Is this my son?

Math is done?
Is this MY son?
This IS my son!
He smiles.

No more waiting there
For mom's nasty glare
No more sickly,
Whiny groans

No more smiley faced 9's
No more exaggerated plus signs
Just a simple, "Yes, I'm done."

I love you, Son!!

Such it is...

The title of this blog is so true. Think of any living thing! Anything at all! Does it grow and mature, ever changing and developing as was intended by the Creator? Such is Homeschool. We tend, we nurture, then we stand back in wonder. How could anything so detailed and marvelous have ever thrived in our care? As we stumble and bumble around, bumping our heads on every over-hanging idea that has been carelessly imposed upon us, there in our hand, the precious gift of life, just...growing...in spite if all we have been told, of all that has been thought or said if us, in spite of us, ourselves. Of all the worries and cares that have kept us awake at night, it knows not.

Beautiful Simplicity

I have been thinking alot about our approach to home education.  Some days I just want to put all the books away and just live.  You know, teach the kids how to do what I am doing that particular day.  The only problem with this is keeping their attention.  Our children's ages span from 13 to 3 months.  That makes it pretty difficult (for me anyway) to get them all involved in the same activity at the same time. 

Our days are pretty relaxed though.  We only use texts for math and upper level science.  For the rest we use living books or the internet, if any outside resources are necessary.  I just love to see them grow in their love for learning.  My heart is filled to the brim with joy when their faces are all aglow retelling me something they just discovered . 

So, I don't know if I will ever be classified an "unschooler" or not.  Though I enjoy reading what the official unschoolers have to say about education.  And I am not a true CM follower either.  Though I have gleaned so much from those that are.  And as for the "classical" and "school at home" types, well, I can appreciate some of their approaches as well.  But I guess I will just have to be me: a follower and a leader, a teacher and a student, a lover of nature and of good books, a mentor, an encourager, a lover of learning itself.

Getting Organized!

It seems planning every school year has been an overwhelming process.  Along with all the "school work", there are also: meals to plan, errands to run, phone calls to make, etc.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, so here are a couple of my favorite organizational helps.

Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education by Sonya Schaffer is simply packed full of step by step help.  Even if you do not home school the CM way, you can use this planner!  The first chapter is to set you on the right track for your entire home schooling journey.  This helped me tremendously!  I had always been so busy dealing with the "right now" of home schooling that I had not really thought about the big picture for my children.  Filled with loads of printable charts and encouragement, this planner is my fav.

Mother's Planner by Diane Hopkins is THE planner for busy moms!  This inexpensive ebook brings encouragement along with easy instructions to make your own planner.  This personalized planner is indispensable for the homeschooling mother, especially those of us with multiple children.  I really enjoy the emphasis Diane puts on taking care of yourself.  Don't confuse this with selfishness!  Taking care of yourself is so very important, so that you can take care of those God has put in your hands.  Again, this book has printable charts and lots of encouragement!

Both of these planners are available for download and are relatively inexpensive.  If you are looking for some help and encouragement for your homeschooling, mothering journey, these are great ways to meet your need!

Starting School

Finally time to hit the books!  We have just gotten up to speed with school work.  We started the first week of August, but with only one subject.  With a new little girl in the house, we have been taking it a week at a time.  I believe we are now rolling in all the planned subjects! 

Since Jason, my husband, is now self employed, he has been able to help out with Gibson's math.  It makes a huge difference to have an extra adult around!  Alexa, our 13 year old, is a self learner, so her work is done independently.  Today, she caught her science experiment on fire!  I'm so glad she didn't catch anything else on fire. 

Gibson, our 9 year old, is reading so well now!  He is able to read his science assignments by himself and comprehend what he is reading.  This is a huge timesaver as well.  So, what am I doing while all this independent learning is going on?  I am teaching our 3 year old to trace circles and count, trying to keep our 19 month old from tearing the house down, and nursing and caring for our 2 month old.  Oh, yeah, and doing laundry, cooking, and attempting to keep up with this blog. :  )

Finding Bargains on THL

I have been dreaming up what our new curriculum will consist of for next year.  The bigger my dream gets, the bigger the price tag. Yikes!  So, I have been searching for used curriculum.  I have already found our eighth grade science material, retail $85, for $20!  Yeah!

I highly recommend The Homeschool Lounge group Used Curriculum Shop.  It is so easy to find sellers of the material you are looking for and to find buyers for anything that you may be wanting to pass along.

You do need to be a member of THL to join this group.  Signing up is easy, and there are many, many other things to do on the site.

Organizing the Toy Corner

We do not have a large house for 6 people. There is a place for everything, but not much space in between. Little ones' toys are the hardest to keep track of, perhaps because they scatter them all through the house. We find them in the bathroom, kitchen, and under pieces of furniture. If you have or have ever had small ones sharing your home, you know what I'm talking about.

A corner of our living room is officially designated for toy storage. I cleared off a few of the lowest shelves of a bookcase, and placed some of the bigger toys on it. Our one year old loves to be able to pull things off and not get into trouble. Right beside the shelf we had a large plastic storage tub. This worked for a while, until a birthday celebration set it to overflowing. Then the little ones were not even touching the toys because they are too little to dump the tub themselves. When I dumped it for them, there were so many they flooded out the living room!

So, today, I exchanged that problem tub with some plastic drawers we had in the girls' room. I put all the toys that wouldn't fit into the large tubs and stashed them under their beds. Now, they still have toys to play with in the living room, but they can easily get to the bottom of each drawer with out dumping. I can also rotate toys from the tubs out to the drawers to keep them occupied. Which is especially important during school time!