First Month of Homeschool

We've been doing homeschool for a little over a month now, and we love it! I don't have time to write about all the adventures we've had so I thought I'd share a few photos of what school has looked like for us so far.

Visits to the Catawba Science Center - lots of science learning...

"I love this day!"

We love learning with our CC group!

"Skip" counting on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.

We spotted a Hawk in our backyard, observed it, named it "Camo" and read a book about hawks.

Learning games on computer, math/phonics/computer skills

Learning maps: continents, USA, states & capitals

A Trip to Mamaw & Pawpaw's House in GA

Participated in the "Old Soldier's Parade" in Newton with our Classical Conversations Group.

We dressed as Mohawk Indians on the ship throwing tea into the Boston Harbor. The parade had a patriotic theme and our float goes along with our history lesson on the Boston Tea Party. 

On Dad's day off we took school with us to nearby Lake James 

and went canoeing, swimming,  picnicking, and did school lessons by the lake.

Dad bought us this cube to use for school review games.

It looks like all fun and games but we've actually been working very hard. Already we can tell the boys are learning so much, and the best part - they are enjoying learning! 

A Life Well Lived

December 1912 - August 2014

This past weekend, my Great Aunt Louise Lacy went to be with the Lord at age 101. 

She was a sweet and generous woman. She lived most of her life just down the street from my family. I remember her most for her famous sourdough bread she baked every week and mostly gave away to the sick and elderly. She also loved to make quilts. I remember she and my grandmother working on quilts together. She was a strong and brave Christian woman whose faith sustained her through many trials. She was a teacher with a love for sharing knowledge on many subjects and whose stories delighted several generations of children and grandchildren. She will be lovingly remembered. I'm grateful she woke up with Jesus Saturday Morning. 

Our reason for Homeschool

While many schools are starting across the country this week, we are entering our third week of school. It's no secret, we've decided to homeschool our children this year. Honestly, I've been reluctant to blog about this decision for a long time. There are many reasons we have chosen homeschool and like most homeschool families our reasons are personal and complicated. I'll try to simplify and explain here. 

We never planned to homeschool before having children.  My husband and I grew up in public schools and we both ended up with Master's degrees. We imagined our children being part of a school like we grew up in, where they can learn, having nurturing teachers, and a find a best friend. Our oldest son went to public schools from Kindergarten through third grade. He attended four different schools during that time (Louisiana had a different school for every two grades). Our youngest son went to private Christian prek and attended public Kindergarten last year. One reason we chose homeschool is that we had grown disappointed in the education they were getting in pubic "government" schools. I'll spare you all my concerns about Common Core, they are many and have already been documented by countless others. Academically, we felt like they were not getting a well rounded education that includes languages, fine arts, history, and science. Instead they were primarily being trained to perform well on the end of grade test and complete a few unit studies on history and science throughout the year. 

We take our responsibility as parents seriously and strive to give our children the best education we can from cradle to college. We don't believe in delegating that responsibility to anyone else. However it began to feel like that was happening. The schools tell parents how many minutes to read to their child but when we tried to teach cursive handwriting to our son because he was interested in it, he was corrected on his classwork and told he couldn't write in cursive because that was a 4th grade skill. Also, we observed that schools were taking more liberties in labeling children with what used to only be a clinical diagnosis of learning disorders. In more than one school is was suggested that our child might need medication to help him focus, even when he showed no signs of hyperactivity and maintained honor roll status. Thankfully, we know our child and recognize he doesn't have a learning disability but simply a different learning style. Schools tend to only teach to one or two learning styles and don't have time to nurture students who don't fit that mold. Similarly, our youngest was reading well above grade level but not given harder assignments and we felt wasn't being challenged to his full potential.

For us the advantages of homeschool are many. We love spending time with our boys. We love teaching them from God's word and giving them a Christian worldview. We have chosen to be part of a Classical Conversations group in our community. This helps direct our teaching of history, science, math, grammar, Latin, Bible, and fine arts. They meet once a week for 24 weeks with our community group and practice what they are learning at home with a trained tutor. We started a few weeks before our group starts because we wanted to get a routine down before we started the group. Already I'm amazed at how fast they are learning. We don't sit in desks for 8 hours a day and they are learning more than ever before. We use ABeka for Math and Language Arts/Reading and are loving the depth at which their lessons teach them. They are learning phonics and spelling rules, reading, and the Bible is tied into every lesson. 

There has also been a relief for our family schedule. No longer am I spending hours in carpool line and helping with hours of afternoon homework when they are tired and restless from being at school all day. Now we have time to visit the library or go to the park in the afternoon. We cook dinner together most nights, and easily have time to make it to ball practices several nights a week.  Our children play with kids of all ages and all walks of life (unlike school where they are isolated to a class of 30 kids their same age). We are able to serve in our community more than we had time to in the past. When we need to travel we can take school with us or rearrange our lessons to accommodate without having to write extra reports about our trip or having to rush to finish missed assignments. It feels like we have a more balanced life homeschooling. 

It's hard for many to understand our reasons for homeschool, and some will just flat out disagree. I realize it's a personal choice and am ever grateful for the freedom we have to make that choice. As my children get older I find myself wanting to protect their privacy more. They are already in the spotlight quite a lot as Pastor's kids, now they are very aware when mom makes their picture that it might end up on the blog for the whole world to see. Ironic, that's the main reason I don't do Facebook - because I want to protect my family's privacy. Lately, I've had to do some thinking about whether to continue the blog at all. It's been five years of posting mostly about our kids and there are only about five followers. The conclusion I came to was that the purpose of this blog is to show the reason for my life's joy which is Christ in my life. Without Christ I would not be the person I am today and our family would not be what we are. We are just a normal family doing life together striving to know God and make Him known. If someone out there stumbles across this blog and reads something that encourages them to keep the faith, then I consider this blog worthwhile. 

That being said, you might see some changes to the blog in the weeks and months to come. As my career has changed to homeschool mom, I have to take some time to find my own balance between my roles as wife, mother, teacher, homemaker, trainer,  etc. etc. etc. I'm not sure where blogger fits in the priority list yet. I enjoy writing, but I also want it to be purposeful and God directed. We'll just have to see where life's journey takes us next. 

The Joy of Baptism

We took great joy in watching our youngest child be baptized yesterday and express his commitment to follow Jesus. We are so proud of the young man he is becoming.

Everything is Awesome!

Our oldest son just had his 9th birthday! He's had a year full of change, some good, some hard, but he has persevered and has grown stronger because of it. All he wanted since he saw the Lego Movie in February was to have a Lego Movie birthday party. Awesome! I thought that would be easy. A few friends over to watch the movie, play legos..... Well the movie was delayed coming out on DVD and doesn't come out til mid June. Ok, well no movie but my hubby had the bright idea of getting the Lego Movie video game instead. Nope, they don't make it for the Wii we have. All of this coupled with the fact he still has broken toes that prevent him from doing all the other stuff he wanted to do like laser tag, swimming, hiking, baseball, etc.  was stressing me out! I just wanted my son to have the awesome birthday he wanted!! I pinterested, I planned, I shopped, I baked, I made a pinata! and then I realized I was making a huge error. I realized I was more worried about his guests having an awesome time so they would think my son is awesome. Ughhh. My son IS awesome!!! He is not only kind, thoughtful, funny, crazy smart, and fun, he is redeemed by our Father, Jesus Christ.  Why worry about what others think? All that mattered was that as I watched him playing master builder with his four buddies and giggling eating at the taco Tuesday bar, and tearing into the pinata, he couldn't stop smiling. He had a great birthday! At the end of the day, that's all that really matters.

Made a ramp to race lego cars out of some leftover insulation foam board and a pool noodle.

This Mother's Heart

The last couple weeks since spring break have been a whirlwind. We have been to urgent care (twice), dermatologist, orthopedic, dentist and pediatric dentist. Our youngest had a sinus infection and had to be on antibiotics, our oldest had a bike accident and broke 3 toes. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all.

Mostly, I've had a hard time accepting my 8 year old's broken toes injury and the four weeks he has to spend in a post-op shoe. He is the sweetest, kindest, most well-behaved kid whose had a tough year at school and moving and all he longs to do is play baseball. He played four games this season before his accident and now he's out for the rest of the season (again). Last year he only got in one game before he broke his wrist in a swing accident. He's really pretty good at baseball and he LOVES it. Why him? Why now? But humility comes in strange forms sometimes. I never saw my son cry over this injury or the news that he was done with baseball. Instead, as we waited in the very crowded waiting room at the orthopedic office he looked around at all the people on stretchers and in wheelchairs and said to me "it could've been a lot worse." At 8 years old he is trusting that God has a plan for this and He will bring healing in His time. Wow. What faith! I have learned a lesson from him.

Yesterday was Mother's Day. Anyway, as I was working at the kitchen counter fixing supper plates, my youngest son came to me in tears saying he needed to ask Jesus in his heart! I'm thinking, "What is going on?" His Pastor/Daddy was home and sat right down in the kitchen floor with us and went over the ABC's of becoming a Christian and he prayed to accept Jesus as his Savior. What a gift! This is the moment we've been praying for. I'm speechless. Again, a humbling moment to watch my 6 year old acknowledge his relationship with Christ and the fact that Jesus died for his sins. If you don't know what I'm talking about please read "Got Joy" and decide what your personal response to Christ will be.

"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with Joy." Psalm 126:3