I am not going to go into the details, but my whole life got turned upside down this fall. I had everything I had desired. I had my three boys, I was staying home and homeschooling. We had the best schedule and the best set up. Spanish class at a local co-op, support from a teacher through a local homeschool charter school and a network of homeschooling families that are just amazing. My kids had tons of wonderful friends and a well balanced day to day life. Best of all, I got to spend so much wonderful time with them.
And then I faced a choice, save my family or hold onto homeschooling. Of course, my greatest desire, is for my family to stay whole. So I had to let go of the dream and hang on to Christ. There were too many fears and unknowns for me to try to carry. I just couldn't do it on my own.
Step one, get my boys established at school. If we weren't going to be homeschooling I really wanted them to go to school at our church's school. I knew they would be surrounded by amazing people because I have gone to church with many of them for years. I knew they would be surrounded by prayer and Christ's love through a challenging time in our lives. So I reached out and we were beyond blessed with a wonderful scholarship.
Next we set up a time to come visit their classrooms while I talk with the principal. I pick them up from recess a little while later and the boys were BEAMING. "Mom, sign me up!" Lachlan exclaims. My heart smiles, just a little.
Now here comes the big day. One of my biggest anxieties going into this day was what to pack for their lunches! No kidding. Food is not my strongest asset and having them home I could just grab anything. But cold lunches, everyday, filled with stuff they will actually eat!! What!?!?! It literally sent me over the edge. I got that fear figured out by picking up a cool lunch Tupperware container thing. :) If I filled each section everyday, they should be good. Not only that, but I had friends stock up on boxes of grab and go items from Costco. I have the best community of friends. Okay, lunches packed.
Up next, the waking up early part. Suck. It's still dark when we have to get up. I tried to prepare us by setting an alarm and slowly moving up the time to the actual time in which we would have to get up. When the day came, it wasn't so bad. But they were also super excited.
We are up, we have our lunches packed and our backpacks on.
Lachlan, ready for his first day!
One thing that really helped with this transition is that they were already attending the morning program at our homeschool charter school two days a week. So the classroom environment and having to get out the door in the morning wasn't too big of a shock.
And then, I drove away, from MY boys. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed all day.
People, I missed them.
The first day the time moved slowly. The second day, I still cried, but the time they were away went a little faster and then a little faster.
I had many people surround me and my family and pray for us. And that is what got us through.
I had one person tell me, this change doesn't have to last forever, maybe you will be able to homeschool again. That helped. The same person told me that fears and anxieties are not of the Lord. From that day forward, every time I had those feelings creep up I prayed and I let go. This happened every hour for a while. Maybe more often.
I was able to experience what another friend called "stupid peace". Peace during a time when there should have been no peace in my heart.
We have had a few hiccups. The boys weren't where they needed to be in their writing skills specifically. Third grade seemed like a little bit too much for my oldest so we adjusted a few weeks in and tried second grade, where he is thriving. We've had backpacks left in the car and one day it took an hour and a half to convince my oldest son to go to school. There were some behaviors and disobedience to work through. But God is good, all the time, God is good.
I was able to attend the first chapel the boys attended at school and a young boy in Peter's class got up in front and said he wanted to pray for the new kids at school, that they feel comfortable and love school. It melted. my. heart. It also turns out that school is a better place for Lachlan right now. He really didn't see any reason why he needed to learn the things his Mother was trying to teach him and we were frequently butting heads. I was beginning to feel like it was holding him back. But he is a competitive boy, and seeing what his peers are doing has really motivated him, not defeated him as I feared.
But through another rocky patch the boys had consistency, and that is what I had hoped school would bring.
I still miss them. And I often find myself in moments of despair wondering what's the point of this life. I mean, is this what society wants of us, to never be together as a family? It sucks. I get my family on evenings and weekends. My whole life consists of "getting through the week".
I just keep praying for God to give me a new perspective. For him to continually refresh my spirit.
If you are in a time in your life where you also may lose homeschooling or have already lost it, you are not alone. It's HARD, really hard. But there can be good mixed in too. I pray that God will carry you through, as he has for me.
Next up, going back to work and finding childcare!!! Ack.
Showing posts with label My Faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Faith. Show all posts
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Seal Scripture into Your Home
Our dishwasher leaked and soaked the floor. Insurance is covering the flood, but our home has been torn apart for weeks.
It's
just starting to come back together. The cabinets are reinstalled and
the bare wood counter tops are in place, now we wait for the Formica to
be glued on.
I
noticed pencil lines on the bare wood and thought "hmm, if they can
glue over those pencil lines they can probably glue over other pencil
lines."
I
started thinking about what I would want to hide under our counters and
first thought of having the boys write their names and ages. I love
hiding things in our home. I got this idea from my parents. When we were
kids my parents cut open a wall for remodeling and they let us hide a
jar of "treasures" in the wall. It was filled with notes and childhood nick knacks.
I picked a few off the top of my head and then asked my Facebook friends for some ideas.
They are hard to photograph but here are a few.
Since it is so hard to capture these in photos I decided to make a video with me reading the scripture so that we could always remember what they say and where they are.
This could also work on studs in a wall or on the underlayment on the floor. If you like this idea, I say go for it!! That way I won't be the only crazy person. ;)
This could also work on studs in a wall or on the underlayment on the floor. If you like this idea, I say go for it!! That way I won't be the only crazy person. ;)
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Angels in the Bible Storybook {Review & Giveaway}
This is the second book I received from Zonderkidz to review and Giveaway. It's called the Angels in the Bible Storybook by Allia Zobel Nolan. Illustrated by Alida Massari.
My youngest, Adam (almost 2) was really drawn to this one. The illustrations are really captivating, which is important for little eyes who study every square inch of the images as you read the story.
It was fun to see his little fingers flipping through the pages. The book is made well, nice thick pages, so I wasn't too worried about him hurting the book.
My youngest, Adam (almost 2) was really drawn to this one. The illustrations are really captivating, which is important for little eyes who study every square inch of the images as you read the story.
It was fun to see his little fingers flipping through the pages. The book is made well, nice thick pages, so I wasn't too worried about him hurting the book.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Faith Builders Bible {Review & Giveaway}
A while back I was able to do a review and giveaway of the Jesus Storybook Bible. I LOVE that Children's Bible. This somehow got me on the mailing list of bloggers at Zonderkidz, how cool is that! I recently received an email about The Great Big Super-Duper Easter Basket Guide. They had some great recommendations for books, divided by age groups, to fill your Easter baskets this year.
I really never would have thought of books for an Easter basket, but it is a brilliant idea! They will get plenty of candy I am sure.
Zonderkidz was gracious enough to send me out two of the books that caught my eye. The first is the Faith Builders Bible. In this post I will give you my first impressions and then introduce you to the giveaway. Yep, I get to giveaway the whole PreK to 4th grade set of recommended books (more info on that below).
The box arrived with our new books while we were sitting down at the table for lunch. They were in the box upside down and backwards as the boys peered in. I first lifted the blue book which I knew was the Faith Builders Bible.
Lachlan immediately saw the Lego figures on the cover and exclaimed "that's my Bible, that one is for me!" Obviously I had him in mind when I first saw this Bible, but I didn't necessarily think about giving it to him and having it be his and his only. Whether I planned it or not, it seems this Bible has a new owner.
He continued to admire the book which I am sure you can tell by the look on his face, peanut butter and jelly streaks and all! Why do kids have to eat right out of the middle of the sandwich? None the less, you can see we live a real life around here. Cluttered table, messy faces and all.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book. It was recommended for PreK to 4th grade children. It also said it was a full text Bible with features. With out some guidance it would be hard to know where to start.
Soon Lachlan asked to read something from the Bible. I had to think quick because I wanted to keep the excitement going. So I pulled out Lachlan's Awana book and looked up the current scripture he is learning. "Let's look up your Awana verse! Won't that be fun to look it up in the Bible?"
I read Colossians 1:3 from the Faith Builders Bible and he repeated after me. Awana always encourages getting out a Bible and reading the scriptures from there but we often fail at this. I need to get better about it though. I want my children to know where these words come from, not the Awana book but the Bible.
While he finished eating I grabbed the book to take some pictures of the "features" included. Here are the books of the Bible all laid out. Seriously, I learned a few things from these pages. I have never seen them categorized like this. I have been a Christian for a while but obviously I am no Biblical scholar.
Of course these feature pages are filled with wonderful information, but the best part is the fact that the images are Legos. This quickly catches the eye of my oldest, Lachlan, who is 7 years old. He loves Legos, building and designing. If it catches his eye it catches his interest.
This next page is also at the beginning and asks Can You Build . . . Encouraging them to build these items out of building blocks to represent the meaning in the corresponding scripture.
The page about Building the Tower of Babal is a typical layout of one of the feature pages scattered through out the pages of this Bible. It has a large image of the Biblical scene made out of building blocks, a short abbreviated story and at the bottom a Building Block Verse. It turns out that these feature pages are a perfect answer to the question of where to start. For younger children like my own, I can sit down, let them flip through the pages and read which ever feature page they choose. We could even spend some time memorizing the Building Block Verse. Next they could try to recreate this scene out of their own Legos.
Another couple examples of a feature page.
I love this picture because of it's craziness. But also because of it's simple imagery. Faith building at the center of it all.
Lachlan hopped on over to the couch when we were done eating. I had to clean up the table a bit or that lurking chihuahua would jump up there and eat all the left overs. As I cleaned up Lachlan chanted "Bi.ble, Bi.ble, Bi.ble". I couldn't help but smile.
By the time I had sat down he found the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector. I knew this before even seeing the page because he said "look Mom, there is Jesus and there is a man in a tree!" On this page at the end of the brief reading it says
When we flipped the page we found the story of Jesus walking on water. I read the words on the feature page and again it sent us to scripture. It said we could find out what happened to Peter after he asked to come out on the water if we turned to Matthew 14 or Mark 6 or John 6! We ran into a little bit of an issue when we chose to flip to Mark 6 and in Mark's telling of the story they don't even talk about Peter coming out on the water so we had to quickly turn to Matthew 14. I would have to put that as my first critique of this Bible. No, it didn't turn out to be a huge deal, because my Peter was so curious about what happened to Bible Peter that he was willing to stick around and read another passage of scripture to find out.
However, I do have boys and I do know that their attention can be fleeting. So had it been another moment in time I could have lost him there and our time in the word would be done.
Thankfully that was not the case this time and Peter lingered on the couch studying this page.
I think he was studying it in various ways, one was recalling the story and what happened and the other was trying to figure out how to build the scene with his own mini-figures. We both thought it was pretty neat that they made Bible Peter look like he was sinking by taking off his mini-figure legs.
What ever the reason may be, it is never a bad thing to see your child cuddled up on the couch reading the Bible.
Something else you might want to know is that the Faith Builders Bible is NIV but it is the newest translation of NIV and it's not just NIV it's actually NIrV which stands for the New International Readers Version. This readers version simplifies the words and makes them more modern. It also simplifies sentences to make them shorter and easier to understand. The goal of this version was to make a Bible for people, young or old, just beginning to read and for those who may speak or read English as a second language. Who wrote this translation? The CBT or Committee on Bible Translation did not produce the NIrV, but a few of those who worked on the NIrV are members of the CBT. I am sure you could find more information about this translation if this is something that may worry you. I did a quick search and found a little more information on Wikipedia.
So for what it's worth, this peanut butter and jelly faced kid gives it two thumbs up!!
If you think you or someone you know would enjoy the Faith Builders Bible please enter this giveaway. One lucky person will win all 4 of the recommended books for children PreK to 4th grade (images below).
To see my review of the Angels in the Bible Storybook click here.
Raffle opens February 18th and ends March 12th. I have one more book to review during that time. Angels in the Bible Storybook is up next.
As I stated at the beginning Zonderkidz sent me this book for free in exchange for my honest review. These words are my own.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I really never would have thought of books for an Easter basket, but it is a brilliant idea! They will get plenty of candy I am sure.
Zonderkidz was gracious enough to send me out two of the books that caught my eye. The first is the Faith Builders Bible. In this post I will give you my first impressions and then introduce you to the giveaway. Yep, I get to giveaway the whole PreK to 4th grade set of recommended books (more info on that below).
The box arrived with our new books while we were sitting down at the table for lunch. They were in the box upside down and backwards as the boys peered in. I first lifted the blue book which I knew was the Faith Builders Bible.
Lachlan immediately saw the Lego figures on the cover and exclaimed "that's my Bible, that one is for me!" Obviously I had him in mind when I first saw this Bible, but I didn't necessarily think about giving it to him and having it be his and his only. Whether I planned it or not, it seems this Bible has a new owner.
He continued to admire the book which I am sure you can tell by the look on his face, peanut butter and jelly streaks and all! Why do kids have to eat right out of the middle of the sandwich? None the less, you can see we live a real life around here. Cluttered table, messy faces and all.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book. It was recommended for PreK to 4th grade children. It also said it was a full text Bible with features. With out some guidance it would be hard to know where to start.
Soon Lachlan asked to read something from the Bible. I had to think quick because I wanted to keep the excitement going. So I pulled out Lachlan's Awana book and looked up the current scripture he is learning. "Let's look up your Awana verse! Won't that be fun to look it up in the Bible?"
I read Colossians 1:3 from the Faith Builders Bible and he repeated after me. Awana always encourages getting out a Bible and reading the scriptures from there but we often fail at this. I need to get better about it though. I want my children to know where these words come from, not the Awana book but the Bible.
While he finished eating I grabbed the book to take some pictures of the "features" included. Here are the books of the Bible all laid out. Seriously, I learned a few things from these pages. I have never seen them categorized like this. I have been a Christian for a while but obviously I am no Biblical scholar.
Of course these feature pages are filled with wonderful information, but the best part is the fact that the images are Legos. This quickly catches the eye of my oldest, Lachlan, who is 7 years old. He loves Legos, building and designing. If it catches his eye it catches his interest.
This next page is also at the beginning and asks Can You Build . . . Encouraging them to build these items out of building blocks to represent the meaning in the corresponding scripture.
The page about Building the Tower of Babal is a typical layout of one of the feature pages scattered through out the pages of this Bible. It has a large image of the Biblical scene made out of building blocks, a short abbreviated story and at the bottom a Building Block Verse. It turns out that these feature pages are a perfect answer to the question of where to start. For younger children like my own, I can sit down, let them flip through the pages and read which ever feature page they choose. We could even spend some time memorizing the Building Block Verse. Next they could try to recreate this scene out of their own Legos.
Another couple examples of a feature page.
I love this picture because of it's craziness. But also because of it's simple imagery. Faith building at the center of it all.
Lachlan hopped on over to the couch when we were done eating. I had to clean up the table a bit or that lurking chihuahua would jump up there and eat all the left overs. As I cleaned up Lachlan chanted "Bi.ble, Bi.ble, Bi.ble". I couldn't help but smile.
By the time I had sat down he found the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector. I knew this before even seeing the page because he said "look Mom, there is Jesus and there is a man in a tree!" On this page at the end of the brief reading it says
"Just meeting Jesus made Zacchaeus want to be a better person. Read the story in Luke 19:1 - 10 to see how Jesus responded."It told enough of the story to teach a lesson to my small children but then sent us to the scriptures to dive in more. This would be great for an older child to be able to do on their own.
When we flipped the page we found the story of Jesus walking on water. I read the words on the feature page and again it sent us to scripture. It said we could find out what happened to Peter after he asked to come out on the water if we turned to Matthew 14 or Mark 6 or John 6! We ran into a little bit of an issue when we chose to flip to Mark 6 and in Mark's telling of the story they don't even talk about Peter coming out on the water so we had to quickly turn to Matthew 14. I would have to put that as my first critique of this Bible. No, it didn't turn out to be a huge deal, because my Peter was so curious about what happened to Bible Peter that he was willing to stick around and read another passage of scripture to find out.
However, I do have boys and I do know that their attention can be fleeting. So had it been another moment in time I could have lost him there and our time in the word would be done.
Thankfully that was not the case this time and Peter lingered on the couch studying this page.
I think he was studying it in various ways, one was recalling the story and what happened and the other was trying to figure out how to build the scene with his own mini-figures. We both thought it was pretty neat that they made Bible Peter look like he was sinking by taking off his mini-figure legs.
What ever the reason may be, it is never a bad thing to see your child cuddled up on the couch reading the Bible.
Something else you might want to know is that the Faith Builders Bible is NIV but it is the newest translation of NIV and it's not just NIV it's actually NIrV which stands for the New International Readers Version. This readers version simplifies the words and makes them more modern. It also simplifies sentences to make them shorter and easier to understand. The goal of this version was to make a Bible for people, young or old, just beginning to read and for those who may speak or read English as a second language. Who wrote this translation? The CBT or Committee on Bible Translation did not produce the NIrV, but a few of those who worked on the NIrV are members of the CBT. I am sure you could find more information about this translation if this is something that may worry you. I did a quick search and found a little more information on Wikipedia.
I can really only give you my first impressions since this Bible has been literally in my house for only hours as I sit down to write this. It is a well made hard cover Bible. I am excited to graduate my 7 year old son to his first full length Bible with translation that is perfect for beginning readers. I know we will be using this for our Awana Bible. I am hopeful that this Bible will continue to grab my sons attention because the illustrations are so meaningful to him and his love of Legos. I am pleased with the layout of the feature pages and feel like I can use the content to individualize our time in the word to each of my sons. I also believe based on digging through this Bible that it will easily grow with him. I can't help but think of his older cousin Colton who is 3 years older. He often starts his day reading chapter books in bed because he is such an early riser. He is also a HUGE Lego lover. I could totally see him flipping through the feature pages, reading the story and then finding the scripture to read a little more.
If you think you or someone you know would enjoy the Faith Builders Bible please enter this giveaway. One lucky person will win all 4 of the recommended books for children PreK to 4th grade (images below).
To see my review of the Angels in the Bible Storybook click here.
Raffle opens February 18th and ends March 12th. I have one more book to review during that time. Angels in the Bible Storybook is up next.
As I stated at the beginning Zonderkidz sent me this book for free in exchange for my honest review. These words are my own.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Christmas Blessings
I was sitting at my computer opening mail and talking to my husband as he worked in the kitchen. It was the usual stack of Christmas cards we get this time of year. I opened a red envelope with out looking at who it was from, opened the card and money fell out. I was surprised. We normally get newsletters or pictures in cards. I thought, hmm, who is this from. I read the names and they were names I did not recognize. I thought, oh no, maybe I opened a card addressed to someone else. So I looked at the envelope, it was addressed to Tracy and Jeffrey (correct last name) and Boys. Well, there was no mistake there. The card was sent from Nevada, we don't know anyone in Nevada. I sat in silence with my jaw dropped for quite a while. Not sure what to do next. Eventually I called Jeff's name and held the crisp bill in the air.
It was one of those moments that makes you just want to cry. But the shock wasn't allowing it. I am not one to dwell on the hardships in life. I try to stay positive and especially when recording life here on my blog. So I have not gone into the details of our life the last few years. But someone knew.
My suspicions lead me to Norma, Jeff's Mom. We asked her if she recognized the names and she knew who it was instantly. This women was a past co worker of Norma's and knew all of her children. She has since moved but keeps in touch with Norma by phone and keeps up with our family through this blog. She felt lead to bless us this Christmas and gave us very specific directions to "play Santa" for the boys.
It's funny, because I have had this strong desire to make Christmas really something this year. My husband has been sick for 3 years. We know part of the problem but we don't know it all, I suspect there is more. He has some good days and a lot of bad days. He struggles to get to work almost everyday. For the last three months he has had to work every Saturday to make up for the hours missed during the week. So all we have is Sunday together. It's been really hard on us all. So I suppose my desire stemmed from there.
But I just have to stop here to say, that this blessing was much more than the monetary amount. It was like God was shouting into our souls, "I love you, I will take care of you, the body of Christ hears me and they are My hands and they are My feet." The power of that feeling, the feeling of being safe in Christ's hands, is just so overwhelming. A weight was lifted with that card, with that gift. One I can not describe. Jeff and I were able to float through Christmas. We had so much fun! I mean lots of smiles and joking and kidding and glowing at the site of our children.
Now to the difficult part, what do we get the boys for Christmas that will blow their minds as much as that surprise blessing blew ours. Of course we could have saved it for a "rainy day" but the desire of the giver was for it to be used for fun. So we did. Finally we decided to spend the full amount on one BIG family gift - a tent. A giant, giant tent fromHelen Santa. It was set up in our living room when the kids woke up on Christmas morning.
We opened our presents and played with our presents inside the tent.
Oh the countless memories that will be made in this tent. We actually set this tent back up in the playroom and Jeff and the two older boys spent Christmas night in the tent. It was the first of many adventures.
Al, Helen & Sarah we will think of you each and every time this tent is put to use. But beyond that we will praise God for that Christmas that HE showed his presence to us in a real way through you. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Christ, thank you for listening to His prompting. Thank you for renewed strength and renewed HOPE in what sometimes feels like a hopeless and unending situation. You are such a blessing to us.
It was one of those moments that makes you just want to cry. But the shock wasn't allowing it. I am not one to dwell on the hardships in life. I try to stay positive and especially when recording life here on my blog. So I have not gone into the details of our life the last few years. But someone knew.
My suspicions lead me to Norma, Jeff's Mom. We asked her if she recognized the names and she knew who it was instantly. This women was a past co worker of Norma's and knew all of her children. She has since moved but keeps in touch with Norma by phone and keeps up with our family through this blog. She felt lead to bless us this Christmas and gave us very specific directions to "play Santa" for the boys.
It's funny, because I have had this strong desire to make Christmas really something this year. My husband has been sick for 3 years. We know part of the problem but we don't know it all, I suspect there is more. He has some good days and a lot of bad days. He struggles to get to work almost everyday. For the last three months he has had to work every Saturday to make up for the hours missed during the week. So all we have is Sunday together. It's been really hard on us all. So I suppose my desire stemmed from there.
But I just have to stop here to say, that this blessing was much more than the monetary amount. It was like God was shouting into our souls, "I love you, I will take care of you, the body of Christ hears me and they are My hands and they are My feet." The power of that feeling, the feeling of being safe in Christ's hands, is just so overwhelming. A weight was lifted with that card, with that gift. One I can not describe. Jeff and I were able to float through Christmas. We had so much fun! I mean lots of smiles and joking and kidding and glowing at the site of our children.
Now to the difficult part, what do we get the boys for Christmas that will blow their minds as much as that surprise blessing blew ours. Of course we could have saved it for a "rainy day" but the desire of the giver was for it to be used for fun. So we did. Finally we decided to spend the full amount on one BIG family gift - a tent. A giant, giant tent from
We opened our presents and played with our presents inside the tent.
Oh the countless memories that will be made in this tent. We actually set this tent back up in the playroom and Jeff and the two older boys spent Christmas night in the tent. It was the first of many adventures.
Al, Helen & Sarah we will think of you each and every time this tent is put to use. But beyond that we will praise God for that Christmas that HE showed his presence to us in a real way through you. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Christ, thank you for listening to His prompting. Thank you for renewed strength and renewed HOPE in what sometimes feels like a hopeless and unending situation. You are such a blessing to us.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Mission and Vision - Why We Homechool
Each month Mother Goose Time has us Blog Ambassadors think about a focus topic and write about it from our perspective. It's been fun and challenging. This months topic is Professionalism. Many of the questions we are prompted with apply to in home care providers or preschool teachers. But I think there are some great prompts for homeschooling families to think about as well.
One of the questions falls under mission and vision. They asked us, why have you decided to dedicate your time and energy to teaching young children? My answer is pretty simple, because I gave birth to them. But obviously the choice to homeschool is not that simple. I often have conversations with people on this topic because it comes up. But I have never sat down to put it into words. Honestly the list could go on forever, but this should be a good start.
But before I get started I have to quickly say, that I don't think it's possible to make a "why we homeschool" list with it also sounding like a "why I would never send my child to traditional school, and if you do you are wrong" list. I, above all else, believe that the decision of how to school your child rests in the hands of the parents. I also believe that for each child and each new school year the decision should be prayed about and pondered on. Lastly, I am fully aware that we are blessed to have the choice to homeschool and the opportunity too. My husband has been sick for the past 2 and a half years making it hard for him to get to work and put in the hours needed to make ends meet. In all honesty, we are blessed that he still has a job. In this way we have been made even more aware of how blessed we are for being able to continue schooling at home because if his health at any point makes a turn for the worse I would be going back to work and our homeschooling journey would most likely come to an end. We do hope and pray that we can continue teaching our children at home, but I know that we would find many blessings, from the teachers to the peers, if we needed to place our children in the public school system. So with that said, I will continue with my list of why we choose to homeschool.
The number one reason we want to homeschool is to instill in our boys a firm foundation in their family. We sort of accidentally fell into homeschooling. When my oldest son turned three and all of his peers were packing up and heading out to preschool, I just couldn't imagine doing the same. Lachlan was not ready, he wouldn't even let me leave him in nursery at church for an hour, and I wasn't ready. He was three for goodness sake, three! Do we really want to take authority away from the parents and put it in the hands of someone else, at three! I know many teachers, they are amazing and loving people. I mean no disrespect to them AT ALL. But they are not Mom and Dad. A three year old should know with out any doubt, that Mom and Dad are the ones to go to with questions. That they love them and are the two people that will be there for them no matter what. Not only are the parents important but also their siblings. I am not sure Peter could make it through a day with out his big brother. And isn't that how it's suppose to be? FAMILY.
Second, my hope for my children is that they find a love of learning. One of my good friends often says that the job her husband has now did not exist as of 10 years ago. In our world, our children can't necessarily prepare for the job they will have when they grow up, because it is likely that job does not exist yet. If we establish a love of learning but also a knowledge and foundation of how to learn, they can be successful adults in this ever changing world.
The third reason I can think of is that we don't want our sons to feel unnecessary pressure from peers or from schools trying to meet certain testing standards. Especially at young ages. I don't want their self confidence to be forever scarred by feeling like they aren't good enough because they aren't meeting the class standard. I would prefer for them to learn to push themselves. To find passion in something and go for it.
Fourth, I love being there for the moments when they learn something new. I can't imagine missing those light bulb moments and the sparkle in their eye as they beam with pride. I would say, this is one of my most selfish reasons. But it is there none the less.
Lastly, I am a Christian, so of course part of our decision to homeschool is based on wanting to instill in them our faith so that one day they will also choose to believe and live for Jesus. I strive to be an example for them each and every day and on many days I miserably fail as I lose my temper and scream. But hopefully they see me reach for Jesus as I strive to do better the next day.
I am thankful everyday that we found Mother Goose Time. The activities and lessons in Mother Goose Time have brought us together as a family and helped us to fulfill the mission and vision that we had for our family. My boys were not the sit down and read a book kind of kids. They have recently started to really enjoy this. But not until the last few months. So before then, if I wanted quality time with my children, we could play with toys, or snuggle and watch a show. MGT opened the door to learning through play. We have had cherished moments together because of MGT. I call them Mother Goose Moments. I have asked them questions and gotten answers to things I would never have thought of asking because of MGT. I have seen creativity in my sons more than I ever would have imagined possible because of MGT. I have been able to offer crafts that I would have never had the time to offer them with out MGT. I have watched them find answers to questions by investigation because of MGT.
All of that, while learning their ABCs and 123s with no pressure and a lot of fun!
What I also love about Mother Goose Time and the path that it has set me on, is that it continues to challenge me. There is so much offered as part of the Mother Goose Time curriculum. All of their lessons are founded on research. That research is available to you in their Research Foundation book. You can understand better where you child is at in the learning processes by taking a closer look at the Developmental Continuum of Skills. I have used Mother Goose Time for 2 and a half years now and I continue to find new tools and resources that I can use to push myself and challenge myself as an educator. I am an educator. I still kind of question that when I say it, but it's true. I want to continue to learn and grow everyday, just as I did in my previous career.
So to end this post I have to ask, if you homeschool, do you have a mission statement? I want to write something out, maybe something we could hang on the wall, that reflects our goals as a homeschool family or just simply as a family. I will, of course, start searching the Pinterest world. But I would love to hear from you!
One of the questions falls under mission and vision. They asked us, why have you decided to dedicate your time and energy to teaching young children? My answer is pretty simple, because I gave birth to them. But obviously the choice to homeschool is not that simple. I often have conversations with people on this topic because it comes up. But I have never sat down to put it into words. Honestly the list could go on forever, but this should be a good start.
But before I get started I have to quickly say, that I don't think it's possible to make a "why we homeschool" list with it also sounding like a "why I would never send my child to traditional school, and if you do you are wrong" list. I, above all else, believe that the decision of how to school your child rests in the hands of the parents. I also believe that for each child and each new school year the decision should be prayed about and pondered on. Lastly, I am fully aware that we are blessed to have the choice to homeschool and the opportunity too. My husband has been sick for the past 2 and a half years making it hard for him to get to work and put in the hours needed to make ends meet. In all honesty, we are blessed that he still has a job. In this way we have been made even more aware of how blessed we are for being able to continue schooling at home because if his health at any point makes a turn for the worse I would be going back to work and our homeschooling journey would most likely come to an end. We do hope and pray that we can continue teaching our children at home, but I know that we would find many blessings, from the teachers to the peers, if we needed to place our children in the public school system. So with that said, I will continue with my list of why we choose to homeschool.
The number one reason we want to homeschool is to instill in our boys a firm foundation in their family. We sort of accidentally fell into homeschooling. When my oldest son turned three and all of his peers were packing up and heading out to preschool, I just couldn't imagine doing the same. Lachlan was not ready, he wouldn't even let me leave him in nursery at church for an hour, and I wasn't ready. He was three for goodness sake, three! Do we really want to take authority away from the parents and put it in the hands of someone else, at three! I know many teachers, they are amazing and loving people. I mean no disrespect to them AT ALL. But they are not Mom and Dad. A three year old should know with out any doubt, that Mom and Dad are the ones to go to with questions. That they love them and are the two people that will be there for them no matter what. Not only are the parents important but also their siblings. I am not sure Peter could make it through a day with out his big brother. And isn't that how it's suppose to be? FAMILY.
Second, my hope for my children is that they find a love of learning. One of my good friends often says that the job her husband has now did not exist as of 10 years ago. In our world, our children can't necessarily prepare for the job they will have when they grow up, because it is likely that job does not exist yet. If we establish a love of learning but also a knowledge and foundation of how to learn, they can be successful adults in this ever changing world.
The third reason I can think of is that we don't want our sons to feel unnecessary pressure from peers or from schools trying to meet certain testing standards. Especially at young ages. I don't want their self confidence to be forever scarred by feeling like they aren't good enough because they aren't meeting the class standard. I would prefer for them to learn to push themselves. To find passion in something and go for it.
Fourth, I love being there for the moments when they learn something new. I can't imagine missing those light bulb moments and the sparkle in their eye as they beam with pride. I would say, this is one of my most selfish reasons. But it is there none the less.
Lastly, I am a Christian, so of course part of our decision to homeschool is based on wanting to instill in them our faith so that one day they will also choose to believe and live for Jesus. I strive to be an example for them each and every day and on many days I miserably fail as I lose my temper and scream. But hopefully they see me reach for Jesus as I strive to do better the next day.
I am thankful everyday that we found Mother Goose Time. The activities and lessons in Mother Goose Time have brought us together as a family and helped us to fulfill the mission and vision that we had for our family. My boys were not the sit down and read a book kind of kids. They have recently started to really enjoy this. But not until the last few months. So before then, if I wanted quality time with my children, we could play with toys, or snuggle and watch a show. MGT opened the door to learning through play. We have had cherished moments together because of MGT. I call them Mother Goose Moments. I have asked them questions and gotten answers to things I would never have thought of asking because of MGT. I have seen creativity in my sons more than I ever would have imagined possible because of MGT. I have been able to offer crafts that I would have never had the time to offer them with out MGT. I have watched them find answers to questions by investigation because of MGT.
All of that, while learning their ABCs and 123s with no pressure and a lot of fun!
What I also love about Mother Goose Time and the path that it has set me on, is that it continues to challenge me. There is so much offered as part of the Mother Goose Time curriculum. All of their lessons are founded on research. That research is available to you in their Research Foundation book. You can understand better where you child is at in the learning processes by taking a closer look at the Developmental Continuum of Skills. I have used Mother Goose Time for 2 and a half years now and I continue to find new tools and resources that I can use to push myself and challenge myself as an educator. I am an educator. I still kind of question that when I say it, but it's true. I want to continue to learn and grow everyday, just as I did in my previous career.
So to end this post I have to ask, if you homeschool, do you have a mission statement? I want to write something out, maybe something we could hang on the wall, that reflects our goals as a homeschool family or just simply as a family. I will, of course, start searching the Pinterest world. But I would love to hear from you!
Thursday, June 4, 2015
10 years! It's been 10 years!
Today we are celebrating 10 years of marriage. I am not sure I am up for any eloquent writing this morning. I have not finished my coffee quite yet. Instead I will share the words I wrote 2 years ago on our 8th anniversary. All I can say, is that every year I get to spend with my husband is precious to me. The last few years my husband has struggled with a lot of health problems, it really brings into light the fact that we can not take each other for granted and unfortunately, we don't know how long we have together. So make it count.
But I have to share the beautiful surprise I woke up to this morning. In order to understand the significance of this morning's surprise I have to go back a few years.
About 10 and a half years ago I came home to 60+ roses hanging by the ceiling with a note attached to each one stating a reason why he loved me. The last rose was a red rose hanging over a card that said he was taking me out on a date. While we were sitting and eating he gave me another card that said he was going to share with me something I had not seen before and it had musical notes on the front of it. Next he took me to a friends house and played the piano for me for the first and only time. From there we went for a walk through Bush Pasture park and ended in the gazebo at the rose garden. There he handed me another card that said "to see how much I love you, look to the north." The cardinal directions are in a stone on the floor of the gazebo and also drawn in a picture on the card. I looked down to see north was pointing behind me, so I turned around. As I was facing the other direction I heard Jeff move and when I turned back around he was on one knee! He asked me to be his wife and I gladly accepted.
I love that man and I love the one that stands before me today even more!
So here was my special surprise this morning. As I stepped out of the bedroom this morning I came face to face, with a hanging rose.
I kept walking out to the living room and found a full dozen (or maybe only 11, I haven't counted) and another note.
He also added a little box with a gift, a new pair of earrings. Back when we were just married Jeff bought me a pair of diamond earrings. Then a few years ago when Peter was a little guy he came over to climb up in my lap with a giant monster truck in his hands. As I grabbed him the monster truck came up to my ear, somehow caught one of my earrings and ripped it out. I searched forever for that earring. It has never been found. Well diamonds are no longer in the budget, our money is now spent in better ways, on our children. So today he got me a beautiful pair of cubic zirconium earrings and I couldn't be happier. They sparkle and they are pretty, just like the real thing.
There are certainly a few things that are different about this day compared to 10 years ago. This time, before I gave Jeff a big hug and kiss I had to make sure to grab the baby monitor and turn it on. Oh and there was this shirtless 4 year old with a lot to say sitting on the couch. He was Daddy's "helper" this morning. So, so helpful. Jeff made sure to trim the stem nice and short on the rose he hung so that no one could bat at it. :) Oh man, I love this life.
This weekend we are having a barbeque with family and we are going to read our vows to each other once again. I am so excited!
My gift to him was far less spectacular. I wrote him a little something on a "card" of sorts - a decorative S to signify our last name. What I wrote is a spin off of the cardinal directions symbol that was there the day he proposed and the fact that he had me look to the north. Since the compass points to the north and back in the day the north star was how people found their way around I combine the two.
But I have to share the beautiful surprise I woke up to this morning. In order to understand the significance of this morning's surprise I have to go back a few years.
About 10 and a half years ago I came home to 60+ roses hanging by the ceiling with a note attached to each one stating a reason why he loved me. The last rose was a red rose hanging over a card that said he was taking me out on a date. While we were sitting and eating he gave me another card that said he was going to share with me something I had not seen before and it had musical notes on the front of it. Next he took me to a friends house and played the piano for me for the first and only time. From there we went for a walk through Bush Pasture park and ended in the gazebo at the rose garden. There he handed me another card that said "to see how much I love you, look to the north." The cardinal directions are in a stone on the floor of the gazebo and also drawn in a picture on the card. I looked down to see north was pointing behind me, so I turned around. As I was facing the other direction I heard Jeff move and when I turned back around he was on one knee! He asked me to be his wife and I gladly accepted.
I love that man and I love the one that stands before me today even more!
This was the very first note explaining the roses. |
I put all the notes and cards in this scrapbook, which is a tons of fun to look through now and then. |
This is me, standing amongst the roses the day he proposed. |
I still love you . . . |
. . . But now there are many more reasons. Happy Anniversary Tracy! |
There are certainly a few things that are different about this day compared to 10 years ago. This time, before I gave Jeff a big hug and kiss I had to make sure to grab the baby monitor and turn it on. Oh and there was this shirtless 4 year old with a lot to say sitting on the couch. He was Daddy's "helper" this morning. So, so helpful. Jeff made sure to trim the stem nice and short on the rose he hung so that no one could bat at it. :) Oh man, I love this life.
This weekend we are having a barbeque with family and we are going to read our vows to each other once again. I am so excited!
My gift to him was far less spectacular. I wrote him a little something on a "card" of sorts - a decorative S to signify our last name. What I wrote is a spin off of the cardinal directions symbol that was there the day he proposed and the fact that he had me look to the north. Since the compass points to the north and back in the day the north star was how people found their way around I combine the two.
As a compass seeks the North Star
So too will my heart forever seek yours.
You are my north star.I can't say it's accurate, as the compass actually seeks the north pole (doesn't sound as nice). But I never said I was a poet. None the less. He got the point. This is always my prayer, that my heart will always seek and be drawn towards my husband. Love is love, but it's also an action and a choice. I never want the worries of this world to pull my heart away.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)