__ It's a good full__: January 2016

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Dyslexia Therapy with NON-dyslexic kids? YES INDEED! Part 1: My Son

Sounds weird right? I thought so too when it first started rolling around in my head. I'll be honest though, it never would have crossed my mind if it hadn't been for the fact that the Do-it Yourself Homeschool Journals (that we adore) are produced by/are the same company as Dyslexia Games.
I joined the DyslexiaGames fb page in order to stay up to date on their homeschooling products and because of that, I received info in my news feed about dyslexia stuff.
Why does this matter? We are getting there. Before moving forward though, let me tell you about my middle son A10.

A's story: A tale of frustration...

A10 gets mentioned alot when it comes to certain themes: reluctant reading, reluctant hand writing, very little reading progression, inability to spell, difficult-ness in general, being a "hard" toddler and younger kid, impulsiveness, low early language skills (very early on and not for very long), etc in "those" types of areas. At 10 years old now, he still keeps me on my toes BUT he is really pretty easy. Consistency in parenting, constantly going after the heart issues, and continually allowing there to be Grace and Mercy in all areas with him and schooling has brought us to this point. But man-alive!!! Things could have been so much better, so much sooner! To really understand all this, you need to know about A.

A when he was 18 months old

As a young toddler, 18 months, he didn't say a whole lot. He had started to talk around 10 months but as soon as he could walk, the language came to a halt... like he didn't really use it at all. When he started talking consistently is was like a cave man. He said "ME. ME A" the only other thing he said for a long time was "BAH" and depending on the voice inflection it meant different things. BUT, also at 18 months he could ride a 2 wheel razor scooter 4 miles, without help or complaint. I figured, and saw, that his active skills where moving along at a huge rate and his language skills just weren't.
A10 continued in this same manner: super active, super impulsive, super good at physical activity. His language skills were fine (other than the weird start he caught right up and was never behind). A was a super creative, loving, naughty, difficult little kid! I say that with all the love in my heart. To say he was difficult is an understatement. A was busy, impulsive, and... self-centered to a fault.
Many, many, many people told me that they thought he was ADHD. But I knew him and I knew he wasn't.... and really it wouldn't have mattered, I wouldn't have done med's anyway. A is a lot of things but ADD/ADHD is not one of them. A is a boy. A foolish boy. He was extremely impulsive and the punishment was always worth the crime for him. What he needed was good, old fashioned parenting and a Jesus moment (or two)!

When A10 started kindergarten, he did so as a "young" student, as his birthday is in August. I didn't really think much about it; his oldest sister, F16's birthday, is the day before his and she did fine. A10 was very bright, liked learning (though he didn't really like formal education type stuff) and was 5 so why not. He was excited about school and likes to do things, so really, why should I have worried?

A when he was 5. He was sooooo good at
physical things, like gymnastics. Skill wise, he
was moved up to the "boys pre- comp". This is
a class with mostly boys around 10 years old.
Needless to say, he was kicked out of that class
for not obeying his coaches and licking the floor mats.
Praise God for Coach Mike, The only Coach
A could work with. Coach Mike called A
"Hotrod". He had a mohawk and tats. A liked him.

OH GOOD GRIEF!!! The things I know now that I didn't know then!!!! Long story short- this has been one huge painstaking problem! You see, by this time in my homeschooling, my whole goal for kindy was to teach them to read! Well, A10 more or less knew his letters and sounds but could not seem to retain anything. He became easily frustrated and so did I.
"Okay... he's young! He will be ready next year!"
Well, we did the same thing for 1st grade.... and 2nd grade... and 3rd grade.... and most of 4th grade too! I just could not figure it out! What WAS his PROBLEM?????? How is it that he could know so much and nothing at the same time? Meanwhile, his math took off once we started teaching textbooks (which talks to him- no reading involved) and he loved other areas of school.... as long as there was no reading and preferably very little writing involved.

I did everything I thought was right. I separated reading and writing from the other things in his schooling. We did everything verbally. His comprehension was fine. Creativity was fine. Love of learning was fine... although he was not that impressed with anything that was more academic than educational.
I soothed myself with so many "excuses" that seemed legit in order to feel like it was all fine:

he's young
he's A
he's working on so many heart issues
he really could be in the grade under
some kids don't get reading until they are older
he's doing fine in math (more on that later and there are some reasons)
he just isn't ready.
he's kind of pouty about it because his sister (who is in the same grade but almost a year older) is advanced.
he wold just rather be playing.

Back when school was more boring. You
can't see A's face but he was NOT HAPPY.

Now all of those things were REAL AND LEGIT but they were not bridging the gap. Whatever that gap was! I knew that something was amiss. See, there were some things I didn't see in A that I saw in the other kids. Differences with learning that I didn't see in my older children:

He didn't try reading/writing on his own.
Never asked me how to spell things.
Beyond his name he seemed to have no need for words.
It took him a lonnnng time to concrete letters and sounds and words as far as a written thing, the other kids never seemed to have that problem.

I tried not to be too stressed out. After-all, there is still time and I just figured that he would eventually get it. In the mean time, everything I chose for him to do was based on him not needing to write a lot or read much. We still read out loud and listened to audio books- which he liked. I just kept plugging along and figured that it would all just fix itself.

Read part 2 here.....

LINKS for this series:
Part 1,
Part 2
Part 3

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Science that kids (and Moms) actually like!

I don't like messy, time consuming, projects coming out of my ears science. It feels forced. I hate it. I DO LIKE science that is real, applicable, and natural. Not that all those messy, time consuming projects don't have their place or can't be fun but..... seriously, there has got to be a better way. And there is. Queens Homeschool Science Books.
We have been using Queens curric in our homeschooling for 9 years now. Queens is "Charlotte Mason in a workbook" and it's AWESOME!

So many homeschoolers that I talk to seem to be having such... consternation, with science. They are afraid of it. Overwhelmed by it. Plain ole ignoring it! I get it. I tried many different science programs and felt like most of it had toooooooo much information and toooooooo many applications. I didn't like it and after the initial happiness from doing the first one or two projects, my kids didn't like them either. I think they too, felt like there was information overload.... Or it was lame.

Having fun with Mary's Meadow

Currently, Queens has 14 books in their "Discovering Nature" series. Of Those I have:

Ones I do not have yet:

Mary's Meadow

Queens science is Christian based but is still science. Sometimes, I feel like, many Christian curriculum's get so "overly Christian" that you can loose touch with the learning part of the curriculum. Queens is not that way. It's Christian for sure, but you are not going to be overwhelmed with "christian-ese" and lose touch with the educational aspects. (Hoping I stated all that right.)

One of the things I love about Queens is that they are "open and go". Just open the book up and get going! No teachers manuals needed! And it's laid out so that you cover one lessons for each day of the school year (180 days or 36 weeks). This makes it very easy to implement and keep on track.

Another things I love is that it is easy to use with multiple kids/grades/ages. The books are not listed by grade but by suggested grade ranges, e.g. :early elementary, middle school, junior high, highschool, etc. It is very easy to grab whatever level fits the best range of your kids and to use one study for all of them. This is also handy for kids that are already sensitive to grade levels and would get upset if they saw they were in a "4th grade book" while they are in the 6th grade. No worries, it's upper elementary! Crisis averted!

The books are designed for personal use and if you use them that way, your children get a wonderful "scrapbook" like keepsake when they are done. We could not always afford that. We use one book for all kids and when it gets to the application, they create their own pages on regular white paper. They hole punch and add their pictures to their science notebook and away they go. This way, we do not break copywrite rules.
HOWEVER! IF YOU BUY THE DIGITAL COPY then you MAY print off as many copies of the book for personal family use. But bee forwarned... it can be a lot of paper! We did this for "Every Herb bearing Seed" and it's ginormous! BUT! It's a great deal and a great way to do it!

The way each book works is like this: There is a REAL STORY that goes with each book (the Parables in Nature book is a collection of parables and not a continuous story). These stories are so good that my kids have actually read the science books for their personal reading time! The stories are in the books and go with each lesson. Each week works like this:

we used an art lesson from
art hub for kids on youtube for
one of our applications.

Day One: Read the story. Each week, on Monday, is a new chapter. Each chapter is around 2-4 pages long.
Day Two: Application
Day Three: Application
Day Four: Application
Day Five: Application

Very easy to do, easy to implement and enjoyable!

Queens is big on teaching kids to love finding answers and researching. I taught my kids how to navigate this by hooking my computer to the TV and showing them "how to research" and use the internet. We also would get books from the library. We use YOUTUBE a lot too, to look up things and add to our learning.

There are some little projects that come up but they are all easy and doable. The highschool ones have more than the younger grades and they are more involved, hands on stuff, but it's still not "rocket science". They have a list of supplies for projects and.... there is prolly a youtube video of someone else who has done it too, if you need to default to that.

The stories are all enjoyable and the chapters are not overwhelming. As the books progress into higher grade levels, the stories get longer, words get smaller and application get more "meaty". (More research, writing, doing).

Okay, so here is how I use them =)

We block schedule, so we only do science on M/T. We also One Room Schoolhouse, which means I teach across the board and can alter the applications to each childs' progressive academic level.

Now that I have so many varying grades, I break them up into groups. High school, Junior high, middle school and elementary. I teach the 3 youngest and then each buddy group gets their book and does their lesson together. Afterward, they check in and they show me their work and give me a break down of what they learned. If you teach one book over a wide range of kids, pick something mid level. One year I bought for my oldest but, taught to all of them and it was hard. The stories were too long for my little people.

With my little guys sit on the couch to listen to the story and then I read. I will often pause and

bring up pictures for them to look at of things as we read about them. If the story is about a lion, I will have a lion up for them to see. (Many times it's just google images). Then we will do one or two applications. The next day we will do the remaining applications and then maybe watch a youtube video and or play a game or do an art project I make up. It all kind of depends on what the applications are and what I might do to either keep them the same or make them different. Because I am teaching 3 different grade levels, what I might have my 5 year old do could be different from my 8 year old. For instance, if the application says to "list four things turtles eat", my 5 year old would just draw pictures but my 8 year old would draw pictures and write the names of the food. As you can see though, I don't need a lot of brain power to alter things. The application they have is a solid springboard!

Our Animal Friends

Queens is not only fun and packed full of learning but it is also inspiring! One year, my 12 yearold daughter Mg was so inspired by gardening due to Mary's Meadow, that she opened her own business and profited over $600 in one summer! This year, my younger crew is learning about animals through veterinarian stories. We bought supplies at the $tree and made a vet kit. They love playing animal doctor! My second oldest loves herbs and natural health and is always making her own teas and healthy things from what she is learning in her book! You know the curriculum you are using is good when it inspires your children to learn more than what is even presented!

We have only struggled with 2 books, both highschool ones. Behold the heavens and Further Investigation. Behold the heavens was a little hard for us to do in a part of the US where it is cloudy, raining and/or cold throughout many months of the year. It was hard to find a clear night to be able to see the stars and in the warmer months it stays light out for so long that it just didn't work. Besides that is summer and who wants to still be doing school? We used the computer and star programs to help. She got it done and worked through her frustrations with the weather. So not a book problem but a sky problem. The Chemistry one my girls just didn't like. The story was great but they just didn't really like the area of learning. This was a preference issue and nothing more.

The only other qualm I have ever had is that many of the stories in the books have seasonal themes running through them but they usually start in winter and end with fall. But a typical school year starts in fall and ends with summer. This made for a few challenges with a few hands on things but we easily worked them out.

Below I have featured a sample of at least one book from 4 different levels of learning- so take a look! Each picture features ONE WEEK of school. Beyond that, I am done sharing with you all. Hope you enjoyed it!

EARLY ELEMENTARY

MIDDLE SCHOOL

JUNIOR HIGH

HIGH SCHOOL

Monday, January 18, 2016

YOU ASKED, "What do you do about...." and I ANSWERED =)

These are questions that I get asked all the time by you, by people I know in person, by random people in walmart (true story). "What do you do about....", questions always come up for those with large families. For this post I have kind of limited it down to more practical, day to day things. Like socks and clothing and stuff.
Large families or any families for that matter, need to have some sort of method to the madness for life to work. I do best with uncomplicated systems. I don't like paper or notes or things that need a lot of brain power to figure out. My "systems" were mostly born out desperation and survival! I have kept them over the years with few changes because they work! Hope you enjoy a peek in to my world!

Girls room

Bedrooms:
Bedrooms do not hold toys. They are sleeping rooms. They have beds and books and clothing. The less "toys" in there the better. Now, as my kids have gotten older. More has been placed in their room but that's because they can handle it.
They have always been allowed to play in their rooms but, at the end of the day, toys live elsewhere!
When my kids were younger they all shared one sleeping room. Then later one, we separated. Little ones "getting trained" usually went from the baby room to a big girl room and then to the boy room.

ROOM RULES:
I love my room rules! Starting when my kids were very little the rules was 7 pm- 7 am. We still more or less have the same rules even with older kids. At 7 you go to bed and if you wake up before 7 you "keep sleeping". At 7 you may read until "Mom/Dad WAKE up the house" until then, you stay in your room, and on your bed.
Kids under 5 are allowed to have some stuffed animals to play with but quietly and on their bed. Kids still in cribs (for me that is like birth to 3 or 4) get stuffed animals and some cloth books or board books. Babies/toddlers of course will make more noise but older kids need to be quiet.

D7b with his book box on his bed reading.

This was hardest to teach to the first few kids but after that it was a breeze! Younger kids naturally do what the older kids do so when you come out of a crib, you go into a big kid room and they train you. Very easy.
This rule has made it to where I do not have kids roaming the house, getting into food, tearing apart their rooms, ect.
Now that my kids are older, the under 13 crowd go to bed at 7 and read until 7:30. The teens stay up until 8 in the general home area. They can read or do quiet things like draw, play games, etc.
Like I said it was a lot of work training the first few kids and one of my kids basically had to live in my room until he was 5 because he could not be trusted anywhere else. (longggggg story) BUT, our of the 16 1/2 years of having kids, the morning routine was only hard for about 3 years (from when my oldest was 2 until about 5). And the training years were totally worth it!

Personal stuff totes:

We have 18 gallon totes for big kids and my little kids have the 10 gallon ones. When the kids get something, like for their birthday or the make something they want to keep, that is where their personal stuff goes. If a child leaves their item out and a sibling gets it, there is a "reasonable" amount of grace given the owner to not have to share and reclaim the item. After a while (usually, for us, a few weeks), if you leave your item out and someone else plays with it, then you have to let them play with it but, you may say, "when you are done please bring it to me so I can put it away".
If you leave your item out in general it will get picked up and thrown in the misc. bin. If you run out of space in your bin then you need to go through your stuff and purge.

Eventually, most items kids no longer have an interest in claiming and the items get placed in the designated bin.
For instance, if D7b gets legos for his birthday, he will probably "lay claim" to them for about a month. After that, those new legos that he has been keeping in his special box will eventually end up in the main lego bin. Another for instance, when my girls were younger they had the "sweet streets doll house" stuff. If Fg got a new doll house and people for Christmas then she had "first rights" to said items. After a few months, they are just fair game unless being kept in her special box.
This system has worked excellently for years!!!!!! I did change the totes to under the bed rolling totes for the older kids and that is working great too. It's a beautiful thing for sure =)
Now, as the kids have gotten older, the older kids have less toys and more specific things. The Girls in their room have additional art supplies being stored (one of my daughters is an artist), paper crafting supplies and crochet stuff. Boys... they don't really collect things yet and we don't do video games.
In each big kid room, each child does have a small area to put out a thing or two of their choice. Girls have jewelry boxes and picture frames, boy show off their bionicle creations.

Toys:
Limit and have somewhere for them to go. In the past and when I had more little people, I turned the hall closet into the toy closet. I stuck a plastic shelf in there and all my toy bins fit. It was wonderful. The more you simplify it, the easier it will be to keep track, clean up, and cut down on fights.

The ONE misc toy bin on our
homeschool and book shelf

I found out that no matter how much they had they still played with the same 3 categories mostly. Girls: doll houses, dress up and tea parties; Boys: vehicles, legos, action figures. So I limit, even if something else seems cool, I would not buy it because it would have "no home" in my home. Aside from the main stuff, we also had a tote for craft/coloring, blocks/trains, stuffed animals.... which I limit to 3 or 4 per person (do the math that is 30-40 stuff animals in my house- more than enough)
If you do keep toy totes in their room, maybe try and get all the toys in the closet. The closet is OFF LIMITS. If a child goes in there and takes something when they shouldn't, like at bedtime, they get disciplined AND that tote is now "in time out" for say... 3 days, in mom and dads room. That's right! everyone suffers from that one. There is a corporate effect to our sin!
So if sister #3 sinned and played with the toys when she should have been sleeping, that affected everyone! Now sister #1 and sister #2 can not play with dollhouses either. This train of thought will actually help the kids to encourage eachother to make good choices. Some exception may apply like maybe you decide that the 2 other girls can play with them in your room but not the offending one. It's a judgement call.
At this point in time with my youngest being 5, I only have one small bin of misc toys that fit in the black ikea box on our ikea shelf. The little boys have legos, hot wheels, some dress ups, and their misc. bin (which holds their action figures and misc toys). The older boys mainly just play outside or with legos. The girls do lots of artsy stuff.

We do not do video games or computer games (outside of schooly stuff). During my kids' free time, they play outside, play board/group games, lego's, read and do arts and crafts... and their own made up stuff.

Towels:
We put a towel rack up in each bedroom (would have done the bathroom if I had large bathrooms). Each child has their own color towel and they have 2 each. One stays in the cupboard and one hangs up. 1x a week we "switch out". This way I know who is leaving their towel on the floor.

Clothing and "The dot thing":

Using a dark sharpie: First boy/girls clothes gets one dot on the tag, when it gets passed down to the next boy/girl you add a dot and the third you add a dot, ect. With 6 boys I went up to 4 dots and then started over again. In hind sight, I think I would have liked starting over at 3 dots. It was no big deal starting over as the size difference in clothing from the original dot owner to the "start over" dot owner is clear enough that there is no confusion.
In later years: For the girls, I only mark their pants. They know whose shirts belong to whom. For the boys I will either use the dots or write the first letter of their name.

Whose clothes are whose?:

E5b gets his clothes out in the
morning to get dressed.

As far as "who gets what"- ummmm- no. You don't get to be picky. You get whatever DOT you are. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. If it's your dot and you are that dot, you wear it.
For like 12 years H14.9g and M13g were both 2 dots. There were very few exceptions to our "fair game" rules. For instance, Jackets- you had your own. Or if you got a special shirt or dress for your birthday. They were always very respectful of things like... if Hg got a shirt for her birthday, that was "her shirt" but it still got 2 dots on it and went in the same drawer as all the other stuff.
Also, since I condensed their clothing to one category, I didn't have as many things. So if Fg got 5 pants, 7 shirts and 3 dresses, then Hg/Mg got 8 pants, 10 shirts and 6 dresses. Fair but within reason that they had a bigger wardrobe in the 2 dot category.

Pajamas:
I dot PJ's too and they usually only have 2-3 pairs each. They wear one set for a few nights (goes under their pillow in the day) and then swap out. Littlest kids have more pairs because in the winter I double up (skinny pj's under the one piece footed zip up pj's) and, in general, they tend to need to go through more pj's.

What about under things?:
Buy them different stuff. Fg has one brand of underwear, The Reds (H/M) another, and Chg another. Same for socks, tights, bra's, etc. I either put a dot in or I stitched 1 line or two lines, ect. Again as they get into their teens, I mark less because "they know".

Limiting clothing:
We limit... and I just encourage you to limit. Limit the amount of clothes to what you actually want to wash. If the kids took all of their clothing out and dirtied them in one day, is that an appropriate amount of laundry? If you would not want to do more than 4 loads- limit it. I limit by amount. they get 5 pairs of pants, 7 shirts ect... I keep a tote on the top shelf of the closet full of more things so that if an item is stained or ripped I can "go shopping" in that tote for replacements.

Clothing expectations:

Behind the door are their dresses.

I will first talk about what worked for years and then with what we are doing now with older kids.
We don't have dressers in my kids rooms because there is no room and I found I liked it better! (If I had a room to use as a family closet I would- just say'n). Okay, I have done it different ways based on the room and what I have. My favorite, and is still mostly in use, is the 3 drawer totes.
Each child has a 3 drawer tote. The bottom drawer is pants, middle is shirts and top in socks/undies. (For those that share dots, the socks are in one persons totes and the undies in another).
We don't really fold clothing: We throw socks and undies in a drawer, pants and shirts get rolled neatly and put in a drawer and I have an open tote to toss all pj's in. This was do-able for them. It was frustrating when I required everything to be folded. Once I "let go" of that, things were smooth sailing!

That is the system I used FOR YEARS! (like until Fg was 13), eventually my older kids got to the point where a lot of their clothing was just too big to fit, so we do it a little different now.
The girls still use the 3 drawer totes. Shirts and skirts get hung up. Bottom drawer is rolled pants, then under things and then pj's. Dresses get hung up.

Top two drawers are undies and socks
The bottom two are for pants. Two
boys each share one pant drawer.
NO FOLDING, just toss them in!

The 4 older boys hang up all shirts and they go in sections in the closet that are divided by green, sparkly hangers. They share a mega drawer thing for the other stuff. Pants for two boys in one drawer and pants for two others in another. Socks in one and undies in another of the little drawers. Their PJ basket is in the closet and they have a small plastic thing that sits ontop of their hefty drawers for white t-shirts.

The two youngest have one drawer for all their PJ's and then all of their other clothes get thrown into their own black bin. Yes.... thrown. I don't even care anymore. Plus it's easy and they can do it. The bins are marked with a pinned on tab so each boy knows which bin is his.
I find it amazing that A) so much actually fits in there and B)as long as you don't buy things that wrinkle, then the clothing is not really wrinkly. It's all good folks!

I have a bin for swimming stuff that sits at the top of a closet because we go to the pool all the time and half a closet in the little boy room is full of my older kids' Cotillion clothing. Jackets get hung in their locker on the porch and snowgear stays in the shed until we need it. And there ya go!

SOCKS:

I hate doing socks- they annoy me. I also don't particularly like un-matching socks on peoples feet. I know, I know, it's "in" but not at my house! We pin our socks together with one safety pin. When we take them off, we simply pin them together before they go in the wash. This way they stay together! When we put our socks on, the safety pin stays on one sock.
And let me tell ya! You would never believe how many times that safety pin "saved the day" when out and about and someone needed a safety pin! True story!
Now, someone always forgets to pin them (or doesn't take the time to) so I do have it on my chore list that at the end of the day someone goes through the sock box and matches and pins. The "sock box" is just the laundry basket that gets used to get stuff out of the dryer. No magic there- lol.
If socks have holes or rips; they get thrown away.
Also, everyone gets different "kinds" of socks. Older boys all wear black socks. They all wear the same size so they have a general sock drawer. Three younger boys have different kinds of socks- this way it makes for easy sorting. Older girls have white socks (never black (no mater what design the boys still end up with them!). For the sake of less snarking, theirs are the same but color coded even though 3 of them wear the same size. The three older girls have white socks but the blue strip is F16, the purple is H14, etc. Last girly has little feet and has her own "kind" as well.

Chores: See this post =)

Tooth Brushes: Gotta go here for that

Dining Room: click here for that

Alrighty, that wraps it up! Is there something you are still really wondering about? Have a question you want to ask? Leave it in the comments!

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

GIVE AWAY on FB =) 2 mini-books from The Thinking Tree!

I want to encourage you all and was given some extra things from The Thinking Tree to bless you with! Go onto It's a Good Full on Facebook and like it if you have not already! Then share your favorite "It's a good full post" on your FB. Lastly, comment on It's a Good Full's FB under the giveaway thread as to which post you shared AND state which book you would want if you win!

I am giving away 2 mini-books from Dyslexia Games (The Thinking Tree) "How to homeschool" and "My favorite things: coloring book". And if you haven't checked out Dyselxia Games/The Thinking Tree- DO! Their homeschool journals are AH-MAZE-ING!

What are you waiting for? Go get on that =) Drawing ends 1/19/2016

Monday, January 11, 2016

The "Joyless" homeschool.

It was supposed to be fun.

It was supposed to bring us together.

It was supposed to cultivate learning.

It was supposed to at least be better than public school...

I hate this.

This is hard.

My kids hate this.

It takes forever!...

To do nothing!

Nothing is getting done!

It took 3 1/2 hours to do 1/2 a lesson of math!

Math sucks.

I am yelling.

They are crying.

There is so much laundry!

The little ones are being ignored...

I am a failure.

I don't like being around my kids.

They don't like being around me.

They are begging me to stop school.

What a waste of money.

What a waste of time

What a waste of intent.

What... A.... WASTE!

I. AM. DONE.

We have all been there friends. Me included! I do not know anyone who can say that homeschooling was great from the start and/or stayed that way. Homeschooling is hard, it is also worth it, but that doesn't make it easy.

I have talked with A LOT of homeschooling moms in the past 60 days who are just "done". They are exhausted, defeated and joyless. They just want peace in their home again and restoration with their kids. They want JOY to come back into the family. Homeschooling is the problem and the problem must go... or is it?

Truth: Homeschooling is not the problem, finding what works is the problem. It can be costly, it can be confusing, it can be hard and it can (and usually does) take a while. I remember often having to tell myself this:

"It is not my inability to teach or their inability to learn. We just haven't found the right system for us yet."

It's not just about curriculum either. When I say "system" that means a lot! What we choose, how we implement, how we work it into life... at home... with kids everywhere! Finding the right curriculum, the right schedule, the right rhythm, takes time. It must also be fluid! All those things listed have changed, for me, over the years as the dynamic of our family changed or things with different kids came up. Allowing room for change, failures and growth is BRAVE! It is also SMART! It is also NECESSARY.

For a long time I was more of a stick in the mud than anything else, because I did not want to change. Did you hear that. I- ME. MISSY RIGHT HERE!
I was so upset at times that life just wasn't... easier. That homeschooling wasn't easier. I wanted to be done. A few times I was done. The only thing that stopped me from enrolling them in public school was that I was afraid they would be so far behind and I would be judged.
In reality, it was never really that bad. I put THAT on myself. I was so sure though that things were so terrible and so bad because things were so joyless.

Joylessness in your home is usually the homeschool killer. It's the relationship killer. It just kills- how about that? Is your home currently joyless? Are you wanting to give up and be done? Are you just over it?

I know you do not want to hear it, but you need to. Change. You need to change some stuff. You need to be willing to go deeper into the "what-if's" of homeschooling in order to find the change. You, and you kids, will hate homeschooling until YOU find the change and start making it.

So what needs to change in order to bring back joy? What is it? Maybe:

kids hate the schoolwork? >>> curriculum?
kids have attitude? >>> heart issues?
house is falling apart? >>> need a schedule? Chore chart?
nothing ever get's put away? >>> get rid of things/purge?
we never get all the work done? >>> curric? Schedule? Too much work?
there are little ones around? >>>schedule? curric? system?
kids won't obey me? >>> heart issue? respect issue?
too isolated? >>> play group? homeschool group?
more accountability? >>> curric? umbrella program? friend?
it's me. I have a heart issues? >>> right...

Identify the problems and then start making the changes. You may need to stop schooling for a while... (Um... did she just say "stop schooling"? Yah... She did!)

Sit your kids down, apologize to them, talk with them about what needs to change and what you ALL will be doing to get that change.

Tackle some of the things on the list. If your kids don't obey you then that's huge! Work on that, practice it daily. How can you expectthem to listen to you to do their math if they won't even come when you call them? Yes, your life will be a war zone while you fix this issue, but if you stick to it, you will win!

If you all work well together already then start implementing the changes needed to re-define your homeschool. Tackle those things. Get new routines and habits in place and then add back the homeschooling.... slowly.

Play around with stuff. So your kid hates math and you hate it too- why? Is it bland? Do you hate correcting? What? look at other math programs. Try a computer based program, something that grades it for you. Is this working? Is it better? Look at what is available, play around with it.

Kids hate history? Why? Do you need to lighten up? Maybe it needs to be more fun? Maybe it's too fun and you are overwhelmed with crafts. Par down. Watch some movies. Decide what you can do and go with that.

Is the whole thing bad? Chuck it! Chuck it all!!! There are plenty of free ways to homeschool. Explore those while you look at other stuff. You may fall in love with a free program or at least figure out some things you do or do not like. Take it easy.

Is it you? Are you upset because you miss a clean home? Quiet afternoons? Toddler time at the library? Coffee and working out with your friends while the kids are in school? Sigh... that is a whole post in itself- here's the short. Get over it! You need to join your team. Be a sweet boss and a good leader. Refocus your priorities. Start finding interests with your kids so that you all have a life.

I could go on and on and on with different problems and different ideas but I won't. The possibilities of joy-suckers are endless. You need to identify what they are and then start separating the truth from the lies. Be willing to look critically at all areas and to make changes.

I promise you that the JOY will come back. It may be quick or it may take time, but it will come. Be BRAVE. Be SMART. Be willing to CHANGE!

I saw today.

They were smiling.

Who new coloring was schoolwork!

We went on a walk.

We had fun.

I feel like I can breathe now.

I found better stuff.

I lightened my load.

I instilled good habits.

We read.

We played.

We did school.

It was.... joyful.

I like them.

They like me.

There is still a mountain of laundry.

It's okay.

Today I saw...

It wasn't my inability to teach

or their inability to learn

We just hadn't figured it out yet.

*poems written by Minda Corey 2016

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

SchoolhouseTeachers.Com review

I was very excited when I first found out I would be doing a review of the Yearly Membership access at SchoolhouseTeachers.com. This is the curriculum website for The Old School House Magazine. This site is a comprehensive Christian Education site that offers classes, online resources, video streaming, supplementary tools, bible studies and more, for families! For the price of a Yearly Membership you get all subjects, for all grades, for all your kids! HELLO! We are talking math, language arts, bible, science, electives, etc, etc!
I've been pouring over this site for a while now and getting the lay of the land. Let me fill you in about SchoolhouseTeachers.com and then near the end of the post, I'll give you my opinion.
This online homeschool program has classes in practically every subject matter from Pre-K through Highschool; over 200 different classes!!! These include:

THAT'S RIGHT!!! Core classes like LA, Math, Science, History AND Electives, Art, Foreign Languages, Health, etc!!! The classes use an array of formats such as online reading, downloads, videos, lectures, ect. None of it is "live" so you can do school whenever it works for you. There are NO ADDITIONAL TEXTBOOKS needed to be purchased to complete any class.

The classes are written by actual teachers and educators and fully accessible online. THESE ARE FULL COURSES... like REAL SCHOOL. Many classes are in-depth and can be used for high school credit and they have info on transcripts for that as well.

There are so many resources for YOU too! Members get to download, for free, planners, checklists, skills learned lists and have access to teaching helps.

Plus! (There's more? YES!) Your yearly membership comes with a free membership to RIGHT NOW MEDIA. Where they have a MASSIVE collection of Christian media! Everything from bible studies, kids shows, and conferences, to parenting videos, biblical finances and, of course, homeschool things ;)

To begin as a New/Interested Member:

Go to the NEW MEMBERS HUB and read up. Next go to COURSES BY GRADE or COURSES BY SUBJECT to educate yourself on the classes offered. After that, the easiest way to get to your classes is to click on QUICK LINKS and scroll down until you see the classes you want- lets say you picked "elementary art", after you locate the title click on the "go to lessons" or "read more", whichever you want. If you click the "lessons" then you are ready to go! Of course if you are not a member you can not access all the educational goodness but you can still pursue things as you consider your membership.

But What does it Cost?
It's actually very affordable. A Yearly membership is only $139. That's for all your curriculum, including electives, for all your children, for one year! This is MADE EVEN MORE affordable by the 50% deal they have right now! So from now until 1/31/16 your 1 year membership is only $69.50!
Again, this is for ALL YOUR CURRICULUM!!! You really can not get a better price for purchasing curriculum for everyone in your family than this!

OKAY! Now that you know what the Yearly Membership is all about, let's talk about it!

I was super impressed with the wide selection of classes and (because I hate paper) it was wonderful that things were online and/or downloadable. I saw that they have a PINTEREST BOARD which gave me a ~~2 hour~~ quick look with visuals of some of their classes and educational opportunities. I liked that I was able to read up on the teachers who put the curriculum together (they do not actually teach the classes) and that they included the teacher info with each class; I didn't have to search all over for it.
I liked that I could search for classes by grade or subject. Everything is well organized and pretty easy to find. When looking at the classes they give you all the info you need; at quick glance and in depth. Overviews, syllabus, videos, everything is there so that you can educate yourself on whats available and not have to "fish around" when actually teaching. If all the options overwhelm you, you can go to their "suggested class outlines". Here they lay out a complete course load, per grade, that you can follow! No more guessing if you got it all!

While this site offers classes for all grade levels, I was especially excited about the possibilities in education that this would open up for my older students as I prepare them for college. I like moving my kids from "more dependent on me" to "independent from me". This program looked great for that! Some of the classes we are looking into/considering/currently trying are:

Writing College Admission Essay with Sharon Watson
Creative Writing with Carrie Daws
Economics with Mike Sims
Career Exploration with Carol Topp
Foundation for Teens a Christian course through RightNowMedia
Drawing with Realism with Jan Bower

(all teachers bio's listed here)

Snippet of the "Career Exploration Class"
by Carol Topp , listed as a High School Elective.

To get my girlies started, I looked around for where to "add a student" and assign classes". I think most of us that use online school programs of any sort are fairly used to that set up. What I quickly found out is that this is not how this site works. Dreams. Crushed. Sigh....
I was hoping I could give my older kids an account and assign their classes and let them work independently. So finding out that I could not was a bit of a let down. What I ended up doing was making my password "kid friendly" and have had my two oldest girls doing things by signing in as me. Not my ideal set up but it's working.

The site, and its classes, function more like an interactive textbook. Classes are viewed online and/or are downloadable, some might include videos you watch online or sites you link up to. Assignments are written out, worksheets can be downloaded and printed, videos are linked up so you can "click and watch", everything is right there; very "open and go" for each subject. I believe the thought is that the parents will open up each class and teach; just like you open up a textbook and teach. My thing is that I don't teach that way.

All my curriculum is either completely independent from me or classes are done as a "one room school house". I pick curriculum accordingly; based upon the way that I DO school. I choose curriculum that is "open and go" and that can be used across a multitude of levels, and normally not on the computer (except math and things like research and videos).

Now, in trying to make the Schoolhouseteacher.com site fit with the type of schooling that works best for me I would need to have A)separate student accounts and/or B)time and want to figure out which classes could be taught broad spectrum and C) to come up with skill appropriate applications for the kids that are not in the specific grade level to the class being taught. For these reasons, the Schoolhouseteacher.com site works best for me as a supplement.

5th Grade Daily Grammar
by Julie Coney

In ALL FAIRNESS, there are a plethora of classes on there that would work with a "one room schoolhouse style", but it is not a clean sweep. Also, the teaching tools, media files and extra curricular classes are a treasure trove. I love being able to pull up a video about a missionary traveling through Egypt as we hit that section of our history without having to search google for 30 minutes!

Final thoughts and who would really benefit from this site:

I really do like the site. I will definitely use it as a resource and to knock out some classes for my older kids. There are many short classes (several weeks vs the whole semester/year) that would be fun to do. I like all the media they have and the variety of classes! It's a plus for me too, that I have access to classes that I don't really want to dump a lot of money into... like economics.

I perused a large variety of their classes; things I was interested in and things I was not. I wanted to really get a handle on what was available. I was very happy with the quality of of the classes overall but I did think they fell short in a few areas. For instance, one of my daughters is an excellent self taught artist. So the world of "at home art classes" is a familiar one for me. The art classes I poured over from SchoolhouseTeachers.com were good in content. They had wonderful tie ins to famous artist, good instruction and fun activities. Most of them though had no videos for art instruction and this is an area that would have greatly benefited if they had included that.

Line Drawing Lesson from Elementary Art Techniques Class
by Brenda Ellis

I had F16g take an indepth look at the art lessons in Art Techniques, by Brenda Ellis, a class listed for upper elementary-highschool level students. This is a level of art that is far below her; she knows how to do everything listed. I figured she would have a good perspective. She loved that the class teaches many different art mediums and that they build on each other; which is important when learning technique. She felt that it needed more instruction for a beginning artist but the instruction was good for anyone with some basic know how. Overall, if the classes had included warm up exercises and video teaching, that the skill and technique would have come across better.

F16g working through 2 projects in the "Drawing with
Realism" art class with Jan Bower

F16g has also been doing the Drawing with Realism, by Jan Bower class. This course IS a video based art class that focuses on teaching realism in drawing. She did the 4 week apple project and the 4 week marble project.
She really enjoyed it! The teacher, Jan Bower, had a very simplistic teaching style that was very encouraging and easy to follow. She felt that even beginning artist could do these projects easily as most of the drawing is just outline sketching with the technique being how to apply the color pencils in layers to create the depth, feel and look of the object. F16g said she could tell the teacher was an experienced artist and appreciated the easy way in which she spoke and her clear instructions.
For experienced artists, it would be easy to go through each lesson quicker than the

F16g's Apple Drawing

assigned schedule. However the lesson of "how to draw realistically" can be applied over and over again to a never ending supply of inspiration. So even if your student went through them quickly, they could continue to do more drawings, practice with larger scale pictures, etc to further their skills and prolong the class. End result: she really loved the class and what she learned! She was delighted with the quality of the lessons, and was glad there were videos!

OKAY! Back to me! So along with wanting more video for the rest of art, I had a similar feeling with the math- quality was good BUT I would not choose their program over an online program that had video instructions and automatic grading. On that note... Several of my kids would have felt overwhelmed by the very "textbook feel" to the math on this site and would have needed me to read things for them and probably google a video. However, most of my kids are primary visual learners.
Overall, I thought there would be more video instruction, more links to online resources, more interactive references and learning tools. I was left feeling like a lot of it was... well... kind of bland. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. Some people are happier in that space and need all the flourishes and flares taken out in order to get to basics and get it done. It's more of a preference I guess. And really, it wasn't that big of a deal. {thinking....thinking...thinking} For reals, I do not think a class like... economics, needs to be colorful. I want it simple and easy for my highschooler- know what I mean? So, I suppose, the classes that needed to be more straight forward were just that and still interesting but I did think some areas could have included more, like art videos, to help better teach the class and concepts.

With that said, I still like the site and I am still excited about it! I believe that everyone can benefit from using the Schoolhouseteacher.com. If you only used one or two classes, you would already be at the cost of one big subject curriculum purchase. Being able to "one hit wonder" so many things through this site really gives every homeschool family an advantage. It also gives flexibility without the pressure of "loosing money". Say your child wanted to try out "architecture" but it wasn't going well, you could just switch gears, dump it, and pick something else, like "photography". Everyone is happy and no money is lost!
While the site, in its entirety, is not something I will use beyond a supplemental tool. I do think its a great resource and that there are some families that would find more advantages and benefits in it. They are:

Those on a tight budget: For such a low price, this really is an awesome way to supply quality schooling for all your kids without breaking the budget.
Small Spacers and Travelers: If you are a traveling family, or are schooling in a small or limited space this would be great for you! No extra curric. to tote around!
Those overwhelmed by upper level school: Having doubts about how to do highschool? This is a great place to be! All your curriculum in one spot, things are laid out so well, many classes are accredited and there are so many "helps" for you that you can navigate this time with ease!
Families that need more guidance/checklist: They have a suggested class list, by grade level that you can use to make sure you have everything covered. You can find that here!
New/overwhelmed Homeschooling Families: Sometimes it's just hard to know where to start. this is a GREAT SPRING BOARD for new families as they learn to navigate the homeschool world and a wonderful resting place for those who are overwhelmed by the homeschool world and need to streamline things.
Families that need to simplify: It's pretty easy to collect everything under the homeschool sun and to be swallowed up by books and assignments. This is a great tool to use to simplify your homeschool life!

That concludes my review of Schoolhouseteacher.com. I hope you enjoyed my honest review and hope you go on over, check it out and see if it will work for you!

It's a good full

Translate