February Flab

Anybody else feel the need to trim things up a bit?

Yes, my waistline is in dire need of this but mostly I'm talking in school/home terms.
Somehow my bookshelves have multiplied and even though I have 5 boxes of packed away books in my basement my 2 bookshelves are overflowing!

I'm sure it has nothing to do with my inability to pass by my libraries used book corner......seriously, can you pass up a 50 cent copy of a favorite or needed book? I can't.

Thankfully, after much prayer and thinking God inspired me and I was able to rearrange our livingroom so that I can squeeze in a couple more bookshelves.
Now just need to actually get those shelves......have to talk to hubby about this one:)

I'm hoping to organize my shelves kind of like a library does...not dewey decimal but more along the lines of a shelf for each year in Ambleside. We'll see what I actually manage to get done.

Here are some different ideas for how other moms have organized their "space".

Our Homeschool Space @ Gaze Into the Heavens

Our Classroom @ Sunshine and Lemonade

Avoiding February Homeschool Burnout before it happens @ Like Mother, Like Daughter

Organizing Children's Books A Category Simple Method @ The Tranquil Parent

Organizing Part Two: The Bookshelves @ Everyday Snapshots Explores Homeschooling

Bookshelf Organization @ Higher Up and Further In

Organizing our Homeschool @ Color me Orange

How you Organize your Home Library @ Mental Floss

Not to beLabor the point, but... @ The Pioneer Woman

(I could probably keep going all night just to avoid exercising but, for my children's sake I had better knock this off!)

How do you keep it all together?
Do you wing it?
Do you have a "school room"?
Are you drowning?
Does your space flow well?

First Things First

It's taken me awhile to implement and I'm still pretty new at this but thanks to some encouragement we have begun a new practice in our home.

After Breakfast....
Before kitchen chores....
Before Circle Time....

Each child gathers their bible from the "bible shelf" in the livingroom and returns to our table. We open to the portion of scripture we are reading through (James right now) and then 1 by 1 we make our way verse by verse.
Most days we cover about 8 verses or so, 2 per reader, although while we were reading the Psalms we usually read a whole Psalm. After we read and after I've explained any hard words, we open up our journals to write. So far I'm keeping this pretty relaxed, just gently encouraging each one to listen for His voice, for a rhema. Some children do record, others simply talk it out, I always write my own thoughts in my journal.
When we finish in our journals I open up a tiny notebook that has become our family's prayer journal. I've been taking George Mueller's advice and recording the dates that we begin praying for things so that as the answers come we can record that as well. I ask for prayer requests and we read over the ones from the past days and update as needed. I also use prayer updates provided by Voice of the Martyrs so that every day our focus goes beyond our little house to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.
Usually all of the children are eager to pray and then I close our time together with a prayer.

A few weeks ago I would have thought this daily habit something impossible to begin or keep and frankly what would have been the point...aren't they too young to understand...to hear? But thankfully my heavenly Father knows best.
My first inkling of change came on Sunday morning at church. Honestly, it's been a dry few months in my own spiritual life. But this Sunday was different, I came excited, I came feeling full, I came thirsting more. I was not coming to receive but I felt like I was coming to give! Why? What changed?
God and I had met, had spoken, had communicated in those after breakfast times in His Word with slow beginning readers, ornery little boy antics, and fussy baby snuggles.

And then today, we read about being doers of the Word and not hearers only and discussed bridling our tongues and being slow to anger. Wouldn't you know that each of us was given a chance to be obedient in these areas and to encourage each other with scripture!

I encourage anyone who reads this to make being in God's word a priority over chores, school and housework it is a thing worth doing, of lasting value.

Baby is Here!

We have been blessed with the early arrival of an adorable baby girl!
You can read more at this blog.

Our HomeSchool Room

Just a few weeks into the beginning of the 2008/2009 school year I realized that we needed a place for all of our school stuff to call home. At first I had everything in our livingroom but it became almost an impossibility to keep organized and picked up so after much deliberation I moved the boys out of the smallest of the 3 bedrooms we have and put them in the larger bedroom with the girls. Then spent several weeks cleaning, repainting and moving everything in.

Having a separate room in our 1100 sq. ft. home has been a huge blessing. It's not that we do our school in here all of the time but it is all kept in here:) Since first moving in to it I have added another bookshelf, and rearraged a few things but the general feel of it stays the same. As you can see it is also the toy room and the clothes closet for everyone but William.

With the new baby coming I have petitioned my husband and in-laws to put a room into our unfinished basement so I think that will be our project in February. Nothing fancy but very functional.



























The kids' BEDroom.

Reviewing Year 1

With the 1^st Term and most of the 2^nd Term of 1^st grade under our belts, I’ve been looking back and reevaluating what has worked and what hasn’t; what I like and what I don’t.

What I Like:

• Ambleside Online curriculum has been a huge blessing and has eased my fears and uncertainties during this first year. With few exceptions every book and idea has been wonderful and we have truly enjoyed ourselves. That being said I did make the decision to not read through “Trial and Triumph”. While I found it fascinating the kids were a bit bored and I feel the need to pre-read this one in its entirety before reading to the kids.


• Ray’s Arithmetic is awesome. Easy, concise and cheapJ I felt the need to go with a more hands-on oral math program partly from Charlotte’s direction but mostly from seeing where my son Thomas needed help. Thomas has a very sharp and quick memory and after going through much of the CLP Math K I didn’t feel that he had a real grasp on what he was doing so by making him do the majority of his work orally I am in no doubt as to what he does know and what he needs work on. I have also added Math-It to our daily arithmetic lessons and have seen great results from it as well. I used Math-it as a child and loved it and so far my kids have had the same response. My mom has been giving away most all of her homeschooling books since she has graduated the last child so I was blessed to receive her Math-it program!


• Reading Reflex, I really can’t say enough about this book and program. I love it, the kids love it and their progress has been very rapid. I can’t wait to test them at the end of the year and see what grade level they are reading at! I have also started Emily on it and she is able to read a few of the first Bob Books.


• Language Lessons for Little Ones from Queen Homeschool has been a blessing to us as well. I was initially skeptical of this series because after all wasn’t it just “bookwork” and possible “twaddle”? It most definitely is not! I am using for Emily since I felt she needed school just for her and have found it to be a perfect fit. Emily is 5.5 but in preschool because of a summer birthday even though academically she could be in Kindergarten I do not feel a need to rush things with her. Her favorite lessons in the book so far are the picture studies, but we did enjoy the poem from last lesson and the ensuing discussion. At first I was going to “save” this book and not let her write in it so that I could use it for Wesley next year as well, but he is such a different learning style and personality than her that I don’t know if he would care for it anyway.


• Harmony Fine Arts-at first I was a bit disappointed that I had paid $20 for a few printed off sheets of paper for this “program” but the actual doing of it has been anything but disappointing. The layout is easy and precise and you know exactly what to do when, which in my world is a HUGE deal. We have not done this as consistently as I had planned and even though I bought the material needed for Option 2 of the 1^st grade program we have mostly just done Option 1. But the kids have learned so much! And I will be able to use this for each child to come. Their favorite is the composer study and listening to the music. So far Beethoven has won hands down as the best composer and Alissa is very upset to be moving on to a new composer and in retaliation for the offense puts on the Beethoven cd programs it to Fur Elise and refuses to admit there is another song that can compete, lol. They are able to recognize about 1 or 2 songs from each composer study and when possible I dig out some of my old music and play them a few pieces from that particular composer. For the art study we view the pictures online and then after narrating about them I set that picture for the wallpaper background on our computer so that everyone can enjoy it a bit longer.

What I don't Like

• Structured preschool programs! I’ve tried a few and after a few weeks throw it out because it simply is not pleasurable. Maybe it’s my type A personality or maybe it’s the amount of littles to teach but I have not found anything that fits our family well. And then when I’m feeling guilty about not doing anything “structured” I open up volume 1 of Home Education and all my fears and distresses are relieved! I know from the depths of my being that what Charlotte speaks is true and it works. I have given up the fight and I am going to “let my children alone to just be children”.

Now I would say that is a pretty good start on Year 1 when the Likes outweigh the Dislikes.