"I just don't have the patience" And Other Homeschooling Myths Busted

"I just don't know how you do it."
"I could never do that. Being with my kids all day long?"
"I don't have teacher experience."
"I'm just not qualified to homeschool."

Have you heard these arguments against homeschooling before? Are you the one making these excuses? If so, I have news for you:

• I don't have enough patience to homeschool either.
• I don't have the teacher qualifications.
• Most moms don't feel qualified to even parent, let alone teach their kids.

But you know what? We do it anyway. And the ones I hang out with get all that they need from the Creator, who fills them with Supernatural peace, gives them mercies new every day, and  doesn't call the qualified (to homeschool), but qualifies the called. So if you feel lead to teach your kids, for whatever reason, He will give you all that you need. 

Also, if you are parent who truly loves your kids, you know your kids. Better than any teacher trying to hep your kids get some knew information. You can learn their learning styles, and you know what doesn't work and what does work in disciplining them. You know what their likes and dislikes are. You ARE qualified.

If you never had any teaching experience, there are hundreds, at least, other homeschooling moms just like you that follow very specific curriculum designed just for moms like you. Curriculum that shows you what to do, so that you need no prior experience.  So you can do it if you feel this is the best choice for your family. 

This is not as complicated as it might seem. It just has to be the right choice for your children. For your family. If you truly believe that homeschooling is what your kids need, you CAN do it!

There seem to be more and more reasons lately to homeschool.

Have you read anything about the "Common Core" ?? If so, you may have been chilled to your bones about the type of control the government is attempting to gain over the children of America. It is becoming less the home of the free with each new mandate of this program. I am not going to allow the government to dictate what my child will be learning any longer. And I do not believe that testing is actually a form of proof of what the child has learned, either. So with that in mind, I am very grateful that (for now, anyway,) I have the freedom to home school. I will take that advantage while I still have it and fill my kids' minds up with real knowledge and good things.

I hope that wasn't too political for you. I'm sorry if it was. This is a real issue for me. A serious one. I am not willing to bury my head in the proverbial sand and let my kids be "parented" by the public school system. If you are reading this, and this is a concern for you, too, but you just don't know if you can do homeschooling, don't worry. You can. If you want what is best for your child, you are already on the right track. If homeschooling is not the best thing for your child, you will know, and you will make the right decision. But it isn't a matter of 'can you', because if it is the right thing, you will have what you need.


There are all those pesky rules to follow. Or not. If you're like me, you use the freedoms that come with homeschooling to make your own rules. I am the kind of think-outside-the-box type of person that make up my own rules to custom fit my family when I think the per-existing ones don't fit.
Like this:

Okay, so maybe not like that, exactly, but you get my drift.

This is exactly what I want for my kids, which is why they are not in a classroom.

By the way, check out her blog. She totally rocks at encouraging homeschooling moms. http://heidistjohn.com/tbmb/blog/

Here is something encouraging to read:

And here is something funny:

Remember what is the most important thing here: Your child's mind and future. It needs to be brought up, cultivated and nurtured. It's not about shoveling information into their brains, it's about preparing them for the rest of their lives.

May the rest of this year be blessed!

Home School Dreams and Home Grown Fantasies

I am sorry it has been a while since you heard from me, My laptop is on the fritz. And having to borrow my husband's is harder than it seems. Whenever I want to write, it is usually after I get home from work, eat dinner, and put the kids to bed. But by that time, my hubby is home and he wants to use his own computer, as well. So this blog post has been a long time in the making.

Have you ever had a picture of what something was going to look like, and how the process was going to go, only to have it be nothing whatsoever like you planned??

  When you first started homeschooling, the idea was so great. You and your sweet kids, that you missed so much, would all be together. You'd laugh, and you'd learn, and they would just love you so much for all the effort you put into making their schooldays so wonderful. And they would truly appreciate everything you sacrificed to allow them this opportunity. I mean, okay, so they wouldn't be outward about it, but the peaceful, happy, straight-A students you had would be acknowledgement and reward enough for all you went through......

Then you woke up from your fantasy and realized some days are anything but dreamy when homeschooling, and you feel like your kids hate you, even if they would never say that to your face. You are overwhelmed, too broke, and fear that the only thing the kids really learned from you are the "safe" curse words you force out of your mouth to keep from uttering really bad ones:
"shhhhh---sugar!"
"OH Fuuuu---dge!
Actually, I don't say those particular ones. My personal vocabulary stems from movies quotes, such as "Son of a NUTcracker!" of ELF, and "Oh Flapdoodle!" a la Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.
You get my drift.....

Then you reach the stage where the first one has to take a state required assessment to make sure that they are actually  learning something, and not just sitting around the house all day, watching re-runs of Phineas and Ferb on Netflix.
 You are so nervous!
{ How did he do? How did I do? I mean, I am the teacher, principal, and student counselor here. He's not really getting tested. It's ME. What is his ability thus far going to say about my ability to teach him? How will I know that he is really ready to test? I never test him, really. And he is never in a roomful of other strange kids, silently seated for over an hour with a pencil, I mean, I knew that kind of thing would make him nuts. That kind of setting is exactly what I was trying to avoid putting him in, why else would I be homeschooling him?!?}

You are seriously afraid the test will turn out like this...

You stress and worry about it for so long, and then when you are there at the test, he is taking way longer than all the other kids to finish the test, and you are having a nervous breakdown in the hallway, all the other moms and kids having already left.

But, then after a few weeks of waiting that seem much longer, you finally receive the results in the mail, and it shows that he is at his age level for math, beyond his grade level for reading and grammar and other subjects, and there was absolutely nothing to freak out about, you nincompoop.

So you begin to realize that even on your bad days, just the mere fact that the kids are at home actually gives them an advantage in school. They learn better with the one on one instruction you can provide. You don't rush them through a subject so they can keep up with the rest of the class, you help them to master it. They don't have the nervousness of being in a classroom setting, they can relax in their home environment. No peer pressure worries, no bad or good grades to stress about. Just learning the concept. So no matter how bad you were at keeping up with your schedule, or how consistent you were with the curriculum you chose, they are still learning. And it is all going to be okay. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? They tell you that you aren't good enough to be your kids' teacher, and they kick your kids out of homeschool? I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen. You just get results back that only really tell you how well of a test-taker they are, and then you go from there. The results aren't even looked at by anyone but you.

But then the next year comes, and your next child is going to be tested. And this is a whole new issue because your second child, unlike the first, has dyslexia. So test-taking is the huge issue. She may know all the answers, but can't read the questions to figure out what to answer. She may have learned a TON and gotten really smart this year, since you researched all the best ways to teach a child with dyslexia, but she won't really be able to sow that on a test.

You wait with nervous anticipation, going through some of the same emotions as before, but for different reasons. Then, finally (about 4 weeks after taking the test) you get the results. And it isn't great. But you realize that the test results aren't showing how smart or dumb she is. It only reflects how she took the test. What to do now?? Start over that grade? Go forward?

I was really looking to this dumb test to tell me that I was a good teacher. But if my dyslexic daughter can't read the question properly, even if she really knows the answer, she might answer incorrectly, due to misunderstanding.  This test doesn't show how much she actually learned. So it doesn't really show how well I taught her.  And, to be honest, she did better than I thought she might. So I am going to redo some parts of 3rd grade with her this fall, but mostly we are going to move forward. I was doing a grade behind in reading, and she was at that grade, according to the results, so she really did awesome.  And I will move forward to the next grade level for her.  It is a hard judgement call, but thankfully for us, we don't answer to a school board, principal. or school district.  I make those kinds of decisions with my husband, and we do our best. If she had been in public school, would they have failed her?  Most likely.

Be encouraged, dear parents. Tests don't tell the whole story. And they don't validate us. And things. like home schooling, don't always turn out the way you pictured it. Most of the time. But the kids are still benefiting from the home education. Don't give up!

Learning On the Go

 The Van is the classroom.

Grandma's house is the classroom.

The World is your classroom!

Being flexible is one of the best parts of homeschooling. You make your own schedule, and adjust as needed. Also, when you homeschool, you can learn anywhere you go, which allows you to go to many places on field trips, or as needed, like errands and appointments. I have often taken lessons and worksheets with us to other places.

Here's the deal. Homeschooling is what you want it to be. If you decide that you need to be out all day, find ways to have teachable moments wherever you go, and bring portable workbooks with you! Everywhere you go, you can be learning.

If you have been following me from Facebook, you already know, if not, you don't know this yet, but I recently started a new job. As you know, when I started this blog I was doing a daycare out of my rental, and when we finally bought a house, we moved pretty far out of the way of all of our clients, so I haven't really had much income since we moved last July. I got hired at someone else's in-home preschool as her afternoon teacher. So 3 days a week (Tues-Thurs.) I take my kids to Grandma's and work for a few hours. Sometimes I can bring them,sometimes they just hang out with Grandma. So we have attempted to be all done with our schoolwork before we leave to drop the kids off at Grandma's. The first 2 days, there was some left to work on by the time we had to leave. So bring it along, and Grandma can help you get it done before I get back. There is no reason not to get it done, you still have to do it. It comes along and you will still finish your assignment. Obviously, if we were going to do a project together, it would be done in the morning before we have to leave. And if I ever bring the kids with me, their books come, too. That's the way it goes. We have our own days off that differ from the public school system, but there is not going to be any old excuse for not getting it done. We are portable, we are flexible. We make it work, and we have fun in the process. :)

There is a new trend in "home schooling" called "Unschooling".

"Unschooling places little emphasis on traditional school curriculum and encourages children to learn through their natural life experiences including play, game play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, work experience, travel, books, elective classes, family, mentors, and social interaction. Unschooling encourages exploration of activities initiated by the children themselves, believing that the more personal learning is, the more meaningful, well-understood and therefore useful it is to the child. Differing from conventional schooling, unschooling questions the usefulness of standard curricula, conventional grading methods, and other features of traditional schooling in maximizing the education of each unique child." (wikipedia )

While I m not sure I am 100% on board with the whole concept, I am under the belief that school and learning does not stop in at the classroom, but is without boarders and having an open, teachable mind is essential for true knowledge. Therefor, the concept is intriguing to me. I do think that kids need to learn some basics of schooling, in order for them to function in the working world. They need to have their basic academics, social manners and skills, and the ability to sit at a desk might come in handy in college or the work-field. But at a young age, they should be taught to enjoy the world, nature, learning, and being curious. They need to play and learn through play. They need to be kids. So, unschooling for younger children, and then slowly introducing other things is a good idea, in my opinion. 

I think there is importance int having structure, and schedules and order. I do believe in being very flexible within those schedules, though. Being rigidly bound within schedules is a recipie for disaster.

I've seen those families. They aren't in relationship because they are so worried about getting it all done. So for me, the people come before the lesson. And there are so many opportunities for life lessons that you can still teach and learn so much outside of your curriculum. But I do want to make an effort to stay somewhat consistent. That is very important as well. As in all good things, a healthy balance, moderation, not swinging too far on either side of the pendulum, is my goal. Structure with flexibility.

On the home stretch to summer break? Feeling the burnout?

Does your May look like this one?

I am, too. And my dyslexic daughter has her 3rd grade assessment test next month. I'm a little bit, um, sorta, kinda, FREAKING out, just a teensy bit. But I am not going to let myself get overworked, Because I know that home schooling has been the best thing for her. And I see she is actually doing great. So it's going to be all okay. We're going to make it!

YOU CAN MAKE IT, TOO!

So be encouraged. If you don't get it all done, it's okay. And if you feel like you really need to finish something, can it come with you to the Dr.'s waiting room? You'll make it!

Spring Breaks Through

Spring has sprung here in OR. Our first days of spring here in the Greater Portland area were met with hailstorms and snow. No kidding. So we were delighted to see that the first day of spring break (widely accepted in elementary and home-school communities around here to be the last full week of March), turned out sunny and warm.

Day 1)
My girly had a sleep over Sunday night with a cousin, so my boys and I were off to meet our playdate buddies at a nearby park which is just spectacular, as playgrounds go.

I suggested we meet there because it is such an epic park, and because we could theoretically walk to it from our house, and I was terribly low on gas that day. I hadn't taken this trek before, myself, but had walked part of it to get to our family's house that live nearby, and I had driven it, so I knew the route. I had never taken a stroller. I knew I would have to take one, though, because as much as my littlest one loves to be like the big kids, I knew he wouldn't make the whole trip without whining, lagging severely slowly, and trying to make me carry him. That and, I was bringing bags of snacks and lunch items with us and wanted the stroller to hold them, as well.  We all needed to wear layers, because days start out cold, get warmer, really heat up after hiking and playing hard, and then cool way down quickly. Those layers were going to end up on the stroller, too. But I am older now than I used to be and quite out of shape from the sluggish winter. I really struggled to push that thing up those hills. Boy! Thankfully, my oldest was excited to push the stroller at first, and I told him we would take turns together. Little guy hopped right in the stroller and didn't mind riding the whole way without getting out. I was perfectly fine with that because I wanted him to save his energy and play hard at the park.

We started out great. Our street inclines a bit the way we had to go first. I pushed the first bit, and then let my oldest take over so I could photograph the amazing spring weather. (Also, I was panting by the third block..)

Then we got to the end of our road, and turned to go down the road that has a hugely steep hill. I let the big guy go down and I took it going up. Oy.

We went down our side until the sidewalk literally ended, and had to cross over as to avoid being in the road. Then that sidewalk ended and we had to cross back! Love the lack of sidewalks around here... not. :)

We went up and down a few more hills to get to the park area. I really had to take turns with my big helper. I was feeling it!
We finally made it to the park and it was sunny but not quite warm yet, although I was warm from the work of all those hills. But our friends wore their coats at first. We met my mother in law and my nieces and nephew she cares for, along with a family from church who have boys with whom my sons are friends. I was so glad to have the company!

My little guy hopped on the swings right away.

He was joined by the other ones his age. The older ones ran around the enormous play structure there.

This is just one section of the playstructure. It is so huge I cannot get a picture with my camera of the whole thing.

All the kids had some snacks and then went running off. Us adults had to go stand in the sunshine, so we could warm up again. We had a great time chatting and visiting. And amused ourselves watching  our children have a ball. It was so nice to have them off school (and Monday school, in my kids' case), and just let them run and play and be kids together.

Then my oldest, who is a Weebelo 1 Cubscout, and has a whittling chip and pocket knife, got it in his head to whittle some sticks so they'd be smooth, and the little friend kept asking him to "take the skin off " the sticks.

That occupied him and a few stick-collectors and onlookers for quite a while. By this time it was really nice and warm and we had all shed our coats and sweatshirts. And we had all eaten another round of snacks.

The littlest guys decided to share the one toddler swing together. That was pretty great.

This was not only cute, but kept them out of the little creek that runs through the park, which they were both tempted to stray towards and dip their feet into. I had to call them away quite a few times before this, so this was a welcome distraction. It just wasn't warm enough for water play, and they didn't have the right shoes for that sort of play. But- never fear, small ones - we will go back in the summer with our water shoes, and play hard in the water.

They had a lot of fun and we stayed most of the warm part of the day. Then we took the long trek back, stopping by our family's house on the way and enjoying some ice cream treats. It took a lot out of me, but I needed the exercise.

After we got home, my daughter got home from her sleepover, and my husband and I ate a lamb dinner in remembrance of  Passover. We aren't Jewish or Messianic, but it was nice to stop and think about what God did for us, while eating lamb, the symbol of Passover. Then one of my nieces came over for a sleepover with my girly.

All in all, we had a great first day of Spring Break. Maybe we shall venture back on the next day of Spring Break, or maybe do something else equally adventurous and nearby. We shall see...

Day 2)
I will call this day "Day of Recovery." It was cool and grey, and slightly drizzly at times. I was achy all over. My calves and shin muscles hurt from going uphill so much. So I didn't do much of anything. But since my niece was here, we had to do something. So after most of the day lounging, me doing some laundry, the girls playing with girly Legos, I finally got the energy up to go for a much shorter walk to a nearby green space park. It has a covered area with picnic tables, and a large lawn, essentially, for running and ball-playing. I brought a board game  (Scrabble, because my son wanted to open his own Facebook account solely to play Words With Friends, and I said, why don't we play it in real life?) and they kids brought a soccer ball, and we had fun for about 45 min. Until 3 of us had to use the facilities. There weren't any. So we packed up and went back home.  But I think they did have fun. The girls learned the basic rules of Scrabble, plus the spelling of a few new words. I didn't take any pictures. Sorry.
In the evening, that cousin went home and her sister, the 5 year old, took a turn sleeping over. It was fun having her, the girls popped popcorn and watched a movie after the rest of the kids went to bed, and my hubby and I shared the popcorn :) 
The forecast says that the next 2 days will be rainy, but then the weekend will be so warm and sunny! So what then will the next few days hold for us??
Stay tuned!

Day 3)
It was supposed to be rainy, but when the kids got up, it was actually sunny. And it stayed that way until nightfall, when the rainstorm hit us. But meanwhile, I learned how well my 8 3/4 year-old daughter gets along with my 5 year-old niece, and also, how well my 4 year-old son gets along with her. I thought it was so cute how my son and nice were holding hands, playing pretend and "house" together, calling each other fake  names like Sara, and Peter. :) They rode scooters, played ball, colored, played Legos, and never once demanded that I walk to the park. (my achy muscles! I know, I'm out of shape...) It was a fun day, casual, relaxed. The way spring break should be when you have no gas.
That evening when my niece got picked up, her 3 year-old brother didn't want to be left out, so I said, what the heck, let him have a turn. We had noodles and nuggets for dinner and another movie night. They all slept very well, too. That makes me very thankful.

Day 4)
After the rain fell, the sun came out again! Yay! The little boys made a fort in the living room. The oldest boy played out side with his friends. Then they all played outside for a bit because, despite the forecast, it turned out REALLY nice.

My nephew, who calls me "mama", decided to pick some "flowers" for me.

He's giving the flower to me. <3

 So, after lunch, I decided to walk over to my nephew's house with all the kids.

 Since I had two little guys this time, I had to bust out my old stroller that you put the infant car seat onto. it had a basket underneath but no seat. So I put all his overnight stuff in the basket and he sat on top. I like this stroller better than the old umbrella one, it lets me stand up taller and straight, rather than hunching over. And it has storage and cup-holders. So I pushed that one, and had my older two trade off with the shorter stroller containing my youngest.

Oldest son was to stay the night there, so he packed a backpack to take with us.

My view while pushing

When he got tired of carrying it on his back, he pulled out the handle and it is a rolling bag.

 The kids took turns pushing the stroller and pulling the bag. Then we arrived at the house, which was locked up and no one was home. So we left the strollers and stuff on the porch and ran over to the playground in that neighborhood.

Ready, Set...

GO!

Having the time of their lives, in the sun.

Monkey boy.

and girl

My little adventurous one

 I called and got a hold of our family, and we played at the park until they got home. We watched a movie, at some pizza, and then walked home, just me and the girly and the little guy. He walked at first, but it became a slow crawl, so I eventually convinced him to ride in the stroller I was pushing,  while my daughter pushed the empty one. When we got home, he put himself to bed for a late nap.

Then came the evening! My baby sister's 18th birthday party! My husband found a little bit of gas money, and I went to celebrate my little sister joining the rest of her siblings in adulthood. She was born when I was going on 15 years old. I remember being in high school with a pregnant mom. And having a little cutie to brag to my classmates about. I love being a big sister. And I love that my little siblings are all now my peers and friends.

My littlest sister and me. (And my oldest sisters fingers.)

Day 5) 
It started out casual, no kids overnight, and sleeping in. But it was another sunny day, really really nice. I had to get some things done that day, being payday. I had the kids play in the back yard while I watched through the window and did a bunch of on;-line errands. And then we had to get in the car and go to my volunteer obligations. So we drove in the beautiful weather and went to the warehouse to look at the sun through the window for several hours. But then we got to go over to my husband's Aunt's house for some egg dyeing fun.

Then one of the cousins had a great idea from Pintrest to put the dollar store glow-in-the-dark bracelets into the translucent plastic eggs and hide them out in the dark, since the sun had set by now. So we spent a little while cracking and winding up all these glowsticks and forcing them into eggs. Had to tape them all to ensure they wouldn't pop open. It turned out pretty cool!

It was really fun! We decided to make it annual. Glow in the dark activities are awesome. And the evening was so warm! Perfect weather for out-door activities. In the future, if it isn't so nice, we will just turn out the lights in a big room and hide them indoors.

Day 6)
 Saturday! We took another cousin home for another overnight sleepover, but it was really just a bunk for sleeping and then getting up and leaving. It wasn't as fun, but at least they laughed a lot in the car ride home. We had to go right to sleep because we had to get up early and head out to my church. The were doing a community free pancake breakfast and my husband was helping to cook and serve.

Then they had the big, annual egg hunt. 

They split up the kids by ages/grades, so I couldn't go with all the other kids, and take pictures of them, but I could go with my little guy. There were specific areas each for the little ones, the k-2nd graders, and then the 3-5th grades. So off my little man and I went to the littlest area.

When they were all done, we gathered back in the gym to open all the eggs and get the candy out. When we opened them, we had to look inside and see if there were any pieces of paper with numbers on them. If we found a paper, we took it to the prize table and earned the prize that had the matching number.

Opening all the eggs to find papers.

As we were going through them, the little cousin found something else on one of his eggs.

Snail!

My oldest found a prize ticket. Then my youngest found one. Then my oldest found THREE more! So he gave one of them to each of the other two kids that didn't have one. And got another prize for himself.

The numbers on the papers correlated to the location of the eggs, so the lower numbers were for prizes for the littlest ones and so on. So my littlest guy got an age-appropriate toy, and my oldest got toys that were just right for him. I felt bad for my daughter, though, because she got this big chocolate bunny, and then we went to the park and played, and when we got back in the car...

Before

After

A puddle of chocolate goo. So sad!

But, she ended up with more chocolate from her grandma, so it worked out in the end. I'm not sure I wanted her to have that much chocolate, anyway.

Well, that's the end of our Spring Break week. Back to the usual homeschool grind. Monday School, then our regular routine of chores and homework. But there are some more nice weather days ahead, so I will probably bring school outdoors at some point. Can't let all that sun go to waste!
Happy SPRING!