Homeschool

I have hesitated to write a post about homeschooling. Just as the choice to homeschool is such a personal one, so is the way you go about doing it. I don't believe there is a best way to home educate. I don't believe that what I do is better than what anyone else does, nor do I compare myself to other homeschoolers wishing I was doing what they are. Every family is so unique.

(Look Mommy it's the world! But in my world the earth part is pink!)

Unfortunately the other day sitting outside of Mae's dance class a discussion arose on the choice of whether to homeschool or not. The mother who didn't look like she wanted to be bothered by the topic anyhow made a point that has been made by many people looking for a reason not to homeschool,

"You have two options, either put your child in a bubble, teach them how to handle hardships, OR let them out to discover how to handle these hardships on their own."


I believe that the hardships presented to children in public schools today should not be ones they should have to learn to handle until they are older, and having been in homeschool they would have learned the most respectful and productive way to handle these situations.

(Concentration!!!)


Now I'm sure that for lack of interest this nice lady has not done the research I have. And does not really know that homeschooled children tend to be able to speak comfortably with children younger, older, and adults because of not being thrust into situations where bulling and taunting would give them cause for self doubt.

I could go on and on as to why we homeschool and what the benefits are, but that would bore people.

(I consider this to be a bit of busy work, she can start and stop when she wants. Fortunately she thinks being able to read her colors is fun.)

I just love to teach my children everything I can, in ways that I find work for me as well as them. I mention myself because if I get frustrated with something then they most likely will too, then I'm setting myself up for failure.
I have found that I love to draw, I loved to illustrate what I'm teaching them, so I bought a dry erase board. But I needed somewhere to put it, so created the "school room". Its where all the books, crayons, paints, play-doh, insanity is stashed.
However when I started this venture I didnt want a school room. I wanted to learn outdoors! Reading on the couch, science in the kitchen!
Surprise for me, WE STILL DO THAT! School is everywhere for us! I just needed a spot to say, "Why yes we do say pledge of allegiance every morning, looking at our flag, and right next to it is a picture of Christ!



"To be honest, I am not sure what kind of homeschooler I am. I guess I can tell you what I am not.
I am not good with adhering to one particular method, and prefer to take what I like from many schools of thought and leave the rest." ~Small Things

( Eliza also loves writing her name, such a sweetie!)

Also taking into consideration that I've only been teaching homeschool for two years, I've got a long way to go. Middle School could throw a whole new curve at me. But I must say that these last two years have been the most fun rewarding experiences I've ever had.



The things I hope for the most for my kids is that;

My children will learn to have respect for their elders, love their siblings as best friends, keep their God foremost in their minds while deciding who they want to represent their country for them.
They will learn to be in control of themselves, recognizing that when we let our emotions get away from us we open the door to let seeds of self-doubt and temptation in side of our hearts.



I love the fact that I know my children's hearts inside and out, they tell me every little thing in and about their worlds. I dont have to pry, they know through homeschool that Momma and Daddy are the teachers, comforters, and supporters all in one package.

Barnets perspektiv!

So this is not in English but it is a really interesting video of a baby's perspective riding in a stroller vs being carried in a carrier.
Its also neat to see mama's of every language cooing at their babies!

Every Baby Loves to be Carried

I found this wonderful list of all the benefits of Babywearing and I have to agree, its the best way I've found to comfort your little ones.

For example we've had a lot of snow lately and inevitably Timmy got a runny nose and sore throat. The only way I could find to calm and comfort him was to put him in the ring sling and walk/rock him around. The temperature of my skin on his, cooled down his slight temp. Also the rhythm of my breathing matched in time with his was very soothing.

I have always gotten lots of positive response's while carrying Timmy. I now after killing my wrists carrying car seats all over with my first two, I feel sorry for the mommies I see that haven't discovered the joys of wearing.

CARRIED BABIES...

• Cry Less! (43% less overall and 54% less during the evening hours)
• Are Healthier! (gain weight faster, have better motor skills, coordination, increased muscle tone, and sense of balance)
• Get a better view of the world! (babies pushed in strollers or lugged around in car seats only get to see the adult world at knee-level)
• Become Independent Faster! (making them more confident and less clingy)
• Sleep Better! (they fall asleep quicker and sleep for longer periods of time)
• Learn More! (not overstimulated, but calm and alert, observing the world around them)
• And are just plain Happier!

Wearing your baby is incredibly helpful in integrating your baby into your daily life. Not only is it practical to wear your baby but it is wonderfully reassuring to know that you are providing the richest and most beneficial environment that you possibly can.

Carrying your baby-

• creates confident parents -there's no better feeling than when your baby is calm and content because you have met all her needs
• allows you to safely move about with your baby regardless of terrain- you can stroll down uneven sidewalks, narrow lanes, walk up stairs, or climb mountain
• is convenient- there is no awkwardness like when carrying a heavy plastic car seat with one arm!
• enables better communication between you and your baby - (without your baby having to cry!) as you become attuned to her facial expressions and other gestures
• provides security-access to food, warmth, and love
• is good for your soul -it encourages you to get out and get some exercise and some fresh air into your lungs
• makes discreet nursing possible-without having to find a place to sit
• helps you to interact with your other children and hold your baby close at the same time- very practical if you have other little ones
• allows you to decide who may touch or interact with your baby
• aids digestion- the constant motion and the upright position eases acid reflux and colic
• allows you to go places, together!- you can go anywhere and feel secure.

Carried babies-

• learn more- not overstimulated, but calm and alert, which is the optimum state for nervous system development
• are allowed their necessary period of exterogestation which is often overlooked (The Best Place After the Womb: Exterior Gestation and the Need to Be Held)
• become independent faster- when your baby feels loved and cared for then they are confident and trust that you will be there to meet their needs (American Anthropologist research)
• regulate their own physical responses -better motor skills, coordination, and sense of balance from observing you and listening to you (read research on PubMed)
• are calmer - when you are close to your baby and can quickly respond to all of her needs there is no reason to be cranky!
• cry less -less stress hormones from crying means your baby is happier and more peaceful (read The American Academy of Pediatrics' research)
• get a better view of the world- babies pushed in strollers or in car seats only get to see the adult world at knee-level
• sleep better -babies fall asleep quicker and sleep for longer periods of time (Harvard University research)

Your baby will feel loved and secure. You will feel confident and free.

and the best of all...

YOUR HANDS ARE FREE!


You can cook, shop, paint, hike, sweep, read a book with your toddler, go for a stroll or even treat yourself to a nice lunch out in the town.

With babywearing, the possibilities are endless.

This is not me, I wish I looked this cute and skinny! This is my sweet friend from babywearing and her adorable kids. She's totally super babywearing mom here!!

Peanut Butter

THE PEANUT SAT ON A RAILROAD TRACK,

HIS HEART WAS ALL A-FLUTTER.
ALONG CAME THE CHOO-CHOO TRAIN,
AHHHHHHHHHH!
PEA-NUT BUTTER!

A Mommies Song

"A Whole New Woooorld, A thrilling place, lalalalalala, Now That I'm In A Whole New World With Youuuuuuu!"

Sings I, as I change a diaper of all things!!
"Boy, she's lost it", your thinking. But you don't understand. About the time Timmy was 3 months old I couldn't afford disposable diapers anymore.

Now any parent will understand, diapers are a MUST have! The butts must be covered!

I was in a state of panic, My dear sweet mother had covered MY rear at least twice by buying us diapers and I didn't want to ask again.
To those not in the know, a package of diapers right now is about 20.00, and you could use one of those a week, sometimes make it stretch a week and a half.

I had looked into cloth diapering online before Timmy was born and decided the start up cost was WAY too high, so that was out, or so I thought!

My visiting teacher just happened to come by one day while Timmy was wrapped in a dish towel. I had two diapers left and I was saving them for outings.
She sprang into action!

She had cloth diapered her last baby and wasn't planning on having any more, so along came my way a huge bag filled to the brim with diapers, inserts, and covers!
I sat down and cried and thanked God for her kindness.

Crazily enough I was a little apprehensive about Tim's support. I knew I wouldn't stick with C.D.ing unless Daddy would change them too.
But unknowingly to me Tim had a friend (another Dad) who C.D.ed and Tim was all for it, even with ideas I hadn't heard of!




Now your wondering why would anyone get so excited about what they put on there babies bottom?


Let me give you another little history now, around this same time I was discouraged because of nursing and trying to amuse three other kids at the same time.
My mother suggested I look into the La Leche League. I had NO idea what that was! So I went online to find out, Ohhhhh! A group of women who get together to talk about nursing? BOOORRRRIING!!

But curiosity had crept in, so I found out that they had meetings at MY library and I just happened to take the kids that day,....

There were two other women from my ward there!!!!! They were just as surprised to see me as I was to see them!

LLL turned out to be a class of information I just soaked up! I love learning more about nutrition, development, bonding, techniques, so many things I couldn't tell you all of it.
These women also Cloth Diapered. dum dum dum.




They opened up a whole new world to me of all these cool things I could do to make being a mommy the most enjoyable, rewarding experience there is.

My life at the time was leading towards depression, four kids at home all, day all under the age of six, a husband who was in school and at work full time, no money for essentials, struggling to keep my spirits up.

The only thing that kept me out of a slump was my testimony in the Lord, and the thing that gave me the boost I needed to be a cheerful Mommy was making valuable friendships at these classes.

Now back to the a whole new world scenario.

My eyes had been opened to a whole new world where I discovered Baby wearing, Baltic amber teething necklaces, natural birthing stories where mommies didn't get together to talk about the horror stories of their children's entrances to this life, but good happy sweet stories.

Too many times had I heard upsetting things about birth, doctors, and prenatal care. Here I only hear positive outlooks, there is a better way to do things!

I'm not saying Tim and I were total dummies with our first two kids, but we sure have a new positive outlook on how we want to do things with the next few.

And anything like cloth diapering where we can save money and help the environment, Tim is all for it!



*Just a note; I have now tried quite a few brands of diapers, and I have lots that I really prefer. Here are a few if you'd like to investigate this whole new world. :)
Motherease,
Bumgenius ,
G Diapers

Not to Brag

Tim did really well in my eyes this semester. He was the project manager for all three of his projects. His time was well spent and I could tell he was happy with his work. Of course being Tim, he says there was a lot that he would have improved upon. If it were up to him he'd keep working on things until they absolutely perfect, ahem, work-a-hol-ic, ahem.

Here's a picture of the geo-dome that he welded together. It may not look like much to the uneducated eye, but the math and skill that went into it are amazing!

Angel's Graduation

It's taken her eight years, lots of laughter, determination, tears, and love but she did it! My Mom-in-Law has graduated from college! Her received her B.S. in G.I.S. this January, and Tim and I were extremely privileged to be there!

Here she is with here very proud parents, Tim's Grandma & Pop-Pop.

Here we are with both Tim's parents. Being the spouse of a student is really hard, I know from experience. So this was a proud great day for Tim's dad as well!

Yes it was a HUGE pile of leaves!

We have such great missionaries! They work so hard and still have time to come and do a service project for our family. The two of them raked up a TON of leaves then had a blast with the kids jumping in. I wasn't quite sure why they were having so much fun until I asked if they hadn't ever jumped in leaves as kids? Turns out they are both from a state with out big trees and leaves were never plentiful enough to jump in. I'm glad they got to fulfill a childhood dream!

(Yes in one of the pictures my brothers had dropped by and decided to pitch in!)

Timmy's First Birthday

After being tired out by other way too large birthdays, Tim and I decided that Timmy's birthday would be just a family affair. Unfortunately more than half the family couldn't come, so feeling a little down that his first birthday would be a little first flop, I was ecstatic to see the missionaries at the front door! (Conveniently in time for dinner lol!)


They were more than welcome and added life and a wonderful spirit to our little party. I hope its something Timmy always treasures, and I hope that someday when he's a missionary he'll bring a wonderful spirit into others homes.










I love my first born son, he has the best spirit of service I've ever seen in a baby. He's always wanting to help everyone he sees.
He loves to help me load the dishwasher by taking clean dishes out of drawers and loading them with the dirty.


He loves to get the little broom and sweep the pile of dirt that I was just about to sweep into the dust pan.

He loves to root around in Daddy's toolbox and bring them to Daddy.

He loves to push the button on the phone base that makes the phone beep, go find the phone, push a chair over to the counter, climb up and get the phone and dial China for me.

When I'm helping give his sisters a shower he sticks his head in and throws them things to play with, sippy cups with milk in them, toys, toothbrushes, the phone, etc.

When Daddy is home he follows him around, talking to him and helping in any way he can.


Whenever he's in the car he yells out, "BABY"! and claps his hands, it means we all have to stop what were doing and sing patty-cake with him.

He knows the colors Blue (Boo) and Yellow (yeyow). And knows several animal sounds in which he makes Mommy rehearse regularly.

His growling and truck/car noises are notorious.

I Love being a mommy to this one year old boy!!!

I laughed so hard my side hurt!

The 11 Step Program For Those Who Want To Have Kids!!

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.

2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!