First Week Back

Look at these guys.  All ready for their second day back to school.

My eldest left for university on Labor Day weekend and my husband went with her to help her settle in (and spoil his princess by buying her a little fridge for her dorm room and who knows what else).  It’s lonely around her without her, but at least my car is more available.  The boys and I were left to our own devices for the weekend so I thought we’d start school on Monday – yes, Labor Day.  They’re homeschooled, what do they know about long weekends anyway?

We actually had a really productive week.  I made up some assignment charts (as always) but this time I added times to them.  The boys have never had a schedule that included what time things happen at.  They have always gotten up and started music practice by a certain time, but after that all bets were off and we just worked through our day.  This week I had gleeful boys telling me, “I’m done my spelling, now I have a 20 minute break!”  Not well thought out on my part – I figured the times were just there to ensure we didn’t spend too much time on one subject and that they boys would just work through their day until they were done.  It did result in some very happy boys and my Your Weekend Doesn’t Start Until Your Chart is Complete rule worked well.

By the end of the week I was feeling so good about our productivity that I was considering adding Latin or Greek back into our routine, but then I realized that the reason our week was so relaxing was because co-op, music, and French had yet to begin.  This coming week will be the true test.

Here’s how some of the things went this week.

New Things:

Analytical Grammer – Jacob (grade 8) and Aidan (grade 6) are working through this together using the DVDs.  I’ve got it scheduled for three days a week so they do video plus lesson one the first day, lessons 2 and 3 the next day and the test on the last day.  We are ignoring the Skills Support section.  I can’t say that anyone loved this, but they understood it and they completed it – that counts for something, right?

Old Things:

Singapore Math – Finally getting into the Discovering Mathematics groove with Jacob.  We did half a year of AoPS with Jacob last year before switching over to DM so we’re a little behind.  We should finish 7B by Christmas *if* thing go as planned.

Favourite Things: Reading to the kids is still my favourite part of homeschooling.  This week we read George vs. George (American Revolution) for history.  Our family read alouds are going well.  We’re about half way through Telling God’s Story and I have yet to find the controversy.  We’re into the second chapter of Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends – it’s our fifth time through this book.  We’re also reading the last book in the Inheritance series.  I cannot wait until this book is over – it feels like we’ve been reading about Eragon forever.

All in all, a great first week back.  I’m hoping this second week goes as smoothly.

Learning in Community

I was looking over my Philosophy of Education from 2007 and was hit by how much things have changed since then. Most of what is there is still valid, but there are aspects of education that weren’t even mentioned and are now vital to us. The most important missing piece is learning in community.

We are part of a vibrant learning community. I like to think I’m pretty smart and creative, but when I sit down with my homeschooling friends and we start brainstorming ideas I’m stunned by how many ideas are discussed that I never would have thought of myself. Not in a million years. Not that I’m stunned that my friends are smart and creative… That’s not really a surprise, well, sometimes – no, just kidding. It’s just that the things we come up with together are seriously fantastic.

It’s not just the planning that is raised to another level with community, it’s also the teaching. I can’t even begin to explain how thrilled I am to be able to teach writing and history and logic and not to ever have to think about science. Ever. Again. So my kids no longer have me and my shelves of science curriculum that we never use – instead they have other parents who are actually excited about science. And guess what happened? My kids love science.

Beyond the benefits of planning and teaching are the benefits of learning. I’ve been using Tapestry of Grace for years. Back in the beginning, when Abbie was doing the Dialectic and Rhetoric levels, it was just her and I for discussions. She learned a lot – she read incredible books, wrote thoughtful essays and assignments, and was prepared for the discussions we had together – but it wasn’t the same as the dynamic discussions we have at co-op. I love it when the kids start arguing about historical events or people. They challenge each other to go deeper and they offer ideas that otherwise wouldn’t have been considered.

During the last half of this year our TOG classes collaborated on a History Portfolio book that was a compilation of their work. I assigned each of my dialectic kids a different focus each week and they would bring their written assignment and often a picture. We would share our knowledge, have a discussion, and add the new work to our portfolios.

We used the Renaissance History Portfolio as a guide, but in the end we took off the spiral binding and did things out own way.

Students completed a variety of assignments for this project, many of which were adapted from Tspestry of Grace thinking questions.

We even managed to do some of our own artwork.

The kids made good use of the Internet when looking for visuals.

It’s given them something they will keep forever. They were pretty excited about what they accomplished by working together.

Project Based Learning – Music

We’re part of an incredible Tapestry of Grace group. I am privileged to work with the older kids, aged 12 – 13, who are working at the Dialectic level. This year we tackled Year 2. Being Canadian, we did Units 1 and 2 and then we moved away from TOG plans and developed our own TOG-ish plans. We really wanted to make the learning memorable so we incorporated some projects into our plans.

I was most impressed by the work my students did in the Music Project. I wanted them to delve deeper into either a specific style of music or a composer from within the years 1500 – 1800 AD. They were given free reign to choose what composer or style of music they wanted to learn more about. The components of the project were more structured with some being more open-ended than others. I wanted the students to be able to decide what to focus on and how to express their learning. This is the assignment chart I gave them:

Components	Be sure to include:	Assignment
Biographical paragraph about the composer, or paragraph introducing the style of music	why is this style of music or this composer important? did the composer/style of music have influence over the development of music? what sort of people listened to this music? how was the music accepted (or not accepted) in society? – did this surprise you?	Written paragraph
Spiritual Influence	what were the composer’s beliefs? did the music have a spiritual component? was the music used for worship?	Written paragraph
Themes	what ideas were communicated with the music? what did the composer want to express?	Art – try expressing those themes through artwork – this can be painting, drawing, sculpting, collage, or photography
Teaching Component	what musical ideas or techniques were distinctive of your composer or style of music?	Video – create a video tutorial that teaches this idea or technique to someone else
Learn a new song or polish an old one	– choose a song in the style you’re studying or by the composer you are studying and have it up to performance standard	Video/Performance – record yourself performing your piece, we will also perform them live for each other

Originally, I also had a Music Appreciation component as well where the student had to listen to two contrasting pieces and answer a number of questions about them, but we were running out of time so I took that off their sheet.

My son, Jacob, decided to study Vivaldi.

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He used a newsletter template in Pages to put his paragraphs into and to add pictures.

My favourite part of the project was the video of a technique.  Each of the kids plays an instrument and they all developed entertaining and informative videos that teach a specific technique.  Jacob chose to teach the Baroque stroke.  This is something he was working on with his teacher as he had two Baroque pieces this year.

And here’s his performance video:

I also loved seeing the creativity in the themes component.  We had everything from decorated cupcakes to handcrafted FIMO instruments to collages.  It was great to see – especially from this bunch of kids who aren’t particularly interested in expressing themselves through visual arts.

New Beginnings

I love the start of a new school year.  It’s fresh and clean and no one has written “I hate math” in their math book – not that any of my kids have ever done that.  I’m usually so eager to start the new school year that we begin in earnest a week earlier than campus schools start.  Not this year.  This year there has been enough busy-ness and enough changes to warrant an extra week off.  I need the time to regroup and to plan and to sort.

We have big changes this year.  Abbie is off to high school.  Public high school.  And I’m ok with that.  I’m actually glad.  I wish that we had a group of homeschooled kids who wanted to get together to take the kinds of classes she’s taking at school, but we don’t.  And so off she goes.  I’m relieved to not have to think about upper level sciences and math.  Or French.  And she’ll be great there.

She’s also gone on an independence kick and let us know that she really wanted the downstairs homeschool room as her bedroom.  Yes, you heard that right – she asked for my homeschool room.  And I sacrificed for the greater good.  The room is now empty and painted purple.  She moves her furniture in on Thursday.  The contents of my homeschool room have been redistributed.  We’ll have a “library” in the rec room downstairs while most of our day to day supplies will be in cupboards on the main floor.  This is going to take some getting used to.

On a completely positive note, we’re doing Tapestry of Grace at co-op.  This has been an answer to prayer for me.  I have loved doing Tapestry of Grace at home, but having a group of kids for history and lit discussions is going to be amazing.  I’m also excited about the opportunity to have a hands-on projects class.  And the kids at co-op are fabulous – we’ve got an incredible group of people pooling their talents to create memorable learning opportunities for the kids.  I can’t wait for co-op to start.

This is going to be a great year.

Finding Rest

I was asked last week whether I ever need a break from my kids.  There are usually a couple of times a year, now that they’re all older, that I have to myself.  David’s parents take the kids for a week in the summer and David ends up taking them for a couple of days at some point during the year.  To tell you the truth, I enjoy those times.  I really like the feeling of being alone and I sit joyfully in the silence when everyone is gone.

But, I also find rest when they’re here.  A break once or twice a year is more than enough for me.  I don’t need a regular girls’ night out or a vacation without my kids.  It’s not because I’m a saint or some kind of super mom or anything, either.  I think there are two reasons for this.

The first is that their best hours, when they’re most awake and alert and fun to be around, are the hours that we spend at home together.  It’s not fair, really.  Most parents have a couple of hours in the morning while everyone is getting up and getting ready for school and then they get a few hours at the end of the day – when the kids are tired and need to be driven to soccer practice and fed dinner and bathed and then put to bed so they can get up early and be out of the house on time for another day.

Instead, I’m home with mine.  The second reason hit me one day last week while I stirred the rhubarb I was stewing.  Aidan, Charlie, and Jacob were sitting up at the table nearby and I moved between the rhubarb and the children; giving a stir here, helping with a math question there, talking about when we should go for a swim, getting my coffee ready for the history discussion that Abbie and I had planned.  I breathed in the peace of knowing that I was right where I was meant to be – home – living and learning with my children.  Sure, there are days when they drive me crazy, but for the most part our days are good.

God called me to disciple my children.  He called me to teach them about Him when we rise and when we sit and when we walk along the way.  If my children spent the majority of their waking hours – their best hours – in school, the opportunity I have for discipleship would be greatly diminished.  I’m thankful for the time I have with them – the unhurried, restful time that we have together because it’s the time that gives me the opportunity to speak God’s truth into their lives. 

And I think that God knows how weak I am.  He knows that if I only had early mornings and the time between school letting out and bedtime (with the parade of tasks that need to be done after the kids get home from school) that I wouldn’t have the patience to invest in discipleship.  I’d be more concerned with getting everyone where they need to go on time, with making sure everyone remembered to bring their music books or their sparring gear, with packing snacks and lunches and permissions lips.  I know this because it’s what happens when we’re not at home together.  It’s what happens on Sunday mornings when we try to get out the door for church on time.  It’s what happens at the end of our day at home together when we have to get ready to leave for Taekwon-do and piano and whatever else we need to do.  I’m not a patient parent during those times, I’m not a particularly good parent during those times and I’m usually not marvelling at how amazing it is to watch God at work in the lives of my children (although sometimes I’m praying for just a little more patience to get me through the rest of the day). 

I am blessed.  Each and every day that I spend with my children is a gift from God.  Knowing that I’m carrying out God’s purpose for my life, as I invest in the lives of my children, sustains me and gives me the kind of rest that time away from my family can never offer.

My last kindergarten student…

*Sniff* I’ve come to my very last year of kindergarten.  My baby turns five in October which means this is it.  In the fall we’ll begin kindergarten and it will be the last time I get to experience the magic of teaching a child to read and watching a whole new world open up. 

Kindergarten is a special year.  This is the beginning.  This is where first steps are taken and I’m so blessed to be able to take Charlie’s hand and walk step by step with him through this very special year.  I want to watch the look of concentration on his face when he tries to sound out a new word, I want to cheer with him the first time he counts to 100 and I want to cuddle with him while we read stories together. 

I’m taking a break from work for this year – partly so I can concentrate on bringing my last child officially into our homeschool day; so I can make his kindergarten year memorable and so that I have time to stop and smell the roses with him. 

Academically, things are pretty simple.  I’ll teach him how to read.  I’ll start working through Right Start math with him at a pace he’s comfortable with.  I’ll work on printing skills using an age appropriate program that I hope will work – he’s a lefty.  And I’ll read to him. 

We’ll likely dip in and out of Five in a Row.  I wouldn’t want him to miss out on exploring the Yangtzee river with Ping, or on smelling the flowers with Ferdinand, or on finding creative solutions to outdated technology with Mike and his steam shovel.  We’ll also join in with the older boys as we all study Ancient Times – beginning with Creation we’ll learn about history up to the year 500 AD.  There will be Jewish feasts, cookie dough maps of Egypt, and temple building to take part in with the older boys.  And more reading.

And that’s just what’s happening at home.  We’ll also continue with violin (private lessons and group with his friends), play dates and possibly some co-op opportunities.  He’s also got Taekwon-do and Italian lessons. 

This is my last year of kindergarten and I’m looking forward to all of the adventures that Charlie and I will have together this year.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My Eldest is in Ottawa

We discovered the Encounters with Canada program.  Abbie chose this week:

International Affairs

Be a global citizen! This week’s participants attend an International Challenges Conference at Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, exploring the fascinating and complex global issues of our time. Prominent and accomplished international affairs experts share their insights on international youth programs, life in the foreign service, Canada-USA relations, the United Nations, global conflicts, international crime, international development, and more. Interactive workshops, simulations and tours round out the week.

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It fits in really well with her interest in Sudan.  I’m excited about the opportunity she has this week, although the mom in me is wishing she would call more often!  I talked to her for about five minutes last night – long enough for her to tell me that they’d be going to the Parliament buildings today. 

The best part about this program is that it’s available to kids all across Canada regardless of their income or location.  They pay all of the travel costs – the only cost that isn’t covered is the $625 for room and board at the Terry Fox Youth Centre.  I know Abbie would have been more than willing to allocate her Christmas and birthday money to that in addition to working as hard as she could to raise the rest…but she didn’t have to.  We were able to use our funding through Heritage Christian Online School to pay for that cost so her entire trip to Ottawa was free. 

I can’t wait to hear more about her week!

Valentine’s Day

It’s Valentine’s Day and I have about an hour before I leave for dinner with my husband.  We’ve had a great day.  It started out on the hectic side; I wanted to leave for church by 8am.  DB had to finish some work before joining us for the service so that meant I had to get all four kids out of the house at that hour.  It wasn’t pretty – I’m not very good at getting us all out of the house peacefully when time is tight (perhaps another reason I homeschool – I can’t imagine leaving the house that early every day of the week), but we managed to get out eventually and only fifteen minutes later than I had wanted.

The sermon today was about marriage; specifically how we can support and love one another, creating a safe place in our home and our relationship to share and grow together.  DB, my non-touchy/feely husband kept his arm around me for the entire sermon. 

I kept the kids with me while I finished up some Sunday school accounting, DB returned home on his own.  When we walked in the door we were greeted by cards and a little treat for everyone.  DB does great cards; special cards.  The kind you keep in the bottom of a drawer.  We’ve been married almost 11 years now and every year we get closer.  At the bottom of the card he gave me today he wrote, “I know God made you for me.” 

We haven’t done much else.  Lunch.  Conversations with the kids.  DB put up new blinds in the homeschool room.  He took the puppy for a walk with Aidan.  Jacob made me a powerpoint Valentine’s message.  I cleaned up the homeschool room with Abbie and supervised as the boys did a general downstairs clean-up.  I just love being around them, listening to them play, reading to them, talking about things, taking them places.  I am so content at home with them and so grateful to be able to spend these precious years teaching them.

But right now, I sit.  While Aidan and Charlie play Wii and Jacob plays on the lego website and Abbie reads Lord of the Rings while cuddling the puppy, I sit.  With a glass of champagne and a few minutes to spare before we have to go, I sit.  And I think about the infinite greatness of God.

I’m so blessed.  Over the last week or so I’ve been reading about humility and the greatness of God.  Do you want to know how I know there is a God?  It’s because I don’t deserve any of this.  Not a husband who loves me the way DB does.  Not four healthy, happy children.  Not this house or even this champagne.  And all of the things I have been able to do?  All of the things I do now?  Only by the grace of God.  His love is so great and his grace is so huge.  I am humbled by the greatness of God and I can’t comprehend why he would love me, after it all. 

Without Him…  Without Him would we have managed to keep our marriage intact during the hard times?  Without Him would I have given up?  Given in?  Without Him I wouldn’t be the person I am today; I wouldn’t have had my heart and my mind transformed.  I know where I would be right now and I’m beyond grateful that God has rescued me and given me the life I have now.  He saved me.  And so I look around and marvel – are these really my children?  Is that really my husband?  Is this really my life?  A part of me, the part that doubts, the part that remembers, is still waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Because surely, I deserve it.  But even that part is fading, and I don’t wonder about that dropping shoe as often as before.  Because in my heart I know that I am a child of God.  How else could any of this have happened if not for Him? 

So, this Valentine’s Day, I sit.  And I am thankful.  And I am in awe.  And I love.  Thank you, Lord.

Homeschooling with Joy

Ecclesiastes 8:15 talks about joy accompanying us in our work through all the days of our lives.  I love that idea.  And I also think it’s central to homeschooling.  How can we teach without joy?  How can our kids learn without joy?  What is the point of carrying on, day after day, if there is no joy in the work that we do? 

I think that things start to fall apart when joy is left out of the planning process.  I’ve experienced that myself.  We had a minor homeschool crisis about six weeks ago.  I wasn’t having any fun.  My thirteen year old daughter was definitely not having any fun – and I was ready to send her off to school.  I even checked the bus routes to see what time she’d have to leave the next morning. 

We ended up in that place because my planning had left joy out.  Instead, I had more goals.  I knew that Abbie was academically capable of the work.  I also knew that it fit into our schedule.  And it was good work; worthwhile work.  Work that would prepare her for things to come.  Unfortunately, my view was too narrow.  It was my husband who pointed out the error and steered me towards a solution.  Instead of sending her to school we decided that for six weeks we would radically change everything.  We shelved everything except for math and then supported and encouraged Abbie as she worked on a project.  She spent those weeks writing and researching and now she’s putting everything together in a website.  Beyond all of the school related stuff she learned while completing her project, she was able to experience joy in learning again.  Her excitement was fun to watch.  She has delighted in her project. 

I allowed the boys (9 and 7) to work on their own project during this time.  We did a big unit study on our back yard.  We used photos (many of them were actually taken by Jacob) of animals and birds that live in our yard, they painted, wrote poetry, wrote a story, researched habitats and animal behavior, looked at how God designed each animal to survive in this environment, learned about Christian stewardship of the environment and drew out food chains.  All of this was scrapbooked and best of all…it was fun!  They boys took great joy in their project and you can see the pride and joy on their faces when they show someone their book.  This was a great reminder to me about how simple it really is to approach our homeschooling in a way that cultivates joy.  Having fun and being joyful in our work doesn’t mean that we don’t work hard , it just means I have to be a little more creative.

I don’t want my kids slogging through their school work.  I don’t want my teenager up late every night trying to complete her work.  I don’t want my kids to miss out on the opportunities that time and flexibility have opened up.  And so, as I plan to get back to the rest of our subjects in the new year, I’m making sure that joy is a central component of our studies.  I’m a goal oriented person, so this is hard for me.   I’ve had to sit back in the past six weeks and look at where we’re at academically and where I’d like us to end up by June – and then I ask myself why.  What happens if we don’t finish our math book?  Well, the kids are ahead in math so nothing would actually happen if they didn’t finish their math books.  Nothing.  We could spend the rest of the year playing math games and doing puzzles and they still wouldn’t be behind (“behind” what, anyway?  That’s a whole other conversation).  Just writing down that we could play games for the rest of the year and not finish our math books actually makes my eye twitch.  I’m not sure I could handle that.  But, knowing that we could toss it all and still be just fine gives me a sense of freedom and flexibility.  It means that if an opportunity to go out and do something cool comes up I can jump on it and go – we can enjoy it, without worrying about whether we finished math or not. 

We’ve been able to enjoy a number of opportunities that I probably would not have made time for if we were still following the schedule that we followed for the first six weeks of school.  Abbie has had a couple of significant opportunities open up to her.  She has started volunteering at the museum.  This is a weekly commitment and takes two hours out of a school day.  That’s a big chunk of time and yet, I think it’s going to be more than worth it.  And she loves it.  It’s something she gets excited about doing.  The second opportunity is with Taekwon-do.  Abbie’s a black belt in Taekwon-do and really loves to teach.  Having some extra flexibility means that she has the time to help teach twice a week, train for more hours, and take advantage of other teaching opportunities that pop up during the week.  Her instructor teaches at schools as well and Abbie was able to go with him to an elementary school where she worked with a little girl with special needs.  The look on Abbie’s face as she told me about how she helped the little girl with Taekwon-do was worth every minute we spent away from our school work that morning.  It was even worth the drive from West Kelowna to North Glenmore to pick her up afterwards.  I reminded myself that I would have said no if she had asked to help teach on a school morning back in September or October.  I would have said no.  And Abbie would have completed a lot of subjects that day, but she would have missed out on an experience that taught her more than all of those subjects combined and that allowed her to use her gifts to help others.  And isn’t that the true end goal?  That we learn to use the gifts that God has given us to help others?  

My planning process looks a lot different these days.  Sure, we’re jumping back in to a lot of the same things we were doing in the fall, but it’s with a joyful heart.  We’re changing a few things, cutting back on a few others, and planning assignments and projects that will bring some of the joy back into our school days.  Most importantly, I’m purposely planning in a “do the next thing” way.  That means that I can still plan, but not for specific dates.  And, if an opportunity comes up and we miss an entire day of school (or even just one subject) we can just pick up where we left off the next day and continue on our way without it throwing a wrench into a carefully crafted schedule.

If you’re having trouble finding the joy in homeschooling, my challenge to you is to pick one thing to change in the new year.  Is there a particular subject that just sucks the life out of your homeschool?  Change it.  Turn it upside-down and approach it from another direction.  Do something radical.  And have fun!  Nurture relationships, help your children discover their God given gifts and give them the opportunity to use them.

**This article appeared in the January 2010 issue of the HCOS Newsletter.

Suffering from planning withdrawl

We’ve been enjoying a more flexible and spontaneous few weeks of homeschooling, but my need to plan has finally caught up to me. I have just finished a beautiful schedule outlining our Christmas plans with our family. It not only highlights when family arrives, but also lists important events and eben schedules who cooks each evening (because there’s no way I’m cooking every night!).

I feel much better now.