Homestead Happenings
This week seems to have flown by. Interestingly enough it was a pretty quiet week. I am thinking about changing how I do the weekly journal tho. I would love your ideas and suggestions.
Lucas has been quite the character this past week. His curiosity is a delight to watch. He makes the greatest expressions and he is learning to say a ton of words and phrases even, my favorite being "milt" aka milk when he wants to nurse. I have a little photo montage to share, they say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Jacob offered to wash the kitchen floor for some extra points, it didn't take long to recruit a few helpers. Ezra and Lucas had a blast!
We were given a new bed this week. A friend of a friend was upgrading and we got their old bed. Its an upgrade for us as we had a full size bed that allowed for me to lay sideways and daddy to hang off the side so Lucas, our 16 month old, could sprawl out comfortably. Now that we have a larger queen size bed, Ezra has decided there is now just enough space for him. He crawled in my bed both nights, telling me I had room for "two babies". He is such a little cutie.
Our Adventures
We made a few extra trips to the library this week. The children had some research to do for their science lessons. Wednesday Daddy took the 4 oldest to their craft activity and then to scouts. They did a stained glass window project for the library craft project and at scouts they worked on our church's float for the Christmas parade.
Saturday we were able to attend the baptism of 4 beautiful children. It was such a blessing. They were all so excited! That evening we had the ward Thanksgiving pot luck. Not as many people showed as we thought and there were a ton of left overs. We grabbed some as did a several other people. We ended up with a bunch more as it was going unclaimed and would be tossed! I really wish more people had come! We had so much food! We grabbed two large ham bones, one for soup stock and one for our girl!
We made a few extra trips to the library this week. The children had some research to do for their science lessons. Wednesday Daddy took the 4 oldest to their craft activity and then to scouts. They did a stained glass window project for the library craft project and at scouts they worked on our church's float for the Christmas parade.
Saturday we were able to attend the baptism of 4 beautiful children. It was such a blessing. They were all so excited! That evening we had the ward Thanksgiving pot luck. Not as many people showed as we thought and there were a ton of left overs. We grabbed some as did a several other people. We ended up with a bunch more as it was going unclaimed and would be tossed! I really wish more people had come! We had so much food! We grabbed two large ham bones, one for soup stock and one for our girl!
What We Have Been Learning About
I have been getting a ton of inquiries about home schooling. Saturday when a few of the children turned in their book-its even the cashier was asking about homeschooling. A friend is starting their home school journey next week.
I think the first thing we need to stress is that homeschooling is nothing like the idea of schooling most people have. We do not create a "school at home" environment. I tried that. It left both the children and I frustrated. I hope to share more of our home school life in the blog. Its very informal and I feel I don't quite relay how it actually works. I want to show that any parent can home school. Your style will depend on your and your children, every family is different. If homeschooling was to mimic what we do in traditional schools, I would have quit long ago!
We are pretty informal with our lessons. Seeing a child perched or curled up somewhere reading a book or working on a lesson is a common thing. Do you read books at the kitchen table? Not usually I would assume. I don't see how a child would want to either.
My "littles" as I call them do their own thing. They do a lot of role play, usually house and more recently playing church. Just this past week Olivia and Urijah were playing church. When I walked in (they didn't realize they were being watched) they had just finished the hymn "Jesus was once a little child" and then Urijah gave a talk (he was using his scriptures and even had a makeshift pulpit) about people not doing what mom said and not doing their chores. He was talking to an audience in his mind and even pulled out a "key" from his pocket to show them. He was getting to his point when he saw me and clammed up..
Its not hard to see a child's natural curiosity kick in. They made a fort behind the couch and were coloring a workbook about animals. Ezra is pointing out each one.
Creativity and fun is a big part of their day. Formal lessons take up just an hour or two each day. Most of the time they are playing or working on a project.
In our home game pieces often go missing. Quinten took cards from several Cranium games and made his own game. He took a wooden block and wrote on it to make a die. Depending on what you roll, you choose a card. Some cards are trivia questions, some are action and some are draw. I asked how they kept score, he said they don't, its just for fun! Now that's a great game!
I think the first thing we need to stress is that homeschooling is nothing like the idea of schooling most people have. We do not create a "school at home" environment. I tried that. It left both the children and I frustrated. I hope to share more of our home school life in the blog. Its very informal and I feel I don't quite relay how it actually works. I want to show that any parent can home school. Your style will depend on your and your children, every family is different. If homeschooling was to mimic what we do in traditional schools, I would have quit long ago!
We are pretty informal with our lessons. Seeing a child perched or curled up somewhere reading a book or working on a lesson is a common thing. Do you read books at the kitchen table? Not usually I would assume. I don't see how a child would want to either.
Its not hard to see a child's natural curiosity kick in. They made a fort behind the couch and were coloring a workbook about animals. Ezra is pointing out each one.
In our home game pieces often go missing. Quinten took cards from several Cranium games and made his own game. He took a wooden block and wrote on it to make a die. Depending on what you roll, you choose a card. Some cards are trivia questions, some are action and some are draw. I asked how they kept score, he said they don't, its just for fun! Now that's a great game!
On Our Bookshelf
We borrow a lot of books from the library. The children pick out their own books, and I grab some that I feel they need for school. This is a somewhat partial but nearly complete list
The Little's Books
Planes!
Cheerios
Daddy's Girl
The Rain Came Down
Baby and Bunny
The Older's Books
Jacob is finishing off his insects study and his seminary reading of the New Testament
Quinten is reading End the Fed by Ron Paul
Abigail is up to book 47 in the Nancy Drew series, Little House on the Prairie
Isaac is reading his science books on the human body
Zachary is reading the Magic Tree House series books
The Schooling Books
Liberty Defined: 50 Essential issues that effect our freedom
Crafts for Kids who are wild about insects
Every day life in Bible Times
Fun with Nature
Incredible bugs
Math and Logic games
Isrealistes
1,000 Facts on Bugs
Drawing creepy crawlies
Mom's Books
Superfreakonomics
What We Are Watching
DVD
Curious George Takes a Vacation
Dog Jack
Curious George Takes a Vacation
Dog Jack
Challenges and Accomplishments
Jacob has taught all 25 of the scripture mastery's he had to memorize for seminary. He has done so well in this class. I am glad to see the study habits he learned in home school put into action in an outside setting. I am very proud of him!
Link/Quote/Photo to share
Jacob has taught all 25 of the scripture mastery's he had to memorize for seminary. He has done so well in this class. I am glad to see the study habits he learned in home school put into action in an outside setting. I am very proud of him!
Link/Quote/Photo to share
Ron Paul gave a farewell speech last week as he is retiring from Congress next month. This is a powerful speech. Click on it and hit play while you fold laundry or wash dishes. You wont regret it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q03cWio-zjk&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q03cWio-zjk&feature=youtu.be
Linking up with these Blog Hops
Have I been that busy? Wow! How did I miss all your posts? I guess I will be back today to play catch up. I enjoyed your post. It looks like a lot of fun. When the kids do their reading around here, I let them go do their stuff wherever. It's usually on the couch or in bed.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to read about how your older ones school. There are times when I feel I should "loosen the reins", but I can't quite do it. LOL Maybe it's the public school teacher in me? I HAVE become more flexible as the years go on though! LOL
ReplyDeleteI meant to tell you, Lucas looks a lot like you.
ReplyDelete