Eleven Years Later...

 That sounds like a bad meme, but it actually has been eleven years since I last posted here.  Life has been full of highs and lows.  Griffin is now 22, Sammy is 20, Oliver is 15, and Duncan is 12.  Praise God for growing children!  I miss their littleness, but I love their bigness.  

I've always been one of those people who couldn't wait until my kids were "old enough to have real conversations with!"  It has been so wonderful, though my romanticized notions of what life with teenagers would look like were... wrong.  Right in some ways, but definitely wrong in others.

For example, I forgot about jobs.  Jobs take time.  That time means that everything else they are doing (hello, homeschooling) still needs to happen, but they now have a shorter amount of time to accomplish the task.  And way less time to have real conversations like I was so used to in our little homeschool.  

So, we adjusted when Griffin got a job.  Then Sammy went to work at the same place (Culver's -- what a great first job!)  And now Oliver starts work there next week.

Duncan is my little fighter.  He was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma when he was 9 years old, and has fought it so bravely these past 3 years.  He's my hero!  He has endured so much, and still keeps that silly grin on his face, a song in his heart (and hummed, and sung, and tapped, and any other way he can express it), and his faith in God's purpose and will firmly intact.  Hero material, right there.

Mike and I celebrated our 24th anniversary last month by going to see Young Washington at AMC and then enjoying a meal at Cheesecake Factory.  Such a fun night!  

The next week, we all went on Duncan's Make-A-Wish trip to Branson.  We got to see David at Sight and Sound Theater, Hamners' Unbelievable Variety Show, Whodunnit Hoedown Murder Mystery Dinner Show, Silver Dollar City, and Dolly Parton's Stampede.  We stayed at Black Bear Cabin at Grand Mountain, and it had room for all of us and Duncan's wheelchair too!  Did I mention that he broke bones in both feet before we left on his trip?  

Life is never boring, that's for sure.

Oh, and I wrote a book.  

My Favorite Homeschool Planner

My favorite homeschool planner is not a "homeschool" planner.  It is this one from House of Doolittle, and it costs $5.47 on Amazon right now.  This is very similar to the planner my mom used, so maybe it just feels "right" to me because of that, but there are so many things I love about this planner.  Let me count the ways!

First, I love the Subject column.  There is no list of subjects in the left-hand column, so I can write my own list there, and if one week's subjects are different from the next week, it's okay!  For the most part, my subject list has remained the same, but I did figure out about half way through the year that I could consolidate a couple of subjects, and I use the extra squares for "Life Skills" and "Character Traits." 

Second, I love the space for notes on the right-hand column.  Here is what it looks like up close.

I am very visual, and love to color-code things, so each day of the week has a color, and I mark some things so that I can easily find what needs to be done on which days.  Also, each child of mine has a color.  Griffin is green, Sammy is blue, Oliver is orange and Duncan is red. This color applies to rubber bands that go around their drinking   glasses, any school supplies that are purchased for them, and the little highlighted marks that you see in the planner.  When they see their color, it is their job to do that assignment and mark it off when it is completed.  This way I am not writing the same assignments multiple times.  I think my future self will thank me for simplifying the process once I have 4 children in my planner!

Third, I love this planner because it is simple.  It is about 1/2 inch thick, and doesn't have monthly or weekly planning pages, or tabs, or pretty designs, or Bible verses, or a fancy cover, or any of the other things that drew me to other planners that I have used in the past.  Any fanciness has to come from my hand.

I have used this planner (Well Planned Day) in the past:

  

At first, I loved the colors and designs, and I happily used this planner for about 3 years.  As the boys got older, and we added more subjects, I began to be irritated by the fact that the subjects were already filled in, and one of them (English) wasn't one that I used (language arts is tough to label sometimes!), so I had to mark it off every week and re-write that one, plus add a few more subjects in the spaces below it.

Next, I purchased this one (A Simple Plan) from Mardel.

I wondered when I purchased A Simple Plan if I would be annoyed by the gray and white lines, but I did like the fact that I could write in my own subjects, even if I did have to write them sideways.  I must be really easily annoyed, because even that bothered me!  And yes, I was right.  I would just about go cross-eyed every week when I would sit down to do my planning, because of those gray and white lines.  They were highly distracting, and made it hard for my eyes to focus on parts of the page.

Fourth, I love that this planner isn't dated.  I love not having blank weeks when we take school off, and having to cross off big sections when we take a month off.  Even after taking time off, I just flip to the next week, write the dates in, and go!

Conference and Catalog Season

Just a reminder (for me as well; I am still learning these lessons!) as we head into Conference and Catalog Season: Trust in the Lord to lead your family in the way that you should go. God has plans for you and your children that no one else might know about yet. Not even you!

Don't fall into the trap of lusting after the curriculum in the pages of those glossy catalogs, with all of the smiling, clean children and ultra-confident, non-yoga-pant-wearing, took-a-shower-this-morning moms. Those catalogs and companies have a product to sell. They may be wonderful products, and they might actually help your family achieve greater things than you ever imagined possible. Or, they might enslave you because you feel like you can't follow the leading of the Holy Spirit because you spent so much good money on all of these great books and curriculum, and they were put together by experts, who clearly have more knowledge than you do. Been there, purchased that, regretted that, re-sold that!

As you walk around at a homeschool conference, you may feel pressured to purchase certain (shiny) books or curriculum that claim that they have figured out the very best way to teach your children, and they can show you how to do it. There are so many wonderful choices out there today, many of which will actually provide your children with an excellent education. But what is driving us to purchase that curriculum? Is it fear? Peer pressure (no matter how positive)? Or is it our desire to follow God's leading? When a newer, "better," shinier curriculum comes along, will we ditch what we are currently using and chase after that one as well? {My husband *might* have just spoken those very words to me last week.}

Jeremiah 17:5-10
"Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.

For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is in the Lord.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?

I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings."

Did you catch all of that? You might want to read it again, just to be sure. It's SO good.

Remember, we can lead our children to and through education, but we can't make them learn. That is up to them, and God. And, my Mama taught me that one of the best ways to teach is with consistency. It can be hard for a child to take in new information when he is constantly having to learn new methods and get used to new curriculums with different rules. Gulp. I have had to learn not to let my children's whining and/or complaining affect my decision-making. That's hard!

{{{Story: I had felt strongly led to use a certain math curriculum a few years ago, and after using it for half a school year I let my son's daily whining about the lessons persuade me to start considering other options, even though he had been learning well and progressing at an amazing rate. Now, my husband and I have decided to go back to that curriculum after 2 years of pushing through a different curriculum that is top rated, but that I never felt at peace about. What does my son have to say? "Oh, that's awesome, Mom! I really loved that curriculum, and I was sad when we stopped using it." He tells me 2 years later. Don't be led around by the whims of your children! Let God, in His infinite wisdom, guide you.}}}

Proverbs 3:1-8
"My son, do not forget my law,
But let your heart keep my commands;
For length of days and long life
And peace they will add to you.

Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
And so find favor and high esteem
In the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

It will be health to your flesh,
And strength to your bones."

Also, I need to remember to not neglect the Scriptures as the very best curriculum there is, or ever will be.

2 Timothy 3:17-18
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

Duncan!

Pictures.  Because I have been facebooking my life and not blogging it!  Shame on me!

Life Dirt

As I swept the floor this morning, and my dirt (Lego, mud clot, dart-gun bullet) pile quickly accumulated, the thought came once again (as it often does lately during these days of Young Man Restlessness and Deep Masculine Thoughts from my oldest) -- one day soon, my dirt pile won't be quite so interesting as it is now.  I am excited at the possibility of only sweeping once a week instead of every day or two, don't get me wrong.  But my little brood of... well, I guess I can't call these hens, as we are a house full of Little Roosters, with one Mother Hen trying to tame them all... The Rooster Crew won't be here forever, and one day there will just be Mama and Papa Dirt to clean up.  I sure hope it is half as interesting as my Rooster Crew dirt pile is!  

2 Thessalonians 3:10

Adventures in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 living! We have been implementing this verse for the past month, and it has been working beautifully. The boys have had many good days, when they get their school work done before lunch easily, and just a couple of bad days, when they didn't eat anything but breakfast and water until 8 or 9pm.

Side note: Keep in mind that their school work is all independent, and takes them 1-2 hours to complete, if they are focused. We have chosen independent curriculum for a reason! I have four little people to care for, and a house to take care of, and laundry, and dishes, and food to prepare... I can not do all of my jobs well if I have to stand beside them and hold their hand while they learn. We are raising independent learners!

So, back to the update: I still love it. I don't have to nag, remind, cajole, bribe, anything. If they want to eat, they have to do the work. And they really like to eat.

As a reminder, here is our daily routine. When one task is completed, they may begin the next task.
Morning Hygiene
Breakfast
School
Lunch
Chores
Snack
Dinner

This week, I discovered that I need to begin Phase 2. Kitchen open/closed times. The reason for this is that if the kitchen is open (food is available) all day, at any time, then they have no reason to want to finish by a certain time. They just grab a sandwich at 2pm, which then leaves a mess for me to clean up. They try, but we have ants right now, so every crumb needs to be off of the counters, and they are boys... you get the idea. But if I say that lunch is from 12-1, and the kitchen closes at 1 and doesn't re-open until snack time at 4, then they whip themselves into shape and get busy! Or at least, that is the plan.

Today, they chose to play a game at breakfast time. I just watched, not saying anything, letting them enjoy their time together. I figured they would end the game and get busy. Nope. They messed around until 11:45, when I started talking out loud, to myself (ha!) about what I would make for lunch. Uh-oh.

There was much whining, crying, cajoling, bribing, nagging (all on their part), but The Mama didn't budge. A light bulb blinked on over my red head (isn't that how all genius happens?), and I decided to implement the "closed kitchen" idea. They had an hour to get their school work done before the kitchen closed. They could get it done if they worked hard. Did they make good choices? Did they use their time wisely?

They pulled out the watercolors. (I am editing this post to add that anyone who knows me knows that my eye started twitching at this point. One, rules were being broken. Two, paint. Enough said.)

So, lunchtime rolled around, and no one was done with their school. Hmmm...

I heated up my food, and my 3-year-old's food, and we sat down to eat, at which point all of the school work leaves the table for the day and has to be taken to the basement to be worked on. After all, we wouldn't want a drink to spill and ruin a school book, right? Oh, dear. The noises I heard! I sat down and calmly ate my lunch.

No one had finished their school work by the time the kitchen closed at 1pm. So, I gently reminded them that when the kitchen re-opened at 4pm for snack time, they needed to have their school work AND chores done in order to get a snack.

I have never seen my children work harder or faster than they did today. They finished up their last subjects of school work, and get this! They *helped each other* get their chores done so that they could both eat snack. Holy textbooks! I about fell over. Yes, I know, that's not proper grammar. But I did.

Rules and consistency work! It has taken me 9 years to figure that out, but it is beginning to sink in.

Planning Day

Sundays are Planning Day for me.  My process has become fairly streamlined over the years, and I can pull everything out, plan for the coming week, and put everything away in around an hour.  I took a bunch of pictures today for those who, like me, love to see how other people do things.

First, I need to clean up my work space.

Done cleaning, now on to the fun stuff.

This is everything I need to do my weekly school planning.  I put it all on the table before I start, because if I get up to get anything, I almost always get distracted.

The inside of my planner.  I used my 3-hole punch to punch holes in my EZ-Grader, because I had trouble keeping track of it.  Behind that is what is left of our Pizza Hut Book It certificates.  Then there is a sheet protector full of stickers.  When the boys get an A on their math, or do exceptionally well on one of the subjects I don't grade, they get to pick a sticker. 

This is the next section in my planner.  The past weeks' assignment sheets, plus blank ones for upcoming weeks.  I mark the week numbers in a the beginning of the year so that we make sure we get 36-40 weeks done, but I don't write the dates down until I am writing assignments down for that week.  The week numbers are important, as you will see later.

I pull out a blank sheet for this week.  It happens to be week 34.  We're almost done with the required number of weeks of school for this year!  Yippee!!

Next, I fill in the students' names and their "independent work" subjects, and the "Subjects We Do Together."  This planning page is located at www.donnayoung.org.  It works great for two students, and I'll probably keep using it once kiddos 3 and 4 join us for school, I'll just use two sheets for each week, and print back and front (I love duplex printing!) so that I can see both pages at the same time when my binder is open.

I have all of the information I need to fill in the blanks, right in the back of my binder.  I'll show you that next.  I fill in the independent subjects (math, language arts, reading and penmanship) first...

and then the subjects we do together (Bible, science and character studies)

This is my creation, and the reason why I only need one binder to fill in my planner every week.  No more hauling all of the books out to my desk every week!  I made this in Excel, and it has a box for every week we do school (usually 36-40 weeks).  I can send you the file if you want to use it.  I made one of these sheets for every book we have used in school this year.  I slide it into a sheet protector, and use a wet erase marker to mark off each week after I write it on the assignment sheet.  Each box is numbered, and that is why my week numbers on my planning sheets are so important.  I know where we should be in each book because of the week number.  Griffin's Saxon 5/4 math book is shown here.  I can easily see that at the end of this week, he will have completed 28 weeks, and have 6 weeks of work left in this book.  I have a divider for Griffin, one for Sammy, and one for Together.  Griffin's books get marked off in green, Sammy's in blue, and Together in red.

We don't use every book for a full year.  This was one of our Bible books, and it only took us about 9 or 10 weeks to finish this book, because the lessons were short and easy to read, and we ended up doing several in a week, instead of just one per week like I had planned.  Then we got to pick a new book to go through.

We use the Eclectic Education Series, which includes the McGuffey Readers.  We are using the Original books this year, but I believe that next year we will use the revised versions.  The wording is a bit more up-to-date, as is the content, but it still is full of godly, moral lessons.

Sammy's lesson for next week.  This is in the First Reader.  Each week, they do oral reading on Monday, spelling with me on Tuesday, copywork (I choose which paragraph) on Wednesday, spelling with their brother on Thursday, and either more copywork (Sammy) or answering questions about the lesson (Griffin) on Friday.  If there are no questions at the end of the lesson, Griffin does more copywork on Friday as well.  I just love the pictures in these books, and each lesson is just so wonderful for helping us pass on our faith to our children!

This is the Second Reader.  There are 4 Readers, and the content in the Readers takes a child through high school, and into college level reading.  The lessons are not very long, but they really make the child think.  Here was Griffin's list of spelling words for last week.  They do spelling orally for now, and they are both superb spellers.  If they spell a word incorrectly, we talk about its meaning, break it down into syllables, and sometimes talk about phonics as well.

Our penmanship binder.  I wrote out character traits, each with its definition and a Bible verse, once in print and once in cursive, and then laminated them together, one on one side, one on the other.  The boys take that week's penmanship down to the school room for the week, and they have to turn in 5 copies in their best penmanship (Sammy in print, Griffin in cursive) every Friday.  If they have written carelessly, they rewrite the sloppy ones.  I pick out their best page, they get to pick a sticker for it, and we put those in the binder behind the laminated sheet for the week.  We'll go through them at the end of the year and see how much they have improved over the year.

From Boyhood and Beyond, by Bob Schultz -- one of the books I read aloud with the boys during "Mom School" in the afternoons.  Griffin, Sammy and I spend about an hour every afternoon on the couch doing school together while the littles take their naps.  It is one of my favorite times of the day. 

This one is God's Names, by Sally Michael.  I am learning right along with my children as we read through it.  There are 3 more in this series; God's Promises, God's Providence, and God's Provisions.  I can't wait to read them all!  So fantastic.

This is Griffin's science/health book for the year.  It is all about taking care of your body.  We read it aloud during Mom School, and then Griffin takes a quiz at the end of each chapter.  Sammy won't get quizzed on it until he studies it when he's in 4th grade.

In every book we use for school, even if it wasn't intended for school use, I divide the book into sections and write the section numbers in, so that I can easily find where we need to be every day. 

We go over the questions every day after I finish reading aloud.  I ask the question, they think about it, and then they repeat the answer after me.  These are the same questions Griffin has on his Quizzes.

Griffin's book list for this year.  I spent a total of $67 on his books this year, and $30 of that was a critical thinking book that we won't be using any longer.  He finished it for the year, and we're not continuing that subject next year.  Homeschooling can be very inexpensive and still include good quality materials!  Most of our curriculum is in the Eclectic Education Series, which we purchased last year from www.dollarhomeschool.com.  All of the books in the series are available for free online at public domain sites, but they are often not formatted, and some have pages missing... it can be time-consuming to piece together on your own.  For $159, we purchased 5 CDs that have all of the books we need for a wonderful, thorough 1st - 12th grade education.  If they finish all of the books in the series, they have completed 1st-3rd year college level work.