What homeschooling has taught me...

Although my kids have been the recipients of my homeschool teaching for the past four years (bless their hearts), I often feel like I am the one who has been learning. Homeschooling has taught me some of my most important lessons in life. So in no particular order, here is what I have learned the past four years while homeschooling my children.

1. I have learned that I can do it. The most common thing I hear from people who find out we homeschool is "Oh, I could never do that!" I said the same thing once but have learned that as long as I do things on the strength of the Lord and not on my own strength, I can educate my children and be good at it too.

2. I have learned that having a healthy, deep, and loving relationship with each of my kids takes time, effort, and patience. Because we have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together, I have gained a beautiful relationship with each of my kids. Of course we have our moments (and always will), but we get through them and come out stronger.

3. I have learned that my kids are all uniquely gifted and each take a different teaching approach in how they learn best. I have had to learn how to work with each one of them in a unique way, in a way that works best for them as a student and me as the teacher.

4. I have learned that time goes by fast and homeschooling is just a chapter in my, what I hope to be, long life.

5. I have learned that my kids are really fun to be with day in, day out. I love spending time with them and will forever cherish the quality time I get with them on a weekly basis. (this kind of goes along with #2)

6. I have learned that I will always have my critics when it comes to homeschooling, but my obedience is to the Lord and that is what I live by. So at the end of the day, that is really all that matters. We had a clear calling from God to homeschool, so as long as that calling (for each child) continues, we will continue to be obedient.

7. I have learned that walking patiently with my kids through their challenges is not an easy task but there is a huge reward when they overcome and finally "get it!" There is nothing quite like these sweet victories.

8. I have learned that I'm not perfect, my kids aren't perfect, and we live in an imperfect world but we serve a perfect God. I have my moments where I fail as teacher, they have their moments where they fail as students, but we have the promise of a new tomorrow.

9. I have learned that adjusting my priorities and letting go of having a house that is always clean and straightened up is freeing. If people pop in to say hi and my house is a mess, I'm really okay with that. I'm sure the day will come all too soon when I'm no longer homeschooling and have time to spend keeping a tidy home. Plus, true friends don't judge if a house looks like it's lived in and who doesn't live in their house! :)

10. I have learned that my husband is one amazing man who fully supports our efforts to homeschool and we are indeed a team when it comes to educating our children. I have also learned that my marriage and parenting comes before homeschooling and the importance of keeping these priorities in check.

11. I have learned that history and geography are still my worse subjects. I still teach both but I'm constantly checking to make sure my information is correct.

12. I have learned that flexibility is important. A schedule is wonderful but there are days when my plans need to give a little or a lot, and some days I just have to "roll with it".

13. I have learned that I'm a nerd at heart and I'm proud of it. Science projects, math problems, classic novels, weather, the stars, all these things fascinate me and get me all fired up. And it's super cool when I see my kids acting like nerds too.

14. I have learned that my kids don't have to be involved in every activity under the sun, I refuse to be running around from one activity to the next cause that's just not me or the pulse of our family. We encourage our kids to go after what interests them and do that one thing really really well.

15. I have learned that I don't need a teaching degree to teach my children. I know there are AMAZING teachers out there and I have the utmost respect for them but at the same time I know that I love my children more than any other teacher could (or should), I know my kids better than any other teacher could, I invest in my kids more than any other teacher could, and I want my kids to succeed more than any other teacher could. That is what drives me to be the best teacher I could possibly be for them.

16. I have learned that having a support system of other homeschool moms who go through the same trials I do is vital. These friends just "get it" and when I'm ready to quit, they rally around me and remind me as to why I'm doing what I'm doing.

17. I have learned that reading out loud to my kids is therapeutic. It's my most favorite time of day, we have read some amazing books together and I hope they will have the same love of reading out loud to their kids as well.

18. I have learned that letting my growing boys sleep in on a school day is a-okay cause after all they perform so much better during school when they are well rested and in good moods. Not having a time constraint of having school done by a certain time is very freeing.

19. I have learned that our family LOVES documentaries. I never knew that before we started homeschooling but it's been a great tool for our family to use when studying various topics.

20. I have learned that the relationship my kids share with each other is important. It's been a beautiful thing to watch their relationships develop and evolve. They truly are each others best friend.  They watch out for each other, they hang out with each other, and they enjoy spending time together. (of course they have their moments and always will, but I pray that the closeness they have will last a lifetime.)

21. I have learned that teaching my kids reading, writing, math, history, geography, etc... is important to becoming a successful adult but teaching them to become men and women who will love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind and being a light in this world is far more important than any homeschool lesson I will ever teach them. 

Deuteronomy 11:18-20
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

Pre- summer Fun!

Oh blog, what shall I do with thee? It seems my posts are getting further and further apart yet I just can't not blog because I sure love our printed blog books at the end of each year, so I will blog and do my best to record special family events as they happen. We did enjoy a vacation to California but I left my camera at home, on purpose, because we were spending most of our time at Six Flags Magic Mountain and I knew rough rides wouldn't be friendly to my camera so I kept it at home safe and sound. I did however caputure many pics on my iPhone so once I download those pics, I'll make sure to post them on here. This past weekend was beautiful, our first "warm/hot" weekend we have had. We busted out the water balloons, pool toys, and sidewalk chalk and spent hours enjoying the outdoors. We sure do love Arizona! Here are some pics from our pre-summer fun weekend. 

 Our Pepper, who is now 10, is starting to lose his hearing. It's very sad. I'm  not sure what to do about it. I can't imagine him being deaf and how he would cope with that. He has always been an anxious dog who gets depressed easily, I can't imagine what going deaf would do to him. I'm so not prepared to be dealing with a declining dog. Pepper is part of our family and like one of our kids/siblings. It will be a heartbreaking day when we have to say goodbye. :(

 Anna and Camden filled up 200 water balloons all by themselves. Crazy kids!

 This was part of the process of moving water balloons from the pool area to the front yard. I guess if you don't have a pouch, you create one. LOL

 Me! I was photographing the pre-summer fun.

 Our grass is filling in and greening up, and I love our monster tree. When the wind blows it looks like a monster, thus we call it our monster tree.

Welcome summer of 2013!

A little horse ride

Anna just finished studying all about horses in homeschool. I think we must have checked out about 30 books on horses and over a period of 3 weeks she read every one of them. She also completed a lapbook on horses. The next step was to bring our studies to life by seeing/riding a horse in person, something Anna has never had the opportunity to do before. Luckily we have friends who own horses and they were kind enough to let Anna come over and see what it's all about! Here are some pictures from our time there, Anna had a great time! Camden also got to ride a horse as well.

Easter egg hunt, on the roof?

This year we only had two eager ones who wanted to go on an Easter egg hunt, so Jadon (the non eager one) got in on the action and helped us with the hiding of the eggs. And because he's a teenager and enjoys living on another planet the wild side, he decided to hide one of his brother's eggs on the roof. I would have panicked with this thought a few years ago but something has happened to me as our kids get older and I just go crazy with the flow. Thankfuly nobody was hurt in the making of this Easter egg hunt. 

I'm still here...just not as much

I've been blogging pretty consistantly since 2007, but lately (if anyone has noticed) I've not been putting out as many blog posts as I have in the years past. It seems like the older our kids get, the busier we get and our priorities change. Blogging has slipped to a lower priority and I'm becoming ok with that. The only reason I blog is to be able to create our blog books that I print at the end of each year. We've got 6 books and I cherish each one of them and so do the kids and Michael. They hold our memories, our pictures tell a story, and my words express the ups and downs that our family faces. I just need to come to terms with the fact that if I don't blog as much, it's totally fine if our books aren't as thick as in years past. I'm sure I'll highlight important events, family vacations, and funny stories now and then. All this to say I'm still here, just not as much as I used to be and that's ok! Here are a few pictures from our traditional Good Friday Hike.

Full moon beauty

On Feb. 25th, this beautiful moon appeared in the night sky. It was so gorgeous! It reminds me of what the moon looked like on the night Camden was born. I enjoyed taking pictures of it!