Decision is Made and Final

Wyatt(9) grade 4, Kayla(10 turning 11) grade 6, Everett(8) grade 3, Tanner(6) grade 1

I'm so glad we started homeschool 8 weeks ago. I learned so many things this school year thus far and thats how labor intensive 6th grade is and thats really giving her a bare bones education. The math is so difficult, I am having to relearn it and then teach it to her. Wyatt had backslid a lot since our "summer" break so we are back to reversing letters and numbers. Everett is flourishing with minimal help though his concentration keeps him tied to his school books until 5pm many days. He wont just focus and do the 2 pages of math or 1 page of language lessons. Tanner is struggling to read.

 I love homeschooling though and some of my best memories with my kids is homeschool related. Here is the thing though, Kenna and Madelynn are bored and reading one BFIAR book isnt enough for them. I give them coloring books, and all sorts of fun school stuff to do while I teach the others, but they continue to fight for my attention. Madelynn is barely talking and at 2.5 years that has me worried that I need to give her more one on one to really talk with her about everything so she starts picking up language better. My little guy, Jaxxon, is crawling and very active now, pulling up and eating everything he finds, including choking several times now on teeny things he has found so I have to watch him like a hawk. So where am I going with all this? I told you I wanted to make the right decision regarding school and as much as I LOVE homeschooling, I know Wyatt needs services that our insurance wont offer him and there are many other issues I stated above.

 Nate and I sat down and did a pro/con list and we found the pro school list much much longer. We decided after speaking to the kids and hearing their input, to put the kids into public school. One of the biggest determinants for this decision was that this school we are zoned for now has ALL the services Wyatt needs. They wont ship him all over like the last school wanted to do in order to get him the speech, OT, PT and many other specialized teachers for teaching a child with aspergers. They actually have several other kids in the school really similar to Wyatt and I have hopes of meeting their families and making friendships for Wyatt and myself. This was a hard decision, but I feel it was the right decision.

Their first day was yesterday and went well. I think my kids got lucky as their teachers seem to all fit their different personalities very well. The time alone with all the little kids yesterday was so nice as well. The house was quiet and we got to read and paint and most of all talk a lot. I am normally really burned out from reading aloud to the big kids and helping them with their studies that I don't talk much later in the day to anyone. I mean I serve and cook and clean, but my voice gets tired. It was nice to talk to just the little kids all day as we cleaned, played, cooked, made a surprise for the big kids when they got home, and hung out together. That undivided attention is good for them. The quiet was also good for all of us. I was amazed that I liked it, lol.

So for 1 year we will be "trying" out public school and I think the kids are going to have a great year supplemented with weekends reading, decorating, doing crafts, baking and just being who we are. I'm excited to let them spread their wings and stretch out into the community. I'm taking this new chapter and looking for the good in it. This time our option was researched and thought out so that it will for certain last all year. The big bonus and probably the kicker to the whole school advantage is that Nate got offered a new position in his department that will take him from rotating schedules to a Monday thru Thursday 9-5 schedule for the next 3 years!!!! YAY so he wont have to miss out on family time. We wouldn't have done the public school option had this not happened so this protects our family time! Family togetherness and time is our number one priority.

Our Interest-based discovery plans

So this is a breakdown of all the types of things the kids want incorporated into school for right now. I only went 5 weeks in because we change interests constantly. So far though, our school year is looking like a very fun one! We start this week.Note:For Bible and read alouds and whatnot, those are weekly plans so they look like a lot, but they aren't at all. We have been reading Bible and started the Little House series this summer. Rays arithmetic is seriously short and fun and VERY real life, manipulative oriented that is why we picked it. Lessons will take 5-10 minutes a day!

Daily Homeschool Schedule



Play scripture and geography CD

Bible

All literature Read A-louds

Science Read A-loud

Writing

Lesson Languages

Copywork

Math

Quiet reading time or kids read to me

Read A-loud story book to little ones

Lesson Languages with Tanner

Nature Notebooks 1 day a week

Week 1

Scripture CD-Track 3

Geography CD-Track 25

Bible-1 Samuel 17 and Bible facts p.36-37, 1 Samuel 18:1-6; 20:27-42, Psalm 23 and Bible Facts 38-39, 1 Kings 3:5-15, 4:34; 5;3-5 and Bible Facts 40-41

Literature- Little House ch.6, 7, and 8. Aesop 4 stories

Science- Dinosaurs Unleashed, The True Story about Dinosaurs and Humans- foreword and p.1, p.2-3, p. 4-5, p. 6

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.45 XX and XXI…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Key p.82 week 1)

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.41, 42 and 43 orally day 1 and 2 and written lessons on their own day 3. Key(p.47 week 4)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 3-Corncob dolls from Craft book

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.1

-Bake for Math, each child measure something

-Nature Notebook….go to hang glider area, draw view

Week 2

Scripture CD-Track 3

Geography CD-Track 26

Bible-1 Kings 16: 29-30; 17: 1-7, 1 Kings 17;8-16, 1 Kings 18: 16-40, 2 Kings 2: 1-14

Literature- Little House ch.9, 10 and 11. Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.7, p. 8, p. 10-.5 of 11, p. rest of 11 and 12

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.48 XXII and XXIII…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.44 Guide(p.48 week 5)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 3- craft p. 12 straw hats

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.2

-Nature Notebook….Take notebooks to Lake Gregory and draw/write about a duck/bird/whatever







Week 3

Scripture CD-Track 4

Geography CD-Track 27

Bible- 2 Kings 4:1-7, 2 Kings 4:18-17 and Bible facts 44-45, 2 Kings 5: 1-14, 2 Kings 22 and Bible facts 42-43

Literature- Little House ch.12 and 13. Prairie Ch. 1 Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.13, p. 14, p. 15, p. 18

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.51 XXIV and XXV…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.45 Guide(p.48 week 6)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 3- Draw and write facts, (weight and size and compare to another object), about your favorite dinosaur studied thus far.

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.3,make a menu and grocery list for all recipes we want to try

-Nature Notebook….Take notebooks to Grass Valley Lake

Week 4

Scripture CD-Track 4

Geography CD-Track 28

Bible- Daniel 1 and Bible facts 48-49, Daniel 3 and Bible facts 46-47; 24, Daniel 6 and Bible facts 52-53, Jonah 1, 2: 10, 3 and Bible facts p. 54-55

Literature- Prairie Ch. 2, 3, and 4 Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.19, p.20-21, p. 22-23, p.24

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.54 XXVI and XXVII…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.46 XLIII Guide(p.48 week 7)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 2- Craft, Ma’s Willow broom

Day 3- Play telephone from Rays teacher Guide, p.178(call home and cell actually using numbers from memory)

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.4,make a menu and grocery list for all recipes we want to try. Kids cook during week.

-Nature Notebook….go to a local park



Week 5

Scripture CD-Track 5

Geography CD-Track 29

Bible- Luke 1:26-38 and Bible facts 56-57, Luke 2: 1-7, Luke 2: 8-20, Luke 2: 21-38

Literature- Prairie ch. 5, 6 and 7 and Aesop 4 stories

Science- p.25, p.26, p.27, p.28

Writing- Your choice, a letter to Daddy or Momma, the best thing that happened this week, prayers and goals for the future

Lesson Languages- 1 lesson

Copywork- Spelling or character copy work

Math-Oral textbook, Real objects, textbook lesson on own, enrichment with baking(everyone measure something for a baked good)

Kayla-Rays intellectual-p.56 XXVIII and XXIX…..2 lessons a week, orally and then written on day 2, orally then written on Day 4 (Guide p.82 week 1) Manipulatives if needed

Wyatt and Everett-Rays Primary p.56 LII Guide(p.48 week 8)

Reading-Kayla: Flicka. Wyatt and Everett: Beginners Bible.

Read A-Loud to little ones- Their choice

Lesson Languages with Tanner- 2-3 lessons a week.



Special Things:

Day 2- embroidery from craft book

Day 3- Draw our house with our address on it. Try to memorize address.

Day 4-Little House Cookbook-Ch.5, make a menu and grocery list for all recipes we want to try. Kids cook during week

-Nature Notebook….take a walk anywhere, even in yard

Summer Fun

Following the kid's interests always proves to be fun. Wyatt was reading a Toy Story book to me the other day and random enough the toys were building Teepee's and he didn't know what a Tepee was so we looked them up online. At this point, everyone became interested and they asked how they could make one. I told them to gather sticks and some twine from the hay bails. We worked together to tie all the sticks and make their very own Tepee. It was a fun project and it led into topics of Indians and other forms of housing.

About That Consistency

We are maintaining a perfect balance with church. We go almost every Sunday and to occasional other activities and BBQ's they offer. Its going so well. The kids have lots of friends there from our home school group and we have settled nicely. I am still having my quiet time each morning with God, waking about 30-60 minutes before the kids and its really improved my life in unexpected ways. I never knew how important that exchange of burdens for strength and counting of blessings really could do for a person each day. I cannot imagine I will ever stop my quiet time. Having that personal relationship my father in heaven means so much to me and my sanity. It allows me time to think, reflect, appreciate, cry, and pray for my family and friends as well as myself and my needs and weaknesses. I am on day 30 of the 90 day devotional book, Becoming the Woman God Wants me to Be by Donna Partow. Chorepacks are WONDERFUL, Heaven sent......love them! Those will be going no where, I repeat, no where. Now for homeschool; we have completed week 6 of Sonlight, but-yes I know here comes the but..... Nate and I have been rereading the Moore's books together (School Can Wait, Better Late than Early and The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook). What does this mean? Well, we just aren't fully convinced our kids should be summonsed to 3-4 hours a day of "school." We have never believed that, but with the trouble with the school district, we became worried and purchased a complete curriculum. Of course we are enjoying the Cd's, Bible, and we have read way ahead on the literature books. The Child's History of the World wins the WORST history book award though. That book is horrific. You are much better off with story of the world or something else. We love doing cool science experiments and working together with different things or adding neat projects to some of the books. The problem is there are a lot of books going at once and some are plain boring. Trying to keep up with the busyness of Usborne History of the World also isn't my favorite and I loose the kids with it everyday. I feel I start reading in vain with certain books. We have decided to throw out the idea of the curriculum and go back to basically unschooling. We enjoy having a block of time each day to read til our hearts are content with no limitations knowing that we have to stop a book we love for several we dread. Its so fun to play/work informally together on projects we come up with and being creative together. The nice thing is that Sonlight has provided us soooo many great books to choose from, great science projects to play around with and Dinosaur books that captivate the boys. The CDs, the kids love so much, they are accidentally learning scripture and memorizing continents and countries that even I have no clue about with our geography song CD. There are so many great resources from Sonlight that while we will not stick with their schedule any longer, we will certainly enjoy the many great resources we have from them. Our family just cannot and will not be slaves to any curriculum. It doesn't work well and we all burn out. This is our fourth or fifth time now in 5 years of homeshooling that we panicked and tried a curriculum for a short stint only to realize that it 'just aint gonna work.' We are using Rays Arithmetic to casually do math. Its great, just a few word problems each day that are very real-life based and only takes a few minutes each day. Despite not using much math curriculum ever, my kids are VERY quick and accurate adders and subtracters. language arts and spelling have been very gentle, using queen homeschool's lesson languages which take 5 minutes a day tops. They have character building, beautiful copywork books with neat quotes and poems and beautiful pictures and they do these because they enjoy them, they are not forced. We also LOVE being outdoors and studying nature. I recently purchased Karen Andreolas book, Pocketful of Pinecones for enthusiasm and ideas for nature walks. The kids are still young and things should remain gentle and fun and allow for each of their God-given talents and abilities to be nurtured. I will certainly keep a log of our adventures, basically a diary I will write in each night for a keepsake/document for my kids in the future as well as authorities if our homeschooling were ever put in question again. Our local old schoolhouse is doing really neat nature activities each Wednesday night we will be attending for the summer along with the summer program at the library, free summer concerts at the park and free days at the local museum and lots of camping. Our first camping trip of the season last week was amazing! We had so much fun.

Baby Steps

My sweet little reason for consistency

Sonlight arrived this week and we have begun Core 1+2 with Science 2 and LA for each child and we are keepin on on our Rod and Staff math. Were planning a fun weekend with my niece's first birthday party Saturday and of course church Sunday along with the Air Show. We are really excited to head out to see all the planes, jets and choppers and have a fun day in Nate's old stomping ground......the air force base. I am looking forward to building a year of great memories cuddled up reading this year doing Sonlight. I want to also say that something I am finding to be a huge blessing and source of strenght in my life right now is my group of LDS mamas I ride with. There is a large group of us(today we had 9) and we ride out each friday, trailering the horses somewhere different each week and although I don't share their exact belief, it is so nice to be with loving mamas who have a profound love for Jesus Christ and share the same love of horses that I do. I feel so lucky to have them. Things are on a good track and I can see nothing but good things for the remainder of 2010, including(hopefully) the birth of our seventh child in October. It feels right and for that I am happy. I look forward to the constant challenge to be consistent this year in my parenting, church attendance and homeschooling as well as housekeeping. I will keeping close tabs on myself and blogging through this journey.

Progress

We've done great sticking to a pretty good routine for a bit over a week now and I happy to report that the house is back to being tidy all day without a ton of nagging or effort. A routine is key. I wrote Nate a respect letter and apologized for my inconsistency and lack of respect for him lately as well as my letting the household kind of go. I am also happy to report that Sonlight will be here this week to begin. I have subscribed to all their newsletters and forums so that we can be uplifted when we feel tired or off track. Progress is coming along and our house feels like one of peace and contentedness right now. We also went to church at the local Calvary Chapel this Sunday. It was nice and the message was wonderful. It felt good to be there and take communion. I/we needed it. The kids were very happy to go and are already excited for next week. We had an issue with this church last summer when they asked me to sit outside in the mothers area with Maddi in 102 degree heat. They have since added on a nice, indoors mothers room and I assume that will no longer be a problem. They also have great summer BBQs each Tuesday that start in May with a concert by local Christian bands and even some larger bands from Air 1 and KSGN like 10th Avenue North. I said I didn't want to become overly involved though so we are sticking to Sundays only right now. We may pick up the Tuesday night service in May for the summer BBQ and concert series because its fun for the whole family, but very casual and relaxed. Several of our homeschool group families attend this church as well. Anyhow, everything is great.......just gotta stay strong and be consistent!

Consistency

As followers of my blog, you all know by now that we are pretty much unschoolers through and through.We have purchased and tried many curriculum's, but end up giving up days or weeks after buying them. In light of recent circumstances with the district, we feel a leading to do something differently. Nate has asked me to please purchase a curriculum and use it all the way through. I think this has really shaken us as a family and especially Nate. While I feel kind of sad to say goodbye to my dear friend, unschooling, I am trying to really look at this from another point of view. First and foremost, whether we have not been going to church or not, our marriage follows a very biblical model. My husband is the leader of the family and what he says, goes. I want him to feel comfortable and happy with the way our children are being educated. I also realize that being pregnant and about to have another baby, it will be nice to open a book and know what to do each day without having to jump on whims for each and every personality which can sometimes get very costly and time consuming and only to result in a dead passion shortly after it began. I also know that Kayla, being almost fifth grade will really benefit from some more formal lessons in grammar and spelling. I feel blessed that my kids got to drag out their open ended explorations as long as they did, but I also feel that this is a new season and consistency of one curriculum for the entire year is going to be a good thing for the whole family. I am ready to sweat it out and really buckle down. I have used sonlight for a good 7 weeks or so in the past and of all curriculums we have tried, I believe it is the most gentle and wholesome curriculum I have ever been exposed to. The books are really wonderful so this is the curriculum we will be using. It should arrive shortly and the kids are actually taking this really well. We have been stern and told them that we will not be sending it back when we have a bumpy day. This is not the way life works anyhow so doing that in the past has been an injustice to my kids. They are going to have bumps in life and in their work and home duties and they cannot just give up because its hard or doesn't feel perfect. Its time this lesson starts being implemented in my home. We will be doing Core 1+2 with Bible, geography, history, literature, and science 2 all together. We will then of course have separate Language arts for each of the kids, using Sonlights programs and then Rod and Staff for math. Their math has already arrived and we couldn't be happier, I cannot rave enough about how wonderful Rod and Staff math is. I love that they do a daily, timed drill to practice and solidify easy math facts. Its going to be so good for them and they enjoy beating their own times from the day before. We also have decided to go back to church Sunday. We plan to not get over involved for now because that is when we tend to have problems within the church. We will probably stick to just Sundays. We also plan to stick this out through thick and thin because the kids really need the consistancy in their lives and we have always jumped on every whim and this type of thing has to stop. I have severe ADHD (diagnosed at age 8) and I have not outgrown it as an adult. Unfortunately, I actually find it worse as I get older. I think I get bored in church's and make excuses to leave. I think I get bored with curriculum's and make excuses to stop and at the very first sight of my kid's discontentment, I have jumped and packed up the curriculum and shipped it back. This is something I need to work through. My dear husband has been so patient with me, but he and I have reached the conclusion together that this cannot continue this way. We also realize we need church. Our family and marriage crumbles around us when we aren't following a biblical model for our home life. We need the togetherness of family prayer at the dinner table, we need Nate to lead the family(NOT ME), we need our kids learning character building traits from the Bible, we need to be emulating the grace Jesus has shown within our family, we need all of it and simply trying to rid our lives of it for the sake of making life easy, feels wrong. I have a very sinful past and of course we all become tempted by sin, but that is where I lack that sticktoitiveness that I need. I am working to find that somewhere deep inside me. I guess I wonder, what does one do when life becomes mundane? A Christ-centered life can become dull to me. I try to reinvigorate by reading a good Christian book or going on vacation and whatnot, but sometimes that old sinful life calling(ie friends from that old early marriage lifestyle) and its hard to resist and it sometimes makes me feel my life is dull. Their lives often  seem glamorous. They drop their kids off and head to Vegas for the weekend and do really wild things and I guess coming from a life where we did those types of things, we sometimes feel were missing out. That being said, when I leave my Christ-centered life for any length of time, I quickly loose strength to carry on the large amount of tasks I have as a mother, wife, housekeeper and homeschooler. I begin to see the emptiness in those sinful ways pretty quickly. This is the hard journey I want to avoid for my kids. Had I been raised as a Christian, I would likely not be having such a struggle in sticking to church or keeping my faith. I likely wouldn't have led the wild early marriage that I did. I want my kids to avoid those things. I want faith to be easy for them. I guess its that old selfishness I think I want, but true happiness comes from serving others, not self. I know this, I have seen it firsthand in my life. I have a lot to work through and at Christmas I am praying that I will be reporting attendance in the same church as well as being a over halfway through our Sonlight curriculum. Wish me luck my dear friends. I really want to accomplish these 2 big goals. I feel determined, but I am going to need all the prayers I can get!

Homeschooling Not Legal in Ca, Say WHAT?

I cannot even decide where to begin this story. Long story short.....the school district came after us and has been fighting us tooth and nail over homeschooling, telling us we are not legal to homeschool via a private school affidavit. They have been sending truancy notices and calling nonstop, all of which I was ignoring. Finally, I called in to tell them to stop it and the reply was terrifying. The woman said the district was taking us to court. My husband spoke with her, trying to give her the correct ed codes that stated we ARE legal to homeschool via an affidavit and its against policy for them to ask what curriculum we use. She ended up calling Nate's work and filing a FALSE report that stated that he threatened her. This whole thing has been so stressful. I am not faring well. The stress is magnifying my nausea and puking. I ended up talking to California Homeschool Network as well as Homeschool Legal Defense Association and California Homeschool Association. They ALL advised me that we WERE indeed legal and California Homeschool Network immediately went to work to fight the case with their lawyers on our behalf and we aren't even members there! How amazing is their network? I sent the district this letter: "I contacted the superintendant this morning regarding the truancy issues and she was very sweet. She had to run to several meetings and had her secretary call me to let me know someone would be in contact with me tomorrow. I have now contacted HSLDA(Homeschool Legal Defense Association) who we are members of and they should be in contact with your district within the week or so. I have also contacted California Homeschool Association as well as California Homeschool Network and everyone has stated we are legal to homeschool via our affidavit #86284. They are all ready to help in fighting this battle. We are going to take this to the newspapers by weeks end if it is not resolved. I have also spoken with George Olive as well as David Cauperude from CDE and both stated a private school affidavit can legally be filed anytime between Oct 1 and May 31, but filing after Oct 15th simply makes you a late filer, however, still a legal homeschooler. They confirmed this for me via the CDE Legal Dept. Many cases similar to this have been fought by HSLDA and no district in the history has ever won so if you want to continue to fight my legal parental rights to homeschool, it will be done so very publically. I am even going to contact local newstations to get VERY good media coverage on this because YCJUSD is in the wrong and overstepping our parental rights. Please let me know which further action your district plans to take. We plan to fight this all the way via HSLDA lawyers as well as our personal lawyer, Richard Goulding. We have been advised that we do not have to attend a SARB meeting as it is NOT a legal supeona, nor will we sign anything as our students are not truant. They are homeschooled by loving parents who have their best interests at heart. I have my teaching credentials as well so I know my children are receiving a well rounded education. I hope this matter can be resolved professionally and quickly so it does not need to become a legal/court/media battle. What has happened with Garnet was absolutely unprofessional and will reflect your district in the media as she made those calls to authorities of false accusations during her work hours on district phones. So please keep all issues in consideration as your district decides what steps to move forward with. Thus far, Patricia Garnet has portrayed your district in a very hillbilly like fashion. The CDE personel has even complained, stating that she is VERY unprofessional and unpleasant saying that they felt she has a personal agenda against our family as well. George Olive in particular said that she called him and didn't like hearing what he had to say(that our family IS legal to homeschool via an affidavit) so she twisted his words and tried to continue her agenda and he became tired of arguing with her. This is NOT reflecting well on your district at all. Again, I just would prefer a quick resolve to be left alone to do what I am legally allowed to, homeschool my children in peace. Thanks very much, Janis ______ " Well, good news.....as of yesterday morning the district backed down. They told me that they were in the wrong and were sorry for any trouble they caused. Apparently districts are getting very desperate for money so homeschoolers beware! Though I am happy we won, I am still very stressed about Nate being accused of threatening this woman and he most definately did not. We are taking her to court and sueing her for personal damages against a deputy. Most of these cases win around 5,000 because this false report, whether proven false or not, will be a permanent part of his police record now. Very upsetting. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers. Its just been a hard week.

What's Goin On?

We are SUPER busy. I mean really. Kayla has been to several birthday parties, Nate shot a wild boar(yummmy meat), we put up a new front gate, we have been riding a lot, we are starting our garden, we furnished our front patio finally(with flowers and windchimes and seating and bird feeder and its a beautiful, serene place now) we are learning all about ancient mesopotamia and making beautiful lesson books that are super artsy and fun along with lots of bread making and cuniform clay writing and mud brick making.We are going to Legoland tomorrow, Thursday is MaddiMae's first birthday and we are having a huge celebration Saturday at our home complete with a bbq with some of Nate's recent pig he shot as well as a cabbage patch kid cake I am planning and we are ordering the UFC fights for entertainment too. Its going to be lots of fun, but amidst all of this I am battling severe morning sickness so keep me in your thoughts that I will be able to keep up this schedule with all the nausea. Its been getting harder. I cannot believe I am 5.5 weeks and already nauseated, this is very early for me. I usually start feeling the nausea pretty strong by 7 weeks. Anyhow, I gotta run and get kids into the shower and pack for legoland tomorrow.

Ho Hum Drum

Ho Hum.....I am writing this particular blog to bump my last post down because I don't particularly want to share with anyone IRL until I absolutely have to. I usually shout it from the rooftops, but a #7.....a #SEVEN is just not going to be perceived in a happy light so I will wait until I am barfing too much to hide it or until my belly begins to bulge, which shouldn't take too long. After all, this is my 11th prengnacy. Oh. my. gawd. that sounds like so many! I have of course lost 4 though. So anyhow, going back to the crazy homeschooling moment I was having. Things have been better and I ordered a ton of new stuff from Amazon. Well over $600 bucks worth to be exact. It will give our homeschool a much needed boost in the arts/humanities/music area. I got everything from a kids' yoga dvd to recorders and a beginers book on how to play, mexican pottery clay, tons of Melissa and Doug wood toys, playsilks, art/craft supplies, some cool Usborne books, gosh I could go on and on. I am excited for our purchase to arrive! If that doesn't entertain these lil boogers, nothing is going to.....nothing.

Anyway

Is it the time of year or what? My kids have been exceptionally unruly, fist fighting and we even had an incident of Tanner cutting Kayla's finger open today! What the heck? We have had a rainy, rainy, rainy....did I mention rainy? winter this year in SoCal. I am wondering if it all the being cooped up or what is going on. This past few months we have been having our doubts about homeschooling. While I love homeschooling and I don't believe in a lot of public school philosophy, I also realize that our sanity isn't doing well lately. When I say our, I mean, the whole family. We have had issues with getting enough social outlets for the kids in our small town and quite frankly, going to the Dr or Dentist will throw the entire week off for me now with having 4 homeschoolers. Our homeschooling is very relaxed, but I also worry that they won't learn enough to be competitive in society when looking for jobs. I am noticing my kids are sort of (I hate to use this phrase) "behind." Behind what??? I dunno. Maybe its normal mama fear, but the neighbor kids seem to be more socially mature then my children to the point that it can be embarrassing. I cannot go into a store and keep my children all collected. They scatter at a full run in every direction in stores. I have gotton to a point where I don't take them in places with me unless its a real emergeny. At 9(actually Kayla does OK usually), 8, 7, 5, 2.5 and 11 months, I am thinking they should be able to walk with me like civilized people. Am I wrong? Things I once balked at in public schools, I am now thinking differently about....can we say form a line and follow?? I say this jokingly, but really I mean it. Maybe 5 years of homeschooling is coming to a point of sheer burnout. My kids do not listen to other adults, they hardly listen to me lately, they fight in the car, homeschooling, watching TV, over the computer, at the dinner table, trying to get cuddles with me, over a book, over a toy, out with the horses, while baking, its nonstop. I do mean that. Right now, Tanner and Everett are punching each other while watching Spongebob. They have been entertained ALL day and they are still bored and fighting. I am really tired. I hate to admit I am not supermom, but I'm not. Nate's about to change to a new schedule that is really going to disrupt our household and its giving me some serious second thoughts about homeschooling as well. Maybe this is just a fear and not reality, maybe it is reality>? I am not making rash decisions and maybe I am just blowing off steam......or oh my gawd......Wyatt just ate and ENTIRE container of cookies. This is the crap I am soooooo tired of. Yeah pretty much.

Church Talent Show

Our Church held their annual talent show Sunday evening. It was so much fun. There were 18 acts, 3 included my kids:) Kayla sang her favorite Hannah Montana song, "Every Part of Me" and Wyatt told jokes*(he was hilarious!) Towards the end, they took all the primary aged kids to sing a fun church song so all my kids participated in that. Grandparents came and it turned into a nice evening. Afterwards everyone commented on the guts of Kayla to just go up there and sing so beautifully acappella and Wyatt for being so confident as well. I thought about that a lot and by the time we got to Domino's for pizza, I looked at Nate and told him that I thought I knew why our children were confident. He looked dumbfounded as it wasn't something he gave much thought. I can tell you I would have NEVER stood alone in a church full and sang alone like Kayla. I wasn't shy either, I just wouldn't have done it. I think the reason why is because us institutionalized folks were embarrassed so many times by 2-4th grade from reading aloud and messing up or not knowing an answer when called on that none of us had much confidence left by that point. Our kids aren't institutionalized, therefore, their self esteem is still completely in tact and I am so proud of that and glad for them.

For Those Living in Fear of Unschooling

.....but who would like to try it out, Better Late than Early and School Can Wait are two books I highly recommend with studies that show all the negative impacts of early education. It really challenges you to think differently about "preschool" and other early learning programs which were originally only designed for poor children or parents who couldn't provide their child a good homelife. These books will help you relax long enough for your children to show you that they CAN and WILL acquire all the needed skills to succeed academically in their lives. The Moores suggest no formal schooling for boys until 10-12 and girls 8-10. I am of course an unschooler, however, these books are great starting points for someone interested in unschooling but too scared to jump right in. During my times of fear, I clung and still sometimes cling to the knowledge contained within these because I can reassure myself that my kids aren't even of age to be considered for learning academics according to the Moores. This site is also one of my favs, thought I would pass it along. http://www.christian-unschooling.com/

Winter Wonderland

Out my kitchen window. I feel so blessed!

Our Rain-O-Meter sorry pic is sideways lol

Jersey, my horsey

Dandy getting ready to eat
Pixie(Nate's horse)

Going out to feed the horses

Sandy

Ringo playin in the snow(these pictures were all taken this morning and we have since had 4 or so more inches with it snowing very hard again right now)

Its so neat to be unschooling in such crazy weather this week. We have been able to have a blast with it. As most know, California has gotten a batch of the crazies for weather this week, tornado's, 2-4 inches of rain each day with 70mph wind speeds and tons of snow in low elevations. We are really enjoying it because its not something we get to see all the time. Snow is usually only a few times a year where we live. On Monday we made snowflakes and hung them all over our dining room window and put winter wishes on them. They have snow, hot chocolate, stay healthy, live in gratitude and J-O-Y(Jesus first, others second, yourself last), etc. Well, their wishes are being manifested right before our eyes. We have so much snow, its incredible. It is still pouring snow as I type. Anyhow, backing up to Monday, we ended up finishing out morning by making snowflake tortillas and frying them and putting powdered sugar on them for breakfast mmm. Then we got curious since we knew we had a whole 9 day forecast loaded with big rain, about how to measure it for ourselves. Well, we went online and made a rain-O-meter. We have been able to track our precipitation each day. Wyatt added it up for a total today (5 days into these storms) and we have gotten 5.35 inches thus far. Kayla averaged the temps for the week thus far, coming up with 40. The week started warmish(48) and its currently 38 today. Life is learning, learning is living and we choose to live our lives in a deep gratitude for each new thing. Seeing 6 beaming little faces from ear to ear this morning when they saw everything white outside, nearly melted my heart in joy for my life. I am one lucky mama.

A Little of This and That

You know as a parent that just when you think you had it all figured out, you didnt. We have unschooled the better part of 2009 and the kids have thrived just fine. This past 2 months have been extremely busy though and we haven't been able to pursue many interests in light of the holidays. I feel like my kids had become slaves to TV with all this wintry weather and even on the ocassional nice day, they would decline to go out to play because Hannah Montana was on next. They were CONSTANTLY fist fighting for their preferred shows as well. I knew they all were having some TV addiction, but I realized how bad it was when I took Wyatt to the Dr.s a few weeks back to discover he had gained 12 lbs in one month. I knew they had been inactive, but WOW. Kayla, Everett and Tanner all put on 5-7lbs themselves over the course of 1-2 months so I felt that we had to do something extreme to stop all the laying around. I dont feel Nate and I are preparing them properly for adulthood by entertaining all their fancies to watch television all day long. I have no idea the lasting effects on neural connections that so much TV could cause. So. We stopped TV watching. We have a cable contract until March and we will have it shut off completely then. We plan to replace it with a piano in our front room. For now, we will put the box in the front room once a week or so to watch an hour in the evening to unwind. This is our best effort to "wean" them before March when it is completely gone. We also bought them a trampoline, tons of games and outdoor play equipment to encourage them to do other fun things besides TV which they no longer have. In light of their boredness and some excellently balanced parenting(H. Clay Trumball's Hints on Child Training and Grace Based Discipline by Dr. Kimmel) and homeschooling(Charlotte Mason-own almost every book about her or by her) books I have been reading, I feel that regular school work has finally found a balanced place in our home. We wake up at 7 and I usually read our poem(a new one every few weeks) while everyone is making breakfast. Everyone is dressed and starting school by 7:30 at which time we take up our Bible reading and some days we draw a picture in our Bible Notebook or somedays we just discuss what we read. We are currently in NT, going through the Gospels. After that is reading from The Door in the Wall and Stories From American History(living book about American history). Of those they narrate what we read, ocassionaly writing or dictating for me. We also fill in our Century book timeline with any new readings from history. Next we do a quick, short picture study one day a week and Nature Notebooks another day. Lastly, we try and fit in a story from our fairy tales book and plan to start Plutarch's Lives soon for Hero Admiration. I want my kids to admire the good qualities in Heros from fairy tales, the Bible or real people. Finally we move on to math, reading, copywork from their Lesson Languages for Little ones series by Sandy Queen. After that the boys are done and Kayla finishes her geography also from Sandy Queen(Charlotte mason homeschool book supplier) and her and I are doing a Bible study together called A Virtuous Girl. Its wonderful. The last thing is her spelling, I casually look through her writing and pick a few misspelled words and she will write a silly story with those words spelled correctly or we might do some other fun activity with words that trouble her, but its all very casual as spelling mostly comes with age and lots of reading of good books. Anyhow, though this sounds like a ton, it is not. We usually finish by 9 or 9:30 and we are out the door to the gym as a family. Nate goes with us. We both decided to recommit to going because working out at home is boring us to pieces and its hard because of the littler kids. We hit the gym for about an hour and then we are back home and everyone tidy's up their rooms and goes out to play for a bit until lunch is made. After lunch, we have put a quiet hour in place in our home and we play the best classical music during this 1 hour. The baby and Kenna and even sometimes Tanner and myself nap on the couches while the bigger kids might read or play or do some quiet activity. Somedays they just stare at the walls listening to Beethoven in awe of how he made such beautiful music being deaf. After this quiet hour everyone is up and doing their jurisdiction which rotates weekly. Then its outside to feed animals and then dinner, baths, and bed. Our days are running much smoother and need for training or discipline has really dropped since putting in place a stricter routine. I don't call it training or discipline because I see my children as dogs, I most certainly do not and though I don't love those words, it is important for kids to know there are things he ought to do because he ought to do them and not because he loves them. A child should have a sense of duty for certain things as we adults do. It is our God Given job to raise our children to be dutiful and be trained in a way that others can see them as helpful, God loving spirits. The Bible has told us to "train up our child" so that when they are old, they will not depart from those teachings. Train and teach are virtually interchangable in child rearing. Now discipline has its place too. It is reserved for extreme cases, but children need to know parents are the final authority and certain things can't be tolerated even if it means some form of discipline to help the child stop a certain thing they should not be doing, though we always have to consider the broadest range of age appropriateness in our expectations. Our routine is posted in our home for all to see and they can easily anticipate what will happen next throughout the day. The best thing in our lives lately though is our new church. We found a beautiful, small Bible church 1 mile down the road that we decided to try(not sure why it never struck us before now). Anyhow, we have been going for about 1 month now and we love it. Its small, welcoming, strictly Bible based, aimed for a younger crowd, great worship, WONDERFUL kids program, very active in the community and in fellowship opportunities. We have a lunch brunch once a month for everyone to socialize after church and family night on wednesday nights for everyone to do a potluck style dinner and games and have a message. There are women's, men's and teen Bible study groups. Its really awesome. Christmas Eve service was beautiful and I felt real gratitude for having found it. Anyway, that is about all that is going on around here. Oh wait, did I mention Kenna hasn't nursed, wore daipers or drank from a bottle for 2 days now?? YAY! Okay off to help Nate clean up his horsey, she rolled in the mud and it dried on her:)


*****Its Febuary and I just wanted to update***** HAHA, that didnt last but a week I think. The schooling part that is. I just dont beleive in it. I tried though! The keeping of some basic principles and of course chores has lasted, though my kids still eat what they want and pretty much live in a very democratic home.

Some Feelings About Unschooling

My kids have been to school a few times and I am so grateful that we are continuing on our unschooling path. I love that my kids don't have conventional parenting or schooling and that they get to grow in their own unique ways and time. I love that we get to love them for exactly who they are today and what we know deep down they will become tomorrow. I love that they aren't lumped into a system that is more worried about tests than humanity or character and like many will attest to, they are best friends. God and family are so important and being home together each day provides plentiful opportunities to learn about God, serve others and grow strong family friendships. I love being able to unconditionally love and parent my kids and that no one at "school" can impose conditional acceptance because there isn't "school." Homeschooling is a HUGE blessing! I am so glad we live in a country free enough to allow it. Amen to that!

Unschooling Religion

I think we are finally able to really call ourselves "whole life unschoolers" or "radical unschoolers" since we are no longer planning to force church(the last aspect we are finally letting go of). I have been reading a lot of books lately, I mean A LOT! They have been all unschooling or peaceful parenting related and the more I read, the more my thoughts have been swayed to believe that religion and radical unschooling really don't go together. This go round at the LDS church hasn't gone like I expected. My kids quickly embraced all their friends, but they have simply not embraced the church part of it. They hate sacrament and show disrespect during it no matter how many pleas I make and really I don't want kids who comply with something like this if they are truly not enjoying it. I am realizing that in order to really continue following unconditional/peaceful/authentic parenting, I cannot force my kids to go to church and if they do not want to go, I don't really have much desire either especially watching their distaste and Nate sleeping in the pew. The next order of business is Nate who has always jokingly called himself a "Natist" when it comes to religion. He is not into the lovey dovey parts of religion and it has always made him uncomfortable. I guess religion is something I have always searched for because its something I feel society expects of us and our homeschool group is uber religious as well, but I just don't know if its right for us at this time. I read my Bible and of course I believe in God, but for us, for our family, I think we need to give up organized religion. It feels wrong even though we are told it is right. Its inspirational and very moving many times, but something deep inside me feels it isn't right for us. Maybe this is why we searched out so many churchs, I was looking for somewhere that made us comfortable when in the end, none of them did because its not right for our family. My kids know who Jesus is and we talk lots and pray lots together, however, I just think our family has had a few interesting/annoying/hilarious/uncomfortable years in and our of different church's and many aspects of the Christian faith. I think my kids have had an amazing experience getting to pick out different church's to try, but ultimately, none of us can stand anywhere we go. The "teaching" for kids in church is so undermining of who my children are and they are smart little cookies because they complain incessantly about how the teachers talk to them like they are their pets or two year olds or something. They are quick to pick up on stuff like this because that isn't how we treat them. My kids are used to being respected as an equal, not some unknowing babies or dogs awaiting training so I believe this part of our lives makes church very hard on the kids. I think radical unschooling and institutional church settings just are not mixing well. Nate says we are naturists and we believe in nature and God and that's it. lol, who knows, but its funny to think about. I hate letting church friends down by not being able to commit to it all, but ultimately our family isn't going to work out in any church I don't think. That's alright though and I have really begun coming to terms with that being a high possibility over the past year. Some good books I have read lately that have helped me in my thinking about anything institutional including church are:

• Unconditional Parenting
• Learning All the Time
• Homeschooling our Children, Unschooling Ourselves
• The Happy Child: Changing the Heart of Education

Games

All of us playing Scrabble
We had a blast, Kayla counted up the scores and she won!

The kids playing a game they invented on their Abacus

I gotta get in on this game because they have played it 4X in 2 days, it must be a blast

We have been on a complete game kick in our house lately. While the "schooled" part of me wants to sit and count this as reading, spelling, math, writing, geometry and problem solving, I will just say, we truly enjoy playing games and having fun and learning those things come as a side effect. I love nothing more in this world than spending my days playing with my babies. Who knew there could be a job that was so important, but so much fun. I try to find happiness in every task I do. I have been working hard each day to count my blessings and not my misfortunes and that attitude has spilled into every area of my life and its contageous to the kids and Nate, its become such a better way of being and living.

A Late Summer Fort

All the spare building materials
The stage at the entrance of their fort

They even hammered a bracket into the door frame, all this with no parental help beyond teaching them how to use a hammer(which is what they asked us for).

Isnt that an awesome fort?

I love sharing my kids' enthusiasm to build and create whatever they so desire. This new property has afforded them many more opportunities for creativity with lots of extra metal, wood and other interesting building materials. We leave a hammer and nails out there in this area for them and no one has ever been hurt. We trust them and we have shown them how hammers are to be used and they know. They have been afforded all the freedom they need to be creative. I am so amazed by this fort they made. They play in it and have plans to paint it so I plan to get some paint for them in order for them to follow through with what they desire.

Spur of the Moment Banana Bread

Part of the fun of unschooling is just jumping up spur of the moment, any time of the day and baking goodies. Kayla decided to make chocolate chip banana bread after lunch a few days ago. Everett was quickly in suit behind her. They threw on the aprons Kayla designed and made herself and off they went unassisted. They baked some truly delicious bread too. Yum!