The Prairie Schoolhouse

2011-04-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

"You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts."

Charles Spurgeon

Changes

2011-03-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

I love spring cleaning. I love de-cluttering and re-arranging and doing major overhauls. After almost giving up on blogging due to my stage of life and the fullness of my days, I've decided to merge all of my blogs over at Prairie Prologue. I will leave this particular site open for the purpose of home school support and information but will be culling all other more lighthearted, zany and personal entries. If I ever have the urge to post something along these lines I will now be posting those under the label of "home schooling" at Prairie Prologue. Here you will find labels on Why We Home School, How We Home School, Inspirational Educational Quotes, and Curriculum Reviews.

Learning Is Lovely

2009-12-04T13:00:00.001-08:00

“…Grandpa March cultivated the little mind with the
tender wisdom of a modern Pythagoras, not tasking it with long, hard lessons, parrot-learned, but helping it to unfold as naturally and beautifully as sun and dew help roses bloom.”
“Boys at other schools probably learned more from books, but less of that better wisdom which makes good men. Latin, Greek, and mathematics were all very well, but in Professor Bhaer's opinion, self knowledge, self-help, and self-control were more important, and he tried to teach them carefully.”
Jo’s Boys, Life at Plumfield.

We read these quotes the other night and my heart just warmed within me. They were brought to mind again today as my daughter quietly looked over her science pages for the day. How dry facts and dates and monotonous explanations of how things work can be. How extraordinary and delightful the journey of discovery where a child can find the study of atoms and molecules not dry and boring, but fascinating! The motto of our curriculum is; “The way you wish you’d been taught. Guaranteed.” Oh, how it’s proven true time and time again.
My daughter makes a knowing exclamation as she reads about how atoms are made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom. At no time is the word H20 referenced. She looks up with her eyes shining and says; “I think I know why water is called H20.”
“Oh?” I say.
“Yes. The H stands for hydrogen, the 2 stands for 2 Hydrogen atoms and the O stands for 1 oxygen atom.”
“That’s exactly right.” I smile.
No one had to tell her bare facts, she deduced it herself with a brain that has been taught to unveil facts and truths by observation and discovery.
And for the record, my eyes lit up with their own wonderful discovery as I read over her lesson as well. Did you know that the number of atoms within ONE grain of sand is comparable to the grains of sand on an entire beach?

Why We Homeschool, Part 7

2009-05-20T20:28:00.001-07:00

Our Kids are Disciples, Not Missionaries… Yet.

This post is my personal defense of a common argument *against* home schooling.Touching on the argument "Christian kids belong in public school because if we take all the Christian kids out of school who is going to be salt and light to the non-Christian kids?" This argument doesn't cut it with me for a number of reasons.

1. It blurs the purpose of public school just like the socialization issue does. SCHOOL is about education. It has been made into so much more, but it's fundamental and founding purpose was to educate our children in the 3 R's. SCHOOL is not a mission field for Christian kids. It's not a battlefield for them to fight out their burgeoning faith amongst the waves of secularism, humanism and materialism that run rampant in our society. When kids are *in* school, it can become both of those things for them, and sometimes for their benefit. But this was not an adequate argument to convince us that we should place our children in public school. Life is a mission field. The world is a battle field. Our every step as believers in this humanist, secular, materialistic world is a struggle and victory. The argument sounds spiritual, the great commission and all, but it completely misses the point that children are *part* of the great commission, not the ones commissioned to carry it out. Christian kids are not commissioned to be missionaries. Christian parents are commissioned to disciple their own children.

2. It insinuates that any family that chooses to homeschool doesn't have the same opportunity or passion to be salt and light. I get my hackles up when I hear people criticize homeschooling parents for robbing their kids of the chance to “grow up” and “face the world” and be “light in the darkness.” We desire our children to be salty and bright in this stagnant and dark world just as much, if not more as the next person. It is our inherent desire for them, and our prayer each day as we bend over backwards to work to train them and go about life with them. Public school is not the be all and end of all of opportunity for Christian witness. On the contrary, I think it often contributes to "busy-ing" people to the point of robbing them sometimes of more valuable opportunities to be salt and light in natural, simple, down home living. But that's beside the point. Public schooled or home schooled is not the issue here, being a light wherever you walk, whoever you interact with is.

We are not home 24/7, we live in this world too, we spend time with our neighbors, make trips to town, reach out to people with kids our age. And I watch my kids and I see them being salt and light. As for me, no I am not as free to run around and socialize day in and day out. But this blog has been such an encouragement to me that I don't need to be "out there" to be salt and light. I can be here, being me, doing what He has called me to do, and He can choose to use that in any number of ways. Just the fact that on any given day 70-200 people visit this blog, comment, email me or stop me in the street (this always gives me a bit of a jolt but I love it) to tell me how my words either challenged them or brought them joy, encouragement, peace or blessing shows me that God will use me where I'm at. And God will use my kids where they are at, which is usually at this point somewhere in my general vicinity. I may not be a soccer mom or supervising public school trips, but I am interacting with so many people from my community and beyond, believers and non, every day on levels that would be very difficult to achieve just passing someone in a hallway as we drop our kids off at school or sitting on the sidelines at a soccer practice. And my kids are part of this.

3. Along the same lines, there seems to be this underlying and sincere belief that "if I just put myself here or there, in public school, supervising this activity, accompanying my child to this or that activity" I will be putting myself in the position to cross someone's path and minister to them. I used to struggle with this big time. I knew that God was calling me to not join the rat race of enrolling our kids in overscheduled organized sports or activities that required excessive time commitments on our part. But if we didn't do these things how on earth could we ever be salt and light? We would never have opportunity to interact with all those other parents running their rat race. I've come to see this as a huge farce. Prairie Guy and I have discussed how rare it is to even have a meaningful spiritual discussion with fellow believers when you are in the same public venue, never mind unbelievers. Those are generally not the times and places that this kind of heart to heart interaction takes place (not saying it never happens). Neither is public school. I am sure that I have had deeper and more meaningful spiritual interaction with people that God brought into my path in His own timing and way here in my own home, or as I run my necessary errands, than I ever would trying to "put" myself out there in the midst of everyone else running the rat race. 3 minutes of ordained conversation, orchestrated from above, is worth oodles more than 3 hours of bleacher or poolside banter. So much attention is given to "establishing a connection" through this superficial type of "hanging", but I am with Henry Blackaby on this one... God is the one at work to draw people to Himself, He will start the drawing, and He will invite us to enter into what *He* is already doing, the work that *He* has already begun. We don't have to make ourselves busy looking for opportunities or trying to intersect Him. We need to put our heart out there and let Him make the appointment and keep our eyes and ears open to be able to recognize it when IT COMES ALONG.

4. It tends to overlook the fact that kids are disciples, not apostles. The whole salt and light argument is a straw man argument, because the fact of the matter is that as Christians, we ARE salt and light just by breathing. At least we should be. It's our job to make sure we are. It's not a job of "discipling" other people, it's a job of walking in the fruit in every situation. My kids are no less salt and light to non-Christian kids just because they don't spend 6 hours a day with them. The time they do spend with them, is their time to shine. It's quality, not quantity. As disciples, their role is one of careful observer and copying of their teacher's (the parent's) training. We look to Jesus and how he interacted with his disciples to be our example to how we should disciple our children. Jesus was WITH his disciples the majority of the time. He sent them off here and there and gave them opportunity to spread their wings, but it doesn't change the fact that the majority of the time they were physically present with him observing Him and learning from His example. We are ordered to carefully train and disciple our children, not to send our children out into the role of discipling others.

5. It ignores the stats. Statistics show that Christian kids are more negatively affected by their non-Christian peers than vice-versa. Recent American studies show that 3 out of 5 Christian kids range from complete apathy to outright rejection of their childhood faith upon graduation and stepping into independence. Now, I am in no way blaming this on public school. The research analyzers don't blame it on schooling. They blame it on parenting. As I've said before, I believe it is an extremely difficult job to disciple your children adequately when they are spending more time under the influence of others (public school teachers, coaches, peers, even leaders of good Christian programs) than they are spending with YOU. How much of an impact do we, who are called to train them, expect to have when we are running in all directions, don't see our school age children all day and then one or the other of child or parent is running in separate directions for activities 3-5 evenings a week? Even secular psychologists are urging families of the importance to a child's and family's health and well being to "slow down", "eat together", "less action more interaction".

6. It seems to scoff in the face of the months (in our case years) of careful examining, analyzing, observing, praying with blood, sweat and tears home schooling parents have spent before making their decision. It treats a very difficult choice that some of us believe to be our duty and calling in order to raise kids who truly are salt and light, with almost a superiority and a snub nosed reaction that implies "how will your kids ever learn to persevere? how can your kids ever be a testimony? how will they ever learn to mature in their faith and life if they aren't sent out on their own?" These implied comments cut to my very soul and wound. Because our first and foremost calling and ambition (and indeed part of the reason we choose to homeschool) as parents is to

teach our kids to persevere (just because they aren't in public school doesn't mean they don't have ample opportunity to be taught this)
teach our kids to be a testimony (public school is not the only place people can testify), first and foremost they must have the foundation and faith and fruit that produces good testimony.
raise mature, thoughtful, independent, free thinking adults (why on earth sending them to public school would be necessary to accomplish this is beyond me. They have ample opportunities every day in life to be challenged and tested and spread their wings. )

In order for our children to be salt and light, they need to be seeped in salt and light. Is it possible to do this when your children are public schooled? Yes. My argument is not and has never been against people who send their kids to public school. Heaven knows many children have graduated public school, and been parented well, and turned into strong, upstanding believers. The struggles they face there *can* serve to make them strong, sometimes. My only argument is that public schooling believers should not discount homeschooling as a valid, honorable, obedient, and support worthy choice for Christian parents seeking to raise a generation of adults passionate about God and His kingdom. We are playing on the same team, we care fervently about being salt and light in the world. To have someone dismiss that important and personal choice with arguments that are near and dear to your heart is so frustrating and disheartening.

As Christian we are called to spur one another on to good works, encourage one another as we seek to honor God in our daily lives. This doesn't look the same for all of us. It doesn't HAVE to look the same for all of us. I don't look down on parents who send their kids to public school by any means. I look UP to them (the ones who are intentionally discipling their kids at least). They have their work cut out for them. But so do we.

In the end, it's not about homeschooled or public schooled. It's about how kids are parented. Passionate and intentional parenting is the key, not where a child sits to learn the 3 R's.

Why We Homeschool, Part 6

2009-05-20T20:11:00.001-07:00

Real Books. Rich Literature=A Love for Learning.

I secretly smile when people's eyes glaze over at the idea of homeschooling. The preparation, the work, the dedication, the organization, the time commitment, the personal sacrifice that flashes before their eyes.... I seriously find it hard to suppress a smile. Let me set the record straight here once and for all, at least about our own experience.

I love to read.
I love to learn.
I love to discuss what I am learning.
I love to find ways to apply what I am learning.
I love to be with my kids who also love to read, love to learn, love to discuss and apply what they are learning.

In other words, homeschooling is really a great excuse to sit around reading and yacking with my kids all day and call it work =)

Now, why Sonlight? Ah, just the name makes me feel all cheery and warm inside. Why Sonlight. Because;

Sonlight uses real books,
instills a love for learning,
exposes us to diverse angles of any given topic in an unbiased fashion so that;
we always have LOTS to discuss,
facilitates conscientious application of what we are learning and
is set up in a way that draws us together for hours and hours of every day to do the things we love most.

Some of you have asked me about "real" books. What does that mean, and how do they contribute to a richer and deeper education? I'm going to quote directly (with some personal emphasis, because I am an emphasis aficionado) out of the Sonlight catalogue, because whoever wrote the following article had a lot more time on their hands than I do to devote to this subject, and sums it up so perfectly that I see no reason to re-invent the wheel. The following quotes are taken from page 142 of the 2008 Sonlight Catalog.

"When history "comes alive," your kids remember more of what they study. With other educational media, and most especially textbooks, students don't read stories. They read reports about subjects. In fact, textbooks seem less like books, and more like "storage space" for dump truck loads of facts- as many facts as possible. There's just one problem: they leave out all the drama. The conflict, the context, the emotion, the story- so there is nothing left to attract the interest and attention of student readers.

Sonlight, by contrast, with its "real books" approach, brings you right "there" to see, feel and hear what happened- even if it was 2000 years ago. With the kinds of books Sonlight carries, you get to experience history. They draw you into the story so that all the things traditional textbooks and classroom materials tell you you're supposed to memorize... you memorize "coincidentally". You can't help remembering the names of the key characters, the places they go, the events they participate in. Somehow, when you are caused to feel something, emotionally, about a person or event, you seem never to forget. The images and experiences are forever imprinted on your mind.

When you enjoy reading your school books, when one of your favorite things to do each day is to read the books that are part of your curriculum, and when the books themselves make it easy for you to remember your lessons, you've got the easiest learning process possible."

And having taught this curriculum for 5 years straight, I can heartily endorse the truth behind these words. Learning is not a “task”. It’s an adventure!

Why We Homeschool, Part 5

2009-05-20T20:07:00.001-07:00

Quality of Education and Time Management.

I understand the struggles some people face when they consider homeschooling. We are blessed to live in a wonderful community, with a wonderful school, where the majority of teachers and residents of our community are believers. I can count on a few fingers the number of homeschoolers in our general area. It's not a place where you choose to homeschool because you are looking for a solution to combat negative social influence. And that is often how home education is regarded. As a solution to a problem. That was not the case for us. As a means to combat something negative. Or on the other hand, home education might not be considered because it is seen as having negative repurcussions, or robbing children of certain aspects of childhood.

While it's true we struggled with the "socialization" myth initially (this was years before our oldest daughter was even school age, when we first started evaluating choices for educating her). We struggled with the knowledge that she wouldn't get to "hang out" in the halls and school grounds with "the other girls", or play on the school teams, or just "be" with and like everyone else. Those are not easy choices to make. But in the end, we had to realize that the choice we were making, was a choice about EDUCATION. When we boiled it down to that, and deciding how and where our daughter would get the best education at our disposal, there was no debate. Home education won hands down, an official knock out. Alright, so I'm biased ;-) I won't pretend I'm not... I'm not saying a child can't get a good or even great education in public school, but I am convinced that however well a child does educationally in public school, they would have flourished even more in a devoted home education environment. There are just certain logistics that make this inevitable.

My kids don't have unintegrated "classes" exposing them to dates and general figures and unconnected geographical locations, and abstract grammar and vocabulary lessons completely unrelated to other topics of study. They are not exposed to people, events and dates in the context of a factual paragraph in a text book that they are required to memorize for a time and then forget. They don't waste half of their school time on the bus, changing classes, doing busywork while they wait for other kids to catch up, in assembly, etc.

With the time we save, we are blessed to be able embark on a much more exciting adventure in education precisely because we don't have 30 other kids at 30 different stages and with umpteen different learning styles to worry about. We also can funnel our money to buy the best materials available since we don't have to worry about funding and salaries and the cost of running public schools. So instead of text books chosen by a public school system we can choose "real" books that tell the "real" stories of the people/places/events we are studying. We have time to read great read alouds that correlate with our history studies, to watch movies and documentaries that bring to life the things we are studying.

For example, this past year our oldest dd (8) studied American history from Amerigo Vespucci to the civil war. After being exposed to this time period in elementary school I would have been able to repeat the names of Lewis and Clark, and the Erie Canal, have a most basal understanding of the American revolution (that the Americans wanted to break free from the British, and the British wanted to keep America as a colony) and told you that Sacagawea was an Indian guide on the Lewis and Clark expedition. These facts I would have gleaned from a textbook paragraph and a few black and white line drawings. Whatever I learned was abstract, usually dry, relatively boring, and definitely disconnected from my real life and interests.

My daughter on the other hand dresses her younger siblings up as red-coats or blue-coats and be-feathered Native Americans to re-enact the French Indian war. She recounts the story of the kidnapping of Sacagawea and Naya Nuki from their Shoshone tribe and they play act the escape and 1,000 mile journey of Naya Nuki (9 years old) as she finds her way back home to her tribe. She dialogues with Prairie Guy and I about the ins and outs of the American Revolution, and brings things to the table that even we find enlightening. She can trace out the path that Lewis and Clark travelled on their expedition and recount wonderful adventures and trials they met along the way. When she plays in the fields and in the bush she is able to envision the history that happened on these plains hundreds of years ago.

One of the biggest bonuses to home education in my eyes is the ability to integrate all areas of learning. We get to read great literature that captivates us and gives us visual to the time, place and event we are studying. We trace out routes and locations on the globe or map as they come up, bringing geography to life. We write out vocabulary words as they come up in the context of our reading, and practice spelling and grammar by dictation assignments (savory sentences as I like to call them) taken straight out of what we are reading. When we learn about nature or elements in science, we don't sit at a table talking about it, we get out there and look for it and experience it in real live color and depth.

We sink our teeth in, we go deeper, we go farther, we study all angles, how did the Native Americans feel when... how did the Americans feel when.... what would it have been like to be an American soldier at the Battle of Valley Forge, freezing, starving, fighting for what you believed was right and fair. Prairie Girl writes stories and poems based on the topics we are learning about, she paints pictures, she reads books in her spare time that correlate. And all this, in less than half the time a child spends in and between classes in a public school setting, not to even mention the time they are required to work on homework.

Why We Homeschool, Part 4

2009-05-20T19:57:00.001-07:00

Socialization
Yes. You read that right. Socialization. A reason to homeschool. Huh? You might say.... isn't that one of the "downsides" to homeschooling? Isn't socialization a good reason to send your kids to public school? I mean, that's more "social", right? Wrong. While it is true that some of the pioneers of the homeschooling movement were rather reclusive and anti-social, statistics show that a balanced (and much more common) approach to homeschooling results in BETTER socialization skills in homeschooled versus public schooled students.

Some people that don’t understand home schooling believe that it is confining rather than socializing. But those individuals that believe that are stuck in thinking about the stereotypical socialization of an age-based classroom. Children that are home schooled are exposed to social situations in a mixed age range.
Many homeschoolers feel that their children need to be exposed to the appropriate ways to behave not inappropriate. They feel that their child should be exposed to the model behavior of people who have learned to make decisions and handle themselves in various social settings. By being exposed to appropriate modeling of social behavior, home-schooled children will learn how to act appropriately.

Parents of home schooled children can also see when their child “gets-it” when they model for a younger child appropriate behavior.

Home-schooled children get a reality based social lesson. On a daily basis they see adults they know, love and trust manage and balance life day to day. Modeled for them is academics balanced with real life chores; caring for a sick friend or neighbor, shoveling the driveway and walkway, doing the grocery shopping and dropping of the dry cleaning, cooking dinner while folding laundry, putting laundry away and talking on the phone with Aunt Sara. These are real life situations that homeschoolers are exposed to and public school children are often sheltered from or are privy to a controlled school environment.

Quote taken from statsheet.com (not a homeschooling promotion site either!)

I have found this to be so true with my own children. They interact with people of all ages, and are just as interested in and comfortable with a newborn or someone years their minor or 80 years their senior as they are with children their own age. They also are strong independent thinkers since they have never been subject to the pressure to conform in order to be "acceptable" in a group of age segregated peers. They just are who they are and gravitate towards people of all types and are very innocent and sincere in their approach to people. They have no fears of being rejected, and would never dream of rejecting someone.

I have to smile inwardly when I hear people pull the "socialization" card out in favor of public education or other age segregated activities. In reality all of the segregation that happens in all segments of our society is more of a prohibitor than a contributor to healthy and well rounded socialization skills.

Why We Homeschool, Part 3

2009-05-20T19:53:00.001-07:00

Freedom and Flexibility
I know, I know, I should probably be toting the qualities of time efficiency during educational hours and quality of education before I go raving about freedom and flexibility, but the freedom and flexibility aspect is what I am really reveling in at this precise moment with family here from Italy and a baby on the way, beautiful spring weather that I would dread for my kids to be spending in a class room behind a desk. Besides, it's a simple one that doesn't require much thought or preparation, which is good because my post-due-date brain cells are not exactly the sharpest right now *smile*.

I understand the value of the clock and the calendar, and heaven knows I like to be scheduled and punctual, sometimes to the point of obsession. I continuously find myself pulled between the Mary and the Martha. Beyond being punctual and reliable when it comes to commitments, I long to be the kind of person who doesn't live life by an agenda, but just LIVES LIFE. Who seizes those moments to be Here With Him (my heavenly beloved), and Here With Them (my earthly beloveds).

Now, don't get me wrong! I believe in structure, and thrive on it, as do my children, but a gentle, flexible, pliable, adaptable structure. The freedom and flexibility in education I refer to here is not that I can get away with doing "less" days of school than public schoolers, but rather that we are not tied to a 5 day school week, holidays on command and en mass with the rest of the public schooled population, an 8:30 bus pick up or a September to July school year. I am committed to teaching 180 school days, but when those days happen, is completely up to us. This is just one of the many perks of homeschooling, the fact that it provides us the flexibility to fit LEARNING around our LIFE, rather than the need to fit our LIVES around our LEARNING.

-I love that we can start school a month late in order to enjoy a fabulous September and still finish before school lets out in June.
-I love that we can school in the morning and take off in the afternoon, or take off in the morning and school in the afternoon. Or do some school in the morning, take off and come back to it later and heck, we can even do school at night if we feel like it.
-I love that we can take a day off whenever we want during the week or on Prairie Guy's EDO and "catch it up" on a rainy Saturday if we want to (which we often do, because school hours are actually a wonderful time in our day) or not at all.
-I love that I can schedule our school year way in advance to finish before the arrival of a May baby,
-I love that we can take our family holidays while all other kids are in school and thus not have the line ups and chaotic beaches. And last but not least, and especially sweet;
-I love that I can decide our last 15 days of school have now been delegated an event for rainy days.

Why We Homeschool? Part 2

2009-05-20T19:47:00.001-07:00

Family First.
I have heard the question posed whether family has become an "idol" in segments of the homeschooling community. Have home schooling advocates sometimes focused TOO much on their own families to the point that they are of no use to anyone else? I suppose this can be true. I suppose it can also be true that some people are so focused on work and personal interests that they are not much use to anyone else either, including their family. Personally I see more families that struggle to find quality time together than I do the opposite (is there really any such thing as too much quality family time anyway?).

Anything can become an idol in our life and it's something we for sure need to contemplate. I have sometimes asked myself how I can possibly be "useful" to God in building His kingdom when I have my hands pretty full just keeping up with my own little corner of the world. God has been good enough to speak gently to me and assure me that He doesn't need me to "free" time up for Him, or worry about having myself situated hopefully, possibly, maybe in a potential place for pursuing the lost. He is much bigger than that, He knows where I am, and He knows that both my heart *and* door are open *at all times* for anyone He sees fit to bring into my path. I have learned to trust Him to make the divine appointments and He has proven to me time and time again, that He is the best Day Planner.

Here's the way I have come to see it. My life is at the centre of an ever widening circle of influence. I'm kept afloat by God's strength, purpose and sustenance. His spirit is meant to flow outwards from me to touch those around me. My nearest circle is inevitably those whose lives are most intimately connected with mine, or at least it should be, my immediate family. Ironically, society has muddled and filled and robbed our schedules to such a degree that the average family spends the majority of their time segregated and running rather than united and bonding.

The bible is clear that men of influence in the church are only qualified if they have proven themselves faithful and successful in the more intimate circle of family influence FIRST. "An elder must be.....a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient." Titus 1:6 Wow. That's heavy. After all, we can do our best and whose to say how our kids turn out, right? I mean, they have their own free will, they will have their own personalities and make their own choices right? Will it really be our fault as parents if they choose wrongly? I don't know about that, all I know is we are called to be diligent, called to "train them up in the way they should go" and assured that if we do this diligently from an early age, when they are old they will not depart from it. Yes God can keep them and draw them to Himself despite our failures, but as parents you can bet your bottom dollar that we are going to make sure that we are doing everything in our power to train them up in the way that they should go, since He calls us to.

Personally, I am convinced that the conscience is formed in the earliest of years and that is one of the biggest reasons I believe in home education. We don't want peers, strangers, the world, public text books and television forming our children’s conscience. We want their consciences to be formed through the hearing of the word, the discussing of the word, careful and constant training through one on one interaction with the people who care more about their consciences and world view than anyone else possibly could. Their parents.

Also, rather than training our children "defensively" (as they're out there, in the trenches of society, one by one as the punches come, deal with them) we wanted to be able to train "offensively" (inform them of the punches to come, discuss right and wrong before the temptation/trial/situation arises, and play the primary role in the formation and strengthening of their moral conscience and worldview so that as situations arise they are informed and stolid about what they believe and what they should do.

I think the family first concept is kind of like the "be faithful in the small things first" concept. Not that raising kids is a small thing by any means, but in the grand scheme of life, it's the mundane, every day, day in and day out "normalcy" of your life. You are focusing on those "nearest" you rather than on big dreams. Why? Maybe because in order to truly influence those "nearest" you, you need to be on the ball! Others see you PART of the time, your family sees you ALL of the time. Parenting may seem at times like the monotonous "small things" but just remember the old Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song... "from small things baby, big things one day come!"

Why We Homeschool, Part I

2009-05-20T14:59:00.001-07:00

(revisiting this series for a friend, and copying over from Prologue).

Educating Our Children Is Our God Given Responsibility.
I think most parents would agree that we, as parents are responsible to educate, train and disciple our children. It's not a matter of *whether* we are responsible for their education but rather a matter of *how* we are going to accomplish that, what the challenges are, and making the choice that will best facilitate our success in that duty.

Some parents might agree in part but then say that as parents we are only responsible for the spiritual teaching, and spiritual formation of our children, and "secular education" is better left to "qualified" educators. In the grand scheme I don't believe you *can* separate spiritual formation from any aspect of education. Spiritual conviction and and one's world view as formed through education are intrinsically connected. We must look at science through the lens of Creation, History through the lens of His Story, Math through the lens of His Wisdom, The Arts through the lens of relationship with Him. These things all point to Him and His truth.
So, whether our children are home educated, or whether they are public schooled, the responsibility lies on the parent to make sure that their children's "worldview" AND spiritual formation are continuously growing upward in alignment with the Truth and the Great Teacher.

Once we recognize our children's education is primarily *our* responsibility it is a matter of deciding how we can best fulfill it. If our children would go to public school, our job would be the same, but our schedule would be difficult at best. For us it came down to the question of "how many hours are there in a day?". If our children spend 7 hours a day in school (between getting there and getting home) and THEN have "other" outside activities on top of that, sports, music lessons, homework, play time with friends, club, youth... plus WE have evening activities two to three nights a week, how much time does that leave us for being our children's primary educators? How much could we REALLY be aware of what they are learning, how they are processing it, how their peers are subtly influencing them?

For us, we didn't just want to "find out through the grapevine" what our kids were being taught and "supplement" it for mere minutes here and there. We wanted to be intimately involved in the forming of their worldview, in the moment by moment maturing of their consciences and understanding of God's world. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine what a rewarding and beautiful experience that would be.

Besides responsibility, other determining factors were;
-time efficiency (time to learn PLUS live, laugh, love, play, relax and just plain be a child)
-quality of education
-family first
-freedom and flexibility

which I will talk more about in upcoming posts. A passage that has always gripped me is the following verse that God spoke over Abraham,

"I have chosen him. He must direct his children. He must see that the members of his family after him live the way I want them to. So he must direct them to do what is right and fair. " Genesis 18:19 NIRV

Homeschooling With Little Ones, Live Time.

2009-02-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

It's true... toddlers and infants do throw a wrench in the gears but they can be included and kept occupied. I continue to get email after email asking me what "school" looks like with a 2 year old and 9 month old in the mix. So I decided to record things "live time" for you to get a better picture of how things run around here.

9:15 am we have bible reading at the table and then disperse to do our morning routines of tidying, getting laundry started, washing up, getting dressed, cleaning rooms, etc.

10:00 am everyone is in the schoolroom. My 9 yo and 7 yo are working independently on their math, while I supervise my 5 yo with his seat work. 2 yo is playing mega blocks on the floor with 9 mo.

10:20 am 9 yo continues to work on her math, 7 yo and 5 yo are listening to their science and history readings. 9 mo has gone down for his nap and 2 yo is searching for the yellow duck in each page of "Things People Do". And yes, this does require me to "look Mommy" on each page when he has "founded it" and to cheer his efforts and sometimes provide a clue.

10:40 am 5 yo is finished seat work and asks to watch TV, is denied and runs off to play stick fighting with 2 yo. I start marking 9 yo's math while 7 yo works on her Language Arts.

11:00 am 7 yo finishes and goes to read Milly Molly Mandy to 5 yo and 2 yo in the living room. I can now focus to do science and history readings with my 9 yo.

11:30 am get 9 yo started on Language Arts, do her dictation and spelling lists and read poetry, then leave her to finish off her seat work (handwriting and creative writing) while I go to prepare lunch. After story time, the 2, 5, and 7 yo can watch a half hour video or play educational computer games IF they have cleaned up any mess they have made.

12:00 we eat lunch then go to our respective "quiet time" places, 2 yo with me on the couch looking at a book till he falls asleep. 5 yo on the other couch looking at a picture book, 7 yo and 9 yo in their beds reading their readers and me reading a chapter of my book.

1:00 pm I read "World's Greatest Fairy Tales" to my 7 yo and "Across Five Aprils" to my 9 yo because we have small group tonight and won't have time to do it at our regular time (after supper).

1:45 baby wakes up and has lunch

2:00 we start getting ready to go to town for errands and tea with a sweet friend.

All in all I realize that my older kids are really great at engaging and entertaining the younger ones. They are great friends to each other and thus the littler ones are not very demanding of me. It's true that sometimes more than others the young ones just need to be near me and I don't deny them that. There is always a booster seat next to me for whoever feels that need to be close, and I am quite okay with balancing a baby on my knee if need be while reading to the kids. Yeah... he reaches for pages and drives me crazy but usually I find something that distracts and entertains him and he is just happy to be near me and hear my voice. I also use the jolly jumper and exersaucer when they are too small to play on the floor.

I never expect to get through a lesson without interruption. This is life, not school. It's living AND learning. Or learning WHILE living. Interruptions may set us back according to the clock, but not in the grand scheme of things. I tend to not care about the clock at all... just take our time and enjoy the journey. I highly recommend building a collection of fun coloring books, I Spy Books, cut and paste workbooks, mega block and Tinkertoy collections, and Where's Waldo books for the little guys to feel they have their OWN stuff and are part of the learning experience. I love it when my 2 yo leaves what he is playing with to climb up beside us and peer at our books and repeat funny words in an inquisitive fashion... rather than frustrating us it give us cause for laughter. Prime example, I was reading a brief excerpt to my daughter from "Writer's Inc". Here is how that went...

"You probably lead a busy life. As a result, you may have little time to relax and reflect on things. This is where writing can help." 2 YO CLIMBS UP IN THE BOOSTER SEAT BETWEEN US AT THIS POINT.

"By it's very nature writing is perfectly suited to examining daily happenings." HAPPENINGS MOMMY? HAPPENINGS? WHAT'S HAPPENING MOMMY?

"Writer Ray Bradbury once said, "Writing lets the world burn through you (I edited this on the fly to read "through your head" I tend to do this when I know it will help it make more concrete sense to my daughter). HEAD MOMMY? BURN HEAD?

"If you write regularly in a journal you will know exactly what he means. In a typical entry HIS HEAD, MOMMY? POINTING TO CARICATURE IN THE BOOK. HE BURN HEAD MOMMY? you will consider the events in your life, and in the process, ask questions, make decisions and set goals. WHO BURN HEAD MOMMY? In short, you can reflect- or let the world burn through your head." OH... WORLD IN HEAD MOMMY? WORLD IN MY HEAD?

LOL. Daughter and I were smirking through the whole paragraph. I love that he is comically part of what we're learning. I hope you will all find your learning niche and get comfortable with this crazy and wonderful experience that is home (and family) based education.

Homeschooling With Little Ones

2009-01-24T23:31:00.001-08:00

This post is in response to a question I have received three times in the past couple of weeks. How do I manage to homeschool multiple children (this coming from people who only homeschool one and find it so time consuming they wonder how they can teach three or four children) with little ones in the mix. Here is how things look around here in a nutshell.

1. I focus on getting my basic chores done first thing in the morning while baby is awake. Everyone 2 and up is involved in this process from wiping down counters, to sweeping floors, making beds, etc.

2. I wait till the littlest’s morning nap to start school.

3. I start my fourth grader on her math first thing so that I can focus on the younger kids subjects while she is busy with independent seatwork (for the most part).

4. I combine kids in certain subjects regardless of age gaps. My 4 (just 5) and 6 (almost 7) year old are combined in science, history and poetry readings. I do their combined subjects first and then again, get my first grader started on her math so that I can concentrate on the youngest for his math and language arts. In total my preschooler only has about half hour of seatwork.

5. During this half hour my two year old is working in his own coloring and activity books in his booster seat at the table with us. When my pre-k’er has completed his work they move into the living room to watch 1/2 hour of kids shows until my first grader is done her seat work. At that time she (little mother that she is) plays with the kids until lunch. In winter this involves crafts, games or just free play with their books and toys. In summer they play outside.

6. Once I have finished seat work with my first grader (around 11:00 am) I then mark my fourth grader’s math and move on to science and history readings with her. By the time we have finished these two subjects it is about noon and I start her on her Language Arts seatwork and go to get lunch ready.

7. After lunch we all take a 30-45 min quiet time and this is when my daughters do their readers, I lay down on the couch with my 2 year old and read, he looks at a book till he falls asleep. My four year old plays quietly in his room and the baby is usually still napping (or going down for his second nap when very small).

8. After quiet time I take care of the baby and get him changed and fed, while supervising daughter as she finishes her language arts.

9. That’s about it, besides the fact that we do family read alouds in the evening after supper if we are home (so Daddy can participate), otherwise, if we have an engagement in the evening, I read to the kids between 3 and 4 and then start making supper at 4 pm.

10. When my babies get older and don’t sleep so much they play in the room with us, either in a jolly jumper in the doorway when they are 4-6 months, or in an exersaucer after that or just sitting in the high chair next to me with some finger food and baby toys. Usually they are quite happy to just be near everyone.

11. Yes, there are inevitably times when the baby doesn’t sleep and wants to be held. I’ve learned to relax and that that is okay too.

It’s a constant adjustment of schedule and approach each year as I add new kids to the mix and as they move up in grade levels (I find that the student’s work takes an extra quarter hour from pre-k-grade one then an additional hour every year after that), thus my fourth grader spends about four hours doing school where last year she only spent three, and my first grader spends one) but so far it has never been overwhelming, and I have always had babies and toddlers in the mix. You forget that the kids you started teaching first get more and more independent and that they help with other kids and housework too. When they are young you think you will be solely responsible for EVERYTHING and then you learn as you go that it is a family effort and it all turns out just fine. Take courage.

No Teacher Required.

2008-09-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

This from my 6 year old today. The child who I taught hard syllables and short vowels to and then discovered her reading A. A. Milne aloud to her younger brother. She has now taught herself to write cursive. Just yesterday we finished her Handwriting Without Tears Printing workbook (she worked on learning lower case last year in kindergarten, had learned uppercase in pre-school). And today she brought me this.

she copied it (by sight, not by tracing) out of her older sister's cursive workbook (skipping the words "found Canada on" in between "Adam" and "the map", but then wrote out the second line in its completion. If all my kids are like this, I'm gonna be out of a job.

Why Sonlight is Cost Effective.

2008-09-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

originally posted on June 7, 2008 at Prairie Prologue

One of the first questions I get about Sonlight is inevitably, "well, I really like the look of Sonlight but how do you afford it?". As you add up the different subjects and recommended resources, the dollar figure mounts until it is most likely floating anywhere around $750.00 or even up to $900.00 for a year's materials. BUT, don't shudder and run away just yet. Let me explain a few things that are very important to understand.

First of all, I don't know a single curriculum where you won't spend 300 to 500 dollars a year, even the cheapo workbook curriculums. And when we are talking 300 to 500 dollars, we are talking 300 to 500 dollars PER child, per year. So if you have two children, you are most likely spending anywhere from 600 to 1000 dollars on curriculum by the time you are said and done. With Sonlight, since 90% of the materials are NON consumable you don't multiply the cost of a year's curriculum by the number of children you have, you *divide* it.

I buy the full shebang from Sonlight, all recommended resources, all supplemental workbooks, all subjects. My largest bill (when the exchange rate sucked) was 900.00 canadian. If I divide that 900.00 by my children, it works out to 180.00 per child, let's say maximum $250.00 per child by the time I replace consumable materials. And if I get my way and have a future Prairie Poppet then my kids top notch education only costs me 150.00 a year plus consumables. There is no curriculum out there that is that economical, unless you make it yourself and use the library. So for me, Sonlight turns out to be not only the highest quality, but *highly* economical (if not the most cost effective way I could school 5 (6?) chicklets =)

Now granted, most people don't have 5 or 6 kids, so is it still an economical option for smaller families? If you are a one child family, yes, it's going to be pricy for you. If you have two children, like I said, I think it is comparable to most other curriculums on the market, ringing in at anywhere from 250 to 500 dollars per child per year. At least it *looks* comparable when you look at the price tag, but I would *still* say it is a way better deal than anything else on the market and here are two reasons why.

1. Sonlight curriculum is not a certain dollar amount of textbooks and workbooks that get used once and then "put" away. It is a veritable heirloom library of classic, colorful, beautiful, treasurable literature. All of it. Even the science books. They are REAL books that call your children's names and are taken down from the shelves again and again and again and will never be put away in a box somewhere because they are "last years text books". You don't pay for a year's worth of school books, you pay for a lifetime's worth of lovable literature. You get to keep it and reap the benefits of it for years to come, even when your kids are grown and gone and your grandkids are the ones to raid the bookshelves.

2. If for some reason (crazy thought but I'll throw it out there) you don't *want* to keep years and years worth of wonderful literature, Sonlight has a high demand resale value. The Sonlight website even has a special forum just for advertising and selling their USED curriculum. And I'm pretty sure you are guaranteed to get 50% of your investment back by selling your used materials. So you can cut the cost of your children's education in half.

Either way, it brings you back down into the category of "very cost effective, academically superior" curriculum.

One last comment. The other remark I routinely get is; "I really want to try it, but I'm afraid to make that investment and then have it flop on us." HAVE NO FEAR. Sonlight has the BEST (and only one of it's kind that I know of) no risk return policy. They give you ONE FULL YEAR from date of purchase to fully use and teach 18 weeks of the year's materials, and if at any time before then you decide that Sonlight is not a good fit for you, you can return the whole kit and kaboodle (USED, written in, dog eared, food stained, you name it- up until week 18 of the materials) for a 100% refund. Talk about NO RISK. What have you got to lose? Nothing but your hesitation. Go for it!

Why Sonlight Curriculum?

2008-09-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Originally posted June 2, 2008 at Prairie Prologue.

I secretly smile when people's eyes glaze over at the idea of homeschooling. The preparation, the work, the dedication, the organization, the time commitment, the personal sacrifice that flashes before their eyes.... I seriously find it hard to suppress a smile. Let me set the record straight here once and for all, at least about our own experience.

I love to read.
I love to learn.
I love to discuss what I am learning.
I love to find ways to apply what I am learning.
I love to be with my kids who also love to read, love to learn, love to discuss and apply what they are learning.

In other words, homeschooling is really a great excuse to sit around reading and yacking with my kids all day and call it work =)

Now, why Sonlight? Ah, just the name makes me feel all cheery and warm inside. Why Sonlight. Because;

Sonlight uses real books (opposed to text and workbooks),
instills a love for learning,
exposes us to diverse angles of any given topic in an unbiased fashion so that;
we always have LOTS to discuss,
facilitates conscientious application of what we are learning and
is set up in a way that draws us together for hours and hours of every day to do the things we love most.

Some of you have asked me about "real" books. What does that mean, and how do they contribute to a richer and deeper education? I'm going to quote directly (with some personal emphasis, because I am an emphasis aficionado) out of the Sonlight catalogue, because whoever wrote the following article had a lot more time on their hands than I do to devote to this subject, and sums it up so perfectly that I see no reason to re-invent the wheel. The following quotes are taken from page 142 of the 2008 Sonlight Catalog.

"When history "comes alive," your kids remember more of what they study. With other educational media, and most especially textbooks, students don't read stories. They read reports about subjects. In fact, textbooks seem less like books, and more like "storage space" for dump truck loads of facts- as many facts as possible. There's just one problem: they leave out all the drama. The conflict, the context, the emotion, the story- so there is nothing left to attract the interest and attention of student readers.

Sonlight, by contrast, with its "real books" approach, brings you right "there" to see, feel and hear what happened- even if it was 2000 years ago. With the kinds of books Sonlight carries, you get to experience history. They draw you into the story so that all the things traditional textbooks and classroom materials tell you you're supposed to memorize... you memorize "coincidentally". You can't help remembering the names of the key characters, the places they go, the events they participate in. Somehow, when you are caused to feel something, emotionally, about a person or event, you seem never to forget. The images and experiences are forever imprinted on your mind.

When you enjoy reading your school books, when one of your favorite things to do each day is to read the books that are part of your curriculum, and when the books themselves make it easy for you to remember your lessons, you've got the easiest learning process possible."

And having taught this curriculum for 5 years straight, I can heartily endorse the truth behind these words. And that is one of the reasons we use Sonlight.

"I have chosen him. He must direct his children. He must see that the members of his family after him live the way I want them to. So he must direct them to do what is right and fair. " Genesis 18:19 NIRV

On Cherishing Childhood

2008-09-24T08:57:00.001-07:00

Education means to lead out. We seem to understand this as leading away from childhood, but maybe we could think of it as eliciting the wisdom and talents of childhood itself.

Thomas Moore

Nature, a Most Excellent Schoolmaster.

2008-09-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock