What I Have Learned From My Children

Heart of the Matter Meme

Being a homeschooling Mom has been a big learning experience for me. I've learned that:

• Children are just like adults. If the book is boring, they don't want to continue reading it or learning from it.

• Children have their own individual interests and those may differ from what I would want their interests to be.
  

• Children have different ways of learning. One child may like to learn with hands-on projects, while another likes reading from a book, another prefers workbooks, and another could watch 4 straight hours of the History channel.
  

• Children learn more from my example than what I say.
  

• Children want their mom to be patient and loving during homeschooling.
  

Our Field Trip to Pennsylvania

Our family went to Pennsylvania to pick up our new Maremma sheep dogs. We also visited some educational sites along the way. This is what we learned on our trip:

• Toured the Hershey Factory in Hershey, PA
• Learned the history of Mr. And Mrs. Hershey's businesses
• Drove through the Amish farm countryside
• Saw buggies pulled by horses.
• Ate Pennsylvania Dutch food, including Shoo-Fly PIe
  
• At Home: Viewed Amish quilts online
• At Home: Read questions and answers about the Amish people
• Toured a Civil War museum in Gettysburg
• Walked around a Gettysburg battlefield, memorial and cemetery
• Met and talked with an artist drawing scenes of the Civil War
• Stood where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address and read it aloud
• We were taught how to care for and train Maremma sheep dogs.
• The kids played with baby goats.
• Map skills
• Socialization with many adults we met along the way.
• Swimming in the hotel's pool, PE
  
• Walked on paths at a farm and around the battlefield, PE

What Hasn't Worked for Me?

Heart of the Matter

Being relaxed to the point where I don't schedule daily things - doesn't work for me. I try to be flexible due to my husband's work schedule, but we have become too flexible. This year, I've had to set:

• a bedtime
• a pick up clutter time and chore time
  
• a listen to Adventures in Odyssey time
• a Bible and devotional time
  
• a read aloud time
• an individual help with school work time

Things are going much better over here now that my kids know what to expect and when.

Using typical school text books with my kids - doesn't work for me. I'm not trying to bad mouth text books, it's just that I can't keep my kids interested in them. Plus, they don't seem to retain the information from text books. This is what my grade school kids used this year:

• LA and Map Skills: Scholastic Success Workbook 400 pg. (I found these at Costco for $7 each)
• Science: watched Scientific TV Shows, did science experiments found on the Internet, did Real Life Science Activities
• History: historical fiction read alouds and educational TV shows
• Geography: library books and educational TV shows
  
• Bible: Church and Adventures in Odyssey radio show

What I Wish I Had Known My First Year

When I started homeschooling I didn't realize all of the variety available and about the different choices to be made. I thought that I had to find the one perfect way to homeschool and stick with it.

I wish I had known - I didn't have to commit our family to just one way of homeschooling. Now that we've been doing it for 9 years, I pick and choose what works best with our family and each of the kids. Sometimes, during the middle of the year, we even switch to a Unit Study or Unschool for awhile. I've found that the most important thing is to make learning enjoyable for the children.

I wish I had known - my children don't have to read by a certain age. I pushed one of my girls in reading. I should have gone slower at it and made reading more relaxed and less stressful for her. She reads fine now, but she doesn't really enjoy it.

I wish I had known - how enjoyable joining a homeschool group can be. I was reluctant about joining, because I thought that my homeschooling methods would be critiqued. Once we did join, I realized that it was a great opportunity to socialize with other homeschooling families. My kids were able to see that there are many other kids who learn at home. They had kids to relate to.

My Favorite Homeschool Moment

My favorite homeschool moment is when I see my children enjoying what they are learning.

For example: My son read the first book in The Series of Unfortunate Events. He enjoyed the writing so much that he continued reading the series over the next 2 months, until he finished all 13 books. That inspired him to do more writing. Some days, he will sit at the computer for 2 - 4 hours writing fictional stories. He also has an interest in computers. Homeschooling allows him the extra time so that he can learn how to use Flash and do game programming. He has found his interests and he is pursuing them. This is so exciting for me to watch. I'm afraid that if he went to a school that his passion for these interests would be stifled. The school would tell him what books to read and what things to write about. School also limits the time of each project. When my son gets inspired to write, he doesn't want to be stopped a 1/2 hour later because it's time to move on to Math. I'm glad that homeschooling allows for us to be flexible so that he can spend more time learning things that he is interested in.

Field Trip to New York City

My husband had to take a work related trip to New York City. So, the rest of the family went too. My goal was to learn and experience as much as we could on this trip, with out spending much money. While in NYC, I carried around a guidebook and read aloud the information for each site that we saw.

Here is what our family learned and experienced on this trip:

• Free Ferry ride to Manhattan from Staten Island
  
• Statue of Liberty
• Ellis Island
• Battery Park
• Financial District
• Saw the Site of the World Trade Center and Memorials
• Rode on the Subway
• Saw where Dave Letterman is recorded and his two guests leaving the Ed Sullivan theater.
• Times Square
• Grand Central Station
• Walked over 22,000 steps in Manhattan, PE
• Played in Central Park, PE
• Ate New York style pizza.
• Drove around Staten Island.
• Read the Book - Dreams in the Golden Country (Dear America - NYC, 1903)
• Read the Book - Journey to Ellis Island by Carol Bierman
• Street sign practice.
• Map Skills
• Socialization with many adults we met along the way.

How I Got Started Homeschooling

Heart of the Matter Meme

Before I married my husband, he told me that he wanted to homeschool our future kids. Well, I didn't. In 1990, I thought that homeschoolers were weird and I didn't fit into their category. Having children was the last thing on my mind. I married him anyhow and knew that I would be able to easily change his mind on this homeschooling thing. Shortly after getting married, the baby bug hit me. All I wanted to do was have a baby, and to be a stay-at-home mom.

When my first child was 4, I gave him preschool workbooks and he did educational programs on the computer - including basic reading software. At the time, I didn't consider this homeschooling, because he was only 4. When it was time to register for Kindergarten, I realized that we had in fact been homeschooling. I figured that he already knew the things that were going to be taught in Kindergarten. So, we homeschooled. It worked out so well for our family that we have done it ever since - for 10 years now and with all 5 children.

My Thoughts on Sheltering

Heart of the Matter Meme

My thoughts on the quote:
"Clearly there is an appropriate kind of sheltering. When those who are opposed to homeschooling accuse me of sheltering my children, my reply is always, 'What are you going to accuse me of next, feeding and clothing them?" ~R.C. Sproul Jr

I choose to expose my children to the real world. When we are in a store, I encourage them to talk to adults. At church, I encourage them to ask the pastors questions. My kids even start conversations with adults when we are on vacations. I remember when we were walking around a civil war battlefield in Gettysburg, my kids met an artist. He was sketching the battlefield and told the kids so much history about the battle that took place there.

My kids are exposed to real people at church. They have relationships with adults and children of all ages. They are also exposed to real people when we go to homeschooling events. We visit with real families when they invite us to their homes. We interact with our real neighbors. We listen to the radio, watch some TV shows, and go to some sites on the Internet. I tell my children about the sad realities of the world. There are many times when I explain the unfortunate situations that some people live in and tell my kids how we can help them or pray for them. When my kids are old enough, I'll expose them to a real job and a real college.

I choose to shelter my kids from things that I don't consider part of the real world. I went to school as a child and I volunteered in a grade school a few years ago. The school setting is one of the things that I don't want to expose my children to. School children are forced to sit for long amounts of time. They are forced to learn and relearn facts that they cannot relate to. The children are forced to remain quiet and inactive. All children are expected to learn at the same pace or they will be forced to repeat the school year. I chose to shelter my kids from the adult educators that want to daily influence my children. I'm the mom; I want to influence my children with things that I feel are important.

I also choose to shelter my children from the kids who are not a good influence. A lot of emotional damage can be done by another child who is being raised incorrectly. When my children are older, they will have learned the skills to be able to deal with people who are mean and hurtful. For now, I am going to protect my child emotionally through sheltering.

Sheltering is a necessary part of parenting. I believe that we can raise our children in the real world and honor God by sheltering them appropriately.

Our Five Week Field Trip to Portland

A year ago, at Christmas, we took a 5 week trip to Oregon. I didn't plan anything educational, because I was so caught up in preparing for the trip. However, when we got back home, I thought about all of the learning experiences that "just happened".

Here is what our family learned on our 5-week trip to Oregon:

• Grandma taught us how to knit hats with a circular knitting loom.
• Grandpa took my son downtown Portland on the commuter train to see city life.
• Grandma took 2 of my daughters to a ceramic shop to paint and fire their own ceramics.
• The kids learned about family life during the Depression while watching Season 2 of the Walton's as we traveled.
• We got to see the great variety through out America as we drove through 14 states.
• Grandpa took one of my daughters to a donut shop and she got to see the machines making the donuts.
• We went to the Oregon Coast and looked at all the sea creatures living in the tidal pools.
• My son read 6 books that he got for Christmas.
• The kids played games that they got for Christmas: Dutch Blitz, Monopoly, Phonics Games, and Mille Borne.
  
• My daughters worked on needlepoint and crocheted while traveling.
• Grandpa took the kids to OMSI - The Hands On Science Museum
• Made Christmas cards and ornaments and gave to people in rest areas and at toll booths.
• We sent the knitted hats to orphans.
• For P.E. - went roller-skating, swimming, practiced dancing, played on outdoor equipment at parks, and played on indoor equipment at restaurants.
• Socialized with relatives, friends, and fellow travelers everyday.