2011-2012 School Year at a glance...

We are getting ready to start school in T-minus 4 days and counting!

Our school year will continue with most of the curriculum laid out in A Well-Trained Mind.This academic year I have Little Man in 2nd grade, Littlest Man in 1st grade (young at just-six, but so ready to be where he is!) and Little Miss Pink in preschool. I feel like I will need an extra arm, an extra brain, and 4 more hours of sleep per night to tackle the challenge of schooling three. But I know that, if I access it as I should, God has more than enough grace to cover my weaknesses!

Here is our school year at a glance as it looks on paper today:

For Littlest Man (1st Grade)
Saxon Math 1
Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, finishing this as it is a LONG book with 200+ lessons
First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, volume 1
The Complete Writer, volume 1 for Little Man when we finish Ordinary Parents phonics/reading
Zaner-Bloser 1 handwriting
Spelling Workout A 
McGuffey's Eclectic Reader for once a week read aloud


For Little Man (2nd Grade)
Saxon Math 2
First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, volume 2
The Complete Writer, volume 2
Zaner-Bloser 2C handwriting, which introduces cursive mid-year
Spelling Workout B
McGuffey's Eclectic Reader for once a week read aloud

For Both Boys
Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, volume 2, Middle Ages
Blackline Maps from Knowledge Quest
Apologia Astronomy
Apologia Worldview Who Is God?
How to Use-Child Sized masterpieces for Art Appreciation
And I'm hoping to use this book for art, as well: Drawing With Children

For Little Miss Pink
I'm using this fabulous curriculum for preschool, Letter of the Week. I bought it as an e-book/PDF file set from an amazing homeschool mom blogger, Confessions of a Homeschooler. It is a bit labor intensive (putzy!), but I think she will love it.  The price is right and it covers everything and more I think my little girl needs to learn. She turned three in May, so we will likely stretch the curriculum out over 2 years, supplementing as necessary and desired.

Here is our schedule at a glance, or at least as it should be in an ideal, Excel spreadsheet world, linked here.

So there you have it! We start our new year on Tuesday. Any and all prayers would be appreciated for a grace-filled, patient, kind, loving, learning-filled school year!

2010-2011 School Year Review

Well, with our previous year of craziness, I can't exactly say that we have "finished" the school year. We still have 2 weeks of History to finish up at the start of this year. But I'm sticking a fork in '10-11 and calling it done.

We follow a classical education model as laid out in A Well-Trained Mind. The classical model, to me, makes the most sense and offers such a deep and wide wealth of knowledge. Each school year focuses on a historical time period and all of history is broken up into 4 sections. The four sections are repeated three times in the student's primary/secondary education, therefore solidifying the concepts as he progresses through grammar, rhetoric and logic phases of learning. Most of the literature is gleaned from the historical time period (e.g. The Odyssey during the Ancients, Beowulf during Middle Ages, etc.).


Here is what we did last year:

Saxon Math 1 for Little Man.
Kumon Numbers, Counting, and Misc. Math for Littlest Man

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind for Little Man's Grammar/Copywork
Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading for Littlest Man

Spelling Workout A for Little Man 


Zaner-Bloser Handwriting for both boys

Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 1: Ancient History
Science: Animal Studies using this resource, Human Body studies using this book, and a little bit of Plant Studies using this one. We picked several topics out of each book and did further reading from the library and projects, too.

Music: Classical Music studies with these fabulous CDs.

Art: Lots of miscellaneous projects from various sources, including some great Usborne books.

We also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this history resource--The Usborne Internet-Linked History of the World. The boys cart this behemoth of a book all over the house and it has been taped together at least twice. They love it and it is fantastic.

So there you have it! Our year in a nutshell. All in all, we loved everything we used. I am continuing with almost everything this coming year.

Bad, bad blogger.

When I consider all that has transpired in the previous year, I think I'm a little crazy for homeschooling my kids. We have moved, traveled, had a flooded house, moved out due to said flooded house, moved back in, and had all sorts of "life" in the in between times. I would be crazy for choosing to continue with this journey that is so exhausting and demanding.

And yet, it really isn't a choice for me. It is a calling from my heavenly Father and I can do nothing but follow His will. Did I pretend not to hear His call for a while? Um, yeah. Do I really resent this calling some days? Yes. And have I gone, but only like a toddler in a tantrum? Definitely.

Though the past year has definitely been tough and has added to my wrinkles (but I got BANGS to cover them up!), I would not trade it for any other year. This time spent at home with my kids learning with them and from them has been priceless. I would not trade it for a wrinkle-free forehead or all the money in the world. I learned so much about myself, about them, about God's goodness.

Watching my little man learn to read or seeing history come alive or snuggling while listening to "Beethoven Lives Upstairs"...all moments that made this calling worth every bit of challenge.

I may be a terrible blogger, but I think I'm a decent homeschool mom. I certainly have more books than money, more holds at the library than anyone in town, and more on my to-do list than I could ever accomplish in a day. So I will continue to be a terrible blogger, updating when I remember to...so please forgive me (if there's even anyone reading this!)!

So...that's a tiny update. I will hop on again soon (promise!) to share what we did for school last year and what we'll be up to this year. I am so very excited to learn so much more this year---The Middle Ages and Chaucer and Beowulf and Shakespeare and War of the Roses and Astronomy....

Amazing Revelation

 yikes. this is a keeping it real picture, proving that i can teach, but, on some days, i can't teach and cook and put on makeup. something's gotta give, and this day it was concealer & mascara. 

I can't do it all.

Simple, right?

But for a first-born, type-A personality, it's actually quite a difficult to accept and life-altering revelation.

I.can't.do.it.all.

With homeschooling, church commitments, family responsibilities, healthy eating, attempting to exercise, be a good friend, maintain my marriage, keep up (somewhat) with laundry....something's gotta give. Or a lot of somethings.

And little by little this fall, I have come to realize and accept that I just can't be everything to everyone and do everything I "think" or "feel" that I should. I have come to love even more the verse in Phillipians (4:13) that says, "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me." Because that verse doesn't say "I can do EVERY thing..." but just ALL things. I think there's an important difference. I don't have to bake 7 varieties of Christmas cookie and make homemade laundry soap and conquer every dust bunny. I just have to do my best at what I do tackle. And, to be honest, these days its a lot fewer things.

Homeschooling is hard work. Mighty hard. But the fruits of my labor have demonstrated that I'd rather make choices about my time and do less, but do it better.

I can't do it all.

Sounds like a simple thing, but you could ask my best friends and they'd definitely realize it's a huge deal for this girl. This girl who, in fact, held her Little Man's birthday party in a BOWLING ALLEY. Yup. I can't do it all.

Thank the good Lord.

**Cute pictures courtesy of Gruman Photography

Favorite Things

 

This is one of my favorite things about home schooling the boys thus far.

Best Friends. 

And this one, too:

She's pretty darn great, as well.

Best Laid Plans....

See, if you look closely, those are our perfect plans....blowing in the breeze, tossed in the air. God keeps in mind our deepest hopes, but sometimes our grand plans are only minutiae compared to that which he has in store for our lives...

Ahh, the best laid plans are those most wholly turned on their heads, right?

Our family made a move from our first home to a better school district, hoping to enroll our kids (Little Man being the first) in a terrific charter school, emphasizing a classical education. We sold, we moved, we entered the lottery to get in and prayed and waited. Prayed for a clear sign that God's will would be reflected in the lot we were given. And it was #7 on the wait list. Which seemed....murky. Not super low on the list (like #200), but not "in like Flynn" so to speak.

So we waited some more. And wondered. And considered alternatives. We knew that we would prefer Little Man to be in a classical style academy. But now what? After much thought and prayer, that cutie pie and I felt that we were going to home educate if Little Man didn't get in. Which seemed IN-SANE.

I mean, come on. Homeschooling? Even though my most favorite roommate (who is, now, by the way a brilliant physician and beautiful and lovely and gracious and fantastic) was homeschooled, could we really do that? Would my children be as brilliant and adorable as she? And, really, could I handle it?

After lots of prayer and some real angst on my part, we decided that this crazy homeschooling would be the plan. And then, Little Man got into this school. And it seemed perfect. He looked so stinking cute in the uniform and the building was brand new and his teacher was a real-life version of a Disney princess. I envisioned the upcoming years with all three of my dreamy children (2 boys and a girl! So cute!) in uniforms, the boys with sweater vests and my baby girl in a plaid jumper with peter pan collared shirt. It would be perfect. I could go to the gym and lose the mummy-tummy and have coffee and cook amazing meals. I could almost taste the plan becoming reality.

Look, it's Little Man! On his first day of Kindergarten at the school I was CERTAIN he would matriculate into and graduate FROM in 12 years. 

And then, it changed. In the end, our school wasn't a good fit for our family. We wanted more for our kids' education. And I missed Little Man like crazy. Crazy. Even on his half days.

So, here we are. A year later and we bit the bullet. We prayed and planned and prayed some more. And we're doing it.

Homeschooling our kids.

See? It's true. Homeschooling. In the flesh. Well, in the jpeg form of flesh.

For real.

If I ran into my 22 year old self and told myself, "Girl. Get this. You're going to be thirty-one with three kids. Stretch Marks? Oh yeah, you'll have them. And guess what else? You'll have books up to your eyeballs and math manipulatives and a platinum membership at the public library. You're a homeschooling mom, missy." I'm pretty sure that 22 year old me would run. Screaming. For. The. Hills.
And, truth be told, I wouldn't blame her. I still sometimes have that reaction. But I know that this scenario works for this little family.

This scenario, this little classical academy we are running with an emphasis on our faith is something that was SO NOT in the plans. But the best laid plans are really the worst laid plans when compared with those our Father in heaven has for our lives.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you......." God had a plan for our family. It wasn't our plan, but it was the best plan. And I'm so glad we're in on it! Later on in that verse He says, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

So, here we are! Home schooling and loving it. Not every moment, but the overall. I think I am learning the most in all of this. It is a blessing. And we are excited for the journey to continue, excited for the future that awaits when we are faithful to his plans.