Year 6 homeschooling

In March of 2010 (the previous school year), God began revealing to me that there were things from my childhood that I had been harboring anger in my heart over and hadn't realized.  The anger had begun to overflow and manifest in my mean words and cruel tone to those I loved most and sometimes even people I didn't even know.  I had confided in my mentor and she is the one that bluntly pointed this out.  On the drive home from meeting with her I had asked God to clearly confirm what my mentor had said if her words were right.  I immediately got into the Word when I got home from meeting with her.  HE had me read the passage in John 6:45, "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks."  I knew that I needed to focus on getting healing and working through the anger I had buried down and I knew that that was something I could not do on top of homeschooling five days a week.  We began to fervently pursue God and what He thought was the best course for our children, our family, and my healing.  We both felt God was making it very clear to enroll Jonah and Caleb in public school for the following school year of 2010/2011. Deciding to put them into public school was the hardest decision I've EVER had to obey but at the exact same time it was coupled with the deepest sense of absolute peace in the fact that this was exactly what God desired.  I trusted Him fully to meet my children's needs both spiritually and academically in ways they would not get through being homeschooled and to protect them from things/habits or worldly beliefs that He did not wish for them to pick up.  So we kicked off the fall school year of 2010/2011 with Jonah and Caleb attending our neighborhood elementary school and me teaching Kindergarten to Matty and Preschool to Nathan two times a week.  We walked Jonah and Caleb to school every morning and while I ached and missed them immensely all day while they were at school (it never got easier the entire year), I was so thankful for those morning walks that were full of adventure, races, skipping, flower picking, bug observing, and meaningful relational conversations with my children!  God also used that season of semi-rest (homeschooling kinder and preschool twice a week was a MUCH lighter load of responsibility) to not only address and bring me through to healing deeply closed off areas of my heart that HE revealed to me but to also free up my time to allow me to start the daunting and time consuming task of the paperwork process for adopting a little girl from China.  Yes, God had made a 10 year longing and praying for the ability for us to adopt a girl from China a reality!  

By the end of this school year in May of 2011 I was in a much, MUCH better place emotionally and spiritually having had pretty much a sabbatical from teaching and raising 4 kids round the clock/full time and was ready to take on the following year with all four kids being home once again. So at the end of our 6th year homeschooling only ever homeschooling 2 kids at a time,

and with our miracle Chinese daughter joining our family forever in just a couple weeks, we made the decision to homeschool ALL FOUR of them the following school year!  - My heart was full!

An excerpt from my 2010 Christmas letter:

"Jonah and Caleb entered their first year of public school.  Jonah is in 3^rd and Caleb is in 1^st.  Their school has been fantastic as far as working with us to challenge our boys academically (they are both a year ahead academically from the grade level they’re in) and what not, we are not sure if they will be returning next year or if I will home school all of them.  It is still a deep desire of mine to home school and I miss it terribly!  I am still homeschooling Matthew and even Nathan joined in by starting up preschool this year!  I love it!  We know ultimately it’s the Lord’s decision and He knows what’s best so I’ve been seeking Him relentlessly and petitioning Him in prayer in this area."

          Nathan's First Day of Preschool

 

   Jonah and Caleb's first day at public school

 

   Dropping Caleb off at his class desk                       

 

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Jonah sitting at his classroom desk

Year 5 homeschooling

2009/2010  Again after diligently praying about the school year and talking with each other we decided to have Jonah continue another year at Hill Country Christian School where he was in the 2nd grade and tested at a 4th grade reading level.  On the homefront we were a little more settled in.  The church had opened it's door 9 months before and what started as 24 adults was now over 300 hundred.  We had enjoyed the year off school but it was time to get back at it.  Caleb was so mature for the six year old that he was.  He was so advanced in reading and so self sufficient and independent that I could pretty much give him his assignments for each subject every day and leave him to his schoolwork for the most part!  Caleb was even able to go on a trip to Missouri for a week with Nana (my Mom), MawMaw (my grandma), and Uncle Eric (my brother).  He took his school work along with him did most of it on the road.  Matthew was 3 and ready to start preschool 2 days a week.  He followed in his brothers footsteps and picked everything up very quickly; before long he was reading!  The school year went by smoothly and uneventful in comparison to years past. haha!

Caleb perched up reading one of his Sonlight books

Year 4 homeschooling

2008-2009 the school year was put on hold.  This year we were part of a small team of 24 adults (12 couples) who began planning a church plant for the suburbs of the outer northern Austin area.  This was a church unlike any other in the area and we knew it was going to take a lot of time and focus.  As a reasult of the location of the church we felt compelled to move into a home that was more within the circle of our accountability of that church.  We had begun asking God for guidance on what to do because I just did not think I could homeschool, move houses, and plant a church at the same time.  We were thinking of just taking a break from schooling that year because afterall, Jonah and Caleb were already ahead in school as far as their age went so taking a year break wouldn't hurt anything.  But then we heard of our church's private school affiliation, Hill Country Christian School, and that they had received a generous donation of funds to go towards scholarships.  We filled out an application for Jonah to attend first grade there!  So the fall of 2008, Jonah attended an actual school classroom environment five days a week from 8-3.  It was bitter sweet for me but I knew that our Christian values and an excellent education would be continued to be instilled in him and shaping his heart!

Jonah's First Day of First Grade

Year 3 homeschooling

By the following school year, 2007, we realized we had better get serious about curriculum so we attended the Texas Homeschool Coalition Southwest Convention and Family Conference  and after looking at dozens and dozens of homeschool curriculum booths in the convention center, we decided since our boys loved reading SO MUCH that Sonlight curriculum was the best choice for most of the core subjects and we were very impressed with Math-U-See's approach to teaching math!  We also signed Jonah up to attend a one-day academy that provided a preschool classroom environment that he attended from 9-3 on Thursdays.  We delayed the start of our schooling until October due to the fact that we had, once again, added yet another boy, Nathan, to our family in the middle of July making it four boys in four years, 11 mos, and 18 days; just shy of five years.  Once Nathan was sleeping through the night, we kicked off real curriculum (Intro into World History) and the boys thrived!  We had a wonderful time reading gobs of chapter books together on the couch or up in their playscape, sitting at the kitchen table doing addition and subtraction problems, Leap Frog Spanish Memory Game on the floor of the living room, and science experiments on the kitchen island.  Along with making homemade strawberry jam, planting flower beds, and so much more together.  Many, many wonderful memories!  Homeschooling had created exactly the kind of environment we had hoped for: an opportunity for education and an opportunity for relationships; God wants the heart of the family and homeschooling is one way to do it!

An excerpt from my 2007 Christmas letter:

"Shane and I attended a homeschooling conference in Houston towards the middle of August in which we broadened our knowledge of homeschool curriculum and also discovered each of our children’s “learning styles” and what curriculum would work best for them.  I held off starting school until Nathan was sleeping through the night which occurred at the beginning of October.  It has been an absolute delight teaching my boys!  It does demand a great deal of my time and at times I think about how much I could be getting done if they were in public school.  But then I see how far along they are in their learning and what a precious time this is that I get to spend with them and how fleeting that time is and I realize I wouldn’t trade it for anything!  It took me a couple weeks to get into the groove of their literary based curriculum, “Sonlight”, but now the boys and I love it!"

Year 2 of Homeschooling

The summer of 2006 rolled around and we knew we wanted to continue on this path of homeschooling for as long as God kept us there so to better educate myself, I went to a one day homeschooling equipping day put on by Smoothing the Way called Starting the Way.  The two biggest take away from that day that has stuck with me throughout all the years:

1.  You will never be able to teach your child everything they need to know, no teacher ever will.  Your job is to develop a love for learning so that they will want to go research it and teach themselves.

2. Committing to homeschool your child this year does not mean that you will be homeschooling all your children until the graduate highschool.  Take it one child, one year at a time.

We had a new addition- a third son, Matthew, who was 9 months old. Jonah (age 4) and Caleb (age 3) when I kicked off the second year of school using a couple kindergarten comprehension book I bought at Sam's Club, First Grade level Hooked on Phonics and a introduction to science called Mudpies to Magnets. Caleb was 34 months old by this point so I kicked off the preschool stuff I had done with Jonah the year before.  Two boys would spend an hour in Room Time (parent-directed playing in his crib & room, when they're walking, with the door shut) while I taught one-on-one with the other child and then they'd switch places and Matty would go down for his morning nap.    My days were filled with overwhelming fulfillment and purpose!  I was playing a part in God's work of molding and shaping them and building a foundation on the Lord and being filled with knowledge and understanding and it was amazing!


An excerpt from my 2006 Christmas card:

"In late September I began home schooling Caleb this year along with Jonah.  He is doing much better than I had anticipated.  He enjoys it and always wants to do more when I say “that’s all for today”.  He is reading at a kindergarten level and Jonah at a first grade level now.  We are also learning basic Spanish (mommy is too): shapes, colors, the alphabet, numbers 1-20 and common words."

School/Play Room

 Jonah and Caleb doing a school craft

Matty (8 months old) having "Room Time"

how It Began

I have had many moms ask me how I got into homeschooling so I suppose I will start at the beginning of my journey homeschooling. 2005. My first born, Jonah was (and still is) a sponge for learning!  He made teaching him and working with him fun!  He had a craving for knowledge and by age 18 months he knew his entire alphabet (both capital and lower case letters) and around 24 months he had learned the sounds of taht all the the letters make.  Moms in my social circle had begun talking about looking into preschools but I knew I was not ready to send him out in an environment other than our home.  We felt that young children were still so moldable and pliable and what better place to grow our children up the godly way we desired them to be, at a time when they were shaping the views of the world, than in our own family and home providing a biblical worldview?  However, we also knew that Jonah was ripe for learning needing more of a structured learning environment to challenge him.  I went to a one day homeschooling equipping day in July of 2005 that was put on by Smoothing the Way Ministries called Starting the Way.  The two biggest take away from that day that has stuck with me throughout all the years:

1.  You will never be able to teach your child everything they need to know, no teacher ever will.  Your job is to develop a love for learning so that they will want to go research it and teach themselves.

2.  Committing to homeschool your child(ren) this year does not mean that you will be homeschooling all your children until they graduate highschool.  Take it one child, one year at a time.

Shane and I just happened to be in Sam's Club and we saw a Hooked on Phonics package grds. K-2 and we thought that would be perfect for teaching Jonah and potentially Caleb, who was 21 months old and already showing a great interest in books.  This sparked a curiosity to begin exploring preschool curriculum ideas online.  I came across Brightly Beaming Resources and absolutely loved the structure this mom began teaching her preschoolers with!  So that summer I began writing my own preschool curriculum using the same structure as BBR only I traded out Nursery Rhymes for Memory Verse. 

Jonah turned three at the end of July 2005 and we kicked off this new curriculum in September.  We did preschool two days a week an hour at a time.  I typically did this while Caleb was taking his morning nap or as he got older that time became his "Room Time" in which he'd play in a pack-n-play with toys in his room.  Teaching my son preschool was an absolute delight!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching him grasp concepts and understand ideas!  It the most rewarding work I had ever done!

Here's an excerpt from my 2005 Christmas letter about our first year homeschooling:

In September Jonah started preschool!  I was a little hesitant as I am the one homeschooling him and I wasn’t sure how he would take to it.  From day one he loved it!  We had purchased the “Hooked on Phonics” Kit and to my surprise when opening it, I discovered that he was past the first 2 stages of the Kindergarten level; knowing all his letters as well as the sounds each letter made.  The next step was reading!  I could hardly believe he could be ready for such a thing but I trusted the system and set forth teaching him.  He did Day 1 and to my amazement it just clicked with him and he began reading words!  Now he has graduated through 4 “Hooked on Phonics” books.  Teaching him has been so much fun for me!  He makes it fun b/c he loves to learn!

ANOTHER Blog

I'm giddy about my new blog, School Days.  I have been putting too many posts on Facebook as a means to  journal and chronicle my experience homeschooling my 5 children.  However, I decided that I really wanted something a little less "social media" and public.  I fear sometimes my posts were coming across as bragging about my children's achievements and progress when really it was just a means for me to track my kids learning progression, and our homeschooling experiences, etc. day in and day out.  I am elated that this blog will be focused on how my self, along with my kids, are juggling, handling, managing, progressing, and so much more everyday and whether or not we're on target/track, and what exactly that target or track is and when and whether our course changes.  Let's face it, it's the Lord who "directs you in the way you should go." (Isaiah 48:17) and He tells us very clearly in His Word to us that our ways are not naturally the same as His ways (Isaiah 55:8) but that we must rather, seek Him to direct us.  But for the most part my husband leaves me to govern the curriculum and pace at which I teach the kids and we continually seek God to determine what that is and looks like for each child.