Why do we homeschool?

Today is one of those days where I feel like I am running around in circles. Cora and Anna are both sick.  After a trip to the doctor and a lot of holding crying girls, not much has been accomplished.  Madeline has been trudging a long with a little bit of school by herself.  The house is a mess.  We had drive through fast food for lunch.  I went to an easy plan B for supper.  Today I need to remind myself why we homeschool...

I want my children to love God, love each other, and to really learn something. I don't believe that homeschooling is the only way to achieve this, but the most effective.

I want my children to love God. The main reason we homeschool is to disciple our children. I want to live this Christian life with them, not only telling them what it means to love God and live for Him, but to walk hand in hand with them through the journey. This is a scary proposition because I am only a weak sinner. But, isn't that why God saves us? Isn't that what my kids really need to understand? Sending them to church for 1-3 hours per week while sending them to school for 30 hours per week does not seem to be a wise use of their time. It is my job, as the parent, to disciple them.

I know that at some point I need to release my children to the world. I want them to be thoroughly equipped for that day through the strong foundation we are building in our days together. Armies go through extensive training before they are sent to war. They are not just thrown into the battle with no armor or plan of attack. In the same way, I will not send my children into a crazy secular world until they are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually ready. Shouldn't we analyze things according to Biblical truth instead of what society deems as "normal?"

I want my children to love each other. The family is the most basic and critical unit of our society. Children should learn how to interact with all ages of people. Schools are one of the rare places where people are segregated according to age. The time we spend together, young to old, can not be replaced.  We find joy in experiencing life together as a family.

I want my children to really learn something. I want my children to dig deep, use their talents to their full ability, and drink in God's hand of providence and creation. I want them to love learning throughout their life. That doesn't mean we hit the books all day. Instead, we make effective use of our time with intense, short lessons mixed with lots of play and exploration. The christian life should be a life of excellence in all aspects, including education.

These are my ideals, the reason we homeschool. I do not live them out perfectly, but fail miserably every day. Being a homeschool parent is signing up to be deeply humbled everyday. I pray that God will work through me as we raise warriors for Him.

Homeschooling is not easy, but it is worth it.

Chores

There is a lot of work to get done around here.  If we don't keep on top of it everyday, things quickly become a huge mess.  I have given up the idea of having a picture perfect house, and have traded in that idea for the reality of enjoying everyday with my four blessings.  However, I know that we function better if things are in relative order.  I want my children to learn about hard work.  Thus, we work as a family to run our house.  That means my girls have chores.

Here is a shot of our chore chart:

Using stickers or something cute doesn't work for me.  I fall behind with the stickers and soon it is irrelevant.  It might be fun for them, but this way is easy for me.  If things are not easy for me, I don't do them.  The important thing is that they get the chores done.

Our current system works like this:  They get up in the morning and eat breakfast, that my wonderful husband makes.  I look at the chart and tell them what their jobs are.  As soon as they get dressed, make their bed, and get their jobs done they have free time until school starts.  They need some incentive to get it done.  The free time is the incentive.  If they complain, I remind them that we are part of a family and all have special jobs to help out our family.

The biggest key to chores is consistency.  If they know they have chores to do everyday, they will do them.  When I first give them a new job, I need to walk through the job with them to show them what I expect.  How are they suppose to know what it means to clean the bathroom?  How clean does their room have to be?  What part of the floor do I have to sweep?  I probably have to walk through the job numerous times with them until they really learn it.  This is frustrating at first, but worth it in the long run.

If we did all our chores everyday, our house would be a lot cleaner than it actually is.  But, we go away for a day and the schedule gets messed up.  That's OK.  I have learned not to give up just because we get out of sync.  If the laundry isn't ready to be put away on Wednesday, I just switch that chore day with the laundry day. 

Here is an explanation of the jobs...

Sweep:   Sweep some part of the kitchen.  For the little girls, a small handheld broom works well for them to sweep under the table.
Vacuum rug:  We eat supper in our dining room.  The table is on a big rug.  You can imagine that the rug needs vacuuming a couple times per week.
Lunch:  Madeline packs our lunch for us to bring to Classical Conversations on Tuesdays.

Laundry:  I wash the laundry.  Then I sort the clean laundry into separate baskets for each girl.  Madeline and Lydia put their own clothes away in their room.  Madeline gets paid $1.50 to put away Anna's laundry. 
Baths:  Madeline can clean the toilet, pick up any bath items, and wipe the counters and sinks down with a cleaning cloth.  Lydia can pick up bath items and wipe down the counter and sinks.
Dishwasher:  Unload the dishwasher.  Moving the plates and bowls to a low cupboard was a huge help.  I still have the glasses high, but they just set anything they can't reach on the counter.
Clean van:  Remove any trash or non van items from the van.
Trash:  Remove all the bags from the small trash cans in the bathrooms and replace with a new bag.
Clean chairs:  Anna uses a washcloth to wipe down all the kitchen and dining room chairs.
The bottom job on each day's slot is for supper help.  One girl picks up the living room (clean lr), one sets the table (table), and one is my supper assistant (SA).  The supper assistant helps with getting salad dressings on the table, cutting vegetables, or whatever I think is appropriate.

I am always thinking about and evolving our chore system.  So I would love to know, what chores do your kids do?  How does it work?

My fair damsels

We have been studying medieval England the past couple weeks in history.  We (as in Mommy! and the girls) have been learning about the feudal system, knights, kings, and castles. Who knew that history was so fascinating? 

We are also reading through "Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis this winter.  We just finished up "Prince Caspian."  These are delightful read aloud books, with such great lessons for mom and the kiddos.  Right now we're taking a break from Narnia to read "Canterubury Tales" and "Robin Hood." 

The girls have been using our moving boxes to make castles, swords, and coats of arms.  Madeline does a great English accent.

I found this art project on Deep Space Sparkle and thought it looked doable. I cut out shapes for a castle, such as long rectangles, a big square, roundish rectangles, triangles, and more.  Then the girls traced around the shapes to create their castle.  I showed them how to draw bricks and add landscape around the castle.  Then they used water colors to finish. 

Anna's

Madeline's

Lydia's

Sisters

I am the oldest of three girls.  I love my younger two sisters.  Without a doubt, they are my best friends.  My heart is full of memories:  doing our hair together as we prepare for school, playing with my youngest sister as our "baby," standing up in each others' weddings.  When we had Madeline, I really wanted to give her a sister.  It turns out that was not a problem.  I consider all my girls so blessed to have sisters.  There is something about the bond of sisters. 

My sisters are incredible women.  Let me tell you....

My youngest sister, Marissa, delivered a handsome baby boy named Charlie two days ago.  She is going to have her hands full taking care of Charlie and his big sisters.  Maleah is a responsible 3 year old.  Layla is a very spirited 1 and a 1/2 year old.  We visited Marissa yesterday, less than 24 hours after giving birth.  You would never know she had just pushed a baby out.  She was walking around the room, looking fabulous, helping run after all the kids.  Seriously, people.  I think I birth babies and recover well.  Marissa is in a league of her own.  She is one tough lady. 

My middle sister, Alisa, takes amazing photos.  I could never do that. But she loves to bless others through her special gift. She is fabulous.

 
I pray that my girls have the same pride in each other.  I pray they have the same fierce dedication to helping find God's best for each other.  I pray they are as thankful for their sisters as I am of mine.

Why?

I get a lot of questions around here. 
Inquiring minds want to know. 
About everything. 
Many things I can't explain. 

My most commonly used and most effective answer

Because that is how God made it. 

Summer plans

Somehow it is already the middle of June. We are having a grand summer, but it is flying by as usual. My goals for summer are:

1. Explore the woods with a nature hike every week. Until monsoon season hit last week, we were making good progress. The girls have loved trekking through the woods. I just need to remember bug spray. Mosquitoes like my sweet girls.

2. Go to the library every week. Lydia and Anna are attending story time.

3. Keep up with math. So far this hasn't been our strongest effort. As Madeline says, "Its summer!"

4. Make our way through Apologia Exploring Creation with Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. This has been a delight. It is an engaging and interesting read, making us more observant of the world around us. We are completing the nature scavenger hunt with the study, which is a fun challenge to complement our nature hikes.

5. Complete some "projects." We have not been too artsy yet. Madeline did make some mud cup cookies last week all by herself. I let her do everything, from turning on the oven to mixing up the pudding and inserting the worms.

6. Swim.

Children's art gallery

I purposefully leave our crayons, markers, and paper where my girls have clear access to it so they can create to their hearts' content. It is good for them to learn how to draw, write, cut, and think by craftsy artsy exploration. However, more days than not this leaves me with a pile of artwork sitting on my kitchen counter. Somehow the pile can grow exponentially if I don't do something with it. Usually that means throwing away their pictures. My one piece of advice about this: do it while they are sleeping.

Then, I ran across the idea of creating a children's art gallery and loved it. I knew the big empty wall in our sun room would be the perfect spot. I gathered old frames I wasn't using, removed the glass pane, and painted most of them a matching color to unify the look. Then I laid the frames on the floor, arranging and rearranging them until I got the arrangement I wanted. After that, I hung them on the wall. I put a nail in the open space of the frame, and hung a paper clip on it. Soon, our wall was filled with custom made artwork .

One of the best things about this type of gallery is that you can change the artwork easily. You just put a different sheet in the paper clip, and throw out the old picture. The only regret I have about it is that I wish I would have used larger frames. I have a few 5x7 frames up, which really don't work well. I need to cut up the picture to make it fit. Ideally, 11x14 frames work the best. As you can see, the pictures are not all perfectly centered or cropped. That makes it easy for me to use, and adds to the charm.

I'm linking up with Works for Me Wednesday today. In the meantime, let me know... What do you do with your children's artwork?

One of those days

Today was one of those days. Truly, nothing awful happened. I was just annoyed. It was nothing that an epic sized caramel classic lite couldn't fix.

Sometimes the monotony of motherhood can be a little much. It just seemed that what I do doesn't matter. Why do they need me so much? Why do they always run to me with a problem, even if their father is sitting right there? Don't they see that I just got the kitchen clean and now they want something to eat? I have to wash all of Anna's undies again because she can't figure out the potty situation. It is not fair that I am stuck here folding laundry while my husband gets to talk to other adults and use his brain all day. And so on and so on. When I told Mark that I need to go to Friedrich's by myself with a good book after supper, he immediately said OK (with a very concerned look in his eyes). I guess they prayed for me while I was gone.

For the past couple years, I have been trying to focus on this: "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." - Philippians 4:8 When I let little annoyances grow into big lies, I go back to this verse. On these days, I know that it is a battle for my mind. I tell myself to focus on the truth.

What I do does matter, very much so. They run to me because I am the mom. I take care of them, nurture them, and guide them. I am molding their souls as I take care of their everyday needs. That is my job, a very high calling. That is something to think about. That is honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and praise worthy.

Baby Love

Meet Cora and her cousin Sydney. Don't you just love them? Cora is three months older than Sydney, but Cora is small in size and Sydney is big in size so it works out.

Cora is a lot of fun right now. She explores everywhere, always with a big cheesy grin on her face. I often think of how blessed she is to have 5 people who absolutely adore her. She is getting ready to leave the baby stage, and I am going to greatly miss it.

Fired up

Ever since we moved into this house, we have had a vision for a special spot in our backyard. We could see hot dogs roasting, gooey marshmallow faces, laughter filled conversations, and some Kumbyah singing. Yes, we were dreaming of a fire pit. Last night that dream came true.

Mark made a plan and did some heavy lifting this weekend to finish our custom outdoor grill. (Sshhh, don't tell the city that it is a fire pit. Trust me, it meets all the requirements for it to be legal.) Last night we ate our first smores and can't wait for all the fun we'll have with friends.

Gooey marshmallow faces!

Thank you to my handy husband!

Rockin it with Elmo

Saturday was an exciting day at the Scheve home. We went to see Sesame Street Live! Madeline thought she might be too cool for Sesame, but we brought her along and she decided it was pretty fun. On the way there, Anna was asking if we were to Elmo's house yet. Mark hosted a suite for Allied, so there was kid food, pop, and special seating. Apart from Anna throwing up all over herself from being car sick as we pulled into the parking lot, it was a great day. (Anna got a puke free Sesame Street t shirt at the concert, so don't feel too sorry for her.)

Inspired

The past 3 days I have been at a Classical Conversations Parent Practicum. This means that my mind and heart are on overload. It was wonderful to learn along with other parents who are offering their children a classical christian education at home. I am more sure than ever this is what the Lord is calling our family to. As Christians, we must influence the world for God's kingdom. To do this, we must be knowledgeable, able to sift through ideas, and express our thoughts. A classical education will give you the tools to do this. Here are just a few nuggets I brought home with me:


All of the world is God's world. Science, history, math, reading, writing, fine arts? They are all from God and integrated together. They are given to us to glorify God.


We need to seek out and analyze goodness, beauty, and truth.


We can't "do school" like the modern education system, put a verse on the bottom of a worksheet, then expect different results than the world is getting.


Children are souls to be nurtured, not products to be measured.


To engage my children, I need to ask them questions, bringing them along to discover exciting truths.


The understanding of the fall of man and redemption are critical to everything. Ideas matter.


If we can't listen to ideas and sift through the logic, then we are slaves.


Is what I am reading, seeing, or doing glorifying to God or glorifying to man?


One of the most important and scary things I have been thinking about: I need to decide to keep learning and growing. If I want my children to read great books and learn how to think, I need to do it too. Whoa. This is not easy. I will need to admit that there are A Lot of things I don't know. I will need to take time to invest in my education. Easy? No.

Worth it? Yes.

"Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2