Getting closer

This site has the closest to what I envision us starting one week from today :-) eeeekkk I went shopping today to get a few more items. I'll order the last of the priority one items by Friday to get here in time for our school to begin. From what I've heard most children at the 18-24 month age go twice a week to preschool for half a day. Using that as a general rule of thumb, my aim is to do school 3 days a week. Two days on the primary theme and one day for the secondary theme. I'll have my checklist of activities and all my materials set and we can get set to learn starting after breakfast and ending before nap time. That's loosely about 9 to 12 pm would be our teaching time window. I'm going to put the expectation of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday is spent recovering from the weekend and for mommy to prepare for the upcoming week. Friday morning hopefully for Ladies Bible Study. Only thing left to do is keep praying. I pray not to compare, not to be competitive. I pray to have a positive, encouraging fun atmosphere for learning. I pray to show Christ's love for my boys. I pray to focus on both of them and their different needs.

The LOTW - Letter of the Week- A scripture has already been going through my head a few times a day. Proverbs 15:1 " A gentle answer turns away wrath."

Half way there

I'm reaching the half way point in obtaining our school supply list for the fall. I prioritized the necessary items through out the year to be more practical about cost. We have a great start with books, puzzles, DVD's and crafts to help Matthew in a few weeks. I'm praying for week 1 to occur Labor Day week on September 5th. We're already trying out a few approaches to tinker and tweak. It's very cool to see how he processes and what doesn't work and why. I'll post some organized results when our school officially begins. Until then we have family coming in town.  Hint: He's eating up the puzzles and phonetic sounds. E is his favorite letter so far ;-) I think today we'll experiment with a letter scavenger hunt through the house. Here are a few recent finds.

Dollar Tree:

Target:

Alphabet Books so far. I'm still on the look out for ABC Bunny and ABC Bible Verses.

Alphabet Puzzles. I really like that the top one has lower case letters underneath to match with the upper case pieces.

Alphabet manipluatives. ( I have tried 4 different ways to upload this pic the right way. It's rotated correctly in my main picture folders. I don't know why this one didn't all the others did.) I wanted to show the flashcards, phonics, blocks, dry erase board bottle caps and other Letter supports. The clay and pipe cleaners - soon geo board, twisters, shoe laces- can bend in the shape of the letters- numbers and shapes also.

Ideas for projects and crafts to reinforce concepts.

 Books on a planned Dog unit. M is crazy about them. We stopped by the pet store yesterday while we were running errands so he could have a visit. The huge smile and giggles said it was a wise choice.

Colors:

Numbers:

Shapes:

Opposites:

Lessons Plans

A Teacher's Plan: Templates

The Mom Binder project is done for now to the extent it can be. The Printables section is really the most unfilled. I will print out paper materials as we go along. Most of what we are doing is activity not paper driven since M is only 21 months old.

The second unfinished section is Lesson Planning. So, I'm looking for some ideas as how to schedule out our time by day and hour. This site was great inspiration! I'm going to start planning out a month at a time and see how that works. I have chosen at least through preschool to go with the spiral teaching method. Since I know our local public school district's Kindergarten Readiness Plans centers mostly around letters, numbers, shapes and colors, I will teach those core concepts in increasing degrees of difficulty for the next 3 years. That will bring us to the fall M turns 5. Year one of preschool - age 2- will be speaking and identification. Year two of preschool - age 3- will be phonics and one to one correspondence. Year 3 - age 4- will involve writing and counting to 20. Bible, life & social skills, art, music, PE, and unit studies will be taught each year.

Age 2 Overview

Weekly Lesson Plan Forms

Planning Ahead

Mom Binder

For the next few days, I'll be getting organized on paper. I bought my 3 ring binder, sheet protectors and card stock. I'm happily printing away my version of this. Yes, she and I chose the same blog layout. I'll update this post later with my results :-))

I've updated this post with the cover and TOC for my Mom binder.

Changing the Way We Speak By Examining the Heart

I was just reviewing yesterday's blog post just before I went to check my email. I often do this and usually find grammar and sentence structure mistakes in my enthusiasm to express what's on my heart. So, I went to check email and received my daily devotional from Girlfriends in God. Sharon articulated a core issue I was struggling to convey yesterday. The post was entitled, "Changing the Way We Speak by Examining the Heart" by Sharon Jaynes. In closing she shared the following scriptures:

The book of Proverbs has much to say about how the condition of our heart affects what we say.

• Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23)
• The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin. (Proverbs 10:8)

• A prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out folly. Proverbs 12:23)

• An anxious heart weights a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. (Proverbs 12:25)

• The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly. (Proverbs 15:14)

• The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil. (Proverbs 15:28 TNIV)

• A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. (Proverbs 15:30)

• The wise in heart are called discerning, and pleasant words promote instruction. (Proverbs 16:21)

• The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and theirlips promote instruction. (Proverbs 16:23 TNIV)

• One who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have the king for a friend. (Proverbs 22:11 TNIV)

• Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are ferventlips with an evil heart. (Proverbs 26:23)

• Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit. Though their speech is charming, do not believe them, for seven abominations fill their hearts. (Proverbs 26:24, 25 TNIV)

• As the water reflects a face, so one’s life reflects the heart. (Proverbs 27:18 TNIV)

These scriptures really spoke to me about what I was talking about with heart issues effecting our actions, choices and direction in our life. We are all capable of faking it until we make it. Anyone can be on their best behavior, sell themselves, fake church, do all the right things for all the wrong reasons, and put the front of having their 'act' together. Our feelings effect our thoughts. Thoughts effect beliefs. Beliefs determine choices. Habitual choices are the foundation of character. What happens though when the people we so want to impress, seek approval from or respect for, leave? Character is what we do when no one is watching, is reflected in how we treat those we can't benefit from, it's what happens when we are sure we won't get caught and no one will find out. In the end everything we think, say and do is for an audience of One. His way , His view, His laws, His love is all that will matter. These are the core issues I hope to address through loving, training, correction, direction, encouragement and most importantly listening to my children.

We as parents are fighting against a huge wave of popular culture counter to our beliefs. A system of beliefs and actions based on very unstable foundations. Finding self worth in anything exciting, glamorous, sexy and instantly fun. These messages enable selfishness, immaturity, irresponsibility, materialism, arrogance, apathy, hard hearts, laziness, and entitlement. Everything tells us we don't have to wait, we should - and deserve- perfection, to have everything we want, when and how we want it. Money, status, appearance, acceptance, even our families and friends will all change. Stock markets crash, jobs are lost, people age, friends/ family will hurt and disappoint us, others will reject us and loved ones pass away. Maybe just because I now have sons, I'm so much more aware of how cheap our culture portrays physical intimacy. It's reduced to a biological function that you can just do with anyone and further the lie by saying as long as you have a physical layer of protection - from unwanted pregnancies and diseases- it's fine. Convictions are something to be hidden along with our faith in anything besides what society deems important at that moment.

God offers us the real & lasting protection, self worth, belonging, peace of mind, happiness and security we crave instead of the dangerous illusion of it the world offers. Sometimes it's like convincing a child that's it's worth it to wait and save up their money for the real well made item instead of settling for the cheap shiny plastic toy that will beak in an hour. Encouraging a teen to wait for mature, respectful, committed love rather than giving away any part of their heart, time, or body for temporary shallow acceptance and approval. It just doesn't compare in the long run.

I take seriously my responsibility as their mother to model, encourage and pray for the 4 pillars from Luke 2:52, " Jesus grew in wisdom (academic) and stature (physically), and in favor with God (spiritual) and man (social). "

To Motivate, Teach and Inspire

Another area I've been researching is motivation, personality, love languages, learning styles, birth order, gender differences and overall age development relative to learning. So, if hypothetically M is -in order- internally motivated, cautious, introverted, touch, kinesthetic, first born leader male during the toddler years (based on a mix of 'norms' and parts of what I see in him as his mother). How do I approach reaching him, making learning real so that M - eventually D- is understanding concepts and implementing life application lessons, rather than memorization for it's own knowledge sake? I don't want to pigeon hole or label my sons. Both M and D will grow and change exploring different ways and views until they ultimately decide for themselves the path God has for them. They are not the sum of a list of traits, sins, choices or accomplishments. They are a complex beautiful creation reflecting Our Maker. I do want to know their hearts, minds and what they are passionate about which in the end enriches their learning experiences and hopefully their overall walk with God. I believe by first knowing who you are then you know what to pray for. You become aware of your strengths and weaknesses. I don't believe any trait is in and of itself negative. Any strength taken too far or becomes harmful to yourself/others can be a weakness ultimately. Understanding where my children are coming from and how they view and process their world will help me to get in there with them.

I have seen some great ideas for organization from work boxes to schedules done in pocket charts to help give structure keeping the learning process moving on a daily basis. I'm very excited to start up a calendar time area in our learning space. I'm slowly putting together my Mom Binder full of lesson plans, ideas, goals, resources etc.

For Bible lessons I really like In My Heart, Joyful Heart Learning, Raising Rock Stars, Seeds Family Worship, Bible ABC's and Preschool Post. Awana verse visuals and My Father's World have caught my eye as well.

Specifically, I am an alphabet nerd lately. I have at least 22 pdf's full of activities for each letter of the alphabet folder to complete a Letter of the Week theme. Ideas like this from 1+1+1=1, Confessions of a Homeschooler, and File Folder Heaven have me all excited looking forward to the process of M and D understanding letters. These passionate teachers are incredibly generous sharing their time and talents for free online.

For Shapes, Colors and Numbers I've found great tools from sites like KidsSparkz, KizClub, GrowinginPreK, Preschool Palace, KidsLearningStation, as well as great books from Veggie Tales, Eric Carle - Brown Bear Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar and others. I have games, puzzles and toys to reinforce concepts. Just last week, we worked on shapes and then spent the next 5 minutes pointing them out around the house. M would run, point and yell excitedly, "circle!"

The Unit Studies came mainly from 1+1+1=1, 2 Teaching Mommies, Homeschool Creations, Homeschool Share, Mama's Monkey's, Lawteedah, School Express with miscellaneous resources for support such as Moffatt Girls, Ingles360, and ABC & 123

The Montessori manipulatives like the movable alphabet, sandpaper letters, and the geoboard are on my wishlist. Other hands on tools like Education cubes, bottle cap activities, fridge phonics, window clings, play doh mats, lacing cards and push pins will aid with learning for our 2 year old lesson plans.

Other great resources are found on Pinterest, Teacher's Notebook and TpT. I will do my absolute best to give credit where it's due as I post about our learning experiences. I am so grateful for all of these sites as well as others in this learning adventure.

No matter how anyone chooses to educate their children, every parent is their child's first teacher. If my husband and I provide a loving, accepting home environment; M and D will ask us questions, tell us when we've failed them and challenge why we do the things we do, think that way, feel that way. Through the parenting process our very hearts and lives are laid open to these incredible human beings God has entrusted to us for how ever long He chooses. We are their role models on how to be an adult. We show them by our choices and actions what is acceptable and desirable adult behavior. I would pray that not only are our superficial acts, but the deeper heart reasons of why we live the life we've chosen becomes evident to them as they grow up. It's a conviction and calling for me to mature, to step up and self examine the kind of follower of God I am to my boys. I pray the story of my life, both failures, challenges and accomplishments in the end will bring them to a closer understanding of the love, acceptance, forgiveness and never ending presence of God in their hearts.

So, I ask myself am I providing a foundation that encourages them? Am I helping them see God working in our world, country, state, city, church, extended family, home and our hearts? Raising children is a motivation to me as well to stay intimately connected to the only source of true unshakable strength, courage and integrity.

How do I know what to Teach?

It's been interesting receiving feedback as we've slowly started mentioning how we have chosen to educate our boys. I have been praying to give them a very thorough education. I'm still researching Common Core Standards by Grade as well as accessing the TAKS tests from 3rd through 11th grade that Texas students are required to pass. I've broken the subjects down by grade to see what concepts are taught when. Based on information I found posted on public and private school sites, I've come up with a broad big picture guideline so far through 8th grade.

I saw an interesting article today that I want to keep in mind. It stuck with me as a perfectionist. Failure to me is a negative thing and I don't want to pass on that to my sons. Failing at something could be God's plan to teach me, reach a lost soul or help someone else get a yes to their prayer. I have to remember it's not all about me. I don't see the entire picture, only God does. I could - easily- stress about this homeschooling journey and focus on the degree of perfection, thoroughness, completeness, how far ahead, accomplished my children are and ultimately lose sight of a relationship with, need for, trust in, relying on God journey and that's what I want both for myself and the example we set for our sons:

4 Easy Steps to Help You Fail at Homeschooling from Five J's
Posted By Joy On December 31, 2009 (11:34 am) In Homeschooling

Thousands of books and internet articles have been written about how to succeed at homeschooling. But I'm going to offer you something a bit different.
If you've ever wondered how to fail at homeschooling, you've come to the right place. Here are four easy steps to help you fail as at homeschooling. This vital information has been gleaned from five years of intense experimentation with my own children, and it's sure to work every time.

1. Plan too much.

When you sit down to make your lesson plans, make sure you schedule every minute of your 6-8 hour school day. Be sure to plan the exact page numbers to be covered every day, and include several non-core classes each day, at least an hour of daily read-aloud time, field trips at least once a week, and hands-on projects every other day.
If a homeschool publisher says that a particular curriculum should take 36 weeks to complete, you can double up on the lessons and finish it in half the time. Oh, and when doctor visits interrupt your homeschooling day, be sure to make up the lost school time to get back on your schedule by having your children work late into the night or on the weekend. Your children might have to forego spending time with friends, but remember, finishing your curriculum is of the upmost importance, so sometimes sacrifices have to be made. The most important thing to remember is that under no circumstances should your lesson plans ever be more than a half-day off track.

2. Plan too little.

If you know you want to cover science three times a week, English four times a week, and mathematics five times a week, simply make one weekly schedule that will be good for each week of the school year. There's no need to write down the exact pages or units to be covered each day since you'll just cover the next lesson in each subject on the assigned day. When doctor visits interrupt your homeschooling day, don't worry, you can just leave the school work until the next day. Afterall, you won't technically be 'behind' since you don't have specific assignments worked out. Oh, and for those extra curricular activities like teaching your children art or how to cook? Don't worry about planning out exactly what you want to cover; inspiration for art and cooking lessons always come best at the last minute.

3. Plan too frequently.

Make out your lesson plans only a week — or even better — only a day ahead of time. That way you'll be able to adjust your plans to your ever-changing family schedule. Don't worry that you won't know if you're on track to finish the curriculum by the end of the school year, or that you might finish it too quickly so that the last couple months of the school year are a little lean on the curriculum-side. Oh, and when sickness, unforeseen family commitments, or a simple lack of motivation strikes and you're not feeling up to planning? Never fear, your husband will step in, and through his amazing ability to read your mind, he will plan the next day's lessons for you — exactly as you would have done it. No worries!

4. Plan too infrequently.

If planning on a weekly or daily basis sounds like too much trouble, instead take a few days at the end of the summer and plan out the entire school year. Make sure that you allow sufficient time to finish up each curriculum; so if the curriculum says it'll take 36 weeks to finish, go ahead and take it up to the last day of the school year. After all, you don't want to have finished up all your curriculum two months before school is officially supposed to end for the year. Oh, and when you realize that a particular curriculum isn't working for your child a few months into the school year, you'll just have to deal with it. If your child changes curriculum mid-year, it'll mess up your perfectly-planned schedule and the new curriculum won't be finished by the end of the school year. Don't worry though, you can work the new curriculum into your plans for the next school year.

So how do you actually succeed at homeschooling?

Obviously I've written this article with my tongue firmly in my cheek. But really, each of these four points I have undertaken with gusto at one time or another — and I've failed miserably each time.
What I've come to realize is that to succeed in homeschooling your children, you have to find a balance in your scheduling — somewhere in between each of these points above — where you and your children can operate the best.(For me, that balance is doing a general year-long curriculum plan at the beginning of the year — making sure the curriculum is assigned frequently enough to finish in a year — and then planning specifically only six weeks at at time.)

It's okay to fail.

In fact, I didn't plan well enough for our December term (that'd be my point #2 above) and we ended up not doing any school work for most of the month because I didn't plan specifically enough. But the important thing is to get back up and try again — just with a different method.
Eventually you'll find the balance you need, and believe it or not, your children will likely not be worse for wear. In fact, seeing that adults don't always get things right the first time might actually be a great life lesson for them, especially if they also see how those same adults react to their failure.
So what about you? What learn-through-failure experiences have you had in homeschooling?

Hopefully through it all, we will all be Growing and Learning His way.

Courtesy of: Abiding Mom

Super Mom/ Abiding Mom

Does/ Is (Psalm 46:10)

Tries to impress others / Pleases the Lord (Eph. 5:10,Proverbs 29:25)

Is controlled by an agenda/ Is controlled by the Holy Spirit: (Gal. 5:22-26)

Her self worth is found in her accomplishments/ Found in who she is in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:10)

Her peace is found in the “perfect” environment/ Found in Jesus in the midst of any storm (Is 26:3)

She is discouraged by failure/ Failure reminds her that God's strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

She expects perfection from herself and others/ She practices grace with herself and others (Eph 4:32)

She teaches her kids to be good/ She teaches her kids to be Godly (Proverbs 22:6)

She is frustrated with her lack of spiritual fruit/ She abides in Christ and bears much fruit (John 15:5)

She does things with her children/ She builds a relationship with her children (Deut 6:6-7)

Her perspective is based on what is seen/ Her perspective is based on what is unseen (Col 3:2)

She chooses quantity of activities/ She chooses the most excellent Way (I Cor 13)

Welcome :-)

I first started personal blogging after some encouragement in 2007. Now, since my interest and passion have grown so much over the last year in wanting to homeschool my two sons, I've decided to start a separate blog to chronicle that adventure. I'm a big fan of scrapbooking but since having my first son in 2009 I have spent shamefully little time putting memories on paper. By the time I get out the supplies and print off the pictures, someone needs something. I tried general digital scrapbooking but something about it doesn't appeal to me as much. Writing has always tended to be cathartic to me. I've kept some kind of journal since I was 12, so here is our journal of learning and growing in the Lord, which hopefully will never end. Even when formal concrete building education ends, I believe learning is a life long journey.

I'll use this first entry also to explain why I wanted to teach my boys this way. For anyone who doesn't know me in person I have 20 month old and 7 week old sons. It took almost three years to get pregnant with our first son and I am an older mom. Those factors combined with a long history of love for children including college level early childhood education classes, being a nanny and working for a pre-school I knew I wanted to be personally involved in the education of my children. Who else is going to love them more (outside of God) and be more invested in their academic, spiritual, physical and emotional growth than Billy and I are? I will explain I am an all or nothing kind of person in general so when I get passionate about something... well you'll see. I pray the process of educating my children will be thorough covering reading, writing, bible, math, science, history, geography and cultures with a biblical world view yet flexible in the sense of what my children's learning style is. Yet I am human so, whatever gaps despite my extensive research may be present, I pray my children will have a love for learning and have a life long adventure of discovery.

M will be 2 this fall so I started back in the winter months gathering information. (Actually this has been a twinkle in my eye since I became pregnant with M in 2009 and I began visiting local co-op meetings with some friends) I started building a scope and sequence based on the common core standards for our local district's Kindergarten. I have in the works a school supply list and a dream for our playroom to morph in to a classroom. My lesson plans for this school year are generally in place, now I'm down to weekly plans of how to achieve the overall bigger goal of letter, number, shape and color recognition as well as pattern, sequencing, critical thinking, fine & gross motor, social & emotional skills, etc... I'll also be weaving in a weekly scripture to memorize and a bible virtue with a lesson.

I have several favorite online resources that I'll tag in the sidebar soon in case anything catches your eye. I am looking forward to the task that God has laid on my heart and I ask for your prayers as we journey forward in our pursuit of a love for Life Long Learning.