Homeschooling on The Brain

Two months since my last post...WHAT!?! Every time I hit publish I fully intend to return within a week. Sorry!

Not much has been going on though.  We are waiting on Chris to be given an aircraft and placed in a course for the final part of flight school.  The next part will determine how much longer we will be in Alabama.  I hope that we are here through next May so we can complete the full year of the co-op.

 

 Homeschooling is what is filling up my time.  Planning, teaching, cleaning up after the teaching, reading about teaching, listening to talks about teaching, and building new habits seems to be taking up my time when I'm not changing diapers or feeding someone.  This is NOT a complaint.  It's easy for me to use this space to whine, but I'm not whining here.  Shocking, I know.  I am thoroughly enjoying it the process, as messy as it may be.

I have determined that we are going to be year round schoolers.  It make sense for us, and it gives me the flexibility to take breaks when my ENFP gets bored.  Or the Army wants to change the rhythm of our home.  My kids won't really know they difference.

Our days lately have looked like this, breakfast, chores/play, morning time, lunch, lessons, and clean up.  I didn't give you times because it varies.  Lessons after lunch have been great mostly because I can think better and Becket is napping.  Simon plays well alone during that time, but he's always welcomed at the table.  Assuming no one is dragging their feet we get get lesson done in two the three hours.  I was reminded this evening that Owen needs a list. He will have one tomorrow.

Nature walk.

Nature journaling is hard.

I've been trying to do more nature studies.  Julie at Nurturing Learning has been so inspiring.  Her love for God's earth has been encouraging for me to "do betta".  I appreciate nature, but I don't love the way she does.   My kids love nature walks, collecting items, and documenting them in their nature journals.  I am doing my best to foster their love and not limit them because if my own "nature deficit" as I like to call it.

Morning time has been so lovely this week.  Sadly, it has been neglected, but we bounced back with no problem.  The kids have been receptive, and it has been a beautiful.  I cannot say it enough that every family should have a morning time...homeschooling or not.  Your Morning Basket is an amazing podcast on morning time.  Pam is wonderful and each episode is full of information and inspiration.

For the past few months I have been trying to learn as much as I can about classical education.  This book, Awakening Wonder: A Classical Guide to Truth, Goodness & Beauty by Stephan Turley, PhD is full of amazing passages.  It's more than just resource on pedagogy.  It gave me new perspective for my own life.  I have been commonplacing passages from the book and I feel I should just write the whole book in there. 

There is a local book club for classical educators which has been very fruitful.  God planted me here at just the right time (I don't want to leave).  We just finished reading The Tempest by William Shakespeare.  It's been so much fun to discuss literature.  The Book Broads is a book club with some online friends of mine.  We are reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett.  

The kids folding their laundry.

We have been working on habit forming.  And sometime times it look like the picture above.  But mostly it looks like the picture below.  So take solace in the fact that there is a strong chance that my house is in worse condition than yours.  And for some reason I posted it on the internet.

I will try not to stay away so long next time. But no promises. Peace, interwebs.

Gettin' Our Learin' On

Since coming home from our travels to North Carolina, we have stayed put.  We haven't wasted our days traveling around town on an empty mission just for something to do.  During the week we have (mostly) remained at home.  It's a nice change of pace, though I have had a bit of cabin fever.  I can't claim to have been extremely productive in the home, either.

Last week we returned to our lessons.  It was rocky some days and smooth others.  We are still trying to find our groove.  Morning time is by far everyone's favorite, and has been the smoothest part of our school day.  We begin with the Morning Offering prayer and then into our memory work.  We are working from Classically Catholic Memory alpha year, and everyone seems to at least tolerate it.  I let the kids take the timeline cards and put them in order on the floor.  They have really enjoyed it.  We have also started using Blob Maps for map tracing with zero resistance from the kids.  We finish up by reading A Bear Called Paddington while they draw in their journals.  On Saturday I bought some marmalade for the kids to try.  Owen is the only one that seems to enjoy it.

I have been working my own thinking muscle.  Along with the eCourse on classical education, I'm reading Awakening Wonder: A Classical Guide to Truth, Goodenss, & Beauty with some lovely ladies and discussing it using the Voxer app.  Classical education is so intimidating, but it pairs so well with our faith.  It feels like the best option for us.  But how do we have a classical homeschool?  I don't know.    I'm still working on that.  For now since classical schools do memory work...ok, we'll do memory work. Classical schools learn Latin...ok we'll learn Latin.

Reading and learning about classical education, I feel that I need to try and fill in the gaps of my own education.  Sadly those gaps are quite large...embarrassingly large, especially in literature.  I'm not classically educated...sometimes if feel barely educated.  So the past couple of months have been a bit emotional about homeschool and capabilities.  But I digress.  2016 I'm reforming my reading habits.  While reading the nonfiction with the Voxer group, I'm going to have a fiction book going as well.  So, I'm reading Little Women for the first time.  It has been so delightful.  I can't wait to read it with Amelia!

I'm working on a post for my education metaphor.  I have it, but I'm having a hard time crafting my words.  Choosing a metaphor has been really great.  It's made me really think about what education means to me, and what it will mean to this home.  Be on the look out for that.

Chris as has tomorrow off.  Exciting.  I can tell the day is going to fly by, but it's nice to have him home an extra day.  He's in the thick of flight school lots of studying.  When I can, I get the kids out of the house to give him some silence.

I hope 2016 is treating you well.  :)

Stumbling through Nature

I have several posts started and saved and unpublished.  I get so much typed out, and it is not what I had intended to share.  My brain is currently flooded with so many things that I'm more scattered than usual.  So before I get off topic and away from the intent of this post I will just get it started.

NATURE STUDIES

We are trying to implement nature studies into our school days.  For the most part the outdoors is not my thing; I don't like being hot, attacked by bugs, or being wet (unless I'm at the pool).  I'm also not very knowledgeable, but exposing my kids to the outdoors is important.  Our backyard is not full of hidden wonders other than the clover that have taken over.  Did you see my IG?  Intentionally letting them explore never crossed my mind as something to do as a family until lately while studying of education philosophies.  Actually it was other people's ideas that I have just adopted.  Since we started school, we have gone on a few nature walks where we specifically try to absorb the world we live in.  Regardless as to how awkward it may be.

Yesterday, we hit the trails that Chris sometimes has to run for PT.  Kinda woodsie.  I brought a bag to collect things for us to examine more closely later.  It wasn't too long into the walk that Simon gave up by laying in the middle of the trail.  Chris picked him up.  Luckily he was not carried the whole time, but we probably should have taken his peaceful protest as a sign.  At one point we had to choose the long or the short trail...we choose the long trail.  We found lots of great things, but 2.3 miles was probably a little more than the little Lockhart legs could handle.

I accidentally stepped in a fire ant hill (attacked by bugs!), but the kids got to see the ants come out and protect their eggs. Silver-lining?  Chris knew some of the plants' names and how they can be used should they need to make a rope.  He found yucca plants which can be eaten.  Amelia and Simon tried the plant yesterday and Owen got the nerve this morning.

The little white things are eggs.

Chewing on a yucca plant.

He tried it too.

A day later.

We observed some really beautiful things yesterday.

This morning I laid out what we collected so we could take a closer look.  While I did that, the kids recalled what they saw yesterday.  They even remembered some of the facts that Chris shared with them.  Owen pulled out the nature journals so everyone could draw some of their observations.  I was so pleased with their efforts.

The things we gathered.

The cypress tree branch had as strong delightful smell.

This sassafras root smelled like licorice.

Journaling

Sorry for the picture overload, but I'm really happy with the whole process.  It felt a little forced in the beginning, but at some point it was no longer awkward and the whole experience was very organic.  Other than exhaustion toward the end of our 2.3 mile walk, there wasn't any complaining just enjoying time spent together and taking in the world around us.  

How I Survived SERE

If you do not know, SERE is a three week survival course for soldiers. Not all soldiers receive this training, but Chris has to have it. It's like some super secret training. The soldiers have to sign a contract stating they will not disclose details about their training. Not even to their wives.  Since I am not sure what it took for Chris to survive SERE, I will give you a detailed account of how the kids and I barely survived.  Because we all know I'm the weakest and the most dramatic.

The day Chris left set the tone for the three weeks that would follow. Kids were crabby. My house was a wreck. (My house is ALWAYS a wreck when Chris leaves. I don't understand why, but it is).  The children were less than stellar at church and the quick trip to the store. We were eating lunch before I dropped him off and Simon and Becket were screaming. Amelia and Owen were bickering. Blood pressures were rising. I turned to him and said "bugs and rattlesnakes sounds pretty good right now, huh?" He chuckled and said "yeah".  That first week really was challenging.  It took several days for us to find a groove.  The house was out of control! 

Our poor school room is still recovering.

Once I got this cleaned up we moved our school day to here.

This room felt worse when I took this picture.

I have NEVER claimed to be an organized person.  With every bone in my body, I wish I was.  I'm in awe of those with natural organizational skills.  The kids had soccer and dance to keep us busy.  It helped, though slowing down Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was nice too.  

The second week I ended up with a low grade fever.  ME!  I was completely thrown for a loop.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  Super Why on Netflix and snacks while I did my best keep my insides down.  Owen and Amelia did a great job helping me with the babes by fetching diapers and what not.  It was another reminder that I have some really great kids that I take for granted more often than I would ever want to admit.

Even though a sore throat and cough remained, things did turn around about halfway through.  We managed to do some school work.  The kids asked for and received a poetry tea party.  We pulled out our nature journals.  

A little bit of Morning Time.

Poetry Tea Party as promised.

Owen is reading without being told to do so.  First and only time so far, but worth documenting.

The week smoothed out, but you can see the chaos and Netflix were not completely eliminated, sadly. 

We finished out the three weeks by reading The Adventures of Reddy Fox by Thornton W. Burgess. We just finished it and started The Adventures of Chatterer The Red Squirrel.  I'm having a hard time gauging how my kids are handling chapter books as read alouds.  My kids ask for more chapters when I read.  I'm not sure if it is to delay bedtime or if they are really enjoying them, but they were thrilled to start the next book.  

The Friday before Chris returned the kids were drawing for two hours.  I was shocked!  They were working their fine motor skills so I called it school while I tried to catch up on house work.  They really impressed me with their work.  

On a whim I decided to take the kids grocery shopping.  I was going to wait until Chris was home so I could do it alone, but I must have felt ambitious.  It went really well! One lady stopped me to tell me how well behaved they were.  And they were well behaved.  The last 20 minutes Simon was getting bored so it started to get iffy.  He was calmed by giving him a pack of hot dog buns that he later used to beat his sister with.  She didn't seem to mind, it got us out of the store without a scene, and we were still able to eat the buns.  A win, I say!

Sunday we collected Chris.  He wasn't as famished as I had expected.  He had lost some weight, but not as bad as I had built up in my head.  Ya know sunken eyes and visible rib cage.  I told you I'm the dramatic one.  He was covered in chigger bite and was clearly sore.  Poor guy.  But he was in good spirits.  I think he was just glad to be home.

Now we are just waiting for the next phase of flight school.  It will be a new type of stress.  Lots of studying on his part.  The kids and I finding ways to give him space so he can get things done.  So prayers are always appreciated.