Just a few of the many reasons...

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A good day

The day is not even half over, but we have had a really good morning with very little complaining, and that is rare, so I want to record it so I can remember the successes, however small they may be. It is easy to forget they exist when they only happen every so often, and often when they do, something else happens soon after, like the baby dumps an entire bag of flour and a bag of sugar, and mixes it all with shortening on my kitchen floor (true story). Then I forget that we had a great morning because all I can see is the mess on the floor. So I am hurrying to post this before anything like that happens! haha.

It started with getting a full nights sleep last night, woohoo! That almost never happens. I only wish I had listened to that little voice that told me to go to bed early instead of staying up late reading thepioneerwoman.com 's blog. That is a great site, way too addicting. But anyway. It really helps to get some sleep. I woke up before the kids, another rare event, and got some quiet scripture reading time in before they came and jumped in my bed. They were cheerful and sweet and just sat and talked to me for a little while. We had a pretty peaceful breakfast, with no fighting over who sits where or who stole whose toast - amazing.

We went downstairs to do some exercise and the kids put on a CD I got from the field trip we went on last week to see Tanner Dance company perform 'Scientia,' a wonderful creative dance show based on principles of science. It was a great show performed by talented children, and I was especially excited because my boys thought it was 'so cool.' Dance is my passion and I am glad to seem them enthusiastic about it too. We spent about a half hour just dancing around to the music and having a great time together. Totally fun. Nobody ran into anyone else, and there was only a brief disagreement about which songs to put on. Again, amazing.

We did our usual pledge of allegiance, family cheer and family motto. We sang a song they learned in church primary, called My Eternal Family, which has kind of a catchy beat, like a marching song, so they got into it. They made up actions and marched around singing 'I am a builder, working each day to build my family, and I will do the best I can to serve them lovingly...' good song. We had our family prayer, and my oldest, who loves to play teacher, shared a section of his Kid's almanac (a fun book we picked up at the library called Pick me Up, stuff you need to know). He taught us all about the origin of bread (apparently the ancient Sumerians invented it) how grain is harvested, and how sandwiches were invented by the Earl of Sandwich. I told him he can take a little time after each devotional and share something on a subject of his choice. He likes it and generally the kids do too, as long as he keeps it short and sweet.

Everyone is doing their own things now, math, drawing, writing, etc. My 4 yr old just asked me to tell him some numbers (he wants to do math), and my toddler just brought me a book to read to her. I am always glad when they are coming to me wanting to know and learn and do things, rather than me trying to coax them along. It can get overwhelming at times when everyone wants my attention at once, but so far there is peace on the homefront and that is something worthy of note! Signing off - wish me luck that the day continues so well!

a question of courage

Our upcoming move to a place 21 hrs from our home state (where we have both lived our whole lives) has me thinking. I have heard many stories about peoples' coming of age when they leave home and especially how they had to gain their own testimonies of what they believe is true, apart from parents. I feel securely grounded in my testimonies of things concerning faith in God, the church that I belong to, the truths, laws, and standards of the gospel, etc. I feel ready to share those things with others who are seeking. But I wonder sometimes if I am ready to share what I have learned about homeschooling. Not that homeschool is a gospel type truth that is the same for everyone, or that everyone should even homeschool or be 'converted' to that. I just wonder, if someone asked me to help them get started and wanted help to overcome those doubts and fears at the beginning, will I be prepared to help them? Have I worked through my own doubts and fears and developed faith enough in the process enough yet myself? I admit I lean often on the wonderful examples around me and the encouragement of friends and family who know from experience that this works. Am I ready to be that encourager for someone else?

If I get there and there is not much of a homeschool community in place, will I be ready and confident enough to start something of my own? I have often helped come up with ideas, or jumped on board to help organize things that would benefit my kids and others', but usually I am content to stay in a vice president, advisor, or background helper role. Being the one ultimately in charge of something takes some guts and I hope I can develop more of those, because I think I will need them. I probably already have put off good opportunities that could have happened sooner if I had had more courage to get them started rather than waiting for someone else to start them so I could join in.

I am realizing I need to step out of my comfort zone and consider my kids needs and how God can use me and my talents, and not let fear of falling short of perfection stop me from trying something new. Since I was homeschooled growing up, the choice to homeschool itself was not as fraught with doubt and criticism as it has been for many of my friends. But I still have to step up and stretch myself to see what I can do, and practice 'feeling the fear and doing it anyway.' I have never been one to want to do scary things. Skydiving and rollercoasters have never appealed to me. But I need to exercise my courage if I want it to strengthen and not atrophy. Often my callings in church do this for me when I am given assignments that I feel totally unprepared for by my life experience. I have to trust God must see some lesson in it that is meant for me, or some previously undiscovered gift I am meant to find in it, and jump in and hope for the best! I guess you could say that most homeschoolers are choosing to exercise faith and courage through their choice. Sometimes for me, though, I fall into homeschooling in the path of least resistance, or the path that requires the least stepping out on a limb for me. I see that that is not what my children need from a mentor, and it limits me in my potential for good and for joy. So I hope in this move to a new place, I can reinvent myself a little, choose to act in courage a little more, and see what adventures it brings.

a great place for homeschooling

Ok, I am going to do some shameless promotion of our house for sale here if that is ok. We live in one of the most homeschool-friendly places in the USA, with many many homeschooling friends in the community around us and lots of fun homeschool groups. If you are looking for a place to live and teach your kids, check out our listing here: http://coldwellbanker.com/servlet/PropertyListing?action=detail&ComColdwellbankerDataProperty_id=25492987&page=property&brand=CB


Our house is located in Southern Utah, minutes away from amazing national parks, the Utah shakespearean festival and other wonderful cultural offerings, George Wythe College (a leadership model liberal arts school that loves and welcomes homeschoolers), and many other attractions. Our home is on half an acre with animal rights so you could have lots of space for the kids to explore and learn. Take a look, pass it on to anyone who might be interested. Thanks!

Check out my friends' adoption site

This is a link to our friends, Logan and Lorien's adoption website. They are wonderful people who are looking to adopt a special baby. Check out their site and please share it with others - they are hoping through all of our connections to reach a birth mother who wants to give her child a bright future in a family.
Here's the link:http://loganloriadopt.blogspot.com/
Thanks for looking!

A new adventure

Well, it's official. We are moving to Texas! I am both excited and a little scared. We have never gone so far away from everything we know and everyone we love. Our families are all here, 21 hrs from where we will be. But we feel good about this and we know it will be a learning experience for our family. It is wonderful to know that we won't have to worry about what the schools are like when we get there - school for us will stay the same, with maybe some new opportunities for outside activities. The most important things will stay the same - we will have eachother, our faith, and our connections (thank goodness for the internet and telephone to keep in touch with loved ones!). I'm sure we will find good friends who also value the things we do. There are great people everywhere. We are excited to find new ways to serve others, and to stretch ourselves in different ways. I'm not as excited about the adventure of selling a house and packing and moving all of us cross country, but I'm sure that will be a learning experience as well. We have already had to adjust our schedule to make sure the house gets clean (in case someone wants to see it), but I am trying to keep things rolling with homeschool too. We were finally getting into a groove and I hate to mess it up just because our house is for sale. I think when the weather permits we will be spending a lot of time going for walks and to the park, to keep from messing up the house too much. I am finding that the allure of the television is harder to resist when I am trying to keep things clean, but we are trying to keep from using it very much. I have found that the kids have just as much fun putting on a CD of fun music and dancing or chasing eachother as they do watching a show or getting out a bunch of toys, so we are doing lots of that.

I already have some ideas of new subjects we will do some studying on when we get to Texas:

Texas history (this is a state education requirement, and it is always a good idea to learn the history of where you live anyway)
How to garden in Texas (I learned recently that they have spring and fall gardens rather than summer ones)
How to be safe in a tornado
Indiginous creatures of Texas and natural bug repellants

I know my kids would love to learn more about horses and farm animals so I hope we can live somewhere where they will be exposed to that. My kids also want to get involved with First Tee, which is a kids golf program they have there. I'm sure we will find many other great options to get involved with.

In the mean time, I am trying to take advantage of, and savor, all the wonderful things here that we will miss. We saw bald eagles in the field behind our yard the other day, one of my kids went sledding with his friend, and I have been making a point of watching the sun rise over the mountains and reflect on the snow (they don't have mountains or snow where we are going). We are going to try to spend more weekends visiting family and playing with cousins. We are going to try to notice the things we have taken for granted and be thankful for all we have been given, the things that change and the things that stay the same.

good, clean books

I just found a neat website for those who are looking for those elusive, clean books for young readers. http://cleanreads.blogspot.com/
The blog owner seems to share my standards pretty closely, although I do still like to check things out for myself. The reviews are thorough and informative. I rely a lot on my good friends' reviews on goodreads.com for book recommendations as well, but this is a nice collection and a helpful website if you worry, as I do, about the type of content your young reader will find when he picks up a new and previously unknown book.

Here again, and a lovely discovery

• Well, it has been a while again. I seem to blog in spurts, but someday I will work it into my regular routine. So, here's what we are up to right now. I am in the middle of a 6 month inventory (for more on that, read Leadership Education, the phases of learning, by Oliver and Rachel DeMille, or I will also try to post about it sometime later), working on an experiment in cooking with basics and being more frugal, job hunting and trying to pare down our belongings in case we have to move, and working on our goals for the new year. I always naturally seem to need to do an inventory this time of year, since coming back from Christmas break always feels like moving through tar unless we come into it with some new ideas and some clearing out of the Christmas clutter. We also do an inventory before the beginning of every school year, usually in July.
  
  As I have been gathering ideas for the rest of this school year, and evaluating the needs of my children and myself, I found a wonderful idea on a fellow homeschooler's blog (thanks, Mom, for showing it to me!). It is called the Rule of Six. You can read the article here: http://melissawiley.typepad.com/liltinghouse/2006/10/my-rule-of-six.html
  Basically, the idea is that there are six main things to strive to make a part of every day in homeschool and in life. Here are the six:
  • Good books
  • Imaginative play
• Meaningful work
  • Encounters with beauty (through art, music, and the natural world—including nature walks)
  • Ideas to ponder and discuss
  • Prayer

I am excited about this Rule of Six because I believe that, if we were to do something in each of these areas every day, we would have accomplished something meaningful and great indeed. All of the subjects that are part of a good education would fall under these headings in some way, and it would focus my efforts on the experience we are having together, rather than checking off a list. I am still working on my plan for the rest of this year, but I am excited to include the rule of 6 as an overarching guide in the plans that I make. I also liked the idea Ms. Wiley suggests of asking your children and yourself about those six things at the end of the day:

What good books did we read today?

What did we play today?

Where did we meet beauty today?

Did we do meaningful and quality work today?

What new ideas did we discover today?

Did we have a prayerful heart today?

I think these ideas will help refresh me and bring more joy into homeschool for me as well as my children.