Learning about Joyfulness

Did you ever play this game? Each person lays their head on the belly of another person and then the first one says, "Ha! Ha!" That first laugh is not genuine, but by the time the second or third person says it, everyone is truly laughing. The more they laugh, the more their heads get bounced up and down. It's really contagious.

The kids and I had fun learning about laughter, comedians and clowns. But the real learning began when I made them think about the difference between happiness and joy. I asked them some really hard questions about where true happiness comes from.

To go along with this theme, we read the classic story of "The Secret Garden." It took us about two weeks to get through it (with me reading it outloud). The kids were not in the habit of sitting still and listening to me read a story, since all of them can read for themselves. I was asked several times why we couldn't just rent the movie. But after just a few sittings, I began to requests to read the story during all times of day. It was exciting for me to see my kids become interested in a classic. The story is so touching at times that I would often tear up. Susanna has now begun to tease my about how easily I cry. But she doesn't yet understand how beautiful it is to see a child discover joy and friendship for the first time.

During this study about joy, my mother-in-law had to go into the hospital. It was a terrible ordeal for her, but it fit in perfectly with my lessons as I tried to teach them the Biblical principle of joy in the midst of suffering. One day I had the children draw pictures for her to put up at the hospital and bring a smile to her face. A couple of times the children visited her at the hospital. And then they visited her at home while she was recovering.

They must have talked non-stop for close to an hour, and it was all so random that I had to try to write it down. Here are the notes I took while it was going on (using the first initial only for each child's name):

As we walk in the door, Clarice starts talking about what we want to be when we grow up: C- nurse for animals; A- inventor of the flying car and the underwater city.

J and A -Explaining to Abuela about size of Jupiter, heat output of larger stars;black holes.

Susanna talks about her dreams of another solar system which Andre thinks might be true if God wanted it that way.

Andre talks about diamonds that are man made.

Susanna goes back to talking about her dream of another solar system and the people who live there.

J. Keeps having dreams of wearing a jet pack that shoots him to Jupiter. Abuela asks if he likes Jupiter and he says, "Yes... Well... I like things that are big."

A. Talks about how far a light year is.

C. Is just sitting on Abuela's lap and cuddling.

S. Continues talking about dream world: "Kid digs in the ground with a fork and finds something. He says "ooh! A penny!" but it was really gold."

J. Dream: Jet pack shot him to an asteroid belt. Sort of like a choose- your-own-adventure book. He magnetized the meteors which were mixed with gems and they came back to earth with him. He crash landed into the neighbor's house (but nobody was living there) and he was ok. Happy ending.

A. Thinks J. might have a good idea: "Magnetized belt can keep a person from flying into space
while at a space station."

S. Dream world: "Kids had jobs not adults. Two kids for each family, but lots of parents."

J. "I can use my head to make static electricity. " He rubs his head on the couch and then says, "this is the wrong kind of couch."

Abuela. Asks about the field trip to the food bank.

A. Explains why we couldn't go in (because most of the group had on open-toe shoes which were not allowed in the warehouse. but we'll go again soon.)

S talks about the people who have to make their own houses on her world

J says susanna's world is like the computer game Spore

A starts explaining about the different civilizations in Spore with input from J

C demonstrates how she can almost do a split

A continues explaining

C starts talking about the types of animals she will have when she grows up, like a nurse shark

A "nurse sharks are not really nice"

J. "Sharks don't really like the taste of human blood."

A. Explains about an episode of Mythbusters involving sharks to test what attracts them: movement or smell of blood

C reminds me that we are supposed to go to the pool

A. Mythbusters episode with robot dog in the water with real scent of dog (tv guy explained that the scent was like the dog's business card)

Abuela- "sniff, you're a plumber! Sniff, you're an engineer." (much laughing)

S. sniff: "I'm a dog who destroys your toilets by licking them!" (much more laughing)

C. "My cat will be named flufffy."

J. "I'm going to have eight kittens."

A. Talking about myth that bullet will be stopped by pizza boxes. Then the myth that two semi-trucks would crush a car between them.

C. Is looking at things all around the room then reminds me of the pool again

A. Still recounting the episode of pancaking the car.

C. Is hanging on me or bouncing next to me saying "pool! pool! pool!"

S. "I can feel the vibrations of Andre's voice in the couch cushions."

A. Demonstrates a sonic boom with his arms and comes close to hitting Johnathan in the face.

Laughing

C. Remembers an episode about London Tipton who accidentally hits someone in the face when she says "London Tipton has arrived!!"

A. Talks about sonic waves

Abuela describes ultrasound procedures

C. Is on my back flipping my hair into my face and asking to go

I say it's time to go

A. Keeps trying to finish the story about the pancake car

J and C start wrestling, then move away

S gets her shoes on and says goodbye




C talks about club penguin

A and J keep talking about sonic booms

Hugs and goodbyes

S. Asks about a green plaque on Abuela's shelf

Abuela Explains

S. Asks about rock. Abuela explains it's a quartz from Nicaragua

J. Asks about a shell. Abuela explains it's a scent box imitating a
treasure box from Anthropology

We leave with Andre still talking as we head out the door.



Another benefit of homeschooling: we had the pool to ourselves!

The First Week of School

The curriculum that I chose to use is called Konos. The lessons are based on themes, so that all four children can be learning the same theme but their assignments are tailored for their age-level. They each have their own math and language arts books, but we spend a relatively small amount of time doing workbooks (which is why Johnathan can do his workbook on the floor under some pillows without getting extremely uncomfortable). This curriculum focuses more on activities and discovery learning. If you've ever seen The Magic School Bus, then you know what I'm talking about.

I chose to start the year learning about Cooperation. If there's any way we will survive this school year, it will have to involve cooperation. There are several subjects in the Cooperation Unit, including the human body (ie. all the body systems work together), the 50 states (working together to make one country), and bumblebees (you get the idea). The last subject is about the family, and that is what I started with. We will come back to the other subjects later in the year.

While learning about families, we discussed our own family tree and attempted to make one for our wall. That led to discussions on the different races of our ancestors. I had checked out quite a few books from the library about races and families around the world. They discovered that children around the world have a lot in common.

We read a fascinating book about America's oldest family farm, and how they worked together to keep it running all these years.

As an example of a family that worked together during hard times, we watched the movie "Little Women" and read some exerpts from the book. Normally, this is not a movie that my kids would have been able to sit still for. But I made a rule at the beginning of the week that there will be no TV on school days, so they were starting to go through withdrawal. I think they would have watched anything I put on the TV.

My plan for Wednesday afternoon was to come up with games for the kids to play that would involve cooperation rather than competition. Surprisingly, while I was still finishing my lunch, the kids started to play pretend. At first, they were making a human sandwich.

And then, someone had the idea to make a fort in the living room. My first inclination was to tell them "no" because it would make a big mess. But.... when I realized that they were inventing their own cooperation games and they weren't begging to watch TV, I decided to let them do it. They played kings and queens in a castle for over two hours before they started to get annoyed with each other!! And they got it all cleaned up before Luis got home. :)

Other activities during the week included working together on a story about "The Perfect Family Vacation", learning some spanish words for family members, acting out situations that cause conflict and finding a peaceful solution, and discussing our roles in the Family of God.

So that's it for our first week. Of course I won't be giving a detailed account every week, but I knew some of you were wondering how our first one went. :)

Homeschooling 4kids... Am I crazy?

Of course, I don't think I'm crazy, but others might. Even my own mom's initial response was, "Why in the world would you want to do that?!" But once I explained my reasons, she became very supportive. I expected to hear responses like that from most people, but I really began to question myself when I started getting feedback from my homeschooling friends. They seemed to get exhausted just considering the idea of homeschooling four kids (especially the friends who only have one or two kids). And, yes, I agree it will be a lot of work. But I haven't changed my mind. Here's why:

I've been teaching Andre (my oldest, who is eleven) at home for a couple of years now. My reason for keeping him home was primarily because he did not do well in a traditional classroom and he was quickly becoming a very angry, unhappy child. After a few months of teaching him at home, I saw a dramatic improvement in his emotional well-being.

Since then, I've debated with myself about whether or not to homeschool all four children. I've wondered what was really, truly the best option for them. My biggest motivation for considering homeschool was their character development. Slowly but surely each child is developing character traits that I really don't like. But, honestly, that's only logical. They spend a few hours at home and church each week learning positive traits, while they spend over 40 hrs a week in a school enviroment which models an unknown amount of negative traits. I feel like all of my time is spent correcting behavior which leaves no time for improving behavior.

At the beginning of the summer, I began to do some research and seek guidance. I prayed that God would make it clear to me what was the best choice for our kids. And I really believe that God answered that prayer.

There were two events over the summer that made a big impact on me. The first one was at a "Getting Started" event with my local homeschool group. They call themselves the Unfailing Homeschoolers, and many of my close friends are members. I attended a couple of their events last year with Andre and I was really impressed with the size of the group, the organization, and the committment of its leaders. So I attended the "Getting Started" event, even though I had already been homeschooling for two years, because I was now about to "jump in with both feet", as they say. One of the leaders gave a very encouraging talk which addressed many of the fears that mom's face when they first make this decision.

• What if I don't teach my kids everything they need to know?
• What if I can't be organized enough and we end up in chaos?
• What if I actually do more harm than good?

It was encouraging to know that all moms have these fears, and yet they become successful homeschoolers anyway. But the one phrase that really stuck with me was something like this: If you don't start out with a strong conviction that homeschooling is best for your family, then you won't last long. That's what I needed: a strong conviction. So far, I really didn't have one. I thought that the idea of homeschooling was great for some families. But lots of kids go through the traditional school system and turn out just fine. So I needed to be convinced that homeschooling my children would be a better option than any other before I could finally make this decision.

The second event that impacted me was the H.E.R.I. Convention here in Jacksonville. The keynote speaker was a man named Andrew Pudewa who is the director for the Institute for Excellence in Writing. I really enjoyed hearing him speak. His lecture on "Freedom Education" opened my eyes to different methods of teaching children. He made me question the history and philosophy behind our American school system, referring often to a book called "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto (which can be read for free online). I was reminded that our public school system has not really been around for very long, and that many of the great founders of our country were taught at home. When the lecture was over.... I was convinced.

Since then, I have purchased the curriculum (more about that later), made our daily schedule, bought school supplies, and officially began school on Monday, the 24th.

I'm planning to blog every now and then about our experiences. I expect to have lots of interesting stories. :)

In my next blog, I will go into the details of what I learned in that lecture and in beginning to read that book for myself.

New Look

Everyone loves a makeover now and then! I just found lots of really great free backgrounds at this site. There are so many looks to choose from that I may just have to change my background every month!... Wait... I don't really blog that often do I? Well, maybe I'll start now. Especially since several of my friends have blogs now. Hmmm...what to write?

Field trip

This week I attended a field trip with my oldest, Andre, to the Diamond D Horse Ranch here in Jacksonville....well...technically. The address is within the Jacksonville city limits, but it feels like hundreds of miles from city life. The ranch is 600 acres of animals and farms.

The kids got up close and personal with the animals. First, they got on a hay wagon for a tour of the ranch. The kids were all excited to see a baby pony who was only three days old. Then we stopped by the goat pen to feed and admire all the "kids".

We also drove through a cow pasture and fed the cows with some of the hay that we were sitting on. That was an experience! It was a little too close for me but Andre thought it was great. He just got a little grossed out when a cow's tongue touched his hand. Ew!

After the hay ride, we went on a nature walk and learned about protecting our native plants and trees as well as staying away from things like poison ivy. The guide pointed it out so all the kids could see it, but stay far away from it.

After a picnic lunch, the children took turns in the bounce houses, pony rides, and learning to brush a special pony named "Miracle".

One of Andre's favorite activities was feeding the fish in the pond. We had no idea how many fish were in there until the guide threw some food out into the water. Then the surface became a "alive" with catfish!

Overall, however, Andre's favorite part was the "barrel roll" which is just a big circle that spins the kids upside down (right after lunch!). Andre was one of the first to ride it, then he patiently waited for everyone else to go so he could have another turn...and another... and another. Here's a picture of him pretending to be dizzy after getting off the last time. :D