July...And The School Year Begins??

I'm 15 weeks pregnant and starting to feel much more human. While some evenings are bad, things are getting better, and our days desperately need some serious structure.

Enter, homeschooling. Yes, we're diving in. Sort of. Roo is only 3.5 and Friendly is not-quite 2 so my plan is: small.

My Aunt (amazingly) gave us the Pre-K/Kindergarten  through 2nd+ grades of Sonlight Curriculum  including most of the read aloud books. She and her girls really enjoyed using it. When Roo was 1 she was getting rid of it and asked me if I wanted it. I've been storing it ever since. I am most excited about this because this stuff will easily carry us through reading/history/science until the girls are 8 or 9 years old. I have an unschooly-take-it-as-it-comes attitude about education and looking through all the materials I realized this stuff can be stretched, cycled through, and enjoyed for several years to come...Especially with some creative supplementation here and there.

This year we will very loosely be following the 5-day reading recommendations. My goal is to focus on lots of reading, and that's it. We'll start the day off with

• "Morning time" (AKA, watch TV or play and let Mommie drink her tea in peace). Move onto...
• Chores (by 9a.m.) and I have a new schedule for that which Hubs agrees will be really doable for us (he'll help where I can't quite keep up, though it shouldn't be a big deal if I'm at it every day).  Then...
• "School Time" which means we'll be coloring or painting "the letter of the day" and practicing the sound it makes (working through the alphabet). We'll also learn the Sonlight Bible verse (which you sing and it has a Verse A-Z over the 36 weeks)...
• "Table Time" which means they get to play with playdoh or some other sensory thing for as long as they like...I'll potentially be reading out loud from the read aloud book of the week(s). When the weather cools off read aloud time will most likely happen outside at a park where it's safe for them to roam a bit and pick up tid bits here and there. 
• "Play Time" will happen whenever they get tired (or get messy) with whatever is happening at the table... Basically this will mean: play, I'll play with you but no TV. Ideally, I'd love for them to keep playing around while I get to read out loud...But they'll probably want to do some thing more physical and that won't happen. We'll probably head outside on cool/warm enough days. 
• Lunch: I'd like for reading (if we feel like it) to happen here, but usually we put on a 20 min DVD for this and "when the shows over it's nap time"...And that's worked well for our nap-time routine.
• Nap

This is very similar to our daily routine any way, so it's not going to be all that earth shattering...We just have new books to enjoy, and more incentive for me to be a bit more intentional and less willy-nilly about our daily activities.

Also, once a month I'd like to take them on a "field trip" in the afternoons: This fall I'd like to visit:

• a farm
• post office 
• the fair
• the farmers market (and really let them explore)
• pumpkin patch (and hay ride)
• and nature hike
• I'd love to do a fire house (we live near one and both girls are very curious about it) but I'm not sure how we'd work that out.

 So really our "homeschooling" will be basically: intentional and focused enjoyment of lots of books.  When Roo starts taking a real interest in shapes (she recognizes a few), numbers (some thing she really could care less about right now), and writing we'll add those things in as well...I have some workbooks and she enjoys circling the "B" and tracing the letters...But I only plan to get those out if she specifically requests them...Right now I just want it to be about being more intentional about being together, and learning to love reading things together.

Wish us luck...Tomorrow we dive in! I'm hoping the "schedule" of "school" will give the girls some thing to look forward to and help me accomplish things every day in a bit more of an organized fashion. I can dream, right?

Looking Ahead...Homeschooling (Part 1 out of 1,348,738)

I'm starting to look at education.

I'm starting to wander into that area of amazon, of GCM, of the library... I think I've read all the discipline books I'm going to be able to process for a while. And I think I've formulated a pretty good understanding of my parenting/discipline philosophy. Which I hope to really concrete in a concise little post (ha!) at some point.

Now I am looking at my job as educator. Because I do believe it's my job, all parents jobs really. Not that we're all called to homeschooling...Because we're not. But it's our responsibility to create an environment for learning in our homes. This doesn't mean we make little educational rooms full of charts, and books and crafts. It means we give our kids lots of time to PLAY...To play with real toys or even non-toys...It's amazing what Roo can do with an old sock, an empty tissue box, a marker and a lid from a toy box= It's a cake! Look how I decorated it!

And I have to run, Mommies morning quiet time is over... I wish I had gotten to drink tea, we're out of milk. :0(

Oh and I'm not preggo! AF finally arrived this morning! I really don't know what to think. That was the longest luteal phase I've had since Friendly was born (most have been 6-9 days: not long enough to sustain a pregnancy), and I felt really preggo...My uterus still feels hard and bigger like it did with both girls right when I found out I was preggo. I am almost feeling like maybe I was and I just don't have enough progesterone to sustain pregnancy at this point? Anyway I'm SO relieved to have this VERY VERY long cycle come to an end (it started on September 5th!). We're still praying about trying for another baby...I'd love and October baby, it's always been a dream of mine. But God really has made it clear, He sends the babies into this family, despite our efforts to avoid (friendly) or attain (roo). I am sad that a new baby won't be joining our family next summer. But with all the big huge changes coming our way next year (more on that some day) I have a peace that this is best. I'm just not looking to what I can tell is going to be a pretty painful couple days, the cramps are pretty unreal. :0(

The Greater Problem...Parenting

THIS ARTICLE (from Secular Homeschooling) is AWESOME. It got me all fired up on facebook and I did that "write a whole long thing before the link and then 3 comments afterwards" thing.
When I could just post about it here. and put up THAT link But I feel awkward, this blog still feels so private to me. Though I don't mean for it to be, I want to be open about my parenting, shout from the roof top...

What would I shout? Definitely not, "do it like me!" Because that's the whole problem. So many are doing it like some one else, and so few are thinking for themselves: even when it may make them different. (gasp).

Quote:

"But the world is a difficult place, and parenting is a difficult job. Some people would rather have someone tell them exactly what to do than have to think things through for themselves — especially since making one's own decisions means taking full responsibility when, inevitably, mistakes are made and everything doesn't go perfectly.

What these people don't learn until it's far too late is that letting someone else make the decisions for you is a decision, too. And if you follow someone else's directions for what they promise will be the perfect life, you're still responsible for every one of the actions on that to-do list you decided to let someone else write up for you."

and...
"This is about thinking for oneself versus handing one's thinking apparatus over to someone else and begging them to tell you what to do."

Parenting is HARD work. There are no easy or quick fixes. It's time for parents (especially parents who profess to follow Christ) to start thinking for themselves. Be wary of any teacher who says their way is "guaranteed" to make a baby sleep, bring up well disciplined and happy healthy kids...bla bla bla. If you're looking for Christian teaching on the family the emphasis should be on the fact that God is a PERSONAL God. The book should be encouraging you to crack open your Bible and pray through these issues for yourself.

Not fear mongering and guilting you into submission and agreement on the point they are trying to make. Example: "it's your fault your baby/child isn't doing XYZ...you obviously weren't following the program closely enough."

Or it's your fault your child IS doing XYZ. You obviously weren't being consistent enough with what we said."

Or a parent does follow and every thing to a T and it blows up in their face (you know little things like, beating the child to death. Or to the point where they are taken from you by CPS. Or you baby is diagnosed with failure to thrive and is hospitalized. Because silly thing, but your breasts make and store milk differently than the next Mom. And your baby actually DID need to eat more often than every 3 (or two! Or one!) hours. Or your milk supply disappeared (for the same reason), shucks! The response? "Well you obviously misunderstood what we were saying."

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN FAMILY.

Anyway back from the rabbit trail (did I get on one? hmm...), the point I'm really trying to make: Our God doesn't make cookie cutters. He has a specific plan for every parent, baby, and family. So much of what we are conditioned to think of as "moral issues" are actually a culteral bias. Or just plain ignorance.

Examples: where and how baby sleep. In the USA babies are expected to sleep alone pretty much from day 1. In other countries the majority of babies sleep with their parents (or mother) from birth well into the toddler years. Another culteral bias: "children should be seen and not heard." That toddler tantruming in the grocery store? Yes, annoying. But the child is not sinning for crying (okay screaming) because Mom dragged them out at lunch time and they are HUNGRY and ready for a nap...You get the picture. Don't judge, they are little and immature and doing all they know to do in the circumstance. That said, Mom take your baby (I mean 3 year old) home as fast as you can, we've all been there but no one likes hearing it. Okay THAT was a rabbit trail.

So in closing, I do "over think" what I do as a parent, I admit it. But I'd rather be guilty of that, than get to the end of my parenting years and be filled with regret that I didn't pray and seek God's face more when it came to my children- and how I treat and raise them. Babies and children are human too, they have feelings just as real as any adult. And they should be given just as much consideration. They are also heedless, foolish and children: they take a LOT of time and training (ie TEACHING: modelling appropriate behavior, and lots of consistency with boundaries: over and over and over again).

I thought least 4 times this morning that being a parent is so big and difficult. At one point this morning I wanted to quit. The girls were just overwhelming. I feel like I fail all the time. But I'm always going to keep trying, keep extending grace to myself and to my children, and keep praying that I'll continue to grow. That God will continue to drop information in my lap to pray over so I can make informed decisions for my family.

That article said so many thing that I wish I could go into...But that one subject was on my mind today. Please take a read and encourage those who are considering adopting the Pearls teaching to look elsewhere! Their teaching not only damages families and children. It gives Christians and homeschoolers a bad name.

To recommend: Dr. Tim Kimmel has an awesome book on parenting that gives a really new (well not really new) look at Christian Parenting in the American/Western culture.. It's called, Grace Based Parenting (it truly isn't a book on permissiveness 'grace covers all so let your kids do their thing" but on the Father Heart of God). Take a read of that, it has so much crystallized in my heart how I don't want to parent: out of fear...But knowledge and love.