Look Through Our Window, What Do You See?

Lately I have read post after post from moms who are looking at joining Classical Conversations or Homeschooling in general, but they have a fear of all the work and start to lose hope before it begins. If you are that mom, let me tell you, You're Not Alone... I believe every mommy and family goes through this thought. I know we as a family did, and I as a mom.

We (my husband and I) went back and forth on homeschooling. Could we financially do it? Could I actually teach our children? How would we do it with everything else we have going on? These were our answers.
 1. Maybe, but it would take a lot and I mean A LOT of sacrifice to do it.
 2. Well I taught them their ABC's and 123's and how to do different things.
 3. With help from God! Because honestly that would and is the only way we do it.

Our days have started to take a turn on the easier side here lately. But, the beginning of our school year there was a LOT going on. It was all by the grace of God that we made it through the day. There were days when school took a back seat until doctors visits were done, calls to insurances were made, and therapy was finished. There were days where we did school sitting in the lobby of doctor offices while Grandma went back to see her doctor, or we waiting for physical therapy to start.

Early on I knew that we would have to do school year round to meet the requirements for our state. Honestly this is one of the many reasons why we choose to homeschool. With the amount of doctor visits, hospital stays, and surgeries my oldest has to have, she would never be able to meet the 180 days in traditional school. Homeschooling also gives her therapist better available times for her to do her PT. So we don't fight with the other kids on the list that can only come after school hours.

So, on to our days and how we do them, this is not with hospital stays and doctors visits added. Just PT.

First off, I don't do a set time for when we start and stop. I have tried this and failed miserably at it. So we do a routine, and it works for us. We are having to find a new one now, since my daughter no longer has PT on Monday in the morning. So for now..

Almost every day we start the same with: Kids get up and have Daddy time before he leaves for work while I nurse the baby and then get ready or at least pull my hair up. Then I get coffee and catch up on the news while the kids eat breakfast, THEN.....

Mondays: We start school. Math and Language Arts, then break time. Here it's normally lunch time, so we eat. Then it's on to CC review. For review I turn on our Google Chrome and we watch videos from CC connected on the TV and sing along. Then we turn on videos I have found on YouTube that go along with CC lessons for that week, and we watch 1 or 2 of them. After this it is nap time. This is when I get a chance to do a load of laundry, take a shower, or if it was a rough night before with the baby I'll lay down and take a nap too. Once nap time is over I start getting things ready for dinner.

Tuesday: We start school. Math and Language Arts, then it is time to get ready for PT (Some times Grandma keeps the younger two.) We do CC review in the car on the way to PT and in the lobby if we get there early. After an hour of PT we head back home for lunch. Eat lunch then load up in the car again to head to Horse Riding Therapy. The ride out to the ranch is normally nap time for the kids, since the drive is long. Once at the ranch, Lizzy does her riding (once a month her old PT comes out to do Physical Therapy with the kids while on horse back, it's really cool!). While Lizzy is riding, Tony walks around checking out the chickens and other horses and animals around the ranch. Once her hour of riding is up, it's time to head home. Lately we stop by and grab a pizza for dinner since that makes things so much easier. If we don't do pizza, then we go to their dad's work and visit him and have dinner there. He normally pulls a double those days, so it gives the kids a chance to visit him.

Wednesday: This day is rough to keep on track because this is daddy's first day off, so the kids are all about doing things with daddy. When we can get them settled down, we do Math and then Language Arts then break time until later. Our CC review is broken up throughout the day as we can slip it in. This is also the day that I try to play catch up on house work and laundry.

Thursday: This day is CC co-op day. We get ready and head out the door to co-op!! After we are done with co-op and the kids have played with their friends we head home for naps. Any house work or laundry that I wasn't able to finish gets worked on.

Friday: We start school. Math and Language Arts, then on to CC review. Break for lunch and then some fun science experiment or crafts after. After we finish with our experiments or crafts we clean up and then it's nap time for kids and catch up on house work/laundry for mommy.

Saturday: Play day and house work day

Sunday: Church and Rest

One thing I know I need to change in our routine is beginning with prayer. This is one thing I need to add that I know will help us.

Sorry for no pictures this time.

Thawing Out From Christmas Break CC Style

Christmas 2014

Our Christmas break is over, and it is time to get back on the road with new CC (Classical Conversations) studies. We started back on week 13 in CC and got the tempo started back up in our house. Our first day back to co-op was a bit rocky but full of excitement. Getting up earlier than our normal time and heading out the door was a little hard. But, knowing that friends would be there helped kick start the day.

What we thought was us running late, or as my oldest sister calls it "Jarnagan Time" was just us being full of excitement.. We got to co-op with about 15-20 minutes to spare. So we settled into our seat, talked with some friends, and waited for our morning announcements. Once we were done, we headed back to class to listen to our tutor teach us about this weeks lessons.

After class was done we headed off to have lunch and let the kids play with their friends. We caught up with friends that came for the day to see what our co-op was like, and talked with friends we hadn't seen over Christmas break. We talked about who was going to the seminar the following night and about how things had been going. Normal chit chat that moms do, you could say..

The next night came and it was time to head off to the seminar. This was my first ever CC seminar and boy was it filling. It consisted of some moms from each of the three CC campuses in our area. We had so much fun, there were times where laughter could be heard down the hall from our meeting room. The amount of information I left there with was awesome! I'll fill you in on some of what I left with.

To start off here are a few verses to check out for inspiration in your homeschool journey. These are from ESV Bible.
Deuteronomy 6: 7: "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."
Colossians 2: 6-8: "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abound in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirtis of the world, and not according to Christ."
2 Corinthians 12:9: "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
1 Samuel: The story of Hannah.
I pray that these scriptures have lifted you up as they have me, and that your cup is filling up and is ready to run over with the blessings that Christ has to offer.

After our reading of scripture and prayer we talked about the different stages of CC. Since our family is in the first stage of CC which is the Grammar stage, my notes gear more with that. We talked about how at this early stage things should be kept simple. It reminded me of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) which I was taught growing up. With CC this just means to focus on the memory work, don't try to dig deeper than that. This stage is meant to put "pegs" in for them the "hang" more information that comes later on. Also don't stress the small things, they will get it. By reviewing 6 weeks worth of information at a time, you give their brain time to absorb things and not get over loaded or bogged down. Along side teaching the skill of memorizing, you should also trust that the memory work is enough. The only thing that we as homeschool parents have to add with CC memory work is math and language arts. This is also why you should not overwhelm yourself or your kids with more than they need with memory work.

If they don't seem to be getting it, just give it time. My oldest has those times where her skip counting takes a little bit more time, but when she gets it WOW! She is super excited and is ready for her high five from mommy. Another too, don't think that reviewing memory work has to be boring or monotonous. Do like one of the moms in our CC community does, have Ninja review. Her boys act like Ninjas as they do review and with every correct subjects review they can get louder and louder; then it is back to super quite like Ninjas again. So have fun with it.. Let your kids give you ideas and run with that. School doesn't have the be 'School', have it in the sun outside doing something fun that gets extra energy out.

If your child is struggling with their math or reading or phonics work, don't stress. Give them time, some studies have showed that kids don't fully understand somethings until they are an certain age. So, read aloud with your kids with books that are above and below their grade level. Let them have free time to read on their own and play. You may be surprised to hear them singing some of the memory work or acting out their History sentence with toys.

Christmas break from CC

We had our Christmas Party with our Classical Conversations co-op group and it was a blast! The kids were super excited since the party meant they could see their friends. Mommy was happy because I got some girl friend time with the other mommies. It is so funny how we have lived in this area for 6 years and never really made close friends. At least that was till we joined CC and since our family has blossomed. We recently changed churches and our kids have taken a HUGE liking to it also. Their disability ministry is by far the best in this area. They even hold a prom like dance for the kids and adults.

But I'm getting a little off topic here, sorry tend to do that from time to time.. Now back to CC and homeschooling.

Like I mentioned before in another post, we decided to try out a new way of homeschooling this year. It is our Kindergarten year and the things we and I really mean "WE" are learning is just mind blowing. There are things that I really do not remember from my 12 years in public school.

CC has taken my approach to teaching and learning to a whole new level. We do hand motions, sing, play music, draw, dance, play games all while learning about "1803 the purchase of Louisiana from France prompted westward explorations...." And this can be told to you by my, at the time we learned it, 2 year old. 

CC takes a classical approach to learning and helps children to retain what they have learned. Their songs are super catchy and get stuck in your head. Trust me, you will find yourself doing dishes or laundry and break out singing the History sentence of the week.

If you haven't heard of Classical Conversations look it up!! There are a great number of videos on YouTube to watch. It is a lot to grasp at first glance. I'd suggest if there are any communities in your area check them out. They have days where you and your children can sit in on the classes to see what it is all about. 

We have a few new families who will be starting when we come back from our month long Christmas break. Yep, a whole month.

We still do our review of weeks 1-12 and our regular math and language arts.  But this little break is a happy and sad time in our home. Happy because we don't have to much to do in this hectic time of year, sad because we miss going every week to see our friends.

This break is causing me to get better at planing play date though.. 

I pray everyone has a Blessed Christmas and if you celebrate any other holidays have a Happy and Merry one...

Being a Homeschool family with 3 kids under the age of 6

This is our first official year on the books home schooling and I honestly am a little scared. Did I always know I wanted to Homeschool? Yes and No.. Yes, because as a child I would teach to my stuffed animals and dolls. Once I had my first child I thought home schooling would be pretty cool. Then I started to get the cold feet on all of it, that is where the No comes in. I thought to myself “Can I really do this?” I mean I have no college degree in teaching. I went to school for Horticulture and Massage Therapy and when in high school my grades were not the best. So could I really teach my child? Then after talking with a family who home schooled and doing some reading on it I gained a whole new view of myself. I could teach my child as much as any college graduate teacher could. I taught her to talk didn’t I, so why not teach her everything else?

First year homeschooling. First day at HEART a homeschool co-op.

We are a little different from your typical Homeschool family in the fact that my oldest is disabled, so we do our work around doctor visits, physical therapy, and hospital stays. We found out at 20 weeks that our daughter would be born with something called Spina Bifida (spilt spine aka open spine) and Hydrocephalus (water on the brain). We were given the worst outcome by the doctors. Then once she was born their views changed. Her neurosurgeon told us that she would be a very bright child, and could become a doctor like she has said she wants to be.

Doctor visit

Horse Therapy after Physical Therapy

Waiting for surgery

 

 

She has underwent 11 surgeries so far and many more to come. Along with the Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus she also has Scoliosis, Chari II Malformation, and a Neurogenic Bladder; which causes us to do cauterizations every few hours. She has to undergo a lengthening surgery every 6-8 months to lengthen her rods in her back. Her hospital stays are typically not long, unless a surgery is more extent than normal. So I’ll factor those into our Homeschool schedule. I have found that year round is our best bet for our family.

Collage of 2014-2015 school year

 In our state we have to do 180 days of school and keep a portfolio of work. This portfolio is encase an audit is done by the state. Honestly I like having a portfolio because it is a way for me to keep the special things they do, just like mom’s of public school kids keep little pages of things their child has done. It also gives me something to look back at and see how far we’ve come on things like writing.

my son at CC

my youngest daughter

Like I said earlier I homeschool with 3 children all under 6 years old. My oldest is 5 and is in Kindergarten, my next is 3 years old and is in Preschool/Pre-K, and my last is almost 8 months old. So as you may think our house is never dull. For our practice run in home schooling I purchased curriculum from a company called Sonlight. It was so nice in the fact that it had everything I’d need for that year in a box. The books we’d work in and read, a binder filled with each day’s work and broken down step by step of what/how I was to teach. I really loved it.

my oldest daughter at CC

Then came Kindergarten, I had been talking with a friend about a new approach called Classical Conversations. She had just started in a local community and filled me in on everything about it. I went to a meeting and talked with the director over the community and got some information about it. Went back home with a catalog in hand and set down that night and talked with my husband about it. After doing more research on it we thought we’d give it a try.

All you need to start CC

Man, Oh Man, am I glad we did. We found a campus in our local area, there are three in our county, and we LOVE IT!! My daughter has made so many friends and has never been looked down on for being in a wheelchair. Some kids that we have meet while at the park or out shopping have treated her as if she had a virus they could catch. Which brings be to another plus of home schooling. If I ever see or hear of a child bulling another, there is always a mom or dad there to talk with their child. Bulling is a very, very, rare thing with home schooled families, from what I’ve seen in our journey home schooling.

Our foundations on the go book

My upcoming blog will be home schooling the Classical Conversations way. So stay tune for that one. And until then, may blessing find you and may joy and happiness fill your heart and home.

God Bless,
Heather J.