Book of Mormon Timeline Cards

We have been enjoying our the Story of the World recently. We have been inspired to put up a big timeline that takes up the whole length of the wall in our upstairs loft. We are adding to it using our Story of the World review cards. We have also been reading the illustrated Book of Mormon stories. We are almost done with those and I decided we also needed to add Book of Mormon chronology to our timeline. I used the illustrated Book or Mormon stories for the images and chronology information. I also used the actual Book of Mormon to get more specific dates and information. I think we will enjoy these cards on our timeline! 

They are free to those that might find them useful. I made them to fit the Avery business cards 28877, but could easily be printed on cardstock, laminated and cut out. 

Click on the link below to print: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B42HYUCmKBYvLWNFSW51cVh3cms

Read the World Summer Book Club

We are excited to participate in Read the World summer book club for the next few months! This book club works in conjunction with the book Give Your Child the World by Jamie C. Martin. I highly recommend this book. It is a great resource to use for finding great books about different cultures around the world. 

We will begin by reading books of cultures around the world in our multicultural week. Then we will read books from other regions around the world including, Africa, North America. Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Oceania, and the polar regions. 

Our goal is to read as many books as possible for that region. We are excited to make this fun book club into a read-a-thon! If you would like to pledge money to a good cause for each book we read, please contact me by leaving a comment here or on facebook, and we will give weekly updates on Facebook and on this blog! Pledge an amount for each book we read and in August you can make your donation to LOVE146, an organization that provides education to children survivors of child trafficking in the Phillipnes. You can find more information here.  

We can't wait to take a trip around the world through books!!

Discover What Feeds Your Soul

I have recently felt more of a desire to discover what feeds my soul, and do it. I sometimes feel tired and overwhelmed trying to keep up with life. I have felt prompted to simply discover the simple joys in life. I feel that as I discover what feeds my soul, I can be more focused in becoming my best self, and inspire my children in the process. So what am I slowly discovering? Here is a list! I love lists!

TIME IN NATURE 

I always feel refreshed after spending time in nature. I'm often amazed how much nature is right in our back yard, literally! I few minutes tending to the garden can do so much for my soul. We love bike rides, hikes, and nature walks. We daily take an hour or so to just be outside and enjoy Heavenly Father's amazing creations. 

QUALITY TIME WITH MY FAMILY 

I don't need expensive trips or very organized activities to feel happy with my family. We keep it pretty simple around here. Hiking and bike rides are just so simple and fun! We love our family movie night, service opportunities, and playing games together. I love when we are all happy to build our friendships with each other. 

EXERCISE 

In the last year I have realized I need to exercise every day to recharge. It's easier said than done with four little ones around! But the awesome thing is that I also discovered my kids desperately need an hour or two of physical activity to be happy and have a successful day with more energy and less tantrums, and a less hectic bed time. It's great that we have discovered we all need the same thing, so we make it happen together. Often the kids ride their bikes while I jog behind them with the baby. It's not always easy, but it's very necessary. 

SEEING MY CHILDREN HAPPY

I cherish the moments when I see the joy in my children's faces. When we are serving each other and spending quality time I see their little faces light up. These moments happen only amidst the hustle and bustle of our crazy lives, but I love these tender moments. 

ATTENDING THE TEMPLE 

Recently I had a moment where I was able to realize that in order to do something to help myself recharge, I need to attend the temple. I had the opportunity to go and I felt so much peace. It's such a wonderful place. It's always a good idea to go to make the time to go to the temple. 

PRAYER AND SCRIPTURES 

I constantly need a reminder to keep up with my scripture study. I know that every time I establish a good prayer and scripture reading routine I feel more connected spiritually. 

EATING GOOD HEALTHY FOOD

Its interesting that I have realized that eating good food not only feeds my body, but also my soul. My mind and body function best when I have nourished it with healthy whole foods. 

  

UPLIFTING CONVERSATION WITH LOVED ONES 

I have a handful of loved ones that are always there to listen, and give love and advice. The mark of a good friend to me is one that uplifts me and helps me become a better person. Having meaningful conversation with those I love is one of the big ways I feed my soul. 

READING GOOD STORIES 

We as a family, have been delving into many classic stories and books. I have felt these stories come alive as we read with our hearts. There are so many children's books lately that have offered so many opportunities for learning life lessons. A few ones I have personally loved recently are:

Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prarie, The Secret Garden, Little Women, and Little Men

Nature is the best teacher

We have recently decided to try and get out in nature more often. It's amazing how much nature you can experience so close to home. We packed up our bags including our microscope, some field guides, books, and notebooks and headed to our closet nature trail. 

We were excited to see hundreds and hundreds of snails. We talked about decomposers and the habitat that is necessary for certain critters to live in. 

We found different varieties of moss.

We even saw a tree that had been struck by lightning and fallen down from the storm the night before. 

We saw a huge black slug.

The highlight was seeing these cute mini frogs hopping around.

We were able to identify some wildflowers and birds. We saw cardinals, golfinches, black vultures, and barn swallows. We were able to collect some standing water and saw many interesting algae and Protista under the microscope. I love that learning from nature is so natural and effortless, not to mention fun and refreshing! 

The Book of Mormon: The Cornerstone of Our Home

We have been trying to get down to basics in our home and this has been a blessing that has helped improve the relationships in our home and bring more peace and the Spirit in our lives, but challenges still come. This is part of life.

Recently, we had some struggles with one of our children feeling angry, sad, and down more often than usual. We really did not know why this was happening, much less what to do about it. We tried to implement different communication tactics, lots of love and patience, and more predictability in our routines. These were all great strategies, but I personally felt something was missing and just couldn't figure it out. We approached the matter with much prayer and fasting.

I had a thought that I acknowledge as a direct impression from Heavenly Father to read the Book of Mormon with the kids every day. I must admit, this seemed like a nearly impossible task seeing that my kids are 7, 5,3, and 1, only one of them can actually read, and they just don't have the attention span that I had considered necessary for daily scripture study from the actual Book of Mormon. We began reading every day. Every morning after our morning routine of breakfast, family work, getting dressed and brushing teeth, we all sat down, each with their own set of scriptures, and we read from the Book of Mormon. I read, or my oldest would read, and the rest of the kids just naturally started repeating what we said! I was amazed at how much they enjoyed "reading" from their own scriptures. Each even kept a post it tag as a book mark in their own book. We read as little as one verse of scripture a day and as much as three of four verses. We stopped and I explained what we were reading and told them the meaning of any new words. We have continued this process for a few months now, reading  from the Bible as well for a week and a half before Easter, with powerful spiritual experiences as well. I know we have felt the Spirit reading the scriptures together. I have never read the Book of Mormon so slowly, and I know I have gained new insights from really pondering each word so carefully.

We have all felt the powerful influence of the Book of Mormon in our home. My child who was having a difficult time, has dramatically improved since the day we started reading. I know that was a direct answer to prayer for this particular struggle. My three year old has even used scripture language in her prayers "And it came to pass, Jesus loves Me!". I had my doubts that anything was actually sinking in with the younger ones, but I know they have felt the Spirit, they are learning more of the Book of Mormon stories straight from the source, and I also recognize they are excited to read and improving their reading skills as well. I have even caught my seven year old, all on his own, reading scriptures, marking them, and copying them in his notebook.

I can say that I have a testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the power it has to answer prayers, bring the Spirit in our home, help with any problem or struggle, and be a true blessing in the lives of people. I have seen this in our home once again. What a beautiful gift, and a wonderful promise!

3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. (2 Nephi 32:3)

The Wonderful Power of Listening Material

Sometimes life can get pretty busy, especially with little ones in the home. I am always looking for ideas to make our home a more peaceful place. One of the things that we have decided is to almost eliminate screen time. Most days we don't even turn on the t.v. Instead we have found the amazing power of listening material.  I am all for free learning material and we have discovered a few audio tools that are really fun and helpful in our home. These tools and materials have been a great blessing in our lives recently, not only for helping us learn new concepts, but for bringing the Spirit into our home.

1. Audio books on CD and E audio books

At our library we have the ability to put books on hold and go pick them up when they are ready. We have loved reserving some great books on CD. Our most recent one was The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. We put some of these books on as we work on projects or play. They have also been a HUGE hit at quiet time for my seven year old. We purchased a portable CD player "walkman" style, for him to listen to audio CDs for quiet time. He listened to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in three days!

Our library also has another resource called OverDrive. It's an app you can use to download E audio books onto your device. I love listening to books with the kids, and I am even currently enjoying listening to Little Women as I make and clean up dinner.

2. Podcasts

We downloaded a podcast app and we are really enjoying a podcast called Brains On. It is geared toward kids. The radio show is really entertaining and educational. We all love it! We have also enjoyed a podcast called Story Nory in the past.

3. Mormon Channel app and Gospel Library app

We love listening to Scripture Stories (a program for kids), 24/7 talk, 24/7 music, on the Mormon channel app. On the Gospel Library app I really enjoy listening to the talks suggested as I study and prepare for my lessons at church for Young Women. We have recently also liked listening to The Friend Magazine on the Gospel Library app as we eat breakfast. It makes a great devotional.

We use my ipad and a portable blue tooth speaker. I can take it anywhere we are. I also recommend a portable CD player and headphones for those audio books on CD during quiet time. These free tools have truly been ejoyed by all my little ones and myself. My children are asking questions and their faces light up to hear new fun information. I can see their love of learning grow as we use these resources in our home.

"A house of learning"

As we have been implementing the principles of leadership education in our home, we are making learning more of a lifestyle. Our learning principles are relaxed and resemble unschooling. For us, this looks like meaningful "kid school" pretty much every morning where we learn to work and play together as a family while I guide them, present interesting information, and do what we love together. This could mean writing letters, coloring, listening to good books, discussing gospel topics, practicing for church talks, reading scriptures, singing songs, playing math games, doing experiments and so many other fun things. 

But what about the rest of the day? We study and have quiet time where we all do a quiet activity that interest us, like writing an animal explorers book, or cutting and pasting, or reading a good book, and of course we play, play, play! We learn to cooperate, include others, be patient with little ones, wait our turn, be kind, control our bodies, jump, run, observe nature, catch bugs and toads, dig in the dirt, and be creative. The list could go on. As we focus on these simple aspects of life I see my children grow to be happy, kind, and creative people. As we simplify our home with the things that matter most, the essentials, I see the fruits of our labor. 

It is on days like today where I feel overjoyed to see how my children are learning important values. We had the chance to go out to eat with my husband during a weekday, which is a very rare occurrence. My three kids were playing in the play area with another little boy while my husband and I finished our lunch. The little boy had to leave and his mom came and asked us as she was leaving "Are those your kids in there?" I must admit I was a little afraid of why she was asking! I thought one of my kids had hurt her child or something, but instead she said "They played so nicely with my son. They included him in their game. They were so nice!" Wow! I was so happy to hear that. That is where I see the values we are trying to instill in our children in action. I thank Heavenly Father for His guiding hand in our home and in the education of our children. Education is much more than just a means of learning facts and information to pass a test. It is instilling in our children the values that will help them grow to be good happy people who love and serve others, are curious about the world and develop good attributes of leadership. 

"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God" Doctrine and Covenants 88:119

This scripture is becoming our motto, and we hope to make our home a house of God as we are guided by Him in our homeschooling. 

Butterfly Metamorphosis

For the last 17 days we have experience the wonder of metamorphosis! It has been so amazing for all of us to see these teeny tiny caterpillars grow and grow, develop chrisalides, and emerge as painted lady butterflies! It has reminded me of the wonder of life and the beauty and blessing we have to be a part of it and to witness it first hand. 

We learned about how we develop and improve as we work hard. We also talked about how some things take hard work and patience to develop, but the final reward is worth it! 

We had a fun experience! 

Kidschool and the Closet

My kids are all in what is called core phase. This is a phase between 0 and around 8 years of age where children are naturally curious and where building a strong foundation in harmony, love, knowing right from wrong, family and values, a love of work, play, and learning are all so very important. Almost every morning we are beginning to implement a time called Kidschool. This is a time where we all spend our time together playing, reading a lot, exploring, and just enjoying each other's company. We focus on a very natural type of learning where we all learn and discover together. If I need to cook, they cook with me. If I need to organize a closet, they are involved. This time is so important for all of us to build bonds and learn the importance of working as a family and enjoying it! To me, it's so very important to involve all my kids. They all need my attention, and this is just what our family needs. 

Recently it's been a bit difficult to have harmony in our home with the adjustment of a fourth new baby that has hit us all pretty hard. We are trying to implement a sense of structure and predictability in our home now that the baby is napping just a little bit more regularly. Maybe it's because it's spring or something, but I have been feeling the desire to simplify, simplify, simplify! For us that meant beginning to implement one of the ingredients of Thomas Jefferson Education, the closet. In the closet there are many things for the kids to explore and play with. They range from puzzles, manipulatives, building toys, coloring pages, nature magazines, games, workbooks and some art and writing supplies. The closet is set up so it can be left open during kidschool and the kids can play with the activities and put them back for as long as they'd like. While they play we either listen to books or music while I sit and play with them, or I read to them from our chapter book at the time. This week we are reading The Tale of Desperaux. 

I have had many tender moments this week after months of having days of feeling frustration over not having a very positive spirit in our home. We have felt more peace. We have had less fights and yelling, we have felt the Spirit of the Lord in out home more strongly, and we have truly been feeling the joy of learning. That is my goal! I love it!! Life changes are difficult, and these two ingredients from Thomas Jefferson Education have truly been an answer to prayer this week! 

A Thomas Jefferson Education 7 keys

I have been guided to a wonderful educational philosophy that we are working on implementing in our schooling and life. It is called a Thomas Jefferson Education, Tjed, or leadership education. This philosophy focuses on 7 keys and the idea that there are phases of learning . The goal with Tjed is to raise leaders by providing them with an education to match their potential. This philosophy really resonates with me and the passion I have for my children, their education, and my education as well. 

7 keys

1. Classics, Not Textbooks
2. Mentors, Not Professors
3. Inspire, Not Require
4. Structure Time, Not Content
5. Simplicity, Not Complexity
6. Quality, Not Conformity
7. You, Not Them

My goal this year is to educate myself in Tjed by working on the seven keys certification where I will have the chance to read several books, including classics like Les Miserables and Pride and Prejudice, in order to immerse myself in my education and in turn inspire my children to love learning. My sister and I are excited to work on this exciting new undertaking simultaneously. We are projecting it will take us from 6 to 12 months to complete. It consists of reading several books and recording thoughts, ideas, and plans for ourselves and our family prompted by questions provided by a study guide and essay questions. By the end I hope to be able to more indepthly implement the seven keys that will increase my love of learning and help me raise great leaders. I will be posting some of my thoughts on this blog as I continue on this journey. 

Take a look at Tjed.org to get a closer look. 

Learning Will Happen

Today, my new baby is two weeks old. Today was also the first day I have been left to take care of my four little ones without help. I have been dreading this day and praying everything goes well, and that I can handle the messes, the cooking, the diapers, the nursing, the entertaining, and on top of it all the teaching of my babies. 

I have been blessed with the Lord's tender mercies today. Today has been such a great day despite my three older ones recovering from a stomach flu, it being a cold wet inside day, and having a nursing newborn that needs a lot of attention from me. 

This morning the boys got up and ate a few snacks while I finished nursing the baby. I finally was able to go downstairs and made breakfast. We were eating by 9am. While the kids finished eating I swept and cleaned up. While we ate we listened to scripture stories about Jesus Christs miracles and his apostles and it prompted some discussion about choosing the right. 

Lesson #1 patience, independence

Lesson #2 when we chose the right we are happy

We were gifted some madlibs for Christmas and my 6 year old LOVES them. We did about three today right after breakfast at the kitchen table. 

Lesson #3 nouns, adjectives, verbs, new vocabulary like "filthy" 

After the madlibs I put the baby in her baby wrap for a nap and headed upstairs to brush our teeth. My six year old made his bed and brushed his teeth, got dressed, and came over to tell me he was going to take out the clean laundry and put the wet clothes in the dryer too. He did that and then informed me he wanted to sort the clean laundry and put it away. He initiated this chore all on his own, and was happy to do it!  

Lesson # 4 personal hygiene, family responsibility, cooperation, organization,cleanliness

While upstairs putting laundry away the kids noticed some new books and they wanted me to read to them. By this time the baby needed to nurse. So I nursed the baby while we read four books on math concepts, and community helpers. 

Lesson #5 addition, all about police, paramedics, and fire men 

After our stories we had a snack and some free time. After a while my son came to me again to tell me he wanted to prepare lunch for everyone! So he put together a nice little lunch of an apple, blackberries, chips and salsa, and trail mix. 

Lesson #6 joy in service, putting together a healthy meal

After lunch the little girls napped while we played a dice game where we rolled the dice and wrote out addition problems on the white board. We played for over 30 minutes. The boys didn't want to stop! 

Lesson #7 writing addition problems 

The day wasn't exactly perfect, but it was the kind of day I needed to know that although I have a lot going on, and things may not be ideal always, there is so much to be learned from just living life! I know my Heavenly Father lives and knows me and my needs, desires, and worries. Today was just a confirmation to me that He is present in my life, and the life of my family. 

Learning will happen in our little home with the Lord's guiding hand. 

 

Our Curriculum

One of the things I have come to realize is that homeschooling can be very freeing and flexible. This is especially true here in Texas where the homeschooling laws are very flexible. I LOVE that because it gives us the freedom to adapt learning to each child's level and interests. 

  People sometimes ask me what curriculum we are using, and I often respond like this: 

First, I have read several books that have helped me realize my style and my kids style, for now. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can change approaches as often as you see fit for the needs of your individual child. That's why I say this is what works for us NOW. It may not be what works for other homeschoolers or what will work for us in the future. 

A couple of the books I mentioned that have helped me understand our homeschooling philosophy are Free To Learn by Peter Gray, and A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver Demille. Both of these books have helped me realize my children need freedom to explore and cultivate their love of learning at this early stage in life. I don't follow the philosophies exactly, but we do our version that so far has worked well for us. 

My kids need variety. Because if this we have opted not to purchase a boxed curriculum. Plus, those can be super expensive! The ONLY curriculum we have purchased is our math curriculum. We hardly spend any money on curriculum! There is just so much out there that is free!

 Keep in mind my kids are 6 and under. I mostly focus on my six year old who just finished kindergarten. We like to do unit studies, which is where we pick a theme for a week or two and try to tie the theme in to as many subjects as possible. I like to interview my son and ask him what he wants to learn about every few months.  This is based on our kindergarten school year. The little ones sometimes tag along but I don't push it AT ALL, and surprisingly, they are also learning so much with no effort from me :)

Here are the resources we use for our homeschool by subject: 

READING: 

• Bob Books with free printables from several websites. A search on Pinterest has more! 
• The library! We love checking out books on our theme. We also sometimes check out read along books with CD's or audio books to listen to in the car. 
• Hoooked on Phonics readers- My sister found an AMAZING deal on the entire hooked on phonics kit at Goodwill! We mostly just do the readers for free reading time but in the future I can see us using more of the curriculum. 
• Chapter book read alouds. We purchased a whole set of Roald Dahl chapter books at Costco, and for a while we read several of the books for our read aloud time. We really enjoyed James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. We are planning on reading more chapter books like Peter Pan and Charlotte's Web. 

WRITING:

We try to make writing as natural and as fun as possible. At first we were just practicing writing letters and words on the chalkboard, white board, on the window, on a salt tray, etc. More recently for our writing we try to do the following:

• Copy work- to work on handwriting I write down a scripture and my son copies it. Usually it's just half a scripture and I try to encourage him to make it as neat as possible.
• Lists- I will give my son a paper and tell him to write four things he wants at the grocery store. I help him spell the words, but require his handwriting to be very neat so we can actually read it.
• Letters to friends and family. He is required to write at least one sentence by himself, and then he dictates the rest and I write it. Then he reads it back to me. 
• Lapbooks- A lapbook is a type of file folder report on a given theme with different activities inside on different subjects. The writing sections could include new words, labeling parts, making lists, writing about an experience, copying words etc. My son loves his lapbooks :)
• Writing Books- My son occasionally will ask to write a book. We staple pages together and he either illustrates the book, or cuts out pictures from a magazine, and then dictates while I write. I try to guide him sometimes to help his sentences make sense:) His books are usually pretty silly and random, but I LOVE that! It is just so funny to read them. 

MATH

• RightStart Mathematics- a very hands on curriculum with a ton of fun math games for practice. It's perfect for my son. We love it!
• Playing store with realistic money and cash register. Another favorite.
• free ipad apps for counting money, telling time, patterns, etc. 

SCIENCE

As the theme of the week allows, we do a lot of science! 

• Pinterest. There are always so many ideas on Pinterest. I LOVE pinterest. It has made homeschooling possible for us. 
• 20 minute science
• Education.com- lots of free printable and ideas
• Netflix- The Magic School Bus, Wild Kratts, nature and science documentaries
• Amazon Instant Video- Popular Mechanics for Kids, other nature and science documentaries
• Lapbooks- mentioned above. Some that we have done are Sharks, Penguins, Planets, and Desert Animals. I get all of the components free by searching on pinterest and on other websites. There are a lot of free ones at homeschoolshare.com 

MUSIC

• Church hymnbook and Primary Songbook
• Pandora radio

GOSPEL

• The Friend Magazine
• The Illustrated Scripture Stories
• Mormon Channel App
• and the Scriptures of course

ESPAÑOL

I like to come up with literacy activities when we do our reading time. For Spanish we do everything from little board games where we have to read the words, card games, manipulating plastic letters to make words, using education cubes,and sometimes I make up my own simple worksheets to practice syllables and vocabulary. There are not as many free resources I have found for teaching a bilingual child Spanish literacy, but I feel we're doing okay with what we have so far. Here are some of the little books we use.

• Tesoros De lectura 
• Libritos de fonetica Lectura- my friend passed me these little readers after she used then in her homeschool

 Our first grade themes will be based on a Magic School Bus elementary science lesson plans. We will probably change some themes around and put other ones in there. We also have a music curriculum we are looking at. We acquired it for free and it has information on basics of music as well as composers, and styles of music. I'm excited to give it a try. We will continue with all the other resources for our other subjects. We're having a great time with our homeschool, and we're looking forward to continuing on after a week of  a little break!

Number Three: Relax, and let some things go!

Above is a picture of our upstairs play area. This is what it looks like currently. This is actually better than it looked like at the beginning of the week. On Monday I had at least five loads of clean laundry and another couple baskets of dirty laundry strewn on the floor.

Life with three little kids ages 6 and under, and expecting number four, can be a bit hectic and MESSY! We get our fair share if illnesses that get passed around from one person to the other. To top it off, my husband works full time and is going to school for his MBA to a university an hour and a half away. Needless to say, he is not home with us very often so life can get even more tiring for this pregnant mom!

With all that said, one of the biggest lessons I have learned this first year if homeschooling is to relax and let some things go! This is a continual lesson for me, especially recently. If I had it my way, my house would be so organized, clean, and we would have full blown meals on the table every evening. I have learned that at this stage in our families life, that is pretty much impossible. 

Since I'm homeschooling I have learned what a blessing it is to be able to spend time with my kids and to really listen to them and enjoy their company. They require all my time and pretty much all my energy. I have come to realize that they need ME, and if that means the dishes need to pile up, the messes need to be strewn everywhere, the laundry will need to sit on the floor another day, then that's what needs to happen right now. We have had cherished moments when we enjoy reading books together, running outside in the pouring rain, or had a dance party in the living room. Those are moments that are WAY better than scrubbing dishes or mopping floors!!

Number Two: Learning Should Be FUN!!

The second thing I learned this year as a new homeschooling mom is this: 

Learning should be FUN!!!

When I first started teaching my son at the age of around 3 and a half, I would plan activities and print things out, and them my son would spend like two minutes on one activity and refuse to do anymore! I was frustrated. I have slowly come to realize that the way I was trying to teach my son was not the most effective way he was going to learn. I also have realized that children develop at their own pace. What my son may not be able to do now, he may be able to do in a month or two. At one point my son kept skipping the number four when he would count in Spanish. It seemed like weeks and weeks we would practice counting and he would just skip four. I was so frustrated, and he could sense that. He would just freeze and get so nervous. It wasn’t fun for him anymore. It was just me testing him and him realizing he wasn’t living up to my expectations. Once I decided to just relax and have fun, then that wall came down and he was able to learn better without so much stress.

From birth through about age 7, kids learn through play and experimentation. This is the stage when the LOVE of learning needs to be instilled in children. I have been enjoying reading books such as Free To Learn by Peter Gray and A Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille, where I have learned more about the importance of giving children the opportunities to play and instill a love for learning in order for them to be able to essentially educate themselves.

Children are naturally curious and excited to discover new ideas. I have also been very surprised by the times when my son randomly shows me that our fun and free approach has helped him make connections. After beginning our new math curriculum (which I love), called RightStart Mathematics, my son surprised me when he said “Mami, ten is two, two, two, two, two!” I was so surprised and excited to see his little mind at work on a car ride.

We have also loved doing what some may call unit studies. A unit study is where we chose a theme and study that theme in as many subjects as possible for a week or two. I have learned that if you have a plan in mind, but when it comes down to it, nobody is excited about it, then ask your child what he wants to learn! I did, and my son came up with so many fun ideas like racecar week, ocean week, shark week, weather week, desert week, and dinosaur week, just to name a few. He is excited because he WANTS to learn about these subjects, which makes me excited too.

I want to spark my child’s creativity and enthusiasm for learning. We plan on fostering an environment where he can play, explore, and learn. If it’s not FUN for both of us, we will reevaluate and revisit the task later if we need to. This is one of the things I have learned this year. 

Number One: I am NOT Patient

There were always some preconceived ideas I had about homeschooling. It was pretty foreign to me. I thought that in order to homeschool I had to be super patient, organized, great at keeping my house clean, and be very knowledgeable. Basically I thought you need to have all the answers and know exactly what to teach at each grade level and how to teach it before you even think about starting to homeschool. Well, I've learned many things this year. 

Number one: I am not patient! But like it or not, I have daily opportunities to practice. 
I am not PATIENT!! I think some people may see me and think I'm super patient. I am actually prone to get anxious and frustrated easily when things don't go my way or how I expected they would turn out. I am so very blessed to be a mother of three beautiful children. I love them, and think they are the greatest blessing that Heavenly Father has given our little family. I believe motherhood is a blessing, not only because of the joy you experience from your little ones, but also for the many opportunities for growth and learning that it gives me. I have the chance to practice my patience EVERY DAY with my babies. And I still have a lot more to learn. People say, "You must have a lot of patience to homeschool". Ha, ha, ha! NO WAY!! There is MUCH room for growth for me in that area. You don't need to be perfectly patient to be a mother, patience is a virtue you practice and develop in the the process of being a mother.

How we came to the decision

It has been one year this month since my husband and I made the final decision that homeschooling was the right path for our family. It was a long process of several years that brought us to the decision. Why did we decide to homeschool?  About four years ago when my oldest son was only about one and a half years old I started really thinking about his education and what the options would be for him. We had just moved to a brand new state and I really wanted to look into a bilingual education. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out.

A year after that we moved again  in the same city, and I met a family in our new ward at church who was a homeschooling family. I was intrigued. I asked questions and thought it would be very overwhelming to be a homeschooling mom. I thought the mom of that family was probably super mom homeschooling all four of her kids and I could never do that! But I still had a lot of respect for her and thought it was interesting.

When I was pregnant with baby number three I decided my son should go to preschool for two days a week. We sent him and it gave me a little break, but it was hard to be consistent with the things we were doing at home. It just didn't feel like it flowed. It was difficult to get a routine going. He would also come home cranky and very tired. I feel like the whole thing of me pushing school at home and at preschool was just working him too hard for a little four year old. I kept getting thoughts and feelings (that I now recognize as promptings from the Lord), about homeschooling. But I felt so very inadequate and unprepared!! How could I have the time and energy to homeschool my son with two other little babies at home?

I had so many doubts and questions. I had a lot of encouragement from my husband and my sister telling me that I COULD homeschool, and that everything would work out. I prayed, and prayed, and finally felt like the Lord answered my prayer. I think i knew all along, I just needed an extra push of motivation to make the decision to do it.

I feel homeschooling has been a tremendous blessing for us! I don't believe homeschooling is for everyone, but I do believe that if the Lord lets you know that homeschooling is the right path for your family He will give you the strength, energy, knowledge to do it. Homeschooling is like motherhood I believe. You can never prepare enough, you just have to do it! Once you dive in the Lord will give you the answers you seek and help you accomplish what he asks you to do. I am so glad we made the decision! This year has been wonderful! In another post I hope to write about all the many lessons I have learned as a newbie homeschooling mom this year.