Homeschool Planning

When it comes to homeschooling, one of the most common questions I get from others is, “How do you know what to teach?”. I’ve always stumbled over my response to this query. 

 I’ll first acknowledge the intelligence of the question itself. Yes, I suppose it would seem rather daunting to the average parent knowing what their children should learn and when. There are school boards that do that with varying differences on curriculum choices from district to district, state to state, province to province. The individuals making these important curriculum decisions will be influenced by what the children will need to know for the standardized tests, what the political agenda of the day is (ie. citizenship, recycling - I’m being serious here, not sarcastic on this one), what their worldview is (ie. how did the world get here? what is the meaning of life? what is truth?  - I could go on and on) and money - what’s available, affordable or on contract, etc.  Parents trust this often unknown group to make these decisions on behalf of us as parents for our children. We trust that they know what they are doing and that they have our children’s best intentions at heart. The individual teachers then have the challenging task of implementing the chosen curriculum. God bless ‘em. 

So you see, it’s a fair question to ask a parent who’s chosen not to delegate the responsibility of teaching her children to someone else and now has to decide for herself/himself not just how or by what methods she teach each of her children but what she’ll teach her children. 

Keep in mind I can’t answer for anyone else but my family. As you can see from school board to school board, there is variety.  The same is true in homeschool families. The idea that gaps in a curriculum can be avoided is a myth. There is no way to fill in the gaps. There are not enough hours in a day to learn everything there is to learn. The best thing that I can do as a parent teacher is to try to instill a love of learning, encourage the natural desire to learn found in a child and instruct my children how to learn. This way, they can learn anything at anytime and have been equipped to do so! 

As I carefully pick out from year to year what we will be learning, how I will teach it, what resources I will use and how much time and energy will be spent on each particular endeavor, I too will be influenced. 

• We’ve chosen (at this point) not to have our kids take standardized tests. It’s not required in our province first of all. We’re not breaking any laws not having them take it. I’m not concerned about where they fall in regards to what other kids know at any one particular time. I do believe there’s a time and place for tests however.  I came across a book titled “The myth of standardized tests: why they don’t tell you what you think they do” and found it a very interesting read. Not only that, but I’m going to put out there something shocking. I don’t think it’s every child’s “right” to receive the same education as the next kid. Every child isn’t like every child. They are unique individuals with talents and gifts that make up who they are and no one else. Standardize that! Why on earth do we expect them to learn the same stuff at the same time with the same expectations?!!! I myself have often fallen prey to this misled expectation.   
• We think it’s important to be good citizens! Our kids watch us vote in elections, keep up to date on what’s going on in the country and be good neighbours. Our city is big on recycling and we have a black bin for paper, a blue bin for glass and plastics and a green bin for food scraps, yard waste, etc.  Our kids watch and participate in recycling efforts. I don’t need to have a special class on this. 
• Our worldview plays a huge role in what we chose to have our children learn! From the beginning, we’ve started our day with Bible lessons and theology. This will not be found on a standardized test. Not any one that I took, anyway! 
• I don’t have a contract with any curriculum provider so I’m free to shop around. It’s not like money is no object though so I still have a budget to stick to. Lots of things can be found for free on the internet now. There are a million homeschool catalogs out there to peruse, homeschool stores to spend hours going through and curriculum fairs to attend. Personally, I can’t get enough of it. At some point, I have to cut myself off. Like I mentioned before, there are not enough hours in a day to learn everything. I would LOVE to have us all learn French and Latin. It would be awesome to have my 10 year old diagram sentences like nobody’s business. It would be great to have time to go through “The Odyssey” before high school starts. But like anything else, I have to prioritize and make some hard decisions. Sometimes I make the wrong decision and we have to tweak things a bit. Sometimes a child will start to really get into something with passion and we can take a bit of a detour to encourage it. Sometimes what curriculum worked for one child doesn’t work for the other. But I have the freedom! I must admit, I love it! However, I have to also admit that it’s not the catalogs, stores or fairs that ultimately guide our choices. 

 As Christians, we go right to the Source. We want to know what the Maker of heaven and earth has to say about parenting, education and knowledge. If He has a suggestion somewhere in the Bible that says something about Saxon being the best for math, I’m going to take it! If the Author and Perfecter of the very lives I’m teaching instructs me to make sure my kids have prepositional phrases memorized and gives me a clue as to which phonics program to use, I better listen up! I gotta tell ya, I’ve been forward and backward in that big book of God’s Word and I can’t find any mention anywhere of math, phonics, prepositional phrases or any other “subject”. I’ve even looked in the index. And while all of those subjects are certainly important to know and study for most people, it leads me to believe that the omission of their mention may mean there are other things of more importance. What could be more important than the 3 R’s? 

Before I start picking out a plan of action, I look for what God does say and take note of  what he doesn’t say. Although not an exhaustive list, he does say:

• “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” Proverbs 1:7a
• “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5,6
• “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21
• “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” Proverbs 24:3,4
• “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deut. 6:5-7
• “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19, 20

It is reading passages like these that influence our definition of education. We believe that education is the preparation of a child intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically for life and for eternity. 

Our mission statement : to prepare faithful disciples to witness to the gospel in all of life. 

Having that roadmap in front of me, I can then make some priorities.

Foundation: Devotions, Bible History, Memory Work, Family Worship and Corporate Worship, Confirmation

3 R’s : Reading, Writing and Math

Communication : Spelling, Writing, Narrate/Speech, Critical Thinking

Once I’ve done that, I can start picking out the curriculum and method.

If I say the things above are really important but we get to the end of our day with nary a Word from God, I have not put down a solid foundation.  If I say and agree with “in all your ways acknowledge him” but I failed to praise him and give him glory while studying birds or the periodic table, it’s just lip service. If I’m focused solely on making sure my students can perform well in a spelling bee but forgot they were my children somewhere along the way, I need to stop and refocus. If I’m making sure my children are good public speakers but aren’t grounded in the truths of scripture, how are they to speak the truth in love? And if my mission statement is claiming to prepare faithful disciples to witness to the gospel but they aren’t aware of the souls that are out there in this big world that God created and formed himself because we just stick to “our own little world”? Then I have failed the mission. 

So, yeah, back to the question of “how do you know what to teach?” - it’s a fair question. And my short answer? Through the grace of God. No matter how focused I may think I start the year out, I fail within minutes. The Lord gives me strength in my weaknesses and grants me wisdom through his Word. He offers me free, no strings attached forgiveness for my many failings - even when I start to panic that my son will never be a spelling bee champion or my daughter may be crippled with fear in front of a crowd - instead of embracing them for who they are, helping them be the best they can be, accepting how God made them, and thanking and praising him for allowing me to parent and love them. I have the privilege of sitting by their side as together we learn about cultures in far away countries, pray for lost souls misled by false beliefs, study their customs and food:) and consider if God may someday use this knowledge to help lead someone to him! I am humbled when I consider earth science and the universe and everyday miracles we get so used to seeing that we may forget to stop what we’re doing and give all praise to him!  I trust that God will use each of my children for his purposes and he knows the plans he has for them, regardless of my failings and inadequacies. I’m comforted by his love for me and his plan of salvation. And I try to keep the awareness of despite having “the best laid plans”, God may have other plans. What do I teach?

I teach Jesus. Because you see him in Math, Science, History, Language - everywhere! The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

Ryan Gosling - he gets it

More of these hilarious Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl"s can be found at http://homeschoolingryangosling.tumblr.com/

Still waiting to hear my husband whisper these sweet nothings in my ear. But he's very supportive and encouraging in his own way:)

Summer Camps

Here's Zanna - ready for her first week long camp (other than our church's VBS). For many families it's pretty routine most of the year to pack your child's lunch (nut free of course), make sure everything has their name on it and makes it into their backpack. Then you see her 7 hours later. For us, it's a rarity and rather novel experience. So for one week out of the whole year off she goes! I had to purchase a lunch bag along with indoor runners and outdoor runners (who knew you couldn't wear the same shoes?). She was off to Safety Camp - a local camp I figured had to be pretty darn safe if the name alluded to it! She learned all about what to do in a fire, if she is lost in a forest, proper bike safety - you get the idea. She had a blast! And I had a blast taking the words from that old 80's song "Safety Dance" (you know the one? Sssss Aaaa Ffff ...) and tweaking the words a bit, much to my kids' amusement. Or mine. Whatever. 
Will was supposed to be in golf camp that same week. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough kids signed up for it so it was cancelled. So the week I thought I had to focus on getting ready for school didn't quite work out as planned. 
The following week was VBS at our church. Everything went well, no accidents or anything to report, thank the Lord! We saw many new faces in the participants and it was a lot of fun. This was the first year that Will was too old to participate but old enough to volunteer. He and his best friend were in charge of games and they had a ton of fun playing with all the kids! It was the perfect job for them. 
I lead the music and got my Egyptian groove on. No, there are no pictures. At least I hope not. 
Other fun activities this month has been meeting friends at parks, several picnics, attending Shakespeare in the Park and riding bikes and talking lots of walks. 

We went to a heritage park set in the 30's and 40's for an animal tour. It was pretty low key but a nice, sunny day and we enjoyed a family outing with a picnic.

Will got a hold of my camera and took a few "action" shots!

Loving these last days of summer before Labour Day weekend brings an end to it all! But also looking forward to the structure and routine that the school year brings, activities starting again and  fall around the corner. But not yet. I haven't even walked into Michael's craft store in the last month because I just know it's all fall. I can wait.

Journey out West

Our July continued with a trip out to Calgary to visit the other side of the family. Zanna was thrilled that this year she was tall enough to ride Grandpa's go-cart by herself! She went round and round the property and successfully caught on to the feel of the clutch and break. She figured out how fast she could take the corners. She had a grin from ear to ear! She was feeling pretty confident in her driving ability that when Grandpa asked her if she wanted to go with the guys to the RV place she replied that, "no, I'll drive." Here lies the miscommunication. Grandpa thought she meant " No, I don't want to go to the RV place. I'll keep driving around the property." When in fact she meant "No, I don't want to go with you. I'll drive to the RV place myself." So the guys took off, not noticing they had someone following them down the street. Yes, you read that right. She sped down the driveway and out into the street ready to follow the guys to the RV place off of Highway 1. Oh, yeah. Thankfully, her angels were on high alert and by the grace of God, that go-cart stalled halfway down a country street. Fran and I were chatting it up in the house when dear daughter opens the front door sobbing like I've never heard her cry! After stalling and managing to get to the side of the street, she kept thinking the guys would notice her not behind them and come back for her.  Poor thing kept waiting and finally took off her helmet and trudged up the hill. The tears streaming down her face mixed with the dirt of the dust kicked up and the helmet hair sticking up on all ends produced quite a disheveled site! She was sticking with her story that "Daddy said I could". After calling Daddy and filling him in, the misunderstanding came out and helped shed a clearer light on what happened. She was pretty shaken up but safe and sound, thank God! Quite a first day of vacation! This incident did not keep her from driving though - don't worry!

We had a calmer day at the Calgary zoo the next day and were thrilled to take in the new penguin exhibit. We went with the cousins and they had a great time together in the Calgary heat.

Not all of our holiday was spent in Calgary this time around. We loaded up Grandpa and Grandma's  new motor home and piled in for a 10 hour drive to Saskatchewan. We were going to celebrate the 45th wedding anniversary of Wayne's aunt and uncle. He was looking forward to reuniting with family he hadn't seen in almost 20 years! We had never met most of his cousins children all of which were ages 12 and under - perfect for my kids! Lots of new friends to play with.

While the traveling accommodations were certainly nice and we had nothing to complain about, 10 hours anywhere was enough to drive you nuts! And there wasn't much to look at between Calgary and our destination. We stopped to refuel and get some lunch at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere. Or so it seemed.

This is "Cactus Corner" where I was sure I had last seen my eldest child after being abducted by some backwoods, toothless perverts. He was lost. After being the first to exit the motorhome to run to the bathroom, we couldn't seem to find him. They had moved the motor home to park and he wasn't in there. He wasn't in the bathroom. He wasn't in the shop. He wasn't in the restaurant. He wasn't in the motor home for a 2nd check. I screamed his name, ran frantically around like a crazy person. I panicked, I prayed. Wayne checked the motor home a 3rd time. Suddenly, my husband and son were coming toward me and I wanted to hug him and whack him all at the same time. He had come back to the motor home after using the bathroom and went to the back bedroom, closed the door, lounged on the bed and read his book. He hadn't heard anyone calling his name and finally wondered where everyone was. After working up quite and appetite from all that running around, I had to sheepishly enter the restaurant I had just been screaming in and order lunch. Ah, vacation. Sure is relaxing.

On to our trip. There may have not been much of "anything" for this city girl to look at but there was this -

Not bad, eh? Beautiful fields of canola, wheat, barley and other things stretched for miles. Food. This is where it all happens.

We had a great time upon arrival and it was great to be a part of such a happy occasion! Last summer we drove the back roads of Albert Lea, MN to discover my roots. This summer we drove the back roads of Foam Lake, Sask to discover Wayne's roots. We visited graves of never forgotten family members, drove past homesteads of family, visited the home of Wayne's deceased grandparents and enjoyed the memories he recalled there.

Here's the old one room schoolhouse that Wayne's dad attended for grade school and where Grandma Sally used to teach. We also visited the farm of Wayne's aunt and uncle and got a tour! Yes, I'm up there in a dress!

In honor of the anniversary, fun things were planned which included a morning of golf for those that golfed (not me) But these people did -

Zanna and I did some miniature golf and baked in the intense heat while slightly cheating on miniature golf to "move things along".  That evening there was a lovely meal, slide show and shin dig to celebrate! Wayne also had the privilege of baptizing 3 of his cousin's kids on that Sunday! After all this family fun, it was time to pack up the motor home and head back west. Shortly after departure, Will got sick. Let's just say, the bathroom was good to have but then we had to smell everything that happened. At the nearest truck stop I purchased some Pepto for the sick kid to try and keep things coated over the next 9 1/2 hours. It was disgusting. And after all that time of being in an enclosed space I had just about had it. I was starting to loose it. When my phone finally picked up some bars, I texted this to my sister-in-law -

It was my only contact with the outside world!! Will continued to be sick for the rest of our holiday there. It varied in symptoms. Basically, it was a fever and lethargy. The fever broke the night before we boarded the plane but went into a head cold that lasted until a few days ago. It was brutal!
And that's our trip!

What you can do with a door

I've tried telling people about this cute little building but I took pictures this time (with the owners permission of course). There's this little town in Wisconsin called Sayner. It's not much but it's home to several upscale shops that attract the vacationers from Chicago and this little gem - the Red Door. 

The owner's shop is right next to her own home and she has this little place in the back she and her husband put together with walls made from different doors. Adorable. 

This gal does things with spray paint I can only dream about. A bit dramatic? Maybe. But she finds things that people throw away and gives them a second lease on life! 

I would love to curl up here with a mason jar glass of fresh lemonade and read my book "Red Scarf Girl". 
So the next time you're about to get rid of something like a piece of furniture, light fixture or frame, attack it with spray paint!