What is it I want for my children's education? Specifically my Love of Learners (ages 9-12)
I LOVE homeschooling my kids, I am so glad I took them out of public school. I love spending time with my children and being the main influence in their lives. I don't want to change that, I don't want to send them back to school. However, I would like 3 hours a week where they went somewhere else. Somewhere where they were having positive learning and social experiences. Somewhere where other Leadership Education kids were gathering learning and growing together. Preferably reading and discussing a classic together. I don't want them just to go to a playdate, play is important, but I want it to be more valuable than a playdate. Both of my Love of Learners have expressed in different ways their desire for more positive interactions with other like minded children. Other kids who are immersed in the classics and excited to talk about them. They have friends, even friends who are also doing the classics with us. They want to find more friends like this and a set consistent time to get together. They're at an age now where they want more positive social interactions. If I compare it to myself I have friends, lots of friends but the ones I enjoy the most and learn the most from are the ones who share my passion for Leadership Education in our book club.
I would ideally use the time without my Love of Learners to get something done (bills paid, desk cleaned off). HELLO!!! Reality check! I still have 3 little kids at home and they need my attention too. I have realized I can bond differently with my little kids with the big kids gone. I would use the time to focus on core phase, read books and play games with my little kids. Its a different feeling without the big kids around. As far as the ideal of getting things done, caught up. I recently spoke with a friend who raised 7 kids. She said "let go of the idea of ever catching up, you never will. Even when the kids are gone there is still more to do than will ever get done." She said "enjoy raising your kids it will be over sooner than you think and then you will realize you still can't get everything done. I would trade places with you in a heartbeat, be back in the mess of raising my little kids." I have spoken with 3 different people recently who have all said they would happily go back in time, to where I am. They would give up all their free time to be back in the depths of raising little kids again. I think that's what I needed to hear- to help me focus on enjoying what I'm doing. It doesn't make it any less noisy or crazy, just more enjoyable.
Maybe what I want is to copy what so many families do with preschool co-ops. Find 4 families with Love of Learners who want to read the classics and discuss together. We choose one day a week and trade whose house the kids go to, or which park they go to study the classics from 9-12. When its my turn I read a classic with them and do an activity and play a game. Then I have 3 weeks of mornings to spend with my Core Phaser's before its my turn to host The Love or Learners again.
What do you think? Are there any other Leadership Education kids out there who are feeling these same needs and would like to participate?
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Thursday, May 11, 2017
Paradigm Shift
My Mentoring in the Classics book for this month is Paradigm Shift. Not my favorite book, but I am glad I'm reading it. It puts everything Oliver DeMille has been saying for years into one easy to read place and I do believe in these 7 trends.
This is what was difficult, hard, interesting???!!!! I joined the girls from church for an impromptu gathering at the park... we ditched homeschool to go play at the park. As the kids and I drove there I listened to my intro to Paradigm Shift and then I got together with all these moms who have kids in school. Suddenly I realized I don't relate to them anymore, last year with my kids in school I could relate. This year my paradigm has shifted so far from theirs that there isn't much for us to discuss. They are still stuck in the old paradigm and I am in Oliver DeMilles, explanation of where the world is gong. If I said what I was thinking I would have for sure been labeled as weird. Oh wait -- I was already labeled weird when I pulled my kids back out of school. I should have said what I was thinking.
When they were talking about signing their 4th graders up for the right classes so they would have the best chance at college I should have said "college is not going to matter as much as an education in the new economy."
When they talked about how to get their 2nd graders to finish their homework I should have said "family time and having a good family education of reading great classics together is what matters."
My kids and I are both feeling the separation between those who homeschool and those who do not. Those who are fighting for freedom and those who are following. Those who want greatness and accomplishing their life goals in a new economy and those who are doing the best they can but following an old mindset of school.
This is what was difficult, hard, interesting???!!!! I joined the girls from church for an impromptu gathering at the park... we ditched homeschool to go play at the park. As the kids and I drove there I listened to my intro to Paradigm Shift and then I got together with all these moms who have kids in school. Suddenly I realized I don't relate to them anymore, last year with my kids in school I could relate. This year my paradigm has shifted so far from theirs that there isn't much for us to discuss. They are still stuck in the old paradigm and I am in Oliver DeMilles, explanation of where the world is gong. If I said what I was thinking I would have for sure been labeled as weird. Oh wait -- I was already labeled weird when I pulled my kids back out of school. I should have said what I was thinking.
When they were talking about signing their 4th graders up for the right classes so they would have the best chance at college I should have said "college is not going to matter as much as an education in the new economy."
When they talked about how to get their 2nd graders to finish their homework I should have said "family time and having a good family education of reading great classics together is what matters."
My kids and I are both feeling the separation between those who homeschool and those who do not. Those who are fighting for freedom and those who are following. Those who want greatness and accomplishing their life goals in a new economy and those who are doing the best they can but following an old mindset of school.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Fire Evacuation!!!!
What!!! A 6:30am frantic phone call from our neighbor. "Look out your back window you can see the flames. We have been advised to evacuate.!!"
Oh boy!!! What a day to remember this was. It was a day that nothing on my to do list got accomplished and yet it was memorable and will change the way we prepare for future possible emergencies.
We woke the kids up and got them dressed. We told them they could each pack one bag of what is most important to them. I am proud of all of my kids for making wise choices in what they packed and for not panicking or causing problems. (however, the 6 year old only packed one soccer ball and nothing else. The 2 babies are too young to pack themselves) -- Ok 2 - out of 5 kids did a good job.
We also recognized we were very unprepared for this situation. Even though we live in a high fire possible location, we still thought. "it will never happen here."
What we learned:
#1 -Staying calm and working together is really important.
#1b - Everyone has an important job in evacuating the family. (again I have to brag that this we did surprisingly well with, everyone did do something important to help the family.)
#2 - tell your kids to pack extra clothes and that whatever they put on that morning is what they will wear at least that day and maybe more. (my daughter was in tears when she realized people might see her in what she was wearing. "I thought we were going to live in the RV and not see anyone.")
#3- HAVE A PLAN. - we are going to work on developing our plan. -- Where to meet, how to get there, what needs to get packed. What is important to each person.
#4 - keep important documents in one place.
#5 - always store info (especially pictures.) from your computer on a portable hard drive.
#6- even if nothing ever happens its better to be prepared than to face the emergency unprepared.
#7- do not leave the back of your vehicle open lest the strong wind force it shut and shatter the glass everywhere adding to the anxiety of the situation.
#8 - Know where your 72 hour kits are. - it was an hour of packing before we found ours.
#9 - Have a 72 hour kit for each member of the family. Everyone needs different things. Every upcoming October is going to be Fire Evacuation Remembrance month where we update our 72 hour kit. - Who wants to be caring around expired cans of chili and diapers when your 6 years old?
#10-have a system for organizing the vehicle -so it is not haphazardly thrown in there with no idea where anything is and if you sit on a blanket there might be a picture frame under it that could break. - or you open a door and everything falls out.
#11- Trust in God that all will be well and that He will inspire you to know what to do in these situations.
Fortunately, the winds shifted and we were able to return home the same day. However, the way we prepare for possible emergencies will never be the same.
We also know which things are most important to us - everything that is of any value emotionally or monetarily is in the magic mobile classroom (AKA - emergency get away vehicle). What I should do now is go through the house and donate everything that remains. -- That would be a great way to declutter-- but, I know myself well enough to know I won't do it.
We ended up with 4 hours to pack before we had a mandatory evacuation order. We were fully prepared to never see our house again and we would have been ok. I am not looking forward to unloading all that stuff and moving back into our own house. God is Good and I am thankful for the opportunity to prepare for the future and that we still have our home and all the junk inside it. I am also thankful for the abundant rain he is pouring on us and on the fire. Our prayers have been answered and He has provided a miracle.
Oh boy!!! What a day to remember this was. It was a day that nothing on my to do list got accomplished and yet it was memorable and will change the way we prepare for future possible emergencies.
We woke the kids up and got them dressed. We told them they could each pack one bag of what is most important to them. I am proud of all of my kids for making wise choices in what they packed and for not panicking or causing problems. (however, the 6 year old only packed one soccer ball and nothing else. The 2 babies are too young to pack themselves) -- Ok 2 - out of 5 kids did a good job.
We also recognized we were very unprepared for this situation. Even though we live in a high fire possible location, we still thought. "it will never happen here."
What we learned:
#1 -Staying calm and working together is really important.
#1b - Everyone has an important job in evacuating the family. (again I have to brag that this we did surprisingly well with, everyone did do something important to help the family.)
#2 - tell your kids to pack extra clothes and that whatever they put on that morning is what they will wear at least that day and maybe more. (my daughter was in tears when she realized people might see her in what she was wearing. "I thought we were going to live in the RV and not see anyone.")
#3- HAVE A PLAN. - we are going to work on developing our plan. -- Where to meet, how to get there, what needs to get packed. What is important to each person.
#4 - keep important documents in one place.
#5 - always store info (especially pictures.) from your computer on a portable hard drive.
#6- even if nothing ever happens its better to be prepared than to face the emergency unprepared.
#7- do not leave the back of your vehicle open lest the strong wind force it shut and shatter the glass everywhere adding to the anxiety of the situation.
#8 - Know where your 72 hour kits are. - it was an hour of packing before we found ours.
#9 - Have a 72 hour kit for each member of the family. Everyone needs different things. Every upcoming October is going to be Fire Evacuation Remembrance month where we update our 72 hour kit. - Who wants to be caring around expired cans of chili and diapers when your 6 years old?
#10-have a system for organizing the vehicle -so it is not haphazardly thrown in there with no idea where anything is and if you sit on a blanket there might be a picture frame under it that could break. - or you open a door and everything falls out.
#11- Trust in God that all will be well and that He will inspire you to know what to do in these situations.
Fortunately, the winds shifted and we were able to return home the same day. However, the way we prepare for possible emergencies will never be the same.
We also know which things are most important to us - everything that is of any value emotionally or monetarily is in the magic mobile classroom (AKA - emergency get away vehicle). What I should do now is go through the house and donate everything that remains. -- That would be a great way to declutter-- but, I know myself well enough to know I won't do it.
We ended up with 4 hours to pack before we had a mandatory evacuation order. We were fully prepared to never see our house again and we would have been ok. I am not looking forward to unloading all that stuff and moving back into our own house. God is Good and I am thankful for the opportunity to prepare for the future and that we still have our home and all the junk inside it. I am also thankful for the abundant rain he is pouring on us and on the fire. Our prayers have been answered and He has provided a miracle.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Sunday, May 15, 2016
I'm returning to HomeSchool
Public school was not what I thought. There was no giant dance party for all the moms after they dropped the kids off. The house did not magically clean itself nor did it stay clean after I spent the morning cleaning it. I sent my 2 best cleaners off to school and kept the messy 2 kids home. So all my plans of using the time while they were at school to do projects and sanitize the house never materialized. In fact everything stayed the same except that I lost the close bond I had with my 2 oldest kid. I lost a year of having them learn and grow with me watching. Instead a 3rd grade teacher and 2nd grade teacher got to enjoy my children for 6 hours a day everyday. My children will never mean as much to those teachers as they do to me.
My conclusion to the public school experiment is Parenting is HARD WORK!!!! Like my Dad always said "parenting is not for the weak." I will never again think that things would be easier if I put my kids in school or that public school parents took the easier route. There is no easier way. Its a choice we each get to make. Either we are involved in the trenches fighting the battle with our kids until we believe they are strong enough to make it on their own or we are trusting someone else to teach our kids how to fight the battles and we have to be OK with what someone else is teaching them and still pick up the broken pieces at the end of the day. For me its harder to pick up the broken pieces and trust someone else than it would be to jump in and teach my kids myself. Not everyone is going to feel the same way.
When my kids are home all day there is a constant buzz of noise, with some quieter and some louder noises. When I send my 2 oldest kids to school that noise level rises dramatically when they get home. They're each vying for my attention, trying to tell me about their day, get a snack and start on their homework. Neither one of them ever gets enough of my attention and I'm afraid one day, if we continued on this route, they would stop trying to get it- they would decided its not worth trying to get my attention. I would never go back to homeschooling if all day was as chaotic as those after school hours are. I would rather spend all day with my kids then try to deal with them in their stressed out after school behavior.
I am done doing homework with them. Homework is NOT the same thing as Homeschool school work. I hate homework time as much as they do and I spend almost as much time doing homework with them as I would doing schoolwork of our choice. Also I have to help them in the very limited time I have with them and not when its convenient in my schedule.
"Every child deserves a childhood." I know you've heard that phrase before. I don't see where they get much of a childhood in school. They are stressed at school with only a total of 45 minutes of playtime. Hardly enough time for free play or imagination play. I am a promoter of play and believe that play is the work of childhood. Children work out their problems through play. They will naturally outgrow the need to play -- why push them past play before their ready. In our home I have created an atmosphere of play where free play and imagination are encouraged. We keep the TV, movies, video games and tablets off except for a little bit of time on the weekend. When my kids are home they are either working or playing or learning. We "work together, learn together and play together." There is no time for playdates when your kids are in public school. Sure they have more friends and get invited to more birthday parties, but they don't seem to bond as deeply with these friends. There is also always drama of who's friends with who on which day and whose feelings are hurt because their not friends anymore. I just found out my daughter was saving half of her lunch everyday to share with another little girl on the school bus home so this girl would be her friend. What??? my cute 7 year old daughter is "paying" to have a friend. I am not ok with this and this would never happen in a homeschool setting.
I miss my kids while their gone to school. I had kids because I wanted kids not so someone else could raise them. I hate watching them walk through the gates onto the school playground and blend in with 1,500 other kids until I can't see them anymore. I hate that I've had the thought after they got on the bus - "Ok 2 gone I don't have to think about them till after school." I hate that the first few months of school they would come home and I would hug them and kiss them and tell them how much I missed them and now I just have the mentality of now your home lets get the next thing on our list done. Its not that I don't still miss them, its just become normal to not see them for 7 hours a day. I would probably like public school if it was just 9-12 everyday.
I haven't even touched yet on curriculum issues of why I don't like public school. Classics not text books. My 9 year old son can understand Tolkien and relate the Lord of the Rings trilogy (the books not the movies) to real life. Yet he's told he should be reading Geronimo Stilton and The Magic Treehouse. None of which have the deep messages and positive life lessons of Classics. We read together Anne of Green Gables over spring break just for fun. A few days after we finished he said, as if he had been pondering this for a while, "from Anne of Green Gables I learned if you want to be beautiful you should be righteous." I could have never taught him that lesson as deeply as he learned it in that book. If he remembers that for the rest of his life he will pick a good wife one day. I know academically they are progressing far more rapidly than they would be at home with me, but at the cost of extreme stress and social anxiety. I am also more interested in their entire character development rather than their academic skills as projected by standardized tests. The qualities I want to see developed in my children by the time they are adults can not be measured by testing.
I am grateful we tried public school, it was a good experiment. Each of us are guided to do what is right for our family. I truly believe God sent us the kids he sent each of us, because he knew we would guide them the way those kids need to be guided. He knew certain families would choose public school and others charter schools or private schools or a few of us --homeschool.
As for me and my house we choose HOMESCHOOL!!!! I am so excited only 18 more days 'till school is over and I bring my kids home to learn and grow.
My conclusion to the public school experiment is Parenting is HARD WORK!!!! Like my Dad always said "parenting is not for the weak." I will never again think that things would be easier if I put my kids in school or that public school parents took the easier route. There is no easier way. Its a choice we each get to make. Either we are involved in the trenches fighting the battle with our kids until we believe they are strong enough to make it on their own or we are trusting someone else to teach our kids how to fight the battles and we have to be OK with what someone else is teaching them and still pick up the broken pieces at the end of the day. For me its harder to pick up the broken pieces and trust someone else than it would be to jump in and teach my kids myself. Not everyone is going to feel the same way.
When my kids are home all day there is a constant buzz of noise, with some quieter and some louder noises. When I send my 2 oldest kids to school that noise level rises dramatically when they get home. They're each vying for my attention, trying to tell me about their day, get a snack and start on their homework. Neither one of them ever gets enough of my attention and I'm afraid one day, if we continued on this route, they would stop trying to get it- they would decided its not worth trying to get my attention. I would never go back to homeschooling if all day was as chaotic as those after school hours are. I would rather spend all day with my kids then try to deal with them in their stressed out after school behavior.
I am done doing homework with them. Homework is NOT the same thing as Homeschool school work. I hate homework time as much as they do and I spend almost as much time doing homework with them as I would doing schoolwork of our choice. Also I have to help them in the very limited time I have with them and not when its convenient in my schedule.
"Every child deserves a childhood." I know you've heard that phrase before. I don't see where they get much of a childhood in school. They are stressed at school with only a total of 45 minutes of playtime. Hardly enough time for free play or imagination play. I am a promoter of play and believe that play is the work of childhood. Children work out their problems through play. They will naturally outgrow the need to play -- why push them past play before their ready. In our home I have created an atmosphere of play where free play and imagination are encouraged. We keep the TV, movies, video games and tablets off except for a little bit of time on the weekend. When my kids are home they are either working or playing or learning. We "work together, learn together and play together." There is no time for playdates when your kids are in public school. Sure they have more friends and get invited to more birthday parties, but they don't seem to bond as deeply with these friends. There is also always drama of who's friends with who on which day and whose feelings are hurt because their not friends anymore. I just found out my daughter was saving half of her lunch everyday to share with another little girl on the school bus home so this girl would be her friend. What??? my cute 7 year old daughter is "paying" to have a friend. I am not ok with this and this would never happen in a homeschool setting.
I miss my kids while their gone to school. I had kids because I wanted kids not so someone else could raise them. I hate watching them walk through the gates onto the school playground and blend in with 1,500 other kids until I can't see them anymore. I hate that I've had the thought after they got on the bus - "Ok 2 gone I don't have to think about them till after school." I hate that the first few months of school they would come home and I would hug them and kiss them and tell them how much I missed them and now I just have the mentality of now your home lets get the next thing on our list done. Its not that I don't still miss them, its just become normal to not see them for 7 hours a day. I would probably like public school if it was just 9-12 everyday.
I haven't even touched yet on curriculum issues of why I don't like public school. Classics not text books. My 9 year old son can understand Tolkien and relate the Lord of the Rings trilogy (the books not the movies) to real life. Yet he's told he should be reading Geronimo Stilton and The Magic Treehouse. None of which have the deep messages and positive life lessons of Classics. We read together Anne of Green Gables over spring break just for fun. A few days after we finished he said, as if he had been pondering this for a while, "from Anne of Green Gables I learned if you want to be beautiful you should be righteous." I could have never taught him that lesson as deeply as he learned it in that book. If he remembers that for the rest of his life he will pick a good wife one day. I know academically they are progressing far more rapidly than they would be at home with me, but at the cost of extreme stress and social anxiety. I am also more interested in their entire character development rather than their academic skills as projected by standardized tests. The qualities I want to see developed in my children by the time they are adults can not be measured by testing.
I am grateful we tried public school, it was a good experiment. Each of us are guided to do what is right for our family. I truly believe God sent us the kids he sent each of us, because he knew we would guide them the way those kids need to be guided. He knew certain families would choose public school and others charter schools or private schools or a few of us --homeschool.
As for me and my house we choose HOMESCHOOL!!!! I am so excited only 18 more days 'till school is over and I bring my kids home to learn and grow.
Monday, March 2, 2015
We bought the Magic Mobile Classroom.
We bought the official Magic Mobile Classroom. My husband searched for a long time online --all of his free time- to find the perfect Mobile Classroom for our family. When he finally found it, he had to drive 4 hours to go pick it up and persuade his brother to go with him to help drive it home. I am grateful his brother went, I was not looking forward to dragging 3 kids and a newborn baby on an adventure to go check out the new buy. It took about 8 hours to drive home including a few stops to repair it.
The kids and I woke up early the next morning to see our new Mobile Classroom sitting in the driveway. It was exciting!!! Its beautiful now, but that morning it was so dirty I wouldn't let them in. Dad did a lot of cleaning and bleaching to get it as nice as you see here.
The kids and I woke up early the next morning to see our new Mobile Classroom sitting in the driveway. It was exciting!!! Its beautiful now, but that morning it was so dirty I wouldn't let them in. Dad did a lot of cleaning and bleaching to get it as nice as you see here.
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| We need to buy some new seats. |
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| I hope we can replace these too. :) |
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| It still needs a lot of work inside and out. |
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| We love our Magic Mobile Classroom! |
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| Our guard dog. |
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The Magic Mobile Classrom
Take Chances ,Make Mistakes, Get Messy... On The Magic Mobile Classroom.
I told my kids if Ms. Frizzle were real, I would send you to school with her. On the other hand why create limitations when there are none-- "Kids we are going on the Magic Mobile Classroom and we are going to study History and Geography up close and personal." It was New Years Day 2015 when we decided we would do everything we could to make this dream happen. In 3 years we will take 4 months and travel around the United States studying and learning the history and visiting the actual historical locations. We mapped it out and hung a giant map of our learning odyssey on the wall. We began the search to buy the perfect Mobile Classroom.
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