Graduation

Below is a video our oldest son put together of photos from our third son, Joshua's graduation ceremony and party on September 26, 2010. Matthew did an awesome job with the photography and video. Thanks, Love!

You will see pictures of our children sharing a scripture or a word to their brother. It was so sweet. They each sought the Lord on just what to share with him, even the nine year old.

Also, there is a woman speaking to him in a few of the pictures, this was his piano teacher for years. We love this woman. She comes to our house to teach our children. She is the epitome of the perfect teacher. She inspires them, she is firm, yet gentle. She truly loves and values them. She is such a gift.

Joshua's Chemistry, Latin and Hebrew teacher is in one of the pictures also. This man is brilliant! He knows, I don't know, a bazillion languages and is a Professor of Physics at an University near us. He tutored Luke and Josh for several years. He too is a gift!

It was a beautiful day of honoring and sharing, surrounded by loved ones. Praising God for His leading to homeschool our children. It truly is an awesome, most wonderful experience. We would not trade it for the world!

Planning the School Year

My mother blessed me and took all the children for the whole day so I could plan our school year. The Lord truly blessed my time. I got so much accomplished. I started with a large decaf latte with an extra shot, a water bottle, computer, copy machine and a table full of books and binders! When I would get 'stuck' on something I would pray and He would lead. I did dip into the chocolate a little at one point though, to help the thinking. (wink, wink)

This year is a 'light' year, it seems. I only have five students and a toddler. Seems doable, really, Michelle, it does. Sorry, just encouraging myself. I am kidding. I truly am looking forward to this school year. I did not get to do the school year I had planned last year because I got sick before I could even start. It feels like a privilege to get to do school, which it should, by the way, because it is!

Here is what I have lined up for each child.

Victoria 9th grade

Algebra 1

American Literature

Easy Grammar

Apologia General Science

Sonlight 7 American History

Evangelism 101

Copy Work

Spelling Wisdom

Piano

Isaiah 7th grade

Algebra 1/2

Learning Language Arts Through Literature

Easy Grammar

Apologia General Science

Sonlight 7 American History

Copy Work

Spelling Wisdom

Piano

Sarah Grace 4th grade

Abeka Math

Learning Language Arts Through Literature

Italic Handwriting

American History (reading list)

Piano

Isabella and Josiah (grades ??)

Rod and Staff Phonics

Rod and Staff Reading

Abeka Math

American History with Sarah Grace

I am working out the 'bugs' with the schedule. I highly recommend Managers of Their Homes. I discovered it years ago and it changed my life, really!

We will be starting our day with:

Morning Circle Time

Prayer, Bible Lesson, Hymn, Scripture memory and Gratitude Journals

From there we, in theory, flow in and out of subjects, each of us having something to do at each half hour block. Maybe when I get it typed up I will try to post it.

Please feel free to ask any questions about what we are using or what our day looks like.

Homeschooling With Little Ones

Today I have shared some ideas on how to homeschool with little ones around. It can be very challengeing to get things done. I hope you are encouraged and get a few ideas. You can read more . . . Homeschooling With Littles over At the Well.

Devotional Material For The Littles!

I was blessed enough to be able to get back to a small portion of our morning circle time. One of the things we do (or did before I got sick ;-) is read from the bible while the littles color the appropriate color sheet. We have used these off and on for the last several years. We have, at times, just read from the beginning. We have read certain 'stories', for example, the Passover Story. We have done the Easter Story, and now we are working through the Christmas Story.

We color a certain amount and then staple them into an empty file folder. The children now have a 'book' containing their pictures and delight to retell them to Daddy!

Here is the link for the New Testament and the Old Testament.

I just print up enough copies for each child to color, but you have options of crossword puzzles, questions and word searches for each story. We love these. I use these for my twelve and under children. The twelve year old and thirteen year old are getting a little 'bored' with the coloring. One free hand draws the picture for the story and the other rewrites (narrates) the story.

Hope this helps. It is so easy!

Home School Helps w/ Little Ones

Ladies,

I just recently came across these two articles that were very encouraging. I needed to read these for the season I am in and thought you all might be blessed too.

They are articles on home schooling with babies and preschoolers.

Little Ones vs. Homeschooling

The Baby IS the Lesson

Enjoy!

Homeschool Resource

I recently discovered a wonderful website called Simply Charlotte Mason. Years ago we did more Charlotte Mason type of schooling, but the last several years we fell back on just the basics and relied heavily on textbooks. (which I love by the way, I am not an anti-textbook Mama ;-)

During what I call 'our survival years', it was all I could do to open a textbook assign a few pages and move on to the next child. Funny, how all those years I felt we just weren't doing enough God's grace more than covered it and we are still "ahead" of each child's grade level. (Whatever being 'ahead' or 'grade level' means ;-)

This year I feel the Lord's leading to go back to a little more Charlotte Mason type things and this particular website has been invaluable! It did for me just what the name says, it made Charlotte Mason style of teaching 'simple'.

I bought many of their products and am very happy with them. I do think they might be geared to the younger children, say below 8th grade, though they do show you how to use it for older children as well.

Just thought I would pass the information along!

Above and Beyond . . .

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us . . .

Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

Okay, I don't even know where to start! God is so unbelievable awesome, faithful and merciful! My husband and I were completely and utterly overwhelmed by His love this weekend as we celebrated our son's graduation from our home school, Zoe Academy.

We were completely humbled by everything that went on that day. When you are in the middle of life, wondering at times if you are even doing it right, it can be so hard to see any fruit. As the years go on, and we get closer to the Lord, we become more and more aware of our own short comings, realizing that if there be any fruit, anything 'good' come out of our obedience it is going to have to be God and His grace!

We had approximately 75 friends and family join us in our celebration. We opened with prayer and introductions. My husband and I both shared from our hearts to our son. God had given each of us very specific scripture to share with him.

Our son then shared his graduation 'speech' which was short and sweet. ;-)

Some of his siblings shared a scripture with him that they felt the Lord gave them. This was amazingly sweet, as they all seemed so fitting. Even our 8 year old shared a verse she has been memorizing.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, though a bit chilly. We passed out blankets for those in need. Our prayer was to be a light to our family and friends and glorify God in all that we did and said.

After the presentation of the diploma and mom, dad and siblings sharing, we opened it up for others to share from their hearts. When we sent out invitations, we included a note asking the guests to prayerfully consider sharing something for our son.

This is where it got overwhelming and amazing! The things people shared about our son and about our family in general were almost more than I could take. It was so awesome to hear how many lives and in how many ways we have touched others' lives without even knowing it! Our neighbor, who we have served and loved quietly over the years was weeping as he shared how our son and all our children have ministered to him over the years. Our children shovel his long drive, mow his lawn, bring him 'gifts', fix things for him. (he has pretty significant health problems) He tries to pay them and profusely thanks them. I think some of my kids don't even know that people get paid to do some of the things they do for him, they just love to help him. Many, many in the crowd were brought to tears by what he shared.

This man has been both our older sons' Hebrew, Latin and Chemistry teacher over the last three years. He is an awesome, Godly, brilliant man from the country of Holland. He has the coolest accent. He shared from a Latin/Hebrew Psalter, then translated right before our eyes. Then he proceeded to give my son the book as a gift. He had him look in the back of the book (Hebrew books starts at the back ;-) and the date was from the 1600s! What a thoughtful and almost priceless gift!

So many people got up one after another and shared scriptures, prayers, wisdom and insight. It was amazing to see the body of Christ shared that way.

All you can mostly see in the picture are chips and bread, but trust me, it was a phenomenal spread! Brian's mom made her incredible kielbasa. We made about 500 meatballs from an old family recipe. We had beans, pasta salad, green salad, fruit salad, macaroni salad, sumi salad. The word on the street was that it was fabulous! People kept coming back for more. It was great. I love to feed people! Of course, we finished with cake from Costco. Amazing chocolate cake!

Here we are, proud Papa and Mama and one amazing kid!

One other thing that was so amazing and encouraging to us is that the things people shared felt like a gift from our Father. It was as if He was saying, "well done, My children". There were unsaved family members there that have thought us to be just a tad bit loopy for homeschooling and for having a large family. Their comments have gotten fewer and farther between as we have held to our convictions over the years. I dare say that many of the doubts as to whether what we were doing would turn out okay were probably relieved just a bit that day. God seemed to place people who have been touched by our lives with family members who have doubted our sanity. We long ago stopped going to others for validation over our convictions, but this was just sort of sweet and we felt slightly validated.

There was a dear message on our machine at the end of the day that said, "Brian and Michelle, your hospitality and love was only outshone by your humility in giving God the credit for all He has done."

For all you mamas out there who wonder if it is worth it, let me tell you it is! God will reward the work of your hands. I am not saying it is over, but it sure feels good to get a smile from my Father.

Thank you for reading about our special day. If you have any questions about how we 'do' graduation or 'school' for that matter, please feel free to ask. If you are struggling and need encouragement to stay the course, please drop me a note. God is so faithful to complete what He has begun!

Home Schooling With Littles

A sweet sister of littles asked me for advice on how to keep a two year old happy while Mama does school with an older sibling.



I forget how blessed I am to have older children who help so much. It has been awhile since I have only had young ones, but though I could give it a shot and throw out some ideas in general.

• If at all possible, have an older sibling play with the younger one. This does take some serious training for both parties involved, but it is well worth it! The 'older' sibling can be trained to be "Mama's Helper" or "Preschool Teacher". I think this works with the 'older' child even as young as 4 or 5 years old, and the 'younger' child 1 or 2 years old.

• Train the younger one to play alone for upwards of twenty minutes. Some moms use playpens or blanket time. We use a bath towel and train them to stay on the towel playing quietly for a set amount of time. You almost always have to start small and work your way up to longer times. It helps to have special toys reserved only for this time. Use a timer! Do the training at a separate time from teaching school unless you have the patience of a saint!

• Figure out what your priorities are and rearrange your schedule. If doing school is a big priority and it is not happening, something else needs to go. You might need to give up something of 'yours' to make school happen in this season. Seek the Lord and your husbands input on your most important things (MITs, more on this in another post)and purpose to only do those things.

• Keep school sessions as short as possible and break them up. Fifteen to twenty minutes should be more than enough for a phonics, reading or math lesson at any one time. Three or four short lessons spread throughout the day are much easier to fit in.

• Skip the extras! History, Science, health, typing, gym, field trips, art, ect. I personally believe in the early years, unless you have tons of free time, these 'subjects' are simply not the best use of time. Stick to the basics. I know curriculum companies sell all kinds of extras, but save yourself the time, money and energy and teach the three R's in these early years. Read to them, play with them, play Play-doh, paint, include them in on everything you do, and your first or third grader will be miles ahead of their public school counterparts.

• Use nap time, highchair time, even bath time. You could certainly get a math lesson in while your babe eats cubed cheese and fruit. You could do a phonics lesson on the bathroom floor while the baby takes a bath, a long bath. ;-) I'm sure it goes without saying~don't leave the baby alone in the tub unattended, right?

• If you can handle the noise, the pots and pans cupboard can provide a good twenty minutes.

• Night School. Do school when your husband is home. This is hard for me;I wanted to do school during the day! But, for a season it might bring lots of peace and free you up to play and work together during the day.

• Flex and Flow. My husband always threw this one at me, gently of course. I hated it for the longest time. I like schedule and routine! But the ability to flex and flow is something well worth learning...earlier rather than later, trust me on this one!

This season is probably the hardest season to home school through. Pray for wisdom! God will give you unique ideas that will work specifically for you and your family. Constantly re-evaluate what God expects you to do. You probably are going to have to let your expectations go. Learn quickly to be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide you through your day. This is easy, unless of course you have your own will, ideas and expectations. ;-)



If you commit your way to Him, trust also in Him, He will bring it to pass. But, here's the rub, you need to trust Him with what gets done! If you have followed Him and leaned on Him you can rest peacefully at night regardless of how many pages in the math book you got done! Let your expectations go, let what the 'teacher's guide' says go, Trust Him to guide you.



Below are all the ideas I have collected over the years. They are what I call "Preschool Ideas". Each year I revise and print this list up to keep in my Home School Notebook for quick reference. Some of the lists I have no idea where they came from, probably from a desperate search of the Internet some year long ago. Please feel free to print them up, save them to your computer and adapt the list. Whatever you find to be the most helpful. Preschool Ideas



Also, I just did a brief search for 'activities for preschooler" or 'ziploc activity bags' and came up with a ton of ideas.



Please feel free to ask any questions to clarify what I have posted or share any and all ideas you might have.



This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday.

Things to Do with Preschoolers

I am not sure of where I got all these ideas from. Some of them are from several years ago. I found them on my computer. I hope they help!


Distracting Preschoolers
(While you work with the older kids...)




Toy Rotation: bring out toys like those following that they only get to play with once in a while, or maybe even only while you're working with the other child. I've even had luck with boxing up a bunch of toys, and bringing them out later……the kids think they're new toys!


"Priming the pump." I've found that often if I just take 3 minutes to throw a few new toys out that the kids haven't played with in a while that they find new interest and will keep busy for 15-20 minutes. Just a few minutes of "priming the pump" might yield you that bit of quiet time you need!


Good quality toys like Brio train sets or Brio Mec. These seem expensive, but if you figure the dollar value per hour of playtime, they're cheap! I recommend saving them for the grandkids even though it's tempting to sell 'em off as the kids get older.


Doll houses
Toys horses with stables


Refrigerator/washing machine boxes (these are good for at least 3 weeks of play!). Any cardboard box is a thrill for me kids, and so are those bubble pad sheets for shipping!


Dominos-do you remember lining them up so they would all fall when you touched the first one?


Felt sets


Books on tape with a little kid tape recorder


Junk Mail……save your junk mail and do a "mail call" once a week or so. Let them open it up.


Car maps……these can be the commercial ones made of carpet, or you can even use tape to mark your kitchen floor


Playdough


The Tupperware cupboard-who doesn't have a drawer or cupboard filled with plastic storage containers? Pull them out all over the floor with some measuring cups. If you're brave, and depending on the age, you could even let the child measure beans or water or something else that's safe. Or maybe have them wash plastic containers at the sink.


Legos/Duplos/Lincoln Logs


Animal collections-my kids love playing with these inexpensive museum quality figurines!


Stencils-you can find these cheap or free easily.


Thread cereal rings on spaghetti noodles! You could use Playdough as a base.


Bowling with foam/rubber balls and toilet paper tubes in the hall.


Make a little photo album that's kid safe. I used my "reject" photos and made up a cheap little album for my daughter and she loved looking at the pictures of our family!


A deck of cards to play with!


A cleared out cupboard gives my 5 year old a thrill to hide in! His own little cubby hole!


A toy shopping cart. I see these at garage sales all the time. You can even have the child go collect his toys on the floor!


I don't worry if occasionally I resort to mindless computer games and TV! Once in a while it can be a life saver, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who does it! But I try to keep these two things to a minimum.

Activity Ideas for Preschoolers

From: MrsD

These are things we have done at one time or another. OBVIOUSLY, some require more supervision than others. Many are intended for when the child is near you as you work with other children on their lessons. These are in no particular order. If nothing else, maybe reading this list will get your own creative juices flowing!

· Plastic (or cardboard) coins and a piggy bank - bought or home-made (Pringles can, slit cut in top).

· Playdoh with a plastic knife, rolling pin, cookie cutters, etc.

· Painting: watercolors, paint books, or food coloring in water with a Q-tip.

· Chalk on dark construction paper.

· Scissors and paper (no other objective in mind!)

· Easy-to-use paper punch and strips of paper.

· Stencils, paper, colored pencils.

· Lacing cards: Cardboard shape with holes punched around it. Attach yarn, wrap masking tape around the end.

· Plastic canvas with yarn attached, wrap end in masking tape.

· Poke holes in thick cardboard with a tack.

For further great ideas please see Paula's Archives Awesome resource!!

Preschool Fun!

Abeka Number Cards/Beans

Pattern Matching

Sorting (paper clips)

Toothpick Art

Tracing

Bean Play

Pattern Blocks

Books on Tape

Water Color Paints

Scissor Practice

Paper Punch Fun

Lace and Shapes

Stencils

Cereal rings

Be Read to

Legos

Little People

House Stuff

Kitchen Stuff

Dry Erase

Playdoh

Coloring Books

Markers

Letter Practice in Rice