Get Ready...Get Set...Start!

View of our  playground from the classroom:)

It's time to get ready for the coming school year. I am determined NOT to stress about this in the least. My children learn every day. It's true that as the weather changes our learning modes do as well. We do less and less outside and read and use more books. That's normal isn't it? That's the way life would be even without my children and I"M always learning so I figure....

Of course I do stress. A gracious friend told me yesterday that Jeff and I should just keep on doing whatever we're doing because our kids are smart. That was encouraging. But, I still wrestle with the questions...
Am I teaching what I should? Am I using the very best methods? Am I leaving gaps? Are my kids up to par with the rest of...???

Garden harvest before "school" started :)

Now in answer to that last one:  Jesus warned us NOT to compare ourselves among ourselves. So, there goes that. Besides, I am determined NOT to pattern myself after a failed system, that being the public school system!

And of course I'm leaving gaps! There are gaps in my education and I've been learning for 47 years! Does anyone, know anyone who knows everything?  I'm quite sure however, that my children (at around age 10) certainly have a better grasp of geography, "social studies" and history than I did when I graduated from high school;  because we teach them the truth. We study history through God's Word. There are no end to the "social studies" opportunities. When someone goes on a foreign mission we "follow" them on the globe, google earth, maps etc... and talk about where the people of that country are at spiritually and economically and why. Hearing the news prompts alot of research, which we usually do together but sometimes individually depending on the age of the person needing information.

Picking Choke Cherries after school :)

 Now we'll have to figure out how to make Choke Cherry Jam

As for the method, I really try to keep to the mindset I have gleaned from Ruth Beechick, Charlotte Mason and that ilk... School from 9 til noon, use REAL books rather than textbooks (except for Math for that we use MathUSee), and do REAL things in the afternoons like; go outside, go places, bake, sew, artwork, read, clean, play games, pursue whatever hobbies we have (the list is long). Oh, and play! Even the First Lady has proclaimed the importance of play :). There's a helpful article on this blog:   http://ladyofvirtue.blogspot.com/ concerning the "herding principle" that I try to keep in mind too. It's especially important to know where and what my youngest are doing so I focus on them and that frees the older children to study on their own.  You'd be hard pressed to keep a child from learning while they do their afternoon chores, or help with dinner or listen to Mom (or an older sibling) read aloud before bed. Learning takes place around the clock at home.
As far as teaching what I should... I've decided that what REALLY needs to be taught are the three R's; reading, writing and 'rithmatic, just like they did back in the day. Who every heard of the some of the subjects they teach nowadays anyway? Jonathan Lindval once said that any subject that has to have the word "education" added to it isn't a subject in it's own right. Think of classes called "physical", "sex" or "multi-cultural"  That's why "social" has to have the word "studies" tacked on. This is not to say that I don't have history and science curriculum, I do and I try to cover that as well, but in reality the three R's, the three meals and all of the other reality that life brings,means that we don't always get to those. Besides, that's what the Real Books are for! The final authority and the one where I find rest, comes in submitting my many ideas to my husband. He knows me so well and can easily tell me when I'm biting off more than I can chew.

Pumpkin Patch "education" and that... on a Saturday!

Okay, I wrote all of that back in August. It is now Oct 17th. and... true to my pattern, after that writing, I had a panic attack;  went to my husband totally stressed and told him that I don't know what to do, how to do it, where to start, what to use, what is best...etc. After sweetly hearing me out he wisely (as always) replied with this question...
"If you HAD to start school tomorrow, would you be able to just pick up where you left off, and continue with whatever you were doing before summer hit?" Duh! Why couldn't I have thought of that? After all, I'd thought of so many "other" things! That answer being the no- brainer that it was, brought peace to my mind. And that's just what I did...and it's working! :)

My 18 year old daughter made a thoughtful comment to me a few weeks ago...she said, "Mom, I don't understand why all these young Moms get so stressed about "starting" to home school their children? Don't they realize that's what they've been doing all along?"

The Way We Learn

Last week we traveled to Half Moon Bay to visit Grandma Joan for a few days. Yippee thought I, we'll be near San Francisco and at the beach....so many learning opportunities...Alcatraz, museums, the Exporatorium; no end to my list of things we could do. But things didn't go exactly as I had hoped. Jeff wasn't as "into" the my great ideas as I was. It rained some and it was New Years and we really just wanted to be with the Grandparents as that's the most important thing and it had been too long since we had visited.

I needed to something that has taken me a L O N G time to learn to do...relax and let my ideas go. So I did

Grace, Ruthie, Sarah and Mary enjoying the surf.



We all went to the beach and of course it was beautiful and a great learning experience all on it's own (without lessons, books or even tide pools). We played tennis, mini-golf, pool and walked the nature trail. We cooked and cleaned and ate and talked with the Grands. We watched "The Yearling" for the umpteenth time (after all it's still sort of new to Pete and Joe) it's a family tradition.

A lovely dinner with Grandma Joan.


Walking with Dad.




Games in the courtyard.

On the last day of our visit Grandma and Grandpa treated us to outdoor dining at a seafood restaurant for lunch. We had clam chowder, crab cocktail...the works! It was delicious! After that we walked along a pier where all sorts of small ocean going vessels were docked. A man pointed the way to a boat named "Promise" which had just returned from crabbing. So we ventured down to the boat and bought five live crabs! Sarah declared that she wants to be a crab fisher woman someday.


Pete and Joe with dinner guests


You can guess what we studied next day when we got home...crabs. First we looked up cooking crabs on the internet. Then of course, we cooked them. After that we read all about crabs, sketched them in our Nature Journals and noted the classification. Later that evening we cracked, picked and finally enjoyed eating our crabs just dipped in melted butter.







These are Mary, Peter and Joe's nature journals. You can click on them to view larger.


God wanted to bless us and He did. We enjoyed being with Jeff's folks so much. The children were sweet and behaved quite well. The learning thing happened naturally by taking time, explaining things and answering questions. Even the lesson "plan" that I couldn't quite pull off came together beautifully when I let God lead. I'm so glad I gave up because His ways are always above our ways and His thoughts are higher than ours.


Science class around the dining room table


Extra thoughts of note:
1) The day after our crab boat visit the morning news reported that a local crab boat capsized in Half Moon Bay...that really got the children's attention. Thankfully the crew was rescued.
2) I thought of asking Jeff if we might buy some fresh seafood to take home but thought better of it so he got the full blessing of his generosity.
3) I really wanted to suggest getting some clam chowder at the pier but didn't. I'm always telling the children that a treat isn't a treat...if you ask for it.
4) I came home rested since we didn't have to "be anywhere" or "do anything" ☻

God is good and GREATLY to be praised! I think we'll look up some ocean passages and use them for copy work tomorrow. Oh, and certainly we'll write thank you letters to our generous grandparents with our very best penmanship and grammar.

Teaching Them To Love Their Children

A dear friend of mine died peacefully in her sleep a few nights ago. In our last brief conversation, I addressed the business at hand and then closed, telling her that I'd call her back sometime soon so that we could "catch up" with one another....
Handwritten notes from her have become treasures, as have the photos and the memories of her beautiful smile and sing songy voice!

But, I'm writing this to declare a tribute that one of her daughters shared with me. She was telling me how hard it will be to not have her Mom around, especially for her two daughters. How much her mother loved her four tiny granddaughters and how much it hurts to contemplate the future without their sweet grandmother involved in their lives. She had been at all of their births, helped out in those first few difficult days with the new babies; making sure her girls were recovering well rested and well fed. With tears she anticipated what the upcoming birthdays would be like without Grandma. It was just so painful to imagine that these little ones would not know their Grandma. And then with a deep breath of resolve and more tears she straightened her shoulders and declared "It makes me want to be just like my Mom so that they can know her that way".

What a blessing this mother has left for her daughters. No bad memories, no regrets!

Makes me think of the passage written by the apostle Paul..."follow me as I follow Christ". These girls have a pattern of godliness to hold on to. Their mother's ways will continue to bless and guide them in her absence, bringing forth more fruit for the Kingdom of Christ. What better way for an older woman to teach the younger women to love their children, as we are instructed in Titus 2, than by just doing it?