Finding Contentment

Update & homeschool field trip

First day of school

Today was so busy, but so wonderful!

Mark was off to his new job this morning and we were off to start school! It felt great to be hitting the books and doing something constructive again.

We started with Bible, then did Math, then started our unit study work. Unfortunately, I had planned 30 minutes for our unit study and we stayed at it for an hour and a half, so we had to skip spelling and grammar. As part of today's unit study lesson, we went on an 'archeological dig" to find items used by the early settlers and colonists. This kids went through layers of dirt I had previously hidden "artifacts" in and then recorded their findings. Since we were working with dirt (that I dug up from the garden, BTW), we did our excavating on the back deck. For weeks it has been in the triple digits here, and we are going through a drought. But on this wonderful first day back to school, the temperature was only in the 80s. It was great fun, and they were really into it - as you can tell by the photos.

This year, I am attempting to include my 4-year-old. He tends to get ignored when I am working with the older kids all morning, and then screams to be included. I am heading that off this year by including him in everything I can. He had a great time doing the unit study with the older kids, even though he didn't really understand what we were doing.

Afterwards we did copywork, and then literature and narrations. We never did make it to science. And to answer my Secret Sister's question, yes, we did get a science curriculum. Thanks for asking! We now only lack a foreign language curriculum. Maybe once hubby gets over his 6-week training period we'll be able to afford one.

Hubby will now be working from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. This will be very hard for us, as we tend to be night owls ; )

 I write this now at just after 10 p.m. When I am done posting this entry we will both go to bed and get six hours sleep before we drag ourselves happily jump out of bed, eager to start the new day. Just thinking about getting up at 4:30 a.m. makes me tired...

Busy weekend

I find this pretty amazing. The brim won't do it, but the crappie and bass will. When you release them back into the water, they kind of float there for a minute and look at you before they jump and swim away. I took this photo of Mark about to release a crappie this morning. We plan on going catfishing tonight. I have been several times before, but only to watch. Tonight I will try my hand at catching these VERY big fish.

Yes, we are fishing twice in one day. But Mark starts work again Monday and doesn't think he'll get many opportunities to go fishing anymore.

Tonight I am cooking a birthday dinner for a friend. Tomorrow I will clean and declutter a large junk storage closet that has gotten out of control (an all day project). And Sunday I will finish up planning our homeschool lessons.

We start school again Monday and we are excited! We have only been homeschooling for half a year, and during that half year we tried a little bit of everything to see what we liked. We have decided to use a loosely based Charlotte Mason method, sprinkled with some unit studies. I purchased the Colonial Life unit study from Home School in the Woods and we very excited about it. The unit study looks great. We will also incorporate some field trips like this one at the historic Latta Plantation in Mecklenburg County, N.C.

This Homeschool Day at the Latta Plantation will allow the kids to see demonstrations of activities like gunsmithing, blacksmithing, fire starting and open-hearth cooking. We will also tour the plantation.

I hope the first day of school goes well without any whining or complaining   : P

Have a great weekend!

Homeschooling moms article

Homeschooling on the homestead

A friend of mine that I have known since high school came over for dinner last night. She and I get together once or twice a year to catch up, and this year’s talk centered mostly on homeschooling.

Our family started homeschooling in December, before the thought of homesteading ever crossed our minds. But really, teaching our own children instead of having others do it for us is a big part of becoming self-sufficient.

I know many families who need two working parents think that homeschooling is not option – I thought the same way. But now that I see how much good it does the kids I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even if at some point I have to go back to work, my kids will not go back to a public school, or even a private one. I have heard of single, working mothers who homeschool, so I know it can be done.

I could go on and on about my reasons – of which there are many - for homeschooling, but there is no point in boring everyone. Instead, I’ll just list my family’s five main reasons and let you come to your own conclusions.

1.     Socialization – Yes, everyone who hears we are homeschooling says “What about socialization?” Well, first I’ll point out that my kids are involved in extra-curricular activities and church. Secondly, I say this:  I would rather them be hermits and not have any socialization at all than get the kind of socialization they were getting at public school. Socialization was one of the reasons we DID decide to homeschool, not one of the reasons that kept us from it.

2.     Individualism – Classroom settings do not allow for individualism. Students are expected to do whatever the other students are doing, in whatever way the other students are doing it. Bells rule life at public school and state tests rule the teacher’s efforts.  I believe that school is now less about true learning and more about scoring on a standardized test.

3.     Independence and critical thinking – Neither of these things are encouraged in classroom settings. Though we just started homeschooling and aren’t at this point yet, most homeschoolers are self-motivated and independent. They know what they need to learn and they take the steps necessary to learn it.

4.     God – Even though our country was built upon Godly values, God has now become illegal. As for me and my house, we will worship the Lord – in ALL we do, including learning and teaching.

5.     Family values – It amazes me that for many families, this no longer exists. The family is a unit that, with God’s help, can stand together against all odds. So while being independent and self-motivated, family members learn to be part of a unit. A unit that doesn’t bully each other or compete against each other, but one that encourages and lifts each other up. Not that the kids don’t have sibling rivalry, they do. But we are trying to instill in them the values that my brothers and I grew up with. Even today, my brothers and I are still very supportive and turn to each often for help and advice. We all see each other several times a week. We share hopes and dreams with family members that we wouldn’t share with anyone else.

THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON TO HOMESCHOOL:  When one day we present ourselves to Jesus, it won’t be the public school teachers or administrators who will be held accountable for what our kids learned. It will be us.