Sophomore Year

We are in the final weeks of our second year of homeschooling. It’s still seems crazy to me when I think about it. Yet, here we are, wrapping up Year 2 and feeling pretty great about it.

This was our sophomore year of homeschooling. And just like true sophomores, we weren’t the new kids on campus anymore. I had learned a few things – had a little experience under my belt – but was still learning the ropes and figuring out our place.

It’s hard to have any sense of perspective during the school year. For me, the school year is mostly one big whirlwind of trial and error, stumbling around in the dark, trying new things, standing my ground, crying (all of us), threatening public school, and desperate prayers that this whole thing will somehow turn out ok. From the slow trudge up the hill in October to feeling like the top is nowhere in sight in February, every day is one foot in front of the other or, in this case, one lesson to the next. But now that we’ve crested the hill in May, oh my, the view from the top is beautiful. I can see the steps behind me and I can see the valley and the next mountain ahead. Now I can have some perspective on this year. And I can see what I learned. (Because, the truth is, most days this whole thing feels so much less about what the kids need to learn and so much more about what I need to learn…and I’m not talking about multiplication tables.)

You shall overcome. The thrill and newness of freshman year were over. We had settled into our routine, we were comfortable, and there were some boundaries to test. Also, I had a clearer idea on our weakness and had a game plan to tackle them. Oh, there were tough days. Days where I wondered if this made sense for us as a family. Was this too much to take on and were we all going to make it out alive and still like each other? As I think back to the start of the year and the ground we’ve covered, I can honestly say my kids know so much more today than they did 9 months ago and I feel incredibly thankful for it. I can also see how we’ve bonded, even more so over the hard times. It seems counterintuitive, but nothing brings a family together like debates over the use of dashes and commas, discussions on the causes of world wars, and the spilling of tears over long division (and there were a lot of tears…). We climbed the mountain and we climbed it together.

Dress the part. A friend came for a visit a few months ago and she witness some of our homeschool day. Afterward she asked me how I get the kids to take me seriously. I didn’t have an immediate answer for her (that’s a fancy way of saying I shrugged and said, “I have no idea.”) but, the more I thought of it, I realized every day I get fully dressed. I dress in  “business casual” attire every day. I dress like I’m going to work because I am. And 75% of those days I’m not leaving the house. My entire day will be spent inside the house with the kids working on school and then working on some chores. It’s a lot of effort but I think it helps the kids see that I’m taking this seriously. Being their teacher is my job. Being students is their job.  

Choose your battles and know when to quit. As a freshman homeschooler, I had to check off every block. It all had to get done, exactly on the day planned, whether we liked it or not. There was very little grace or flexibility. This year, with a little confidence and knowledge, I learned to accept when things were not worth the fight. If a book was not working for our family, and I couldn’t figure out a way to make it work, I switched to another book. When a day felt overwhelmingly like I was swimming against a gushing current, we ended early and made up for it on another smoother-sailing day. Ultimately, all the work got done, and some shreds of sanity were saved in the process.

Find your “group” (i.e. make sure you have a support system). I would have never survived this year without the tidbits of advice from other Moms and our discussions about homeschooling. I also would have never survived without the never-ending support and encouragement of my husband. When I couldn’t see clearly, he turned on the lights.

Go to the Principal’s Office. I joke that my husband is the principal of our homeschool but the real principal of our school is God. Sure I’m in charge of the lesson plans, but ultimately He’s setting the guidelines and standards for us. This is His school. That’s why I can honestly say it has less to do with anything I’ve done, really, and so much more to do with the grace and wisdom of God. Any of the victories here are truly His victories. So, I make sure to “visit the Principal’s Office,” through prayers and reading my Bible, on a near-daily basis.

I’m still figuring it all out but I’m looking forward to reporting on our junior year. So, whether you homeschool or not, I wish you all a very HAPPY summer.

Today's Lesson Will Be On Rest

“Mom,” my daughter says as she’s hitting a tennis ball on her Wii game at 9 am on a Monday morning, “I think this Spring Break will be good. You know, to rest our brains.”

Out of the mouth of babes comes perfect truth.

We are on Spring Break this week. I’m not sure who needed it more, the kids or me? During regular weeks, playing Wii at 9 am in the morning would be out of the question, even on Saturday and Sunday. It seems like we’re always rushing to start school, or to start our weekend chores and errands, or even rushing to get to church (sadly, we’re still usually late).

But, we need rest. We need relaxed schedules and time to play.

Last year was my first year homeschooling and we didn’t take a Spring Break until much too late in the spring semester. I felt like we couldn’t stop because it would break our momentum or derail all of our progress. Instead, the kids were cranky, frustrated and burnt out by mid April. That’s so like me, to push until we’re running on vapors.

This year I decided to take Spring Break when our local public school was on break. The break would be earlier in the semester, we’d be able to hang out with our friends that go to public school and I wouldn’t feel like I was going to be arrested when we were going places around town. I think it was a wise decision. I can already see how much we needed it and I’m certain we’ll start back next week feeling rejuvenated.

So, why is it so hard to take a break? Is it because of fear and anxiety? Maybe even a tiny bit of pride? I remember my Grandma telling me she’d feel guilty when she’d take a break, and I think I struggle in the same way.

Over the past two years, God has been bringing me back to this idea of a Sabbath rest. I feel like he’s rewiring my thought process on it. When the topic comes up over and over again, I start to take note that God might be trying to tell me something. A few things have stuck with me.

First, I keep thinking about this quote, “A wise woman knows when she needs rest.” I think I read that quote on Sally Clarkson’s blog about a year ago. It’s stuck with me. It isn’t foolish or lazy to rest. It can be wise to rest.

Second, if you ever get a chance to read Jen Hatmaker’s book, “Seven,” there is a funny-because-it’s-true chapter on Stress. In the chapter, she talks about how she started taking Sabbath rest seriously. I love what she says: “What if God understood our tendency to overwork and underrest, so He made it mandatory for believers to breathe…pause…pray…relax every week?” It encouraged me to try to do the same. (It isn’t easy! I’m still figuring it out.)

Finally, this verse stopped me in my tracks, enough so that I put it up in my kitchen and on my bathroom mirror: “For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.” – Hebrews 4:10-11

Gulp. That kind of makes all my rushing around sound a bit like sin.

It makes perfect sense, of course! When I refuse to rest, I’m cranky and irritable with my family. And, deep down inside, I’m resentful. Obviously, none of that is what God wants for my family, my life or me.

I had a long to-do list of things I wanted to accomplish over Spring Break. It was completely unrealistic. After my daughter made that comment about letting our brains rest, I decided to cross several things off my to-do list and enjoy a relaxed week. Isn’t it neat how God uses our children to encourage us?

Homeschool Is Cool

   

We are officially halfway done with our first year of homeschool. YAY! 

Now that I have a few months of homeschool under my belt, I feel that I can give some opinion and have some perspective on it. It has been an adventure, and there are tough days with tears, but mostly it has been a HUGE BLESSING to our family.

First of all, the flexibility is exactly what we need while living out this crazy military life. Since we started school in early July, we were able to take a couple of days off in September to spend time with Bill after his deployment. We were also able to take some time off during our recent move – and then we picked right back up where we left off without concerns about new schools, etc. And on the days that Bill has off, or is home early, the kids are here and able to have the much-needed time with him.

Second, I am so proud of how well the kids are doing in school. I’m not an easy teacher. I know my child's potential and I won’t settle for anything less. I realize now that no one is going to push my kids as much as I do.

But, having said that, they really love school. I see passions lighting up in both of them and I’m able to gear my curriculum in that direction. And, most important, even through the struggles we are growing together and bonding in an entirely new way.

Speaking of passions, I love this quote...

“Passions weaken, but habits strengthen, with age, and it is the great task of youth to set the current of habit and to form the tastes which are most productive of happiness in life.” -The Map of Life, William Edward Hartpole Lecky

I hope to achieve both with our homeschool time. I want them to learn productive life skills while igniting passions. Yet, as this quotes infers, passions come and go but good habits last a lifetime. 

Finally, I love that I am able to point things out to them when we’re out and about and tie it back to something we learned a couple of weeks ago. No errand or outing is “safe” from a learning tidbit.

So, having come this far, it felt necessary to celebrate. On Friday we ordered pizza (kids’ choice), made and ate cupcakes, presented awards and made fun crafts (thank you, Kiwi Crate).

Lastly, if you’re interested, I highly recommend watching this commentary video about our current school system. Bill watched it as part of his class and then shared it with me. It’s entertaining, informative and thought-provoking. 

I'm so glad I decided to homeschool the kids. It works for our family right now. It was a huge leap of faith and has required so much from all of us but the rewards of seeing the kids learn and grow has made it so worth it.

Counting My Blessings in 2013

When I think about 2013, the first word that comes to mind is HARD. Just-keep-putting-one-foot-in-front-of-another-and-get-through-this kind of hard. I think about a year filled with sickness, pain and heartache.

Yet, that isn’t the entire picture. When I really stop and think about this year, I see a year filled with blessings, God’s provisions, and a whole lotta grace.

I’m going to choose to focus on that part as I send this year off into history. So, for fun, I’m going to highlight some of my favorite parts of this year.

1) We are blessed with some amazing friends, and even if I don’t call as much as I should (sorry), don’t think that I take one of you for granted. I count my friends as one of my biggest blessings. Here are just a few fun memories we had with friends this year….

Sienna's Valentine's Day "Tea with Dolls" Party

Our monthly Deployment Countdown Celebrations. Here we're celebrating Bill's birthday on our "3rd month done" celebration.

CFA meals with friends

2) Another highlight to the year is the visitors we had this year. Want to earn some extra “treasures in heaven”? Go visit a military family. It means SO MUCH to us. Honestly, you have no idea how happy it makes us when you come visit.

This year, both sets of our visitors braved the El Paso heat to come visit us. That’s dedication and love!

My aunt and uncle came to visit in early summer…

And I enjoyed a girls’ weekend with Shaena and Suzanne in the late summer…

3) I can barely type these words with out tears filling my eyes, but here goes (please excuse typos at this point)…God was so good to me this year. I read a Sally Clarkson blog article recently and she basically outlined how when we’re going through a tough season of life, God is actually holding us tighter and caring for us more, just as a parent tends to a sick child a bit more than they might with a child that is well. (Shout out to Sally for ALWAYS speaking to my heart right where it’s hurting) I can give many examples of how God cared for me in His own little way through out this year, but the one that first pops into my mind is this one….

At what I’ll call my “darkest hour” of the year, when I was just surviving the days and calling out to Him for help and hope, this beautiful rainbow was waiting for me right outside my back door. I let the dog out in the morning and – BAM! – this huge, beautiful rainbow.

You could say it was just a rainbow - a work of science/atmosphere/whatever - but I KNOW that God gave me that rainbow as a visual sign of the hope and promise I have in Him. (I can appreciate the whole Noah’s ark rainbow so much more now!)

4) Another huge boast in morale was adding two adorable kitties to our house. They are a pain but they bring us (us=me and Sienna) so much joy and happiness. There is something quirky about cats' personalities that I love so much.

5) Sienna’s baptism was a huge blessing to us too. The fact that she took the initiative and pushed to be baptized all on her own, encouraged my heart and soul a million times a million. I wish Bill could have been there in person (thankfully he was able to watch online) but I know that it was all God’s timing and I'm happy to see my little ones grow in their walks with God.

6) Sometimes getting out of the daily routine and exploring a new place is necessary to feel rejuvenated. Traveling to Albuquerque and Santa Fe this summer with our friends was exactly that for me. Although it was exhausting to travel outnumbered (2 Moms, 5 Kids), it was a lot of fun and will always be a fun memory for me. 

7) The turning point in the year was when we welcomed Bill home from the deployment. We are so thankful to have him home safely. I pray we don’t have to do that again anytime soon!!  Even though it was “only 9 months” it was incredibly hard and I’m happy to put it behind us. 

8) I started homeschooling the kids this year. I love it, the kids love it, and I'm so glad I took the plunge and did it. 

9) Speaking of learning, I learned how to knit this year! It's something I've always wanted to learn how to do. Be warned, I foresee lots of scarves as Christmas gifts next year. 

10) Finally, to me, the entire year has been redeemed in this one month of December. We have had so much fun setting up our new house (which has everything I’ve ever wanted and so much more!) and we’re enjoying all the nature (snow, birds, etc.) and having lots and lots of family time to create new and happy memories together.

Despite the hard times, I will look back at this year fondly and be thankful for all the blessings.

And now…Happy 2014!!!

Our First Week of Homeschool in Photos

This week we started our homeschool adventure. Eeks! I was geared up for a hard transition but the kids were very excited and eager to learn. A welcomed change from the usual back-to-school drama we experience leading up to the first day of school. I loved being so involved in curriculum choices, the flexibility and, to my surprise, I felt a lot less rushed and stressed during the day. And we all loved having NO HOMEWORK.

First Day of School

I'll be homeschooling Sienna full-time and Grant will be joining us part-time. He starts back at his private school in a couple of weeks. He'll be there for a half day in the morning and then we'll cover some science and history together when he's home in the afternoon. I want to include him in the homeschooling fun but I don't think I'm cut out for teaching ABCs and the fundamentals of reading. I'll leave that to the professionals! He'll continue there until we move and then I'll homeschool him full-time the rest of the year. 

US History

Wrote letters to our "adopted" Compassion International kids for Language Arts and then learned about their countries for Geography!

We haven't come up with a name for our school yet (any ideas?) but we do have a mascot. We are the Dangerous Dogs! And here's our fearless mascot...

Speaking of animals, the kitties were less enthusiastic about school. 

Something you wouldn't see in public school!

 

We had a great first week of homeschool. I'm hoping and praying this trend continues. I’m excited to see where this year takes us.