Why We Homeschool

Our decision to homeschool our children centers on the most important of reasons: God has led us to. All other reasons fade when compared to this. We feel this is what God desires for our family and so in obedience we are homeschooling. For the most part I am in compliance with this arrangement, unless of course, you count the days when we are having meltdowns and I day dream of what it must be like to send your children to school! However, these are just flitting visions, because just as soon as I wonder about the other side the Lord fills my mind with all the wonderful aspects of homeschooling.

• I get to be with my children each and every day.
• It gives me the opportunity to build strong relationships and bonds with each of them.
• I can teach about God and His Word.
• We can pray in our school and it is recommended!
• We have a flexible schedule and we can change directions at a moments notice.
• Learning experiences are all around us and we can take a break from scheduled school to pursue them.
• I get to cuddle with my children on the couch as we read history, science or a good book.
• My older children are learning by teaching my younger children.
• I can control what my children hear and see- no R rated words, images or conversations in our school.
• If someone is having a bad day we can take a break and reduce the school load a bit.
• I get to learn amazing stuff that I didn't learn in school.
• I get to teach, something I love to do.

So many wonderful reasons why I feel homeschooling is best for us. We are truly blessed to be able to do this in our family.

"So that your trust may be in the Lord, I teach you today, even you." Proverbs 22:19

Sonlight Excitement

Today is the day!  I'm going to make my final decisions. I've been dreaming. I've been wishing. I've been adding items and deleting items. I've chosen the essentials and a few extras. My catalogue is covered in green highlighter I think I'm ready. Just a few clicks away and I'll have my order sent in.  Then its just a matter of waiting until that glorious big box arrives. 

When the Fed Ex man pulls in our driveway watch out!  There will be a mad scramble of bodies rushing to get out the door. The noise will be at a leveled pitch.  Shouts of joy and much jostling will occur as we maneuver the box into the house.  Followed by jumping, twitching and shouts of "I can't wait to see!", as we scurry to find the scissors to open the box.  As the flaps of the box are opened and pulled back to reveal the treasure awaiting inside a hush falls over the room.  Bodies slowly sink to the floor in anticipation.  Slowly and reverently I begin to pull out the books.  I pull out a book and set it in the awaiting hands of my patiently waiting son. I hand another book and another book until each boy has a book.  I check our order among exclamations of joy and wonder. It isn't a quick task, because I must stop to look at the discoveries that each boy is making.  The room is full of animated statements, "look at this" and "I want to read this right now!".  Hours of enjoyment ensue. Eventually we pack the books back into the box to await the beginning of the school year.  There are sighs as we pack them away.  No one wants to wait till school begins. But, waiting is advantageous.  Because the next time we open the box...

We feel all the anticipation and excitement all over again!

 

Thanks Sonlight!

 

The Best Laid Plans

Well, its been a week since my last post and I think I was able to accomplish our summer schedule a whoppin' two times.  I have been SO tired lately and haven't had the will power to yank my sleepy self out from under the covers before 8:30 each morning.  I have never been a morning person and since I don't have to technically be up for any reason, I find myself just drifting back off to sleep. That is until my daughter forces me to get up!

As for the schooling part of the day, well I think I accomplished that 3 of the days. This past week got really busy with extra stuff that I don't normally do throughout the week. 

One highlight from our week was that we got to spend part of the day yesterday with a friend from our church that the children call Gramma Nature.  We packed a lunch and went over to look at her beautiful flower gardens. We had a wonderful time. The boys and Sissy got to play with her grandchildren, who also attend our church.  It seems we never come away from her home empty.  She sent with me bags full of starts from her plants and the boys received two tadpoles.  We are now feeding tadpoles and paint turtles!  Science class is always in session at Juniper Hill Acacemy!

Summer Break

We have officially been on summer break for 2 1/2 weeks now. For the first 2 weeks we ditched all semblance of a schedule except for meal times.  I wanted to give the boys a significant break before we got back into our summer schedule.  Let me tell you, I am so glad to be back on a schedule!  The last two weeks have been filled with bickering and looks of boredom from my children.  This is what our summer schedule looks like:

8:00 Wake-up call~ this is an hour later than during school time

8:15 Devotions

8:45 Breakfast

9:15 Outside chores and daily cleaning chore

9:45 Piano practice and note training

10:15 Read to mom

Once these items are done then the boys have free time, for now!  This is just a rough estimate of the times. I don't stick to this strictly. I'm pretty flexible and not everyday will follow this schedule, because sometimes this momma has to hit a garage sale or two! Plus, I am thinking about adding in a bit of math work, just to keep us on track.  We may not do it everyday, but at least 2 or 3 days a week. Of course our days during the summer are full of science, just take a look at what my oldest son has brought home to care for...

and we found this little one in our garage the other day

to read more about this adventure read this post on my other blog.

These are just a few of the animal adventures we have had here on Juniper Hill this spring. I'm sure there will be many more!

Personification Poem

One of Isaac's lessons this week from his Sonlight Language required him to write a personification poem. He chose to write his poem on amusement. I enjoyed helping him write his poem so much, I decided to write one of my own.


FEAR
Loomed enormous, towering over all
With dark consuming eyes and devilish hair
His booming voice seeped into my very soul
As he crept through the shadows
I hid under my Lord's protective covers.

And here is Isaac's...

AMUSEMENT
Stood tall with skinny legs
His bright blue eyes shined like the stars
The curly brown hair on top of his head looked like brown skinny noodles
Through the trees he went laughing, giggling and eternally happy
I was extremely happy.

School in the Woods

Yesterday Joel took work off to take the boys turkey hunting. This was Jacob's first time to hunt anything bigger than a rabbit. He was so excited! Isaac was excited to, but just showed his in a lot of smiles. Jacob was a bit more exuberant! He was literally bouncing! And all he could talk about was going turkey hunting.

I love the times the boys get to go out in the fields and woods with their dad on a hunting trip. Oh the lessons they learn out there with him! They learn about trees, animal habits, gun safety, nature conservation, the list goes on. Not to mention, the time of bonding they receive.

Well, the hunt was successful for Jacob and he came back just as bouncy as when he left! To say he was excited is an understatement!

He got a jake bird (a young male). It was kind of humorous, because right before he went hunting, he told me he wasn't going to shoot a jake! He said he was going to wait for a big tom with a dragging beard! I guess the excitement of the whole hunt took over. He was pretty happy about the whole procedure!

Congratulations Jacob!

Continuing On

I was able to get some semblance of order into our school days this week, even though I am still flat on my back in bed. My mom has been taking my younger two, Caleb and Lauren during the days. I send Caleb's work with him and we works with my mom.

Isaac and Jacob stay here with me. I have them pull out all their paper work and they sit on my floor with lap boards. That way I can keep them on task and help them with any questions they may have. We have been getting the basics done each day- math, phonics, language, spelling, and reading. Isaac has been able to get his science done and we started adding in some of our history this week, too.

I haven't been able to fit in science and history with Jacob yet, but I am hoping to get our schedule adjusted enough to be able to get them in this week. I know the boys want to be able to finish up by the second week of May, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. I am hoping we can finish close to that date. It's always hard for the boys to concentrate when the weather gets warm and beautiful. They would much rather be out playing in the stream, catching frogs! I can't say as I blame them!

Sticking with the Basics

Well, I had really good intentions of posting more often about homeschooling on this blog. But, those plans have been set aside for the time being.

I am flat on my back in bed dealing with horrible back pain.

Schooling has had to take on a whole new schedule and I've had to stick to the basics. I have each of the boys start with math. Then one at a time I have them come in to my room and we go over any questions or difficulties they are having. Once we get that accomplished I have them work on any language arts, spelling or writing that needs to be done. Today I was even able to have the two younger boys lay down next to me and do their reading.

At first the thought of falling behind with our school work was really hard for me to handle, but I have had to come to terms with it. Being a major box checker this has been difficult! But, at this point I have no other alternative. History and science will have to wait until I am feeling less pain. I'll just have to take one day at a time.

Changing Things Up a Bit

I've decided to use this blog to post about all things homeschooling instead of just what I am doing with Jacob. I would like to be able to post on some of the other activities we do in our homeschool. So, things will be a little different on my blog and I'm hoping to post more often about what we are doing during our school days.

Fractional Frustrations

Well, as I posted before, Jacob has been struggling with fractions.  I have decided to put the brakes on, for now.  I want  him to have a firm understanding of fractions, so for the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on fractions- adding and subtracting them, how to use them in real-life, reducing, and switching fractions from proper to improper and visa-versa.

This week we did a little baking...

 

                                            

I took my recipe for Zucchini Bread (one of his favorites) and converted the amounts for every ingredient in a fraction problem.  I made sure he knew he had to work carefully to make sure he did the problems correctly, so that the bread would turn out.

 

He did a great job and he soon had the amounts needed for each ingredient.

 

Next we went into the kitchen and talked about the measuring cups. I asked him how many 1/4 cups it took to make 1 cup etc.  Once he had a good understanding of the measuring utensils, we started combining ingredients.

 

 

 

Jacob loved being able to make something in the kitchen.  He was so excited to help combine and mix.  The Zucchini Bread turned out great and I think we repeat this math/baking experience again next week.