School Year 2011-2012

Seth is in 4th grade - 9 years old

Garrett is in 7th grade - 12 years old (he would really want me to put 13 since his birthday is less than a month away)

Ella is in Kindergarten - 5 years old

I love this picture

Everyone is looking at the camera

Great smiles

Now you can really compare to see who looks like who

I love these pictures.  It really captures how she truly loves her brothers.  He wanted a picture with each of them by herself.  The cool thing is, they didn't mind taking a picture with her. 

This was last years pictures.  My oh my!  They are growing up quickly.  I sure do enjoy having them at home.  I am able to spend some true quality time with each of them through out the day.  I was scared, worried and wondering how was I going to do all three of them for school.  Do you know that God has removed all of those feelings of doubt.  We are having an incredibly fun time.  Who knew?!

Prayer for our children
"And the boy Samuel (Garrett, Seth and Ella) continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men"
1 Samuel 2:26. 

Homeschooling

This is our 3rd year to homeschool.  I decided to post since Kelly at Kelly's Korner is hosting a Show Us Your Life - Homeschool Ideas.  She is wanting us to be able to share ideas of how we do it or curriculum we use.  I decided to do question and answer post.  These are usually the questions I get asked when others are thinking about Homeschooling.
1.  What does your 4 year old do while you teach the boys?  She is right there with us in the school room.  She colors, writes, draw or paints.  The boys include her in their school work.  One may take a break to play with Ella while I help the other one.  It just works.

2.  What curriculum do you use?  Sonlight mostly for reading.  We use Singapor Math, IEW for writing.  I have introduced Total Language Plus for my older one for reading.  We use Apologia Science.  We do a co-op with the owner's of Apologia Science.  Incredible family

3.  How do you help everyone?  I write out their assignments for the week on an assignment sheet.  When they need me, they ask.  If I know we need to discuss something first, I will put SEE ME on their sheet.

4.  Do you attend a co-op?  Yes.  For the past two years we have done co-op.  We come together for Walk Thru the Bible, Science, Social Studies, and Worldview.

5.  How do I start?  Go to the North Carolina Department of Non-Public Instruction website,  Ask alot of questions to people who are already doing this,  search the web

6.  Do you use one curriculum?  No,  I use Rainbow Resources to order many of our material

7. Do you plan to do this through high school?  yes.  I have always been told - take one year at a time.

8.  The term Homeschooling means?  This term means different things to different families.  Each family does what works for them.  That is the beauty in this.  We do what works for our chidlren.  Our children are not looked at as 1 of 23 children in the class.  Many families decided to homeschool not for academic reasons.  There is more to this than "academics".  We strive for high standards in the academic area but our children are asked to do many other things. 

Homeschooling our children is such a blessing everyday.  We enjoy spending time together.  The thing I noticed as soon as we pulled our children out of school was time.  I was amazed at how much school dicitated our time.  We are free and able to make up our own schedule now.  Love it. 

Homeschool was a calling from God for me to step out of my comfort zone.  Well blessing have come our way over the pass 3 years.  We are 2 weeks away from accomplishing the 2010-2011 year.  Plans are already being made for the next school year

Garrett will be in 7th,  Seth in 4th and Ella will be a big Kindergartener.  Let the fun begin.

Sign Language Class

For the past three weeks we have been learning sign language.  Fun, Fun.  We have learn and laughed.  The best part is that we have been able to do it as a family (since it takes all three of us to remember the signs) haha.  I have learned from my friend Alisa that sign language can count for High School Foreign Language credits.  How cool is that?

Thought I would post since Ella just signed that she wants French Fries for supper.

We learned foods, family and household items

I love to expose our children to different things to see where they grab and hold on.  We will see where this goes. 

We have officially made Friday Night "Movie Night" 

We haven't really done Family Movie Night.  We are making this each person enjoy their own movie.  Jeff and I find a movie we can watch and the kids find one or two they can watch.  It has been nice to be home on Friday nights.  It seems to make the weekend longer.  We have to be at the ice rink by 7:00am on Saturday mornings so this makes us stay at home and get to bed early.  Garrett and Seth both play on Saturday mornings.

Also, Garrett plays Select games this weekend.  That means games Saturday morning, then Saturday night and Sunday Morning (6:30 am) by the way

So the PJ's are on and supper will begin shortly.  Movie are set.  We are ready.

What is a Worldview?

Last year at co-op we started studying Worldview?  I was alittle intimidated at first.  Boy have my eyes been opened.  Now I have a desire to study more and more.  Voddie Bauchaum in his Family Driven Faith book has a whole chapter on Worldview and why we and our children need a worldview.  He seems to think that the reason children walk away from the faith when they are in the college years is due to children living under their parents faith, drive, and guidance when it comes to church and belief.    It is almost like children are saved due to living under their parents grace and mercy.  They don't feel it for themselves.  They don't study it for themselves.  They show up on Sunday for a 20 minute SS lesson, 30 minutes sermon on Sunday, and maybe a 20 minute lesson on Wednesday (if they are lucky).  They are not seeing it, hearing it, living it in their homes.  So when they walk out of their parents door and into the "world" on their own, they choose the world.  Their faith was not the building block -  their parents were.  YIKES!  That is scarey.  I truly believe that God spoke to Seth's heart last year during our Worldview time.  Boy have I learned alot just by studying this together last year and this year.  I have been a church goer all my life.  But can I defend what I believe??  I want my children to be able to defend their faith against this world. 

Last year's book

This year's book

Today's lesson - How to Make a Wise Decision

1.  Ask God First - boy did I need this as a reminder - as an adult we seems to think we can make those fast decisions since we make 100 or more a day anyway

2.  Listen to the Holy Spirit - This takes patiences, being still and spending time with our Father.

3.  Seek Wise Counsel - Even as a wife, mommy and adult - I need to surround myself with people who can give wise counsel - Godly people who follow the 2 above

4.  Choose Christ - in all decisions we need to choose Christ - not this world - Choose God everytime not just when I feels good. Our book gave the story of Mary and Martha - boy did this hit home - I am so Martha but working hard to be Mary

Jeff and I are working to set that example for our children.  Make our decision based on those steps.  I have even tried to share with my children how God's choice is not always what I want, when I want it.  I want them to know when that happens so they will see us living out the Word.

I am taking a class right now that is testing my Worldview greatly.  The boys and I have been discussing my situation daily as I am truly struggling.

This book is also walking us through other Worldviews

Mormans

Muslim

Atheist

Buddism

By knowing what they believe, I am able to witness and share My God. 

Boy do we have great discussions when we study Worldview.

Okay, pictures to share.

Had bangs cut today.   What am I thinking?

We will see what happens - I may have to find a bobby pin in less than an hour.

My philosophy - hair will grow

If it gets on my nerves, it will grow back.

HAHA!!

Melted

Garrett had to complete his assignment he had been working on all week.  The last part of the assignment was to write a letter of gratitude to someone.  Just as the character in the book had done.  I left him to decide.  I had not seen this or knew who he wrote his letter too.  Well seeing the presentation on Friday, melted my heart. 
This is what it said.

Dear Mom,

Thank you for homeschooling me. It has been the most fun three years of my life. I enjoy being at home so I can learn at my own pace and we go on a cruise for a field trip. Thank you again for all you do to homeschool me


Love,

Garrett

I hope that Garrett's knows that he is meeting God's Standard of family.  The world tells children to hate their parents, it is okay to talk back to them and just be friends with them.  Jeff and I sacrifice a great deal for me to be able to stay at home and homeschool our children.  Sometimes it is hard to say "no" to our children because of the price we pay for me to stay home.  This letter makes it all worthwild.  It has been a fun three years.

Homeschool

Once people find out that we homeschool, the first comment out of their mouth, "How do you do it?"

This is how. . .  Seth is reading in the den

Ella is sitting at Seth's desk working on her pages

Garrett is upstairs reading.

It can be done.  What a joy it is to have our children home with us.  We are so glad God spoke to our hearts to homeschool our children.  We are in this together.  We celebrate together. 

Since we have snow, Jeff has been home with us.  It is even better to have him at home.  He is seeing what we do while he is at work.  Nice to have an extra set of hands but nice to have him see and be apart of what we do.

Reading

                                                   

I bought this book for Jeff a few months, well year, back.  He started it but didn't get very far.  I finished one of my books over the holidays and needed a new one to start.  I started Family Driven Faith. 

                                              

I am blown away.  He lays the smack down.  So far - I have read about Biblical love, Biblical Wordview, and Worship at Home.  He calls all parents out.  It is not the church who is responsible.  It is parents.  Some of my favorite things so far. 
1.  Why our Kids need a Biblical Worldview?  This is a fairly new concept that is so important right now.  We used to not need a Worldview because everyone believed the same thing.  Your neighbors were the people who went to your church, you saw in the neighborhood grocery store and you could trust because they believed the same and worshipped as you did.  Now that is not the case.  The world is swallowing up our children little by little.  He believes that is one reason why so many college age children are walking away from the faith.  YIKES!  Not what I pray for my children.

2.  Teach the Word At Home - God sent your children home with you.  This is a big statement.  God believed in me and Jeff to raise Garrett, Seth and Ella.  Through His Word he gave us the instructions we need to do it.  He trust us.  YIKES! 

3.  Assuming Responsibility - "Imagine your boss just promoted you."  What if the promotion meant stepping into a job for which you felt inadequate or unprepared?  How do you repond?  Do you say, "Thank you, but I am not up to the task"  or do you say, "Thank you, I'll do my best"?  As parents, that's exactly what God said to us when He gave us children.  YIKES!  Congratulations, you've just been promoted to the position of parent." 

4.  As homeschool parents, Jeff and I are often asked, "How do you do it?"  and "How long will you do this?"  through High School?"  Well Voddie is asked the same questions and he refers to those questions in the book.  His response is, "You only have to stay a week ahead."  This is true in so many things we teach our children.  A week at a time. 

I have been so encouraged, inspired, challenged, and ready for the task.  This man is the same man Jeff and I saw at the marriage conference we went to several years ago.  The whole time we were thinking the same thing.  God was calling us to homeschool our children.  We were at a marriage conference not a homeschool conference.  Voddie doesn't know it and probably never will.  God used him to speak to us about homeschooling.  I just love it.  This is his website link below.
                                                         Voddie Baucham

On another note:

Okay,  10K is set.  I am scared to death.  What am I thinking? 

As Jeff keeps saying,  "Game On"

Printed the training schedule tonight.  Training begins Monday.  In order for me to stay focused and committed, I have to sign up for a race.  This is going to be Jeff and I's anniversary trip together.  Just a month and a half early.  He has been on me for several months to do this with him.  It is a huge race.  It has a 50,000 person cap. There were 29247 people crossing the finish line in 2008 out of 37666 registered.  Oprah ran this race.

Game on!!  6.2 miles - Goal is to finish under 1 hour

Final Day of Coop for This Year

We were getting ready to head out the door to coop yesterday.  We enjoy coop so much.  We are always inspired, challenged, and refreshed when we leave. 

We were delayed since we had a weather day yesterday.  Mrs. Carman talked to us about why Satan wanted the weather day and for us not to meet yesterday.

We were studing Jesus crucifixion and resurrection.  Satan didn't want us to talk about that.  It is the cross that matters.  Not how much money you have, not how educated you are, not about how many rewards you have -

IT IS ABOUT THE CROSS!!

Our wish as parents is for our children to have a love for the LORD, share the gospel with others and live out His truth's is their life.  There would be no greater JOY.

Thank you God for giving us our children to raise and to teach them in your Word.  They are such a gift.

A Homeschool Day At Our House

Ella is making cards for her grandparents.  It is so great to watch her "get it".  She is beginning to sound out words and write the letters she hears.  She enjoys decorating cards, letters, and pictures.  Sometimes it is just random letters on a sheet of paper.  But this is the first steps in knowing that letters make words.  (By the way, it is probably around 11:00am here.  She loves her pajamas.  She lives in her pajamas.   Even if we have been somewhere and she is dressed, she will come home and put on her PJ's.  This girl loves to be at home)

Seth is taking his Wordly Wise Vocabulary Test.  (The Jesse Tree is behind him)  Fun to read the Line from the Old to New Testament to "get to" Jesus.

Garrett is working on Critial Thinking.  This has been their favorite thing this year.  We just added it to our curriculum this year.  It is short and sweet but they enjoy doing it.  They are working on imagery right now. 

School at home is such a blessing to us.  We enjoy being at home together and interacting together, especially during this Christmas season. We enjoy doing craft projects, reading stories, playing toys and being together.

We are ready for the Christmas Break.  Today is the day.  Off until Jan. 4th.  Yipee.

And we are . . . .

This picture is really only for Meme.  Ella looking like a big girl in the new clothes meme bought her.

Not sure I am going to like 5 - only because the clothes go from sweet little girl to BIG girl

Well we are going to memorize the Beattitudes that come from Matt. 5:  3 - 12

We are studying this part of scripture in Walk Thru the Bible so it fit perfect.

This scripture helps us

realize that without God I am helpless and my situation is hopeless, I humble myself before God and I am hungry to know God because He loves me which makes me become helpful with my whole heart as I desire to bring healing to others making me happy to honor God by trusting Him and following His commandments that keeps me on the path to heaven by His grace!!

I will keep you posted on how we are doing.

We played hockey all weekend.  Seth had one game  - Garrett had 2 games and 2 practices.  Both boys have practice again tonight.  Yea!

A Challenge

We have a challenge. 

Do you love chocolate? 

We love chocolate. 

Do you know how many different kinds of M&M's there are now?  You probably have you favorite kind.  We love the plain M&M's.  Right now around the holidays you can even get other kinds. 

Well our challenge is that we want our Love of God to be more than our Love of chocolate. 

M & M really stands for

Memorize and Meditate

We have been learning about Jesus' Wildnerness experience.  He was tempted by the devil.  Jesus used scripture to defend the devil. 

We were made to memorize.  We have memorize many verses of the Bible.  Now our challenge is to memorize a passage of the Bible. 

YIKES. 

My first thoughts are:

 That's too hard!

I can't do it!

You are crazy!

I ask my child to do many things and the above are the responses I usually get.  Well now that we are doing this as a family, I want to scream those things.

But we have a challenge.  We don't get to eat our M&Ms until the passage is memorize.  So my thoughts this weekend are to find the passage.  What to memorize?

Work hard and the payoff is grand.

So I challenge you?  Are you up for the challenge?  If you let me know that you have joined our challenge, I will buy each person in your family a bag of M&Ms. 

The devil is out to steel, kill and destory.  I will not let that happen.  I want to meditate on the things above. 

I will post on Monday about our passage. 

Join the challenge.

Devotion

I have read a book in the past about What we tell our children, God may be trying to tell us.  I truly got this idea last night.

Jeff and I have been "on Garrett's case" lately.  He seems to have a care less attitude.  He has not doing some things Jeff and I have been asking him to do.  Responsibilites.   We have tried many parenting tactics to try and "fix it".  This has been going on with school work as well.  Since he is homeschooled, I have taken the blame for this.  The last few weeks have not been so pleasant.  I do alot of talking and talking and talking.  Needless to say, I think Garrett has become numb to my talking.  Last Monday I was determined to not let the way he does things bother me.  Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday were good days.  Friday we were off to the beach.  I saw some great things out of Garrett at the beach.  I was finally thinking - look at the positive.  Praise the positive.  Look at his strength.

So now onto me:


I received a not some nice email right before the Harvest of Praise from someone "getting on my case".  They felt as those I had done something not quiet so right according to them.  I could not get the email out of my head.  I fired back all night at my husband who took the burden for this person's email.  I was not able to say to them face to face what I wanted to say so I said it to my husband.  Even when we got home, I was still mad. 
They didn't know my side of the story. 
They didn't understand my thinking.
They were an outsider looking in
They had truly hurt me by their words
They were pointing all the wrong I did - did they know what I had done to fix this already

I couldn't even enjoy the night.  I couldn't enjoy my children.  I couldn't think except on the email and the comments.  I begin to try to let go and not worry.  I knew before I went to bed I needed to pray.  I had to turn it over to God.  As I was finishing up on my work sitting in the school room, my brain shifted to Garrett.  How does he feel?  Does he feel that I don't understand?  Does he think I don't understand his side?  Do I hurt him with my words just trying to get my point across?  How does he go to bed with a huge burden?  What message do I send to him when I constantally point out all the wrong his does?

So as I began to get on my knees, my prayer shifted from poor pitfull me who felt like a victim to what am I saying to my son?  God spoke in that moment.  This email from this person left me with so much hurt and worry and heaviness.  What am I saying to my son? 

My Heavenly Father said things to me through this. 
I felt as though I had done everything right.  Why is this person sending me an ugly email? 
Garrett may be saying - I thought I did it right?  Why are you getting on me? What am I doing as a mom?

Dear LORD,
Off to a new start - Thank you God for your teachings.  We, as children of God, need you.  We can't do this ugly world without you.  Prepare me, O LORD, to be the mom that Garrett needs everyday.  Encouragement and Love.  Let me show him ways that he can trust me.  Just as I need to trust you LORD.  God, you ask us to trust and obey.  If he can trust me, then the obey will follow.  Continue to work in our hearts, our home and our school.  We love you!
In Jesus name
Amen