Homeschooling Moments

I love homeschooling. I love the relationships it creates and the time the family has to spend together. When people worry that us having 'too many' children means the children don't get enough time, I only need to state that homeschooling children see more of their mums than public schooled kids do. My children are here all day. When they have a need I am there for them. Some things are less critical and so they get put off, but when they need me I am available. I am so fortunate in this!

 

Listening to Audio Books

 Beginning to Read Already!

 Savannah Loves School and Works So Hard!

 Raine is a Competitor. She is Determined to Keep Up With Cooper.

 Cooper. What Can I Say?

 If you could have seen the six photos I took before these ones. *smile* He was anywhere but doing his math. Feet on the desk, hanging upside down on his chair, chewing on his shirt, walking around. Now, the girls, on the other hand, have no problem attending to their work! *grin*

 Briton in Speech Therapy. 

Sadly, because are homeschooled he is now cut-off from support. But we got an assessment in the hopes of keeping his support going, but funded by our private school.

 Briton and Savannah Love Making Playdough Letters

This is a great, concrete way to learn the letter formations and sounds!!! I should have done this with them all.

 Cooper Copying Out Bible Verses

 Cassidy Doing Online Schoolwork

 Austin Typing a Narration of a Book He Read

Narrations are a wonderful way for the children to put to practice what they have learned in spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, memory, and understanding. They read or listen to a literary piece (my children read about 1 hour a day from school books) and then they are required to type up a specified amount. Austin finds this very easy, so I don't put an amount on him. He uses big words and great sentences without prompting, so I let him go. Cassidy struggles in this area, so he has a required amount of about six to eight sentences. What I am noticing is that Cassidy is improving, as time is passing. I have been teaching him some simple punctuation rules, which make all the difference:

IC/CI  - this means that if there is a complete sentence followed by And, Or, For, Nor, But, Yet, or So, and then there is a complete sentence following the Coordinating Conjunction, then there is a comma following the CC.

Ie:   John went to the store (complete sentence) AND, he picked up some bread.  (complete sentence)

What wouldn't work is: John went to the store (complete sentence) AND picked up some bread (not complete sentence after AND).

By drilling these as we go (and there are about five rules) I have found he is able to use semi-colons and commas in a much better way. The book to buy is Jensen's Punctuation. I love, love, love it!! The lessons are taught using passages out of a book, and then the student simply punctuates the sentences based on punctuation rules they have learned. *I* have learned so much using it! And so now, with Austin, I immediately teach him the simpler rules (and there are only five main rules!) so that when he gets to Jensen's he will find it a breeze. Cassidy's teacher has already told him that most adults don't know how to use semi-colons, so he is ahead of game!

Briton did a fabulous job cleaning out the pantry!! This time I showed him there was order and then left him alone. When I came back I found he had it totally organized. Well done!

 It was wonderful the day I realized my younger set were capable of peeling potatoes! This took a job away from the bigger kids or me, freeing us up for more jobs, or more time to play games with them all!

A little bit of a homeschool day. *smile*

Mr. Independence

One day when after I had taught Briton, he went off to play. Shortly after, I heard some rattling and it didn't seem to stop. Finally, I walked into the kitchen to check out what on earth was going on. This is what I saw...

 Briton told me he was cleaning out the drawer. Without even planning it he had created for himself a homeschool activity: sorting and classification!

 He then proceeded to clean out the drawer!

 I wish you could have heard the sounds I was hearing as I went and sat back at the kitchen table. Try taking all your tupperware out of your drawers or cupboards in the kitchen and rattle them around, as you throw them out onto the floor. Constantly. Well, that is the sound I was hearing. Once again, I peep into the kitchen to see what he is doing now... lol

Washing Out His Cloth

Next Chore

One last job. So funny. I had to have Austin sort the pantry after Briton had done his 'cleaning'. *grin* He had so much fun being Mr. Independent!

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Living Books and My Passion for Homeschooling

There is nothing to compare to having a book that you can't wait to pick up and continue reading. As a child I was moved from Canada to England and then back again. It was a painful process with a lot of rejection, as I was a foreigner. The thing that sustained me was my love of books!

I lived about 2 miles from a library and in those days you could only take out four books at a time. For someone who devoured books as I do that was not nearly enough. I can so clearly remember my walks from my house, down an English town road, take right onto Main Street, and then cross over the bridge that led to the Thames River, and then take a left down a side street, and there... there was my beloved library.

No matter what bullying I was enduring, no matter how I missed my friends in Canada, no matter how school was not what I was used to - no matter. I had my beloved friends - my books. I would browse the shelves and pick every so carefully four wonderful books and then begin the walk back home. But I didn't just walk. No I held my book in my hands and read my way home. That walk was so much shorter on the return that on the way out.

I remember one thought that you might consider silly, but honestly, it just showed how books could carry me away from my problems. Sometimes when I walked home it would be late winter nights and it was dark. I was normally scared of the dark, but not when was carrying my books. They gave me a little extra courage. Yes, I would dash as quickly as I could to get home, and I would jump at shadows, and hide when cars passed me by.

At the same time, I would have silly fantasies of what might happen on those late evening trips to the library. Perhaps I would be kidnapped and held to ransom. In my fantasies I always returned home safe and sound. Probably because I never read books that were horrible - more romantic and adventurous in nature.

I figured I would be okay, because I had my books and I would at least be able to read them while I waited for my parents to pay the ransom. Oh the memories!! How funny!

When I was in Grade 7, my library privileges were revoked. Can you imagine!! Taking books from a child. To me that was ludicrous. Their reasoning was that I was supposed to be doing such dry subjects as Spelling or Science, while sitting at my school desk and not secreting a book on my lap. You see, I could pretend I was doing desk work, while actually looking down at my lap where I had the book between the desk and my legs. I could see a sliver at a time; just enough to read. I would slide the book further down my legs as I went down the page. I just couldn't bear to not read!

When I lived in Banff, I would also read. I was a maid in the Banff Springs Hotel. I was a good maid and my reading did not detract from doing my job. This is my disclaimed for those that think I took advantage of my job. *grin* I won employ of the month one month out of 1000 employees, so I know I was doing my job. Buuutttt at the same time.... I figured why not do my job faster and have time to read? So I would do my required number of rooms in a day, and then some more, which earned me points. *grin*. So then I did not feel guilty when my motivator at the end of each room was to stand at my maid cart and surreptitiously read a book for ten minutes before moving onto the next room! This motivation certainly caused me to work speedy fast, and of course, being the Banff Springs Hotel, we had not one, but *two* supervisors checking behind us on each room we cleaned. So there was no way I could slack off.

But those amazing adventures and experiences I read about kept me motivated while doing a mundane job as I did.

When I was a teen of 15 to 18 and had a newspaper route, I read. I used to tell my dad that I was the oldest newspaper carrier out there. *grin* I lived out in the country and the opportunities for making money were extremely limited, so I carried papers. I hated my route, as I was still scared of the dark and it was seven long miles! In the summer and spring it was fine. In the winter it was scary! I had to ride my bike down long sections of dark woods, and due to the fact that my imagination was wild from all the books I had read, (grin), I used to imagine what terrible things could happen to me. My dad probably laughed when I told him my biggest fear was being found dead and the newspaper reporting. Found dead: the oldest newspaper carrier of all time - eighteen years old! (laugh) My imagination was certainly active!

In the spring, summer, and fall days, before it got dark, I would take my stack of newspapers and put them on the bike carrier. I would then pack my novel along with me. If the roads were good I would hold my book on my handlebars with my thumbs and read as I rode down the roads! Can you imagine? If that was my child, there is no way that would be allowed to happen. Well, I didn't advertise to my parents what I was doing! lol I have *very* good peripheral vision, and I suspect it was from all those years reading books when I wasn't supposed to and having to watch for teachers, bosses, and cars! (laugh) But it made my seven miles quite enjoyable!

My love of books has not waned, but my time to read has. They say what is on the bedside table tells alot about a person. I try to squeeze in a few minutes before and after the days begins or ends. Right now, I have The Power of a Praying Wife; The Power of Praying Parent; They Are Already Gone (about adult children leaving the church); Choosing to See - a personal story about Steven and Mary Chapman's loss of their precious baby girl, Maria and their ability to celebrate their faith through it; A Lasting Promise - a book about marriages. Sometimes, rarely, I have time for a riveting good read. But mostly, I love a book about someone's life. I love biographies. I loves stories that triumph or adversity. When I was a girl I loved stories about families and devoured anything I could get my hands on. World War II and the human side of that became a passion for me. Reading about escapes and people helping others drew me in and I couldn't put the books down.

My children have been exposed to classics since they were babies. The first books they are read are Beatrix Potters stories, and the the Winnie the Pooh books. These are followed by: Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, Aesop's Fables, Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson, Charlotte's Web, Just So Stories, Peter Pan, Pinocchio. They adore these books!

As each year goes by my children are given more and more to read. To quote a site that shares 1000 Living books with you:

The criteria we used to judge inclusion are: Does the book have literary value? Does the book re-emphasize a Biblical worldview or the Judeo-Christian heritage in some way? Does the book teach, through whatever means, what is moral or just or true? Does the book encourage to love and good works? Does the book exemplify warmth, tenderness, courage, humor, and other values and characteristics that we desire our children to be exposed to? Does the book nourish the intellect and fire the imagination? Does the book cross age barriers to be enjoyed by all?

1000 Living Books

The site has books organized according to ages. I am thrilled to be able to say that though I read a lot of Twaddle growing up, I have learned to appreciate a Living Book. They are truly *so much better* than Twaddle. For those that haven't heard this word before:

Twaddle: (n) silly, trivial, or pretentious talk or writing; nonsense

So much that is on the library shelves today is twaddle. When the libraries have had their book sales for the last fifteen years, I have been there to clean out the books they want to get rid of. The books that they consider not necessary. They are throwing out books that are not borrowed frequently, and sadly, for the children of today, that means the good old books are gone! Books that are really enjoyable to read, for all ages!

Thankfully for me, this means that my library is huge. I keep on adding books as I find them. And then, when I don't find them in libraries, I find them in Best Online Classic Children's Books or Project Gutenberg - these are two sites that are bringing back books from the past. This next one is specifically books that are in the public domain and are Canadian books: Canadian Gutenberg Project.

I hope you enjoy discovering the difference between Twaddle and Living Books! Do you realize how many people don't even know some of the classics! That is outrageous to me! When I was a child my dad always read in the evening. Behind the living room couch there was a floor to ceiling book shelf filled with classics, and books from my parents' childhoods and youths. I can still see myself going behind that couch to choose another wonderful book to read. This evokes such special memories to me.

When I moved to England at age thirteen, one of the first thing I did was search out the library at my school. There were librarians there, but really, they weren't doing much, as not many people bothered to check out books. Why? The shelves were filled with cloth bound books. No flyleaves, no write-ups on the books. Nothing to entice you to read any particular book. That didn't stop me. I picked up a stack of books and took them to the large window seat and sat back to see what I had. Book by book, I opened the covers to see what magic or treasure was hiding within the old, dusty, covers. And magic there was! The feeling is so clear to my memory. Each book was an old story, but so full of life and adventure.

Another magical memory of childhood I have is when we moved into our tall duplex house in a southern English town. This house was four stories tall with a main floor, two upper floors, and a cellar. Each floor had two main rooms, a bathroom or closet area, and a staircase and landing. You can imagine how many stairs there were in this house! My bedroom and my brothers was up on the top floor, and there was a tiny bathroom and a quaint little kitchen right at the top of the landing for us. I loved it up there!

When we moved in, we discovered a coal cellar in the basement, complete with a coal shute. The basement wasn't really used so the areas under the stairs were just like something out of a good old book: dusty, cobwebs, old cobblestone and brick. There were two fireplaces on each floor and so you can imagine being the chimney sweep in that house!

Down in one of those rooms was an old cupboard. When we opened it we discovered a huge treasure! Books. Glorious books! Some of my favourites that came from that cupboard were the William book series. Wonderful, funny stories about a naughty boy named William and all of his adventures. Ageless, timeless stories. The first book is called Just William, by Richard Cromptom. They were published in the early 1900s'. These books were like the others: red cloth bound books that might have been passed by by someone who didn't love books as much as I. I wouldn't call these 'moral books', but rather delightful adventures of William and his friends. These are books that make a wonderful read a loud, simply because you, the mum, will enjoy them also!

If you want to find old books that are no longer published, try going to Abe Books. You can find almost anything you want. The prices are good and you can reckon on paying about $10 shipping on each book, which when you consider the cost of a new book, is about right.

Enjoy discovering the wonder of books, if you have not before. You may find yourself and your children hooked! *smile*

Next to come: My Passion for Homeschooling has come back. Watch out. You might want to get out your notebooks. *laugh* I am talking to those that have told me they like the homeschool posts. *grin* Wait til you see what we are up to! Funny.... hmmm... I thought I said I was barely going to homeschool this year??? Well, the passion is back, and I will just have to figure out how to get it all done: wiring a new house, insulating, drywalling, laying floors, and homeschooling! lol
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Busy Framing and Doing Life

It has been busy around here. I have not been to the jobsite much. Ray and the boys have been working nights and weekends since it all began. Presently, they have the upstairs built and are about to begin the 3rd floor. I have not even seen it to this stage.



I spent all last week running around town dropping children at Ballet and Bugs classes. It was drop off at one end of town at 9:30, other end of town at 10:30, back at 11:30, and then back to the other end at 12:00 for pickup. In between these drops which are 15 minutes drive apart, I had to do all kinds of building errands. So it was busy. And another week of summer shot by.

This has been a weird summer. I didn't spend any time at the beach, but we did go to two camps for adoptive families. The rest of the time I had kids at summer camp and then day camps. The weather has really looked like winter. The sky is full of smoke so we have had barely any sunshine, and it has gotten cool. Thankfully, last night it rained for the first time in a long time. It was an answer to prayer. This fire season has been one of the worst ever. Two days ago, I heard that in our province we had 253 fires burning! In our area there are fires threatening some bigger towns and people are on evacuation alert. We have friends in the nearest town that is watching to be sure the fire doesn't jump the river and get close to where they live!

When we tried to buy construction insurance for our new house we had a hard time getting it. Only one company would insure us and that was only if we were 50 km from the nearest fire. We are 60 km! As it was, they charged us $2900 for 8 months! That is nearly 4 times the amount of normal construction insurance. By the time they found us a company I was just thankful that *someone* would insure us!

The little boys have picked up the slack for the older workers. Briton and Cooper have picked up Cassidy's evening chores, since he is at the jobsite most evenings. They clean the downstairs bathroom, tidy, and clean up the laundry room and the two entry rooms. It is quite cute to see as Briton takes his bathroom cleaning very seriously. Raine could not believe that Briton was doing the bathroom solo. She was quite impressed. She and Savannah clean the girls' bathroom, but they are older. Cooper is also a hard worker.

Briton the Bathroom Cleaner

Cooper the Floors and Entry

Austin the Dish Man

Austin has picked up from his older brother, Dane. Dane does the dinner dishes, and Austin makes breakfast and then does breakfast cleanup. But now that Dane is working so hard, Austin works with me to do the dinner cleanup.

I will get out to the jobsite soon and take some pictures. I know the house is coming along nicely. The boys and Ray have worked extraordinarily hard. They really haven't had any time off since it all began in the middle of July. So this weekend was nice because Dane left on the Greyhound bus for a Missions Trip Reunion in a town 3 hours from where we live. He was to be gone from Thursday through Sunday, so that was a great break for him.

Then Colt left on Friday morning, driving to his girlfriend's Cadet Camp. The last time he saw her was about three weeks ago, when he took off one morning at 6:00 am and drove three hours to see her at the Cadet Summer Camp, spent the entire day with her, and then drove home late that night. He was home by 1:00 am and arrived at work on time the next day! Crazy.

This time will not be as easy. She does not have a day off. He called to tell me that he sat in the office waiting for her to get off for a few minutes, just to see her. She finally got off when he was talking to me on the phone. He hung up quickly, stole his minutes with her and that was that. He called me back to tell me what it was like. She came in the office and they were allowed no physical contact, so he couldn't give her a hug. They had *sixteen minutes* to talk and then she had to go back to her duties!

Later that night, after she got off work, he was able to chat with her through the fence. Him on one side, her on the other. That is what love is all about! *smile*

She was going to be getting out of Cadet Camp the following morning, but was going to be driving back to her town (another 7 hours in the opposite direction) at 11:00 am. Not a lot of time to see each other. So they made a quick decision that he would drive home with her mum and spend til Tuesday visiting her and his old friends, jump on the bus and catch the bus back to his car at the Cadet Camp, and then drive home from there. He should be home Tuesday night.

I have no idea how he will cope when he goes off to school and is 11 hours from her. It will be a long school year! He has 16 months ahead of him with only 2 weeks for summer and 10 days for Christmas!

And then Cassidy and the younger five and I took off for a couple days. We headed to a northern town in our province. There was going to be Pure NRG concert and the tickets were only $10 each! It was being put on by a church, and they kept the price low so the neighbourhood kids could see the concert and learn what these teens were all about. The message they sing about is their love of the Lord. They sing about purity and faith. They have been singing together since they were 10, 10, and 12, and they are now 15, 15, and 17. This is their last concert as they are going on to do different things. The music is amazing and even my seventeen year old son totally loved their initial CD named Pure NRG. You would never know they were so young.



We knew they were going to sign autographs, so we got in line right away and were the second in a long row of nearly 400 people. And then I asked about photos and they hadn't even organized that yet, so they used our family as the starting point for the photos with the group. How cool was that!



It has been a busy and fun summer and I am SO not ready for school! I haven't even begun school planning. I jokingly told a friend the other day, "I'm not even sure if I'm doing school this year." She panicked, but you have to understand, she is a traditional school teacher and to her, school is books at a desk.

To me, school is: building houses: math, language, PE, life skills etc; nature studies: learning about animals, sketching them, identifying what they are; reading piles of *good quality* living books; playing chess; art classes; learning to play the guitar, drum lessons; rhythmic gymnastics; skiing; self made projects: Cassidy and Cooper are presently painting a bookshelf that they found in a garage sale; memorizing Bible verses: as in 100 or more in a matter of months; cooking meals and baking: science, math, reading, social studies: cultural foods; and the list goes on.

I suppose I might possibly pick up a text or two. But seriously, most of it can be learned through real-life and that is the best way. It sticks the best and children enjoy learning that way.

So let the learning continue...
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