“The people walking in darkness have seen a great LIGHT…” Isaiah 9:2a
We are a few days into Advent. Are you feeling overwhelmed with everything on your to do list? Are you already a little “behind” in the plan you had in place to achieve with your kids or personally this month? Maybe you want to cut back but you don’t know what to cut out… All the events, activities, and “plans” seem so wonderful!
Something Randy and I try to do is cast a vision for our family at the start of each school year. This allows us to set goals and helps us decide what events, extra curriculars, and other things are doable. Does it fit into our family vision? If not, we don’t do it. This year’s vision is all about rest and family togetherness. We are allowing ourselves to learn what it means to be a family of seven (!) without a lot of outside pressures. So when the busy season hit, we had to pick and choose which things encouraged rest and family closeness and what didn’t.
This Advent, we are using Truth in the Tinsel from Amanda White (ohamanda.com) which encourages a simple craft to go along with a scripture reading everyday for the month of December, and we have our family Advent wreath which we light each Sunday and read scripture and sing a hymn together. This may seem like a lot, maybe the opposite of rest to some; but trust me when I say we’ve stripped away many other things. These activities just happen to be the “big rocks” in our jar. Everything else is the sand that falls in between.
I sincerely hope you are not feeling weighed down by all the options and stressed from all the running around. Advent means waiting, anticipating; after all. How can we do that if we’re busy doing all. the. things??? (Spoiler alert: you can’t.) But I also encourage you to find some way to shed LIGHT on the true meaning of Christmas in your home. Decide what your “big rocks” are and let everything else fall away. You’ll be happy you did!
Pics from getting and trimming our tree, always a good time and my favorite way to celebrate my birthday…
I am loving the Beautiful Feet Books curriculum, “Around the World with Picture Books” which we are using this year. With this post, I hope to highlight some of the reasons why…
Once we finished North America with My Father’s World (you can read about that here), it was on to Africa. This is where I put down MFW and picked up Beautiful Feet Books. MFW’s “Exploring Countries and Cultures” curriculum walks through the continents geographically: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. But I wanted to travel based more on the ecosystems we are studying. So while we were talking about deserts, Africa was the next logical choice; that way we could continue our desert mural we started while in Mexico.
MFW only covers Kenya in detail, but Beautiful Feet Books has units on Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. These units are so beautifully done; using quality picture books as the backbone to almost every lesson, incorporating educational videos from online, and encouraging artistic notebooking on everything learned from geographical features to samples of cultural artwork to indigenous animals. The book, Maps* by Aleksandria and Daniel Mizielinska, that is used is a unique “atlas” that presents the special features of each country with lovely artwork that resembles something like an “I Spy” book. I think that’s why my kids love it so much! They can spend an hour or so just staring at a country’s page and finding all the fun features (animals, cultural costumes, geographical sites) it shows. Each page is as interesting as the country it’s representing.
For me, the notebooking has been the most fun. I bought three Japanese notebooks* of high quality and I am loving adding to my own! And while my kids don’t necessarily appreciate the value of the notebooking process yet, I’m confident that one day they will! For now, they really enjoy practicing water colors and making their own maps of each country. I believe they are learning so much more by creating their own maps than by simply studying one in a book. They get to pick which features of the country are most interesting to them and add those to their map. And in the notebook it goes, along with their own examples of artwork and animals from each country.
Some of our favorite books from Africa were Mirror* by Jeannie Baker (Morocco), The Day of Ahmed’s Secret* by Florence Parry Heide (Egypt), Emmanuel’s Dream* by Laurie Ann Thompson (Ghana), and Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears* by Verna Aardema. Our favorite crafts were recreating Kente Cloth (using paper) from Ghana, and painting animals in the Tanzanian “tinga tinga” paint style.
If you know me and my love of food and cooking, you won’t be surprised that I set out to make a meal for each country we “visit.” While studying Africa we made a lot of chicken and rice and enjoyed some fried plantains. We even had an elaborate Moroccan feast and invited my parents over to sit on pillows in our living room surrounded by candles and Moroccan music while we enjoyed a five-course meal.
African animals are fun to learn about! And although we didn’t add as many details to our desert/grassland mural as I would have liked, we took field trips to the zoo and Worcester’s EcoTarium, where they have the African Communities animal center. Our pastor and his wife go to Rwanda every year and she agreed to talk to us about their trips and what life in Rwanda is like. She even brought in lots of trinkets, jewelry, and native clothing, which was awesome! I gave us an extra week in Africa to wrap up any unfinished notebooking and fit in our field trips. (I’m determined to not keep a super strict weekly schedule so we can take extra time in interesting places if we want.)
A Brief Word on Nature Walk and Collecting…
Even though we are not studying forests anymore, we are continuing our weekly nature walks. They are their own entity. I find that scheduling and making them a priority has helped all of our mental and emotional healths. So rather than say we’ll try to fit it in after school, we often do it almost first thing on Thursday mornings. (Thunder Thursday, remember?) Then we come home and drink tea and do the rest of our school work. Because we had an extra week in Africa, it also allowed us more time to do nature art. We had a great time collecting interesting things in nature and then putting them together to form animals and designs. We’ve also started listening to Chopin’s piano concertos but haven’t talked about his life, yet. We’re easing into our music study while we do other things. This is why we homeschool. Days like this are beautiful.
Here are just a few extra photos from our time in Africa… playing a geography game, Mancala (believed to have originated in Africa), and an afternoon movie party of the “live-action” Lion King complete with animal cracker snacks and spicy popcorn!
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I’ve always been a fan of unit studies, so I love that this year’s curriculum lends itself easily to unit style learning. I know this goes against everything Charlotte Mason advocated, and I’m okay with this area of disconnect. Though I do find it funny that while she disliked unit studies, she did advocate for the study of a single artist or composer at a time… sounds a little “unit-esque” to me. 😉
In a previous post, I outlined what curricula we’re using for which subjects, and what our days look like. In my last post, “What’s in a Name“, I touched on how our weeks are structured as a whole and how we’re managing to fit in all the “fun stuff” on a regular basis. If you read those, you know I spent a significant amount of time over the summer planning out our school year. Though not necessary for all homeschoolers, I like to get a big picture of our year and then zoom in on each piece or unit, and enhance it if I can. I rearranged the countries that were outlined in My Father’s World to suit my preferences. (I wanted to study Antarctica in January rather than late spring–call me crazy–which led to rearranging the other units as well. I was happy with the result, though!) Then I added in the units from “Around the World with Picture Books” from Beautiful Feet Books, the combined 3rd and 1st grade sciences, and the author studies for first grade.
So here’s a “zoomed in” look at our first units: studying the countries of North America, forests and deserts, and author studies on Laura Numeroff plus the start of Eric Carle.
We started in the U.S.A. with a review of what we were learning last year through our exploration of United States history. We also began our unit on forests. Both curricula we’re using this year call for quite a bit of notebooking and rather than try to make it all work together and exasperate my children with an intense amount of writing and recording, I decided we’d make a mural out of butcher paper for each ecosystem studied in lieu of an ecosystem notebook. It makes a nice addition to our homeschool decor and it’s fun to see the scene come together over time.
While studying deciduous forests, we used our home field advantage and took several nature walks and field trips around the area. We’re attempting to take a nature walk every week this year but in addition to that, we climbed Mt. Wachusett, hiked Quabbin Reservoir, and took other walks off the beaten path…
To help keep Emmalyn included in our studies, she had her own “units” on trees, leaves, autumn, and the changing colors. I also found these cute “cut & paste” papers on ecosystems for preschoolers. They are a great way to practice those scissor and glue skills and make a nice addition to our mural! We did lots of nature collecting on our walks and made these neat field guides with leaf prints on the covers. In the end, we had a pretty awesome forest mural happening…
After the United States, we hit Canada, while staying within our forest unit. This allowed us to expand to talking about coniferous forests as well. (You may have noticed the very hastily completed “pine tree” that graced our forest mural…) While studying Canada, we made “Inuit sculptures” out of soap, and “poutine” for dinner one night!
Before I talk about Mexico, I should mention our author studies. When Abby was in first grade, I split the curriculum into two years because I started her schooling at a young age. So with only half of a one-year curriculum to complete, it was easy to fit in monthly author studies with their own lessons. This year, we are essentially trying to do 3 different curricula in one year PLUS the author studies, so it’s not as easy to do all the lessons. But just as Charlotte Mason saw the value in studying a single artist or composer at one time, I still see the value in zooming in on a single author to study their voice, style, and genre. We may not do all the lessons and activities that I wrote a couple years ago, but we still learn a little something about each author as we go. We began with Laura Numeroff and transitioned into Eric Carle when we started Mexico because his books are easily found in Spanish and I thought it would be fun to do some side-by-side reading! Eric Carle’s art is really fun, too, so we did find a way to fit that in! To find out how I structured those author studies when Abby was in first grade and to download the material for FREE, click the links for Laura Numeroff and Eric Carle.
On to Mexico! And deserts! We finished up North America by spending an AMPLE amount of time in Mexico; reading Spanish picture books, studying deserts, making plenty of tortillas and churros from scratch, blasting mariachi music while we cleaned the house on “Work Wednesdays”, and I even found an old movie I watched as a kid called “Friendship’s Field” about a family who hired Mexican workers to help them on their farm in the 1960s–that brought back memories! Capped it off with a family dinner at a local cantina and decided our homemade salsa was just a little bit better. 😉
Next, we head to Africa and continue our desert study. Hopefully I can get that post up soon!
I’ve come to realize that names, or titles, are extremely important to my children.
“Is it “Family Movie Night?” Because just watching a movie is different from “Family Movie Night.” If it’s “Family Movie Night” that means they can get their blankets and pillows and set up in the living room. And there should definitely be snacks. But if we’re just watching a movie, there are no expectations. So you know, important titles like that.
When I first introduced the idea that this year after breakfast Abby, Noah, and Daddy would be in charge of cleaning up the kitchen while I did “preschool” with Emmalyn and Eli, there was groaning. Mostly from the kids… 😉 But the next day, when asked if they *had* to clean the kitchen, I said, “Yes! You guys are the ‘Kitchen Crew!'” No joke, everything changed after that. They have not whined about cleaning the kitchen after breakfast ever since. They have a title. They are a team. With Daddy. Some mornings, he even announces, “Kitchen Crew, spring into action!” Now it is fun. Just. Like. That. One title became a game-changer.
For Emmalyn, it’s the word “school.” Whatever activities I call “school”, she is eager to do. It helps her feel older, included, important. Puzzles. Blocks. Singing songs. I’m a big advocate for learning through play so, it is her school. 🙂
This is why I jumped at an idea I read in a book about a month ago. I was struggling to find a rhythm for our homeschool. Not only that, but I was struggling to get the kids excited about what we were learning. They bemoaned whenever I said the word “geography.” I get it. It’s a boring word. But it’s the very essence of what this year is about: exploring countries and cultures. The geography lessons are supposed to be the best part! I was already following a “block” schedule, meaning I wasn’t doing every subject everyday; instead, lumping science for the week into 1-2 days, geography into another, etc. Yet, I still wasn’t fitting everything in and housework wasn’t getting done at all. I felt like I was just spinning my wheels and worse, the year I was really looking forward to teaching wasn’t turning out to be much fun so far. It didn’t seem like I was really tapping into the freedom and beauty that a homeschooling lifestyle is supposed to afford.
In the book, The Call of the Wild and Free*, by Ainsley Arment, she mentions a schedule one of her friend’s follows that has a theme for everyday. In addition to math and language arts on Monday through Friday, her days look like this:
Sweet Sunday: worship, hospitality, family walk, board games
Magic Monday: art, music, poetry, baking, tea
Time-Travel Tuesday: history and geography
Work & Wonder Wednesday: household chores, letter writing, and time for wonder
Favorites Friday: library, nature journaling, science at Grandma’s house
Skillful Saturday: homesteading, prepare for Sunday
Sounds amazing, right?! And totally doable, when tailored to my schedule. You see, we already made it a point in our house to worship, practice hospitality, and have family game night on Sundays. By some coincidence, writing a letter is already built into our curriculum for every Wednesday this year. I had already resolved to go on a nature walk once a week, Fridays we have co-op and library (a big favorite among my kids), and Saturdays have long been the day we make it a point to prepare for Sunday. The rest I could easily make fall into place. We may not have a homestead, but we have skillful soccer on Saturdays! We don’t do science at Mimi’s house, but we have co-op and other favorites built into our Fridays. We are big lovers of audiobooks. And now I could fit in the beautiful things like art, music, poetry, or baking first thing in the week rather than put them off and then wonder if I’m ever going to get to the “fun” stuff that I long to do with my kids. “Geography” has been replaced with “Travel Tuesday” and I can’t begin to tell you how wonderfully freeing it has been to have household chores built into our school schedule! It’s a mid-week reset that is much needed.
Following this new “schedule” has been refreshing and fun for our homeschool. Each day is purposeful and special in its own way and I am constantly hearing how much the kids love “Work Wednesday”, “Magic Monday”, or any of the days, really. When you have little kids, life is constantly changing and once you find something that “works”, you usually have to change it shortly thereafter. The nice thing about having themed days like this is that the themes can probably stay the same, even if the specifics need to change. Either way, I’m really happy that we’re finding our rhythm… for this year, at least.
Here are some pics from a few of our “Work Wednesdays.” I love that I have built in time to teach my kids how to really clean something. I instruct them on how to organize their papers, their rooms, their toys. I demonstrate how to wield the vacuum and the toilet brush. We have a weekly checklist with rotating “add-ons” which are bigger chores that don’t necessarily need to be done every week such as cleaning the refrigerator. We blast whatever music we’re in the mood for and go to town…
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Maybe I shouldn’t be writing this. There’s a laundry basket full of clothes to be folded, another load that needs to be started, new clothes from birthdays that need to be put away, and I still need to solidify my lesson plans for the upcoming week. But I’ve been in this cycle for about 6 weeks now (school work, house work, repeat) with no end in sight and decided I needed to just force myself to break it this once–even if it means I’ll be “behind” for a day or so. These past weeks since we started school have been CRAZY. I am overwhelmed, I feel overworked, I am exhausted, a little depressed, but I am also grateful. Overwhelmed because there is so much good stuff I want to do/read/incorporate in our homeschool. Overworked because schooling kids with a baby and toddlers in tow is exhausting. Every time I go to do SOMEthing, I am interrupted by a little one with very real and very immediate needs (hunger, diaper, potty, runny nose, etc). Exhausted because of both those things, plus if I ever DO get a break from the needs of the children, there are dishes, laundry, or that email I started 2 days ago but haven’t finished or sent yet. (Yes, this has happened on more than one occasion recently and is entirely out of character for me.) I have been depressed because I set out this year aiming to truly “teach from rest” and I don’t feel like that’s what I’ve been doing because I’m so exhausted. But I am so grateful for this time with my children. I’m grateful for the hard days we have together when I get to witness some really touching interactions or triumphant breakthroughs. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn and explore with my children.
First day of school!
But let’s talk practically for a minute. Even though the days are hard, things ARE getting done. So… how? If you are thinking of homeschooling, or already homeschool and are trying to figure out a rhythm, you’re in GREAT company. We’re all trying to figure out our rhythm. These past 6 weeks have been our testing period. And now that I think we have a new groove to settle into, we’ll keep at it for 6 more weeks or so and then reassess. I’ll let you know if it’s still working then. For now, here’s how our days look:
I’ve got Abby in 3rd grade using My Father’s World ECC (Exploring Countries and Cultures), Noah in 1st grade using My Father’s World Learning God’s Story, Emmalyn doing her first year of preschool, and Elijah (2) and Logan (6 months) tagging along. I knew that structuring this year was going to be tricky so I spent much of the summer gathering our supplements and drafting a rough plan for our year. That way I’d be able to spend time during the school year working on our daily schedule and I’d never have to wonder “what’s next” theme-wise. This school year is unit-based and one of the things “teaching from rest” means to me is that each unit can be as long or as short as we feel like while we’re in it. We are exploring countries and cultures, and I fully anticipate that we’ll be more interested in some than others so we’ll explore accordingly. Math and ELA will still be done everyday at our own pace.
What We’re Adding On: We are supplementing with another literature-based world geography curriculum called “Around the World with Picture Books” from Beautiful Feet Books. I am so in love! I think the countries we learn about from this curriculum will be our favorites. Their book lists are short and quality choices. I bought the art supplies from the BF supply list and we are excited to get our paint on and improve our skills! It’s going to be a beautiful year! I’m counting this and any other art projects we do from the book Global Art as our art for the year.
For music we are using Simply Charlotte Mason’s Music Study with the Masters: Chopin. I plan to use my own piano skills to teach a few things and if Abby wants to further explore the instrument, hopefully she can take lessons next year. This year was just too crazy! We’re also using the MFW 1st grade music: a study on Peter and the Wolf. Speaking of my own skills… we’re learning Spanish this year! Or, I’m teaching Spanish to my children this year. Slowly and gently. I love the website languagelearningathome.com for help with this.
For science, we are learning about the different ecosystems that coincide with our countries by region. I’m using the MFW 3rd grade resources for this, but I also went through their 1st grade science and pulled experiments that I liked and could link to different ecosystems and fit them into my outline.
First Ecosystem: Forest
First grade is my author study year, so we are doing that as well, though not quite as in-depth as we did it when Abby was in 1st grade. We have a lot going on! But I still want to incorporate them as much as possible and I chose a few different authors that I thought would appeal more to Noah. For more information about what I do with author studies, check out that post from a couple years ago.
Starting our Eric Carle & Spanish book unit!
How We Structure Our Days:
7:30 breakfast/family devotions: We are reading through the book of Matthew, focusing on Proverbs for Noah, and using Window on the World to talk about missionaries around the world.
8:00 Kitchen Crew/Preschool Time:Abby, Noah, and Randy make up the “kitchen crew” and they are in charge of getting the kitchen cleaned after breakfast. Emmalyn, Elijah, Logan and I head to the living room for “preschool.” Over the summer I picked preschool units to coincide with the rest of our school. Some “match” clearly, others don’t and are separate themes. We do a lot of interactive play, sensory activities, puzzles, singing, work on motor skills, block building, etc. This is basically time I get to spend with the little kids right away to help satisfy their desire for mommy time. I’m not saying it magically makes them play on their own for the rest of the day, but I do believe it helps soften the blow when I can’t give them the attention they want later.
Matching letters!
8:30 Morning Work/Continue Preschool Time: Randy leaves for work and Abby and Noah are to start their morning work/individual work. This includes daily math, handwriting, spelling, and simple worksheets that reinforce what was discussed the day before, etc.They each have a list that I type out the night before and paper clip it to whatever work the are to do on their own.
9:00 Table Work: We are all at the kitchen table; Emmalyn and Eli are probably coloring or Emmalyn might have a specific worksheet or activity to do. I also have tactile boxes for them that I’m putting together for each of our ecosystem units, which they can use and play with at this time. I help Abby and Noah with their ELA and reading. Usually I’ll help Abby first and then she does 15 minutes of silent reading while I do reading instruction with Noah.
10:00 Snack/Math(Just what it sounds like!) Emmalyn and Eli have been dismissed from the table by this point and are playing independently or maybe watching a toddler DVD.
That is our basic morning schedule and when those things are done, we fit in science, geography, art, music, and more when we can. And to be honest, sometimes the morning schedule goes longer than I’d like. As I was typing them out, I was thinking “hmm, this doesn’t seem so bad, so why do I feel so stressed out?” Well it’s because our mornings are constantly interrupted (we do have a baby and a potty-training toddler). We are not schooling in a vacuum. The transitions between subjects can sometimes be a hassle in a small space, as well. But we are getting the hang of it. I’ve had to come to the conclusion that I can still teach from rest and be tired, because I have a baby. Babies are tiring. Plain and simple. So I’m giving myself grace on that end. I’m going to be tired for a little while longer, and that’s okay.
Morning Work
After I got our year and our days structured, I thought I was done. Turns out I wasn’t. Something was missing and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. And that’s another blog post of its own, hopefully I can get around to it soon!
Whether or not you homeschool, or if you have 1 or 5 kids, the end of August/beginning of September typically gets busy. The lazy days of summer are ending and the crisp air brings with it a fresh motivation to get back into routine and cross things off our lists. School starts. Sports start. For many of us, this marks the true new year.
As I look at my own lists, I can’t help but feel a little nervous. The busyness looks, well, busy. We’re starting a new homeschool year with five children. We will have soccer, piano, gymnastics, and co-op this year. New curriculum, new extracurriculars. We are house hunting and it’s already beginning to take a toll on my emotional and mental space. (Hey HGTV House Hunters, can you guys just come and do the work for me please? That’d be great, thanks.) We have a major plumbing project (not a repair, just a project, thank goodness) set to start at our own house on…. (drum roll, please) the day I planned to start our homeschool year. (Talk about throwing a literal monkey wrench into my plans! hehe. Sorry. Had to.) I’ve also got an almost 2-year-old who is absolutely insistent on “using” the toilet. So I guess potty training is happening. New friends, new get togethers, new social calendars. It’s all wonderful stuff, really, but it can be overwhelming when it’s all at the same time. So here are some things I’m making a priority right now so I can combat the stress of it all and not feel overwhelmed.
Staying in the Word. You’ve heard the adage that you can’t fill other people’s cups until yours is full first? While I appreciate the concept, the saying has always left me feeling a little… empty. I’m supposed to FILL my cup??? I have 5 kids to take care of! And then something in this morning’s devotion stuck with me. The author rejected this phrase and said that rather than worrying about making sure we’re full, we just need to make sure we’re constantly connected to the One who can pour His love and grace and mercy through us; like a vessel. I used to stress about getting enough Bible reading and prayer time to make myself “full”, as if that was actually possible. But really, as long as I’m grabbing hold of the True Source of love and grace without letting go, I can still dispel those things to the people around me. I stay connected by reading the Bible and my devotion on YouVersion while nursing, listening to Bible study podcasts, and through constant prayer.
One of my favorite podcasts, “Risen Motherhood”, produced this lovely flower printable as a reminder of the four parts of the Gospel. It’s on display in my bathroom (where I spend a lot of time meeting kids’ needs) and serves as a good source of encouragement for me.
Staying connected to our “peeps.” Family, church family, close friends. Right now Randy and I have pulled back from almost all of our regular church responsibilities we used to have while we adjust to our growing family, homeschool co-op, and house hunting. We have a lot going on right now! But we know the value of staying plugged in, even when we don’t have to be there. And while we need to be protective of our family time and our calendar right now, we also have to be intentional about scheduling time with friends and family. We need our circle to lean on, keep each other accountable, relax with, pray with, and do life with! We’d be lost without them.
This past weekend at a cookout we coordinated, we had 5 families including 22 kids present! They had a duct-tape warfare battle and it was epic. Though the night was fun and soul-feeding for us adults, it was the same for our kids. They need this too. (Excuse the blurriness, there was some serious action happening here.)
Exercise. Seriously. For the past eight weeks I’ve been following a training program and consistently gone for a workout/run four days a week. And on my “off” days, I’m practicing pilates or intense stretching to keep my body limber. And in return, I feel so good. My mood is better in general (not that I don’t have my, ahem, moments), I feel stronger when I play with the kids, and I have satisfaction in knowing I’m taking time for me and it’s actually doing my body GOOD. Along with eating better, this is true self-care.
I love that my “new” routine also brings me closer to my fitness-loving husband. And he’s more than happy to take the reigns of breakfast duties now and then if I oversleep a little or just have a really long run that morning. It’s amazing to come home to homemade oatmeal hitting the table or the smell of bacon already sizzling in the oven. He’s kind of the best.
Plan time for rest. Randy and I have scheduled date nights every Friday and there is very little that will get in the way of those. We need the time to romantically connect after the week and really relax. We eat what we’re in the mood for–either something delicious we cook together or order out–after the kids have gone to bed, and talk about anything and everything. But in addition, it’s important for me to know when my next “real break” is coming. We have a weekend away with friends coming up in a couple weeks. Hello, mini vacation! After that, I’ll be scheduling our first break from school and our next family getaways. Randy and I also try to get away for a night or two at least once every year. It’s such a great opportunity to recharge our marriage batteries, especially if we’re in the midst of an extra busy season!
Limit social media. I find that during highly busy seasons, this can be pretty tricky. That’s because when we’re stressed or anxious or over-worked, it feels good to mindlessly scroll through Instagram or Facebook. But if I’m constantly doing that, it does nothing to improve my mood or lessen my stress. In fact, it actually limits the time I have to do the things I should be doing to wind-down (see previous four things listed).
So with that, while I work on limiting my time on IG and FB, I’ll also be signing off this blog for about a month. I need to focus on getting our homeschool underway and in rhythm and figuring out how to make our fall schedule work for us while we also do everything else! I’ll occasionally share some old posts about homeschooling on my other profiles as we kick off this season.
I can’t wait to share about what we’re doing in school this year. I’ve worked hard this summer weaving together multiple curricula and lining things up the way I want them and I’m seriously stoked about the upcoming school year. I’m approaching this year in a whole new way (for me) with a fresh mindset. I’ll likely be writing about that and how it’s going next.
What’s on my nightstand right now. (Audible books obviously not pictured.) Another way I unwind. 🙂
Summer is about half over. HALF over. It’s not over yet! Target dollar section, I’m looking at you… (There’s a sad story there about a girl in search of swim goggles only to find school supplies. At the end of July. Sigh.)
There is still plenty of time to enjoy a good read or podcast on the lake, beach, or by the pool on a lazy day. I am finding so much encouragement and soul-feeding in my podcasts and books lately and I wanted to pass on the goodness, so here goes…
If you’re looking for one last book to read to complete your summer…
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read this one to the kids in the beginning of the summer (and we finished it on Audible when we were driving to and from VBS one week) and had my mom and sister-in-law read it, too, and we had “book club” while on vacation! It’s an easy read, which is great for summer and the theme of “coming alive” and being surrounded by beautiful things couldn’t be more perfect for the season.
The Read Aloud Family by Sarah Mackenzie. I listened to this on Audible, also, and loved it! Not only does it have so many great ideas for how, when, and what to read aloud to your kids, it’s filled with helpful information about the importance and impact of reading for everyone. This is one I’ll be revisiting often.
Sensible Shoes by Sharon Garlough Brown. This was recommended by a friend and I ended up having a small group book club with it. Very thought-provoking and spiritually stirring, you could honestly do a whole study group on the book and stretch it out over several weeks. You will find yourself closely identifying with one or more of the main characters and will undoubtedly do a lot of spiritual self-reflection.
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. A middle-grade novel series, I read the first one to the kids, and Abby and I are reading the rest on our own but at the same time. We’re having our own “book club” and our first meeting is this Saturday to talk about the second book! This is such a sweet series and super fun to read. Might be my favorite pick. Think “Little Women” but in modern times, with charm and humor.
Currently, I am listening to A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle, but I haven’t finished it yet. It’s great to listen to on a long walk and full of poignant quotes like this one:
“We can surely no longer pretend that our children are growing up into a peaceful, secure, and civilized world. We’ve come to the point where it’s irresponsible to try to protect them from the irrational world they will have to live in when they grow up. The children themselves haven’t yet isolated themselves by selfishness and indifference; they do not fall easily into the error of despair; they are considerably braver than most grownups. Our responsibility to them is not to pretend that if we don’t look, evil will go away, but to give them weapons against it.” ― Madeleine L’Engle, A Circle of Quiet
This made me think of homeschooling and the false judgment that we are attempting to shelter our children from the world. I do not wish to shelter them (fully) from the world as they grow, but I want to properly equip them to deal with it. And that is something I can do much better at home.
Looking for a good listen while you wash the dishes, go for a walk/run, or while on a road trip? Here are the podcasts I have stored up on my phone…
Risen Motherhood*. This is my favorite podcast and my number one recommendation! I’ve been an R/M listener for over a year and I can’t get enough. They take a break in the summer so I used this as an opportunity to get caught up on episodes I hadn’t heard before. This is a podcast that is full of love, laughter, encouragement, and Gospel-truth for the weary mama! Topics range from sleep-deprivation and mom-bods to education choices, screen time, etc. I’m so in love.
The Read-Aloud Revival. This is Sarah Mackenzie’s podcast and it is delightful. Author interviews, book recommendations, and tips and tricks for home education, though even if you don’t homeschool, you can benefit from this podcast!
Wild + Free*. This podcast for homeschoolers refreshes my mama soul and reminds me of the importance of letting children be wild and free and unstructured at times. It reminds me that homeschooling is NOT about recreating public school at home but about creating relationship, love of learning, and family memories to last a lifetime.
Heidi St. John. Heidi’s podcast is a Bible study, poignant political discussion, interesting interviews and Q&A all rolled into one. I don’t always agree with her politics 100%, but I love her Bible studies and she is grounded in Biblical truth which I appreciate.
*These podcasts (Risen Motherhood and Wild + Free) both have books coming out this fall! I have pre-ordered them on Amazon already! If you give them a listen and like what you hear, I encourage you to do the same… click on the links above. 🙂
Miracle of all miracles, my husband just fit ALL of our vacation luggage into ONE vehicle!!! We thought it was going to have to be two and I prayed it wasn’t so. Not only am I thoroughly exhausted from all the packing and preparing and stressing over how much work the vacation itself will actually be, but the thought that I might not even be able to nod off on the ride up was almost more than I could bear… But now I can rejoice about that one thing! And that one thing matters as I am learning to appreciate all little things that can be considered a positive for my sanity.
This summer looks different than I expected it to look. But really, it looks strikingly familiar. This was supposed to be the first summer in seven summers (yes, SEVEN!) that I wasn’t pregnant or nursing. It is now the eighth summer in a row that my body is serving another human being. We weren’t supposed to have to pack baby items for vacation anymore. I wasn’t supposed to be lugging around an infant carrier. I was supposed to be wearing trendy tops and cute bathing suits instead of nursing camis and flowing shirts that attempt to hide my 2-month post-partum pudge. (Okay, so that one might not be totally dependent on a baby. I can admit that my body might not have been where I wanted it to be, baby or not, but it could have!) I was supposed to be relaxing and just enjoying my kids without timing feedings or trying to snag a nap whenever possible. I was supposed to be happy. Well, more happy. (Post-partum hormones can be a real kill-joy. It’s not something I’ve needed to manage with medication, but there’s absolutely no shame in that and it has been something my husband and I have considered.) Once I identified my emotions as more of an anxiety rather than depression and a desire to meet my own (unreasonable) expectations, they’ve been way easier to manage.*
We always planned to have four children, with the possibility of adoption down the road. And after having four unpleasant pregnancies, I was more than happy to announce to everyone that we were D-O-N-E. Done! “Fourth and final!” “Four, no more!” “If we do have any more children, they won’t be coming out of me, that’s for sure!”
You’ve heard the saying, “We plan, God laughs.” I always thought I was very aware that God’s plan for my life might not be my plan. I never planned to marry the “type” of man I married, but am everyday more grateful that I did! I never planned to live where I live or own a multi-family house. I never planned to homeschool. And when people ask me how long I plan to do it, I’m more than comfortable to answer, “However long God wants me to!” So why did I think my family plan was any different? Perhaps because we never struggled with infertility it never crossed my mind that God might have a different number of children in mind for us. I’m sure I would’ve been more aware of that if getting pregnant was difficult. I certainly didn’t think it would happen when it wasn’t “supposed to.”
But there it was, that “positive” pink stick. And one of the first things I thought was that my summer of 2019 was ruined. “My beach days are gone!” “Will I ever be able to leave the house with my kids again?!” And I grieved. It might seem crazy, insane, and unnatural to grieve something gained–we were gaining another child! Praise the Lord! But I had lost my plan. My grand plan. How I had looked forward to my first “free” summer. How I relished the idea that homeschooling would soon be just about my child students and not about coordinating nap schedules and interrupting toddlers. I couldn’t wait to have all my kids potty trained, to take all the cool field trips without babies in tow, and to lose the diaper bag (and replace it with an awesome purse). And though those things aren’t gone, they’re further away. And our idea of adoption some day was now in question. We used to use our van to give rides to people–I could bring a single mom and her son to church every Sunday and we did for a time. Now every. single. seat. is full.
“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions to one’s ‘own’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life–the life God is sending one day by day.” – C.S. Lewis
I happened upon this quote in a book, Teaching from Rest, after I discovered I was pregnant and it resonated with me. I don’t mean to say that my baby is an “unpleasant thing”, (seriously, I can’t imagine my life without Logan now–he is the sweetest thing!) but the news of my pregnancy and the loss of my own plans was unpleasant for me, to say the least. But this helped me realize that though I had my own plans, God clearly never intended me to be a mother of four (not counting a previous miscarriage). He was not surprised at all about my positive pregnancy test. His plans were not my plans. He sent us Logan. Little, wonderful, adorable Logan. Even up until the last week of my pregnancy I struggled with wondering if I’d even want to hold him. I had to sort through some tough emotions. And now, I don’t like putting him down. He’s a part of our family, where he belongs.
God is teaching me so much through becoming a family of seven. And that C.S. Lewis quote becomes especially applicable when one of my little cherubs (the fussy one-year-old who is struggling with the “loss” of some mommy-time and less sleep now that he’s in a big-boy bed, the strong-willed three-year-old who is ever trying my patience, the curious 6-year-old who has too many questions than I know how to answer, the helpful, responsible, yet comes-with-an-attitude-of-a-teenager almost 8-year-old, or the newborn: our newest and very sweet family member who truly needs Mommy 24/7) “interrupts” what I thought my day would look like. My days are not well-planned right now. We’re in, what I call, “survival mode” and I am just passing the time, or “running out the clock” in some ways until the end of the day. But this is where God meets me.
This summer does not look like I thought it would, but there have already been many moments to treasure. This summer looks drastically different from what I hoped it would, but it also looks the same as always. We went out to dinner at a casual-dining restaurant tonight, all seven of us, and it was a fun time, just like always. And we’re taking one vehicle on vacation this year, just like always.
Daddy always says Logan’s number one job is to snuggle Mommy. She needs it. And he does a fine job of it!
I mean… Don’t you just wanna squish him?! I can’t even imagine our family without him!!!
Getting quality time with the other four… pictured here is mini-golf with the older two and playground time with the younger ones… is something I cherish!
*If you have struggled or are struggling with PPD, I have a great resource and counselor to recommend! Please reach out!
I have finally solved the major issue I’ve had with summer field trips since I can remember: lunches! I only wish I had thought of the idea myself.
I hate making lunch. I hate it. With a passion. Which is weird because I love making breakfast and supper. (I don’t love being interrupted by all of my children while I cook, but I really do love all the planning, prepping, chopping, sauteing, frying, baking, and everything else that goes along with making a meal.) But I would take a hard pass on making lunch everyday if I could. And even more than making a PB & J around noon, I hate packing lunches for field trips. It puts a major damper on my morning. And before you suggest it, I’ve done it the night before and it puts a damper on my evening, too!
But recently while listening to a podcast, a nature-loving homeschool mom said that to solve her lunch-making problem, she simply packs a baguette, some salami, and cheese. And voila. When the kids get hungry on their hike, she tears off a hunk of baguette (that’s been sticking out of her backpack so perfectly because where else would it be) and her kids rip it open and stuff in a slice of cheese and salami themselves and then wander off with their sandwiches while they explore. Cue lightbulb moment!
So that’s what we did today. Before hitting the trail, we pulled in at Hannaford (and then I had to unload, tote around, and reload 5 little children–will definitely be doing this part the night before in the future when I plan ahead, but this was a last minutehike), picked up a baguette, some salami and some pre-sliced cheese, a bag of cherries and a bag of Swedish fish (because it’s me) and we were off. And the lunch was a hit!
Not only did they love their handmade “gourmet, European-style” sandwiches; there were no napkins or little baggies to worry about and they just took their hunks of stuffed bread with them and continued their explorations by the water and in the woods.
I’m surprised I didn’t think of this myself because when I backpacked through Europe, this was literally how I ateall. the. time! I wandered through France with my baguette, cheese, and maybe a splurge on meat or mustard. A bottle of water and a bottle of wine. Had I forgotten that or did I just not think that a simple bread/meat/cheese combo made by hand instead of a butter knife with mayo could suffice for my kids’ lunch until I heard it from another mother?
Either way the success of today’s lunch brought back that memory and more. I’ve found the start to a simple solution of a problem that has plagued me about our summer day trips and who’s to say it can’t spill over to our in-home lunches, too? And I’m starting to remember things about myself from my pre-mommy days. That’s a bonus. I’ve been knee-deep in diapers and spit-up for a long time and I still have time to go before these days are gone, but I’m liking the direction we’re heading.
More on the diapers and spit-up and how a surprise fifth baby has rocked my world in many ways in an upcoming post…
For now, here are some more cute pics from today’s hike…
“Momma, when you’re done with Abby, you do pattern blocks with me?” – Emmalyn, 3.
“Yes, Emmalyn. When Abby and I are done.”
Emmalyn and Noah (5) start playing pattern blocks pretty well together until the bickering starts and it’s clear I’ll need to break this up.
“Okay, Noah, come sit at the kitchen table for school.”
“Momma (I love that she calls me this–sometimes it’s “Mommy” or “Mom” but mostly it’s “Momma”), when you’re done with Noah, you play pattern blocks with me?”
“Yes, when we’re all done.”
Abby finishes her work and I send her to play with Emmalyn while I continue working with Noah. Then Noah finishes and I know we have to get science in so I’ll need to clear the kitchen table and set up the experiment so I call to the kids to start picking up the living room so they can do yoga while I clean and set up the kitchen. They start fighting about cleaning up and I can tell that Emmalyn is being the obstinate one. I call her into the kitchen ready to give her a time-out for not listening to my directions. She comes into the kitchen in tears and I’m suddenly so aware that I’m staring at my little girl who has been waiting all morning just to play pattern blocks with me and I’ve just told her to clean up. So I sit her down and I say, “Emmalyn, I told you I’d play pattern blocks with you and I haven’t yet, and I’m sorry.”
And in my head I’m struggling because I don’t want to interrupt our school routine–if I let Abby and Noah free play, I’ll have to draw them out of it to finish school and it’ll push us back, at least. And playing pattern blocks seems so unimportant right now. Can’t we just push it off a little longer? I promise we’ll still do it!
But will we? I’ll want to clean up after science, then maybe start getting lunch ready or the one-year-old will need me or I’ll have to fold laundry or I’ll want to start planning next week’s lessons… I know myself too well.
Every morning my attention gets divided. I have four children who all need something different from me–help with a math problem, explaining the spelling directions, help with printing, help with a toy, kisses and cuddles, good ol’ fashioned attention, not to mention the teacher-directed schooling we have to do. Then there’s the housework. We don’t have a dishwasher and most mornings we have a hot breakfast which means I have a sink and counter full of dishes that I need to get done before I start making lunch. And laundry. And changing diapers. Then there’s the direction I pull myself in when I get sucked into checking my texts or emails. Fortunately this isn’t a regular habit, but I do it more often than I wish.
It can be so hard to decide what’s most important–isn’t it all important? Yes, it is. And it all needs to get done. But does it have to get done at the cost of my sanity? No. All school year I’ve been trying to figure out the perfect school morning and I haven’t yet. Maybe it doesn’t exist. But I have found some things that work better for us and preserve my sanity in the process.
With two school-age kids and two toddlers, I’m constantly looking for ways to occupy the toddlers so that school can get done. But I’ve found that giving the toddlers the attention they crave (even if only a little) is the real key. Sometimes this is in the form of reading a quick book together right after breakfast before school. Sometimes we do a puzzle while Abby does her independent work. But I usually like to get the dishes done while independent work is happening. So sometimes the three-year-old helps with the dishes (thanks, Randy, for that one) and that time spent with me washing dishes is enough to put her on cloud-9 for the rest of the morning. Sometimes she sits on my lap and does a puzzle at the kitchen table while I’m available to help the older kids. (By the way, can I just say how thankful I am for a husband who listens to my frustrations and is able to offer gentle suggestions when needed? He kinda rocks.)
Yes, it’s important for us to get school done. But it’s also important for me to love on my younger children at the same time. And yes, the housework is important, too. I’m so grateful that God grants me the grace to accomplish all I need to each morning. (That’s a whole ‘nother blog post in itself!)
And that morning, I told Abby and Noah to go play in another room for a few minutes. Emmalyn and I needed to play pattern blocks before they were put away. It took all of 5-10 minutes to complete a pattern and she happily brought them into her room to put away and we continued on with our school day.
Raising Little Seekers 