Getting back into this blog-thing.

I’ve been out of the blogging scene for quite a while now. We ended up putting our boys back into public school for Kinder and 1st grades, and our daughter attended public preschool. Life happened, and we chose to bring them all back home. Life is happening some more now, making our new journey quite the difficult one, but we know we’re on the right path, so we’re sticking with it! Once things calm down, I plan to blog all about our beautiful unschooling journey! This will (hopefully) involve lots of fun field trips and exploration of amazing things in detail. My children are so creative, and so curious; I can’t wait to see where this journey takes us.

All I can ask of my readers, is that we get lots of good thoughts/prayers/whatever you do when someone is going through a tough situation. We’re on the right track, and we’re doing what’s right for our family. That’s what’s most important.

Writing a story.

Yesterday we started writing a story.

We made a list of different titles.

Snake!

The Innovation of God.

Money! : Money for God.

A Rainbow for Syleii and Sienna

A World With a Lot of People and Penguins.

Jesus on the Cross, in a Tomb, and Back to Life.
The bold title is the one we chose.

Z & our list of titles.

After choosing our title, we made a list of our characters.

Letting 3 & 5 year olds choose characters for a story can get a little out of control. We have way too many people in our story. I’ll have to find a way to get them to cut back on our characters.

Syleii, Sienna, Zarek, Malaki, Kaleii, Azariah, Natalie, Paige, Ms. Patty, Ms. Pauley, Cynthia, Ms. Laurette, Grandma Fish, Josiah, Joy, Whitney, Corey, Jaiden, Keona, Jose, JESUS!, Jada, Ava, Tiana, Olivia, Papa Shawn, and Aunt Kelsey.

That’s a LOT of people!

Today, we will start on our plot.

Have you written a story with your children/students? What ages were they at the time? How did it go?

Filling Jesus’ Shoes.

Philippians 2:5 says, “Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus.”

 

Yesterday we talked about making wise choices, and today kept right on with this talk that we really need right now; Your Attitude!

Make your attitude that of Christ Jesus!!!

How do you explain the attitude of Jesus? Well, you simply say “Jesus did good things all the time. He helped people, and was good to people. Jesus did not do bad things.”

It’s really bad of me to write a blog post about this because of the conversation that we had, but forget what initiated the conversation. M was full of questions. He asked a question that made me go into talking about Jesus’ death. We talked about Him being arrested and beaten, carrying His cross, being nailed to it, being stabbed in the tummy, and dying.

Then M asked “Is Jesus buried?” – that was a great question. I got to tell my kids about the resurrection of Jesus! About how he was in a tomb for 3 days, and then he was alive again! They loved that. Then they asked if he got dead again. (Lol, I love their wording!) I told them about how Jesus ‘floated’ up to Heaven to be with His Father.

But who is His Father? Another great question. His Father is God, I said. Do you remember when we pray, we say Our Father in Heaven? They did. I guess they never understood why we say it that way. I explained that God is the Father, and Jesus is the Son. That makes God our Father, and Jesus our brother (though there are many arguments about this, I believe if you have truly given your life to God, you are a brother/sister to Christ).

I love the opportunity to share the story of Jesus with my kids.

 

Those are big shoes to fill.

If Jesus was alive today, what would his shoes look like? Would they seem as hard to fill if He was here today, as it does to fill those of a man who lived in a different time?

Not back to school Photos

This week, I’m linking up with iHomeschoolNetwork to share our school pictures for the new school year. They have ‘blog hops’ that cover different aspects of schooling, this month is the “Not back to School” blog hop. I’m loving reading everyone’s posts about their school rooms, curriculum, students, etc. I hope they are loving mine as well. 🙂

Today kicks off our official first week of school!

Princess Sy is Pre-K

Today we had a few hiccups as we started.  The boys were having a hard time listening.

As we sat down to do our Devotional, I was telling the boys that they weren’t making good decisions. I had written out our schedule last week to start our Bible Study this week, but we actually started last Wednesday, skipping Friday. Today, instead of being on Day 1, we were on Day 3. When I opened the devotional, I laughed. Today’s lesson was about choosing wisely. God really wanted to speak to them today, and I believe He did. After our devotional, we had a lot less trouble.

My #1 Kindergartener.

We worked together today, and it was very successful.

There are a few things that aren’t going to work. Like, having Princess Sy down here for quiet time instead of sending her up to a bed. It just doesn’t work. If I want everyone quiet, she needs to be in a separate place. The boys are content to do quiet work, or sit to have a snack and enjoy a short movie/show. This is something we will be changing tomorrow.

My #2 Kindergartener.

Have you started your year yet? What about ‘school pictures’? If so, link up so I can see them! 

Week 1 Schedule

Yesterday I talked about how to take time to plan out your schedule. No matter what way you are planning it – weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly – you need to have that time. I thought I would share our first week of school, so you could get an idea of what your schedule should look like (if you’re a first timer). This schedule is for Kindergarten. I don’t exactly have a schedule of work for my preschooler right now – she will mostly be listening when we talk about things, and I have printed off several sheets that she can color, draw on, make shapes, etc. This also does not take into account any arts & crafts we will be doing, as those will be something I plan for later weeks. I want us to get into the routine of doing these classes first, then move on to adding new things to our class schedule.

Monday:

• Math – 2 addition pages ‘counting pencils’
• Copywork – Letter A – Apple, Ant, And
• Bible Study – Little Book Day 1 ‘Jesus Gives Life’
• Reading – Spiderman
• Phys. Ed. – Run 1 lap, sit-ups, catch

Tuesday:

• Math – 2 subtraction pages ‘raisins’
• Copywork – Letter B – Bear, Box, Brother
• Bible Study – Little Book Day 2 ‘Starting Your Day’
• Reading – Little Critters
• Phys. Ed. – Run 1 lap, push-ups, kick ball

Wednesday:

• Math – 1 pg. addition, 1 pg. subtraction ‘chips’
• Copywork – Letter C – Cow, Cat, Cousin
• Bible Study – Little Book Day 3 ‘Choosing Wisely’
• Reading – Z’s Choice of Book
• Phys. Ed. – Run 1 lap, jumping jacks, kick ball

Thursday:

• Math – 2 pages Addition ‘counting pencils’
• Copywork – Letter D – Dad, Dog, Day
• Bible Study – Little Book Day 4 ‘Your Attitude’
• Reading – M’s Choice of Book
• Phys. Ed. – Run 1 lap, Bicycle in air, Red Rover

Friday:

• Math – 2 pages Subtraction ‘Dominoes’
• Copywork – Ear, Elephant, Easy
• Bible Study – Little Book Day 5 ‘Celebrate!’
• Reading – Dora
• Phys. Ed. – Run 1 lap, sit-ups, Red Light Green Light

What does your schedule look like? How often do you plan?

Making Time for Lesson Planning

Being a stay at home-schooling mom, with all we have to do, it is hard to find time to plan out our lessons. Well, for me, at least. I’m not sure about others, but my house is usually in an organized state of chaos. Sometimes it feels completely unorganized and out of control, but we’re working on having a better structure and routine so that we can be better organized. I say chaos because we have two five year olds, a three year old, and a 17 month old running around all day – I don’t know who that wouldn’t be chaos to.

1 Corinthians 1:23 says “God purchased you at a high price. Do not be enslaved by the world.”

All my life, I’ve been a night owl. I have to work hard to get myself up in the mornings. Along with being a night owl, I’m also a TV addict. I love all kinds of different shows. Crime dramas, mysteries, sci-fi, etc. You name it, I’ll watch it. I usually stay up way too late watching TV on Netflix, because that’s the only time I have to watch TV. You would think that 5 1/2 years after having kids, I would be used to getting up in the morning, but I’m not. I am currently trying to get myself into a good routine so that I can wake up easier. I am trying to go to sleep by 10, but it is very hard. I realized that between the cleaning, cooking, teaching, and trying to have fun with my kids, I have no time to plan our lessons out.

We have decided that the best routine for our kids is bath time around 7pm so we can be asleep by 8pm — that is bathing 4 kids and doing a story in both the girl room and the boy room, within an hour, with them hopefully asleep at the end of that hour. I plan to then, take a shower and do my Bible reading, prayer time, and on Monday, lesson planning. I also plan to do blog planning and meal planning during that time, just on different days than our lesson planning. If I can get the kids to bed by 8pm, that gives me two hours to shower and get all of the things I need to do done.

I tried out this plan last night. I didn’t get to my room until 10 because the kids got to bed a little late, but it only took me 40 minutes to read two days worth of my Bible reading, prayer before & after reading, and plan out a week worth of lessons. Today I woke up at 6am, and am still going strong. Hopefully this plan works.

How do you make time to plan your lessons? How often do you plan them – weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly? Any tips for me or other readers?

Schooling Spaces

As we hop back in to the official start of a new ‘school year’, everyone wonders what homeschool-ers do for their classroom.

We started out converting our basement into a school room. We painted the walls vibrant colors, added 4 tall and 2 short bookshelves, bought desks for Z & M who would be starting Kinder this year, and a desk for mom to ‘teach’ from. Then we realized one vital thing: this area was not okay for our baby or our three year old. Our basement is finished, but not carpeted or with nice walls, so I don’t consider it finished. Before we moved in, the previous tenants had separate rooms, but they removed them when the left. We made a makeshift wall to separate my laundry and dad’s workshop area from the schoolroom, but it still didn’t work good enough for us.

Our basement school room.

A few weeks ago we began slowly moving our school room up into our main living area. We now have a cabinet to hold our crafting supplies, a small crafting table, mommy’s desk, and both of the boys’ desks up here. We also have a buffet that our TV sits on that stores all the kids toys and some of the easy reader books that they can enjoy. 

I hope to do most of our actual school work here, where the boys can focus at their own desks on their copywork and math. Other things we will probably pull all our chairs to my desk and work on things together. For craft time, as long as it isn’t too messy of a craft, we have a small coffee (crafting) table in here that they can color/draw on. When we do messy crafts, we will go to our kitchen table.

I’m not sure if this will stick, or if this is something we will even like. Maybe it will feel too much like public school for us, and we will have to do something else. I’m perfectly fine with that. God didn’t lead us to homeschooling because he wanted us to do public school at home, but because he wanted us to worship, learn, and experience life together at our home, and in our community.

The world is our classroom.

Where do you have school at? Are you in an organized classroom, or do you school in random places?

Physical Education

One of the things I’ve heard many times as an ‘out’ for people to justify sending their kids to public school is that they aren’t sure how they would get PE covered. Uh, hello? Send them outside!

But it’s not a routine – Who said you had to send them outside without a plan & let them roam free? I live in a nice little townhouse community. We live in the back corner of a ‘square’ area. There is sidewalk covering most of the ‘square’, minus the road to drive up to our area, and they just cross that when walking. One of the activities my friend has her daughter do is run the square. That’s awesome, and is something I will be using in ‘gym class’. We ran around the gym multiple times, why can’t the kids run around the square of our neighborhood?

Play organized games – I’m sorry, but why can’t you be active enough to play some sort of organized game with your kid? It’s been incredibly hot this summer so I haven’t done a whole lot of outside play myself, but when it’s cooler out we do a lot of baseball and soccer at parks.

Walk @ the mall – We go to the mall and walk. It’s one of our favorite things to do. We haven’t done it lately, but I’m sure we’ll be starting back up with it soon. Several laps around the mall is a good way to get out some energy.

What is my plan for the school year?

My goal is to walk daily in the mornings with the kids. Then I will let them have a ‘recess’ time where they can go out back and run around – we have a small green space behind our yard between us and the next complex. For organized play, we will do some kickball, baseball, soccer, red rover, red light green light, etc.

 

What activities do you use for Physical Education? Do you have an exercise routine, a ‘free play’ time, or somewhat like I plan to do? Any suggestions on more things we could do?

Domestication & other things

Each day it seems like we’re re-training the kids how to keep things cleaned up.

Yesterday I had my five year olds vacuum the school room for the first time.

It was fun. They took turns, and they had a great time.

Learning + Fun = Great educational experience!

Z focusing hard, making sure he gets everything

They each have chores.

Twins do the bathrooms – toilets, floors, sink, mirrors, & wipe down walls.

A has the kitchen – dishes, floors, counters, wipe down appliances.

Princess Sy has toy pick up in the living room.

Miss Liberty helps everyone. Mostly she picks up shoes. She loves shoes.

She can’t leave the strings on her seat alone.

Last Friday, my mother-in-law took the boys shopping with her.

They found quite a few things that they wanted.

Robots, picture frames, toys for everyone else, and a giant map of the USA puzzle.

Z, M, & Princess Sy completed the puzzle in under 20 minutes.

These are the things we’ve been up to lately.

We will officially be starting school in nine days when big brother goes to school.

What types of things do you do to keep your children domesticated?

Curriculum Talk

Lately in the homeschooling blog scene, everyone is talking about what curriculum they use.

We have decided not to use a curriculum, at least to start.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about A BEKA.

If we do end up using a curriculum, this is probably the one I will choose.

I have a lot of research to do when it comes to curriculum, but I’m not to that point yet.

I’m really hoping I will only have to use it for a few subjects here & there.

We have a lot of books and information on most historical events, so I should be able to do history without a boxed in ‘this is what you must learn’ ideal.

I’m pretty good at spelling and grammar, so I hope to do this by myself.

There are other aspects of English / Language Arts that I’m not so good at, so those I will need outside help with – which I’m hoping I can just find online.

Math – There are so many resources for this subject, that we REALLY shouldn’t NEED a boxed curriculum. I should be able to find most of what we need online.

Plus, I have a few textbooks that I’ve bought in the bookstore.

Science will be my hardest area, as I’m not a science fan – AT ALL.

Hubby will be able to teach them a lot, and we have many science books – not including all the science workbooks A has brought home from school after they were done with them.

Computer, I will be able to handle.

Hubby and I are both in love with computers.

He, with design programs. Me, with all things internet and writing related.

Social studies – which includes history – will be mostly home made curriculum.

We can learn all we need to about geography online or in books that we already own.

Bible curriculum is simple, we use our Bible and the different devotionals we have.

We could do different lessons based on different verses and what not, which I will plan out when the times come.

If you have used a curriculum, what would you recommend? Also, if you don’t use a curriculum, where do you get your resources from?