Homeschooling…”then, and now” (WOW)

They each designed a cover for their portfolio binders

WOW, is this REALLY our 9th year officially homeschooling?? It’s unbelievable. I officially started Isabella at home when she was just 4 (well technically since she was born) LOL!
We were both so excited about the journey. It was My Father’s World Kindergarten Curriculum that made me fall in love with homeschooling. I didn’t want workbooks….I wanted hands -on learning! I also didn’t want a workbook to always be between me and my child….I wanted it to be about relationship. I wanted to school my child in a way that not only taught her academics and reached her brain, but more importantly reached her heart for the Lord. And, when I found MFWK, I knew it was my answer to prayer! It is such a sweet and gentle curriculum.

 I used MFWK with each and every child! SO SO SO many memories. It successfully wooed their sweet hearts to the idea of homeschooling each and every time. If you have a K’er, please check it out! It’s more than homeschooling, it’s about “heart-schooling”.

 And, now my baby is in 8th grade!!! WHAT???? How did THAT happen????

But, REALLY??? Who knew I’d still be doing it almost a decade later! NOT ME? I tell everyone, that we take it one year at a time!
Because, it’ GOD’s GRACE! It’s ALL HIM, nothing of me!
No, I don’t have so much patience because we choose to homeschool ( a comment I hear a lot) which, makes me want to laugh hysterically…..see, homeschooling  just simply reveals more of my “lack of patience” and causes me to face and deal with that sin in my life “front and center!” It can be VERY humbling, to say the least!

So SO many times I was ready to throw in the towel. I still do dream about a yellow bus coming by once in a while to give me a “momma’s day out”! LOL

But, I am glad I am still staying the course, with God’s help….
Oh, and with the strict keeping of “room/quiet times” HA! 😉

Mostly, I am so grateful that I GET to be  the one to witness “first hand” those special and amazing light-bulb-aha moments in their lives!
What a privilege that I don’t take lightly.
I get to see my kids grow deeply in their relationships with each other, they are so close to each other and I attribute so much of that to the fact that they experience life and  learning daily together. 
And, (as the theme of my blog states) I am glad that we’ve been able to successfully slow down life, to stop and soak in the moments a little more deeply together. To just BE and experience learning about God and His world as a family. To bond more deeply, instead of always RUSH RUSHING around.

Yet, I still find myself asking (almost 9 years later)….

Where has the time gone?

creating our gingerbread houses

Here are a few shots from the “early years”…I didn’t start using a digital camera till 2007, so I can only access pics back to then…. (wish I had time to find some more in all these computer files).

Cally, our cow joined us the day we were learning about Dairy Cows!

And, I’ll have to carve out some time to dig around in some shoe boxes for my 2004-2006 homeschool photos.

 But, these still feel like SO SO long ago!

new backpacks!

makes me all misty eyed seeing how much they’ve grown in the past few years…..

………………………….and here we are embarking on a new year, with a new little “preschooler’ with us! I am SO SO glad I get to do those early years again! 🙂 What a gift!

SHE LOVES HER NEW BACKPACK!!!!

 The year always starts with a gaggle of new supplies!! It gets our school juices flowin’ just to smell the new crayolas!

TABLE TIME….my most important/favorite time of the homeschooling day

It’s been  a fun and crazy and chaotic and interesting and exciting first two weeks of school!
We are using Mystery of History volume 1 for our “together time” and learning about Ancient History this year!
I thought it’d be a great idea to start back at the beginning since we’ve done so much American History for the past few years!

 We started off by making some “Creation Deserts”. Talk about starting the year off on the right foot, how’s this for a sweet  treat!!

First we added chocolate chips/whipped cream for Day 1: God made light and darkness
Day 2: marshmallows and blue jello for sky and water!
Day 3: green sprinkles, graham cracker crumbs, and fruit snacks for earth, plants, vegetation and dirt
Day 4: star sprinkles, moon and sun shaped vanilla wafer
Day 5: Swedish fish, and angry bird cookies
Day 6: animal crackers and sour patch kids (for animals and first man and woman)
Day 7: we ate…well, not really….they just poked around for their favorites. Most got thrown away but it was a lot of fun to make!
here are some pics!

We then started researching and learning about other topics such as,  Dinosaurs, Noah’s ark and the Ice Age!

We made Dinosaur fossils

We designed a 3-D paper Noah’s Ark

 

Tahlia and Ashy got to create Noah’s Ark too!
Daddy stayed home that day and helped us (oh yeah, had to put him to work too)!!!! Wish he was home everyday to help us!

this is Tahlia’s Noah’s Ark and flood! I think it’s great!

We broke out the Noah’s Ark Little People and decided they needed a real flood and then we froze them over with ice for the Ice Age!

We did some fun “ice-painting”

I have incorporated a new tradition for our Mondays. Seeing that Mondays have traditionally always been pretty rough….I thought, we needed some joy!
So, we are doing Music Morning Mondays! We will start our week, first thing, with worship. We play instruments to our favorite worship music and just sing and act a little crazy!
The Praisin’ the Lord gets the joy juices flowin’! And, boy do we need some joy juices on Monday mornings!
😉

Ok….yeah. It’s loud, but it really is a joyful noise! 🙂

Another tradition which I did a couple years ago has been (by popular demand) brought back: TREASURE BOX DAY!
Basically, if they have CONSISTENT “near perfect/wonderful/hardworking” days then they will get to choose from the treasure box. This box contains fun/cheap items that I have collected over time!
They love choosing their treasure and it encourages them to keep  working hard day after day!

Here are a few more random pics of our first couple week: (yes, those are ORBEEZ) and they are SO much fun! Tahlia especially loved them, though she kept throwing them to watch them bounce on the deck! 

We also stared our first week of GCA homeschool co-op! It’s hard to believe that we’ve been a part of his amazing ministry for 8 years! I am so thankful for it, it’s such a wonderful addition to our homeschooling week, and I love how it feels like family. The kids  feel so comfortable there and enjoy themselves! Such a blessing!

HER FAVORITE PART OF SCHOOL IS WASHING HER HANDS in the batchrroms, I can’t get her away from those sinks!! LOL!

 How about a little Phys. Ed! For the first time ever, Isabella is playing on a competitive Volleyball team this fall. She is on the JV team for Tri-state Homeschool Falcons. They travel around and play other private schools and she is LOVING it! She got her love of Volleyball from her daddy who played in college. It has been a bit crazy keeping up with the practice and game schedule but a LOT of fun!! Isabella is eating up every minute of it! And, we adore watching her play! She’s really good! We are SO proud of her!

I could keep writing and posting pics but I need to prepare for tomorrows lessons. ha! I am just glad to have documented the first couple weeks of our new school year! It truly is such an accomplishment to just “start” a new school year and transition out of our summer mush brains, so I wanted to make sure I recorded it!

I am so thankful to be able to school these precious kiddos at home, even on the hard days…..but, ESPECIALLY on the amazing and wonderful days!
Praising God for the freedoms we have in this country to choose the paths that are right for each individual family and child!