Meadowlarks

In our nature study, we are taking in anything we can find in nature. Our Handbook for Nature Study suggest doing birds first but we really dont have all that many birds in our yard most of the time.

When we woke up this morning, this is what we seen.... and my camera battery is dead or I would have taken a picture.

I got to see a woodpecker in the woods last night while deer hunting and some crows. But they are not near as exciting as this mornings surprise.

I cant wait for the Cardinals to come out and play this winter...we do have alot of them.

Blessings
Crystal

Excitement!

I finally got to talk to another homeschooling lady in my community today! She was so nice and helped me so much just getting to talk to her.

I love getting to connect with other people. It is so nice to just know thatI am not alone (no offense to all the bloggers who support me...). But to know that there are other people in the same town as me...nice.

I am excited to gt to start meeting with them and get the kids together with them.

Just wanted to share my excitement for the day...lol

Blessings
Crystal

Long time no Post

I know it has been a while since I have posted. I am hoping to get some pictures posted today during nap time but we will see.

Our school is going okay. We are mainly doing Math, Teach Your Child to Read, and Reading. We tried Explode the Code, It confused Kylie, she was already used to what she does in Teach Your Child to REad and then trying to do another on top of that was too much. We go to the park for our nature studies...although we havent really done any crafts with them yet. We are just basically playing and learning.

I started out all hyped up and excited about what we would learn this year......I backtracked really quick. My kids just arent ready for all that. They are still enjoying playing and having fun. Even when we make it fun, they just want to play. So I figure another few months or so of playing and we can try again. Its okay though...

Alaina has started wanting to learn to read. So we have been doing alot of letter sounds with her.

Jason has been following along....It is quite funny to listen to him while we are doing school... :)

Today, we are going to go to the park after naps. Just one of those days wehre we need to get out.

Oops my time on the computer is up so I will try to post later.

Blessings
Crystal

Psalm 46:1

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1 KJV

School so far!

Well, our school so far is going wonderful! We mostly have been reading alot of books. I ordered Horizons Math K for Kylie to use, I imagine that Alaina will be doing it also as she is does most anything Kylie does.

We were using Teach Your Child to Read In 100 Easy Lessons. Kylie was doing okay but was getting bored really easy. I was at Mardels Saturday and got up enough nerve to ask a lady that was in the Homeschool Isle and carrying Explode the Code, if she liked the program. We visited a little bit and I ended up buying the Get Ready for the Code series (Books A, B and C). Kylie is breezing right along through these and it is really sticking with her. Anytime she wants to do them, I sit down with her and we work on them. I am still keeping the Teach Your Child, and starting it with Alaina, but I will probably end up with the Explode the Code with both of them.

I am still thinking about Science. For right now, we are going to check out books from the library and read them.

History, is also going to be books for right now, I finally got to read through Story of the World the other day and I loved it. That will probably be what we end up with for History.

Music and Art, we are going to start slowly on this, and incorporate the Composers and Artist off of Ambleside Onlines list. They listen to Classical music as they go to sleep for Nap Times and they love it so I dont think that getting them to study about it will be a problem.

I know that according to most websites and curriculums, we are supposed to be studying Latin, but so far, I cant find a curriculum that I really think will just work with them.....and me. But they have taken an interest in sign language so we are picking up that. I have been using alot of different resources for this. Someone in Wal Mart actually asked me the other day if Kylie was deaf because she was going over the signs she knows without saying anything. It was quite a show.

Jason is even doing school with us. He listens to the stories we read, counts....all the way to five, he says his abc's.....mostly, he knows some colors, he writes when the girls are writing....and not just regular paper, he has to have the handwriting paper that they do. He has his own Bible, and when we read ours, he reads his. Today, he was saying letter sounds as we did. I wasnt expecting him to do all this with us. It is almost scary.

The lady that I met at Mardels was so encouraging. I wish that there was more people like her around here. I had to go an hour away to meet her though. And I know an hour dont sound like very far but gas prices are getting us right now. We make sure we have enough to go to Church on Sundays and that is about the extent of our traveling. We had to go to the town that Mardels is in for Pauls business but other than that, we dont go many places.

I hope to get some pictures up of our school sometime soon. Right now though, I am enjoying my babies.

I am putting our weekly memory verse up on the side bar. We may have two or three at a time, and do them for two or three weeks at a time. We will see how it goes. Today, Kylie can already tell me half of the one we read this morning. She is doing so good.

Blessings
Crystal

Busy

Busy busy busy bees! We have been very busy here lately. I dont really have a post for this blog. I need to I know but things have not been going according to schedule. I will try to get a post up soon on what is going on.

Crystal

Conference and New Look!

I got this new look today! I love it.

And I have been tuning in to the Heart of The Matter Online Homeschooling Conference. It has been very enlightening and very refreshing. There have been some very good speakers with very good topics. Of course I have been having to listen during naptimes and during video time. (The kids like to watch bible stories :) )

Anyway, off to go fold laundry now.

Blessings and Smiles
Crystal

School

We have been doing little things every day. Thursday, we got to go get snocones at the snocone stand. The girls loved getting to sit outside and eat theirs while watching baby frogs jump through the grass and the ants come after the juice dripping on the steps. Yes even the ants were entertaining to them.

Friday, Paul was home most of the day and so we got to hang out with daddy. Yesterday I had a really bad headache but when they wanted to do something, we went over our ABC's and numbers and colors. They enjoyed it and I still got to rest. They also listened to music...alot. They love listening to music and dancing and playing.

Our next project for our nature journal will be frogs. They have been wanting to make them so we will see what we come up with.

If you are doing school this summer, or are going to start school this fall, what are your plans? I would love to hear about your day.

Smiles
Crystal

Alaina

I noticed that I did not have a picture of Alaina's face in the below post. So here we go.

This is her. Rotten and ownry as can be. She was trying to push modeling clay in my mouth...lol

Pictures of our first Nature Journal Day

We had such a good day yesterday with our Nature Journal and exploring about Turtles.

Kylie had found a turtle shell at Church Camp and they wanted to learn more about them so we sat down yesterday and got it out and examined it and googled turtles and looked at all the images of turtles and tommrow, we are going to find out what turtles eat and how they breathe and all that neat stuff. Today we went and got snowcones. And as soon as Jason wakes up from his nap, we are going to read a couple more chapters out of The Boxcar Children. We have been reading it off and on for a few weeks and actually sat and read for 15 minutes yesterday. They loved it.
Here are some pictures from yesterday.


Alaina's turtle made with modeling clay. She had such fun trying to make legs and a head.


My Turtle made out of modeling clay!
Kylies tutle shell and her turtle out of modeling clay after Jason got ahold of it. lol
Kylie and her turtle shell. I can't believe how big she is getting. My beautiful baby girl.
Jason joining in the fun. He was so excited to be doing stuff like this with sisters.

Although I didnt get pictures, we also drew turtles in the Nature Journals (the notebooks that are laying on the floor) and colored them. And we have also been watching our frogs on our door at night.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to post more pictures soon.

Our Charlotte Mason Beginnings

We are so EXCITED! We have our Nature Study Notebooks, we have fingerpaints, new colored pencils, new pencils, new crayons, and a couple of roll of old blue prints to fingerpaint on the back of.....We also have a turtle shell from Church Camp, frogs on our windows (this happens every year) and we have a new adventure starting today.

I forgot last Wednesday to take my kids to the library for the safety day and story time. I have been so busy with getting my house back in order and trying to get our school stuff organized that I havent had time to think of much else. So when I realized I forgot it, I immediatly felt bad, like a horrible mother. But Kylie came up with a solution. "Why cant we take a book to the park and read it Momma?" So that is what we are going to do sometime today. WE are going to take our blanket, some water, a book and a ziploc baggie for any nature finds that we have and we are going to the park. Crazy huh. We have no shade in our back yard and Jack will be mowing today so we couldnt very well go in the yard and have our nature study. The park has lots of big shady trees and lots of stuff to find and ducks to feed!

So we are in a very good mood around here!

What are you doing in your school this summer or are you even doing school this summer?

Many blessings and good luck!
Crystal

Discouraging People

I know, not a very good title for a post on a homeschooling blog. But honestly a question that needs addressed.

I have had many experiences where people are not very encouraging when it comes to Homeschooling. Some are downright hateful about it.

What are we to do when someone makes a derogatory comment or when they put us down for our decision to do Gods will in our life and Homeschool our children?

I personally used to get very angry with them. I would be to the point that I didnt want to even visit with them because of the hatefulness and the hurt. And it isn't always strangers, most of the time, it is family or close friends. They think that we are so strange and crazy and asking for trouble because we homeschool. And the number one argument I have heard is...."But they can get such a good education in school...How do you think you can meet the standards that the school is meeting..You dont have a teaching degree."

My responses. I know I dont have a teaching degree...I did go to college for three years to work towards my degree in early childhood/elementry education. I went long enough to know that the public school system is not for me. It is not for my children. It is not what God wants me to do with my life.
2nd. I know they can get a good education in school. I know that the public school system has its good points. But I have also seen the bad points and most of them outway the good. I have seen what happens when a child gets shuffled through the system and ends up not knowing how to read or comprehend. I've seen what can happen when you take that child out of the public school system and give him one on one attention and patience and confidence. He is now reading just two levels below his grade instead of 5. Not bad huh.

3rd I am not interested in meeting the public schools standards for my children. I dont want my children to become a statistic. I want them to individually reach their own potential. Not the potential of 30 to 500 other kids in the class....(That boy I was talking about, his graduating class would have been a class of 1400...how do you keep track of each kid when there are that many? ) I want my kids to strive for something and be able to reach it and not be put down because they didnt get as high as so and so.

Now given, the public school system has good things to offer, but it is just not right for our family.

People have been asking me....Why homeschool? Why not just put them in school and go to work.

I have several reasons for this. #1, I prayed long and hard about homeschooling. I watched my oldest child become smarter and smarter just working with me at home. I was in the middle of taking classes to finish my degree and it was like God answered my prayers. It was like all of a sudden, I just knew that this was what God wanted me to do...this was my purpose in life. Other than being a wife.

#2 If God hadnt led me to this decision, he sure led my husband to it and as a wife, I am supposed to do as my husband says and he says homeschool so that is what I am doing. Nough said.

# 3 What better way to spend my day than with the blessings that I asked God for and he granted. What better way to spread His word and His glory and His wonder than through teaching it to my children. I cant think of any.

#4 When my four year old is learning to bake and sew and keep house (no not slavery, life skills) I have to wonder why I didnt learn all of this in school....Yeah they had Home Economics...but we didnt really learn a whole lot in there. It was more of a fun class to take when you didnt want to take anything else.

#5 I kinda like being the primary influence in my childrens lives. I like being the first person they see when they wake up and the last person they see when they go to sleep. I like knowing what they read and what they see on TV (not that we have TV but movies you know) and What they hear on the radio and when they play with other kids, I dont have to worry about them offending someone by saying that God made the dirt or by praying over their food at a picnic or some other kid telling them that God doesnt exist. They will learn that there are people out there who dont believe in our Awesome Creator when they are old enough to comprehend that someone can actually believe that...until then, they will know about God and they will know about all his awesome wonders...like the baby growing in aunt Julies belly right now. They enjoy telling me everytime they hear about her or see a picture of a pregnant women that that is how they got here...God put them in my belly and they grew and then I went to the hospital because I didnt feel good and I had them and then we all came home again...and oh yeah...Dr. Hill took care of me when I didnt feel good...(This is all their words not mine...lol) I also dont want my kids coming up to me and wondering why Johnny has two daddies instead of a mommy and a daddy. I know these questions will come soon enough and I know that it is a part of the world we live in now....not by my choice but it is there. And I know someday I will have to explain about all the evil in the world but for now, I am enjoying their innocence. Their peace, their love and their cuteness.

So how do we handle discouraging people? I personally just smile and go on. And then I pray for them. Because even though I feel all the above about public school, I know that everyone has choices to make and what is best for my family may not be best for everyone else. I personally have two very close friends and a sister in law that teach and another very close friend that is a librarian. If they can spread the word of God by doing what they do then more power to them. I am glad for them. I have often said that If I could send my kids to a school where it was just those four teaching and running the school then I probably would. But I dont think that will ever happen so I WILL HOMESCHOOL! With the support of my friends. I know that if at any time something happened in my life where I had to send my kids to school, they would support me too. They wouldnt say I told you so or be hateful about it, they would try to help make the transition as easy as possible.

What do you think we need to do to help encourage other homeschoolers? Please let me know as I know that any suggestions would help those who are feeling down or those who are feeling less than adequate to do this Calling that God has appointed to us.

Many blessings and prayers and heartfelt thanks
Crystal and family.

Books I am now reading and our recent nature study!

I am so excited! I had requested some books from the library and they came in yesterday.

The first one was this one . It looks to be a very interesting book.

The second one was "For the Childrens Sake" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.

The third was "A Charlotte Mason Companion : Personal Reflections on The Gentle Art of Learning" by Karen Andreola.

Another one that I am reading is Vol 1 of Charlotte Masons Homeschooling series.

I also checked out the first book of "The Boxcar Children" series and am reading these to the girls.

I checked out several of the books that Ambleside Online reccommends for the Kindergarten age group and have liked all of them so far. I definately think that the CM way of educating is going to work for us. I have two different kind of learners in my girls and I can adapt this curriculum to fit either of them. Kylie will get lots of reading and quiet time while Alaina will still get her hands on, get in there and figure it out time.

I am so excited to get started. Even if we cant get all the books that are requested for the Kindergarted year, we will still be doing enough that they will learn alot. I can supplement with things around the house or spend more time outside doing nature studies or learning about the world around us. Kylie is excited also. I was explaining some of it to her and she is so ready to "...start doing school with real books momma...." She likes the idea of "Living Books".

We have been doing kind of a nature study over a frog that lives around our window unit air conditioner. He likes to sit under it and croak at night and sometimes during the day if he can get away with it. Last year we had one in the a.c. This year, we took the a.c. that we had in the living room and put in Jacks room. When we pulled the unit out of the window, the frog was under the ac. I had Paul take him to the garden because I am kinda squemish about such things since I had kids. So he took him to the garden. We put a bigger ac in the living room but it didnt work so we had to take it out and take it back to the store. When we took it out yesterday, the same frog was under that ac...How do I know it was the same frog you ask...I wish I had pictures but I dont. He has a diamond shape of black dots on his back. Really. I have never seen a frog like it before but it is amazing tha the made his way from the garden back to the ac....Amazing. We now have another ac back in the window and I heard him croaking this morning. So I am guessing that after I had Jack run him off yesterday, he has made his way back in the window. So our nature study has been frogs here lately. I am sure it will be alot about frogs this summer as during the late part of summer, we tend to have lots of tree frogs and baby toads climb up our patio door at night chasing bugs. Its really cool to watch how they cling to the window. We have actually seen them eat a bug or two. The girls ooh and ahh until they catch a bug and then they say gross...

Hopefully I will be back with some pictures next week. If it doesnt rain all week like it is supposed to.

Many Blessings
Crystal

Work in Progress

This site is a work in progress. I am hoping to get back here tommorow to add more helpful links or interesting sites that I have been too. I am also hoping to get some pictures of my growing children posted so everyone will know what we are up to lately.

Crystal

Go check this out! I am hoping to get to sign up for it. I have to talk to hubby tonight though so we will see. I missed our state convention this year because of money and hubbys work. This sounds so exciting.

Crystal