are several biblical examples throughout this page.

This is a reader we use. I love this beyond words!!! All of the stories in it are Bible stories are stories that point back to God. The premise is that we learn to read for the purpose of reading our Bibles.

I get to be with him all day long!!! Yes, even though he has a hard time focusing and takes forever I still get to be the one he spends the day with.

 Q-q-quiet... This is a good lesson because they are rarely quiet!

Savannah skimming the cream off of our raw milk to make butter. 

 One-on-one math with Momma in the kitchen... because someone gets easily distracted and needs constant refocus. Constant. Siblings being best buds in the background.

Homeschool friends can spend the night on a SCHOOL NIGHT!!!  This rarely happens but when a family needs some help we can adjust our schedule and help.  (They are having a jalapeno eating contest.)

 Schooling with real life turtles! Sienna, 3

Spelling Tests can be done on Monday. This isn't our norm, but life happens. We chose to hold off on some things on Friday to help a family out in their time of need. I love that our choice to home educate gives us this freedom. We can rearrange our schooling schedule to fit. In all honesty I intended to do Spelling Tests on Saturday, but I forgot. So.... given a little more time it really will be a true test of whether they really learned their words.

 

This is a sampling of what I have been sharing.  I have many people try to understand and ask me questions.  Some will understand and some won't.  That is okay.  I have many that even thinking of switching to homeschooling and have private messaged me to get information on how they an get started homeschooling.  I think the only way people are every going to understand our choice is to let them see a little of it. 

Biblical Worldview & Other Phrases I Had Never Heard Of

I was not raised in church.  I started going to church on my own at the age of 19.  Some time after that I went before the church to make a public profession of faith and was baptized.  Sadly, I don't know the date, so I do not know my age at the time... early twenties... 22-ish.  For years I went to church and attempted to learn as much as I could from the preaching and Sunday School classes.  I thought I was doing this right.  And I really did not know how to do it anyway.  I remember being told the night I went down to make my public profession of faith that the best place to start in reading the Bible was to read one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), but I did not even feel I could really understand the "Bible language".  How was I going to understand it?  I bought a "Rainbow Bible" in the NIV thinking that would help me understand.  I mean, I had really not read much of the Bible.... just random segments of scripture.  And so it kind of continued that way for a long, long time.  I would just learn what I could from preachings and Sunday School and read some random stuff in my Bible and try to figure it out.  Sadly, the problem with that is that for the most part a lot of the teachings from preachers and Sunday School are on the simpler issues or either it is the same sort of thing and nothing too deep. 

About six years ago I attended the first Bible Study outside of regular church services that I had ever attended.  Really!  Yes, that was about 14 years into my church experience.  And when I think of that now I think that is ridiculous, BUT I am sitting here pondering it and I have to say I know part of the reason.  A BIG part of the reason is that even though I had turned to God and the church I still had the mindset in many ways that I just needed to attend the church services... and that all those Bible studies outside of that were a bit strange.  Let me clarify... I admired people that attended those, but I just did not feel comfortable doing that myself.  Part of that would probably really be my own insecurity.  Maybe I felt that was for the "really good and worthy Christians".  In fact, at that time I would not even call myself a Christian because I had heard all my life that calling yourself a "Christian" was a bad thing (because if you could not be sin free you were a hypocrite if you called yourself a "Christian").  I no longer believe that way (just to clarify).

A few months after I began my homeschooling journey I attended a very small homeschool conference and I remember someone saying that all of your "issues" would come out when you start homeschooling.  Boy, did I ever know that.  Having only been doing this homeschool thing for a few months I had learned already that I had "issues".  And the great thing about having "issues" is that you turn to God to figure out the answers.  One thing I did was read all of Teri Maxwell's stuff I could get my hands on and it was wonderful for me because she openly talks about her "issues" in her books.  My favorite thing is "Homeschooling With A Meek and Quiet Spirit" and I began to read it.  All that to say that since beginning homeschooling I personally have had the most spiritual growth of my life. 

Also, our church is a wonderful "teaching" church and we started going to this church a couple of months after we began homeschooling.  Before this time I had only attended one other "Bible Study".  Our church offers many opportunities for Bible Study and specifically, each Fall and each Spring offers a Ladies Study of some sort.  I have had the opportunity to attend Beth Moore studies and Priscilla Shirer studies, etc..  One in particular that had a huge impact on me was about Hearing the Voice of God.  It changed my life really.  Up until that point I felt like I was just grasping for straws about how to know if God was really guiding me or if it was something else.  I learned most importantly that whatever God is "saying" to you it will always be able to be backed up by scripture.  If I ask God if I should "follow my heart" on an issue and I think He is telling me I should, well that is an example of me being decieved because the Bible says the the heart is decietful.  The study also went through the many different ways God speaks to us. 

As we attended more homeschool conferences I began to hear phrases like "Biblical Worldview", "Biblical Womanhood", "Biblical Manhood", etc..  I had NEVER heard talk like this in ANY church or from ANY preacher I had ever sat under.  Once I heard these terms I knew they were at the core of being a Christian.  When we start to filter EVERYTHING in our life through the Word of God... through our Bible we will have a "BIBLICAL Worldview".  I don't know why the terminology seems so odd or hard to understand what it would mean.  Look at the words.... they all start with "Biblical" and that is so simple understand.  Bible!  Yes, the Word of God!  So, those things are simply:

• Biblical Worldview = having a view of how the the "world" should work should be based on the "Bible"
• Biblical Manhood = that men should model their lives after the model that God designed for us as laid out in the Bible
• Biblical Womanhood =  that women should model their lives after the model that God designed for us as laid out in the Bible

That is simple enough to understand, but the wording seems complex at first.  I am so thankful that I have learned about these things now and that I sit under a preacher that just finished a series of sermons he preached on about Biblical Worldview.  A few months before that he did a series on Biblical womanhood and now he is preaching  a series on Biblical voting.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  God has opened up so much opportunity for me to learn more lately and improve my marriage, my family, my parenting, and my relationship with Him.  I feel so blessed and I had to share this with you. 

School's Out For Summer... School's Out Forever...

Okay, well not forever and technically I am refering to my husband the public school teacher. We are going to be homeschooling year round with lots of breaks! And excuse the reference to secular music, but who can resist a song that most of us have sung at the end of every school year of our life! I am so excited because I am ready to gain some order after out trial run of seven months of homeschooling. It has really taken it's toll on our house, but now I have a clearer picture of what I want our homeschool experience to be like. It seems that my husband and I are on the same track ... at least, some. We went our seperate ways at the SETHSA conference with me hoping that we could come together at the end and collaborate what we had gained. It seems that may not have been the best approach and after I realized Cody was just "putting on a good face" for me I suggested we go in a workshop together... the last one of our final day. David Hazell was the speaker and the workshop title was "Developing An Independent Learner". Something you should realize about David Hazell is that you are going to get so much more from him than just what the workshop title states. That is how it should be. Yes, he gave a great cram-packed one hour presentation on "developing independent learners", but in the process he shared his ideas of how the home should be run, scheduling your day, financially preparing your kids, sharing the world with your kids, how to change you to change them, how to teach from different perspectives and ages, etc.. Cody really was on board with what David Hazell had to say and liked his ideas. I was to and that made me realize that many of our (Cody & I) ideas for what we want are the same. I know it seems we should already know that, but Cody and I both very different. I am structure... Cody is unstructure. I think that workshop made him realize that to have all the unstructured time you have to have the structured time. When you have a house full you have "marry" the two... structure marries unstructure... Shannon marries Cody.... LOL! So, if we can have that structure in the early part of the day, then we can have unstructured afternoons. Anyway, I think we can start our Summer restructuring this house! LOL!

So, when he gets home in an hour I am ready to get the ball rolling! I can't wait to collaborate on our ideas and really focus on what we both want for our family! I am very excited!

Timing For Starting MY Homeschooling Journey

Do you ever wake up and think, "I think I feel like trying a whole new plan!"... while in the midst of an already somewhat overwhelming stage of your life? Some things just do not HAVE a good time and sometimes if you wait for a good time you miss part of the benefit of making that change. The only thing to do in that case sometimes is to jump in feet first... swim or drown!... or in my case tread water for a while... a long while!! :) I can't say I am "swimming" through it, yet. I'm not dead just yet, so I must not be "drowning". LOL! That only leaves "treading water"... yeah, you know you are just barely staying up sometimes... your head bobs below the surface some and you come up FIGHTING for the strength to keep going. That is where I am. Do I sound dreary? I don't mean to. I think in these times it is when God can truly work on me. Let me say ME, again. I know when I have a problem the first place I need to look is ME! OUCH! That hurts. Consider this... do things seem too tough? Look at YOURSELF. How are you reacting? How are you feeling? What are your secret thoughts that no one hears? Now think on this.... are you CONTENT with that? If you are, then this is as far as you can go. If you are NOT content, then God can work on you. I don't want to ever be content with ME. I want to be better. So, if you look at me right now (and always, I hope) you will see someone that always wants to be better... always striving to improve... mostly treading water! I am very critical of myself, but I believe God can use that!

Anyway, I know I left you hanging with my last post, so here are some small details... to ME they have been huge!! This is where my homeschool journey started..... We ended public school on October 31 this fall, but I have to go back a little further to set the scene... let's see.... we will go back to Mid-May 2008 when I began my last trimester of Sahara's pregnancy. Suddenly, I was drained and feeling unable to find my energy. A month later I found out that my iron level was low. For whatever reason I had all the symptoms of someone that was severely anemic. I would get up to walk 5 feet and be breathless. I could not take care of my kids! That is hard for me to admit, but I felt like I had some serious life threatening illness. This is coming from a person that can NOT stand when people treat pregnancy like it is an illness. I LOVE to be pregnant. Fortunately, for me and my kiddos my husband is a teacher and he was able to pick up the slack as summer began. I was around and trying to appear useful, but I simply was not much help around here. That meant that a lot of things were not getting done. Imagine the desperate feeling of nesting, but being unable to accomplish much.

Now let's jump to July 30th! My sweet Sahara is born and I immediately start to feel wonderful... good pain meds do help. Hehehehe! No, really I did feel better all around. In the hospital they thought I was super human because I did so well with my recovery and kept telling me to take it easy and how impressed they were with me. Looking back it was quite impressive, but I get huge adrenaline highs after I have a new baby. We went home from the hospital and time rocked on no matter how high the adrenaline is there is only so much you can accomplish after being somewhat down for the previous 3 months! I had a lot of catch up to do. Summer ended a couple weeks later for public school and my husband went back to work leaving me here to manage the baby and three other kids. A new scenario, but we were making it! I had to manage getting the two older girls prepared for back-to-school time and that two weeks passed quickly. Soon I was balancing all the schedules of my bunch and running like a mad woman. I did not like the juggling of schedules, but decided I could survive it. I did not like it, though.

All the while we are in Hurricane season in Southeast Texas. And let me say this... I lived all 36 years of my life here and until the last 3 years we really have not seriously given thought to hurrincanes. Three years ago changed that with the EYE of Hurricane Rita going over our town. This year would be eventful, too. So, on with the story... When Sahara was a few weeks old we had a serious hurricane threat in the Gulf. We were under mandatory evacuation! I could not imagine evacuating with such a tiny baby, so we waited it out until the last moment. A couple of days before it would have been necesaary to evacuate we realized this hurricane was making landfall well to our east. That made it safe to stay. As fate would have it another "system" started to develop and much our shock it started barreling towards us. Hurricane Ike made landfall when Sahara was only about 6 weeks old and this time we did evacuate VERY QUICKLY and as close to the last minute as we could. We drove two miles away to our the in-laws house and spent the night and then, we headed out the next morning following my parents where we spent the night and waited it out in Waco for the day. That night we headed home to see the damage. Not really just to see the damage, but to avoid a disaster of a different nature. Imagine... no electricity, which would mean a thawing freezer on wood floors. Not only did we decide we did not want to have rotten food in our house. We did not want to have to replace that food or that freezer or THAT FLOOR. My husband even commented that we could maybe get new floors out of the deal, but I did not see the humor in having the busiest part of my home in destruction with a baby and three kids in the mix. EXHAUSTION! All was well with our home, by the way, but the yard was a mess and needed lots of yard work time. Did I mention that we were exhausted from the travelling during evacuation. The other thing I did not mention is that this event would change our lives FOREVER. When this "sytstem" STARTED forming my Savananh began to pray diligently for this hurricane to hit our area!!! @!@!WHAT!@!@ Yeah, that is what I said... imagine that. Her reason was so she would not have to go to school. Most people would laugh this off, but I was appalled that she disliked school that much! Click here and read a previous post about this and the decision we made. It really goes along with this post. Anyway, we did decide after some weeks pondering it that we would make the switch starting November 1st.

So, we have the new baby, a few Hurricane events and a lot of decisions to make about homeschooling and a lot of research and uncertainty. We jump in feet first! ... at the busiest time of the year.... lots of birthdays happen in our family at this time and I go overboard for their parties.... along with Thanksgiving and two rounds of houseguests.... then, Christmas... another round of birthdays follow and all the while I am trying to figure out how the balance all the changes. If I had it to do over... I would do the same... maybe... maybe not! :) I would definitely not recommend it this way! It has greatly added to my stress, but like I said in the beginning some things just do not HAVE a good time and sometimes if you wait for a good time you miss part of the benefit of making that change!!!

Okay, off I go to my DISASTEROUS house to start the afternoon portion of schooling around here. Did I mention I have had a good week? (Read the last post.) Also, there are those that may think they are seeing a huge change in me.... you are... I hope you ALWAYS will. After this trial God will move on to another area of my life... this is just the current issue!!

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galations 6:9