School Time…Lets GO! 2015/16

As we begin another year of homeschooling I wanted to share with you my thoughts for our upcoming year. Each year we seek God concerning where he would want our children to be. I am not against public school ( hello….I went and I am at least 1/2 normal HA), I am not against private christian education (my husband attended for years). I have just come to LOVE the process of being able to choose my children's education. I am able to research different learning styles and what curriculum would work best for each child. I love watching my child struggle and then the light in their eyes when it all makes sense. I love the days we simply want to stay in our pajamas and put the math away and read all day. I love when real life lessons can be taught as my children are doing Daddy's inventory at work, or making a grocery list, or looking at a budget. I love that homeschooling is not a way to shelter my children in fact it is a way that I can not be confined to a schedule and can constantly take my children out in this world. Or travel. This year I really felt like God wants me to change a few things, but mostly I was excited to still feel that this is the path he wants for us!

We began the process of "year round schooling" last year. So we actually have not had a summer break per-say. We took a break in the spring and have taken days off here and there this summer as well as shortened the load. Next week we will begin our 6 weeks on 1 week off regimen and see how we like that! I find that each summer my kids start acting up and I am ready to eat a hole through our sheetrock and hide a child or two inside of said hole….Don't act like you haven't been there. SO in all of my small wisdom I have found the problem. My children act like they hate structure but they LOVE structure. Too much free time on their hands makes for mischief. So we take breaks as needed but for the most part even some structured reading time and math is good for one's brain each day.

This year both girls will be using Bob Jones for Math and English. Sonlight for History, Geography, and reading. For Bible we are so excited to have joined bible quizzing. If you do not know what that is it is FUN. HA they have already started memorizing. They are to memorize James, 1,2 Peter, and 1 John. I am thrilled for them and they are having so much fun. They will begin having tournaments this Winter and will compete against other children their age! We also are apart of Living Hope Co-Op where they will take science( the one subject that puts mama to sleep) and other fun classes. They both take Piano and are very active at the Y. I am enjoying this journey and I hope that any mother reading my blog wether you are sending your sweet little one off to their first year of school, or their last, or if your homeschooling ….. know that we are in this journey together. I love education, I love children, I love the strength of the community of mamas I am surrounded by. Hugs to us all as we begin our 2015/16 year!

Thank you Kaylee for reminding me of this verse today.

Deuteronomy 11:19
You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 19"You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20"You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,…