Lets Talk Homeschool

            Why do I homeschool?  There are a lot of reasons for why I do what I do.  One reason is that I worked in the public school system for seven years.  Although I had many positive experiences there, the thought of sending my children off to school scares me!  There are so many aspects of the public schools that I wouldn’t want my boys exposed to.  I like the fact that I can make Bible and Christian values a big part of our days.  We can spend the first part of a school day learning about God, who He is and how He relates to us.

            Another major reason we homeschool is that our boys are like night and day!  I can tailor their schooling to fit their needs.  Even though they come from the same parents and have been raised in the same house….they don’t even come close to being alike in many ways.  Here are just a few examples. 

*One child is completely auditory.  The other is visual and kinesthetic.

*One loves team sports.  The other can only function with individual sports.

*One is sensitive.  The other has had to be taught sensitivity.

*One is called “The Artist”, the other “The Architect”.

*One loves workbooks.  One can’t stand to pick up a pencil.

*One loves studying animals.  The other loves studying all things related to physics.

*One loves to whine. The other loves to pout.

So since they are complete opposites I try to tailor some of the schooling to fit their personalities.  For one, his favorite part of the day is when we read aloud or he works on the computer.  So for example, this year I specifically picked a software program for his vocabulary even though it also came in workbook form.  For the other, I try to use workbooks or make lapbooks with him since he is hands-on.  That is not to say that they don’t both do workbooks and listen to me read to them.  I just try to cater some of their schooling to them to bring out their strengths.

There is a verse in Proverbs that says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Although this verse does apply to a child’s moral upbringing, I think it also could be about his natural “bent” and strengths.  Why would you train or push a child to be an engineer when he has an intense love of nature and animals?  Why would you direct or push a child into the arts when he can’t stand to pick up a pencil or crayon?  Homeschooling gives me the flexibility to work with my child’s natural bent and improve his weaknesses instead of pushing him into something he is not.

Sorry, I know Dr. Phil says that, and I don’t much care for talk shows, but it always made me laugh when he said that.  In case you were wondering how my 4 weeks on 1 week off plan is working I thought I’d update you!

This is the second grouping of 4 weeks on and we are on week 1 of that.  (Unfortunately for the first grouping I wasn’t as prepared as I was not sure we would be doing the 4/1 schedule).

Let me just say I LOVE IT!

This is truly wonderful.  The kids school is ready for them, they know what to do, they know what is expected of them, they are not following me around saying “Mom, what do we do now? We finished X assignment.” and I am able to get more done around the house!

I’ll try to keep you updated as the year progresses, since I know things can often start out with a bang and end up with a pfffftt…..

But for right now, oh what a blessing this new schedule is!

We started a new school year today.  I have 2 first graders and a pre-ker!  I’m always amazed at where the times goes and how they grow so quickly.

Our day was full and busy.  We were lazy first thing but once we got going, it was full speed.  I wanted them to enjoy the “first day” and be excited about times to come.

One of the things I did with the kids today was to have them give me a list of things they want to learn and do this year.  Last year the two older kids gave a list to me and it’s been on our playroom/homeschool room wall all year.  We looked over it this summer and we were able to mark off most of the items!

I was overjoyed to see the list my cutie-patooties gave me!  Wanna see?  Here goes.

What I Want to Learn and Do This Year

reading

ABCs

spelling

learn about God’s word

take photos of birds

go to a museum

go to the zoo

color

do geography

look for caterpillars

do some building

study the human body

play games

cats

learn about jobs

colors, 123s and write numbers

reptiles

And the list goes on and on.  I was smiling on the inside.  I’m gonna have a great year!

This year we are doing something we’ve always “planned” to do, but has never panned out.  That is, we are schooling 4 weeks on, 1 week off*.

The plan is that approximately every 4 weeks I will take one week to plan out the next four weeks.  I began working on that today and let me tell you, right now the plan seems like a great one!  The plans are simple:

• Input all work for the next four weeks (We use Homeschool tracker and love it!)
• Create all notebooking pages for the next four weeks.
• Locate worksheets, readings, articles, etc. for the next four weeks.
• Print out anything that needs printed out and sort (for the next four weeks).
• Create a list of books, videos, CDRoms from the library that will aid in our studies.
• Locate any books in the house that we may use.
• Organize any crafts and/or recipes we may use.

And the best part:

• Once the four weeks are here, sit back, relax and learn with the kids without feeling stressed and running around trying to locate items I have forgotten or have ahem…lost.

This is definitely going to take some getting used to and we are, as is par for the course, open for any rabbit trails, but as for right now I can see how great this new plan is going to be!!

* 4 weeks on/1 week off is a relative term.

Well I now have my list of library books and DVDs. I have on a waiting list for some and others I will pick up today. I will review each of them and let you know how the strategies work with Sophie.

1. Embracing play teaching your child with autism (DVD)
2. Breakthroughs how to reach students with autism (DVD)
3. Engaging autism : using the floortime approach to help children relate, communicate, and think
   Author Greenspan, Stanley I.
4. Relationship development intervention with young children : social and emotional development activities for Asperger syndrome, autism, PDD, and NDL
   Author Gutstein, Steven E.
5. 1001 great ideas for teaching and raising children with autism spectrum disorders
   Author Notbohm, Ellen.

Sophie has been feeling pretty bad. She started some new medicine that didn’t sit will with her and then she got a cold. She is finally feeling better and with the new DVDs and books I am ready to go. I will keep you posted.

Where does Sarah Palin stand on education? I have found a paper she wrote when she was running for governor. It explains what she planned for the state of Alaska. As a side note, Sarah Palin will homeschool! She has enrolled her high school age daughter in IDEA in a distance learning program of Alaska.

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Education in Alaska – by Sarah Palin
I envision a world class educational system founded upon the principles of safety,
quality, social responsibility, parental involvement and fiscal accountability.
Education is a service the state is mandated to provide. I strongly believe in providing an
adequate level of funding to ensure high quality public schools. However, it will take more
than money alone to pave the way toward better schools – it’s also going to take commitment
and collaboration with all school districts and REAA’s to raise student performance and
achievement. School districts must be held accountable at all times for the manner in which
they expend public money.
1. Let’s Fix PERS/TRS
In order to get more money into our classrooms, funding will have to be provided to address
the $7 billion unfunded liability of PERS/TRS. In next year’s budget, there will be a request
for $500 million of budget surplus funds from the new PPT revenues to deposit directly into
PERS/TRS. There will also have to be funding above the Base Student Allowance (BSA) to
assist districts with higher employer contribution rates.
This problem began under the mismanagement that occurred during the administration of
Governor Knowles. School districts and REAA’s are currently faced with employer
contribution rates that rob funds away from classrooms. I will help districts with this
problem.
2. Let’s Fully Fund and Forward Fund Education
I support adequate and full funding for education, as well as for pupil transportation and
municipal school debt reimbursements. Again, increases will be necessary to address higher
contribution rates for PERS/TRS. There must also be recognition for increases in costs for
energy, utilities, insurance, and salaries. We cannot go back to the days of simply ignoring
inflation.
A centerpiece of my fiscal plan is to forward fund K-12. After making payments to bring
down the liability to PERS/TRS, any remaining budget surplus funds will be used to forward
fund education. School districts and municipal governments will be able to do a better job of
planning their budgets for upcoming years if they know in advance the level of funding they
can expect from Juneau.
3. Schools of Choice
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Page 2 of 5
My administration will support existing programs that already offer alternative school options
available throughout the state, including charter schools, rural boarding schools, home school-
options, ABC schools, correspondence schools, and vocational/technical, and magnet
schools. There are many successes out there that we can look to as models. My
administration will support and expand existing programs that successfully offer new
approaches to ensure an appropriate education for every child in Alaska.
4. Expand Vocational Training Opportunities
Alaska’s youth have tremendous career opportunities in the skilled trades if they have
adequate training. I will charge the Alaska Workforce Investment Board (AWIB) with
drawing upon its considerable expertise to develop a pilot program aimed at increasing
awareness of vocational career opportunities for our younger students through a partnership
with industries facing worker shortages.
5. Safety in our Schools
Safety is the most basic requirement of a functioning education system and a civilized society.
Recent events underscore the need for improved safety in our schools. If teachers and
children are not safe, they cannot teach or learn; it affects all of us. We must address it with
sincere effort.
I support grant programs through the Department of Education that will make sure all
schools have the tools and the resources to ensure day-to-day safety as well as emergency
response plans. An example of an effective and safe school is Kodiak’s KIDSS Program. In
this school parents and community give input into the development of a school safety
program. They are engaged in the ownership of the program and take responsibility for the
prevention of violence.
6. Teacher’s Salaries & Benefits
SB141 must be revisited. Competitive salaries and benefits are necessary in order to attract
and retain quality educators. My administration will work with the Legislature to find the best
possible retirement plan – which will likely be a hybrid of defined benefits and defined
contributions.
7. Pre-K
The State should target early education programs to specific at-risk groups that truly need
them. These groups will benefit from access to high-quality programs currently out of their
reach. We must find a way for these children to obtain a safe and positive environment in
their early years.
Today, social and economic pressures sometimes encourage both parents to return to work
outside the home. The State Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) in
my administration will publish useful educational material for parents about children in their
early years. The DEED has made some headway with their new research on developmental
stages and guidelines. (May 2006 - http://www.eed.state.ak.us/news/elg_toc.pdf) We can do
better by revitalizing this information with an appreciation of parental involvement and
providing a larger database of information in website format. When the parent acts upon good
information about how to inspire and guide their children towards success, every child has a
better chance to succeed.
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Here are the Guiding Principles
Alignment is the unity of purpose which brings parents, children, teachers, public
administration and businesses together towards a common goal of quality education.
Alignment towards the common goal is built upon the values of respect for one another, our
unique cultures and traditions, and our individual personal values.
Here is how Alignment fits together:
Parents understand the importance of their involvement with and their responsibility
for their child’s education.
Children attend class ready to learn.
Teachers are allowed to teach without distraction.
Administrations sustain an environment where performance and options are valued.
Business will help define the outcomes needed for employment.
Diverse ethnic, cultural and religious values will be respected in the environment of
education
• Parents are the first educators.
When we talk about parents in a child’s education: it’s about love!
It is best for a
child to be brought up in a close and loving family. Particularly when a child is young,
there are positive effects of eye contact, appropriate touch, and focused attention on the
brain of the child. Whether a parent stays at home, or comes home and spends quality
nurturing time with their child, they are truly the most important force in a child’s life. A
parent is so key to a child’s education that, in the end, the responsibility for the student’s
educational outcome falls to the parents, family, and the children themselves.
• Teachers are responsible for providing a rich classroom environment.
It’s about teaching!
Teachers are heroes to our children. I will support advanced
professional training opportunities for our good teachers, including teacher mentoring.
Teachers should be allowed to be creative with their curriculum, within a safe
environment with a group of students’ intent on learning.
• Administration is responsible to their community for costs, safety, and choice.
It’s about service!
The administration of schools starts with the principal and extends
through the district all the way to the State Department Education and Early
Development. Ideally, the purpose of administration is to ensure that our schools offer
such choices to parents, students and teachers to achieve Alignment. Choice in public
education is a relatively new idea, but is already widely implemented. We see from our
experience that innovation such as charter schools, homeschools, correspondence,
Montessorri, ABC schools and various other alternative schools have a broad appeal to
parents, students, teachers and administrators. There is still room to grow our choices to
serve more families.
• Business will help provide the requirements for employment.
It’s about jobs!
The private sector will be integrated into the education system. I am
looking for a dramatic change in this area in particular. Employers know what is needed
for the workplace. They can provide curriculum and expectations for students to ensure
they have all the skills that will invest them in success later in life. Business should be a
primary partner in training those who need work-site education.
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Models for Excellence in Education
Schools of Choice
There are many examples of educational success. There are highly performing traditional
elementary schools like O’Malley Elementary in
[SJ1]
Anchorage. Many
[SJ2]
other successful
alternative school options are available throughout the state. My administration will support
those programs already in existence, and encourage the development of new non-traditional
programs to ensure an appropriate education for every child in Alaska.
• ABC schools. ABC classrooms align the parents to the needs of the students. This is
positive, because there is a lot expected of these students. While parents are an
integral part of the student experience, students bear the lion’s share of the effort.
ABC students have nightly homework, back to basics curriculum, patriotism, ethics
and citizenship training. Each of these is a key ingredient to providing a child a
consistent education that meets the values of their parents while keeping them
challenged in class.
• Rural Boarding Schools. This is an option that is currently being put together in
communities like Galena and Nenana. The state’s history with boarding schools has
not been perfect, this is now becoming an option that can be used while remaining
sensitive to family bonds and cultural awareness. I believe there are ways we can make
boarding schools work successfully for parents in rural areas who want their children
to have good opportunities.
• Home School. I support and respect the rights of independent homeschoolers and
those who partner with local and state-wide school districts. There must be equity in
treatment of all homeschoolers in all programs across the state. The use of privately-
purchased, faith-based materials should not be a reason for withholding funding.
• Charter Schools. Charter Schools, since 1996, have become
[SJ3]
innovative and parent
directed options, and I encourage charter schools that make good use of our public
funds.
• Workforce Readiness for Students. Alaska’s youth have tremendous career
opportunities in the skilled trades if they have adequate training. I will charge the
Alaska Workforce Investment Board (AWIB) with drawing upon its considerable
expertise to develop a pilot program aimed at increasing awareness of vocational
career opportunities for our younger students through a partnership with industries
facing worker shortages.
The pilot will be industry-focused and include a streamlined and efficient
administrative process to encourage industry participation. It will consider children’s
safety first and be designed with exciting field trips and industry-based learning
activities.
• Alternative Schools for Students in Trouble. Alternative schools reconnect
troubled students with success so that they can find their personal American dream
and then achieve it. I recognize that alternative schools help take children off the
streets and prepare them for entry into the job force or further education.
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Good Character, Values, and Ethics
I believe we need to respect families and provide greater access to curricula and programs that
teach ethics and character. The ABC method is a local program that depends strongly on
these principles. Programs such as ABC have core principles of trustworthiness, respect,
responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship.

I have spent the last two days in professional development sessions for public school teachers listening to the “latest and greatest” in instructional strategies and “why aren’t these kids learning?”

Yes, I am a double agent. I work as the Director of Assessment for a large public school district AND I homeschool. So, essentially, I am a spy.

I dread that moment…the moment when polite conversation turns to family life and I get asked where my kids go to school. When I say I homeschool I get “the look”. Sometimes I get more than the look; I get a full-blown lecture on what a traitor I am for working in the public schools but not sending my kids there. My response? That’s WHY I don’t send my kids there (which is only partially true but, hey, they started it).

Don’t get me wrong. I will not bash public schools (well, not too often) but I can say that as I sit listening to these educators talk about what goes on in their classrooms it makes me smile to know that my children will not get a cookie-cutter education, that I will be able to teach them Greek and take a day off when we feel like it and tailor the curriculum to meet their needs. They will not be acquiring a humanistic worldview and I can make God the center of all their learning.

The only thing that bothers me more than the lecture I get from them is the acceptance I get from them…”oh, well you are a certified teacher so I guess that’s OK.” I can tell you firsthand that my certification does not make me more qualified to homeschool my children. I know countless homeschooling mothers that leave me in awe of their teaching abilities. Peruse the various homeschooling message boards and you will find mothers researching and agonizing over every little aspect of their child’s curriculum. They pray and search, look for advice and pray some more, spend untold dollars on curriculum and then spend more if that isn’t the best one for their child

Homeschooling mothers are far more invested in their child’s education than public school teachers could ever be. There is no certification you can get from a college on how to love your children so much that you are willing to give up careers, money, cars, vacations…your life…to stay home and oversee the most important years of their lives.

So I’ll take the “you are a traitor” look any day. I’ve been called worse.

So I said I would share my trials and tribulations, well unfortunately it has been mostly the latter. My attempts to homeschool this week went like this.

I got out my beloved copy of goodnight moon. I pulled my Sophie in close and opened the book and started to read. Sophie grabbed the book, looking closely and then picked up a toy to tap on it. I try to show her the pictures she tried to pull it out of my reach to tap more. Sigh… It was becoming a struggle and she and I were becoming frustrated.

Attempt number two. I got out my handwriting without tears Wood Pieces and the pictures of capital letters. My 8yo wanted to play along too how fun. Sophie was very interested in what I was getting out of the box. As soon as she saw the wood pieces come out of the box she grabbed 2 and began rubbing them together. I let her feel them, then showed her how to put them together to make letters. She didn’t look at what I was doing. I tried again to get her attention. No luck. I pulled the wood pieces out of her hands, she cried. I put them on the mat she grabbed them again. I gave up and let her play, she became uninterested quickly and went on to something else.

I obviously need some more preparation. I am off to the library.

I’ve turned into a bit of a health-nut
….pretty funny for a girl who happily snacked her way through childhood on Little Debbies,
lots of Coca-cola, and neon orange chee-tos!   But a little over 
4 years ago I started making some dietary changes that have paid
HUGE dividends for our family in the area of our health—

*My husband’s cholesterol and bloodpressure are lower than they’ve
been in years

*My kids hardly EVER get sick—in 4 years they have not had the flu,
strep throat, and rarely do we have ear or sinus infections any
more.  When we do get the sinus mess, our bodies almost always heal
themselves up with no antibiotics needed.  In fact, we’ve been so healthy, we’ve only needed to go see the nurse practitioner once this past year and a half about an illness and this was to confirm that my son had Chicken Pox.

*We actually get satisfied more quickly when eating and feel hungry less often.

After stumbling across some information in a book, we made the decision that the way we were eating was not good for us and we have just started eating more naturally—-good fats, whole
grains, more fruits and veggies, less preservatives and food colors,
very little refined sugar,etc.

But here is why I’m posting this today.  I know that all of you are
loving, involved parents or you wouldn’t be homeschooling.  But some
of you are daily frustrated with behavioral issues that seem to have
no rhyme or reason.  You discipline and teach them and set good
examples but some of your kids continue to have irrational mood
swings, out of control emotions, severe temper tantrums, acting out
with violence, and other inappropriate behavior issues.  Others have
kids with behavior/mental issues that have been diagnosed such as
ADHD and Aspergers.   Some have physical conditions that meds just
don’t seem to cure or work very well for—asthma, bedwetting,
rashes, etc.   Many of my friends and folks I know through
homeschooling have found help through dietary changes. Many of
their children are sensitive to foods that they are eating (whether
its a natural food such as milk or something unnatural such as red
food dye or petroleum that is indeed found in many processed
foods). 

It is hard to homeschool a child who has out-of-control behavior, is
moody a lot, or just can’t seem to concentrate.  Its hard to watch
our child suffer from physical ailments that we can’t fix.  Its hard
to WANT to be around a child who is constantly acting out.  It just
seems easier to send him back to school.

FEINGOLD DIET is a wonderful plan that helps target the things that
are negative triggers for so many kids and adults.  For some
families, its been the difference between night and day and made
their lives so much easier and happier.  We personally are not doing
FEINGOLD but do follow many of its principles.  And the changes we’ve made have vastly improved my ADHD son’s ability to focus, obey, and not have such highs and lows where energy and emotions are concerned. 

I hope this helps someone.  Homeschooling can be challenging enough without us unwittingly sabotage it by what we’re feeding our families.

Yes.

I am.

I am THAT Mom.

The one that let’s her kids follow every rabbit trail they can come up.

The one that encourages their creativity.

The one that allows them to turn couches around, build tents in the living room and run the snow barefoot because they want to see what it feels like.

So while studying meteorology it only made sense to let them create their own weather show.

I wanted to embed a video but I can’t seem to get it to work, you can you can see the video here on my page)

So yes, I am THAT Mom. And I am so glad I am.

My point is this: Be THAT Mom.  Encourage their imaginations.  Let them explore and get dirty and make messes.  Most of them clean up fairly easily unless of course, someone decides to dig a hole through a wall to their secret lab…

Is there something you have been wanting to share? Post it now and you might win a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com! I will be checking the website statistics on September 30th and the person who wrote the most popular blog post will win the certificate! My posts don’t count!

Fun? I thought so! If you are already a contributing editor post away, anyone else send me an email to sarah@letstalkhomeschool.com

What is allowed on letstalkhomeschool.com? Everything related to homeschool.

Faqs:

Can you mention religion? Absolutely

Can you add a link to your personal blog or website? Sure

Can you post pictures? Yes

What are you looking for in a blog post? Curriculum reviews, things you love, deas, projects, advice, trials, tribulation and homeschooling wisdom.

You know the cliche: When life gives you lemons…make lemonade. Sure enough I had planned on making lemonade this week, but I didn’t have the lemons. They were on my grocery list. I also didn’t have the book, Lentil, we were planning on studying–it was at the library. So I figured that on Monday morning, with all my exciting plans for the week in place, I’d load up the kids, run a few errands and return home to make some refreshing lemonade to kick-off our study of North America.

And yesterday morning, as I was getting myself ready to begin our day, I heard those dreaded words, “Mom, I think I’m going to be sick.”

No, you can’t be sick. Not today. We have plans and we’re going to make lemonade.

But even with all my precise planning, I can’t control those nasty viruses that invade our lives.

Fortunately, we are fairly relaxed homeschoolers. I do make plans, but I’m not a slave to them. As excited as I was about beginning a study I knew my children would love, I put it on hold to take care of immediate issues. And though my children were disappointed in the postponement of plans, I never heard a complaint as they made their own lemonade of sorts: they each unexpectedly rose to the challenge to care for their sick sister. One sister brought out a movie to watch and another gathered crayons and paper so they could color together.

These things aren’t necessarily taught, they are demonstrated. Viruses can’t be written into a planbook, but service to others–whether a neighbor or your own child–can be shown daily. I’m thankful that my children are learning to take their own initiative to care for each other. For me, that’s life’s greatest lemonade.

When I first started homeschooling, I complicated everything, ok I still do on occasion, but I have learned that learning is simple. God gave our children an inquisitive nature. They want to explore and learn about the world and we can find ways to teach them in every day things

Things you can teach while baking cookies:

• Counting chocolate chips
• adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying chocolate chips. Lots of subtracting!
• how butter is made
• how wheat is ground into flour
• where baking soda comes from, please teach me too!
• what leavening agents do
• where sugar comes from
• where vanilla comes from
• the history of chocolate
• how salt is mined
• division as you make the dough balls
• measuring
• dividing fractions, you have to make half a batch after subtracting all those chocolate chips
• fahrenheit and celsius as you set the oven
• telling time as you set the timer
• evaporation as the steam leaves the cookies
• leverage as you pop them off the cookie sheet with a spautula
• history and heritage as you tell them about your grandma’s recipe
• God’s love because He gives us such wonderful things

The list goes on and on.

I recently watched a DVD that has been advertised on this site called Teach Me to Talk, by Laura Mize, Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist. The DVD was 90 minutes long and taught six strategies to teach your child to talk.

It is aimed at toddlers who are delayed in speech, not at children with autism which is how I will use it. It has tons of video of a speech therapist actually working with children! This was so informative. Laura Mize explains what she is doing while showing actual video of her working with children with delays! These are things you can incorporate in every day interaction with your child. I finished watching the video feeling like I could really teach my child to talk!

From the time I first learned Sophie had autism, I have wanted to see what a speech therapist actually did while working with a child. I desperately want to homeschool Sophie, but until now I have been in the dark about what the experts do to get children to talk. Now I have video examples to work with.

I watch this video with my 3 children in the room, and my daughter Sophie, was actually playing along with the video! I highly recommend this video for anyone who has a child with delayed speech. It is worth every penny.

http://teachmetotalk.com/

I am a certified Spanish teacher and firmly believe that learning another language helps a child in so many ways! We use Rosetta Stone in our house along with me speaking to my children in Spanish off and on. Although there is no such thing as a perfect program, Rosetta Stone is the best I have seen for homeschoolers. I love the method of immersion and natural language learning. Rosetta Stone is a computer program in which the student is shown several pictures and then has to figure out which picture is being talked about. The student must then pick the correct picture. Students are also asked to type what they hear in the language about the picture they see. Written quizzes and tests (in book form) are a part of the program also. There is also a part of the computer program in which the student tries to mimic a native speakers voice.

Here are some ways that learning a language can benefit children:

*They become less ethnocentric.

*They learn parts of speech better when another language is studied.

*Their vocabulary is greatly increased (especially if they learn a Latin-based language: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese or a Germanic language).

*They have a marketable skill when they enter the work force.

*Their brains make more connections which will enable them later in life to learn a third or fourth language with greater ease if the need should arise.

*They can improve their knowledge of geography.

*They earn higher SAT and ACT scores, especially in the verbal part.

*They have better language skills in their own language.

Now that I am getting through the shock of letting my oldest child beginning public school this year, I have realized I have quite a challenge in front of me. I thought I had this homeschooling thing down, I am an old pro by now, and then life threw me a curb ball. I have to begin kindergarten with my youngest child who has Autism.

I have been avoiding thinking about this. I hate wandering around the internet feeling like I don’t know anything. Feeling like I have nothing to stand on, no foot hold at all, I just have to create something from thin air. Those are the same feelings I had when I started homeschooling.

Right after the birth of my first child, I knew I could not send that precious girl away from me into the great big world at the tender age of 5. But when it came time to actually start teaching her, I realize I had no idea what to do. I was terrified. That is the same way I have felt for about a month now.

With Sophie, it is a whole new ball game. To start, she doesn’t like to be read to. She doesn’t seem to connect what I am saying with the pictures and has no interest in hearing me talk while I hold a book. This throws my game plan down the tubes. I could always win my other kids over with a book. I loved the way I could sneak in learning in such a natural appealing way. Now I have to figure something else out. I have to find a way to teach her to like books or find another way to teach for now.

So here is my plan of attack. Sophie is doing very well and just now starting to recover some from her autism. Her eye contact is wonderful, she is starting to sometimes use sentences and she seems very present. Until now she would not try anything new without tons of anxiety, but she is doing better, so I will start to introduce new things. Sounds simple enough.

I thought about my kindergarten classes with my first 2 children. I used Five in a Row, a unit based, book based curriculum. I thought I would start with Before Five in a Row Books for younger children. Remember how I said she doesn’t like books, well I thought about my other children and we would read the books and then do a fun activity. I am thinking that possibly reversing this order might work better with Sophie.

For instance For The Carrot Seed I would get a bunch or carrots and seeds and show Sophie how to plant a seed and let her examine the bunch of carrots. Or for The Snowy Day I would pour some white rice flour into the toy box lid and some dollhouses and dolls and make foot prints and sprinkle snow on the houses and people. Maybe doing the activity will help her relate to the book and get her interested.

Ok, you have probably figured out that I plan on playing with her. I am going to try to find a safe secure way for her to start to explore her world and hopefully my 8 year old and I can get her to come out and play with us.

I am bringing you all along on this journey with me. I will write what happens while I begin homeschooling with Sophie. I am not a professional anything, I am a mom and these ideas I have written here may not work. You will just have to come back in a couple of weeks and see.

To learn about my biomedical treatment of Sophia visit WakingSophie.com

I know, WHAT a corny title! But I can’t help it.

We typically school year round, meaning we take breaks as we deem them necessary and often have a huge sign on the front door which states “School is in Session” (unfortunately that sign is often ignored and the doorbell rings a.lot.). For the past two summers we have had things come up from a babysitting job to a three week vacation at my Mom’s, so school had a tendency to sit on the back burner until those “things” were over and I had a chance to gather my thoughts.

Having seen that the kids do so much better with some form of schedule I couldn’t just sit back and let them tear the house apart, so I set out this week to begin school. It is now Wednesday and we are now beginning.

I’ll tell you what, we are all over the place this year. Our oldest son is in 8th grade, he has chosen to complete a unit study on Fahrenheit 451, Our 6th grade girl decided that Island of the Blue Dolphins is calling out to her and the 3rd grader is enthralled with all things Magic Tree House, in addition to all of that we added a Kindergartener to the mix this year. You should SEE me attempt to teach math. (Where’s the Excedrin when I need it?) None of us are “together”, sure we are in the same room, but we are all headed different directions.

Anyway, back to my point and the reason for the title of this post. Today we were reading The Story About Ping with my K and 3rd graders. It’s a great book and I think an easy way to wade into what is sure to be one of the craziest school years yet. One of the lessons was on the reflection of light off of water, which somehow led us to how flashlights work (don’t ask me how it led us there, we’re homeschoolers, the rabbit trails we can find are simply astounding).

Suddenly, there in the school room/dining room everyone came together, my 13 year old set his Algebra aside, my 11 year old put down her Grammar and everyone gathered around the tin foil, tape, C-battery, and flashlight bulb set out on the table and watched in awe as 5 year old Ethan illuminated the bulb, showing the kids how just a few household items can in fact, light up their lives.

And it made the new student feel pretty darn smart to boot!

You can see us hard at work here, and also find the directions for creating a flashlight.

I must admit that I can’t take credit for the following idea. A dear friend and fellow homeschool mom taught me this lesson several months ago. I am grateful to her for her wise words in this facet of “gardening”.

We are all imperfect parents…hence our need for a Perfect Heavenly Father. We make mistakes with our children day in and day out. And though we may strive to become better parents, we won’t totally perfect our skills this side of heaven. Therefore, we need to pray for crop failure! Pray for those seeds of bitterness, fear, anger, jealousy, dysfunction, etc. that we may plant in our children’s lives to fail miserably in their growth. Pray that all our mistakes that we make, all the weaknesses we display will not take root. Pray that our children may look to the true Vine so that they “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (II Peter 3:18) This is my daily prayer….that all my shortcomings will produce only crop failures in my kids.

We’re doing an ice cream unit this week and so far, so good. We’ve enjoyed having fun with it. How can you not? It’s ice cream, right?

So I had this fabulous idea to make “ice cream cones” but instead of the regular ice cream, I’d use cones, cake batter and some frosting on top for the ice cream. (I can’t take all the credit for it, I’m sure I read it out there somewhere in the wide world of cyber space.) It DID sound like a great idea. Oh yeah, I’m sure it did. But I was sort of lazy. You see I didn’t want to make my own butter cream frosting so I got the ever-popular frosting in a can. You know it’s all the rage in our drive through, throw away society (oh wait, I’m writing about the ice cream cones….right…gotcha…I’m back on track).

My darlings knew they were getting “ice cream cones” and were uber excited. Couldn’t keep out of the kitchen excited. Laying around watching excited. Yep, this fun tie in to the unit snack idea was going to be a winner. I just knew it.

Here’s where things start happening. Cake baked in cups….cake overflows. No problem! I’ll just cut off the tops. But it gets better. Oh yeah, much much better. As I was thinking how to “pipe” the “ice cream” on the top, I decided to use a regular icing bag but only with the coupler. Right on! It’d look like soft serve ice cream that came out of the machine. I’m a cool mom! This is gonna be great! Until…

When I starting to add the frosting, it won’t even stay in the bag. Frosting is going all over the counter, the plate with the cake filled cones. I’m filling the bag as fast as I can and icing the cones even faster. It’s melting all over. Darlings keep asking when are they getting their ice cream cones. Frosting is literally ALL OVER the place. Melting down the sides. All over my hands. On the plate. It was no use. I did the best I could. As I realized they couldn’t eat these melting mounds of sugar right away, I promptly decided to cool em down in the frig. As I transfer the disasters yummy goodness to the frig, they all TOPPLE over. What??? My cool mom status is being warmed down right with that frosting. I thought I might cry. There was frosting all over. Darlings still asking when their ice cream cones are coming. Yeah, I think I’ll cry.

Well all this to say. The sweet darlings LOVED their ice cream cones! Guess what? They don’t care what they look like or how much of a mess is made. It’s the THOUGHT that COUNTS. Isn’t that what we heard as children? They want our time, our creativity (they don’t care if we’ve stolen borrowed the idea), and our love. They want us. They want some messy, frosting-melting, fallen over ice cream cones because it comes from us. So go ahead and do it. Give them your imperfect, your messies. They’ll fall head over heels for your sweetness.

Love,

Rachel

My Opportunity

Dear Lord, I do not ask
That Thou shouldst give me some high work of Thine,
Some noble calling, or some wondrous task;
Give me a little hand to hold in mine;
Give me a little child to point the way
Over the strange, sweet path that leads to Thee;
Give me a little voice to teach to pray;
Give me two shining eyes Thy face to see.
The only crown I ask, dear Lord, to wear is this:
That I may lead a little child.
I do not ask that I may ever stand
Among the wise, the worthy or the great;
I only ask that softly, hand in hand,
A child and I may enter at the gate.
Author Unknown

It is ironic that one of my first post on this site will be of an ending to homeschooling for my oldest child. This year, after hours of discussion and many tears and prayer, my husband and are considering letting her attend public school. I still feel shock in writing this.

Our last stipulation is a visit with the principle to see if this is a place we feel safe leaving our little girl for the day so it is not completely official yet, but I know that it really is. If it doesn’t seem suitable we will probably decide on a private school. I am soothing myself with the practicalities of this, I will be able to focus on my 8 year old more and the huge task of beginning homeschool with my youngest daughter who has autism, heaven knows I can use extra time to figure that out. I also am hoping Madison will change her mind after seeing what it is like and come back home with a new perspective.

My Madison is 10 years old and for years now has begged to try school. Then last year we moved to a new town. We live in a a subdivision of small suburb that has “award winning schools”. Many of our neighbors have kids the same age as my children that will be in my daughter’s class. In this district they have a school for just 5th and 6th grade and we thought Madison would benefit from starting a school where all of her classmates were new also.

This decision was very hard to make and I am torn with different emotions. I want her to succeed at something she wants so badly right now and at the same time I want her to see how blessed she has been to homeschool and hurry back to our classroom at home.

Either way I know that she will be fine. All of these years we have had together I have watched her bloom into a beautiful, confident leader. She is strong in her convictions and yielded to God’s voice. I know her heart, and though I know she will have some of the influences that I have protected her from her whole life, she knows what God wants for her.

As we began to review to prepare for school for Madison, we looked at old Five in a Row books, we talked and laughed at the great times we have shared. Madison reminded me of week we were reading Rag Coat and I would start to cry every time and she would have to finish reading because of my sobbing. We talked about all of the flags we had made and taped to the walls at our old house. We talked about the time I spread flour in her toy box lid and we set up a winter village with her little doll houses, she and her sister made footprints all day. All the wonderful memories we have made.

As I look back, I know that through homeschooling I accomplished my goals, so far, for my child, to lead her to God, to instill in her our values instead of society’s, to let her be a child a little while longer, to love her and know her thoroughly. To give her roots and wings.

We have been homeschooling since 2002. I currently have a son in 6^th grade and one son in 2^nd grade. There have been varied homeschool materials that we have used over the years and enjoyed. Here is a list of our favorites:

Five in a Row: This curriculum uses children’s picture books to teach lessons in language arts, applied math, social studies, science, and art. You read the book five days in a row and then on each day you do a lesson that relates to something in the book. On Monday we do a social studies lesson, Tuesday is language arts, Wednesday is art, Thursday is science and Friday is math. http://www.fiarhq.com/

Math-U-See: I love this program because of the DVD’s that present the lesson. I like the fact that my children get a chance to learn from someone else even if it is for only 5-10 minutes a lesson. Math-U-See is a mastery program rather than a spiral one (A spiral program is where the topics are touched on just a bit and then reviewed or “spiraled” back to). I like the fact that my kids work on one major math concept for the year. Currently my oldest is working on decimals and percents and my youngest is working on addition and subtraction.

www.mathusee.com

Biblioplan: This is a history program broken up into four years: Ancient, Middle Ages, America and the World from 1600-1850, and America and the World from 1850-Present. We are currently working on the last one and will have completed our four year cycle of history study. I have used Biblioplan for two years now. It basically is a reading plan that goes through history. It relies on some of the Greenleaf Guides, Story of the World and the History of US, and various chapter books. I have learned so much about history that I didn’t know. Never mind what the kids have learned! This has ended up being the best part of our day! http://www.biblioplan.net/

Institute for Excellence in Writing: I know many people feel overwhelmed by this program, and I did at first, too. But now we love it! We have taken it slowly and my oldest son’s writing has really improved. I love how he has to manipulate his writing so that he can use strong verbs, quality adjectives, complex sentence structures, etc. I also value the fact that he is learning to outline and summarize. We are coming up on our fourth year of using it. I don’t plan to start it with my youngest until he is in third or fourth grade. When we first started with this program I bought Teaching Writing: Structure and Style which is a DVD program that trains the teacher to teach writing to her students. We have also used U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons Volume 1.

https://www.excellenceinwriting.com/Index.php

Spelling Power: I love how simple and easy this program is. However, when I first got the book I was overwhelmed! The instructions alone were enough to make me cry! I got the instructional video and that made much more sense to me. Watching the video helped me to see how to use the program. We don’t use the whole program…I just test my son and then he follows the study plan for the words he missed. I like the fact my son only works on the words that he doesn’t know. He isn’t doing needless work in spelling.

http://www.castlemoyle.com/

Reading Rescue 1-2-3: I just received this book in the mail a few days ago and will be using it with my youngest to increase his reading fluency this year. I really like how the program is laid out. If you are teaching any of your children to read this book gives a plethora of information on how to “coach” them to reading better. Even if you don’t use the full program I though the book gave lots of great tips. My favorite part is the method used for increasing reading fluency called “To, With, By”. Check out their website which gives a description of this method!

http://www.succeedtoread.com/readingrescue.html

Homeschool Share: Homeschool Share is a website that offers free lesson plans in the style of Five in a Row. All the units have been written by homeschool moms. It also offers free lapbook materials. I love this site and have written some units for them. We have done a zoo unit, an Around the World unit and various other topics using the resources that are available at Homeschool Share. Be careful! You could spend hours looking through all the cool stuff that other homeschool moms have created!

www.homeschoolshare.com

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Our site is under going a major change! Not only does it have a new look, but now this site will offer articles written by several homeschooling moms! They will share some of their ideas, projects, advice, trials, tribulation and homeschooling wisdom.

Find out what curriculum they love and which ones they don’t! Find out what works for them or just find some support from people who have been there. Check back soon!