Successful Homeschooling: The first step is admitting you need help.

I suppose you noticed my blog is about homeschooling being great sometimes. Which would imply that there are times when it is less than fun.

As a fellow homeschooler, you may appreciate my transparency if I tell you about some times when we struggled, just for some encouragement and the ability to see the whole picture, good and bad, and realize that we can still persevere through the struggles and not give up.

As I have mentioned, I have 2 babies and 2 toddlers in my care, along with my 2 homeschooler kids. It has been a real challenge this year to focus on teaching them while preoccupied with the other 4 needy ones.

I love my job. And I love home schooling. I think it is awesome that I could get paid for doing what I love in my own living space, and be allowed to watch my own kids, at the same time! It's a dream job.

Except this year, my kids' attitudes have been equal to the Grinch's at Christmas time about their school work.

What is up with that? Have you ever tried teaching anything to someone who was dead set against learning?  It is as easy and fun as boot camp in a blizzard at 4 a.m. with the meanest drill sergeant you can think of.

Yay.  (<---sarcasm implied...) Fighting with your seven and nine year old children against the horrible attitudes they get the minute you say, "let's start on schoolwork" is the worst kind of fighting. Like pushing something really heavy up a slippery hill.

In a hurricane.

There is another issue besides the attitudes. They can't seem to focus unless I am in the room with them, but they can't focus if there are other distractions, such as each other, or small babies and toddlers, in the room with them as well. So I send them out of the room, to separate rooms to work on their independent seat-work, and 15 min. later, I go check on them and they've got virtually nothing done, because I wasn't there to 'help them'... But if they're right next to me, and I am caring for a baby,

changing a diaper,

or helping potty-train a toddler (yeah, we're in the thick of it right now),

This is actually at OMSI, not my house, if only I had this set-up..

or any of the other daily duties I have to do during the hours between 6:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., then I will have to redirect them about every other second, sometimes literally, back to their tasks. OY!

 After 3 months of struggling, fighting, pleading, redirecting, instructing, disciplining, and all around, not feeling very productive, I felt like giving up. I thought if I enrolled them in real school for a month or two, they would get an idea of what's really expected of them and how much better it is to homeschool and be better for me. But I wasn't really sure about that, and I thought I should talk it over with my husband before I made any real decisions. I mean, I'm not really one to give up. I really wanted this homeschool year to work out. It is really challenging to focus enough on the kids while also having a full daycare. I tried to time it for after lunch, when all the babies were napping at the same time, but I still struggled with the 'tudes, and it would go on and on into dinner, and even beyond, sometimes.

My wonderful, amazing, superhero husband came up with this current solution: He would get up in the morning at 8 a.m., even thought he just went to bed from the swing shift at work around 2 a.m., and help the kids with their work pages, while I took care of the other 4. So far, day 2, he is doing great, although getting a strong taste of how hard they can be to teach. He told me today that I have a lot more patience than he does. Uh, oh...
I told him that he ought to sleep in tomorrow, so he doesn't get too sleep deprived.


Here I am, staying up late to finish this so that I can post it. When do I get to sit down during my day to blog? I am not saying I took on too much, I just have to admit when I need a little help. My kids were different last year and the year before. My daytime situation was different. And my expectations of them were different. With each grade increase, the workload and expectations increase, right? They didn't think so, apparently...
  I had such great plans for this school year. As of right now, the first month took off and we had a great lesson on magnets.  But as for October and November, not to hot. We just got the basics barely done every day for the past two months. No extra stuff, like the hands-on science and art projects, no themed lesson plans. Just reading, penmanship, grammar, writing, learning to read maps, and math. But, hey, at least we got that done. I can't be too upset . My kids are learning a bit. Hopefully by the end of the year, my 3rd grader will pass his placement test like a breeze, and we'll move smoothly into 4th. Whether or not that will be at home, we will see. But I am not yet giving up on the whole year, lesson-plan-wise. We may turn a corner and may yet have some good months of hands-on learning again. If they can get this morning workbook thing down to a regular routine, we can do that stuff during naptime. The idea of their workbooks on those subjects I named, was that they would have a time of independent study in the morning when I couldn't focus on them, and then we would get to the fun stuff during nap. But they just can't seem to get that done alone. I am praying that they are going to get better at keeping themselves on task and staying focused independently. I do hold out some hope. 
For now, I am so grateful for my husband's sacrifice and the partnership he gives to this homeschooling parents thing.
( I sure do love that man.)

It is okay to not have it all together. It is then when we can realize how valuable it is to rely on the people that are there for us. I would suck as a single mom, I rely on my husband way too much to be able to do that. I really commend those that have the strength to keep on doing this all by yourselves. Or if your husband is in the military, and you are a single mom for a big chunk of the time. I doubt most homeschooling parents are single because you have to work so much to provide for your kids when you're single that having the kids in a school is the only way they could do it. But I have a huge amount of respect for single parents.
I guess God knew what (who) I would need. I am so grateful. I am okay with admitting I need him. And he thinks I am a great mom, so there you go. 

Just remember, when you feel like a failure, you can always get on the internet and find someone who is doing worse than you, so I am just here to make you feel better about yourself. I hope that made your day. :)

A Hallowed Eve

There is something that has always bothered me about this "holiday". I am not a person that likes to be spooked. I am not into creepy and gross and scary. Not much for horror movies. At All. There are a few that I am okay with... but in general, I don't really understand the appeal of filling my mind with terrible thoughts and images. In my childhood I had been plagued with nightmares occasionally, often triggered by a commercial for a scary movie, that would really haunt me, make my life quite miserable. Not fun at all, and I couldn't see why anyone would want to inflict that upon themselves.

Halloween does have some appeal: You dress in a fun costume, whatever you want,
and get to ask for candy, and for no other reason than tradition and your great costume. And they just give it to you, for free. I can totally see the excitement of it.

Especially if you go to a party at a church, where there is nothing scary, and you can play games, get face-painting, treats, and other fun stuff, under a dry roof, in from the cold. Win-win-win.
 Here are some pictures of my kids enjoying the dress-up aspect of the season from past years:

But the rest of the 'celebrating' used to bewilder me. As a person who believes in the  Holy Bible, where verses like these are found:
"From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things; all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. " Philippians 4:8 and: 
"The wicked roam all over the place, while evil is celebrated by human beings." Psalms 12:8 (common English Bible),
-  I had to think that the content mostly being focused on during this season was lacking in beauty, purity, goodness, and holiness. Therefor, dwelling on and focusing my thoughts on the spooky, evil, gross and scary went against this. And roaming all over the neighborhood, dressed up as ghosts, devils, demons, and all other wicked things, going door to door while evil is being celebrated by watching slasher movies and pretending the dead are living and killing, etc... just seemed like it went against my beliefs.
Is it glorifying to God to be thinking about everything that terrifies you and uplift depravity and death? I have to think it isn't.

Yet, there has to be Something good in the season. After all, if Satan has tricked the country, even the world, into glorifying all that is evil on this day, he can't win, can he? And doesn't God turn everything that is bad into something that will eventually glorify Himself?  Romans 8:28 says that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His will.
So what does that mean for Halloween, for me?

Since NOT celebrating anything on this night would lead to feeling left out of something that seems to bring a lot of fun to every other kid in the neighborhood, and we can't really escape it, what to do? Well, as I mentioned earlier, lots of churches hold a "Harvest Party", where instead of celebrating evil, we bring in Fall, see the end of the summer and just party, innocently. And where the term 'harvest' can have a double meaning, since kids have a safe place to hear about God, and therefor we may help bring them into God's kingdom like he talks about in the Gospels, as the wheat is brought into harvest. This is a good alternative, because we are having fun, sometimes glorifying God, and getting to dress up and get candy, without having to fall into the tradition of "Trick- OR- Treat", trading a death threat for a blackmailed treat...

But, does this really bring our Lord glory? Just by not participating in things that don't glorify Him, does that by definition actually bring glory to Him? What else may we do to bless God?

For starters, every day that we are alive is a gift from God, so we can be thankful. Just because the official day of thanksgiving for our country is next month, doesn't mean we can't start today.

Another thing we can do is take advantage of the Harvest opportunity and invite neighbors, friends and other kids needing a safe place to go on Halloween night to our church, and actually introduce them to Jesus Christ.

Also, I have made it my mission to look at all holiday traditions as an opportunity to bless and honor my God, the Creator, because I see that is the real reason we celebrate. This started with Christmas traditions. My family had not celebrated Christmas most of my childhood, due to a lot of it's origins being rooted in pagan and celtic beliefs which weren't all that godly. But when I grew up, I wanted to make up my own mind about the whole thing. I found that God is glorified in all things that He created. You don't have to look too hard to bless Him.

That is why I am glad to have found this prayer. The "jack'o lantern" may not seem like the most godly thing out there, but it holds a great deal of significance when you look at it like this:

A Pumpkin Prayer.
Dear Jesus, As I decorate my pumpkin, help me pray this prayer:

• Open my mind so I can learn about you. ( Cut and open the top of the pumpkin.)

"Know that the Lord, He is God." Psalm100:3

• Take all my sin and forgive me for the wrong that I do. (Scrape out all the inside pulp and seeds from your pumpkin.)

"If we confess our sins, HE is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us." 1 John 1:9

• Open my eyes so Your love I will see. (Carve heart-shaped holes for eyes.)

"Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from your law." Psalm 119:18

• I'm sorry for times I've turned up my nose at what you've given to me. (Carve a cross-shaped nose on the pumpkin.)

"Create in me a clean heart, O God." Psalm 51:10

• Open my ears so Your word I will hear. (Carve Bible shaped ears on the sides of the pumpkin.)

"Incline your ear, and come to me." Isaiah 55:3

• Open my mouth to tell others You're near. (Carve a fish-shaped mouth in the pumpkin.)

"I shall... declare the works of the LORD." Psalm 118:17

•  Let Your light shine in all I do, may my words and deeds glorify You. Amen! (Place light inside the pumpkin)

{Jesus said} "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven." Matthew 5:16
[disclaimer: I didn't make this up. We found these cards with the idea on them, made by CTV, Inc.]

When your pumpkin is done, it might look a bit like this:



I love the idea that the pumpkin can represent us and all our dirty outside and goopy, icky inside, and we can see God's hand in our lives through the symbol of the "Jack (Or Jill)'o Lantern".
Here are some of ours from past years:

There may be other ways to see God's work and glory in anything we want to use to represent it from the season. (New Living Translation)

1. Receiving free candy: "Freely you have received, freely give." Matthew 10:8b Or "And we have received God's Spirit, (not the world's spirit), so that we can know the wonderful things that God has freely given us." 1 Corinthians 2:12
2. Eating too much candy: "They enjoyed the sweet taste of wickedness, letting it melt on their tongues. they savored it,holding it long in their mouths. But suddenly the food in their bellies turns sour, a poisonous venom in their stomachs. They will vomit the wealth they swallowed. God won't let them keep it down." Job 20:12-15 (use at your own risk...:) OR "When you're given a box of candy, don't gulp it all down; eat too much chocolate and you'll make yourself sick;" Proverbs 25:16 (the Message)
3. Dressing up in costumes, going to party: "Oh yes- God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don't skimp out on colors and scarves." Ecclesiastes 9:8 OR if you want to discourage the bad costumes and inappropriate attire "Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves" Matthew 7:15 (New Living Translation).

Those are just some ideas off the top of my head (and concordance), but always try to remind yourself and your children that in this house you serve the LORD and you want to seek out ways in your everyday life and on holidays to give Him honor. Be creative. There are probably dozens of ways you can find to show your family and the neighborhood that God is lifted up even when Satan is trying to bring himself all the glory.

I know lots of people in the church look down on this time of year, and no wonder. Lots of scary stuff is going on. But it is up to us to set the tone for our kids, and those in our care, so lets have fun!

And eat all the good candy before the kids do.
What? We're just checking it, you know, for safety reasons....

Field Trips are awesome: Pumpkin Patch Part I

The day we ventured out to pick some pumpkins was a beautiful, sunny, early October day.
As a family, we had already signed up to go on another pumpkin patch field trip later on in the month, however, our brother and sister and their kids wanted to go this particular Saturday, and requested the pleasure of our company. How could we refuse?

We decided to enjoy the day and come away empty-handed of pumpkins, saving the fun of that for the other field we had already paid for. But which patch to choose? We certainly didn't want to go to the same one twice in one month...

Between the two families, we landed on the Roloff Family's Farm. If you have ever seen the show "Little People, Big World" on The Learning Channel (TLC), you may have heard of this farm. It is a little less than an hour away from where we live, and we'd seen and heard a lot about it, so this was the patch for us this trip. My husband checked out their website online the night before, saw that their food vendor had Chili-cheese Fries, and that was it, he was convinced. (As it turned out, this was a mistake, they don't actually offer these, however, my husband pulled a puppydog-eyed look on the guy, who found some chili and some cheese and accommodated my heart-set hubby. So if you choose to go to Roloff Farms for the same reason, don't ask for them...)

We drove down the road on which the farm was located and every 1/2 mile or so we saw confirming signs telling us we were going the right way, adorable jack-o-lantern faces saying "Pick Me! Pick Me!" Similar to this one in the actual patch:

When we finally got into the patch we found out that this particular Saturday they were celebrating Matt Roloff's 50th birthday. Matt, if you've never seen the show, is the father of the Roloff family, the owner and founder of the farm, star of the show, and spokesperson for Little People all across America. He's kind of a celebrity, so it was rather exciting to us viewers to be there that day. (Well, ex-viewer, myself, since I haven't had that channel in over a year...but a fan of the show, still.)
I had my camera charged and ready for photo-ops, so I made everyone pose before we got going and split up at all. Then I got one with me in it, too. :)
Here we all are, my husband's sister and her family as well:

When we entered the gates we had to go through a line before getting to the open area. The kids walked on ahead, then came back all wide-eyed that they had seen something you would not expect to see in Oregon. I simply did not believe them until I walked around the corner myself and saw:

A REAL LIFE CAMEL! No kidding! When the kids said camel, I was sure they had to be mistaken, or it was a life-size picture or statue. Nope. It's real. The kids were really excited to get up close and pet it!

We decided, once we got through marveling over the exotic animal, that we should line up for sustenance and treats first thing, then explore the farm later. That's where we found out about the lack of Chili-cheese Fries. The upside, apart from the nice vendor placating my hubby, was that they had gourmet kettle corn and hot drinks. I got a caramel apple cider, (what else in October?) and we all enjoyed Snickerdoodle-flavored kettle corn. Yummy!
One thing you might have seen on the show is the family dog, Rocky. He was parked under our picnic table, where we sat down to eat our corn-dogs, being the biggest moocher I have ever encountered. I tried to ignore him, but he would paw my leg and force me to at least notice him. Eventually we gave him the leftovers our kids didn't eat, (he really was too cute to ignore) but I'm sure he didn't need them, with the hundreds of other patron that day, catering to his begging. Silly boy :)

From the picnic area we could see the huge crowd gathered around with all the T.V. cameras for the taping of the festivities. We decided to forgo the crowd and bee-line it to the huge, inflatable slide standing tall in the background, beckoning our adventure-loving offspring.

We paid for each of the older kids to take two trips on the slide. The stairs were not stairs at all, and were incredibly steep. A huge part of the adventure was actually making it up to the top. Once the kids each had a turn, the little guys had to go, too, meaning one of the grown-ups had to get them up there.

Hilarity ensued.

Go, mama!

Baby bo

y: "This is Fun!"

Mom: "Oh, crap, I'm slipping!"

Mom: "You're not going down without me!" (grabs his arm) Baby: "Whee!"

Both: "Whee!"

Baby: "That was Awesome! Let's do it again!" Mom: "Never. Again."

The other kids had fun going down their second turns.

All the while the huge crowd is getting really excited because Matt is coming into the crowd. And just as we look up, the youngest child, Jacob, zips right over our heads on a zip-line and waves right at us. :) What a cutie.
Ben was smitten by the horses (Ponies) He is currently obsessed with a little horse figurine that has been Maximus from Tangled, Bullseye from Toy Story 3, and is now Donkey from Shrek 2 (as the stallion). He sleeps with him and takes him everywhere, making him gallop all over the house. So all he wanted to do was stand there and watch the ponies walk in a circle.

As the crowd got louder, we decided to take advantage of everyone being gathered in one spot, thereby leaving no lines in other areas, and check out a very intriguing sign we saw for a --get this-- Baby Tiger! Could it be true?

 Meet Sheena, the 6 month old, 65 lb. baby girl. She is, according to her trainer (mama), a sweet, cuddly kitten, who has no idea she could kill them if she got too rough.

Ben was a huge fan! The trainer here was apparently Sheena's mom. When she came out, Sheena just leaped up and ran over to her, purring like crazy. It was pretty sweet.

There isn't a whole lot cooler than a baby tiger.

As a family, we wanted some good pictures,

Me and my Love

so we wandered out across the grassy field where the picked pumpkins were, they had some fun tee-pees for hide and seek. The grass was a little tough to push the strollers across, so Mama had to literally carry her baby.

 All the kids were naming their pumpkins, even though we weren't going to take any home. It was still adorable to see them attempt to pick pumpkins bigger than they even were!

I was going for the pic of my niece in the background, not realizing my goofy husband was squinting into the sun in the foreground, heehee :) What a geek, I love him.

They loved playing hide and seek in the Teepees.

Once we got over here, our cousin, who loves this farm and this show and had been here several times before, showed up and took some great pictures of all of us.

Gosh, I love these people!
Here is our adorable photographer :)

Aaannd, her puppy, Lexi. Cute, huh?
Our girls just lover her.

And check out that sun! This is a special thing here in OR in the Fall. It was pouring the very next day, so this was awesome weather!

Then my girl had to do what going to the pumpkin patch means to her: "Putting your face in the thing and taking a picture."

Happy birthday, Matt!

 

 

And last but not least, We saw Matt on the way out