SCHOOL @ HOME

What our kids teach us

2012-01-17T14:49:00.001-06:00

This morning listening to Sara Groves with my youngest I was struck by how much our kids teach us. Sara sings about this in many of her songs and Sirah was asking me about it today. We discussed some of the many things my kids have taught me and the others they help me to remember. I am a teacher in many ways and all good teachers know we always are learning from unique places. Life is full of teachable moments and as much as I talk about the teachable moments I share with my kids I rarely talk about what they teach me. The list is to numerous to fully share but this year my goal is to share more of these things.

I am truly blessed to be the mother of these great kids, it is an awesome privelage. One I can too easily overlook if I am not careful. This year has helped me to realize it even more as I watch each of them deal with challenges and trials that life throws at them individually and us as a family. It has not been our easiest year, still it has been a great year in its own way. Rarely do you stop and take time to truly assess what you love and what is important to you, what your core values are and what hills you will die on, even rarer is when the whole family is asked to do it at the same time.

It is good to discover the common ground of family priorities. As a family we have some clarity about what is important to us. Many things were confirmed for us this year: the desire to have a parent home full time with the kids, home schooling really is our way of life, swimming is much more than just a sport of choice for our family, we truly value Awana, we love our neighborhood, home and overall general way of life, we can get by on much less. Home is really where we all are. Location does not matter, being together and supporting and loving each other through the challenges, that is what matters. My children have taught me so much this year.

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135,898

2012-01-13T23:41:00.002-06:00

What a crazy number that is. This is the number of times this blog has been viewed as of tonight. That is over 15,000 times a year if I average it out over the 8 years I have been blogging here. Of course I know it did not look like that. Apparently I had over 5000 views last month even though I have only posted a total of 19 times in all of 2011! Many people land here after a Google search, most likely looking for a lesson plan, book recommendation, or field trip idea, or just anything they can find about homeschooling. I have had regular readers over the years but the past few years has seen me rarely blogging and that does not lend itself well to regular readers since there is nothing to regularly read :) Still I know a few of you are still out there and will read these words I write even after the months of silence that has been here. For that I thank you for your interest and especially for your support and encouragement through the years.

This year has been a very different one for our family, a different season in many ways. Tonight when I was at Target for the second time in the day already I was thinking about this blog as a friend asked me for the address yesterday. When I handed it to her I reminded her that it is only my best foot forward and all days are not shiny and happy and perfect like they may seem if you only know me through the posts on this page. You are only seeing the highlights, the things I wanted to record, remember and look back on years later. I started blogging before almost anyone I know. I started blogging in 2001 and this blog was born is 2003. Statistics always fascinate me because numbers speak in interesting ways. These numbers might interest you, the number in parenthesis is the number of posts for the year:

Blog Archive
► 2011 (19)
► 2010 (68)
► 2009 (32)
► 2008 (69)
► 2007 (236)
► 2006 (224)
► 2005 (468)
► 2004 (484)
► 2003 (257)

We can clearly see I used to be an avid blogger and then in 2008 something must have happened in my world that changed the kind of blogger I became and last year probably disqualified me from even being considered a blogger anymore :) So I reflect back and wonder what was it about 2008 that changed in me and my life and led to the changes here? Not sure I have a perfect answer. My best guess was my youngest turned 5 and we were out of the house MUCH more. The taxi days of homeschooling had begun. I also started schooling three kids at once and I can still remember the challenges that brought.

I can remember back in the preschool days when all I did was read aloud all day long and would constantly get asked "How do you read that many books?" I remember saying "I just make the time" or "I just always say yes when they ask." Well what I did not know then was that I also simply had more "free time" then. By that I mean time undictated by anyone else's schedule or commitments. Free time I was not trying to use to fit algebra, swimming, science experiments, church groups, playdates, coops, tutoring, teaching outside classes, book clubs, and the list goes on. I simply had more time and yes I made a choice about how to use that time but it is hard to find the time I want to read aloud to my youngest and I certainly do not do it as often as I used to.

We are on the road often and when we are home we are trying to learn long division, spelling lists, how to write essays and get all that hands on time in science in. Sure I could make more read aloud time. We could quit swimming, gym, book club, and not do outside playdates but we are not going to do that either. So we fit it in as best we can and we still try to prioritize. I still make my kids read an hour a day even through our busy schedules. I do my best to make sure my youngest gets atleast half of that time daily if not all of it with me so she can read aloud. If we don't get it in together she still has to do it on her own. Reading is portable and lends itself nicely to all the time in the car we have. We used to do audio books which I loved but now I find it easier to let them all do their own independent reading while we drive from here to there. Maybe a shared audio book is on our horizon though as I miss them as I type this.

If you told me back when I had three kids under the age of 4 that I had more time then I would have laughed in your face but on reflection I did. I am not saying it was not busy, it was the busiest year of my life, and probably the most exhausting. But so much of it was at home and it was almost as if time stood still on some days and passed so slowly. Now it moves at record pace and we constantly fight to slow it down. Tonight as I sat and watched movies with my girls now 12 and 8 I enjoyed the slowness of the evening. I enjoyed their presence and simply doing nothing together but being entertained. Tomorrow brings swim meets, next week brings geometry, building a hovercraft, starting year end projects, studying for major tests and daily swim practice for important upcoming meets. But for tonight we took the time to eat pizza and ice cream and gummy bears while we watched Flipped and Dolphin Tales and simply enjoyed each other.

When I started this blog 8 years ago I don't think I ever believed I would still be typing here and say the words my 12 and 8 year old daughter. I still recall blogging all about my pregnancy and birth of our youngest before many even knew blogs at all. It has served its purpose through the years and I will continue to keep it around even if I only touch base here a few times a year. Who know perhaps this year will be different but I somehow doubt it.

If you are here for the first time, look around and clearly I used to have more ideas to share. I still have and execute ideas all the time, I just have less time to share them sadly for you. However, I am at peace with that for me, because it means we are spending the time living and enjoying. Somedays I still can't help but wonder at the number 135,898 and say to myself "really" this is just a little blog about a little homeschool family in middle america but okay glad you find value here :)

Be blessed in all you do and hug those babies!
Tenniel

Finding a New Normal

2011-09-22T13:07:00.000-05:00

This year is a new experience for us home schooling. I am working part time outside of the home for the first time since we began this journey. I have done some outside teaching all along at home school groups but the kids have always been with me in their other classes. Now I am back teaching in the college classroom as an adjunct, teaching a high school debate class and doing ACT tutoring. The kids are in 7th, 5th and 3rd grade. Life is very busy. We are learning to create new routines. We are finding our new normal. This is also our first year without an active home school cooperative. After 8 years with home school coops it feels odd to not have a place we all go and do something together. The kids are taking a gym class each week at the time of our old coop and Maria is taking a weekly Spanish class at a home school tutoring center. We miss Academy but it was for a season of our life and this is our new season that we are finding peace with now. I thought I would truly miss the teaching part for myself as I love working with junior and senior high kids. Life has brought me new opportunities and I still get to work with kids other than my own through my tutoring and starting up a local debate academy to teach junior and senior high kids those skills. In addition now I get to work with college students again since I have resumed teaching as an adjunct. I also of course teach my own kids. This year has reminded me of how much I love sharing my knowledge and skills in the area of argument and debate. I realize how much I truly love teaching and coaching and I am thankful for the new opportunities to do so.

Science Symphony

2011-09-13T12:55:00.002-05:00

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Fun Sparkly Playdough

2011-09-12T20:27:00.001-05:00

Fairy Dust Teaching: Galaxy Playdough Enjoy!

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Summer Extension

2011-08-29T13:49:00.000-05:00

I planned to start today. The sky is perfectly blue. The weather is warm enough for swimming but gentle beautiful breezes. The curriculum has not all arrived in the mail yet and we only have three days left with the pool with water slides. I think we can start next week and enjoy the beauty of summer and all its fun for just another week.

Required Reading List

2011-08-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

Harry Potter is well loved in this house. However, my kids did not just get the books whenever and read start to finish. There are many good discussion topics in Harry Potter and I wanted to wait until they were old enough to discuss the books more in full. In addition I wanted them to have read certain other books to be able to refer to in our conversations. I also wanted them to read most of the classics in at least abridged form so we made a deal. They would get to read Harry Potter when they finished what I wanted them to read first. I also wait until they are 10 for the first two books 11 for the next three books and 12 for the final two books. There were lists of books to read before each of these.

Recently some friends asked me to recreate the list of books I required at age 10 and before the first Harry Potter. I do require slightly different books based on gender. Below is Ciaran's list since he is most recent in my memory. My son Ciaran was not what I would call an enthusiastic reader until recently. Still he did read everything required of him as he desired to read Harry Potter. I asked him after he finished the first two books if Harry Potter was worth reading everything I required and he said yes, which honestly surprised me. Of everything he read, the only book he truly hated and trudged through was Hans Brinker. The rest he either liked or said he did not mind in the end, even if he was reluctant to start it.

When a "classic" title is listed I only required the abridged Great Illustrated Classic version. If you are unfamiliar with this books series, get familiar with it. A very gentle introduction to the main story of all the classics. I remember reading many as a child and wanted my own kids to read them as well. It makes the transition to reading the unabridged versions much easier for later years. The stories are easy to read, big typset, and a whole page picture for every page of writing. Still the stories are fairly true to the unabridged versions with easier language and a few minor changes overall. They are pretty quick reads even for reluctant readers. This list is not in order he read them - just broken down by category required

Classics Unabridged - 3

Pinocchio
Peter Pan
Wind in the Willows

Great Illustrated Classics - 17
Treasure Island
Gulliver's Travels
Around the World in 80 Days
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Pollyana
The Secret Garden
Kidnapped
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
Swiss Family Robinson
Oliver Twist

Robinson Crusoe
The Time Machine
The Prince and the Pauper
The Jungle Book
Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn

General Fiction Required - 11

Indian in the Cupboard - Lynn Banks
Mary Poppins - P.L Travers
The Black Stallion
Black Beauty
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Chocolate Touch
Snow Treasure
Charlottes Web
Bridge to Terabithia
Tuck Everlasting
The Call of the Wild

Series Books Required - 15 with some choice
The entire Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (7 books)
The Wizard of Oz series - Frank L Baun (5 books of choice)
Little House series (3 books of choice for Ciaran, On the Banks of Plum Creek required)

50 Favorite Picture Books for Kids

2011-08-20T08:37:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking about picture book a lot lately. With my youngest being 8 I know our time with these books is waning. Still I cling to and love children's picture books. Every year we buy each child a special picture book for their birthday and for Christmas. We write a short inscription about them and the book inside. It is getting harder to find good picture books that represent them as we already own so many of the good books here in the house. At 11 we switch to buying good quality leather covered books to start their own special book collection to take with them when they move. But back to picture books.

Sirah just had a birthday and I spent awhile looking through the kids books for her. I decided on My Name is Not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry. This is a sweet book that encourages kids to dream big dreams. In the book the girl pretends to be various famous women in history. It fit Sirah's personality this year and was an encouraging and sweet book.

Still as I was in the bookstore I was struck by how few new good children's books there are. I keep coming back to our old standards even as I read many new books. There are plenty of good pictures but the stories and meanings just do not seem as rich as children's books of past. So I started thinking I would keep a list here of some of my favorite children's books. Feel free to add your own in the comments. I am not ranking the books on this list if they made the list they are good in my mind and well loved in our house.

Miss Rumphius
Roxaboxen
The Empty Pot
Weslandia
The Story of Ferdinand
Little Bear
Frog and Toad
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Salamander Room
Birthday for Frances

Stone Soup
Make way for Ducklings
Blueberry Shoe
Sailor Moo
The Boy Who Changed the World
Courage
I'd be your Hero
I'd be your Princess
A Coat for Anna
Seven Silly Eaters

Musical Beds
I Love you the Purplest
Owl Moon
The Bee Tree
The Giving Tree
Quick as a Cricket
The Quiet Place
The Paper Bag Princess
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Story about Ping

The Kissing Hand
A Pocket full of Kisses
Butterfly House
If You Give a Moose a Muffin
Bedtime for Frances
The Wretched Stone
Love You Forever
Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day
I'm Gonna Like Me
Someday

The Mitten
Abuela
A Chair for my Mother
Guess How Much I Love You
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear
Thanks to You: Wisdom from Mother and Child
Pickles to Pittsburgh
Madeline
All of Beatrix Potter

Questions They Ask - Answers we Find

2011-08-20T08:09:00.001-05:00

One of the things I love about raising net-natives is Google. I know it makes things too easy sometimes but overall I think it is great to be able to just answer immediately many of the random curious questions they have. Like today. What is the longest living animal on Earth?

I Miss You Too

2011-08-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all of you who have emailed and left comments here sharing that you miss me and my regular writing. I miss connecting with all of you and I miss my writing here as well. It is hard to think about the fact that I have been blogging here for over 8 years, with more consistency some years than others. The past few years have been busy and my writing pursuits have been elsewhere. I spent a lot of time working on writing a book only to abandon it as the time has passed for such a book. Perhaps I will one day write another. I have been busy teaching, raising a family and doing all that goes with it.

Recently I thought back quite a few years to when I regularly posted reading lists, something I have come to discover many of you actually loved about this blog. During that time I wondered at all the "how in the world?" type comments I received about the amount of reading we did. At the time I thought to myself it is because that is the choice we make, not realizing how hard that choice can sometimes be to make. Flash forward quite a few years - to the living in the car phase of homeschooling and I realize how hard it can be to make time for read alouds and even finding the time to make the kids read on their own. It is hard but I still say it is possible.

We still read a lot. The kids read on their own more than I read aloud now but we still probably read more than the average household as I still require at least one hour of reading every day by all my kids once they reach 2nd grade. Sirah recently told me I was a "tiger mother" when it comes to reading and I responded with "I can live with that." All of my kids are readers now and all of them will actually admit to enjoying reading now - not a day I was ever sure I would see with two of them :)

My kids recently had to create a list of their favorite books (50 for my 12 year old, 20 for my 10 year old and 5 for my 7 year old) both the 12 and 10 year old had a hard time limiting what would make that list - that made me happy. It also made it worth all the battles we have had over the years about reading: yes you will read even though you don't want to, no you can't have screen time until you read, yes you have to finish that boring book, yes I am serious, no I don't care that your friends don't have to read in the summer, yes you have to finish my list of 30 books I want you to read before you get to read Harry Potter, yes you still have to read an hour a day during the school year and your sports season, yes I am serious you will have to do this until you are 18 and move out of the house. When they move out they can choose to read however they want or to never read again - at least I will be confident they can read anything they want or need to, ever. And if that makes me a tiger mom about reading I can live with that label.

I still keep lists I just never posted them here anymore as I use a software now that does not make it easy and I never realized people missed that. This year I will go back to it. Of course the lists will be shorter as the books are longer now :) You will have to go back a few years for the good picture books and early reader lists. I do miss that time, I miss the read alouds and the hours on end with nothing better to do than read picture books. I think when I am retired I will go to the library and read books to young children on end - my grandchild will hopefully enjoy being read to. It gets harder and harder to make time for read alouds especially once I knew they could all read on their own.

One of my kids fought me hard about reading. I knew the child was ready, but was just purely resistant. I could not figure out why. I pushed, I cajoled, I offered carrots, I withheld privelages, nothing seemed to convince this capable child to read. Finally I got an answer to why the child did not want to read. I was told there was a fear I would stop reading aloud once the child was reading. This child truly loved listening to me read out loud so had decided to simply wait to read on their own, no matter what. How did I get such stubborn kids :) I promised I would continue to read aloud (and I have) and the child agreed to read and reads well alone now.

Why am I spending so much time talking about reading tonight? It is on my mind and heart as I think about this blog and about approaching a new year of home schooling. As I wrote their schedules today I worked a half hour of reading (my choice) into their school day every day and they will still need to do an additional half hour in the evenings (their choice), and yes they have to read on weekends too. I am getting excited thinking about what books I will pick for their required reading this year. I think if my children will remember anything about school with me it will be the emphasis on reading. Why am I such a stickler for reading? It is because I believe if you can read well you can learn anything. You can find the answer to any question. The world opens up to you as does the fantasy realm.

I look around and I smile when I see kids carrying ereaders because I know for some of them it means they will read more. I know for others it likely means they were already avid readers with desperate parents trying to find a better solution. I smile and compliment kids when I see them reading in public, I ask them about their books and I am truly interested when I listen to them talk about them. I often recommend books to kids based on what they are currently reading. I ask them for their recommendations and listen to them. I host book clubs and read the books with the kids - I am up to over 60 books read for my kids book club discussions. I love seeing kids love reading. I wish I could help all adults feel the same way. I cherish my reading friends and always love their recommendations. I just finished reading Unbroken and Mindset both recommended and enjoyed - even though I would not have picked them up on my own. My own reading time is some of my favorite time.

I have started keeping track of books I have read and have been going back and trying to write down and recall all of them. I simply can't recall them all. I am up over 6000 books recalled. No that is a list I don't think I am going to share. I can only imagine what honest glimpses into my soul that list would give as well as the random and wrong assumptions people could make about me from just seeing the list. I did not love everything I read but I am thankful to have read so much good, bad, ugly and life changing. Each book has left an imprint on my life. I have encouraged my kids to keep track of their reads throughout their lives as well. It was my own parents love of reading that inspired me to read. I grew up seeing them read, reading myself and we all still read today. May my children and their children on down learn to love reading. May you and yours as well!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings to those of you who just stopped by for the first time and those of you who have been around for the duration of this blog. I have heard your requests and the book lists will return as will some occasional thoughts from me.

2011-06-01T11:40:00.003-05:00

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Been Awhile

2011-06-01T11:40:00.001-05:00

The school year is done. In some ways it is hard to believe I have been home schooling for 7 years. Changes are ahead for our family though homeschooling will still continue. Today is the launch of my husband's new company and the mark of a new adventure in our life.

Summer pace has arrived. The kids have a little work left to finish up from the year if they did not finish their books. Two are working on math, one spelling and one grammar, one child was finished by the first week of May. The summer reading bin is filled, card and board games are being played with much more frequency, our hammock is well loved and the bikes are dusted off and being used regularly. Life is good.

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Mommy Break

2011-01-18T17:21:00.000-06:00

This year in order to keep my spirits up this winter and to see my friends I have begun opening my home up on Tuesday nights for friends to come visit and just be with other women. I provide drinks, couches and a table and the occasional food and they just come as they are. Many are home school moms and I am enjoying providing an easy space for people to get away and connect with one another.

As homeschool parents I think we often let ourselves fall to the end of the list and forget to take care of ourselves and meet our personal needs. This year I am trying harder to meet those needs and remember to take time for me. I hope by offering my home I encourage other friends to do the same for themselves.

Be gentle on yourself today - you deserve it.

We Shall Overcome

2011-01-17T23:20:00.000-06:00

Today was Martin Luther King Jr. day - we celebrated by doing school and learning a lot about his life. When my kids began their complaining about being forced to school while the neighbors were outside sledding I had a momentary laughable moment in my mind. Thankfully I did not laugh out loud, though I did ask them when they last had school on a Friday? They could not remember - nor will they have one coming up soon. I reminded them how long our Christmas break was, when we start and finish our school year typically and how many snow afternoons they have. They grew quiet in case they were about to lose any of those benefits and settled back into work.

It was a very productive day - we did only math for a core subject and two of the kids did theirs on the computer :) As I am typically a stickler for certain daily core subjects (math, spelling, writing, reading, grammar, and logic for the older students) this was quite a shock to their system. We began the day with science simply because Sirah brought me that book first and asked me to start reading. We learned about various bodily systems (excretory, muscle, skeletal and digestive), and basic botany introduction. There actually was a link but it would take to long to write. The kids then wanted to have some free experiment time so I made myself a cup of coffee and gave them a half hour with strict instructions to clean up their messes. A half hour later I returned to a room that now smelled of vinegar but to their credit was clean again.

We settled into our main lesson for the day, the life and work of Martin Luther King. I do different things on different years but this year I read aloud the book "If you lived at the time of Martin Luther King by Ellen Levine. It is a very good book which pays excellent attention to detail but still reads in a way that keeps their attention. My kids are now 7, 9 and 11. This was an introduction to some hard topics for my 7 year old but she seemed to take them in stride well enough through our discussion time. I spent the better part of 2 hours reading this book to them, stopping at times to discuss topics, answer questions, watch the actual footage from the "I have a dream" speech and learn the song "We Shall Overcome". During that time they built things with Legos and Lincoln Logs while they learned. While listening to the song Maria said to me "I never realized it before but Fields of Athenry is really similar to this only Irish" I could see her mind making the connections and just left her to them for the moment.

After the lesson a much needed sledding with the neighbors break was had by all the kids while I had my cup of tea and lunch. We returned to school and I began with an open time for them to ask questions or discuss whatever they wanted from the morning and then the older two kids had to work on their main assignment - creating their own version of I have a dream. Maria had to write a one page essay outlining a problem in the world that needs our attention and outline what she can do and what society needs to do to help overcome it. Ciaran had the same assignment only he had to give an oral report rather than write an essay. She choose reducing fossil fuels and he chose reducing deforestation, they did not know each others topics and had choice of anything they wanted. While they worked on that Sirah finished up her other book work and reading for the day.

They will not admit it but I think they are glad we did school today. They still got to sled, ice skate, play video games and read for leisure just like the neighbors. In addition though they learned something new and were excited to think about the possibilities of how it could be applied in their lives. Sirah made some important connections between today's lessons and the ones we recently did during our Enlightenment studies and what it means to be a leader and speak truth in a world that seems incapable of hearing or believing it. As I sat in my chair listening to her young mind ask pointed questions and draw lines between today's lesson and lessons from last week without prompting I was reminded of how little credit we give kids sometimes. For a 7 year old to see parallels between Galileo and Martin Luther King Jr is no small feat, yet it is also not an incredible one for kids can tune in to truths and lessons we sometimes overlook as adults. Children have a way of processing information and seeing connections to their own lives in ways we sometimes lose sight of as we go about trying to earn more knowledge or recall what we already know. As I watch my children learn and discuss even the heaviest of topics I see how they make it personal to relate to it and understand it and how that trait perhaps helps them remember other parts of history and see connections often lost on people looking at the tree and forgetting they are in a forest.

As we closed the lesson today I asked my kids if they feel our society has moved to a point where children are judged on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. They were quiet for a moment and said well we don't have separate drinking fountains, buses and the like anymore and President Obama is our leader. Sirah piped up that she was glad she could hold hands with all her friends and go places together as they grew older. Maria seemed quiet and did not answer I think she is old enough to understand the question is more complicated that it first seems. We have come a long way and we need to still remember that We Shall One Day Overcome"

Thanks you Dr. King for all you did for me, for my children, for our nation, for our collective wisdom. May we not only never forget your work and the lessons you imparted to us but may we always pick up the torch and carry it forth and pass it to our children and ask them to do the same.

Conversations

2011-01-14T00:10:00.001-06:00

Some of the best gifts of home schooling come in the conversations I have with my children. Sometimes I wish I could just remember all the details later to share. We recently discussed taxes in the car driving to a swimming practice. What they are, why we have them, what they are used for. We talked about the difference between state, local, and federal taxes and the various random taxes we pay. This started because I got pulled over by a police officer for not having renewed my tabs and paid the state their yearly tax for my car. The police officer was grace filled and just gave me a written warning and I have since fulfilled my citizenry duty and the state can once again be happy with me. I simply forgot and was in fact 14 days late.

Yesterday while learning about Galileo, Newton and Locke in history we talked at length about what it means to speak truth into a world not ready to hear it. We discussed power, knowledge, enlightenment, and how to still be honest and direct if it means you lose friends and influence. We discussed the various ways those in authority tend to try to keep people with different opinions from expressing them.

We talked about how the moon may have formed, how microscopes work, how Artemis Fowl uses DNA, and how to build campfires. We discussed how great math is that numbers always work out and tell the truth. We talked about how history goes in cycles and so many wars have been fought over land, power, money or religion. We discussed the difference between a free country and a theocracy. We talked about media bias after discovering samples of it. We discussed the invention of their minds they hope one day may come about - like air hog helicopter that only take one battery and are charged for a whole year, flying cars with a single bulb to power them, hover crafts and zero calorie ice cream that really tastes as good as the real thing but is as good for you as broccoli.

We discuss a lot. As my kids grow this is definitely my favorite part of homeschooling. Conversations. Learning through discussion and debate. Ah, life is good.

The volume of boys

2011-01-07T10:02:00.001-06:00

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Two girls and a boy ~ our normal makeup. Today though 3 boys filled my house and car and life. Three very energetic and loud boys. Well behaved, polite, good kids, but very full of life and energy and volume. The whole feel to the day is different, filled with wrestling, yelling, pillows flying, one upmanship, competition and of course video games. The noise is joy to my ears and the chaos becomes mere background noise to me because my son is so happy. Boys have brought airsoft, archery, fencing, legos, forts, sledding jumps, skateboard jumps, blowing up things, science projects, frogs, zelda, lightsaber duels, and so much more into our home and my life. Boys are wonderful and easy to please, even if life is just a bit louder when they fill my home.

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When They Know Themselves

2011-01-05T20:34:00.001-06:00

Homeschooling is definately getting more interesting as they get older and know themselves more and more. I had a great conversation today with my tween daughter. She is in 6th grade now and has begun to develop some strong opinions about her own schooling and the direction it should be going in. The conversation would be suprising with many children but somehow it just seemed to fit her personality. She wanted to know when I would be adding Spanish in to her curriculm and if we could find some more advanced science options. She wanted to discuss ways we could work together to help her find success in memorization of definitions (a weakness of hers in her mind) and to talk about her strengths and weaknesses as a student and strategies to help her overcome areas she wants to. She finished the conversation by asking me if I could please assign her some traditional writing for school, I asked her what she meant and she said "You know normal essay questions like 'Global warming is bad for the planet' or 'Should we repeal Obama's health care plan'. You know things I need to research and have an opinion on and defend and you tell me how many pages to write." I said "Yes I think we can add that to your studies if you want". Who would say no? What kid asks for this?

Then she watched the CNN student news program. An addition to our day I am contemplating making a regular part of our curriculum. We had some interesting discussion about food safety and state budgets and the difference between state and federal rights. Then she asked if her first essay question could be about whether or not schools should move to digital textbooks and started rattling off some of the advantages and disadvantages. She said she also would not mind researching and writing about the debt ceiling and if we should raise it or decrease spending because she had never heard about that before and thinks it is interesting.

Tonight she went down to our library and came upstairs with an advanced math textbook and a college argument textbook and asked if she could read them. I asked why and she said because I think I need to read something with challenging vocabulary and I think these will have good vocabulary but be safe reading material. I asked if she needed some new fiction and she said "No I am in the middle of a series but think this will be good too"

I can't make this stuff up :) Maybe she needs to take a week off swimming and have winter vacation at the same time. She was my most thankful child that we were starting to get back into a rhythm of school and schedules. Homeschooling is certainly getting more interesting :)

Fuzzy Minds

2011-01-04T23:16:00.002-06:00

I am reminded why I generally do not let the kids take long math breaks. It as if their minds fuzz over and forget how to do math. Today I was reminding them of basic things like how to carry, borrow and skip count. This was just two weeks. No wonder we keep doing math through summer vacation.

Dusting off our brains and getting them back to full speed is taking a bit more of this week than I expected. I suppose a slow start is better than no start. Maybe we need to take down the Christmas tree and dump all the treats from the house so they believe vacation really is over.

Serona just got an XBOX Kinect for his birthday, maybe some gaming time on that will give me some extra motivation and leverage. Nothing like some low dangling fruit to keep things moving along. Maybe time to break out the math games and other edutainment.

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Unexpected Monday

2011-01-03T21:40:00.000-06:00

I expected today to go rough in the normal Monday after vacation ways. I expected sleeping in, dawdling, slow moving and unmotivated students and I expected some push back and resistance to working. What was unexpected was a three hour trip to the doctor and pharmacy. What was unexpected was finding myself wandering around Target aimlessly for an hour with three school age kids on "the first day back to school" while we waited for our prescriptions to be filled. What was unexpected was starting our school day at 2pm instead of 10am. Then all the expected things still happened and we unexpectedly finished school at 5pm.

By this point in our homeschooling you would think that I would be used to and more adaptable to the unexpected in life. I suppose to a degree I am but I am still surprised each time the unexpected comes my direction. We take it in stride, we adapt, we move forward and we make our best plans for the next day in the hopes that we have planned enough to allow time for the unexpected that seems to often overtake our days. I am hoping this will help my kids be more adaptable later in their lives, or it can down in the annals of their childhood as one more way their lives were so hard.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring, I guess we will just wait and see what the unexpected brings.

Quick every day

2011-01-02T10:01:00.001-06:00

This year I intend to get back to regular blogging. Posts may be short but I intend to write every day for atleast a year to see if it is time to move on from this blog ofr reenergize it.

In many ways it is hard to write because the interesting things I want to say take a long time and the luxury of time is something I rarely have. I feel short posts will not be worth as much but I am going to give it a whirl. The kids are older now and we are so busy running from place to place so I have installed an app on my phone which updates my blog.

Hope you have a wonderful New Year. Thanks to all of you who have kept reading this blog through its ups and downs and lack of consistency at times. Hard to believe I have been blogging here for 8 years, our entire home school journey. This was my second blog as I started blogging in late 1999, 10 years ago! Many blessings to you and yours.

Kiss those babies and even the teens,
Tenniel

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Vacation and Routines

2011-01-01T22:57:00.000-06:00

I have granted us all a true school free vacation. Several days into it Maria was asking to go back to school and I actually refused for a change. We just really needed a break, she could read more if she wanted and she did. We played games, read, watched movies, played Wii, crafted, slept, sledded, ice skated and just loafed around. It was wonderful, it was restful, it was needed.

Monday we are back to routine or the beginning of a new routine. January always seems to start slowly for us but typically ends up being one of our most productive months since it is so cold here. Outside activities generally don't resume until the end of January so we have time to be just us and to do some field trips that the fall seemed to busy for.

I am trying to be proactive this year about homeschooling in Minnesota in the winter and taking more time for me. When the sun shines on my couch for an hour a day you will find me sitting there. When my alarm reminds me it is time to exercise, you can find me on my treadmill. When the dinner dishes are put away on Tuesday nights my family members will have to make themselves scarce as my home becomes a haven for fellow women to come for some friendship, fun and freedom to escape the winter here. On Thursday mornings my alarm will go off far earlier than I am accustomed to as a dear friend and prayer partner will come to visit with me over coffee. Sometime in this month or the next my feet will touch an ocean and bury my toes in the sand on some beach somewhere. I will find time to pray, to write, to exercise, to rest, to read for fun, to play, to be a friend. It will be a good year.

Good Intentions

2010-12-28T15:10:00.000-06:00

I started out this year with good intentions to blog. I thought I had more time and often have something I think "oh I should blog that" but then I somehow never get around to it. I suppose there are a million reasons I could use but I guess I just never did it.

A friend asked me when I would blog again and that every time she visited my blog I was on the pool deck (my last post). I thought how appropriate because that statement is so true. I am not always at the pool but I am driving to and from and sometimes staying at the pool nearly every day of the week so I guess I probably could have been found at the pool deck, so an appropriate post to leave off.

We are on Christmas vacation now. Some years we don't have a normal vacation but this year I am trying to take the full time off at the request of Ciaran. Today Maria and Sirah both said they missed school and the structure it gives them. Ciaran immediately told them to be quiet and stop saying that afraid I would force him to start school and he is absolutely not wanting that.

As I type there are children running through my house, some outside playing airsoft, some watching a movie and some playing with dolls and stuffed animals - life is very good. Yesterday the house was full of kids too and all I wanted to do was play a board game and no one wanted to play with me. When Serona came home he finally agreed :)

We have already been to the pool deck and the ice skating rink and were home by 11am. We had a snowblower delivered and now a house of kids until dinner time. I hope my kids remember this piece of their childhood - how I was always willing to host kids here and our home was always busy and full. I like having the kids here, I like getting to know all their friends and seeing the relationships develop. I don't think a week when everyone is healthy goes by without some kids hanging out here and I don't want it any other way.

As for me I am trying to take a vacation for myself too so I can be fresh for the start of school again next week. There are many things I could be doing but not much that I am doing. I am trying to let myself get bored and just sit on the couch or read a book or knit the had I have been wanting for myself. I am trying to be okay with not being productive for a change and I have to say it is harder than I thought :)

Minnesota winters are hard on me, I think they are hard on almost everyone :) Today we had sunshine and I just sat outside wrapped up in coat, scarf, warm gloves and boots and soaked it in while the kids were ice skating. It was around 8 degrees but still the sun felt nice. I should have waited because now it is almost 30 degrees. We have lived in Minnesota for 10 years now and just bought our first snow blower. We have almost 40 inches of snow on the ground and nearly 3 months of snow left to come. I am trying to find strategies to help me cope with the Minnesota winters and those hard months of homeschooling when we have all been cooped up together for so long. I am trying to learn to take time for just me. I am trying to find the things I want to do for just me and then do them.

The picture above is one of my favorite things about Minnesota winters - the hoary tree frost. It is always so beautiful. Yesterday all the trees we saw were beautiful and covered like this.

Lessons from the Pool Deck

2010-10-30T10:09:00.000-05:00

Maria is starting her third season of competitive swimming and we spend a lot of time on the pool deck as a family - she spends even more there on her own. Sitting at her meet last week I could not help but reflect on some of the unique things swimming has brought to our family and specifically to Maria.

I could not be prouder. Swimming takes a lot of guts, determination, discipline and hard work. Like any sport it requires commitment and a ton of practice. Hours and hours spent staring at the line on the bottom of a pool, swimming lap after lap to improve your technique. Then standing up on those starting blocks in front of sometimes hundreds of people at meets, putting yourself and your best out there for all to see. It takes courage.

I did not know much about competitive swimming before the Olympics Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals but something led me to watch that part of the Olympics faithfully with the kids and we watched every race he won together, even waiting up late with the kids. Something turned on inside of Maria who was 9 years old - she said to me "You can swim in competition not just for fun?" and I saw her start a dream. She was persistent and kept at us until we found a program she could compete in. We knew nothing of swimming as a sport beyond swim lessons and swimming laps or for fun. She joined a small team at our local health club that met twice a week and after a few weeks she realized she wanted more so we joined a local swim club and she was content to be swimming 5 days a week and competing on weekends.

Joining the swim club made us realize many of these athletes had moved right from swim lessons and started team swimming at 6 or 7 years old and she seemed far behind the curve and like hockey in Minnesota you wonder if they will ever be able to catch up. This made me wonder if swimming was long for my daughter who is fairly competitive. Swimming though is a uniquely individual and team sport (much like track) where they are continually improving against themselves and trying to better their own scores. Swimming is set up with tiers so they can compete against kids in the same place they are and as they improve move up and compete against kids who are still in the same swim time range as them. This set up helped keep her motivated and reward her individual successes and allow her to contribute to her team points as well. She feels small and big victories both for herself and for her squad.

This swimming structure has also helped her set individual goals for herself and work hard to achieve them. These goals and motivation have brought out amazing discipline and character in our daughter. I watch her make many different life choices about her nutrition, exercise, sleep patterns and free time. and see her find a healthy balance between school, swimming, friends and general life. She has developed short term and long term goals for herself and for swimming and is working on a plan to get there.

It is inspiring to me to watch my child go through this process and handle it the way she does. It is encouraging to see there is definite balance and still being a kid and swimming is not taking over but keeping a healthy place in her life. It is fun to watch my kids cheer loudly for their sister when she is in the water, even though they know she often can't hear them - it does not stop them. It shows a commitment from all of us as a family to her when in the Minnesota winter we get up early, brave the cold and drive to spend our day on a pool deck to watch her swim for just a few minutes. It shows her character when at the last meet she turned to each of us, parents and siblings, and said "Thank you, thanks for doing all of this for me" She was showing her appreciation and understanding that each member of the family is giving up something for her to be where she is doing what she loves.

I know any sport can lead to these sorts of results. Any child's commitment to a sport often leads to these results and I know I am having a brag on my kid moment :) That is all part of being a parent, a good healthy part. Sports, if kept in check, lead to so much benefit in a child's life. My husband worked for an employer who prefers to hire people who balance a college sport with their studies, believing this shows a lot about the individual's character and discipline and work ethic. I would not have chosen swimming as a sport, mostly out of ignorance, but I love it for my child and it is clearly a great fit for her. I hope she continue to swim for many years and that my other kids consider it as an option for themselves. To all the other swim parents out there - see you on the pool decks or camping in the gym. To my dear Maria. I am so very proud of you, swim on.

2010-10-22T19:18:00.001-05:00

"I like reading now because it puts my brain to a hard task."
The words of my 7 year old.

This has been the year of reading for her so far in school. We are working on building confidence in her capabilities. Today she read me The Giving Tree, one of her favorite books and she was so excited that she only needed help with one word. She is reading Magic Tree House for school now and for fun Maria is reading The Tale of Emily Windsnap together with her. Sirah can't read too long on her own but they take turns reading every other page and it is so special to her because it is special time with her big sister. I am so proud of how far she has come during just this year. We started school just 6 weeks ago and so much progress iit seems amazing. I treasure each of those lightbulb moments.

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For My Friend on Her Birthday

2010-10-22T00:28:00.003-05:00

You are beautiful
You are wise
You are a gift from God

You are strong
You are humble
You are faithful

You are patient
You are kind
You are loving

You are gentle
You are peaceful
You are calming

You are brave
You are passionate
You are a quietly fiery

You are easy going
You are funny
You are an example to us all

You are a good friend
You are a confidant
You are some one I am proud to know

You are born today
You probably would prefer I not mention you by name
You know who you are

Be blessed today my friend
May those around you bless you
Even more than you bless each of us

Love,
Your Friend