things to remember

when he shares his heart. He knows, he sees, he perceives, he cares... 

but, he's struggling.  Lord, help me to bear all things because you bear all things...

Things I'll miss about the city cottage

 I'll miss the grassy field in the back of the houses that meets up to the highway.  I can see the cars, but the trees keep me hidden.  I'll miss walks on these nice, flat, paved roads with tiny cottage houses with charm and character.  I'll miss a house taking 20 minutes to clean.  I'll miss no stairs. 

  What I won't miss: My oldest not having any privacy or his own room

 the one bathroom

the electronics becuase there isn't much room to do anything else inside

the winter.  That cold, dark, wet, muddy, lonely winter.  May it never happen again. 

 

  I am loving the time change.  I do not care if we lost an hour- we gained an hour of daylight and walked one step further away from our vampiric existence. 

  We have almost overstayed our free rent trial here at my Aunts, and the market shows no signs of slowing down.   Trusting in God is definitely something I have not mastered.  

 I dream of a little house with a wrap-around-front porch- or just a front porch, my oldest having his own room, (finally at 18), flat land around the immediate property with some woods in the back, an already-made chicken coop, and workshops or barns for my husband's equipment. 

 I dream of our marriage being healed.  I dream of peace.  

"Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."   This verse is so true, in that, we often have desires that differ from God's plans, and when He is our priority, our desires tend to be fulfilled. 

If you also have a student that will graduate late because of late development- I wonder, how will you cram it all in? And, what if you have a learner that can't cram?? Well, it seems these are the subjects we have to squeeze into another year (yes, summer school will have to happen)

 Algebra II Geometry Statistics Spanish English lit (and finishing up classics like: (A work by Dickens, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and one more apologetic book) US Government Totally doable, I guess. At this juncture, however, it seems totally overwhelming. So, here is what we are doing this year : 

History: younger kids: Story of the World, Child's History of the World, History Pockets

Language arts: Older kids: Sonlight, Story of the World younger kids: First Language Lessons Highschool: Some Easy Peasy English Lit, Introduction to Poetry

Writing: Younger kids: Writing With Ease Older: Narration, Dictation and Copywork given through Sonlight and Story of the World

  Math: Everyone (Shocker) Math U See Thank you to the homeschool mom who said pick a math and STICK WITH IT 

Reading: Everyone: Sonlight

Science Biology (A sonlight book) Apologia, Human Anatomy Big Fat Book of Science (co-op class) Sonlight: intro to Biology, Chemistry, and Physics With our electives of: Spanish (Duo-Lingo and class with our neighbor), Fallacy Detective for Logic, Total Health (Apologia), Economics (Whatever Happened to Penny Candy), Typing (Typing Club) With a little Easy Peasy Language arts thrown in... My favorite thing this year is again going through Story of the World and a Child's History of the World and doing History Pockets with my younger kids.

 By far, my favorite time of homeschooling is when we go through Story of the World and History Pockets.  How I regret not buying the student workbook pages to go with Story of the World the last time I did this history with my older kids.  I love the corresponding literature suggestions. I love learning Geography through history.  I love the reiteration through narration and dictation.  I love it all. 

 History Pockets was such an added treasure.  All the projects your kids can do; Mesopotamian puppets, making a popup ziggurat-  I wish I had learned this way as a kid. 

Curriculum loves

  Homeschooling has crossed the precipice from chaos into a pretty predictable schedule.  Well, order for me.  As an incredibly abstract-random learner and processor, I need lists and order.  I don't like them, I need them.  My personality is too easily distracted by new curriculums.  So-and-so introduces something at the homeschool share and I have to try it.   If I don't, we are missing out.  They will not develop appropriately!   Yes, this phase passed quickly with a little thing called an overwhelmed and burnt out mind.  So, the things that have stuck:

  All About Spelling
     For my special needs, dyslexic child.  I was convinced this child just would have to rely on autocorrect for the entirety of his life, and honestly- may never write at all.  Still,  dyslexia does keep a constant obstacle (while finally reading with somewhat ease, he will come up with random backwards spellings.  This program does wonders.   For Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, it is so much more gentle than Rod and Staff spelling and includes your dictation for the day.  (I am not faulting Rod and Staff- I love those Mennonites and will join them as soon as the husband is de-teched. I don't think that is a word)
  This method breaks down everything into phonograms and diphthongs.  The letter tiles are great. I cannot recommend this enough.  Last year was the first year I had a decent homeschool budget. I think I spent about 75 for this program. Worth every penny. I use this for all my kids and see the benefit. 

Having said that, our board is always a mess.  They offer the app now. Nope, I will always stick with the letter tiles. 

 Math-U-See


   The blocks helped my dyslexic child finally understand place value.  We use the blocks for Multiplication all the time.  Still using them.  I love Math U See because it explains the why of Math.  I never fully understood borrowing  (It was that bad.) Now I do! I was never confident converting fractions.  I love you, Steve Demme!  We will do Math u See until graduation and with every child. If you have a genius math family, you may look for a more challenging program. But, oh, Math u see, I love you.  I guess by now it is obvious we thrive with kinesthetic learning.

 I never knew higher concepts could still be illustrated using manipulatives. 

Sonlight 
 It's not you, it's me, and I need to use Sonlight.  In a house where electronics were unfortunately welcomed-and with boys- I need to use a literature based program to help with my mental health. My boys have been doing it for so long they have just accepted that read alouds will always be part of the daily (and nightly) routine.  However,  I will always add caution- If your books have to compete with electronics with young brains- Electronics will always win.  If you get a the final say in your marriage and family in regard to electronics, I am struggling with my envy.

 ANY AND EVERY BOOK BY RICHARD MAYBURY
   Recommended by Sonlight. If you get nothing else, make your kids read, "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?"

Lastly, I adore Story of the World's approach to history, Draw Write Now, and a bit of Rod n Staff for Bible readers and Grammar. 

Sonlight Books I would have skipped

I realize this is incredibly subjective and when it comes to books, I am picky.  I just wish my boys, particularly the one that struggles with reading could have been spared a couple of these reads.

Samuel B. Morris: I would have enjoyed a summary of his life, rather than a biography.  We found it very dry.  It does give kids a wonderful look at perseverance in the face of constant failure and setback.

The Journeyman: I so wanted to love this book.  Since Elizabeth Yates is such a prolific, wonderful writer- I'll have to chalk this one up to taste. Amos Fortune should be on every reading list, so I should have stopped there.

Mr. Popper's Penguins- Not just Sonlight, this book seems to be everywhere.  I just hated it. I wanted to find it charming, like Five Little Peppers, or No Children, No Pets. I just COULDN'T. I actually found the story very unimaginative.  I mean, it is creative to think of a man keeping penguins in his basement, but it's like that was the only idea and an entire book had to be drawn out from exactly one idea.  We couldn't wait to finish and almost quit.

 Slopes of War:  This one isn't Sonlight's fault.  After all, it's discontinued.  I should have gone with Shades of Grey for Civil War History but NO- It just had to be on that Goodwill shelf for half off just at the right time.  As much as I love a story about falling in love with your first cousin as much as the next gal.... I ......Just.....can't.  My boys are still over American History because I ended on this note.

  And here it comes: The book that will get me kicked out of the Sonlight club: Carry On Mr. Bowditch.  So dry...So long...so much ship talk... you're becalmed again, we get it.  I just so wish I was the kind of person that liked Carry on, but alas- I'll choose that bratty Johnny Tremain anyday just so I don't have to experience another becalmed ship.


   I will be adding to this list..

Simplifying

  It took a couple years for this to happen and homeschool co-op responsibilities, pet-sitting, older kid requirements, younger kids needing to read, and my husband's self-employment stress caused the fissure that sent my world into near collapse.   There are so many things I cannot pitch.  Darn it, the kids do need to know how to count, read and be able to construct a somewhat legible sentence.  Over and over I would ask myself, "What can you ditch?"  I would fantasize about my yurt more and more.  I'll live in that.  It won't require cleaning.  However, since the husband wasn't on board, I kept muddling through- going from "all from scratch dinners" to eyeballing those boxed dinners that would have reverberated in my mother's ear the second the box hit my cart, and she's four hours away.

  Then, I kept on trying to read EVERYTHING Sonlight had to offer.  We can't give up the books! What if they only learn about the Revolutionary War through a textbook!? I might as well send them to public school.  I would end the day with aching feet and wonder how many night-time reads I could add in to get through our booklist.

 NO MORE.   Because I was gifted three, older Sonlight Instructor Guides- ALL for American History-  As the rule follower I am- I ended up trying to read almost every book.   Why I thought Sonlight had to be the staple in my homeschool?  It's an easy thing to idolize.  I am now giving away all three.  I'll keep my books, and I'll pick and choose my favorites to read to the younger kids, but my POOR boys.  They were the guinea pigs.  They had to sit through some BORING, DRY read alouds.

  I'm switching to just Story of the World.  And, just like that- I'll actually get through every time period before my eldest graduates, even though he has done THREE YEARS of American History. (Hangs head in shame).

     I opened Story of the World and fell in love with it.  I had owned the Ancient History one, but didn't love it- I peeked at the Early America and fell in love.  I love her approach.  I love that literature is still woven in with corresponding activities (something we were lacking.)  Hopefully, I can figure out a way for them to learn Math and Reading by osmosis. :)
 
 

Throughout our  whirlwind of a start to the school year, there have been moments where I long for some simple downtime.  I haven't been pet sitting the last week, the kids have a nice break from classes and activities, and the housework doesn't seem to be consuming me.  I decided to take a rare walk on our land.  Our land backs up into adjacent backyards and a nature preserve.  It is unused and beautiful.  Sometimes I can't believe we own it.  The silence was beautiful.  I wish I would force myself out there daily.  It's such a two-edged sword- being busy.  I remember when I longed for activity, my idle children really played my emotions at times.  Now I cannot wait for next year, when I hopefully will be cutting back.  Homeschooling should be less stressful because we aren't prisoners to the clock.  Why do we let ourselves become part of the grind again, or think we have to?   

  I welcome you, boredom.  I welcome more read aloud time, less hustle, less crockpot dinners, more fires in the fireplace.  I know my kids are social, but they have plenty of social time and I worry that our increased activities haven't increased their gratefulness, and that's very much my fault. 


  Here is to the simplicity I long for. 

                                                                            

 

  The holiday bustle is pretty much over for us.  Em's recital was so lovely.  Her teacher is a God-fearing woman who loves to use ballet as a ministry. Em is so blessed to have so many close friends to choose from.  I have a feeling she will never want for them.

                                               

Sweetwater Park

  This school season has proved to be extremely stressful.  I am constantly finding myself on the precipice of burn out, which makes me a really less-than-stellar mom.  We needed a day off.  Sweetwater Mill was lovely and almost entirely shaded.  Always my standard of enjoyment here in the deep south.

 

We walked a little further down because the kids saw something in the distance, and there was the mill ruins.  I looked up the history of the mill and read it to them while we were there.  What a tragic past this mill had.  During the Civil War, The Confederate Army was removed from the river leaving it open to the Union army, which proceeded to arrest all 500 or so mill workers (all of which were women and children), round them up and end up abandoning them in Indiana.  Many died from starvation and exposure.  Many of the fates remain unknown.  I look at my kids and I really cannot and do not want to imagine the lives so many have been forced to live.  

Out of our usual spots: Yellow River, Stone Mountain and all the playgrounds, this is my favorite so far.  That being said, I have yet, yet to get up to the Georgia Mountains.  We are very limited while my husband works so much and is too nervous for me to go with the kids alone.  One day. 

All Good Things Must.....

  Well, my favorite person at my church is moving.  That is how life works.  Funny, we both saw each other before officially meeting and had purposed in our minds that we were going to be instant, kindred spirits-Anne-of-Green-Gables-style.  So, in due fashion, the first time we hang out, she informs me that it is likely they will be moving to Massachusetts. Figures.  We are both misplaced hippies, married to the anti-hippies.  Both desiring to live off the land in a yurt while our husbands put new chrome hubcaps on their Beemers.  Well, if hubby could afford a Beemer.  Off to Massachusetts she goes.  Even our kids loved each other.  It was a cosmic friendship for those entire three months.   I wouldn't let our last meeting go without a picture.  I feel like I'm finally learning to make that happen.

She also loves hole-in-the-wall-Mexican Restaurants.  It was meant to be. 

Johnny Mac

     After attending one night of a reformation conference here at a local Baptist church, I noticed John Macarthur was going to be an upcoming featured speaker.   I jumped at the opportunity to hear him speak for the first time.
       We got to the beautiful (and rather formal) service complete with the teen that slept in, threw on a shirt, and managed to sneak his unkept, narly toes in sandals into the service.   It was the roughest night sleep he had had in a while, and he actually nodded off.  While listening to Johnny Mac in the most beautiful church I had been in in who-knows-how-long.   If he ever nodded off in church before, I would have been ready, but this was a first.   I simply had to let it slide..   His dad said I could go to this church alone and he would keep the kids, since we had all overslept- but, the teen wanted to go.   I couldn't fault him for trying.

   It's a funny thing about seeing a very well-known speaker.  You see other people you know only from the internet.  On one hand it was fantastic.  I got to see a woman I instantly recognized from her blog..   Unfortunately, when a regular reader, it's easier to remember the name of the blog.   And, that is what I shouted out when I saw her.   Not her name, her blog.  Embarrassing- She was great about it and very sweet.

     Now, being the awkward, social idiot I am- I of course had to reference my son's narly toes at least once, and the fact that I went to a school John Macarthur would deem heretical: The Brownsville Revival School.  I made sure I referenced this to any ear that would listen.  Because: socially awkward.

  I preferred to post this picture zoomed in to make it look like I got a front row seat.  No such luck. I am too low-tech for that.