A New School Year

We have begun our new school year.  Today was our 16th day.  We are enjoying it.  I only have two students, as my oldest son graduated this past school year.  My graduate has also been working toward a college Bachelor's Degree in Humanities through the College Plus program.  He has taken many CLEP tests and yesterday took his first Dantes (DSST) test.  He has passed all of them so far, and after passing the DSST test yesterday, is officially a college junior.  He also works for Lamplighter Ministries.  He began as an intern their last summer and became an official part-time employee this past February.  He has had opportunity to travel to London, England to observe and be a part of recording radio dramas; he has had opportunity to travel to Orlando, Florida and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, all in connection with his work with Lamplighter Ministries.  Then he returned to New Paltz, New York for the second annual Lamplighter Guild.  God has just been guiding and directing in his life in some amazing and wonderful ways.

So, I still have two boys to continue to educate.  Our middle son is in ninth grade this year and is studying Algebra I from Math-U-See.  He had been using Saxon Math prior to this, but our oldest switched from Saxon to Math-U-See when he hit the Algebra level because he found Saxon's algebra to be too difficult and lacking explanation.  Our middle son also began to struggle a bit with his eighth grade Saxon near the end of the course, so he will be doing algebra and all other high school level math curriculum with Math-U-See.  He is also studying History using Mystery of History.  This is a great curriculum that ties Biblical history with world history, which is fantastic because the Biblical history was taking place at the exact same time that other historical events were happening in other parts of the world; so it's great to see the connections instead of having it separate and never making those connections.  He has always enjoyed writing, but finds it challenging, so he is studying both Writing Strands and Intermediate Language Lessons from My Father's World.  We are also reading some classic literature, and he will be studying Apologia's Exploring Creation Through Physical Science in a co-op class, as I prefer not to teach science.  He will also be taking a Mechanical Drawing and Mapmaking class and a Real World Business class at our co-op.

My youngest is using mostly My Father's World products for all subjects.  We have already finished the science book about Birds, Nests and Eggs by Mel Boring and we are now working on creating a lapbook based on his six favorite birds from the book.  He and I both love lapbooks.  They are a great hands-on activity, and they are creative.  I found FREE printable patterns to use for our lapbooks here, and this makes making lapbooks really easy!  We'll be doing several lapbooks this year.  We will also study Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and "The Nutcracker".  We are studying the early settlers and the founding of the United States in history.  We have already learned about Christopher Columbus and about some Europeans who came to the United States, as well as Captain John Smith and Jamestown.  We are reading more about some Jamestown pioneers.  This son is also using Math-U-See for Math because it includes audio, visual and hands-on learning.  He is continuing to read, building on the level of difficulty.  He has read an "Amelia Bedelia" book, a book titled A Second Chance for Tina and a "Henry and Mudge" book, and he read the book about Christopher Columbus to me.  He will also be taking a science class, a class about syllables and reading and an art class at the co-op.  We will also do occasional art projects here at home, and, of course, lapbooks count toward art as well.  The photo below is my little guy's drawing.  He was supposed to draw a ship like the Europeans traveled to the United States on.  He looked at a photo while drawing this, and I think he's got some real talent.

Interested in Free Resources?

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine's (5th Annual) 2012 Annual Freebies Directory is here! 

Do you ever wish that you could get a really good look at a homeschooling product before buying it? Sure, each company’s ad says it’s the best, but you’re still left wondering, “Is it best for my family?”
With our 2012 5^th Annual Homeschool Freebie Directory, you can find out for sure. You’ll discover many new, exciting gifts in the Directory, including E-Books, games and activities!

Click here to check out the Freebies Directory Today!  

What About Socialization?

I used to hear this question much more than I have recently.  First of all, I'll tell you that it's never been a problem for us because we are faithful church attenders and our children have a lot of friends at church.  We have also been involved in one homeschool co-op or another almost every year since we began homeschooling, and the boys have been involved in homeschool sports since the beginning of our homeschool journey.  So they have had ample opportunity to meet and make good friends.

But, they aren't just social with their peers.  They are able to socialize with people of all ages because they are growing up in an environment where they have to socialize with their parents/adults and younger and/or older siblings on a daily basis, so they learn how to effectively communicate with people of all ages.

Now, I'd like to share some information from notes that I took at a seminar at a homeschool convention this year.  The speaker was Mr. Rick Boyer, and he pointed out that as Christian homeschool parents, our goal is not the effect of the culture on our children, but the effect of our children on the culture (I can give several examples of this from our lives as well, but will do so in another post).

Mr. Boyer also asked the questions, "Is 'school' anything like the real world?  Is everyone in the real world segregated into age groups?"

Schools relieve you of your ability to form any convictions, as you sit there and do whatever you are told to do.

Kids need to experience the real world.  (School is not the real world).

Age segregation is killing our culture because the kids do not have exposure to people "who have been there, done that."

Divorce, sexually transmitted diseases, drugs and alcohol -- how many of these social issues were caused by kids who spent too much time at home with their parents?

I love the following example Mr. Boyer presented to the statement, we homeschoolers so often hear:  "Kids need to face the real world issues and learn to deal with it."  Mr. Boyer said this is how to respond to this statement; ask the person, "Do you know that it's not a good idea to stand in the middle of the street during rush hour?"  When they say "yes", ask them with a little more emphasis, "Do your know that it's not a good idea to stand in the middle of the street during rush hour?"  When they say "yes", this time respond with, "Did you learn that through experience?"

Proverbs 23:22 says, "Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old."  If children do not grow up parent-dependent; they will grow up peer-dependent.

Mr. Boyer pointed out that U.S. kids in schools have a Negative Attitude toward themselves, and toward their peers and are resistant to parental authority and pessimistic toward the future.  He also pointed out that the U. S. has the highest suicide rate in the world.

Other things Mr. Boyer pointed out about kids in schools:

     Parental values are discarded.
     Their personal values are under attack.
     Peer socialization causes negative attitudes toward children of other peer groups.
     It breaks down family relationships.
     They're indifferent to the adult world.
     They're not looking forward to growing up.
     Their social lives are centered around play and peers.

In the past, twelve-year-old boys were interested/involved in their father's business.  This is no longer the case.

So, Mr. Boyer suggests:  "Don't let your kids social life "evolve", "create" it.  Put an emphasis on family and build your child(ren)'s social life around service.

If you'd like to read more about what Mr. Boyer has to say about this issue, I suggest you purchase his book, The Socialization Trap.  You can find it here

The Opportunities and Blessings of Homeschooling

In the nine years that we've been homeschooling, we have found that homeschooling allows and offers so many opportunities and blessings.  As our children do not have to be glued to a desk or even to bookwork all day long, they have more time to explore other things.  We are normally finished with school by lunchtime and they have the rest of the day to go out and explore the back yard, shoot some basketball, kick the soccer ball, or any of many other activities.  They also have the opportunity to pursue their interests.  They play in organized sports with a homeschool group we are a part of, and I mean, they even play games against other homeschool group teams or Christian school teams.  They take music lessons:  our oldest takes piano lessons and he's taken a couple of years of mandolin lessons (most kids don't even know what a mandolin is).  Our middle son takes drum lessons and our youngest has just begun piano lessons.  We regularly attend church, and they are active in our church.  Our two oldest boys play their instruments for worship services and our oldest has taught a Sunday school lesson or two.  We've participated in serving our community through donating items or donating our time to help at a local center that packs health kits, school kits and some other things to send to needy people in other countries.  They've attended a couple of summer camps.
Our oldest just graduated high school this year, and he has had an amazing year.  Last summer he had the Lamplighter Guild, which you can find more about here.  He came back with a new focus, and he had grown spiritually.  He was so impressed and inspired by the Lamplighter Guild that he wanted to get more involved in Lamplighter, so he contacted Mr. Mark Hamby and became an intern/apprentice with Lamplighter Ministries.  After about four months, he had the opportunity to go to London, England with Lamplighter for the recording of one of their audio dramas.  It was on this trip that he also became an actual part-time employee of Lamplighter Ministries.  He's been reading excellent quality literature, studying his Bible, and he has helped Mr. Hamby with research for his dissertation, and he has done some writing and editing for Lamplighter Ministries.  He has made phone calls for Lamplighter Ministries, and last month, he went to Florida to help at the Lamplighter booth at a homeschool conference, as well as helping to hand out some items for Mr. Hamby's seminars.  Now he is preparing to go to this year's Lamplighter Guild, which takes place next month, and this year, he will not only go as a student but as an employee.
Our oldest son has also almost completed his sophomore of college already.  He is taking the College Plus program online, which is a money-saving way to receive a bachelor's degree in two years.  He is studying Humanities and will be taking online classes through Thomas Edison College.  He is on target to graduate college in October of 2013, and then he plans to work full-time for Lamplighter Ministries.  He hopes to have a long career with Lamplighter Ministries.
Our middle son is interested in architecture and building, so this past school year, he was able to take a class at our homeschool co-op that taught Home Repair and Maintenance.  He also has interest in maybe becoming a pastor, so this coming school year, I will help him with speech to work on his presentation skills.  We will also work on bettering his writing skills.
Our little guy simply loves all kinds of things at this point, so I simply plan to have fun with him this year reading great books, taking fun field trips and doing fun and some messy art projects.
We simply have the freedom and time to truly pursue their interests, which leads to valuable opportunities that allow them to grow healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  We are truly blessed through our choice to homeschool.

Reasons to Homeschool

For those of you who have been following and visiting this blog, I am sorry that I have neglected this blog for so long.  This past school year I was busier than the last few as I was working more diligently with our youngest son, and he has now completed first grade.  So, between homeschooling and tending to the housework and playing taxi for the boys to their music lessons and sports, I just didn't have the time to blog.  I also neglected my other blog, which I have now decided to end, in the hopes of simply keeping this blog, as I feel there is a need for this blog.  I hope this blog will be a place where beginning homeschoolers can come to learn and to see how much fun homeschooling can be, where people who don't homeschool but are curious about homeschooling can come to find out what it's all about, and where seasoned homeschoolers can come and find a different approach or a new activity or place to go for a field trip.
So, bear with me if you've been here with me from the beginning, as I might cover something now that I did before, but with different or new information, as I am not going to search my archives to see what I've done before now.  I am simply going to begin fresh and new now.
I want to begin with reasons to homeschool.  There are many reasons to homeschool.  When my husband and I began homeschooling, it was because our oldest son was bored in his Christian school classroom and his teachers constantly complained to me about his behaviors, but did nothing to try to keep him busy.  We had already decided that we didn't want our children to go to public school, so the only other option was to homeschool, so I contacted someone I knew that homeschooled, and she explained it to me, gave me lots of resources, let me borrow some books to read about it, and took me to my first homeschool convention.
We have now been homeschooling for nine years, and over those nine years, our commitment to homeschool has simply gotten stronger.  First of all, we now homeschool because we feel led by God to do so, and we believe that it was God's intent from the beginning and is Biblical.  One Bible verse that we feel speaks on the issue is the verse you will find at the top of my blog, directly under my blog title.  How can you possibly teach your children about God and his word when you lie down, get up or walk along the road, if they aren't with you?
We believe it is the parents' responsibility to teach their children.  We do not believe it is in our children's best interests to be taught by a stranger, and we do not believe it is best for children to be in an environment with only other children their own ages all day five days a week.  We see no benefit to that.
Another reason we homeschool is because we believe that the public schools do not have the proper environment that is conducive to learning for most children.  We also disagree with a lot of the things they teach in the public schools now and don't think they teach important things that should be taught.  We also do not believe it is right for them to delete things from their teaching of history as many public schools and public school curricula have done.
In our local area school districts, there have been issues of bullying, drugs, sexual promiscuity on school premises or on school buses, and we certainly don't want our children exposed to or involved in such activities.

For more information on the teaching and it's effects of the public school, I highly encourage you to watch the documentary DVD:  "IndoctriNation".

Both my husband and I grew up in the public school system, and we know many children who attend public schools, and when I saw this movie, I realized that some of what the movie points out was already happening when I was in school over nearly thirty years ago, and I am well aware of many of these things happening currently.    

I simply believe that we are teaching our children in the way that is best and most beneficial for them, and most importantly, we believe our homeschooling choice is pleasing to God.

Tomorrow's post will be about the flexibility, opportunities and blessings of homeschooling.                                               

Brain Gym

I just have to share about Brain Gym. I have never heard of it before, and now that I am participating in a class with my youngest son, I have to wonder why. I think EVERYONE should know about this! The top photo above is the book that simply explains how to do the exercises and is simple enough for children to understand. The bottom photo directly above this paragraph is the Teacher's Edition, which is the one our class teacher recommends because it not only shows and explains how to do the exercises, but it also gives some additional ways of doing the exercises to switch it up a bit, as well as giving information on what part of the brain the particular exercise stimulates and what it is useful for.

Let me explain a little more. Our co-op has offered this class this semester and I decided to enroll my youngest son, and the teacher stressed the importance of a parent participating in the class with the child because it's important that the parent knows about the exercises and what they are useful for, as well as to be able to help students who have a bit of difficulty with an exercise until their brain gets used to it. The lady teaching the class has been doing this for over 30 years and has seen it work in many ways for many people. She has actually been able to help a retarded child how to read and write simply by using Brain Gym.

Brain Gym is exercises that you do with your body, sometimes standing up, sometimes sitting down, and sometimes lying on the floor, as well as exercises with a dry erase crayon and a laminated manila folder with activities on it, and I don't know what we have yet to learn, but this stuff is amazing. It helps my little guy to listen better and to focus. (That's what it's done so far). However, as we continue to learn, the teacher assures us that it will help our child with math skills, spelling and writing skills, reading skills and more.

It does require a time commitment, and you need to make time to fit it into your day everyday in order to get the maximum benefit and success. Most of the exercises really don't take that long (10 - 15 minutes). However, the writing therapy exercises she taught us today will take quite a bit more time, but are very important for helping your child learn to read and write. Our co-op plans to keep this lady on board and have her continue teaching classes, so I highly recommend that anyone in my area that knows me contact me and get their child(ren) involved in one of these classes. Otherwise, I recommend that you purchase the book, study it and put it into practice with your child(ren).

Brain Gym can be used for any age, so even adults can use it, and they have found that it helps older folks in nursing homes who are having memory issues. A few years ago, my middle son needed vision therapy and it helped him tremendously. Brain Gym uses many of the vision therapy exercises and ideas, but goes a step further and can help a child to no longer need glasses, it can help with behaviors unless the behaviors stem from an attitude issue which is a heart and sin issue that simply needs to be dealt with. So I advise EVERYONE to check this out!

What About Graduation?

You may be thinking, like I do, that you don't want a graduation like the ones in the photos of my last post. After all, you're homeschooling because you don't want to be like the public school. And that's okay because there are options.

I used to think that was the only type of graduation available to homeschoolers, as that is the only one that I had ever heard about or attended. Until, about two years ago, friends from our church had a daughter who was graduating and didn't want to participate in that big to-do. So, they had a nice private graduation ceremony for her. They had it at our church on a Friday night and invited the church family, their family and a few friends. Her dad spoke and our pastor spoke. The girl gave a short speech and her siblings also participated, and her parents gave her a diploma. Afterward, there were snacks and English country dancing. It was a lot of fun. We really liked that idea and decided that was more along the lines of what we would like to do.

Then, this year, the Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania (CHAP) held a graduation for anyone who wanted to participate on the Saturday evening of our local homeschool convention. They had sixteen young people participate and it was similar to the large one in the photos of my last post, except that there wasn't a lot of congregational singing. It was kept simple by playing graduation music as the graduates entered. Then one of the graduates spoke, followed by a slide show of the graduates (about three or four photos of each graduates at different stages in their lives), and that was followed by one of the CHAP leaders, Mr. Bruce Eagleson, who spoke. Then the parents presented their graduates with their diplomas, while a speaker gave a short bit of information on each graduate. In an hour, it was over.

And, finally, there are some people who simply do a private family celebration, some take a celebration trip, and some choose not to do anything at all. So, you have options, and you can be creative. Make your graduation personal and what you and your graduate want it to be.