Today I have done something that I was not sure I was going to be able to do. I have had a new entry on my blog every day for the past 31 days. It was because I took part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge. It is amazing to think I found things to write about every single day. I have enjoyed sharing, remembering, feeling and writing about so many things our family has experienced over the years.
I want to be able to continue this journey. I know I have many more words, stories and posts to share. I have more pictures, recipes and homeschooling posts to share. I love getting the opportunity to record my thoughts to where years down the road, my children will be able to read them and gain insight into their mother. So even though the Ultimate Blog Challenge ends today. Tomorrow, I am starting a new challenge. I am beginning the NaBloMoPo November Challenge. Plus I am beginning the NaNoWriMo challenge.
The NaBloMoPo challenge will involve blogging every day during the month of November. So stayed tuned to see what topics come up. The NaNoWriMo challenge involves me trying to write a novel. I have tons of material to share thanks to my husband and family. So my goal will be to write 50,000 words by the end of the month. I have some ideas of what I want to write about, but we will have to wait and see what develops.
As my children grow up, I really enjoy sharing memories and stories with them. But more importantly I enjoy making memories with them. Every day is a blessing given to us by God. Each day deserves us giving our best
Today is not just the ending of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, it is also the final day of the Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Study for "The Best Yes" by Lysa Terkeurst. I have learned so much from this book. I don't want to focus on "people pleasing" instead I want to focus on pleasing and honoring God. I want to spend time in His Word and in prayer. I want to draw closer to God. After all, He is God the Father. He is a father who willingly sent His Only Begotten Son to die on a cross for our sins. He was the perfect sacrifice. I need to give Him my best yes. This means I need to give my best yes in everything I do, say or think. I know I will never be perfect. As Romans 3:23 - 24 says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus".
I want to strive to honor God, even if it means I give "small no's", so I save time to give my "Best Yes". It means I need to take time to listen to the sometimes small, still voice of God - even when it is not the answer I want to hear. I pray you strive to give your "Best Yes" as well. I pray you have enjoyed the journey this month. I would love to hear from you.
So today I say good bye to this past month and this past study. But I say hello to new challenges and around the middle of the month I will be saying hello to a new Bible study as we begin Max Lucado's book Before Amen and I invite you to come along with us for the journey. This study is all about prayer. And what better time to begin a study on prayer than in the month before we celebrate Jesus' birth. The best part about this study is that the conference calls are FREE! That is right for this study the conference calls cost NOTHING! So I hope you will join us.
So now it is day 5 of the Ultimate Blog challenge. I decided to blog today about how I choose what we use for our homeschool. Go to any homechool convention, browse any homeschool curriculum site, talk to any homeschoolers and you will get numerous ideas and differing opinions on what to use. Some people use a box curriculum - meaning they get all their material from one company (hence the name box - because it typically comes in one box if they order it and have it delivered). Others use all online resources. Still others are called unschoolers - meaning they let children lead the learning by what the children are interested in. Still others choose to use textbooks provided by their school district. Some go through umbrella programs where all the material is provided for the parent and possibly even a teacher/tutor is provided to grade the work and do the planning for the child.
However, none of those options really fit my style. When we first started homeschooling, as I stated in a previous post, we joined a homeschooling group comprised of military moms. This meant we had people from a variety of states who had been homeschooling for a long time between them. I have to say thanks to those ladies! They were an invaluable resource for me.
One lady told me that if we went to a homeschool convention, never buy anything on the first day and this has proved to be one of the best tips I ever got. Another lady brought up the book, "Cathy Duffy's Top 100 Picks". This is my favorite book and the one I most recommend to people just beginning their journey in homeschooling or that maybe are struggling with what they are using. This book helps you create a philosophy of education, determine your teaching style along with your child or children's learning style. But then it goes one step farther - Cathy Duffy actually breaks down all types of curriculum by learning and teaching styles so you can have a good fit. And she does this well!!!! I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Cathy Duffy several years ago at a homeschool convention. She is as amazing in person as she came across in her book.
Also, I listen to what other moms have to say. I have created a vast network of online friends that I can turn to when I have a question. And most of the time, they don't steer me wrong. Finally I evaluate our materials based on our needs and what is working with that child. So on more than one occasion I have thrown out my ideas of what I wanted to use in favor of starting over. Sometimes retreating and regrouping is the right course of action. Other times, it is beneficial to just put something up for a period of time. Then when the child comes back to it, the choice works fine. Other times, it may just take adapting the choice to fit the child (such as not doing as many problems or not following the exact schedule.
Choosing curriculum is one of my favorite and most dreaded parts of homeschooling. We try each year to attend at least two homeschool conventions, so we can physically touch the materials and get to talk with vendors and other homeschooling families about our choices.
I always begin by making lists for each child of the subjects they will be doing and the materials I plan on using or need to purchase. Then my husband and I take the first day of the convention to just walk up and down all the aisles. We choose conventions that are either in the state we live or that we know have a wide variety of vendors. We have the lists of what we need, so we know what we are looking for and possibly what vendors will have those items. Then we go back to our hotel room that evening and have a frank discussion of what we saw. Stay tuned tomorrow when I will continue my discussion of how we choose homeschool curriculum.
So as I said before, I was going to share how we got into the world of homeschooling. Once again, God has a sense of humor. You see my husband, prior to us beginning homeschooling, was totally against the idea. He felt like children needed to be in classrooms in public schools. I often hear people express that same opinion. Moreover, I hear people say that children can become socialized while being homeschooled. But I beg to differ. I caution people to never say, "I could/would not ever do something/" Because immediately that sets someone up to have to have their words thrown back in their face.
Our son went to two different public schools for grades kindergarten thru 5th. The first one he attended kindergarten through 2nd. Then we moved from one home to a home on a military installation. So he did 3rd and 4th there and began 5th. However, he was placed in a classroom with a teacher that was completely the wrong person to be teaching him. Because it was a small school on an air station., we did not have a lot of options. This teacher made it impossible for us to leave him in the school. The school had a full-time nurse who was at the school full-time. On the morning in question, she was there. My son had health issues that it would take us until 2013 to get diagnosed (took that long for symptoms to get bad enough for us to want to put our son through endoscopies). We knew he had heath concerns and this particular day, I knew he did not feel good. But I asked him to try to hold out until lunch. However, the teacher took it upon herself to determine that my son was faking as a result of forgetting to bring the spelling words he was forced to select on the second week of school instead of the teacher providing the list of words to the students. She ended up yelling at me, not a good start for a conversation about my son. She told me I could do what I wanted to with my son - so I took him home. I knew my son was sick so what other choice would I make.
Based on the conversation with the teacher, I went home with my son and called my husband. I said something needed to change. Our other 3 children all attended this school and had wonderful teachers, wonderful classrooms and had all their needs being met. We had three choices - change all the children to a different school, change just Jacob to a different school (which didn't work because we would have to provide transportation and I could not be two places at one time). Or we could just homeschool our oldest. Mentally I had gone through all the possible decisions and investigated homeschooling before I talked to my husband. I knew I was up for the challenge - after all I had been a teacher in a classroom and taken the teacher certification courses. So that part didn't scare me. So I went into the conversation knowing what my decision was going to be. Surprisingly enough he agreed with my choice. Of course we had family members who were skeptical. But in the long run, the majority came around. Less than a month after bringing our son home we saw tremendous changes for the good in him. He started to enjoy being around his family. He started to do better with his schoolwork. Within that first year, my husband became a really staunch advocate of homeschooling.
We became part of a homeschool group, so that plus scouts gave him opportunities to be with others his own age. The next year we brought all the children home and I have to say it has been a tremendous blessing for our family.
