5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials, #1: God’s Guidance

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5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials This week several members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew will be giving everyone a glimpse into their daily lives by sharing “5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials.”   I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone chooses to write about, as well as sharing my own “top 5” with you.

It didn’t take long to figure out my choice for the #1 position.  As I’ve been focusing on my “word for 2014” (Pray), I’ve realized how essential God’s guidance is to every part of my life, including (perhaps especially) homeschooling.  In fact, it’s making me marvel that I’ve survived this long without spending more time in prayer.

Psalm 127:1 says “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”  I cannot imagine a more monumental building project than homeschooling one’s children.  With God’s help we are molding and shaping their lives, investing years in guiding them and helping to fashion them into the people He has called them to be.

All parents face countless decisions that will affect their children’s journey to adulthood, and homeschooling just multiplies that responsibility.  I’m learning that bringing those decisions before the Lord and listening for His direction brings such peace, even in the midst of situations that feel less than peaceful.

For example, a while back I was spending some time praying for Ian and seeking the Lord as to how to best meet his needs.  We seem to be going through a stage of continual testing, and he is constantly crashing into the boundaries we set for him.  It has been wearing me out, and I was starting to wonder if I needed to make some changes in what I expect of him and how I discipline him.  When I took it to the Lord, he reminded me that boundaries are a good thing.  It’s like driving a car on the “Autopia” attraction at Disneyland.  When you start to go off track, you get jerked back by the guiding rail.  It’s not a smooth ride, but the rail serves an important purpose.  The boundaries we set for our children help keep them on the right course.  It may not be a smooth ride, but it’s a really good thing they’re there.  Thank you, Lord, for this reminder.  It gave me great peace, which I would not have found if I hadn’t spent time seeking Him for wisdom about how to parent Ian.

We face those moments with all our children, wondering what is the best course of action.  Homeschooling brings a whole other set of questions.  What curriculum should we use?  Which books should we read? What subjects are important for this particular child?  At what age do we want to start doing _____?  Should we sign up for this class or activity?  The questions are endless.  I tend to be quick to make decisions, and usually my instincts serve me well.  There have been many times, however, when I’ve been quick to jump into something that sounds “good”according to my wisdom, but later I find myself wishing I’d taken more time to pray about whether it was really what was “best” for our family.  As I focus on prayer this year, I want to bring all these types of questions before God rather than just rushing into things based on my own thinking.  I find myself longing for the words of Isaiah 30:21:

“And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”

It is far too easy for me to run ahead on my own, without pausing to listen for God’s guidance.  But I am learning that in homeschooling (as in the rest of my life), things always go better when I wait to hear that word behind me.

Check back throughout the week to see what other things made my top 5 list of homeschooling essentials!

To see what the rest of Crew is blogging about this week, click on the picture above or just get started with these blogs:

Marcy @ Ben and Me

Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart

Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Posted in Our Vision

Coming Up Next Week…

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One of my favorite things about homeschooling is how different it looks in every family, sometimes even with every child.  Everyone has their own perspective on what’s essential based on the age of their kids, their learning styles, and personal preference.  Next week some members of The Old School House Review Crew will be posting “5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials,” and while I’m sure many of us will have things in common, I’m anticipating a great deal of variety as well.  Our family has found a groove that works for us for the moment,  but I don’t want it to deepen into a rut that we can’t find our way out of, so I’m looking forward to reading what the others choose to write about.  I always enjoy gathering inspiration and learning from what others are doing.  (And I imagine you’re the same way, or you probably wouldn’t be visiting my blog!)

Come back every day next week to see the top 5 essentials at His Treasure Seekers, and then click on the picture below to find links to the rest of the Crew’s posts!

(Link will be live Monday, 1/20)

5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials

Posted in Our Vision

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

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While the “polar vortex” froze most of the country, here in southern California we were relying on our imaginations and immersing ourselves in snowy stories to feel like it was truly winter.  Our first Five in a Row book of 2014 was Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, a picture book of the poem by Robert Frost illustrated by Susan Jeffers. (The most recent edition has updated illustrations, but we have the original version, pictured above.)  It’s a lighter unit than most of rows (intended as a review week), so it was the perfect choice to ease our way back into school.  We did a few of the lessons from the FIAR (Vol. 1) manual, as well as a number of activities about snowflakes and crystals.  We also watched several videos related to snow, including Bill Nye the Science Guy (both Earth’s Seasons and Climates) and Reading Rainbow: Snowy Day Poems

We read two books that went along well with our “snowflake” theme.  The first, The Tiny Snowflake by Art Ginolfi was one I came across as I was looking for Christmas book suggestions, but since it had nothing to do with Christ’s birth, I decided to save it for January, and this was the perfect time to pull it out.  It’s about a little snowflake who learns that God made all snowflakes unique.  We have the board book format, and Arianna has asked for the story repeatedly, so it was fun to be able to include her in our school time.  This book also prompted our morning Bible reading.  I loved reading through Psalm 139 with Ian every day throughout the week and talking about what it means to be “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

We also read Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (which we will hopefully cover in more depth someday using FIAR Vol. 4).  It tells the story of William Bentley, who is famous for his work photographing snowflakes.  You can find many of his photographs online, and we enjoyed looking at the variety of the snow crystals.  After seeing how amazing real snowflakes are, we decided to make some of our own.

The boys really enjoyed making paper snowflakes.  We used coffee filters, which made it easy to get to the fun part.  I love that even the simple cuts the Elijah was able to do made beautiful art.  They had a lot of fun playing with them and watching them float through the air.  Then we hung them on the kids’ bedroom windows for a winter decoration.

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Making the snowflakes led to a discussion of how crystals have six sides.  I got out my geode collection and let the kids examine the crystals, which fascinated them.

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Finally, we made our own “crystal snowflakes” using pipe cleaners and borax solution.  I wasn’t very good at following the directions because I wanted to make a whole bunch at one time.  So I didn’t measure either the water or the borax; as it dissolved I just kept adding more powder, vaguely recalling something from high school chemistry about making a super-saturated solution.

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Evidently that wasn’t quite what we were going for, because our crystals looked like they were on steroids compared to all the pictures I’ve seen from people who’ve done this activity.  Luckily it still worked, and the kids were thrilled with how they turned out.

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(We also had a lovely crystal garden on the bottom of the pan which broke into pieces as I tried to get it out of the pan, and the kids thought the chunks were wonderful treasures to share with their friends.)

Last but not least, we ate snowflakes made from tortillas.  I preheated the oven to 400, warmed up the tortillas in the microwave so they would fold easily, cut the patterns, sprayed both sides with coconut oil and popped them in the oven for 5 minutes.  (The kids were all occupied and I wanted to surprise them.  They’d had a hard enough time cutting the paper, I didn’t feel it necessary to include them in this step.)  Then I sprinkled them with powdered sugar and they were quickly devoured!

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All in all it was a great week of playing with snow!  Since we live in a place where we never get the real thing, we’ve had to make a special effort to expose our kids to it.  In the past we’ve taken a day trip up into the mountains for some snow play.  This year it’s been so warm I doubt there’s much up there, so books and movies are the only way we’re going to have any snow fun.  If you’re in the same boat and looking for more fun ideas to go along with snowy stories, check out my posts on The Snowy Day, Katy and the Big Snow, and Very Last First Time.

To see what other FIAR books we’ve rowed, see my “Index of FIAR Posts.”  Also, a great place to see what other people have done with FIAR books is the FIAR Blog Roll at Delightful Learning.

Posted in FIAR, Kindergarten, Literature Units, Preschool

Kindergarten Our Way (Take 2)

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Looking back on the first half Ian’s Kindergarten year I’d say I’m surprised by how many surprises there were.  Things I thought would come easily ended up being struggles.  Other things I thought I’d have to push through ended up being Ian’s favorites that he begged for more of.  I learned a lot about how much time different activities/readings take, how to break things up, which subjects we need to do in a particular order… There was a lot of fine tuning that went on throughout this season as we found what worked for us. And now I’m considering changing everything we’re doing.

Well, maybe not everything, but a lot.

Perhaps I should have said “Take 5” in the title, for this post has been rewritten several times as I’ve attempted to find our new groove.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I was starting to feel overwhelmed by the number things I want to include in our school plans and have been trying to sift through the myriad options to find the real gems that I just couldn’t bear to miss.  (The picture above shows most of what made that short list.)  So as we started up school again after a lovely, long holiday break I’ve been reconsidering my initial plan for this year (see “Kindergarten Our Way“) as well as the general structure of our day.

My plan was to go through a “Year 0.5” in the style of Ambleside Online‘s curriculum to provide us with a some structure and help us get accustomed to that type of schedule.  In many ways, it’s been a good experience so far.  We read lots of different types of stories on lots of different subjects.  I created a weekly schedule (HTS Kindergarten Chart) that made it easy to keep track of which readings I wanted to get through.  Ian enjoyed the variety of our readings, and I enjoyed discovering books I’d never been exposed to and might never have read if I weren’t putting together a curriculum like this.

However, I also tried to throw in Five in a Row books at least once a month until our days were so full with other things I lost that desire.  And that’s a shame, because I love FIAR (and so does Ian).  Add to all this that as part of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew for the coming year I’ll be incorporating various products for review into our school days, and I had to face the fact that I needed to make some changes or we were going to be overwhelmed and on our way to burning out (which seems just slightly ridiculous seeing as how we’re only in KINDERGARTEN).

So for now I’m going back to using Five in a Row as our core for every subject except Bible and Spanish (as well as helping Ian explore whatever topics he’s interested in at the moment and things I’ll be reviewing for the Crew).  That means I’m dropping most of our “0.5” readings from the schedule of what I expect to do and putting them a category of “extra reading” that I can go to when I’m looking for a good read-aloud.  I’m also dropping our Exploring Creation With Astronomy for now because, while the subject still interests Ian, he just wasn’t enjoying the book nearly as much as I expected given the reviews I’d read, even by people using it in Kindergarten.  (We’ll probably give it another shot in a few years.)  And I’ve decided to put off wonderful Charlotte Mason subjects like artist study, hymn study, etc. until the majority of my children are old enough to participate, because the little ones don’t need one more thing taking me away from them during our school hours.  (We’ll probably keep up with some sort of composer study since I can include all but the baby to some extent.)

The biggest change I’m making as far as content is taking a break from MEP as our main math curriculum.  I still love it and do plan on coming back to it, but it’s started becoming frustrating for Ian and therefore frustrating for me because I can’t figure out why he doesn’t get the same thrill out of it that I do.  (I’m still reminding myself that he’s Not Mini-Me.)  We finished Lesson 98 of Year 1 and while he seemed to be understanding most of the concepts, it was pulling teeth to get answers out of him.  By contrast, Elijah has been asking to do math and I was letting him start at the beginning of Year 1.  Ian consistently wanted to do what Elijah was working on so I started printing out a second copy of the practice book pages for him.  What a difference in his attitude as he zipped through Lessons 3 and 4!  I’m hoping a few months of maturing will help him have a similar outlook when we come back and take up where we’ve left off.

I started looking around for alternatives to use in the meantime.  What I really wanted was a math equivalent to Reading Eggs. [Edited to remove link because I no longer recommend this program. See “Good-bye, Reading Eggs.”] (Actually, they do have Mathseeds, but it’s geared more toward preschoolers and looks too easy for both boys so I’m just not willing to buy a subscription.)  Ian and I had a similar level of frustration when he was learning to read, where our different learning styles were causing a lot of tension.  Reading Eggs was a perfect fit for him and took the pressure of our relationship, so I would love to find a thorough, systematic math program Ian could work through independently on the computer.  I remembered the Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool site and checked out the Kindergarten level math, but it was also all things Ian already knew.  That was when it dawned on me that maybe we could just take a break from a math curriculum altogether.  I want to make sure he can find joy in math, and I’d gotten dangerously close to killing that by continuing to plow through MEP when it started becoming a challenge.

So my solution (for now) is that I am leaving math as an open spot on our schedule.  Ian often does math games on various websites (ABCya, Clever Dragons, and More Starfall are probably his favorites), and I’ll just write those into my lesson plan so I can have a record of what he’s done.  We’ll probably also read from Life of Fred: Apples occasionally since I borrowed it from a friend and Ian enjoys it.

P1020416The other major change I’ve made is just the structure of our day.  We’ve spent way too much time sitting at the table.  I knew it wasn’t the best way to go, but I was afraid that if I let him go before we’d gotten everything done I’d have to keep dragging him back.  Over the break, however, I’ve been really intentional about giving everyone lots of time for creative play.  Ian has really enjoyed listening to me read while they all play in the living room, I’ve realized that much of our school time could look much the same way.  Also, I’d like to include Elijah more, and I think that will be easier if we’re sitting on the couch rather than sitting at the school table, which we only really need to do for work that involves writing.  So rather than thinking in terms of which subjects we’re going to get through, I want to think more in terms of “couch time,” “listening play time,” “table time,” etc.

So for the second half of the year, these are my goals:

  • Consider Bible and Five in a Row a full school day. (Ian’s already a good reader so I’m not at all worried about any sort of reading instruction.)  Anything else is just extra.  It’s great when we get to it, but not necessary.
  • Spend as little time at the table as possible
  • Schedule breaks and make sure everyone gets outside for some time each morning.

And for illustration purposes, here’s an updated version of the picture above.  It makes me sigh with relief just looking at it.  If Ian were an only child, we probably would have stayed with most of my original plan, but with lots of needy little people sharing our life, simplicity needs to win out.

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Posted in Charlotte Mason, Kindergarten

My Word for 2014: Pray!

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Over the past few years it’s become popular for bloggers (and others?) to choose a single word to represent their focus in the coming year.  I never felt inclined to jump on the bandwagon until some of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were getting ready to share about their “Word for 2014,” and I felt a gentle nudge that I’ve learned not to ignore.

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Such a simple little word, yet such a challenge for me.  Years ago I remembering telling a friend that I hoped prayer would be a definitive part of my life.

“I want to be a woman of prayer,” I passionately declared.

“Then do it,” he wisely replied.

That’s all it takes, isn’t it?  Doing it.  But despite my desire I did not do it, at least not to the extent I would have liked.  And as the years have passed, I’ve often remembered that conversation, but still never moved in the right direction.

I’m hoping to change that in 2014.  Lately I’ve been more and more aware of many areas in which I fall short.  I need the Lord’s help in so many ways, and yet I’ve spent more time worrying about my weakness than I have turning to Him in prayer.  I want Him to be a part of every aspect of my life:

  • help to be more patient
  • the words to speak in certain situations
  • wisdom in dealing with my children
  • understanding the unique way each of my children is designed
  • decisions about school
  • what activities to get involved in
  • how to disciple our children more effectively
  • praying for my children (especially some of the topics from the books The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian)

These are just a few of the things I want to be praying about more and listening for His guidance.

I also want to be a better model for my children when it comes to prayer.  Whenever I do pray throughout the day my children have no idea what’s going on apart from formal “scheduled” prayers.  I want to not just pray, but to pray out loud.  If I want them to see what it looks like to trust God and seek Him in every part of our lives, I need to be more transparent and let them into my spiritual life.  So in 2014, this word will be posted around our house, impressed upon my heart, and hopefully become a more consistent part of my day.

“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thes 5:17

Word for 2014

Posted in Our Vision, Personal

Battling “the Wants” by Focusing on Advent

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Growing up I always felt like Christmas was a magical time, and as an adult I strove to recreate that feeling to no avail.  What I finally realized this year was that the feeling I felt as a child was almost entirely about the Christmas morning gift orgy.  Our one Christ-related tradition was attending Mass at my father’s church on Christmas Eve (the one time of year we ever went), and for me even that was about presents, since I was allowed to open one gift that night if I behaved well in church.  I saw that hour as a trial I had to endure to reach my goal of presents.  My childhood mindset was:

 Christmas = Present Day.

Can anyone relate?

This was the first in many years that I was again overwhelmed with a sense of wonder.  I think the main difference was that we chose to focus on Advent rather than Christmas.  As a child, the only thing I knew about Advent was that my aunt sent us an “Advent calendar” every year, which for me was essentially a countdown until Present Day.  I opened each door with increasing anticipation, knowing I was one day closer to the bliss of satisfying my rather serious case of ” the wants.”

Very little of our celebration this year was about presents on December 25th.  Instead we used the 4 weeks prior to Christmas to celebrate the turning point of human history.  We immersed our family in the story of Christ’s birth, beginning with the promise God made back in Genesis 3:15 about Eve’s seed bruising the head of the serpent.  We talked about blessing others and showing love, just as God showed us His love by sending Jesus.  Our whole family went caroling in two retirement homes and spent time just chatting with several residents afterward.  We had fun making spice dough ornaments and candy cane reindeer and giving them away to special friends and relatives.  We talked about various Christmas traditions and how they point us toward God and remind us of the Christmas story.

Our nightly family “Bible Time” around the Advent wreath became everyone’s favorite part of each day.  The boys took turns helping light the appropriate candles and blowing them out after we sang together.  Ian’s favorite song this season was “O Come O Come Emmanuel and he requested it every night, even when it wasn’t the song suggested in our devotional book (We Light The Candles by Catharine Brandt).  On Christmas Eve after the candlelight service at church, our extended family joined us for dinner and our final night with the Advent wreath.  The boys were so excited about finally lighting the Christ candle in the middle!  We read Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones, which portrays the excitement of all Creation at the wonder that “the one who made us has come to live with us.”  The angel choir proclaims, “It’s time!  He’s come!  At last!  He’s here!”  It’s a wonderful book that captures the essence of Christmas as the climax of Advent, and it was the perfect way to end our season.

The result of all of this celebration is that we spent very little time talking about gifts.  Last year Ian was constantly poring through the numerous catalogs that kept arriving in the mail, which really captured his heart and caused him to focus on his “wants.”  I was so tired of hearing “I want ___,” “Can we get ___ sometime?” and so on that I finally threw all the catalogs away.  This year when they started arriving months ago I looked through them on my own for gift ideas and then got them out of the house.  I bought most of our gifts months in advance so I too would be able to focus on the wonder of Christ’s Incarnation rather than Present Day.  I know some people like to wrap up everything from toothbrushes to socks to make Christmas morning a little more exciting, but I felt that was counter to what we were trying to accomplish.  So I didn’t stuff stockings with everyday items I would have bought for my kids anyway, because that felt like it would make Christmas morning all about unwrapping presents.  (We did plenty of gift opening, but it almost felt like an addendum to a wonderful season of celebration, rather than being the main event.)  At our cousins’ house we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 before having our meal and progressing to gift-opening.  There was just so much more to Christmas than Present Day!

My dad’s birthday is on the 25th, so as we were about to dive into our breakfast someone asked if we were going to sing happy birthday.  My dad pretended to look surprised and said, “Whose birthday is it?  Jesus’?  Well, did you sing happy birthday to Jesus?”  To which Elijah promptly answered very seriously, “Yes, we did,” remembering the “Happy Birthday, Jesus” party with our homeschool group two weeks ago.  It had been just one more part of our month-long celebration, and I loved that Elijah knew it was all connected.

All in all, we had a wonderful Advent and Christmas.  I am so thankful that my children were able to enjoy the true wonder of the season by setting aside their “wants” and marveling in the miracle of Christ’s birth.  I’m already full of ideas for next year, and I hope we can continue to make Advent a meaningful part of our family tradition.

 

 

 

Posted in Bible lessons, Kindergarten, Parenting Resources, Preschool

Choosing the Best, Letting Go of the Rest

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We’re taking a holiday break from schoolwork, which is giving me time to evaluate how things have been going since we started Kindergarten last July.  There’s a phrase I’ve heard repeated over and over by experienced homeschool moms in discussing curriculum and addressing the fear that we might miss some important concepts: “There will always be holes.”  (The point being that whether our children are educated at home or in a tradition school setting, there are things they are not going to learn, but if we instill a love of learning, they will be able to fill in those gaps on their own as needed.)  I always thought they said that because we’d accidentally miss some things along the way, but now I realize it’s because there just isn’t enough time to do everything.  There are so many good books out there!

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My schoolroom shelves betray my attempt to collect them all.  Just kidding.  (Kind of. I keep a lot more on my Kindle.)  Seriously though, have you noticed how today’s libraries are so full of “twaddle,” with a few of the big name classics thrown in?  It can be hard to find the old stories you loved growing up.  (Can you believe my library doesn’t have a Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink, who also wrote the Newberry Medal-winning Caddie Woodlawn?  I know!  I couldn’t either.) And so I’ve chosen to build my own library. I’ve always liked owning books.  Even as a little girl, I loved buying my own copy of my favorites.  (That’s actually where many of these came from.)  Libraries are fine for the books you only read once, but some characters are friends you want to visit with again and again, and you just want them nearby so you can reach out and be with them any time you choose.

When I decided to create a “Year o.5” similar to what is included in the Ambleside Online curriculum to use for a more structured Kindergarten year than just the “Year 0” booklist (which we’d pretty much exhausted), I looked at what other moms had suggested.  I ended up with a HUGE list of wonderful books about history, nature, fairy tales, children around the world, and much more.  I pared it down once, eliminating titles that didn’t interest me or that seemed redundant, and saved it for myself to reference as our “School Booklist.”  Then I pared it down again with what I thought we might possibly get to over the course of a year.  (This is what I posted back over the summer in “Kindergarten Our Way.”)

As I looked over what we had covered since starting in July and the pace at which we were moving through some of the books, I realized it still was not going to be possible to get through all the good books that were on my list.   Our days are already full, so I don’t want to do more each week to try to squeeze in a few more books by the end of the school year.

I’m realizing that there will always be good books that I want to read with my children.  The trick is discerning which ones are the real treasures, not to be missed.  As the kids get older, they can read some of the ones we’ve missed.  And other they may never get to.  With what little time we do have (especially allowing for plenty of creative play both indoors and out), it’s essential that we figure out what is best and let go of the rest.

Does this mean that book shelf will be looking emptier soon?  Um, no.  (I hear my mom sighing.)  I hope my children will go through these shelves on their own as the years go by and dive into the wonderful worlds contained in the pages of these books for themselves.  My job is to expose them to the best of the best in order to whet their appetites for the delight that comes from reading a good book and learning about all that exists outside the small spheres of their own experience.  Then they can spend the rest of their lives devouring all that is out there, doing their best to satiate that burning hunger for knowledge.

Posted in Our Vision, Personal, Uncategorized

SchoolhouseTeachers.com (Crew Review)

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I love online resources.  They’re convenient, easy to search through, and best of all, they don’t take up any extra space on my bookshelves.  So I was excited at the chance to review a Yearly Membership Option with SchoolhouseTeachers.com, a subscription website run by The Old Schoolhouse that provides online resources for multiple aspects of home education.  (If you’re not already familiar with The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, I would encourage you to check it out.  You can read the current digital issue for free online!)

There is a wide variety of content on the SchoolhouseTeachers.com for everyone from toddlers to parents and every age in between. It’s easy to find what you’re looking for by browsing through using the grade levels headings.

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My little ones were fascinated by the animated e-books in the Children’s Story Corner (our computer is hooked up to the television so they could watch as Ian clicked on the interactive features).  I started going through the class in Charlotte Mason Homeschooling from the Teacher Lesson Archives in the Library. (I love that there are classes for me!)

Lessons are available in core subjects like reading, math, and history as well as unique electives such as classical archeology and violin.  When my boys get a little older, I know they’ll love the “Tinker’s Club” that teaches about things like engines and mechanical gizmos.  You could use the site as the source for your entire curriculum if you wanted.  I tend to be a bit more eclectic, however, so I like that I can pull bits and pieces to supplement what we’re already doing.  I do a lot of planning from scratch, but as I look over all that is on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, I know I’ll be taking advantage of the lessons already put together by others.  For example, I went to the “Schoolhouse Preschool” and quickly found some fun holiday activities in include in our Advent celebration.  After the holidays, I’m looking forward to using the literature units that go along with some of our favorite books.

I was impressed by how many types of resources the site offers.  I expected helpful ideas and lesson plans to use with my kids (and there are those in abundance, especially in the archives), however there is a lot more to the site than just curriculum. photo schoolhouseextras_zps3a20c85f.jpg

  • Downloadable/printable planners that are full of great information specifically geared toward homeschool parents and students at different levels
  • Video and audio recordings of past The Schoolhouse EXPO online conference sessions (It’s like having a homeschool conference on demand at home!)
  • E-books containing curriculum, encouragement, and informational reading for students (12 new books available after each month of membership over the first year)
  • Certificate and awards gallery with templates you can personalize and print out to help celebrate your child’s achievements
  • Access to past issues of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
  • Members are also eligible for discounts many other homeschool resources through the TOS Family Discounts Program (including a free membership to Apple Core, an online course tracking program to help you keep records of your child’s education from preschool all the way through high school)

Although I was a little overwhelmed at first by how much I found, it only took a few days to begin to feel more at home on the site.  The Yearly Membership Option ($139) gives you access to all that I’ve talked about and so much more.  To read what other Crew members had to say about SchoolhouseTeachers.com, visit the Crew website or click on the banner below!

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Posted in Homeschool Resources, Product reviews

Christmas Book Countdown

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P1020337One of our family traditions (well, we’re only on year two, but we’ll be keeping it up) is to have the kids open up Christmas books each day starting December 1 to count down to Christmas.  (I “wrap” them in bags made from Christmas material, kind of like holiday pillowcases tied with red fabric ribbons, and reuse the same wrappings each day.)  It started as a way to alleviate disappointment on the day when it’s a sibling’s turn to open the door on our Advent calendar, but the real beauty is that it spaces out the children’s exposure to our large collection of Christmas books.  Rather than bringing out a huge box at the beginning of the month and only actually reading a few of them over and over, we get two books a day (since Arianna is now old enough to join in the calendar door-opening) and we read those before adding them to our book basket and going back to other favorites.  After the first couple days this year, Ian recognized one of the books and asked me why I’d bought another copy of a book we already had.  He readily accepted my answer that it was the same book he’d opened last year and this was just a fun way to look through all our books.

P1020334I’m somewhat selective about what books I choose to have in our Christmas collection.  I generally only have one qualification: no Santa-related stories (unless they are talking about the historical St. Nicholas).  There is just so much focus on that aspect of Christmas everywhere you turn that we try to keep things Christ-centered in our home.  Those books that don’t specifically focus on Jesus relate to giving, love, light, or other qualities of Christmas that we want to emphasize.  Last year I only did one book a day (an occasionally two if they were board books or really short stories) since just the older boys were participating in our daily Advent activities, but this year I wanted to give two books so I did purchase a few more (usually used on Amazon).  Consequently some of the books are a bit redundant (lots of stories set in the stable).  Still, there are plenty of treasures that I’d buy again if anything were to happen to our first copies.  I’ve marked those absolute favorites* on the list.

Books about Baby Jesus

Books that illustrate or tell about carols/songs

Books that teach about Christmas traditions

Books with stories about the Spirit of Christmas

Miscellaneous

  • I Love Christmas (This is an anthology.  We don’t read all the stories, but I love “The Christmas Spider“ by Marguerite de Angeli in which the spider’s web covers Baby Jesus)
  • Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

So many good books!  I tried to be really choosey about which ones I starred so it didn’t seem like the non-starred ones were no good.  I enjoy all of them!  If I didn’t, they’d get kicked off the list and passed on to make room for other treasures.  If you know of any other Christmas books you think we should add to our collection, please comment!

Other Crew members will be sharing about what they are reading throughout this season so visit the Schoolhouse Crew blog for the Christmas Books Round-Up for more ideas.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Books

Posted in Holidays, Kindergarten, Parenting Resources

The Young and the Restless…Literally

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I don’t write much about my toddler, but I just have to share a little about what Arianna’s been up to.  This girl does NOT like to sleep.  She goes through phases where we can just say goodnight and she’ll put herself to sleep, but much of the time putting her down is a struggle.  And staying asleep is another issue.  Naptime for her lasts maybe 40 minutes if I’m lucky.  Since both the older boys sleep (or at least stay quietly in their beds) for two hours or more, Arianna’s restlessness has been a thorn in the side of this tired mama who often would love a chance to lie down and nap herself.

This short napping has been our biggest battle.  She’s barely two but she often tries to get by on only a twenty or thirty minute nap.  I tried putting on a Winnie the Pooh audiobook for her and telling her she could get up when the stories were done (about 50 minutes) but we just ended up with tears and drama.  How do you communicate to a two-year old that they haven’t slept long enough and need to stay in bed?  Her behavior made it very clear she needed more sleep than she was getting.

When Ian was about this age I had been looking for ways to let him know when it was okay to get up in the morning.  I saw an advertisement for a clock that changed colors at a set time in the morning so a child who couldn’t tell time would know when they could get up.  After some research I discovered several products based on this idea.  My first choice at the time was “My Tot Clock,” but they seemed to be out of stock everywhere and I was desperate to help my early bird.

I ended up buying a “Teach Me Time Clock,” which was a bit less expensive and had the basic feature I needed: it turned green at wake-up time.  It worked like a charm for him, and then when Elijah got older he too learned to stay in bed until the clock turned green.  Beautiful!

With Arianna, however, we had issues both in the morning (she kept trying to get up at 5 am!) and nap time.  Even if I was willing to take the boys’ clock out of their room, I didn’t want to have to reset the wake time twice a day.  Then I remembered “My Tot Clock,” which has a few more features than Ian’s Teach Me Time.  I ordered one for Arianna’s birthday and prayed it would help.

Oh. My. Goodness.  What a difference!  First of all, she was thrilled to have a clock of her own.  I was a little intimidated by all the buttons at first, but once I sat down and tried to figure it out it was really quite simple.  I showed her the different color lights (blue for sleeping, yellow for awake time) and gave it a go.  From the very first day I saw a change.  It was so nice to hear a pleasant, happy voice calling from her room, excitedly chattering about “light” and “yellow,” rather than crying and stubborn drama.

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It’s been over a week now, and while she may not be the perfect sleeper (yet), I am amazed at what “My Tot Clock” has done for her.  If she fusses at bedtime, it usually just takes one time of saying, “Look, your clock is blue!  That means it’s time to be in bed.”  That even worked when she work up at 3 am a couple nights ago.  Prior to the Tot Clock she was waking up almost every night and it took one of us going in a sitting with her for an hour or more to help her fall back asleep or else she would just be in tears (and by “tears” I mean noisy hysterical sobbing).  She’s napped for more than an hour the past 3 days (a miracle!), and the early morning wake-ups have stopped.  (This morning she actually slept past 7!)

My Tot Clock - USEDThe Tot Clock also has timers you can use for time-outs (red light) or “encouragement” (like setting how long they need to brush their teeth or take turns with a toy), as well as music and stories, though I don’t know if we’ll ever use those features..  What I do is that we are all getting a lot more sleep these days!  Guess we won’t be needing that money-back guarantee on the My Tot Clock website. So if you still need to find the perfect gift for the restless toddler in your house, check out “My Tot Clock”!  (I know, I sound like a commercial, but I’m seriously in love with this clock.  Best money I’ve spent in a long time!)

Posted in Parenting Resources, Product reviews
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