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How we don’t learn in our homeschool & how I don’t plan {2017 Virtual Homeschool Curriculum Fair}

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Thank you for joining us for the 2017 Virtual Curriculum Fair! This is my first year joining, so I am excited to give snapshots of our homeschool, along with other homeschool bloggers. A big thanks to Susan @ Homeschooling Hearts & Minds for hosting it!

This week’s topic is See How We Learn- to be completely honest, how we learn really encompasses SO much, it would be easier to tell you how we don’t learn here. =)

How we don't learn in our homeschool

We do not learn all willy nilly all the time, but we do not use textbooks for everything (math is about it). I know some people have negative opinions about home schooling but for further education, like university and college, I have found hundreds of great companies who help tutor and create research papers, for children and teens.

We do not settle for a world view we don’t agree with, or follow something because everyone else does. We use what works for our family.

We do not prescribe to beginning school at a strict time, on a strict schedule. We do prescribe to a routine, a rhythm if you will, while the baby sleeps and eats on a schedule (for mama’s sanity, and the baby’s).

We do not mark off all the things, we do try to accomplish meaningful lessons that help us all grow and learn.

I do not plan all our lessons in advance. I do tear out the workbook pages, and divide into 36 weeks, place them in folders for clipboard work each week (math, grammar, and handwriting). I occasionally use the best student learning guide 2020 has too if there’s a particular topic we would like to go over. But everything else, I divide into 36 weeks so I know about how many lessons we need to hit each week. When and how we hit them is up to us. And I use 36 weeks as a guide, but we school year round, and start the next level of whatever we are working on when we finish. =) My children do small tests in English, Maths etc. and I use Grade Cam Test Grader to mark the tests. It’s super easy to use which allows me to spend more time teaching rather than marking!

Mostly, my children learn through hands on and reading. We use literature for just about everything; I haven’t found many math books I am a super huge fan of, so we do a lot of hands on for math. When they’re older, I’m going to show them learning cloud NZ and let them pick an online course to study. Learning is so important no matter how old you are!

Our Homeschool Day

Our homeschool days, that aren’t interrupted by errands, play dates, co op, or field trips mostly look the same. Our mornings begin at 7am, followed by breakfast, morning basket, morning chores, time outside (or downstairs if it is too cold out), reading together in the chair (just getting back to this in this season of life after baby), and then work at the table.

I don’t plan out our week (like certain subjects on certain days), I just plan that we get Xnumber of days or lessons per subject, how we get them done depends on the week. =)

Some days we get through a lot in one day, while others end with me feeling like we didn’t accomplish anything (but we actually accomplished a lot … that’s another post) I don’t measure our success by how many papers we complete, or lessons we get through. Often we bunny trail on topics, go looking for videos to supplement something that catches their interest, or just go outside and focus on something they’re interested in.

However, we do enjoy the workbooks and papers that we do use, which helps tremendously. If something doesn’t work, I scratch it and we do something else. Thankfully, we haven’t had to do that hardly at all.

After we are done with hand writing, reading, writing, spelling, math, history, and science (if done at) the table (not all in one day, and not in that order..) we do whatever extras I may have planned. Sometimes we are reading about a topic my kids love, like Native Americans or the pilgrims, pioneers, or astronomy, and I will get a bunch of books from the library to read on the side, have a few videos in my notes for us to watch, or a field trip for us to go on (though at this time, field trips aren’t happening a lot). We like to do nature study, take nature walks around the pond and in our woods, and journal outside.

Homeschool Weekly Plan

I keep these extras written down and we pick and choose what we want to do, or what we have time for. I do not live by my planner, I use it for my thoughts; it is much more like a journal for our homeschool. I have journaled since before I could really write, so for me, this feels more natural. It helps me keep track of my notes for the kids, what I want to review, what we want to look into later, interesting field trip ideas, etc. But just because I write it down doesn’t mean I have to do it.

**You can’t let yourself feel like a failure for not marking off every single thing. Or where would you find joy in what you have accomplished?!

If you aren’t a planner person, but want to keep track of things, you may look into using a traveler’s notebook!

What I really love about homeschool planning in a traveler’s notebook is the freedom that comes with it! I can write down things I want to remember that the kids did during school, and all the other things I mentioned above. I keep other pages in my notebook with all those lists and thoughts.

So, how do we learn?

Eclectically.

I love Charlotte Mason and classical styles of education, mixed with Montessori and Waldorf philosophies and activities. I learned about so many wonderful philosophies in college, and I like implementing parts from many of them into our homeschool. Homeschool isn’t about school at home, I think we’ve all heard that. It is about living life, floowing Christ, becoming life long learners, and finding a love for learning that grows and grows! That doesn’t look like 4 brick walls and a couple of recesses for us. It looks like … life!

I invite you to see how my fellow bloggers learn in their homeschools (note: all posts will be live by noon EST, Jan. 2nd):


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Five Minute Friday on the farm

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fmf-enjoy

Today I would like to participate in a little blog hop- called Five Minute Friday.

The topic today is Enjoy.

This week I have enjoyed the leaves and fall weather.  It won’t be here much longer, as the cold is setting in and the wind has picked up.  The leaves are now falling from the trees and soon they will all be bare.  It is hard to believe our first year at the farm has passed.

Ducks fall 2016

I enjoy our children and animals.  We added 6 more ducks to the farm (via a friend in Arkansas), and they are very happy it seems.  Four of them are Pekins, 1 a white Campbell, and the 6th a khaki Campbell like the 7 ducks we already have!  They are all known for their great egg laying and meaty bodies.

Ducks fall 2016

I enjoy scratching on the calves and feeding them when my husband is traveling.  Usually he goes out and feeds them while I clean the kitchen after dinner.  But when he is gone I feed them and love on them.  They’re sweet, although rowdy at times.

 

What do you enjoy?

Link up below!

 

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Beginning Our Gluten Free {GF) Journey

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Well, the day has come. I’ve avoided it for a while, against my better judgement; but avoiding it seems to no longer be an option.

beginning-our-gluten-free-journey

Max came into the world with a dairy protein allergy & with his little belly all a mess. He was a pretty miserable baby, despite a few periods of happiness. In general, he cried a LOT and was uncomfortable, suffering from reflux. We searched, prayed for direction, and through amazing circumstances were able to heal his gut through a homemade baby formula. (And make a few wonderful, life long friends along the way-so many blessings.)

As he has grown older, he has suffered from a non-stop stuffy nose and allergies to his environment. His immune system tends to be much weaker than the rest of ours; he is always sick worse and longer than we are. If we have a cold for a week, he has it for 3. If we have a stomach bug for 2 days, he has it for 5. I do everything I can to keep his immune system up (probiotics, bone broth, nutritious food, no dairy because he IS allergic to that, VERY limited sugar, 90% real food diet, etc).

But the one thing I haven’t done is remove gluten from his diet. He eats an egg sandwich every morning, and usually a sandwich at lunch right now (because with a newborn and 3 other tiny humans, I don’t have time to cook 3 hot meals right now). Dinners aren’t usually very wheat-filled, unless it is homemade lasagna or something with pasta, which isn’t often. We actually don’t consume a lot of wheat anyway.

But to substitute and change the wheat we do consume intimidates me. =/

But, in July our dentist (who is a holistic practitioner) was very adamant that we get Max off gluten; he was concerned about his lack of breathing through his nose, and how it is affecting his m0uth, and could further impact his heath. I told him if he told me to do it, I would.

But then the baby came, and life IS hectic at home, and I just let it go for a bit.

Then at our doctor appointment this week, she also recommended we get him off gluten. She said that a major cause of his symptoms could be not only a gluten intolerance, but lowering the inflammation caused from the gluten could greatly help his healing, breathing, and allergies in general.

Basically if gluten causes MORE inflammation in his body, then removing it can limit the immune response he is having to environmental allergens like dust, pollen, dander, etc.

Inflammation is inflammation- regardless of the symptom it shows itself as (in this case allergies and being unable to breathe with a constant congested nose).

His lungs are clear, there was no wheezing, so she doesn’t feel like it is asthma at this time.

So, here we go- beginning this journey. If going gluten free gets him back to his normal health, then I will just learn to make our lives gluten-free! I’ve found a lot of lovely recipes that I’m going to make for him if he is allergic to gluten but I haven’t made any of them yet. There is actually a lot of great gluten free foods available at the minute and I can’t wait to try some of them out if he does test positive.

Are you gluten free in your home? Please share any/all tips and info you can! I would love to learn from you. =)

 

Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you. Thank you!

Back to {home}School-the first week

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First Day of {home}School 20162017

 

I have so many posts to write! Weekly Wrap-ups, Friday on the Farm, Baby summaries for our newest addition … Birthday summaries for the oldest 3! The list goes on …. and it will get done, just slowly.

But for now, here is our Back to Homeschool Weekly Wrap Up! (technically for the last two weeks)

We have been easing into our lessons the last two weeks; with a newborn to care for, a real Kindergartener, a preschooler, and a toddler wanting to do EVERYTHING her older siblings do, we definitely need a transition period around here!

So, we started with our history, which is the Beautiful Feet Early American History pack (read more about that here), Bible, handwriting, and math.

This last week (which was our second week back) we introduced reading lessons with AAR again. What I LOVE about this right now, is that my oldest daughter has taught herself to read; we haven’t even hit the ea, ee, oo, ou, etc rules of reading but she can read words and decode words with ease. We will continue with out AAR lessons because I think it is important developmentally for her to understand those rules- it is going to help when we get to spelling and vocabulary. When she’s ready to develop her skills more, we’ll think about finding some phonics worksheets to make sure she understands the sounds of words. That will come in time, but having some worksheets might make it easier for her to follow. But, on to my point- we are able to do 3+ lessons in one day! So on Mondays, we bust out a bunch of lessons, and for the rest of the week she just reads to me!

Score!

This week we will reintroduce our science (Apologia Astronomy), possibly spelling, and journaling. Honestly, right now with the baby needing to be fed right in the middle of our lessons, I don’t think we will realistically get to everything each week for several week from now. But, we have to start somewhere and for now, this works.

First Week of Homeschool {2016/2017}

We also decided to get clipboards last week; after we have done school that requires mama, I feed the baby about 10:00am, and we all go outside at that time. I nurse her, Lexie does work on her clipboard (handwriting and math sheets), and Mister and Ila play- we all get fresh air, sunshine, and the baby gets to be around everyone and outdoors.

Our morning time routine is still going well- we are enjoying poetry. The first few weeks of this first semester will be a recap from last year’s selections when we reviewed IEW, and then we will move on with new selections from the same book.

We do calendar, finger plays/songs, memory verse, and poetry during morning basket. We also do our history reading at this time, which for now is Leif the Lucky. This is a fun read, very deep for younger kids, and mine are actually enjoying it and understanding it very well! Lexie enjoys the coloring and copywork that goes along with it, and we are learning about different Virtues; Mister really enjoys the bravery and stories about the vikings and Native Americans. It has been wonderful so far.

So, that is our first two weeks in a nutshell- a little school, lots of play, lots of time with the baby, and plenty of sunshine. I cannot believe fall is almost here!

Lots of Play {homeschool}

Lots of Play!

 

Lots of Snuggles {back to Homeschool}

and Lots of snuggles =)

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{not so} Wordless Wednesday- Egg Yolks

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This post isn’t really a wordless Wednesday post … however, it is a post on Wednesday for Wednesdays!

The Lady has become burn out on her regular breakfast of oatmeal (with various fruits and things added..).  I make other things for breakfast, but she won’t eat eggs, which would give us many more breakfast options, and the Mister insists on an egg sandwich.  Every.  Single.  Morning.

As a compromise we decided on Wednesdays, she will eat an egg yolk that I cook while I cook eggs for Mister, The Miss, and myself.  Then she will have the privilege of making everyone peanut butter toast for the rest of their breakfast.

So here she is on her first Wednesday of peanut butter toast making. =)

 

Wednesday Breakfast

 

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How Our Family’s Food Allergies Made Us Healthier

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Back in 2012 we welcomed our son into the world; I was GBS positive during my pregnancy so I received 2 doses of antibiotics (as I did with my first daughter) during labor.  Little did I know at the time that antibiotics contribute to leaky gut and food allergies …

Fast forward a few months and we had narrowed his colic and horrible acid reflux down to dairy.  I cut out dairy from my diet while nursing, and we used a non dairy formula, but despite our best efforts, and some meds, his acid reflux did not resolve itself.

After a LOT of reading and researching I began learning more and more about leaky gut, acid reflux, and gut health, which pointed me in the direction of Weston A. Price and making my own baby formula (see Parts 1 and 2 of that here).

All of THAT led me to better understanding real foods vs processed foods, fermented AKA traditional foods, their impact on our health.

And from there our family has been on a real food journey ever since.  Now … we don’t eat 100%, that’s especially hard and costly when feeding a family of 6.  But we do eat, I’d say 80/20, real foods and avoid processed sugars as much as possible.  I have really slacked in the last year, after our move and starting the farm, with our fermented foods and making everything from scratch.  We still avoid processed sugars and flours and don’t eat out often.

As we now know, sugar causes inflammation in the body which manifests itself in the form of headaches, weight gain, eczema, allergies, and cancers.

Had it not been for me being very determined, and on a mission to heal my son’s gut we may have never discovered the health benefits of full fats, ferments, real food, and unprocessed sugars like sucanat.

So, am I happy we deal with food allergies?  Absolutely not.  I hate that my children can’t enjoy the nourishment from raw milk, real cheeses, and homemade ice cream among other foods.  ( we improvised and use coconut milk, goats cheese, etc in their place.)

But I am thankful for the knowledge I gained, and the friendships, along the journey.  My children have learned valuable lessons about healthy food, their immune systems, and the impact bad food choices can have on our health because my eyes were opened along the way.

So, yes- our family’s food allergies have definitely helped make us healthier.

Does your family have food restrictions?  How have you learned to live with them?

 

 

Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you.  Thank you!

Just shellin’ (peas that is)

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The kids are out playing in the dirt, baby is napping, and I am sitting *gasp* shellin’ purple hull peas. So I though I’d take just a minute to go over what and how I do it. 

Growing up, I always helped my Memaw shell the “cow peas” my Grandaddy Payne grew in his big garden. 

I would sit indian style on her couch, a brown paper sack on the floor for empty hulls, one beside me filled with peas to be shelled, and a big ole bowl in my lap for the fresh peas. 

I sorta set up my own sustem similar to hers. Thoguh I don’t have brown paper sacks, I do have dish pans and a big bowl. One dish pan for peas to be shelled, one for empty hulls, and a bowl for the peas. 

I have decided it is easy work if I am sitting- it is tiring while standing. This way my attention is mostly on the peas and I can get more done faster. I will cook some fresh, and maybe freeze some. We will probably need to plant more next year, since everyone loves them so much. 

Does your family like purple hull peas?

  

8.5 month Baby Summary Update {ww37 and babywise schedule}

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Well, here we are; somehow Ila is 8.5 months old!  To think she is closer to 1 year old than a newborn baby … =(  It is going by so quickly.

8.5month Baby Summary {QuietInTheChaos.com}

But God meant for healthy things to grow, and she is surely growing!  She is a little over 20lbs and 28.5″ long; not as big as her siblings at this age, but that is okay.

Ila has 5 teeth and is working on one or two more.  She gave up nursing around the beginning of April, and though I was devastated and continued trying to get her to nurse, she was completely done by the third week of April.  Trying to nurse had become a battle that stressed us both out.  I really thougth she was going to nurse for the long haul; she was my best nurser out of my three babies.  But just like the others, once she realized the milk in the bottle came out faster, with less work involved for her, (even though it was the smallest size Tommie Tippee nipple), she was done with mama.  =(

She still has a head full of hair, and that is the first thing people notice about her.  The second thing they mention is how happy she is.  And she is happy.  The happiest baby ever; I know I say that on all of her summaries, but really.  She doesn’t get upset over much, she has never spit up a day in her life (which I attribute to not getting dairy protein through nursing or her formula), and the only time she has a hard time with sleep or not feeling well is during wonder weeks; she is even pretty happy while teething, with only one or two rough days.  I know this won’t last forever, at some point she will become a tiny tantrum on two feet, but for now, it is bliss!

Eating At 8 Months

Ila is eating every 4 hours … sorta?  =/  She is eating solids LIKE CRAZY.  If we are eating, she wants a bite of it.  Which means that she has been eating: burger meat, steak, meat loaf, rotisserie chicken, fried chicken, spaghetti, cooked carrots, cooked green beans, sautéed zucchini and onion, grapes, apple sauce, pears, banana, eggs … and really the list goes on (though no processed foods).  Basically if it is soft enough for her to chew, and homemade with real ingredients, she gets it.  I did give her some BBQ from a local restaurant the other night, and she liked that too.  =)

So at 3 of her 4 feedings she eats solids, then takes her bottle.  She refuses her bottle before she eats real food, and she won’t take it right after she eats … so a little after she has eaten she is ready for her bottle.  Oh- and if she hasn’t had a poopy diaper she won’t take a bottle, so basically her life revolves around when she poops!  haha  But I am working on not letting her eat as much food before her bottle, since that should still be her primary form of nourishment right now.

Schedule

Ila has moved seamlessly to a 2 nap schedule.  I knew it was time to drop the cat nap because her naps were being interrupted, but she was still tired after waking and about 20 minutes later she would go back to sleep.  Also, the third nap just seemed to be messing with her night sleep and first morning nap.  So … we dropped to a 2-3-4 schedule (loosely) and it has been working great.  Really it is more like a 2-2.5-4 hour schedule.  She hasn’t quite worked up to 3 hours at that second nap yet, but it won’t be long.  I imagine after this wonder week (ww37) she will be ready.

So at 8.5 months, her schedule looks like this:

  • 7am wake, bottle, solids
  • 9 down
  • 10:30 usually wakes, rest until 11
  • 11 up, lunch, bottle
  • 1 down for nap #2
  • 2:30-3 wake, solids, bottle
  • 5:30 dinner, bath
  • 6:30 bottle, bed
  • Asleep by 7pm

Development


Ila is doing new things every day!  Since my lsat summary, she has started sitting up, scooting on her belly, rolling all over the place to get to things she wants, clapping, and signing.  She likes to roll around on the floor and is really trying to crawl; she is thiiiiiis close to crawling!  But honestly, with the move, and rent house, etc.  I am not a huge fan of her crawling too soon anyway!

She has started signing for milk and more.  I think she started signing for milk about a month ago, but I wasn’t 100% certain.  Then she began signing for more, and it was pretty obvious what she was wanting!  haha  The baby is covered with fat rolls and loves to eat, what can I say?

The other day at the rent house Ila was in the floor with Scout (the singing talking dog).  It was singing a song and she started DANCING.  It was possibly the cutest thing ever.  So now, she just bounces and dances when it plays music.

Ila is working on grasping small pieces of food, and while she can usually pick them up, she has a hard time getting them into her mouth.  She has also discovered throwing things .. including her water cup!  NOT FUN.  Ugh.  But our little Mister is so sweet and gets it for her every. single. time she “drops” it.  haha  He is helping create a monster.  =)

Big brother and sister adore her.  I mean … just smother her to death adore her.  Including Mister- she is his “sweet baby girl Ila.”  I love that he is (usually) so gentle and good with her.  And big sister is mama’s BIG helper.  She is also in love with Ila and is always teaching her new things (works on signing with her) and cheering her on!  Did I mention Charlie loves her, too?

8.5 month Baby Summary Update {ww37 and babywise schedule}

As far as the WW is going … there is some fussing at sleep time and all around weirdness going on, but in the nest 3 weeks that should end.  *whew*

That is all of Ila’s 8month update I think … I *love* this stage! (minus the wonder week!)

What is your favorite “baby stage?”

P is for planting: Bloom Where You Are Planted

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You know how before you ever go searching for something different, you can feel change on the horizon?

I am not sure how, but for several (and by several I mean at least 6) months, I have felt change coming. Just that gut feeling in my core that while uncertain, something is certain to change.

I wasn’t sure what God had in store; would it be work? Good? Devastating? Scary? Exciting?

And then the call came; a job offer. An amazing job for the most amazing man I know, my husband. We pursued it, prayed over the situation, and a few weeks later we are making arrangements to move!

You all know I *love* my planner. This year they made the covers removable, so you can change out your covers through the year. Several weeks back I ordered this one:

Bloom Where You Are Planted

 

It arrived the same day we put the for sale sign in our yard.

I think the hardest part about this particular transition is this: This was the first home we signed our life away on. This was the first home, where everything was OURS. It was our blank canvas and we made it our home. We worked so hard, & we truly loved everything about it; it has been perfect for raising our young children.

I know it is just a house; but it is just our house. It is the first home where we were real home owners. It is where we lost a pregnancy, were blessed with another, and built an even stronger relationship than we had the first 6 years of our marriage. We found a church home with not only amazing people, but where every Sunday the sermon fed our souls. It was more than just an every day Sunday service, and it took us many years to find it (or for God to get us there).

Maybe if we were moving right into another home, or God laid everything out right in front of me, I wouldn’t feel quite so emotional about leaving here. Leaving Arkansas was exciting and freeing- we were moving away, doing something on our own like we had always talked about. And while this is exciting too, it is the first time I have felt emotionally attached to a place; because it was our first fresh start.

There is always something about your first home that stays with you forever I think. But that being said, I cannot wait to see what the future holds for our real estate journey. We have already started looking at a few different turnkey properties, so this is an exciting time. One of our friends sent us this useful turnkey real estate guide on roofstock, so if you are also looking to expand your real estate horizons, you might want to take a look to see what you could learn.

Every season has a reason; and this is a season to replant, regrow, and follows God’s plan for our life together. And I can’t wait to see what blooms!

How has God shaken up your life recently?

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