Why I Love Homeschooling

Today began normally...cuddles in bed, chores together, and for breakfast we began to make Banana Bread as we do about once a week. My little ones are helping measure and pour, still in their pajamas with sweet little bedheads and a mystery unfolds...

The recipe calls for 2 eggs. There are 3 in the carton. The first one we try cracks, but to our amazement it has been hard boiled. (Probably by Daddy earlier in the week.) Both my cooking assistants abandon their jobs to carry the egg around in a basket wrapped in a blanket pretending that "a baby chickadee is about to hatch." I finish the bread as they eat breakfast in a hushed whisper (not to wake the early hatching, yet somehow still sleeping egg.) I get our lessons prepared.

I usually hop in the shower while they begin their journals, but this morning I emerge from my shower to complete silence. I look around for a moment before discovering that they are outside (on North Texas's last 80 degree day in November-a cold front hits tomorrow dropping us to the 40's) still in pajamas, fervently coloring a self drawn map. I sit down and ask what they are doing.

"We are drawing the map to help the mommy find her baby egg." So I'm told. They busily use those imaginations to play for another hour on this glorious sunny day, laughing and playing together. I leave them to do some laundry.

I finish the laundry and enter the kitchen to find two dressed children busy doing geography together. Surprised, I ask, "What about playing outside?" to which Trace answers, "We are ready to get some work done now, Mom."

I am so glad they weren't in a classroom staring out the window imagining what they could be doing. I am so glad they are taking the initiative to be responsible. I am so glad that they played on the last sunny day we will see for awhile but still finished what we had planned for the day. I love being with my children, giving them freedom. I LOVE homeschooling.

Carnival of Homeschooling Week 48

Check out this week's carnival at The Common Room. Once again, it's great and has wonderful posts. Also, I am included for the first time, fun, fun, fun!

Social Studies in the New Year

I love the new year. I get excited to re-evaluate and get rejuvenated with our curriculum. As I was looking at what we wanted to dive into in January, I found a book I just HAVE to have -homeschool moms know about the book obsession ;) I began a outline for a lesson using it. The book is:

One review summarizes it this way:

Hungry Planet: What The World Eats" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio grabs your attention for the startlingly varied stories it tells about how people feed themselves in 24 countries around the world. Its contents are based on detailed research, beautifully photographed, presented with often disturbing clarity. We are introduced to 30 families, representing every continent, each family photographed with the food they had for the week they were interviewed. The household range is from the most affluent in the developed countries to the most awesome. "A rich and thoughtful commentary on today's human condition."

We will use this book to

1. Examine the importance of food in our lives by using a cool lesson plan I found on www.homeschoolingabout.com called Make a Meal of It!

2. Study different cultures and what they eat and how they obtain their food.

To really dive into number one, we will start by discussing where food comes from. We are going to go shopping and get various foods.

Then we will talk about the global diversity of the origins of our food. I have a worksheet I printed from the site mentioned above to classify where the food came from, how it was packaged, the name of the food and the price.

Lastly, we will talk about hunger and poverty, what we can do to help; and donate these foods to a food bank when we are finished.

I would love to take the children to serve in a soup kitchen. I think this would be a wonderful humbling activity for our whole family. It is great to serve together and show the children how important food can be for people.

For number two, my favorite part!-a field trip to the Farmer's Market and Central Market to examine the varieties of foods and gather some things for cooking up some multicultural foods!

I found the coolest multicultural food books on Amazon. They are board books, but have awesome illustrations and simple engaging text. Here's the Listmania List. The author covers Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Mexican and even Southern (let's not lie-it's the best!) foods.

I am so excited to really get into this lesson and I think the kids will love it! Not to mention food is on my top list of things I am passionate about! Even greater, Peter Menzel has another book called Material World where he photographed families all over the world with all their earthly possessions. It is a stark, revealing look at what matters and what materialism is about. I think this would nicely lead us right into a more in depth look at countries and families around the world.

My hope is to grow an appreciation of our lives and the provisions the Lord has made for us. We can never be joyful or thankful enough for all the blessings he pours down on us everyday.

Some Great Carnivals!

The 47th Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Tami's Blog. I eagerly look forward to every Tuesday morning when I can grab a can of caffeine, ingore my kids and blissfully read through the blogs of kindred homeschooling spirits.

Also you can find this week's Carnival of Kid Comedy at Life in a shoe. And this week's Carnival of Family Life is hosted by the Thrifty Mommy. Check 'em out in your free time!

WFMW (On Thurs)-Gingerbread Party!

I know it's Thursday, really I do. But I thought of something I just had to share for the Works for me Wednesday Christmas Theme!

Every year in December, my mom has a Gingerbread Party for my kids. It has turned into our favorite Christmas tradition. Both my kiddos get so excited every December for the Gingerbread Party to arrive, and my husband and I usually enjoy a date on this night as the kids sleep over at my parents.

I used to do a Gingerbread theme in December when I taught, it was one of my absolute favorites!! (Besides the Polar Express party which is SO much fun, too :) We usually pick the second or third week in December. Gingerbread invitations go out for the date and time. Then the anticipation of the great event begins!


At the party, the festivities usually begin with hot chocolate and a reading of The Gingerbread Man. Then the kids make gingerbread cookies. Usually girls and boys, and then gingerbread dogs, horses, and any other random shapes my kids think of! They get all the gingerbread trimmings, icing, red hot buttons, raisens, etc. and make tins full to take home and give out to friends and neighbors. And they eat a million.... :) The night usually ends with a Christmas movie.

My kids favorite part is that my sweet mom always gives them a special ornament for the tree. I love this idea so much that this year, having moved into a new neighborhood, we are going to host a gingerbread party for the neighborhood kids. (Except I will pre-make the dough for little hands.) We will drink hot chocolate, read the story, make our gingerbread men and then make gingerbread ornaments purchased from the craft store. (I found them at Walmart last year.)

I hope you might enjoy a gingerbread party this year! Here is our gingerbread man recipe:

2/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
pinch salt
3/4 cup molasses
1 egg
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Cream together first 6 ingredients. Add egg and mix. Add molasses and mix again.
Mix together flour, baking powder and baking soda in a separate bowl. Sift. Add to the creamed mixture and stir until well blended. Chill 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 F. Roll out dough 1/4 at a time to 1/8" thickness or slightly thicker on a lightly floured board. Cut with a cookie cutter and transfer to a greased (or non stick) cookie sheet.
Repeat with remaining dough. Before baking, decorate as you like.

A Tribute To My Favorite Veteran

This is my most prized possession. An old cigar boxed taped time and again. It was given to me when my Grandad died. He was one of the most important people in my life.

As a little girl, I would curl up in my Grandad's lap and be content to just sit with him and soak in his smell, and his peacefulness. He smoked a pipe then and although he was a quiet man, he communicated worlds to me through his gentle ways.

He would show me over and over how to bait a hook, take me for rides in his old truck or on his tractor, would take all of us grandkids in the boat, driving as fast as the wind for as long as we liked.

As I grew older, I grew curious about his life during World War II, while he served in the military and met my Nana in England. He would tell some stories, but was a man of few words and always left me curious for more. He was there at the beach on D Day. I wanted to know, to understand how it would feel to be only twenty, to serve with men that were so close they would give their lives for one another, what it was like to travel to Africa, Germany, Italy. He would tell me some about the other countries, would let me hold and feel his money he had collected from around the world. Some visits he would share a whole story about being on the boat before they stormed the beach at Normandy, or about some little German girls who hid him in their barn when he became sick with malaria and lost his unit. They were precious gems, glimpes into his past, and to what he had experienced.

The box's contents: my Grandad's collected money, pictures of his unit, and his decorations from his uniform.

As he grew older, his health failed. His body just began to let him down a little at a time. When his kidneys failed, and he was very sick, I would drive down to Tyler to spend the night with him at the hospital. Then, towards the end, he couldn't sleep and I would still ask him for stories. How did you meet Nana? Tell me again how you snuck out to see her....

He couldn't sleep well and wasn't able to eat a whole list of things. For a chocolate chip cookie snuck from the deli across from the hospital, he would tell me all about when he grew up, here in Texas, his family, his life during the war.

I realized as I grew older that his gentle ways, his compassion for others and unconditional love were so large to me, I just wanted to know how to live a life like his, to feel content with what I had done. My grandad taught me without words to live well, laugh often and love much. That it is okay to make mistakes, but to live past them. He taught me to be content. I hope that after I have lived for 83 years I can say that I was happy with my life, too.

I want on this Veteran's Day to remember a man I loved for being the strength and root of our family, the giver of endless tractor rides, and a protector of our beloved country. I love you Grandad and I miss your quietness so very much.

Marshall Cherry 6/10/20-11/3/03

Dove Ad- Evolution

Take a look at what our daughters will be battling as they grow up. A skewed perception of beauty. It is so important to really and truly impress upon our children that God plants our beauty within. I hope my daughter and son both will recognize that in themselves and in others.

Conversation with Avery

We were finished with lessons, doing the dishes together. It was a great winding down time. I am about to begin dinner and the sun is slipping through the blinds. The house is quiet except for me and Avery companionably working together. Trace is outside riding bikes and conquering the dark side with his light saber. Avery looks to be in deep thought.

Avery: "Mom, I think I know what I want to be when I grow up."
Me: "Really? Cool! What's that?"
Avery: "A mom."
Me: (with a truly touched look on my face because I think she loves me so much she can't think of anything that's better than being a mom when she grows up) "Av's, that's so sweet."
Avery: "Yeah, then I can boss my kids around and make them do the dishes and the chores."
Me: (with an arched eyebrow look) "Hmmm."
Avery: (quickly recovering her foot in mouth) "Oh, and to love them and kiss them and teach them." Silence. "Of course."

Of course. That goes without saying. Motherhood is such an underappreciated path in life. But then again, you get plenty of help with the dishes. *grin*