Brotherly love

Something I learned while having my boys in public school:  they don’t get along as well.

I know this sounds crazy.  They’re not together all day long while at school so they should get along when they come home, right?  And when they’re homeschooled, they’re stuck with each other all day long so they should argue more, right?

That’s what society would have us to believe, but I, having experienced it both ways, know different. 

My boys have always had a wonderful imagination.  There were days I postponed starting school because they were playing some imaginary adventure and I hated to disrupt it.  They had their moments where they argued, but for the most part, they were each other’s best friend. 

Then they went to school.  They argued more while they were in public school and the imaginary “play” disappeared.  There were no more adventures going on at our house.  I missed that.

They are just  now starting to go back to their imaginary play and adventures and getting along again.  Yes, it’s taken this long.  And it wasn’t easy. 

I snapped these pictures of them outside the other day.  They were on an adventure!  I really have no idea what they were pretending to be or do and I don’t really care.  There were brothers being friends and enjoying each other.  I love it!

Old World Wisconsin

Last Friday we went on a field trip with some homeschoolers from our church.  We  went to Old World Wisconsin.  The kids had lots of fun.  We didn’t get to see that much of Old World because the kids were so fascinated with each stop and spent so much time in one place.  I ended up buying a membership because in two visits, it pays for itself and we live so close.  Now we can go for an afternoon and I don’t feel like we need to see everything to get our money’s worth.

The kids playing with the old-fashioned games.

Logan LOVED this game where you shoot the  penny.  He played it over and over and over again.

David and  Isaac trying out some games.  These two were the old kids of the group.

Eli playing a game.

Henry the cow.

The kids were so fascinated with the honey bees.  A wasp got in with them and they watched the other bees attack it.  Then they found the queen bee.

Looking at the bees….

All the kids in our new home school group.

The moms (and babies).

The blacksmith

Watching the blacksmith

The ol’  hotel

 

Overall, it was a cold day, but the rain stayed away and we even had the sun at some points.  It was a fun day and I look forward to taking my boys back there.

Literature-based approach

At about the time we were into our third week of school, I decided we needed a change.  I know that may not seem like very long, but trust me, if you sat down every day to do school and were constantly nagging at your son or daughter to pay attention, listen, come sit down and then that nagging was met with crying, refusal, and disobedience, you would look for ways to change too.  Every day Eli would have a meltdown about something.  I figured this was part of the adjustment from summer to school time.  Every day I would wonder what I’m doing wrong.  Every day I would wonder if something was wrong with my child.  Seriously.  It was just plain awful.

During this time I really felt like the enemy was trying to thwart my plans to home school.  Make  me feel like I couldn’t do it or shouldn’t do it.  I felt many forces working against us.  I felt frustrated, worn out and lacking patience.  I kept my eyes focused on God and believed that He brought me to this and He’ll bring me through it.  I prayed about what our change should be.  I really didn’t want to switch curriculums.  That’s such a hassle.  But God lead me to where I needed to be.  And that was a switch in our curriculum.

Every child learns differently.  I was trying to force a round peg into a square hole.  It just wasn’t working.  After much praying, I have switched Eli ( and Isaac somewhat) to Sonlight.  It is a literature-based curriculum.  It is a curriculum that instills  Godly values that allow me to bond with  my kids as we learn together and equip them to be ambassadors for Christ.  We are going to be reading so many books together, real live history stories with real live people.   Not boring textbooks. 

I talked with Eli one day about my decision to switch.  He came up to  me later and said, out of the blue, “Mom, do you know what my best year of homeschooling was?  It was the year you read me stories and I answered questions.”  He was referring to two years ago when I used a similar curriculum with a literature-based approach.  That was the icing on the cake!

We have now finished up one week using our new curriculum.  I love it!  Yes, we have days where Eli doesn’t want to work, but he’s learning, asking questions and best of all, I have his full attention!  I’ll never forget the first day when we started.  I was reading Red Sails to Capri, I glanced up and saw Eli staring at me, all of his attention was caught up in this story.  I was stunned!  Before it was always,  “Eli, look at this.  Eli, pay attention.  Eli, come and do this.  Eli, are you listening to me?”  I never fully had his attention in any subject. 

On box day (the day our box of books came, actually two boxes), I opened them up and set all the books out on the table.  Eli wanted nothing to do with them at first.  He heard “school” and he was out of the room.  About half an hour later though, I went to do some laundry and came back to find both Isaac AND Eli sitting at the table devouring the books. 

What also makes this wonderful is that Sonlight is geared for more than one age group.  So Isaac is listening in to our stories.  He is doing his computer-based school and then joining us for Bible, History, Read Alouds and Science.  Awesome!

This curriculum is more expensive that the other curriculum and that was a big concern to me.  But I have to believe that if this is what God wants us using, then the financial  part of it will work out also.

I love that homeschooling allows me to decide and choose what my children will learn and how they will learn it.  We’ve already had some great discussions on topics that have come up after we’ve read something.  The possibilities are endless.

Happy Egg Farm

My oldest son is starting a business!  He will be selling farm fresh eggs.  We thought he could gear it towards our homeschooling group, but we’re quickly learning that family, friends and word-of-mouth are his first customers.

Isaac read up on chickens and which ones would produce the most eggs.  He then selected a variety of chickens and used his own money to buy 20-something chicks.  They were arriving this morning bright and early (6:00 a.m. or thereabouts) at the post office.  He spent the night at his grandma’s house so he could go with to pick them up.  The chickens will be staying at Grandma’s house since we have no set up for his chickens at our house. 

In about six months or so the chickens will start laying eggs.  Isaac has decided on a price of $2.00 a dozen for his farm fresh eggs. 

I think this is a wonderful opportunity for Isaac to learn how a business starts and operates.  It is somewhat of a homeschooling project for him.  He’s decided the name of his business is Happy Egg Farm. 

So if you’re looking for some farm fresh eggs, come talk to Isaac!

***Eli is also looking into starting a business. He's more interested in ducks or possibly turkey raising.

Homeschooling

We have decided to home school the boys this year.

I have been writing this post in my head (as I do with many of my entries), but this one has been in the works for quite some time.  The only problem I had was starting it.  How did I want to “announce” that we would be homeschooling again?  I finally figured the best way was to just say it.  Simple.  Done.

Now I know what automatically follows that statement.  The question of why.  Why would you want to homeschool?  Along with, Isn’t having the boys in school easy for you?  Are you crazy?  How will you ever handle it all? 

The answer to why is complicated.  There is no easy simple answer.  It’s a big answer.  A really big answer.  How long do you have? 

Basically, the short version of why is, it is just what works for our family. 

I’ll get in to a few of the reasons why though.  A few.  :)

For those of you who are new in my life, I homeschooled my two oldest boys up until last year.  Last year we felt led to put them into school and chose a small charter school nearby.  It’s a very nice, close knit school.  I was happy with it and don’t have a whole lot of complaints about the school. It was a very tough year for me with Camden and I feel the decision we made was the right one for last year.  This year, and probably future years, is different.

We haven’t made any of these decisions hastily and on our own.  We’ve prayed and sought God on what to do.  Homeschooling is what we feel we’re led to do. 

Here are some reasons why:

1.  We are the number one influence on our children and their formation, instead of learning the latest “dirty word” or being encouraged to have  a girlfriend at the age of 10.

2.  The chance to get to know my children better because I am with them most of the day.  Last year was very hard for me because I knew my children very well up until then.  When they went to school, I didn’t see them very much or  know what happened throughout their day.  The average child spends 11,000 hours in a classroom.  Children are young for such a short period of time.  Why miss that time?

3.  My children can learn at their own pace, whether it’s behind or ahead.  Teaching in school is “one size fits all” approach.  This type of teaching doesn’t fit to every kid.  Children have different learning styles and temperaments that would not be taken into consideration in school. 

4.  The ability to teach my children about God and faith and being able to pray throughout our day.  This is very important!  Most children will lose their faith when faced with assaults on their beliefs day in and day out.  Why throw your lambs in to the wolves at such an early age?  Keep them at home as long as possible to help build a solid foundation. 

5.  The ability to have a say in who your  child’s friends are.  This may raise some flags to some people, that we’re being overprotective of our kids.  That’s okay.  You’re not my child.  Being homeschooled allows you to seek like-minded families and friends.  These friends are being raised with the same values and morals as my kids so there are fewer “But, Mom, everyone is doing it, watching it, etc.”  I experienced some of this last year while the boys were in school.  My boys heard a lot of “That’s not our family.”

6.  Pleasant children.  I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging because I am really not, but I get lots of compliments on how well behaved my children are.  I don’t think it’s because I’m constantly nagging them or that I’m such a great mother.  When children of the same age spend so much time together in a classroom for nine months out of the year, they can be somewhat barbaric or out of control.  Kids influence each other so much at such a young age.  I saw my ten year old very quickly develop the attitude of his peers at school.  He didn’t act that way at school (he is the quiet type), but at home, where he is comfortable, I saw this attitude unwinding.  I am not able to monitor their attitudes as much when they’re in school most of the day.  When they’re home all day, I can quickly correct them about a wrong attitude or back talk or whatever it is.  I am their example, not  20 other ten year olds.

7.  No worries about bullies.  Children don’t always tell parents everything that goes on in the classroom.  The thought of a bully being mean to my boys…..I don’t think so.  Why put my kids through that, especially when they are so young?  We had a small experience of this last year.  Just broke my heart to think  of  other kids being mean to my boy.  This is the type of “socialization” that people say kids need????  No way!!!

8.  No worries about sexual abuse.  We’ve heard a lot about this with Catholic priests, but it happens in the public school system too. 

9.  More freedom to be themselves.  They can pursue any natural talents.  When my kids are in school all day long, the last thing I want to do is drive them to some extra-curricular activity.  Not to mention, where is the time for that?  Where is the family time then?  No thank you.  We can snuggle together and read books on a cold, wintery morning instead of rushing out the door.

10.  Going on a learning adventure with my kids.  Who knew learning could be so much fun?  Every day is an adventure and I am learning so many things about my kids and about  myself. 

Not every day is fun and exciting.  There will be frustrating days.  Homeschooling takes much hard work and effort, but the rewards and special memories that you gain are greater than you can imagine and they will last a lifetime.