Confessions of a Single Parent Homeschooler

Homeschooling and the Possibilities of Pinterest

2012-01-16T11:44:00.001-05:00

I'm ba-a-ack!

So I discovered Pinterest a week or so ago. At first it left me with furrowed brow. What is the point of "pinning" and "re-pinning" stuff found on the Internet? Wondering, why all the hoopla? Why the obsession? What made this online "thing" so addicting for some people?

What is Pinterest? According to the website, Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. It lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

My Christmas Ideas Pinboard

Okay, so that's mildly interesting, but I still didn't see what all the fuss was about. And you have to be invited to join! Or else request an invitation and twiddle your thumbs while you wait. The only way to get firsthand knowledge was to ask a friend to invite me, and that's what I did, and ta-dah! I was on Pinterest. I started poking around and teaching myself about pinning pictures to my ready-made pinboards. (They are like bulletin boards.) I discovered that I could edit them and create my own little groupings. I could go crazy finding and pinning Christmas craft ideas! Later, I could click on the picture, and I would end up at the website where the picture and craft originated. That was my first clue that Pinterest could be very useful.

By the way, I've heard that bookmarking pages does the same thing, and while that is true, bookmarking doesn't give you a photo reminder. I have a long, long list of bookmarked pages that I can scroll through and not remember why I bookmarked those pages in the first place. I don't often visit my bookmarked pages; out of sight, out of mind. With Pinterest, I see my pinboards, and I see the items that interested me, and I KNOW why I pinned those things! This makes organizing pages so much easier!

Then I realized something else. Pinterest could be used by homeschooling families! Think of the possibilities! You create a pinboard in your account for each of your children and use time on Pinterest as a reward for getting their lessons done or their chores done. You can search for crafts together, search for recipes together, search for fun family games together! Each child's choices would go on his or her virtual pinboard. Or, you could create those pinboards in advance with activity ideas you think your child would like. As an incentive to get work done, the reward would be to pull up the pinboard and have the child choose one of the pictures you pinned; then you could do that activity/craft/story.

Another possibility: use Pinterest as a fun teaching tool. Are you teaching your little ones their colors? Create pinboards for each color and as you surf the Internet (or the Pinterest boards), have your children choose colorful items to pin to their boards. For older kids, you could create boards for animal classification. As you study geography, you could create boards for different countries or different states. If your student is writing a story—fiction, for example—pinning ideas for characters and settings to a story pinboard would save time and reduce clutter caused by going through magazines, cutting pictures out, and gluing them to a page like we did back in "the old days."

Of course, you can create boards for each subject you teach and add curricula that interests you, experiments, and so forth. You could even find ideas for organizing your classroom area from other homeschoolers on the site!

Pinterest is free, so check it out for yourself! And if you already have a Pinterest account, what do you like to use it for?

Take Time for You

2011-11-25T05:32:00.001-05:00

Wow, I really dropped the blog-once-a-month ball, didn't I. *sigh* Maybe an early December blog will help make up for it.

A homeschooling parent is a frazzled, how-am-I-going-to-get-it-all-done person. You’re trying to give your child(ren) the best education possible. You have educational books and supplies on nearly every surface of your home! You also want to maintain a clean and tidy home, put nutritious meals on the table, and spend time with your spouse (if you aren't a single parent). You probably serve in your church in some way, and you may even fit community service into your schedule. You may also have a job! (or two or three if you are doing the single parenting thing with no other income).

Along comes December. Here is an entire month you can devote to special studies, not to mention those life skills of baking, gift-making, and decorating! There are multiple parties and multiple opportunities to give to charity. Because you want your children to learn that more blessings come with giving than receiving, you involve them in charitable activities.

Is it any wonder your head starts throbbing and stress weakens your immune system, causing you to get sick?

This Christmas season, take time for yourself. To best serve your family, you need to be healthy and relaxed; stressed out and frazzled just won’t do. Schedule a little “me” time for yourself each day, even if it’s just half an hour. Don’t neglect your private time with God. You need His guidance! You need His peace in your heart!

This “me” time will most often take place in your home; perhaps you can enjoy a bubble bath or soothing music. You can also go out occasionally. You might sit at the library or in a coffee shop. Do whatever will help you “recharge your batteries.” When you do that, you will be better prepared to encourage your family.

During the hustle and bustle of the season, remember to take time for you. May God bless your efforts. Merry Christmas!

Homeschooling: Giving Children a “Real” Education

2011-09-20T23:29:00.000-04:00

I'm going to do something in this blog that I haven't done before. I want to share the paper a friend of mine wrote about homeschooling. Melissa Klise is a single mom whose children attend school and who is pursuing a teaching degree. You might not expect someone with her career goal to have a positive opinion of homeschooling, but such is not the case. She makes a good case for homeschooling on at least a part-time basis. Read on and you'll see what I mean. :-)

While attending a parent/teacher conference at my daughter’s middle school, I was informed that she had failed to meet the benchmark for her grade in all subjects. This came as a shock to me because her report card showed a 4.0 grade point average. After the conference, I read an essay my daughter had written for her English class. She was proud of the A she received on the assignment, but I wasn’t happy with the numerous spelling and punctuation errors left uncorrected by her teacher. The teacher told me that they no longer worry about punctuation and spelling in English classes. They worry more about a student’s ability to express themselves because today’s technology does not require us to know how to spell or punctuate. Word processing programs can do that work for us.

After the wake-up I received from the teachers at my daughter’s school, I questioned several other parents only to find their children were having similar problems – failing or barely passing standardized tests with better than average grades on their report cards. Something had to be done. I began to look into homeschooling my children.

Homeschooling is exactly as its name implies – schooling in the home, usually taught by one of the child's parents. Through research and anecdotal evidence, I have come to the conclusion that homeschooling, whether full or part time, is the only way to ensure our children get a good education and are prepared for college and life beyond high school.

Homeschooling has many outspoken opponents. There is worry among critics about the effects homeschooling has on society as a whole. Chris Lubienski of Iowa State University believes homeschooling parents have an obligation to society and “the public good” to send their children to public school. He believes homeschooling parents are doing a disservice to public schools by denying the school board their voice. Since homeschooling parents are actively involved in the education of their children, Lubienski believes sending them to public school will better contribute to “the greater good” of society and improve the standards of education for all children rather than just their own.

Probably the largest objection to homeschooling is concern regarding socialization of students educated in the home. Many worry that homeschooled children miss out on socialization and are too isolated in their homes with only their parents and siblings to talk to and play with. There is a fear these children will be overwhelmed once they reach college and are faced with a wide range of diversity in culture, religion, and sexual orientation. Children who are isolated may be less mature than their peers and unable to detach themselves from their parents and be successful in life after homeschooling. These children also miss out on the use of school for basic social values we tend to take for granted: “assimilation, desegregation, tolerance, and cohesion.” Inside this argument is the fear of undetected abuse. Most cases of child abuse are detected and reported by public school teachers, so if the teachers are removed from the equation, the abuse may never be detected.

Another common objection to homeschooling is the fear that parents may be unqualified to teach their children, especially once they reach high school and face more challenging subjects such as science and advanced mathematics. Public school teachers have college degrees and much more experience teaching children. Unless the parent has a college degree, critics feel they have no business teaching their children at home.

Without considering the other side, the opposition’s case against homeschooling may seem strong. However, homeschooling parents are quite passionate about what they do and have many great reasons for choosing to teach their kids at home. According to Brian Ray, Ph.D. of the National Home Education Research Institute, there are currently 2.35 million home-educated students, and that number is growing at a rate of 8% a year. If all of the children who are currently homeschooled were enrolled in public school, it is estimated that it would cost taxpayers approximately $10 billion per year in additional teachers’ salaries, extended bus routes, and other resources needed to accommodate the influx of children. These statistics alone illustrate how helpful homeschooling is to the economy, but money isn’t the only way homeschooling benefits society.

As any homeschooling parent will tell you, home schooled families aren’t islands. Most homeschoolers are involved with Homeschooling Associations and engage in field trips, volunteer work, and other group activities that keep their family from becoming isolated and encourage socialization for their children. According to Ed Collum and the Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development, homeschooled children have fewer socialization problems than those in public school who tend to “experience negative socialization and peer pressure” on an ongoing basis. Contrary to what many believe, homeschoolers are exposed to varying cultures and lifestyles through clubs and volunteer work. On average, homeschooled children spend 20 or more hours a month participating in volunteer activities and other forms of “organized community activities.” Also, they are much more likely to be involved with organizations such as scouting and 4-H. The flexibility of their schedule allows them to fully experience what the community has to offer.

From day one, public school pupils are required to conform to the standards of their school and change themselves to fit in to the teaching style of whichever instructor they’re assigned to. This isn’t the case with homeschooling. Parent led teaching is essentially student led teaching. The parent, teaching their child at home, is able to adapt the materials and teaching style to fit their child. Students are able to learn at their own pace which helps them to absorb knowledge more effectively and gain the confidence needed to succeed in school and in life. Evidence of academic success can be found in the standardized test scores and college admission of homeschooled students compared to public school students. The average homeschooled student scores 15% to 30% higher on standardized achievement tests than the average public school student. Also, home taught students are 5% to 10% more likely to enroll in college and earn a degree. These results are the same regardless of the amount of education their teacher/parent has completed.

Ask any homeschooling parent why they choose to home school their children, and you'll get a long list of reasons. Among those reasons, you'll almost always hear that they want to be the primary influence in their child's life. Parents have children to raise them according to their morals and values. Most parents want to influence their children and build the foundation on which they'll live the rest of their lives. When they attend public school, they spend more time with their peers and teachers than they do with their parents. Parents become a smaller influence in their lives; the longer they're in school. The kids come home with new expletives and disrespect that they didn't learn in the home. With homeschooling, this isn't the case. The parents are the primary influence in their child's life and can stave off the negative social and moral influences found in the school. They can teach them how to treat people with respect and adhere to strong values rather than sending their small child out into the world of public school to be taught by someone they don't know. According to a recent study, adults who were educated in the home as children are less likely to suffer from psychological and social problems such as alcohol and drug abuse or be physically or psychologically abusive to their own children. They have a lower divorce rate and are also more likely to hold down long term employment. These studies are a strong indicator that removing the public school influence from a child’s life and strengthening the parental influence builds healthier adults.

After looking at the benefits of homeschooling, it is easy to see why a parent would choose this form of education for their child, but homeschooling isn’t for everyone. It takes a lot of time and commitment. It takes patience, creativity, and also the ability to admit when a subject is too much for the parent to teach. Even with proven curriculum obtained from reputable sources, there are times when certain subjects are too much for a person. This is when it is important to be involved with home school organizations and other parents who home school their children. It is not uncommon for parents to trade services with other home educators. One parent may teach their neighbor’s child biology while another teaches art classes or volunteers to take a group of children on a field trip to the museum. By admitting one’s limitations, the children are being shown that it is OK to ask for help and will gain different perspectives on various subjects.

For many, homeschooling isn’t a realistic option. Some parents are unable to teach their kids at home full time. Being a single working parent, I fall into this category. After coming to terms with to the fact that our public education system is severely flawed, I feel just as obligated to home school my children as I do to keep them safe and provide healthy food choices. My home situation may not be conducive to full time homeschooling, but my dedication to my children has brought us to part time homeschooling. Along with their lessons at public school, I tutor my children with extra lessons at home in the evenings and occasionally on the weekends. They write essays and work on math problems while learning primary skills no longer taught in the public school setting. We also visit museums and go on nature hikes, using everyday experiences as learning opportunities. As a parent, I believe that our homeschooling will better prepare them for college and competition in the job market. I know that sacrificing my time is worth it when I hear my ninth grade daughter say, “I’m smart, I can do this.”

By the way, Melissa received an A for this paper. I'd say that her children have gained a top-notch part-time homeschooling teacher; wouldn't you agree?

Making First Day of (Home) School Special

2011-08-31T01:54:00.000-04:00

Anticipation often runs high for the first day of school, especially for children who have taken a summer break. You may have already started school, and if so, I apologize for not thinking of this blog idea before now. Maybe you can find a way to use some of them later on. For those who start school after Labor Day, you still have time to incorporate some of these ideas into your first day. So without further delay, here are my top ten suggestions for marking the start of a new school year.

1) Serve a special breakfast. Start the school year off right with a memorable breakfast. What will make the kids tumble happily out of bed? Chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream on top? Bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast skillet? Biscuits and gravy? Donuts from the store? You may serve oatmeal every day after this, but unless that is a family favorite, skip the oatmeal just this once and serve up a plate of fun. ;-)

2) Surprise them with balloons. What kid doesn't love a large and colorful mylar balloon? They sell for a dollar each at The Dollar Tree and similar stores, so get one or get a bouquet of them. Education is worth celebrating, so celebrate with balloons!

3) Take a first-day photo. This is a fun way to track their progress. You might snap the shot next to a height chart each year to watch your children’s growth. You might choose to photograph everyone lined up on the couch with their new pencils and books. The choice is yours. Display it on your bulletin board or slip it into a small photo album with the rest of your homeschool first-day photos.

4) Give a first-day goody bag. My kids always loved this tradition. I would present each one with a gift bag into which I had placed items such as pencils, erasers, markers, large and small notebooks, an activity pad, a reading-for-fun book, and a few small candies. It added excitement to each first day of homeschool and was something they always looked forward to.

5) Let the student(s) choose the lunch menu. You might give them a few options (especially if you are afraid they will ask for something crazy like ice cream and soda pop). Taking a lunch break with a favorite food makes it seem like an all-day education celebration! :-) Maybe you'll serve cupcakes or cookies for dessert that they can decorate themselves!

6) Play a new game. There are so many fun educational games on the market. I used to buy a new one every year to add to our collection. Play your game today and show your kids that learning is fun!

7) Design a family flag with the name of your homeschool on it. Let those creative juices flow. When I registered as a homeschool, I had to choose a name for it. I wanted something cutesy like Gumdrop Primary School, but my kids had other ideas. We ended up being Eaglegate Academy. Naturally, our flag would have featured an eagle. You may already have a homeschool name, but if not, now is a great time to come up with one and to design a flag to go with it. You can display your flag on the fridge or on a bulletin board. Teach your children to take pride in their home education.

8) Pray and ask God to bless you all and to have His way in your homeschool. I hope this is something you already do.

9) Bless your children. Take the time on this day to tell each one what character traits you see in them, what talents and skills, what makes each one special. Tell each child how thankful you are to be that child's parent. Some days you may not feel so thankful; just remember that those feelings will pass. Let each child know that they are a heaven-sent blessing.

My Kids with Willie Aames (aka Bibleman) in 2000 or 2001.
Our homeschool name came from a Bibleman video.

10) Smile! God loves you, and He loves your children too. Don’t stress yourself unduly with goals. Don’t worry that educating them at home will somehow stunt their social or academic growth. God knew what He was doing when He called you to homeschool. Trust Him. And at least for today, relax and remind yourself that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.

Back to Homeschool on a Budget

2011-08-22T22:37:00.000-04:00

During my many years of homeschooling, this topic of homeschooling on a budget was near and dear to my heart, especially when I suddenly became a single parent way back in 1999!

Today I found this guest blog at DealSeekingMom.com; it's two years old, but the information is classic, and young homeschoolers may find it helpful! Here it is, Julia Wessels of "The Frugal Find" blog and her advice on homeschooling on a budget -- check it out at this link: back-to-homeschool-on-a-budget

Tax-free Weekend -- Maybe!

2011-08-05T11:07:00.003-04:00

It's here! Tax-free weekend, the weekend that targets families with school-age children and college-age adults with the promise of tax-free, education-related merchandise, is scheduled for the first weekend in August before most schools have gotten back to business. It begins today and lasts through Sunday, and I’ve heard rumors that in some areas the holiday will last all week. If your state participates in this “holiday,” you may be able to save a few pennies on pencils and paper and all the other small items that your children may use in your home school. I used to make my children homeschool goodie bags filled with fun pencils, erasers, notepads, crayons, activity pads, etc. for our first official day of school. Buying those items during the tax-free holiday helped me prepare early and put more thought into their gifts. Otherwise, it was often a last-minute dash to the five-and-dollar store to collect items for their bags! Oh, if you love educational games, pick a new one up this weekend and start your school year off with some fun!

If you are in the market for something more expensive to begin with, a new computer, for instance, you can save a lot more! Stores are competing for customers, knowing shoppers will be out this weekend and looking to save money, so you may find some really good sales on top of the lack of sales tax. If you are able to shop for curricula locally, as I could, you can save even more. I know many homeschooling families shop online, and I did that as well, but a local homeschool warehouse made it easy to stop in and check the shelves for special deals, and they participate in the tax-free weekend too.

What makes this weekend extra special is that other stores sometimes participate as well, hoping to lure shoppers to spend (and save) on non-education-related items. They may offer discounts to match the tax-free notion. So if you haven't rounded up all your supplies yet, make that list today, count your cash (you don't want to blow your budget, no matter what kind of bargains are available), and take advantage of the deals in your area!

Here is a list of states offering a tax-free weekend (or week) in 2011:

Alabama

Arkansas

Connecticut

Florida

Georgia

Iowa

Louisiana

Maryland

Mississippi

Missouri

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

Oklahoma

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont

Virginia

Washington, D.C.

West Virginia

If your state isn't on the list, all hope is not lost unless you live too far to travel to a bordering state that IS on the list. Contact your state representatives and ask them to work toward bringing the tax-free weekend to your state; maybe you could turn it into a homeschool project and have your children write letters making the request!

Or, your state may not be on the list, but you know without a doubt that it is participating in the tax-free holiday. Please share the news with me so that I can update this list!

The Devotion of a Homeschooling Parent

2011-07-20T22:29:00.003-04:00

Devotion. What a concept! The word has two basic meanings. One is religious observance. The other is a strong attachment with dedicated loyalty to something or someone; in the case of homeschoolers, the devotion is to your children and their education. In many cases, there is also a devotion to our Father God.

Devoting yourself to your children's home education is a full-time job! On top of that are the usual parental and housekeeping responsibilities as well as spousal expectations, if you aren't single like I am. As if all that weren't enough to keep you hopping, you may have some volunteer work to which you devote your "spare time." That's one packed schedule!

Have you made an effort to set aside some quiet time for yourself? Wipe that incredulous look off your face -- it's not a crazy impossibility! On the contrary, taking time for yourself, even if it's only ten minutes a day, should be a top priority. You've got to be at your best to be able in turn to give your best to your family. If you don't take care of yourself, who will?

As an early bird or a night owl, you should carve out some time for yourself during the time of day when you are feeling alert, not when you are droopy eyed and listless from exhaustion. If you're going to do it, you should do it right! It will do more for you. Devote your time to something that puts a smile on your face and a light in your eyes.

Speaking of devotion, you might want to take a look at a book of devotions written for homeschooling parents. School Is Where the Home Is: 180 Devotions for Parents by Anita Mellott offers one devotional per day of required school. This book offers encouragement to parents who may wonder if what they are doing matters and to parents who struggle to find the strength to keep going. This book can be found at Judson Press as well as Amazon.com. Check it out!

Father's Day Confessions

2011-06-18T22:44:00.003-04:00

clipart: Generic Family Photo

Father’s Day is not the big deal that it once was in my life and has not been for more than a decade. I lost my beloved father in 1996. My beloved husband, father of my children, walked out on our family the day after Father’s Day in 1999. So, since 1999, there hasn't been much to celebrate. It became a habit to use Father’s Day to remember our fathers (both mine and theirs) with old videos, photos, and conversation.

Luckily for my children, their dad got his act together and stepped back into their lives halfway through 2006, so they have had a reason to celebrate since then. And I have made sure they have celebrated with a gift and card of the homemade variety.

With graduation and the ensuing job-hunt and also out-of-town guests, my daughter never got around to buying a card for her dad. She made her gifts (spicy peanut brittle and regular cashew brittle) and packaged them decoratively. She made glittery blue star-shaped soap. She had wavered between making or purchasing a card, and with the arrival of our guests, she ran out of time to go shopping. So she decided to make a card.

Gift bag and card with candy and soaps

Art is not a passion of hers. So I will confess that I searched online for some card ideas for her. I found something even better that made her very happy. At "A Holiday Haven," I found a printable card and gift wrap. I printed the card on card stock, and she has happily written inside and signed it. Sometimes when you are a single parent homeschooler, you run out of time, energy, and maybe even enthusiasm for the holidays. So if that’s you (or if you had no idea that tomorrow is Father’s Day), visit the link above and print out your last minute card and gift wrap! They are cute, and they will possibly assuage your guilt at not having your act completely together! ;-)

HOT TIP: The poor dear didn't have a gift bag for the candy and soap! What could she do? Well, we have paper shopping bags with handles from the health food store. I printed the “gift wrap” from the above website and glued it to the side of the bag. Voilá! A gift bag that matches the card!

Congratulations Are in Order

2011-06-15T00:38:00.001-04:00

This was a significant month for my family. My daughter graduated from high school! It has been a long, hard journey, but together we have finished that race. She is no longer a student and couldn’t be happier about it. In fact, when I told her that our tickets for the commencement ceremony had arrived, she exclaimed, "Oh joy and rapture!"

We had to travel two hours to the location of the graduation. You see, for the last three years, my daughter was enrolled in a state-wide virtual school. She sat at a desk beside mine in my office and often asked for my help, but I no longer had the responsibility of assigning work or grading that work. I could tutor her as needed, but she also had online tutors. It was a great set-up for us. As a working single parent struggling to survive in a difficult economy, I couldn't devote as much time to her lessons as I had when she was younger. However, I was able to be right here, working from my home office and supervising her schoolwork. Her teachers bragged on her sweet nature and her participation in online class sessions. Although we had met her teachers in person at other times, we were thrilled to make the trip to see them again at graduation, to thank them for their help, and to present them with star-shaped soaps that my daughter made as part of her self-employed business venture. On the back of each packaged soap was a label that thanked the teacher for “starring in my education.”

It’s funny – I’ve been called a proponent of homeschooling by people whose attitude toward homeschooling is negative. A proponent is “one who argues in favor of something.” I’m not by nature an argumentative person. I LOVE homeschooling, and I’m proud that I had the opportunity to teach my children to read and write and so much more through the years. While our experiences with traditional brick-and-mortar schools weren’t a success by any stretch of the imagination, I’ve never argued that they are evil and to be avoided. If I choose to argue about schooling, I will argue that parents should have a choice. I’m a proponent of choice! For my family, homeschooling was a great choice, and virtual schooling was another great choice. I LOVE virtual school and support the teachers who make it possible! Those in my daughter’s school were very supportive and encouraging.

My years as a home educator have come to an end, but my love of education lives on. I may tweak this blog a bit, but I won’t be calling it quits any time soon. You can count on that.

Before I go, I’ll share a funny (to me) but true story. A few weeks ago in a meeting about job training for my daughter, the counselor commented that my daughter must be bi-racial. I wrinkled my brow and said that I didn’t know, but I supposed it could be possible. You should have seen the incredulous look on the woman’s face! I’m used to people recognizing that we’re a family by adoption; it hadn’t occurred to me that this counselor thought I was the bio mom. When I responded to her look of confusion with the explanation that my daughter’s birth mother was black but her birth father was unknown, relief swept across her face. She laughed and said that for a moment she was worried about me! I guess if I had a baby and didn’t know who the father was, I’d be worried about me too!

Fun in the Kitchen: S'more Peep Treats

2011-05-19T14:13:00.000-04:00

Rite-Aid has clearance Easter Peeps at 90% off this week. For nineteen cents, we got a package of three dark chocolate dipped Peeps. When I saw them on clearance, I knew just what to do with them!

This is a fun kitchen science experiment. Take half a graham cracker, set a Peep on it (dark chocolate dipped is a good choice), pop them in the microwave, and nuke them until the Peep has expanded so it looks like it's ready to explode (13 seconds worked for us). Squish the Peep between the two halves of the graham cracker and enjoy your S'more Peep Treat!

NOTE: If you can't find the chocolate-dipped Peeps anywhere, get the regular kind and use chocolate chips or bar chocolate on the other half graham cracker. Or you could squirt some chocolate syrup on the heated Peep before adding the second graham cracker to your treat. That is, if chocolate is as important to you as it is to me...

Have your child(ren) theorize why the marshmallow candy expands when heated in the microwave. After all, they don't get that much bigger when roasted over a bonfire! Then do some research to find out the answer! (Oh, yes, I know I could post the answer here for you, but where's the fun in that?)

Tackling the Foreign Language Requirement

2011-05-01T20:02:00.002-04:00

You are probably planning (or will get to it within the next few months) your subjects for the coming school year. Now is a great time to give some thought to foreign language requirements. “What? Is it necessary to include a foreign language in my child’s home education?” Glad you asked! Foreign language classes are often required in college and are a requirement for graduation from all high schools when students are on the college prep track. Quoting the South Carolina Department of Education’s website: “For a student in a College Prep program to meet the state high school diploma requirements, one unit must be earned in a foreign language (most four-year colleges/universities require at least two years of the same foreign language).”

Did you study a foreign language in school? If you didn’t, you may feel woefully inept as a teacher. If you did, you still may face the idea of teaching a new language with fear and trembling. However, if there is the slightest chance that your child(ren) will be attending college, they need to study a foreign language for a minimum of one year. Even if they are not, studying a foreign language can be beneficial.

Reasons to include a foreign language in your homeschool are as follows:

It’s good brain exercise.

It gives you the ability to communicate with more people in your community and around the world. Anyone headed to a mission field where English isn’t the primary language must learn the native tongue!

It can give you an advantage when competing in the job market. (I landed one of my past jobs because of my background in Spanish. Spanish cinched it for me during the interview; I was offered the job then and there!)

Studies have shown that it’s easier to learn a language earlier in life. Introducing a language in early elementary years is a good idea. You as the teacher don’t have to do anything difficult at that age. There are lots of DVDs, videos, CD-ROMs, and audiotapes with books for young children. You may be able to borrow some of these materials from your local library. Your students can learn fun little songs in the new language. You don’t have to include it as another subject at that age. It doesn’t need to be turned into “work.” It can be fun!

By high school, you will need a curriculum complete with tests and conversation possibilities. It’s nearly impossible to learn a language without practice speaking it! Some homeschool co-ops offer classes in a foreign language. A number of presses (homeschool and otherwise) offer foreign language courses. These will mainly be on CD-ROMs, DVDs, or satellite programs. A sampling is as follows:

Rosetta Stone

Alpha Omega Switched on Schoolhouse

The Learnables from Sonlight Press

Power-Glide

Abeka

BJU Press

Standard Deviants (supplementary)

By the way, many homeschoolers choose sign language as a foreign language for high school. This option has special ministry possibilities. However, if a foreign language is required for your student’s college degree of choice, he or she needs to choose a spoken foreign language for high school. If a person hasn’t been exposed to a foreign language by the time the college class rolls around, he or she is practically doomed to fail college level foreign language courses. I saw it happen to classmates. College level language classes are extremely difficult. I believe my own success in college Spanish courses can be attributed to my exposure to Spanish in third grade as well as several years in high school. Even with prior experience, Spanish Lit, taught completely in Spanish, was rough!

Typical languages offered are Spanish, French, and German. Latin is another possibility. Several companies offer even more choices, such as Russian, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Japanese, Thai, and Swahili! See if you can obtain a Bible in the chosen language. It can be fun to learn memory verses in another language!

Feliz escuela del hogar!

(Happy homeschooling!)

Considering Personalities

2011-04-02T23:14:00.000-04:00

Years ago I gained some insight into personality differences between me and my children that helped me in my homeschooling efforts. My resource for this discovery was a book called Different Children, Different Needs, by Dr. Charles F. Boyd. The subtitle is Understanding the Unique Personality of Your Child. Published by Multnomah Publishers, Inc, it originally came out in 1994, but a revised edition was produced in 2004 that includes a study guide. While it isn’t a homeschooling manual, it can help you understand why your children behave the way they do during school time, and why you react the way you do! Dr. Boyd uses personal experiences to demonstrate many of the concepts in the book. It was informative, illuminating, and entertaining.

Perhaps you have heard of the DISC model of behavioral styles. Apparently, the idea of four basic personalities can be traced back to ancient Greece. The thing is, whatever type you are, you don’t understand others who behave differently! It seems natural that the things that matter to you would also matter to your children. However, they may not have been built that way. If God designed them differently, then your best interests will be served by understanding and accept those differences.

The letters in DISC stand for Dominant/Directive/Determined, Interactive/Influencing, Supportive/Soft-hearted, and Corrective/Conscientious. Most people are a combination of these types. One or two will be more prominent than the others. Your understanding of these will enable you to encourage your children in their unique strengths.

Those with a dominant personality are the take-charge people. They are goal-oriented. When under pressure, they become angry. They are self-confident, independent risk-takers. A biblical example of this personality is Paul.

Highly interactive children are most concerned with having fun. They fear not being liked, and they are normally cheerful and outgoing. They enjoy being in the spotlight, and they thrive in groups! They are impulsive, disorganized, unable to see clutter (a pet peeve of mine), and hate being ignored or ridiculed. A biblical example would be Peter.

The soft-hearted children tend to be peacekeepers. They like people but may be shy. They are loyal, good team players, but are sensitive and need lots of appreciation. They are motivated by helping others. Abraham exhibited high supportive/soft-hearted tendencies.

Those with corrective/conscientious tendencies have a strong desire to be right--according to their definition. They fear making mistakes, and their big emotion is worry. They don’t like being criticized, and they can’t stand broken promises. They tend to be talented, meticulous, and imaginative. Moses is our biblical example of a highly corrective/conscientious person.

What I learned is that while I’m intensely conscientious, both my children are highly interactive! While I try to do everything “the right way,” they try to do things the fun way! When I tell them to clean their rooms, they don’t see clutter the way I do; that’s why the job doesn’t seem done to me when they say they finished! It’s a relief to know that they aren’t really trying to tap dance on my last nerve. The things that have been important to me are not the things that are important to them, and vice versa. Just as I haven’t been able to understand them, they also have been unable to understand me. Why doesn’t Mom have time to play? Why is she so upset about my room when it’s obvious that I cleared a big area in the middle of the floor? I realize my conscientious tendencies have led me to pursue perfection as a parent, homemaker, breadwinner, friend, and Christian, but I’m bound to fail. Jesus was the only perfect person to ever walk this earth. When I demand “perfection” from my children, we’re all frustrated.

My discovery of personality differences led me to realize that I needed to lighten up. Do my children need to do their chores? Yes, they do. Do they need to learn responsibility? Of course. Can I take time to work with them and meet their needs for fun and fellowship? I’d better if I want to nurture our relationship.

How does this relate to homeschooling? For me, it means planning fun activities that include other families. Our studies can be loud and entertaining; we can discuss, act out, and give speeches. I now know why these children stop doing worksheets and start to giggle, run, and play any time I leave the room. Instead of berating them for their lack of conscientiousness (because of course as a student I was always teacher’s pet and did the “right” thing, but my fun-loving kids aren’t like that), I can cut them some slack; we’ll soon be back on task.

If you become a student of your children’s personalities, you may learn that you have a task-oriented child rather than a people-oriented child. You may have been anxiously trying to get your child involved in sports or other outside activities only to have him or her resist and withdraw. Once you’ve pinpointed that child’s personality, you’ll be able to release your anxieties and honor your child’s God-given behavioral style. The world needs all kinds of people, and we can embrace our children’s strengths and encourage them. We don’t need to try to change them into something they’re not; that will only lead to frustration. God doesn’t make mistakes, and we can take comfort in knowing that God has a plan for our children, whether they are determined, interactive, soft-hearted, conscientious, or some combination of those.

Some questions to ask yourself are as follows:

1. What is my personality?

2. How are my children’s personalities similar to mine?

3. How are my children’s personalities different?

4. How can I teach to their personalities?

Happy homeschooling!

~as published in Christian Online Magazine~

Have You Heard? Homeschooling is a Weapon!

2011-03-03T11:25:00.000-05:00

Hitler and Stalin both outlawed homeschooling in their countries. Stalin said, “Education is a weapon whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” That sounds a bit alarming! In the US, a college professor named Chris Lubienski once stated that “homeschooling is a social threat to public education.” And here you thought that homeschooling was simply a personal choice that benefited your family!

If homeschooling is a weapon, then there must be a target. What are we aiming at? I’ve come up with a list that I think represents reasons why most of us choose home education for our families.

Target #1: negative influences/peer pressure/violence

Many homeschooling families fight the negative influences, peer pressure, and violence that can be found in brick-and-mortar schools. Are there good schools with good teachers and good policies? Of course. However, that doesn’t always prevent bullying from occurring. That doesn’t stop students from talking in the halls or on the playground about inappropriate or offensive subjects. Drugs and gangs are in our schools. I spoke with a police officer and was stunned to learn about the number of gangs that he was aware of in our community and in our public school! Parents have a right to protect their children from these things. We’ve been called to raise them in the nurture and admonition of our Lord. Sometimes that involved homeschooling.

Target #2: ignorance

Those who live in districts where the traditional schools are substandard may turn to homeschooling to give their children a better education. Homeschooling can fight ignorance. Ignorance is defined as “the condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.” Homeschool parents can work on subjects until their children have a clear understanding. We can go into more depth on subjects. We can study topics not included in the traditional school’s curriculum. We can fight ignorance.

Target #3: government indoctrination

People have different opinions about government indoctrination and whether it really exists within our public schools. I’m not prepared to debate the question, but I’ve read accounts in the news of teachers presenting very biased lessons on politics and trying to hide it from the students’ parents. In high school, I had teachers who were active in local politics, and I knew their party affiliation. It’s not too farfetched to say that some parents would choose to homeschool to avoid government control over what their children are taught. Certainly, being able to teach creationism and explain the flaws in the theory of evolution are attractive reasons for a Christian to homeschool.

Target #4: apathy

A child who once loved learning may lose that love in a traditional school, and it’s often because of not being taught to his or her learning style. Not all children learn well by sitting quietly and listening to a lecture. It’s heartbreaking when a child becomes apathetic about learning. Fortunately, homeschooling can solve that problem. The parent can discover each child’s learning style and adapt lessons accordingly.

Target #5: family disunity

One of the reasons I embraced homeschooling was for the additional time I could spend with my children. After seven childless years, my husband and I had become foster parents. Then we were able to adopt our son and daughter. I didn’t want to send them away from home each day! I wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. I used homeschooling to fight family disunity. Homeschooling keeps the family together, and it allows siblings more time to spend with each other and develop close relationships.

Target #6: Godless worldview

Homeschooling targets the “separation of church and state” debate. By taking your child’s education out of the state’s hands and into your own, you are free to teach from a biblical worldview. A worldview is defined as the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world. As Christians, we want our children to embrace a biblical worldview.

Target #7: Godless week days

I grew up going to public school Monday through Friday and going to church on Sunday – the Lord’s Day. When only one out of seven days is devoted to God, a child might draw the conclusion that God is just a Sunday school subject. Our faith shouldn’t be compartmentalized like that. As Christians, we should know that all of life should be lived with all of God. We need always to be conscious of God, not merely on Sundays, at mealtimes, or when we are in trouble. Homeschooling can combat that compartmentalization. When education takes place at home, God can be a part of every moment of your child’s day!

Just so you know, I don’t think homeschooling is the answer for every family. I would never judge anyone for sending their children to a private or public school. I can only know what God called me to do. While homeschooling may be a weapon aimed at the above targets, it isn’t the only weapon! Christian parents can still have an effect on their children and against those targets. We have a God-given responsibility to protect and train our children properly. As it says in Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Also published at www.christianonlinemagazine.org

Extracurricular Activities - the Possibilities are Endless!

2011-02-15T20:44:00.003-05:00

The flexibility of homeschooling (and the lack of homework) makes finding time for extracurricular activities fairly easy. You may ask yourself where to start--or if you’re like me, where to stop! The possibilities are endless! Because we can participate in activities during the hours when traditional schools are in session, we are often invited to special homeschool classes at discounted rates. Before diving right in to everything your homeschooling friends are doing, you’ll want to consider activities that will explore and expand your children’s talents and interests, as well as those activities that involve serving the Lord.

1st place winner in the teen

division and overall R&B

genre winner in a local vocal

competition in 2006

For children interested in fine arts, you can find private or class lessons for instruments, voice, or art. You might also find worship dance classes or opportunities to participate in dramatic productions. Locally, we have everything from piano to harp lessons! You may even find a homeschool choir or voice class. In the realm of art, there are also private lessons and group classes in everything from drawing and painting to working with clay. We have several children’s theaters locally that enjoy working with homeschooled students. Last of all, there may be art clubs that your child could join. We spent a number of year in homeschool 4H clubs that provided competition and performance opportunities for my kids.

If your student adores animals, there are stables that offer riding classes. Many areas have 4-H clubs that pertain to animals. If not, you could always volunteer to start one! I knew a 12-year-old homeschooled student who volunteered at a veterinarian clinic, helping care for the pets. Zoos often have classes and field trips for groups of homeschooled students.

Do you have a child who is fascinated by science? You may find a science center nearby. You may find science-oriented classes and clubs. There are even Lego robotic clubs! Our local science center accepts students as volunteers. We’ve known several homeschoolers who worked there.

Is your child a sports enthusiast? You may have time to try out a number of different sports - swimming, tae kwon do, gymnastics, roller or ice skating, basketball, baseball, football, and soccer. Some teams promote Christianity and sportsmanship, while others are focused on competition. Sometimes you will find leagues specifically for homeschoolers. At other times, you may opt for a church team or a community league. Also, the local YMCA may have an affordable homeschool p.e. program; if not, they may be open to starting one! Just because our children aren’t in traditional school doesn’t mean they are doomed to miss out on athletics.

There are many kinds of clubs for children, and many of those will offer leadership opportunities. If your child exhibits leadership qualities, he or she may benefit from participation in a youth club. My own children were each elected as both vice president and club photographer in the last three years of their membership in 4-H. They also run for offices that they didn’t win. Even that can be a learning experience.

Perhaps you want your children to learn the blessings of service. Homeschooling gives you the flexibility to go where you are needed, when you are needed! You have organizations like Meals on Wheels, rescue missions, soup kitchens, nursing homes, foster care for abandoned pets, foster care for children, and much more. You might target individuals that need help, such as the elderly who may need help with lawn care or shopping, or a single parent who needs someone to babysit so that he or she can run errands or take a much-needed nap! Have your children memorize Matthew 25:40: “Then the King will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for Me’.” As they serve others, our children are serving our Lord.

There are ways you and your children could serve in your church as well. You could volunteer to clean the sanctuary, pick up trash around the building, pull weeds and/or plant flowers, mow grass, or even bake goodies for the staff! If they are old enough, your children may be able to help in the nursery, a children’s Sunday school class, or children’s church. Perhaps they could be involved in music for services, by either playing an instrument or singing in a choir. Now is a great time to sow seeds of service in their tender hearts.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure that your hearts are in it. A halfhearted effort can be worse than no effort at all. Don’t forget to leave time for studying! Don’t overwhelm your schedule with activities, as tempting as that is; be sure to include time to relax. Last of all, have fun as you travel down the adventurous homeschool highway.

Happy homeschooling!

Bullying: a Good Reason to Homeschool, but ...

2011-01-03T19:47:00.002-05:00

Bullying is a reason why some families choose homeschooling. When a tormented child is removed from school, the school bully loses power over him or her. The homeschool child benefits from being removed from a stressful situation and of course benefits from one-on-one attention and the ability to focus on learning in the safe and loving environment of home.

The bullies of 30 or more years ago seem quite innocent compared to the bullies of today. Bullies in the 21^st century have gone anonymous thanks to the power of the Internet. Rumors and pictures can zip around school with lightning speed thanks to modern technology. School bullies can even needle and torment their victims without anyone knowing who they are. For example, a bully (or group of bullies) can build up a mob of haters against their victim by creating a bogus page in the victim’s name and posting insults aimed at other students. The victim may protest that he or she isn’t the culprit and doesn’t even have a MySpace or Facebook account, but who would believe it after seeing that person’s name and likeness on the screen? School then becomes a daily nightmare. Bullies also have the means to design games with the victim’s likeness – games where the object may be, as it was in at least one local instance, to kill the victim. How would you feel if classmates greeted your child in the school hallway with “Hey! I killed you last night!” Sadly, there are adults who actually think the victims of this type of bullying should just “suck it up and be a man.” The parent of the victim may become a victim of bullying as well if he or she demands that the authorities investigate and prosecute! What is this world coming to when a parent is told not to protect a child from this – or any -- kind of abuse?

Bullying causes so much pain and suffering that it has even led to suicide. It is our right to protect our children. Contrary to what some ignorant people believe, bullying does not breed character. There is no “bright side” to being the victim of a bully. We don’t send untrained soldiers into battle to learn how to fight, do we? How can anyone think that sending a child into bully territory will teach the child how to cope with bullies?

Homeschooling may be the answer to the bullying epidemic, but I have bad news for you. Bullies can be found in the homeschool community too. I’ve done my research and was disappointed to find that sometimes homeschoolers pick on each other. Put a group together, whether it’s a co-op or other activity, and any bully included will find someone within that group to torment. Parents must be vigilant. Victims are often afraid to tell. You don’t know what threats might keep them quiet. I read about parents who were shocked that their home educated child hid the abuse from them!

I Corinthians 15:33 tells us “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’” What does that tell me? It tells me that God expects us to know what kind of children and adults surround our sons and daughters. We have a duty to protect our children. Don’t be deceived into thinking that homeschoolers are all honorable, decent people. I wish that were the case. It’s easy to think so when you are part of a small church group of homeschoolers. However, we’re all sinners, whether saved by grace or not. We can’t assume that mean-spirited behavior won’t be a part of the homeschooling experience.

Let’s teach our children what bullying is and make sure they know that we won’t tolerate any bullying aimed at them – or coming from them. Parents need to love their children enough to stand up for them and protect them from danger. We need to make it clear that we won’t tolerate other children being bullied, and we won’t allow bullies (even if they are our own flesh and blood) to continue their abusive behavior. Love them enough to bring consequences that may teach them to change their bullying ways and have a chance at a happier life.

Finding the Fun in December

2010-11-26T16:54:00.001-05:00

Let’s be honest. It’s not that hard to find the fun in December. We can hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it, and see it! There’s no hiding from holiday fun! No, more often than not, the problem is not finding the fun; it’s finding TIME for the fun. So right now, while you have a moment to yourself, ask God to help you plan your calendar in a way that will honor Him and benefit your children. Then you can make a list of activities that will enrich your family this month, and mark the four that are the most appealing. (If you have time for more than one activity a week, and activities energize you, then by all means include more on your list!)

There will be a myriad of Christmas activities all month long for you to choose from. Don’t overload your schedule, but choose those that you feel are the most important. Consider making at least one of those activities a community service/blessing others type of activity, whether it’s adopting a child or family for whom to buy gifts, volunteering at the soup kitchen, caroling at a nursing home, ringing the bell for the Salvation Army, or something else.

One meaningful activity is to observe the Advent season. There are Advent calendars to count off each day before Christmas, or there is the table wreath with five candles. The wreath is used on the four Sundays preceding Christmas. This year the dates are November 28 and December 5, 12, and 19. One candle is lit each Sunday until you have all four lit on the fourth Sunday. The first two Sundays call for purple candles representing hope and peace. The third Sunday is for the pink candle; it represents joy. Then the fourth Sunday calls for the purple candle of love. The fifth candle is the Christ candle and is lit on Christmas Day. I used a white votive in the center of my ring/wreath for my Christ candle. If observing Advent intrigues you, visit this site to learn more: http://www.kencollins.com/question-10.htm

Other holiday activities that you might consider for fun and educational purposes are Christmas parades and tree lighting ceremonies, historical homes or plantations decorated and opened for a peek into Christmases past, beautiful light displays, and live nativities. One of my favorite events is a “Walk through Bethlehem” that a local church presents every year. They create a village filled with a market and costumed people, and we feel like we’ve been transported back to Bethlehem, where we must beware the centurions and find the stable where the promised Savior has been born. If you can locate something like that, you will bring the meaning of Christmas alive for your children!

Your December schooling may include the science of cooking holiday treats and edible gifts; the language arts of writing stories, poems, or articles for the family newsletter; the history of holiday traditions around the world; the math of shopping on a budget; and the memorization of meaningful scripture or Christmas hymns. The life skills of cooking, cleaning, decorating, and entertaining also have a place in December!

While Christmas has the lead role in December, there are other cultural holidays that your homeschool could study. Hanukkah, a Jewish holiday, begins on December 2 and is also know as the Festival of Lights. Kwanzaa, an African-American holiday, begins December 26. Boxing Day, a holiday observed by some other countries, is on December 26 as well. Why not spend some time learning about the history behind and traditions of those holidays?

There are two non-Christmas dates you might observe. December 21 is the first day of winter and the shortest day (and longest night) of the year. December 31, as you know, is New Year’s Eve. Both offer topics of discussion. For example, what would life be like if every day was like December 21? What was the best thing that happened during the year? What do you look forward to the most in the coming year? Why do people make and break New Year’s Resolutions?

Enjoy this beautiful season of lights and love. Spend time with your family. Remember God’s gift to the world. Have a very blessed Christmas and a happy homeschooling New Year.

Finding the Fun in November

2010-11-03T14:26:00.001-04:00

Are you thankful that November has arrived with its cornucopia full of educational, family fun? My family has had an awesome October, and we look forward to a nostalgic November. Take a moment to ask God which opportunities will have the most lasting value for your family, and enjoy your choices.

November has several holidays for which you might choose to make plans. November 2 is Election Day. My daughter recently turned 18 and registered to vote, so that’s going to be an exceptional day for us as she takes her first turn in the ballot booth. If you have enough children at home, you might choose to hold a mock election as a fun way to teach them about elections. (Update: We did vote, we got stickers that say we voted, and then we celebrated with lunch at Bojangles. Memory made!)

November 11 is Veterans Day. This is the day we remember Grandpa and watch our old home movies from when he was young. There may be parades or other functions to attend to show support for our veterans. Ask your children for their ideas for honoring some veterans that they know.

Of course, the holiday of the month is Thanksgiving. Now, if you can’t think of something fun to do that involves Pilgrims, Indians, and a feast, then I’ll shake my head and wonder about you! Many of you will have opportunities to be an active participant or spectator at family gatherings, feasts, football games, and the Thanksgiving Day parade. Much of it is fun, and much of it can lend itself to educational fun. It helps to have a plan, so plan ahead to make the most of the opportunities that this month offers your family.

Because so much of the month is devoted to the past, November is a great time for nostalgia. Invite your children on a trip down your own memory lane and share old toys and games from your childhood with them. Did you play Red Rover, Too Late for Supper, or Drop the Hankie? Old-fashioned candy can be found if you know where to look. I enjoyed taking my kids to Mast General Store and pointing out Grandma and Grandpa’s favorite candies in the candy barrels. (I enjoyed buying a selection of candy to share as well!) Get older relatives involved. Talk about the past, especially the historical moments that you or your parents lived through. Look at old photo albums. How has fashion changed over the years? How have places changed over the years?

Interest your children in a blessing game. To play, participants should form a circle from eldest to youngest. The eldest goes first and names a blessing in his or her life. Continue around the circle until everyone has offered a blessing. Then go around again! The point of the game is to remind your family of the many blessings they often take for granted. As individuals run out of ideas, they leave the circle. The winner of the blessing game is the one who offered the most blessings. Honestly, an abundance of blessings makes a winner out of all of us! After this game, your children should have plenty of ideas for writing an essay or a poem on blessings and Thanksgiving.

So many of God’s blessings are evident this month. Give thanks for His goodness and mercy! Let your kids act out the drama of what we call the first Thanksgiving. Ask God to make other teachable moments happen as well.

Happy homeschooling!

Finding the Fun in October

2010-10-02T14:38:00.002-04:00

October blows in with blazing yellows, glowing oranges, and dramatic reds. It also arrives with wagon-load of educational, family fun! You don’t need a spyglass to look for the fun; it’s all around! Ask God which opportunities will have the most lasting value for your family, and enjoy your choices.

October has two holidays you might choose to observe: Columbus Day (10/11/10) and Halloween (10/31/10). If you are in Canada, October 11 is also Thanksgiving this year. You can find plenty of activities for these dates by doing an online search. You might visit your library and see what holiday books the children’s librarian has on display for checking out. One of my favorite autumn holiday activities has always been pumpkin carving. In recent years, I’ve learned how to carve the faces of my children into a jack-o-lantern!

Visiting a pumpkin patch is a fun fall family activity! Some farms make cornfield mazes for visitors to enjoy. (We love those!) If you can find a farm that offers family activities (for a fee, of course), you could plan a field trip. We participated in autumn farm field trips with our homeschool group many times and always enjoyed the hayrides, mazes, educational activities, and photographic opportunities. Even parents learn new things; for instance, I learned that pie pumpkins are different from the pumpkins that are made into jack-o-lanterns. Did you know that?

In this region, October brings the Carolina Renaissance Festival. This festival offers “student days” where educational opportunities abound and adult entertainment is kept under wraps. See and speaking to the roaming costumed characters brings history to life in a way no book ever could. If you get a chance to see any type of historical reenactment, take it! Your children will always remember the times they took a step into history.

This month is also host to many small-town festivals and fairs. From various harvest festivals celebrating everything from pigs to cotton to squash and fairs devoted to rides, music, and vegetable contests, you can find plenty to see, do, and learn. Take the time to walk through the animal and farming exhibits. Antique car exhibits are interesting as well! After a fun outing, ask your children to write a summary or a poem about their experience for a language arts assignment.

If there is an autumn fruit or vegetable that you have never cooked or tasted, let that become the focus of a homeschool lesson. Your grocery store probably has produce that you have never tried, or you could visit a farmers market. Another fun activity could be decorating fruits, vegetables, or gourds to be used as decorations with paint or markers. That counts as an art project!

So many of God’s blessings are visible this month, so celebrate His creation and His goodness! Let your kids help you plan activities. Ask God to make those teachable moments happen. Enjoy your journey through autumn and toward Thanksgiving and Christmas! (They'll be here before you know it!)

P.S. Here is this year's Us-o-lantern, featuring my daughter with cornrows and myself! We're supposed to be yelling, but it looks more like I'm laughing at my surprised teen. Maybe she IS surprised. After all, there is a lit votive in her mouth. teehee

Also published at www.christianonlinemagazine.org

Confession of a One-Time Homeschool Convention Speaker

2010-09-16T01:31:00.006-04:00

2006 Convention
Speaker: Me

Imagine a single mom huddled in a hotel bathroom in the middle of the night. Nerves have gotten the best of her; she’s freezing and feeling nauseous and crying and asking God why she had ever agreed to speak at a homeschool convention. (Furthermore, she’s wondering why she ever thought that making a career of traveling on the homeschool convention circuit as a speaker and vendor would be a dream come true!) Twelve hours later, she’s talking and laughing with eleven other women in her workshop called "Confessions of a Single Parent Homeschooler."

That was me four years ago. I surprised myself by not being the dull, slow, and boring speaker that I was when I practiced on my children the night before. No migraines or queasy feelings brought me down, and I suffered only twinges of nervousness that morning. That afternoon, it was a relief to sit at a long table and feel like part of a group instead of being forced to stand behind a podium. I had a mic clipped to my tunic so that I could be taped. Ultimately, the experience was rewarding.

I explained to the ladies in my workshop that I had stepped way outside my comfort zone to lead that session. (In fact, I had not signed up to lead it – my very first workshop -- alone; I had agreed to share the responsibility with another single homeschool mom, who then vanished off the face of the Earth and left me holding the homeschool bag. So I wrote a book to organize my thoughts and ideas and see if I could make enough money to cover my expenses that weekend.) After my workshop, the ladies said they had fun and that I didn’t seem nervous at all. I even got a few laughs, which made my day because the night before, I couldn’t think of anything funny to say! I felt so at ease after getting started that I stopped using my notes and just went with it! We had plenty of fun with my “confessions,” and the women even confessed a few things! Nobody asked questions that stumped me. But of course I had asked God to give me the words to say, and He certainly did!

On the drive home, I listened to the tape of my session. My kids said, "Wow! Mom sounds so smart! And Southern!" Funny, I don’t know where that southern accent came from -- I was born and raised in the Midwest! I couldn’t believe that was me on the tape. I sounded so young! I was amazed at the words coming out of my mouth, and there wasn’t even a hint of a stutter! Honestly, I think I’m a better writer than a speaker. I have a degree in speech (the drama type), but I discovered that public speaking drains every ounce of energy from my system.

Now, the bad news is that I only sold one of my books at that convention. ONE BOOK! So, no, I didn’t make enough to cover my expenses. Can I vent a bit here? The book signing was messed up. Nobody had a clear answer about set-up. Then I was told that someone would set up a table for me later, so I took my daughter to lunch. When we returned, there was one table, and another couple had their books and decorations all over it. So again I asked and got the run-around. Then, that couple offered to move some stuff so I could sit at the end of their table with my things. That was nice of them. However, they were locals and known by about everyone, so people were eager to talk to them and buy their books, and I was ignored. I think two people talked to me, and two other people took a free bookmark that I had made. So the book-signing stuff wasn’t fun. I’m not a salesman. I can make signs and bookmarks and stuff, but I can’t attract customers. Maybe that was a sign from God that life as a vendor is not for me?

Something did make up for the lack of sales, and that was the donated supplies for single moms. My conference room was piled with all kinds of books, games, videos, and tapes! Since I helped sort them before my session, I got first pick! I got some tapes and books for Spanish lessons, a high school science text that I needed, some history books, and leisure reading books for the kids. I even found a sign language book for Jasmine, who had been asking to learn sign language! Those freebies saved me money for the next homeschool year.

I really had a great time - regardless of the book sale bust - and came home happy about the experience. I sat in some great workshops and got to talk to some interesting people, and the women in my workshop left feeling encouraged. The one who bought my book found nearly all the curriculum she needed for her daughter. She almost cried! She got the exact language arts, the exact math, and the exact history or science (I forget which) that she had wanted for the upcoming year - in great shape, and all free! Is that a God-thing or what!

No, I didn’t get drawn into the homeschool convention circuit, but now that I know what it’s really like, I’m not that disappointed. Besides, I’m enjoying life as a writer and proofreader. Writing doesn’t drain me like speaking does. It invigorates me!

Finding the Fun in September

2010-09-04T13:56:00.001-04:00

September comes with changing leaves, cooler temperatures (yay!), and thoughts of autumn tastes and celebrations. September is back-to-school, apples, and leaves drifting down to carpet lawns and sidewalks. If you haven’t found any fun in your months recently, begin now to find fun activities for your family. God blessed us with the ability to laugh! The side benefits to belting out some guffaws include a reduction in stress and pain, and it even benefits our brains and hearts! Knowing this, ask the Lord to help you provide some educational entertainment (or should that be entertaining education?) for you and your children this month.

September has three holidays you might choose to observe: Labor Day (9/6/10), Patriot Day (9/11/10), and Grandparents Day (9/12/10). Since Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, you might make this the day you enjoy a summer activity that you have put off all season. You might also teach your children the history of Labor Day; make it fun by pairing the lesson with a picnic! Because Patriot Day is the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, if you choose to observe that holiday, your discussion and activities will be thoughtful and serious. Grandparents Day never made it big like Mothers Day and Father Day, but it can still be a fun and meaningful day. Artistic children might enjoy painting or drawing a picture for a grandparent or making a collage online with photos. You might look through photo albums or watch old home movies. If the grandparents are living and local, you can invite them out for something fun – maybe take them to the zoo! Your children can ask their grandparents what zoos were like when they were young.

Another September idea: combine map-reading with science in the form of a scavenger hunt, a fun activity for a delightful autumn afternoon! On your computer or by hand, create a simple map of a familiar outdoor place. Mark spots on the map for your child to stop and collect something from the list you provide. Items may include natural items such as fallen leaves of different colors, a pinecone, acorn, stone, mushroom, or feather. You may also include man-made items such as non-dangerous trash. (Be specific about what is dangerous; broken glass is an obvious no-no!) Afterwards, you can study the findings and discuss the differences between man-made and God-made objects.

If you haven’t been camping recently (or ever), let me encourage you go take your family and go this month! It’s not too hot, not too cold, and not too crowded. In fact, as a homeschooling family, you can go mid-week and have most of the campground to yourself! My kids loved this. We took some school work with us and worked on it when it rained. On one camping excursion, we hiked, checked out a local Cherokee museum, and got acquainted with some little lizards! On another, we joined a homeschool group and took a field trip to an archaeological dig at an old plantation. We got to learn how painstaking it is to hunt through old garbage pits for clues to the past. Camping is an adventure and a learning experience every time.

This is a great time to visit an apple orchard and pick your own apples. Kids love this activity! There are a lot of apple orchards around here, and many homeschool groups form field trips that include hayrides, cider press demonstrations, and other educational lessons. You don’t need a group, however. Go and get some apples and see how many different things – edible, drinkable, or non-edible – you can make from them!

With a little effort, this could be the month of the most fun ever. Let your kids help you plan activities. Ask God to make those teachable moments happen. Enjoy your journey!

Also published at www.christianonlinemagazine.org

Finding the Fun in August

2010-08-06T01:40:00.001-04:00

Can you believe it? I posted this blog in the wrong blog (my Christmas one), and even though people looked at it, not one said anything! I'm red-faced ...

Here we are, enjoying (or not) the dog days of August. Here in the sunny South, it’s hot and humid. My favorite place to be is indoors enjoying some chilly A/C! It just doesn’t seem right to start back to school in August while summer is still here, but many of us are mindful of Christmas break (maybe taking the whole month of December off) and need to start school now in order to put in the required 180 days of schooling without having to work into the following June or July! So, can you find the fun in a hot, humid return-to-homeschooling month? Have you asked the Lord to give you some teachable moments in August? The most memorable lessons are often linked to fun, so if you’ve put off making some educational fun this summer, make an effort to include some before the chance is gone.

If you’re looking for ways to beat the heat, one idea is to visit a pet store or animal shelter to pet the animals. Some shelters want volunteers who can come and socialize the animals, walk the dogs, and wash and groom those that need it. Find out if there is such a volunteer program in your area. Pet shops have A/C, making that a good place to be on a hot summer day, and your children will learn about proper care and handling of small animals.

August is a great time to show your children how homemade ice cream is made, especially if you haven’t done this before. One year I borrowed an ice cream maker from a friend. My kids were so surprised at the ingredients that went into the ice cream. The texture and coldness were also a surprise. If you don’t have access to an ice cream maker, you might visit an ice cream parlor or get a carton of ice cream from the store – something with unusual ingredients. Make it a chilly, try-a-new-flavor lesson!

Have your children learned self-defense strategies for avoiding trouble? If not, there’s no time like the present. For the budget-conscious, there are DVDs available for children at the library that teach how to avoid strangers and abductions (in a format that won’t cause children to have nightmares). The lesson can even be fun! My children enjoyed coming up with a secret code any adult should use when sent to pick them up in my place. They had fun practicing escape tactics that were taught in the videos. Self-defense is an important lesson that children should learn as soon as possible, and it can be taught in the comfort of home. If your budget allows for it, you may find a martial arts studio that offers such classes as well.

If you can stand the heat, head on out and visit a produce stand; a delightful variety of fruits and vegetables are in season now! Chances are that you have been shopping at a produce stand already, but have you looked for lessons there? Buy a variety of things and cut them up. Study the seeds. Taste new and unusual produce. Figure out why eggplant is called eggplant. You might want to go to the grocery store for exotic fruits. Buy a coconut, a star fruit, an ugli fruit and share them with your family. Share ideas about why God made fruits and veggies in so many bright colors and interesting shapes.

Take these last few weeks of “freedom” to learn something new: how to play disc golf is one idea; another is geocaching, a pastime that is growing in popularity. You could also choose videos or DVDs from the library and learn about origami, photography, or something else that interests you and your children. There are even DVDs that teach children how to cook easy foods!

If you start homeschooling in August, gather goodies for a back-to-school goodie bag! Think school supplies combined with art supplies, quirky erasers, and a reading for pleasure book or two. Some states have a tax-free weekend in August, so take advantage of that. My kids loved the first day of homeschool – receiving a gift bag of surprises, fresh pencils and erasers, and getting their photos taken. It gave them something special to look forward to.

Throw a back-to-school kickoff party. Some coops and homeschool support groups do this, but even if you have that option, why not throw one too? If those options aren’t available to you, that’s all the more reason to have a party yourself. Kids LOVE a party. It doesn’t have to be pricey. Plan some fun outdoor games and simple refreshments. You might have a make-your-own-sundae party. For older children, maybe you could plan a pool party – but be aware, drowning happens quietly, not with a lot of splashing, flailing, and calling for help. You’ll want plenty of safeguards in place to prevent something tragic from happening. Your kids will love the memories made in their backyard.

Whatever your budget, you can put some fun in your August. Your kids will love the memories, and so will you! Happy homeschooling!

Finding the Fun in July

2010-07-03T01:30:00.001-04:00

July has come more quickly than expected – at least for me! Are you making the most of your summer while it lasts? Are you seeking out fun, teachable moments for your children? They’re all around you, and this month, many of them could be historical in nature.

This month’s big holiday is Independence Day. Towns and cities will have outdoor activities such as live music, fair rides, and fireworks. Take the opportunity to explain to your children what the celebration is all about and what the fireworks represent (bombs bursting in air during the Revolutionary War) and then enjoy yourselves! If you live in an area where the purchase and setting off of small fireworks is perfectly legal, you may teach your children about fire and fireworks safety and then enjoy the pops and flashes at home.

The month of July can become a month of patriotic moments. Travel to nearby historical sites and learn what happened there. After all, who doesn’t love a field trip? My son loved anything related to war, so trips to old battlegrounds excited him. One summer we went to see a reenactment of a Civil War battle that included the firing of a cannon! He loved it! History becomes more meaningful for children when they can see it in person rather than when they have to read about it in a textbook.

Parents’ Day is July 25. What is Parents’ Day, I wonder, and how did it get on my calendar? After all, we already have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. However, why look a gift horse in the mouth? Take this day made to celebrate you; run with it! Direct your children to come up with a creative way to celebrate your family. You may be amazed at what they can come up with. Chances are very good that whatever it is, it will be fun. :-)

July is one hot month in the northern hemisphere. There are a number of ways to beat the heat. Public libraries normally have excellent A/C, and they’re full of fun and educational things to do! They have summer reading programs and other activities for children to enjoy, so take advantage of what your library has to offer. Swimming pools offer teachable moments of water safety and common courtesy. No pool? No worries! There are plenty of water options, from balloons to squirt guns to dancing in the sprinklers. Finding a rainbow in the sprinklers can lead to a lesson on the science of rainbows! It can also lead to a discussion of the first rainbow that God placed in the sky.

Lemonade is the drink of summer. Why not lead the kids in a scientific experiment? Can they make a better lemonade? What if they use different kinds of sweeteners? What if they add the juice of different fruits? Have them take notes and keep track of the recipes they create. This is a fun and tasty project that could result in a new family favorite drink.

Summer nights are warm enough for you to lie out on a quilt and study the stars. While light pollution prevents us from seeing the majority of stars in the sky, the brightest stars – those that make up the constellations – can still be seen. This could be the month you teach your children to recognize the constellations. You don’t know them? Take a trip to a planetarium! Or, if that option isn’t handy, search online for information on the constellations you should be able to see in the night sky this month. As you study the stars, tell your children that God created each one of them and not one falls from the sky without His knowing it.

June passed quickly. Don’t let July slip by without doing something special with your children. Once the time has passed, you can’t get it back. Make plans to enjoy some summer fun while making the most of teachable moments. You’re creating memories that last a lifetime.

I never thought I'd switch

2010-06-10T23:26:00.000-04:00

I loved my old template that looked like an old-timey newspaper. However, just for fun I checked out the new stuff. And wow! The options were amazing! Being a lover of books, I had to choose the background with the most books in it. It kind of looks like my office would look if I had enough shelves for all my books. LOL

I just felt like sharing. :-)

Finding the Fun in June

2010-06-03T21:02:00.001-04:00

June has arrived! The typical family is enjoying a summer break. Taking a break from school doesn’t necessarily mean taking a break from learning. Teachable moments are all around you. You can also create teachable moments. Consider the following ideas for adding educational fun to your summer.

This month’s holiday is Father’s Day. It lands on June 20, so you have time to plan something special with the kids. Maybe they will pretend to be detectives, studying Dad and taking secret notes about Dad’s likes and dislikes. Then they can write up a report (language arts!) that you can use to discuss gift and activity ideas for the big day. Art can be used to create a special one-of-a-kind card. There are so many places online where you can find ideas for Father’s Day projects! However, if there is no Dad available for the kids or for you, you don’t have to bury your head under a pillow and wait for the day to end. You can still treat the children to a Father’s Day. You might have a cookout, go fishing or camping, or watch a movie that features a loving father. You might look at photo albums and share some happy memories about a father or a father-figure. The day can be about the qualities it takes to be a good, God-honoring father. When there is no earthly father to celebrate, there is still the heavenly Father.

With your schedule freed up from daily school lessons, you can explore the children’s interests. When my teens were younger, I would devote each week of summer to a different subject. For instance, they wanted to cook, so I got a children’s cookbook and devoted a week to teaching them how to follow simple recipes. They were interested in dinosaurs, so one week we read about dinosaurs, put a dinosaur skeleton puzzle together, played a dinosaur game, fashioned dinosaurs out of clay, and watched dinosaur videos. We also played the educational games I’d stocked up on but never found time for during the school year. We had a good time, and the kids didn’t complain of being bored.

Summer is a fine time to be outdoors. Many kids like to take hikes and talk about nature. If your kids have questions that you can’t answer, a trip to the library can help!

Don’t let time slip away. Before you know it, summer will be gone. You’ll be in a headlong rush through autumn toward Christmas! Use your time wisely. Don’t put fun off till later. Later rarely comes. Make plans to enjoy some summer fun while keeping your family on the learning track. You won’t regret it!

Finding the Fun in May

2010-05-01T16:13:00.002-04:00

The month of May brings with it the anticipation of the coming summer break for many homeschooled children (and if we admit it, the teaching parent too)! It makes focusing on schoolwork difficult. Outside, the birds are singing, new leaves are rustling with spring breezes, the ice cream truck is playing its merry tune, and it seems as if all God’s creation is celebrating new life. Who can ignore the celebration and stay indoors? Yet, we have work to do. We have chapters yet to cover, projects yet to complete. And think about this: why do we have to stay indoors studying during the optimal weather of spring and take a break during the sweltering heat of summer??? (I’m speaking as one who lives in the sunny South.) Does that make sense to you?

This May, if you haven’t elected to take an extended spring break, incorporate the beautiful outdoors into your lessons. Find reasons to be outside! Language arts could involve writing descriptions of the flora and fauna. Art could focus on drawing it! Math could be as simple as counting and multiplying things and could also include skip counting while jumping rope or tossing a ball back and forth. History could include local history and a walking tour of a local town or city. Science could include some fun experiments; for example, blow some bubbles! How long do they last before popping? Does the time of day affect the popping time? Does the outdoor temperature? Sunny day versus cloudy? Dry versus humid? You or your student(s) might create a chart for logging your findings. There are plenty of ways to include outdoor time with your home education. Be creative!

May 1 is May Day and is celebrated in some areas by leaving May baskets filled with sweets and flowers on the neighbors’ doorsteps. You might find a way to incorporate community service into your May Day.

May 5 is Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday that celebrates a small army’s victory over the larger French army back in 1862. Americans see the holiday as a great excuse to eating their favorite Mexican foods! Your homeschool could focus on the Hispanic culture, Mexican dishes, and Mexican soft drinks. Most grocery stores have an international section that has everything you need! Your family could sample unusual soft drink flavors such as tamarind, guava, and pineapple. Perhaps you could make a papier mache piñata and fill it with candies and trinkets for a little family fun.

May 8 is Mothers Day. Part of training your children up is to train them to honor their parents. What form that honor takes is up to you. Will they create handmade cards, write a poem, cook something special, clean the house, or plan a family photo shoot? You can think of the things that would please you most and give them choices, or you can ask your husband or other loved one to help your children prepare for Mothers Day. If you were to give them a test about your life and your favorite things, would they pass? Could you make a fun game out of it? Can Mothers Day be fun for all of you? Sure it can, but you can’t sit back and wait for things to happen. People who do that are often disappointed.

The third Saturday in May is Armed Forces Day. Do you know anyone serving in the military? You and your children could find a creative way to thank them for their service to our country. (You might send them some drawings or writings done during outdoor school time. )

May 31 is Memorial Day. A visit to the cemetery may not seem like a “fun” activity, but many people find grave markers interesting. You may visit your deceased loved ones and place flowers on their graves. You could share favorite memories with your children. Then you might participate in community activities. There may be family festivals or opening day for public pools. You’ll want to teach your children about Memorial Day’s background, but then you can find ways to get out and enjoy the day with your family as well.

Keep moving forward. Summer will soon be here. Make the most of the season, and remember to make time for fun. Your family will love it!

As published at: http://christianonlinemagazine.com/homeschooling_column_finding_the_fun_in_may

Finding the Fun in April

2010-03-30T00:33:00.002-04:00

Now it’s April, and the typical family has around two more months of school to complete before taking a summer break. Spring has sprung, the birds are singing, and you may have a royal case of spring fever! Ask God to send teachable moments for your family. Then consider the following ideas for making your April school days more fun.

Some folks think the origin of April Fools Day may have come about when people who were confused by the transition to the Gregorian calendar celebrated New Years Day on April 1. Others say April Fools' Day simply grew out of ancient European spring festivals that involved practical jokes. Typical kids love the silliness of the day. Why not tease them with things like supper for breakfast, breakfast for supper, dessert that looks like a sandwich, or a snack that looks like dessert. Additionally, carry on a conversation in pig Latin! For educational purposes, research and read about some funny media hoaxes that have transpired on April 1. This can be part of your language arts work.

Easter brings with it a variety of opportunities for fun. There is a chemistry lesson in making hard-boiled eggs as well as in dying the eggs. Your students may enjoy researching old-fashioned egg games and then playing them! If you have never made resurrection cookies, I recommend that you try it a day or two before Easter, since the cookies have to stay in the oven overnight. Put the cookie’s name in a search engine, and you’ll easily find the recipe and directions.

April 15, the dreaded Tax Day in

America

, may be a good day to focus on math and play with money. Monopoly is a classic game, but there are many other educational money games geared for various age ranges. You might do a Bible study on taxes or discuss the similarities and differences between taxes and tithing.

If you haven’t planted so much as a single seed yet, now is a good time. We have a small pea plant growing in our kitchen window. Though I’m descended from farmers on both sides of the family tree, I don’t have a green thumb when it comes to gardens. However, I can manage a plant on a windowsill, and you can too. Your children will enjoy watching it sprout, grow, blossom, and bear fruit. You can tie in Bible lessons about sowing and reaping; there are several parables that have to do with seeds.

Do your children enjoy watching the birds? They’re returning from their winter “vacation.” Sitting outside or at a window with a pad of paper can count as art and science as your students draw and take notes about what they see.

Don’t let April showers wash away all thoughts of fun! With a little effort, you’ll be making something more than fun; you’ll be making great family memories.

(also published as a homeschool column in Christian Online Magazine)

Finding the Fun in March

2010-03-04T20:07:00.002-05:00

Hey, I'm on a roll with this topic! :-D

Whether March has come in like a lion or a lamb, fun has blown in with it; look around and maybe you can see the fun too! Home education doesn’t have to be a dull daily routine. You can make it exciting with just a little bit of planning. Choose one day each week to do something special, and you won’t be overwhelmed. Your first course of action should be to pray and ask God what He would like you to focus on this month. Ask Him to send teachable moments for all of you. Then consider the following ideas.

Have you heard that our calendar has one date that is a command? It’s March 4^th! (Think: March forth) Why not have your students do a Bible study on God’s command to go forth? Maybe your students would like to act out the march around Jericho. May you could teach them the song “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The March Forth theme can add interest to your school day.

Because March brings spring winds with it, it’s a great time to fly a kite. This activity could be paired with a lesson about the atmosphere and air pressure. You might look at the history of kite-flying, which appears to have had its beginning more than 2000 years ago in

China

A fun March art/craft activity is making a pinwheel out of paper, a straight pin, and a pencil with a good eraser on top. Templates can easily be found online. Here’s one: http://familycrafts.about.com/od/creativepaper/ss/pinwheel_3.htm Then your students can take their pinwheels outside and let the wind spin them! You might pair this with a lesson on windmills and wind turbines. Ask your students why God made the wind. What purpose does wind serve?

March 15 is the Ides of March. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Julius Caesar, a soothsayer warns Julius to beware the Ides of March – the day he was doomed to be assassinated. High school students may enjoy learning about Julius Caesar and acting out the murder by his trusted friend, Brutus.

Of course, the “big” holiday of the month is St. Patrick’s Day. Children don’t have to be Irish to enjoy March 17. You have a wide variety of options for home education: leprechaun folklore, St. Patrick’s history (he was born in

Britain

but was kidnapped to

Ireland

in his youth; he escaped and later returned as a missionary), the science of rainbows, the geography of

Ireland

, Irish foods, and of course a celebration of the color green. You might teach your students how to make reuben sandwiches or corned beef and cabbage while serving green punch and cookies.

Palm Sunday falls on March 28 in 2010. Young students may enjoy acting out the scene of Christ entering Jerusalem as the people waved palm branches, laid the branches before him, and called, “Hosanna!” My daughter was perhaps six years old when we did this, and she got so excited that she yelled “Eureka!” by mistake. (We had been studying the Gold Rush earlier that day, which included a search for “gold” nuggets in a container filled with sand and an exclamation of “Eureka” when gold was found.)

Don’t let March blow through your homeschool without claiming some fun for your family! You’ll be making something more than fun; you’ll be making great family memories.

Happy homeschooling! (also published in Christian Online Magazine)

Finding the Fun in February

2010-02-12T20:50:00.003-05:00

It’s another cold, gray (or white) month of winter -- if you live in the northern hemisphere away from the equator. You and the kids are probably feeling restless. If only you could bask in the warmth of the sun, you’d all feel better! However, spring will be a long time coming, and you need to find a way to motivate yourself and your kids to buckle down and move forward with their education! Your first course of action should be to pray and ask God what He would like you to focus on this month. Ask Him to send teachable moments for all of you.

Ideas for activities often come from holidays. February gives us Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day. Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday are in the same week as well. Even if you don’t observe those last two dates, you can study the history for all of them.

You might consider throwing a Valentine’s Day party for your local homeschool group. Activities could be simple: tell a story, perform a skit, talk about God’s love for us, and then have the children make Valentines and decorate a cookie or cupcake with icing and sprinkles. You might also include a game like this one I made up: Find the Heart. I had a stuffed heart that I hid. Then the kids had to look for it, and the first one to find it was the winner. For a group of very young children, I helped by making the sound of a beating heart whenever someone got close to the hidden heart. If you have a lot of rooms and don’t mind kids everywhere, you might play “Fill the Sweetheart Box.” In this game, one person hides, and everyone has to seek for that person. However, upon finding the hidden person, the seeker hides too! Soon a pack of giggling kids will be hidden together, making it easy for the last seeker to find them.

Even without a party, you can enjoy Valentine activities and games. Consider making cards to take to the children in the local hospital. Make heart-shaped cookies or special candies to share with friends or neighbors. Find a book about the legend of St. Valentine and read it together.

There are so many children’s books available in the library for Presidents’ Day. You can find books about Washington and Lincoln at all age levels. Maybe your children would enjoy acting some of the stories out. Do you enjoy trivia? There are books and websites that are filled with presidential trivia. You might set up your own living room game show with your children as the contestants. Which president was never married? Which president died after one month in office? Which president was the tallest? Which president was married to Dolly Madison? Make it fun!

Plan a garden – veggies or flowers. This can be a fun and educational family activity. It will give everyone something to look forward to. Let this be the year that a garden is more than a passing thought, even if it must be a container garden. If you wait till the weather is warm, you may not get the ground prepared and the seeds, bulbs, or plants bought in time. (I speak from experience.) Let the children study up on various plants and report back on the months that each kind of plant produces blooms or ripe fruit. Let them figure out which plants need full sun, which ones prefer shade, and which ones are the hardiest. Let them draw up sketches and blueprints of gardens and see how they would organize flowers or fruits and vegetables.

What if you’re just too tired and restless to plan these kinds of activities? Then take your children down to the nearest fast food restaurant with an indoor play place. Order a few things from the dollar menu and let your kids loose on the play equipment. They’ll get some exercise and enjoy themselves. You’ll be out of the house. It will do you all good. Maybe, while you are sitting and watching them, you’ll become motivated to plan some February fun. That would be even better!

Happy homeschooling! (also published in Christian Online Magazine)

Finding the Fun in January

2010-01-02T21:28:00.003-05:00

Holiday fun is over. Homeschooling families return to the task of home education. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, you’re probably facing a bleak winter landscape with little sunlight to brighten your days. January yawns at you like a dark void at the end of the bright lights and joy-filled music of Christmas. What’s a homeschooling parent to do when no one feels like doing school? Let’s add some fun to the day!

By fun, I mean activities that you and your children can enjoy and include as part of your homeschooling day. Think of activities such as art, games, and winter science projects.

What can be made from twigs and pinecones collected outside? Challenge the kids to make natural sculptures. Have them trace collected objects and make pictures from them. Have them sketch a winter landscape or paint a crackling fire. If you have a camera, allow them to snap pictures for art projects such as collages, note cards, or posters. If your children enjoy creating works of art, you can discuss how God must have felt when He created the world and all of the things in the world.

Add game time to your day. I used to collect educational games for my children. We had games for every subject: English, math, science, history, geography, and even art and Bible. However, I’ve recently realized that any game can teach good sportsmanship as well as following directions. Let the children choose the game(s) to play. One new game that I bought last month is Scrabble Slam. It’s a card game for 2-4 players ages 8 and up. Players take one word and try to make many more words from it by slamming a new letter card down. For example, say the word is “BACK.” Slap an “L” card over the “B” and you have “LACK.” Slap an “R” over the “C” and get “LARK.” Because the words are only four letters long, one needn’t be an expert speller to play along. We took this game to the airport and spent an hour playing it while we waited for a delayed flight. We enjoyed ourselves!

Science projects can be fun as well. Do your winters include snowfall? If so, you might want to keep some black construction paper in your freezer. When it begins to snow, you can take your frozen paper outside and allow snowflakes to fall on it. Using an umbrella to keep more snow from landing on the paper, and using a magnifying glass to see better, your students can study the shapes of the snowflakes. Storing black paper in the freezer means that the flakes that fall on it won’t melt while you all get a close look. You can talk about how God makes each snowflake different. Another idea is to collect some snow in a container. Bring it indoors to melt. Did the volume change? Did the weight change? Have your budding scientists evaluate the changes. Your students may take time each day to observe what kind of animal activity occurs during the winter where you live. They could keep a journal of their observations. How do birds, dogs, and cats warm themselves? What do wild animals eat when it’s cold outside?

January’s dreariness doesn’t have to drift inside your home. With a little forethought, you can make each school day a day to learn something while having fun, and that’s a day to look forward to!

Happy homeschooling!

(also published in Christian Online Magazine)

Brenda Christmas Week, including the Festival of Trees and light displays!

2009-12-26T12:17:00.005-05:00

Eight Lies We Tell Ourselves as Homeschoolers

2009-10-10T19:54:00.005-04:00

As Christians, we encourage our children to embrace good, moral values. To promote such growth, many homeschooling families include a study of character traits in their children’s education. We value things like truth and honesty. We teach our children to speak the truth in all things. So why do we tell ourselves lies related to homeschooling? Those lies sabotage our efforts and cripple our confidence!

Let’s look at eight “popular” lies that we tell ourselves.

1. If I don’t take my kids on 692 field trips and sign them up for every sport, art class, and club available, they won’t grow up to be well-rounded adults and might even miss God’s calling!

This is crazy talk, but we fall for it. When my children were little, we went on several field trips a month and participated in two to three sports a year. They had club activities and church activities as well. For homeschoolers, we certainly didn’t spend much time at home! Now that they’re teenagers, I can see that I needn’t have worn myself to a frazzle on all the extras. The career that my son is pursuing doesn’t require sports experience, and he wasn’t introduced to it during one of those countless field trips. There’s nothing wrong with extracurricular activities and field trips, but there is something wrong with believing that we must do everything or risk missing something valuable. Who is in control? Will reducing our involvement in field trips cause God’s plan to collapse? Of course not, and that’s good news!

2. Because of homeschooling, my kids won’t feel drawn to worldly things and won’t rebel against authority.

Homeschooling does not create sinless children or adults. I wish it did, but it doesn’t. Your children may make choices that you don’t like. They may do the opposite of what you have taught and modeled for them. No matter how vigilant you are, you may end up feeling that you failed. Remember that you haven’t been working alone. The good news is that God has been there all along; He knows the situation, He knows your child’s heart, and He hears your prayers.

3. Homeschooling will allow me to train my kids to love chores.

It’s true that homeschooling allows us to train our kids to cook, do laundry, and master many other life skills, but that doesn’t mean that those kids will love the work. There will be whining. There will be avoiding. Some kids only want to work in a group, while others want to work alone, and still others shut themselves in the bathroom and hope no one notices that they aren’t doing their fair share. The good news is that, like it or not, the kids don’t have to love their chores to do their chores.

4. Everyone else has it all together; something is wrong with me/us.

Trust me, no one has it all together, and if someone says they do, they are lying. Someone may give off an illusion of having it all together, but we can’t see what goes on behind closed doors or know what secret problems or fears that family may have. Everyone has bad days. Everyone questions their decisions on those bad days. Everyone feels like giving up now and then. The good news is that those feelings pass.

5. Everyone should homeschool their children!

No matter how much in love you are with homeschooling, it’s not fair to suggest that you have arrived and are superior to those who haven’t. It’s disturbing to hear homeschoolers proclaiming that homeschooling is God’s only plan for Christians. It’s God’s business to call whom He will into the homeschooling life. It’s our business to hear His calling for our own family. We are not God. (That’s good news, don’t you think?)

6. I am responsible for the entire sum of my children’s education.

Yikes! Is that a burden we really want to place on ourselves? It’s also not logical. Children learn from many different sources. Neighbors, relatives, siblings, and others in the community are teaching by word and deed. Our children are like sponges, soaking up knowledge wherever they go and whatever they do. We can direct their learning, but we can’t really control it. We’re not filling a bucket, we’re lighting a fire, to borrow an idea from William Butler Yeats. We can trust God to have a plan for our children’s future. More good news!

7. If I do everything God’s way, my life will turn out “right.”

I’m the poster child for pursuing life with this lie stuck in my head. We live in a fallen world surrounded by flawed individuals. Try as we might, we cannot re-create heaven here on Earth. If we could, would we then long for heaven? Probably not. Nobody promised us that life would be fair. It’s not. The good news is that this world is not our home; we’re just a-passin’ through (to borrow a line from an old song).

8. Above all, God wants us to be happy.

That’s wishful thinking. God's desire is for you to be holy. Happiness is not our goal here on Earth. There are times when our kids demand, whine, or argue for their happiness. We wish that they would put obedience first in their lives. Yet, we turn around and in our prayers to God, we demand, whine, and argue the case for our own happiness! The good news is that there is joy in serving our Lord and living holy lives for Him.

Don’t be a slave to lies. There is freedom in the truth. Embrace it!

Happy homeschooling!

Situational Ethics and the Homeschooler

2009-08-10T00:30:00.004-04:00

Recently, I sold books in a Christian homeschool support group’s used book sale. Vendors could set up an hour before the sale started. The word this year was no early sales. Some vendors complained; why couldn’t vendors shop and buy early as a perk for participating? It had been allowed in the past. The response? Never again. In the past, some women reserved a table, paid the $5 sellers fee, and tossed a few token books on a table, their goal being to beat the crowds and snag bargains, not to sell books. “Trust me, this has really happened,” one organizer said.

I felt her frustration. You just don’t expect such dishonest behavior from Christians. It’s disappointing. On a small scale, this deceitful practice prevents someone with books to sell from having that opportunity; it also deprives buyers from having a larger selection to choose from. On a larger scale, this ethics violation damages the individual’s witness among fellow believers as well as any nonbelievers who may be watching.

Ethics is concerned with making a distinction between good and evil in the world, between right and wrong human actions, and between virtuous and non-virtuous characteristics of people.

Situational ethics is a system of ethics that evaluates acts in light of their situational context rather than by the application of moral absolutes.

When situational ethics are put into practice by homeschoolers, it’s usually in the name of being “good stewards” of their money. Whether they display self-centered behavior at a used book sale or crow over a bargain had at someone else’s expense, it’s less an act of piety than a celebration of bad manners. Honestly, does anyone think Jesus approves?

Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s what Jesus taught. In Galatians 5:14, we read,
The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Look at the book sale antics through Jesus-colored glasses. You see a clear lack of interest in showing any type of consideration for others. There’s no sense of fair play!

Here’s another homeschool example: someone is asked to teach a class to a group of homeschooled children for a very small fee so that even the poorest homeschoolers can afford it. The teacher accepts under the condition that everyone pays the entire fee even if they miss a week. That’s the only way the teacher can be sure to break even. Everyone who signs up for the classes makes a commitment to pay a portion of the fee each week. Then, illness causes a homeschooler to miss a class; the fee goes unpaid. This happens several times. The teacher made plans and bought supplies based on a specific number of students, but that doesn’t matter to that particular homeschool parent. That parent has decided that he or she need not pay the fee for the missed class, especially since their family is on a tight budget; after all, they are homeschoolers! That is situational ethics at work, and it cheats the teacher. In this example, it cheated me. I was the teacher, a single parent homeschooler struggling to make ends meet. The consequence of that demonstration of situational ethics is that I no longer teach classes. I can’t afford it.

Homeschoolers who practice situational ethics are teaching their children by example that there are no moral absolutes. Students learn that dishonesty is okay if it saves money. They see that lying and cheating are sometimes acceptable ways to deal with difficult situations. The parent may try to put a holy spin on the situation, but children are not easily fooled.

Situational ethics must be avoided. God’s Word is our moral compass. Our children need to know that we don’t decide what is morally right or wrong for our families. That’s the wrong lesson to teach. God already decided that for us. We need to demonstrate Galatians 5:14 in all things. That’s the right lesson.

Root Beer Float Cookies - recipe

2009-07-03T22:22:00.003-04:00

I don't normally post recipes on this blog, but this was requested. This is my new favorite cookie! My daughter made these for the Fro Patro picnic and also sold them at a local homeschool book sale. Enjoy!

Root Beer Float Cookies

Servings: Makes 3-4 dozen

Ingredients:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup finely crushed root beer-flavored hard candies (about 10 candies)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
2 eggs

Root Beer Glaze - 1 cup powdered sugar, 4-5 tsp root beer

Directions:
Heat oven to 350°. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or spray. In large bowl, beat brown sugar and butter with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, or mix with spoon. Stir in remaining ingredients except Root Beer Glaze and additional crushed candy.

On cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart. (We rolled the dough into balls and flattened them a bit.)

Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Root Beer Glaze - mix powdered sugar and root beer or milk together until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over cookies. Sprinkle with additional candies.

Fighting Homeschool Burnout

2009-04-16T21:59:00.001-04:00

‘Tis the season – for homeschool burnout. Has it gotten to you? Do you feel like your home, your school, and your life are out of your control? Does this school year seem to be stretching out into eternity with no end in sight? Do you dread getting up in the morning? If so, you are not alone. Many dedicated homeschoolers run out of steam during the school year. After all, teaching your children is a fulltime job. While you put in your hours as a teacher, you’re called to be a wife, mom, chauffeur, housekeeper, cook, laundress, and nurse as well. If you also have paying work to do and/or are serving in a church ministry, you probably spend a lot of time dazed and confused about where you are supposed to be and what you should be doing!

Before you start hollowing out the back of your closet to construct a secret hiding place for yourself, you might want to take a moment to reevaluate your responsibilities. Maybe the answer is not to hide or run away. Perhaps you can learn to eliminate and delegate in order to take back your life!

Things you may reduce or eliminate without guilt:

Involvement in extracurricular activities. Listen, I’ve been there. When my two kids were younger, I didn’t want them to miss out on anything. Therefore, we went on at least three group field trips a month, they participated in two sports apiece each semester, and they were members of two clubs as well as being a part of the homeschool choir! Each morning my daughter would wake up and ask, “Where are we going today?” We never seemed to be at home! It put an incredible strain on me, and in the end, my children aren’t pursuing careers in sports, nor were they so enthralled with any field trip that they chose to pursue a career because of it. All of those activities were fine for enrichment, but I can’t say that our participation improved our personal or spiritual lives. Less would have served just as well, and it would have given us more time to relax. Don’t be afraid to cut back or even eliminate extra activities, no matter how educational they seem to be.

Church service. *Gasp!* Yes, I said it. You’ve been called by God to teach your children at home. That’s a fulltime job and takes a lot of after-hours preparation. Now may not be the best time for you to be volunteering at church. If you dread Sundays or Wednesdays rather than look forward to them, and if your involvement leaves you feeling anxious and stretched too thin, it’s time to step aside and let someone else handle that ministry. Some people feel that homeschooling parents have lots of spare time, but we know better than that, don’t we.

Duties you may be able to delegate:

Church service. Yes, I did just say that you could eliminate this without guilt, but you may be able to continue being part of a church ministry with a little delegating, if you feel that God has called you to serve. Perhaps your children can share in the work. Perhaps you can share the job with other church members so that each person has less to do. If you pray about it, you may receive ideas that have never crossed your mind before.

Housework. It’s close to impossible to devote your attention to your children’s education and have enough time left over to keep the house spotless. Don’t be afraid to train your children to do some of the housework. Sure, at first they may not do things up to your standards, but maybe your standards can be lowered. Do the towels in the linen closet have to be perfectly square and neatly lined up? Being clean and available is what matters the most, isn’t it?

Cooking. If you keep lunch simple, it may be something one of your children could prepare. My children enjoyed making sandwiches for all of us, and that was just the beginning of their cooking experience. Now I have a daughter who hopes to be a chef some day!

Other ideas that will benefit you:

Make time for you. Burnout occurs from work overload, but it also occurs from lack of attention to self. You will feel so much better if you are able to do something that you enjoy doing, whether it is reading, scrapbooking, or visiting a friend. Plan to devote some time to your own interests at least twice a month.

Make time for your spouse. It’s easy to let the marital relationship slide when you are wrapped up in your children’s education and the whole homeschooling experience. Don’t let that happen. A weekly date night would be ideal, but if time is limited, make it twice a month. At the least, you can put the kids to bed at a decent hour, giving you and your spouse time to unwind, relax, and enjoy each other’s company.

Make sick days easy days. Why else are there educational CDs, videos, and computer games? When you fall ill, don’t push yourself. Take a break from your regular schedule so that you can recover more quickly.

A burned out homeschooler has nothing left to give. A burned out homeschooler may make poor decisions based on that burned out feeling. Don’t let yourself get to that point.
Remember that this is a season, and it will pass. Too soon you will have finished teaching your last child. Make memories while you have time, and don’t allow those memories to be of a stressed out mom or dad. Simplify your schedule and enjoy your homeschooling experience. Remember what matters in light of eternity, and let go of the extras without guilt. In the end, you’ll be glad you did.

Spring Break in Pigeon Forge, TN

2009-04-12T02:09:00.004-04:00

I enjoyed a week of Spring Break in the Tennessee mountains with my daughter and my mom! My birthday landed right in the middle of the week; what a great way to celebrating aging! LOL We visited Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, plus spent time in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and Sevierville.

The Organized Homeschool

2009-02-28T01:06:00.003-05:00

After so many years of homeschooling (12, but who’s counting?), I am finally organized. I can’t believe I’m able to make that claim at last! It’s been a huge struggle for me. I can easily organize my linen closet and my kitchen cabinets, but organizing my homeschooling materials and paperwork was a frightening and off-putting task. Do you feel the same way?

I recently was reminded that our God is a God of order. It’s true! For example, He put everything in our solar system in the exact space it needed to be in. We’re not in charge of something as large as a solar system. Our space is confined to part of our home. Looking at it that way may make it seem an easier task to accomplish.

The organized homeschool is a more efficient homeschool. Is it fun to hunt and search for misplaced books, worksheets, and supplies? No! It’s a waste of time. We need to be good stewards of our time, and that means being good stewards of the things the Lord has given us.

Tip #1: Keep your books in one place. In our last house where there was little storage space, we kept our textbooks and workbooks in color-coded bins. Mine was blue and was filled with teacher’s manuals, reading books, and activity books. My daughter’s bin was red, and my son’s bin was yellow. We kept them stacked in a corner in the dining room. That’s the room where we did most of our studying. Our new home has a room that we use as a school/office. Our books are now on shelves. Notebooks are kept in the desk drawer. I’ve discovered that it’s much easier to get organized when one room is the “homeschool” room. However, even if one room – such as a dining room – must serve two purposes, it’s still important to find a way to organize your educational materials. Both you and your students should be able to locate your resources with little effort.

Tip #2: Schedule a weekly time to catch up on paperwork. As my children got older and had more complicated assignments, I got worse about keeping up with grading their papers. One year I actually saved up all their papers till the end of the school year! Then I had the headache of sorting them, grading them, and filing them! Please don’t be like me! You need to schedule some alone time where you can grade and file papers in peace. Keeping good records is an important part of your homeschool requirements. Don’t let the paperwork pile up, or you will be tempted to chuck it into the fireplace and roast hot dogs over the flames!

Tip #3: Plan your time wisely. One of my favorite things about homeschooling has been the flexibility. One of my least favorite things about homeschooling has been having lessons to do in the evening because of goofing off during the day. It’s easy to schedule shopping trips and errands during the morning and afternoon hours when fewer people are out. It’s easy to let the kids play while you catch up on housework. However, making a habit of putting homeschool last teaches children that education is not that important. Set up a schedule for schooling, chores, errands, and recreation. Allow for some flexibility, of course, but plan to keep to the schedule as much as possible. It will help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and will keep your kids on track with their education.

These are just a few things you can do to get organized. I hope you’re motivated to organize your little part of the solar system. It’s an accomplishment worth celebrating!

My Very Own Word Cloud

2009-01-26T18:46:00.002-05:00

I saw that Raffi, who commented on my previous blog, has a blog that included a bunch of word clouds made at www.Wordle.net. That was so interesting that I decided to create one based on my blog! And here is the result:

Huh. I didn't think it would come out so small!

25 Things You May Not Know about Me

2009-01-25T23:15:00.000-05:00

#1. I am a follow-the-rules kind of woman, except when the rules are dumb. Like telling me that I have to tag 15 or 25 people to do a list like this. Not gonna do it!

#2. I'm thinking to myself that the stuff you don't know about me, maybe you SHOULDN'T know about me! :-p

#3. I have all my teeth, my tonsils, and my appendix. Everything that I was born to have. I have no plans to part with any of it! haha!

#4. I won the Spelling Bee 2nd place trophy in 6th grade. I choked either on the word brilliant or the word sheriff. My mind went totally blank. It was so embarrassing.

#5. I'm normally a gracious human being, but I have my moments. (Don't we all?)

#6. I don't base my actions/reactions on the actions of anyone else. I choose to do the right thing (except for the occasional slip-up) no matter what others are doing.

#7. Number 6 is probably an issue of pride. Nuts. That shouldn't be the motivator!

#8. I have a bulletin board COMPLETELY COVERED with ribbons won by my kids and myself! Mostly them, from 4-H and a local multi-county fair. Oh, some medals are hanging there as well. Mine are from that fair as well. We placed a lot in photography over the years, as well as in food.

#9. As an adult I'm very disdainful of dogs, but that's the only kind of pet I had growing up!

#10. I once took a test that said I was more conservative than Rush Limbaugh! Which is probably true.

#11. I loved being married, I loved my husband, but he did me wrong, and I plan to be single for the rest of my life.

#12. I am descended from farmers on both sides of the family tree, but I hate gardening or anything that involves getting in the dirt!

#13. I love to look at landscaping books. Designing a landscape would be fun as long as someone else did the grunt work!

#14. I have held my ex-husband's baby boy. I've kissed the baby too. (and then felt like crying the rest of the day)

#15. I have encouraged contestants in vocal competitions who were competing against my kids. I can't help it! I see someone shaking and scared, and I have to boost his or her confidence! (It sucks when they win, though. LOL!)

#16. Although I make a living as a writer and proofreader, I do NOT judge my friends' blogging/spelling/grammar skills. But I'm very critical of my own, because y'all may be judging my skills! :-O

#17. I eat LOTS of sugary things when I'm under stress. LOTS. Trust me.

#18. As a child, I always wanted to be "Mary" in the children's Christmas program in church, but I never was chosen. I was an angel or the innkeeper's daughter. At least I never had to be a sheep or donkey!

#19. I HATE being lied to. My mom is the same way. Honesty is a must.

#20. I used to dream of being a star in musicals on Broadway. But I didn't have the voice for it, not to mention the confidence and drive needed to succeed.

#21. I wrote a full-length mystery novel. It's around here somewhere ... unpublished.

#22. When I drive by houses that are obviously down-on-their-luck, I wish I had the money to fix them up. My daughter feels the same way!

#23. I never had a teddy bear as a child. I have some now!

#24. I have not spoken to my brother (his choice) since 1995, the Christmas before Dad died. He suffers from depression and chronic pain and locks himself away from the world. Mom is the only one he will see and speak to.

#25. I have a purple lava lamp. I once had a blue one, but it got broken during a move. My former husband bought the blue one. I bought myself the purple one. I'm a purple-lava-lamp kind of woman.

Empty Me: the official fan video - see if you can spot me!

2009-01-11T16:08:00.001-05:00

Last October Chris Sligh asked fans on his blog to submit videos of themselves singing his first single, so that's what my daughter and I did. And we both made the cut! See if you can find us! (Note: we're not in the group singing into bottles...LOL)

Family Fun

2009-01-07T11:40:00.001-05:00

My Life as a Writer

2009-01-06T20:57:00.000-05:00

PROMISE ME that when I tell you about my life as a writer, you will NOT pitch this great new book idea that you think I should write and split the profits with you. PROMISE!!! It's that kind of reaction that makes writers lie about their work.

Stranger: So what kind of work do you do?

Me: I'm a ... uh ... er ... um ... telemarketer; yeah, that's it! You wanna buy--"

Stranger: No, thank you! (walks quickly away)

Me: (wiping brow) Whew! Dodged another one!

As I clearly state in my profile, I'm not the famous kind of writer, a la Nicholas Sparks or John Grisham. (They don't want your book idea either; trust me. You are going to have to write that baby yourself.) I write every week, I get a regular direct deposit, and I don't have to tour the country promoting my work on TV and radio or in autograph sessions. I'm in educational materials for grades K5 through high school. I write anything from nonfiction articles to scripts to poetry, all with an educational bent. I love my job! I've been employed in this manner since July 2002. I was able to buy a house in the fall of 2007. Life is good.

I also accept assignments from Union Gospel Press. Specifically, my niche is sets of 13 fictional short stories to be used in Sunday school take-home papers for children ages 9-11. They are published in quarterly format, thus the need for 13 stories. It usually takes me three months to complete a set of stories. Payment comes in a lump sum. I couldn't make a living doing it, but it's a nice bonus to collect a few times a year.

I did have a monthly grammar tips column in a secretarial e-newsletter, but I've had to let that go due to time constraints. There's hope that I can start that up again when my life settles down.

I also write a sporadically/monthly homeschool column for Christian Online Magazine. I've been writing for them since 1999, I think. Again, time constraints sometimes leave me with nothing for the month!

I self-published a book a few years ago before I appeared as a guest speaker at a South Carolina homeschool convention. Here comes the sales pitch! Confessions of a Single Parent Homeschooler is part personal testimony and part homeschool survival tips. This book has practical encouragement and suggestions for ALL homeschooling families, with special uplifts for single parents. I've been homeschooling since 1997, and since 1999 as a single parent.

A copy can be yours for $12.50 if you go to www.hopeunlimitedforyou.com, and click on "online Store" and then click on any "C02" button you see -- that will take you to the order page, where my book's cover is displayed in thumbnail form. (It is located at the top of the list of books for sale - s/h included.)

Enough of that! I also have an unpublished mystery, so if you are an agent or publisher looking for a great new mystery author, you found me! LOL! I called my book Corpse in the Courtyard: a Covert Caper or something like that. The manuscript is around here somewhere ... I haven't looked at it in ages. I went to two mystery writers conventions years ago and had a great time, but I didn't get any great leads. Furthermore, finding an agent or publishing house willing to so much as read a synopsis is like finding a goldmine in my deep freeze. (So far, nothing but ice!) Nicholas Sparks got a boat load of rejections before someone finally read The Notebook and decided to give him a chance! Maybe I gave up too soon ...

I much prefer writing my little educational lessons and collecting a regular paycheck for my efforts. I just think it's incredible that I get pitches for stories other people would like me to write -- after I've explained that I make a living writing short lessons and worksheets for schools to use! One fellow told me I could set that stuff (that pays my bills) aside and work on preserving history -- at no pay until the thing sold, mind you. I have enough ideas of my own, thank you, and I have no desire to write anyone's biography or the history of the North Carolina mountain people. Seriously. It's not my thing. Besides, I NEED to collect pay checks in order to keep my house, eat, simple things like that. You understand.

Of course, I fantasize about having a life outside of writing, but I often work seven days a week. I'd like a life that contains more than short breaks from work to take my teenage daughter to voice class or youth group or church or the chiropractor. Photography is another passion of mine, and it's one that my daughter also shares. I enjoy playing with cats, reading, site-seeing, decorating for holidays, and visiting with friends -- when I have time. SIGH. My daughter's desk is next to mine in the office so that I can oversee her lessons while I'm doing paywork. Paywork is the #1 priority of a single parent. Nobody else is going to make that mortgage payment for me, not to mention paying for cable, utilities, food, gasoline, clothing, dental, and so on. I must keep writing to survive.

Speaking of paywork, I hear some lesson ideas calling out to me. I'd better heed the call before they move on to some other writer and leave me with writer's block!

Inherited Blessings/Stored Blessings

2008-12-07T17:31:00.000-05:00

I had an ah-HA moment the other day about something I've contemplated for years. You know the scripture about getting back what you give? Well, there are several scriptures; one is in Luke 6:38. Jesus said, Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. Anyway, my parents once gave away our station wagon to a big family in our church. It amazed me at the time, because we lived in the country with a garden and chickens, a lot of my clothes were homemade to save money, and dad was a blue collar worker. How could we afford to give away a car? But they gave it away instead of using it as a trade-in for another used car.

David, the son in the family and one year younger than me, remembers the time my parents gave his parents that car and how much it meant to them. I remembered that verse the first time I was given a car -- that's when my husband walked away from our marriage, leaving me with two children and a dead minivan (the engine was blown). I asked at church if someone could look at my van and tell me if it was fixable, and instead they found a car for me. God never gave my parents a free car, but they never had a need to be given one. It seems to me that I inherited their blessing. That first car lasted a year before having a meltdown in the church parking lot. Then I was blessed with a minivan that ran reliably for 3 years, followed by another minivan that lasted longer because I could afford the repairs. (When I say the church gave me a car, I should clarify to say they located a church member willing to donate one, much like my parents donated one.) I call receiving gifts based on my parents’ giving inherited blessings.

Recently it dawned on me that some other giftings also came because of giving. I hadn't thought of it before, but when my former husband and I were DINKs (Double Income, No Kids), we used to choose names from the Angel Tree and buy Christmas gifts for needy kids. We had so much fun getting all the things on their wish lists! We never set a dollar amount to spend; we shopped until we were satisfied that these unknown-to-us kids were going to have a great holiday.

Fast forward to the lean years of no husband or steady income. Suddenly it's MY kids getting Christmas gifts from anonymous people in our church, and sometimes I got gifts too! At the time I remember crying because I wanted to be the one shopping for presents (my love language is gifts); I mean, I appreciated it, but it wasn't until now that I realized that I was getting back what I had given! I call this stored blessings.

Not only had we fulfilled children’s wish lists, we had also enjoyed blessing people with food. I remember buying groceries for a family and leaving the bags on a table in the little church we went to. That table was where you could leave things for other people, like leaving veggies from your garden for anyone who wanted them. We participated in a couple of food poundings back then too. We were so tickled to share what we had. Additionally, I was on the church meal list to take meals to families that had a surgery or a new baby, things like that.

Would you be surprised to learn that during my lean years I received food "baskets" for Thanksgiving? They are always cardboard boxes, and one year I received two box loads of all kinds of food; there were always things in there that were family favorites. Looking through those boxes was always exciting! I wanted to pull things out and cry, "How did you KNOW??" Then one Thanksgiving a lady from church that I didn't even know called and offered to deliver a homecooked turkey dinner with all the trimmings! I almost turned her down, but then I realized that her gift would free up time to spend with my mother who was visiting. My mom was so blessed by all the food that was prepared for us that she went home telling everyone about it!

It amazes me to think that all I have received is a result of either my parents or my earlier habit of giving. It was such a blessing to remember all this and to think that God's Word is true, that you really do get back what you give. Sometimes the blessings return to you, and sometimes the blessing is passed down to your kids as an inheritance.

Times are tough this year. People are hurting, and the charities set up to help them are hurting as well. I hope you will find a way to bless someone else this month. Involve your kids as well, teaching them that it is a blessing to give, whether it’s a monetary gift, groceries, or your time. Besides the joy of blessing others, you may build up stored blessings for yourself and/or inherited blessings for your children. Give, and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

Celebrate God’s love, share God’s blessings, now and throughout the year. Why would we want to do less?

Homeschooling: A Warning about Indulgence

2008-11-19T21:53:00.002-05:00

Maybe I’m just weird, but thoughts of the simple pioneer life pop into my head as I’m enjoying modern conveniences. Driving down the Interstate in my minivan with the A/C set to the desired temperature, I think of the un-air-conditioned buggies that bounced and jolted their riders along dirt trails. While whipping up dinner in half an hour (or less) using my oven, stovetop, and/or microwave, I think of the kettles, wood stoves, gardens, and the hours of work involved for our pioneer sisters to put food on the table. Lounging on the couch watching TV or listening to the stereo in the evening, I think of how my ancestors might have read for a bit or talked quietly by the light of a fire before going to bed.

Technology has made life so much easier. Sometimes I wonder if we have it too good. Life wasn’t about having fun back in the old days. Have we grown into an indulgent nation where happiness is more important than holiness? As homeschoolers, are we teaching our children that their happiness is our goal? Have we fallen into Satan’s snare by being indulgent homeschoolers?

It’s easy to become indulgent when we're together all the time. Think about it. If you are always in the company of your kids, you talk to them – a lot. It’s not just the schoolwork, it’s life. So you may start asking for their input – what do you want to study today, where would you like to go on a field trip, what would you like for lunch? If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with kids who believe they have a right to make decisions for themselves and others all the time.

How do you tell the difference between being indulgent and being gracious? It’s gracious to give your child a choice now and then. It’s indulgent if you give them full control and allow them lead you. It’s an easy trap to fall into when you are a busy homeschool mom who is tired and would just rather let anyone else make decisions so you don’t have to.

This topic has been on my mind for a long time. You know there are kids who have heaps of clothes and piles of toys, and these belongings seem to overwhelm them when it’s time to clean up. They always want more, though they can’t take care of what they already own! One summer I counted my son’s t-shirts. To my shame, there were more than 20! Nobody needs that many. However, it was painful to pick any out to give to charity. While not all the things my children own came from me, I’m part of the problem. My love language is gifts. I enjoy giving gifts to my children; it makes me happy to make them happy. However, I recognize that I’ve gone overboard with the clothes, the books, and the other things they want. I contribute to the clutter, which leads to stress, which leads to unhappiness! Too many possessions is one area of indulgence!

Another area of indulgence is pursuing fun activities while overlooking your own needs. Maybe you’re sick, maybe you’re exhausted from a rough week, or maybe you have a lot of work to do or other obligations, but you push it all aside because there is a fair or a party that your kids want to attend, and you hate to disappoint them. Are you guilty of pursuing fun at the expense of your health and sanity? I am. However, this summer I realized what message that sends – that their happiness has more value than my health. When I was sick on Independence Day, we stayed home rather than go to the festival and fireworks. It didn’t hurt my kids to stay home as much as I thought it might. They survived the disappointment.

The last area of indulgence for many homeschoolers involves choosing curricula and extracurricular activities. Some parents flit from program to program, trying to find a curriculum that makes children eager to study. Chances are that you will never find that magical set of books or videos, and you shouldn’t waste more time and money on a fruitless search. You are the teacher, and you need to make a decision. Furthermore, your attention shouldn’t be given over to studies and extracurricular activities all the time. It’s exciting to introduce your children to new sports and the world of fine arts, I’ll be the first to admit that, but you have to balance your love for all things educational with your love for your spouse if you have one, and your desire to follow God’s will. Families who are always on the go are families who are going to explode -- one way or another.

What is the harm of indulging your children? Let me ask another question: Will you be disappointed when they grow up and always put themselves first? If you teach them that they are the most important beings on the planet, if you indulge them as often as you possibly can, that’s likely to be the end result. Will their roommates, spouses, co-workers, and others be willing to indulge them? Not likely. Will they understand that God is more concerned with their holiness than their happiness? Not if you didn’t teach and model that lesson.

When our country was new, people traveled by horse and wagon to get to un-air-conditioned meeting places to hear the Word of God preached for hours – and they were glad for the opportunity to sit on those rough wooden benches and worship the Lord! Our modern conveniences give us more time, but if we devote that time to indulging our children’s happiness rather than cultivating their holiness, we’ve missed our calling. As it says in Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Holy homeschooling!

Side Benefit of Homeschooling! A Son Who Cooks!

2008-06-26T19:01:00.001-04:00

Barron is 16, and he made himself an omelet for breakfast this morning, using my new red skillet (the best skillet ever made, he says! LOL), and the aroma made my mouth water! Normally he just has toast or yogurt, but today he felt like something substantial. I asked him to make an omelet for me. I could tell he was pleased with my reaction to his cooking as he sat his plate aside and made another omelet - it was a 3-egg omelet with lots of onion, cheese, and bacon! He was even able to fold the fluffy thing over! It was soooooo good! Then as he was about to sit down to eat his omelet, his sister said, "Make me an omelet!" And he said he couldn't. Her face got stormy, and she said, "Why? You don't think I deserve an omelet?"

Well, I laughed so hard I nearly cried, which offended the poor girl. She had eaten yogurt for breakfast, but she was so jealous of our omelets! I told her that Barron needed to eat his omelet before it got cold, but that he would make her an omelet after he was done. (because, after all, she often prepares our family meals.) So she was satisfied to wait and got a 2-egg omelet that she gobbled up, and Mr. Short Order Cook thought you should know about his efforts to serve his mom and sis this morning!

I homeschooled him for 10 years before enrolling him in high school. In that time I was able to teach him life skills. In this instance, the student has surpassed the teacher! I've never made such a fluffy, delicious omelet in my life!

I've homeschooled his sister for 11 years, and of course life skills have been a good part of it. She enjoys cooking and often asks if she can make something or help me make something. One morning last week I woke up to the smell of banana nut muffins fresh from the oven, compliments of Jasmine!

Teens who cook for you - just one side benefit of homeschooling!

I met Chris Sligh tonight! Live and in person!

2008-05-06T22:53:00.001-04:00

Chris Sligh (from Season 6 American Idol) gave a mini-concert and signed autographs in a nearby town tonight, so the kids and I went. I got Chris' new CD "Running Back to You" and got speak to him and get a photo! Yay! Tomorrow is the official CD release date/party, so I got it one day early and am REALLY excited about it. I absolutely LOVE his first single playing on Christian radio right now. It's called Empty Me, and while I haven't been in the national spotlight as he has, I still have issues with pride in certain areas, and this song speaks for me too!

Oh, I got to share with Chris that I follow his blog(s) and post comments sometimes, and he implied that he recognized me. Maybe he did, or maybe he is super-nice to fans! LOL! I told him where I go to church, and he asked if I was there back when he was there, and I said yes I was, and there was this song he sang in church, and he says, "He Reigns," and I said, yes, that's it! I love that song, but I always get the title wrong. The arrangement Chris sang with the choir in the background was spine-tingling. I've never heard that version since. Chris, if you ever get the chance, you should include that arrangement of "He Reigns" on an album!

I wish Chris much success in his performing and songwriting career!

Homeschooling brings out the Sillies!

2008-03-17T01:47:00.000-04:00

Do you wonder what homeschoolers do with their free time? This video has it all -- the photo op board is one we designed in our homeschoolers 4H Art Club, and the two characters are me as the mermaid and my daughter as the fish. We didn't have a script - you may be able to tell, ha ha - so we just improvised. And then the family cat jumped in!

There you have it. Why sit around watching TV when you can create your own entertainment? ;-)

Valentine's Day

2008-02-16T23:34:00.000-05:00

Our Day. Every year it's our tradition to have a spaghetti dinner. I don't know why! This year I made a meat-sauce spaghetti in the crockpot and Pillsbury crescent rolls to be served with garlic spread. I had a 2-liter bottle of blueberry lemonade (non-carbonated) in the cabinet, so that was our special drink instead of the traditional sparkling (carbonated) grape juice. (I've given up carbonated beverages on behalf of my health!) For dessert we had the chocolate fudge brownie ice cream cake that I bought on sale a month or so ago and saved for a special occasion!

My son gave his sister and me a box of Nestle Crunch Stixx. (My box says, "Who needs love when you have chocolate?" How appropriate! hehe) Jasmine has eaten all of hers! She's such a sugar freak!

Jasmine didn't have any money, so she didn't get us anything. I hadn't had any cash to spare or time to take her shopping anyway. She had made me a paper heart that said "I love you because ....(open the card) You are my Valentine - I love you!"

I gave each of the kids a card , a small heart with chocolates and a box of Slim Jims. Then Barron got an FBI tee (Firm Believer in Jesus), and Jasmine got flannel pajamas. The clothes are both things I got last month on clearance and saved for the day. Then I made a white chocolate cherry cheeseball with graham crackers! It is soooo good! I bought the cheeseball mix during the Christmas season and just hadn't had a reason to make it till now.

I'm really proud of myself for not going overboard on this holiday, and for preparing in advance. My bank account thanks me too! ha ha

My two best friends, Michelle and Teisha, both called me. That was very cool, especially since I hadn't planned to call anyone. Monday is President's Day, so my kids are off school. Maybe we'll get to do something fun then.

Anyway, on Friday I gave my daughter her overdue allowance, and we went to the store, where she shopped the half-priced Valentine leftovers and I picked up juice, bread, bathroom tissue, and a log for the fire. My sweet baby went crazy with her allowance and bought me Russell Stover chocolates, Ghirardelli chocolates, and old-fashioned cherry creme hearts! And then she bought two things for her brother and spent more on him than he spent on her - even though I told her not to! She is such a giver and loves to surprise people.

I treated her to the KFC buffet, where she got all her favorites: carrots, beets, pickles, and cole slaw. Oh, and Jello. I do believe she nibbled on some chicken after pulling the skin off. Oh yeah, and they had cherry pie, so she was happy to load up on that as well!

That does it for our Valentine's Day!

The Disadvantage of Homeschooling an Only Child

2008-02-12T00:19:00.004-05:00

There aren't any!

First of all, nearly everyone agrees that one-on-one instruction is the best way to learn. Since an only child is guaranteed to receive one-on-one instruction at home, where’s the disadvantage? Oh, that’s right; it’s not the child’s education that is in question here. It always comes down to the socializing opportunities.

I’ve always said that homeschooling is what you make of it. Just as you're responsible for your child’s education, you're responsible for providing time to socialize. How much time you choose to devote to socializing depends on your child’s needs. God made each child unique. Every child should learn how to get along with others in public as well as at home.

The shy child will need to be encouraged to speak up and join in conversations but won’t want a large amount of time spent socializing with others, and that’s okay. I was a shy child, and I’ve grown up able to carry on a decent conversation and take care of myself. Honest!

A social butterfly (such as my son) wants a great deal of socializing! Your butterfly may want to socialize all day, every day, and ignore school work. It’s up to you to determine how many social events to include in your schedule.

You have many activities to choose from. There are homeschool co-ops, field trips, outside classes, clubs, community sports, and of course church activities. You may live in a neighborhood full of children or near a playground where your child can meet and play with other children. You can form a play group or arrange for play dates with families you like.

There is no reason to believe that a homeschooled only child will be an isolated child. Currently, my teenage daughter is homeschooling with me while her brother attends a traditional school after ten years of homeschooling. She could feel lonely, but how is that possible when she has voice class one night, youth group another, and choir practice a third? She also joins other homeschooled children at the roller skating rink twice a month. She is in church every Sunday. She is welcome to accompany me on my errand runs during the week, but often she prefers to stay home. (The only time she likes to shop is when she has money to spend.) Last week we went on two field trips and afterwards enjoyed an afternoon of lunch and shopping (she had the last of her Christmas money burning a hole in her purse). Does this sound like an isolated, only-homeschooled-child to you?

Honestly, the only possible disadvantage I can see to homeschooling an only child is if that child is competitive. An only child who is homeschooled has no classmates to compete with! Still, there’s no need to throw up your hands and enroll the child in school; you can find a way to compensate for that competitive nature – by signing up for sports or even a chess club. Homeschool support groups often have academic competitions such as spelling bees and geography bees. There are many arts/crafts competitions available for students – my teens have competed in the county fair in a variety of categories (photography, ceramics, candy, cookies, cakes). A 4-H club would provide even more competitive events. Our voice school has singing contests that my teens have enjoyed being a part of. The possibilities are out there. You just have to look for them!

So you see, there’s really no cause for worry about homeschooling an only child. Naturally, if God has called you to homeschool your only child, or to keep one of your children at home while the rest attend a traditional school, then you can trust Him to meet your child’s socializing needs. Homeschooling is what you make of it. Make it work for your family!

I've Donated my Hair!

2008-02-07T20:10:00.000-05:00

If you scroll down to my Mandisa blog, you'll see me with really long hair. The story is that my stylist quit to teach in a beauty college in May of 2006, and I didn't know where to go next, so I just procrastinated having my hair done until my hair was pretty long. At that point, I decided to grow it until I had at least 10 inches to donate to Locks of Love. In the photo above is 11 inches of ponytail that will hopefully be used in a wig for a little girl who has no hair and has no hope of ever having hair. I drove around looking at salons until I came to one that felt right, and best of all, without waiting I got a stylist close to my age that I really, really like, and she did a great job giving me a cut with versatility. I'm having so much fun experimenting with new styles now!

It's really cool knowing that my getting my hair cut and styled is actually going to benefit someone other than myself! ha ha My kids love my new look, although my son said it was going to take some getting used to looking at my back and not seeing my long hair.

The best thing is, with this haircut, I think my clothes actually fit better! It's true! ;-)

High School Homeschooling - yes, it's Possible!

2008-01-17T20:09:00.002-05:00

In her youth, my late maternal grandmother was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. By the time she retired, she was the principal of a consolidated school. You might say that education was Grandma’s life! Her son, my uncle, also went into teaching. She thought I should pursue a teaching degree, but I didn’t. (Instead, I earned a B.A. in Interpretative Speech with a minor in Spanish.) Anyway, Grandma had reservations about my homeschooling my children. She could accept that I was most likely competent enough to handle their elementary education, but “You’re not going to try to homeschool through high school, are you?”

Many homeschoolers get this question. It is usually accompanied by a look of disbelief tinged with horror on the speaker’s face! Now, the truth is that I always had every intention of homeschooling through high school. However, the wisest answer I know is, “We’re taking it one year at a time.” That is also the truth. I completed ten years of homeschooling my two teens, having started with kindergarten. This is my eleventh year to homeschool my daughter, but I sent my son to public school to give myself a much-needed break from our power struggle. (I wanted him to be responsible for his chores and schoolwork, and he wanted me to ignore the fact that he was playing video games and such instead.)

I don’t know what the future holds or if I’ll even be in it. That is in God’s hands. While my desire has always been to homeschool through high school, I’m aware of circumstances that could prevent me from reaching my goal, such as illness or a change in employment. When it comes right down to it, we’re all taking it one day at a time.

I don’t fear high school education as much as I fear keeping a transcript, and I’m not really quaking in my house slippers about that, either. (There are so many resources to help you get this information organized!) What is it about high school that strikes fear into adults who have been there? At the high school level, most kids are self-taught. They do a whole lot of reading – easily done at home. Sometimes they show a film – we’ve got videos to cover that. Then there are lectures – who better to lecture my kids than me?

Okay, that last one was offered tongue-in-cheek. If reading doesn’t provide all the information we need, we have access to tapes, videos, DVDs, computer programs, field trips, and more books. As far as I can tell, it’s the memory of science labs that produces the belief that high school can’t be done at home. However, we have access to all kinds of resources. There are science kits for sale that cover simple to more advanced chemistry. There are many, many options for learning science at home.

“But what about biology? What about dissection?” Glad you asked! How much of your four years of high school education was spent cutting up stuff? It was an extremely small percentage of time, if you did it at all. I avoided it with no trouble. Nobody needs to turn their kids over to a traditional school for four years just so they can experience dissection in a lab. Now, since I personally find dissection distasteful, I knew I would never teach that at home. I was in luck! Several homeschoolers offer to teach dissection classes every year! A local science center offers a dissection summer camp. In one week, my son dissected an eye, a heart, and a brain, followed by a frog; he didn’t have to spend one day in middle school or high school!

The point is that with so many resources available, there isn’t anything offered in high school that you can’t handle as a homeschooler. You don’t have to be an expert in everything. An expert is probably offering a class, club, or summer camp in the desired subject! If God calls you to homeschool your children, He will make a way for you to meet the requirements. Trust Him, and enjoy those high school years – at home!

I've met Mandisa!

2007-10-22T23:38:00.002-04:00

Mandisa was in Greenville South Carolina for a free concert during Fall for Greenville, so you know I had to be there! It was October 13. I got sunburnt waiting for her! But she was worth the wait. What a great show. It was held outdoors, and Matthew West was also on the bill. but I was there for Mandisa. I waited afterwards to get a photo! (My hair has grown a lot in the year since my profile pic was taken.)

American Idols Live!2007, Greenville, SC Concert

2007-07-11T13:05:00.001-04:00

It was a great show, y'all, I even liked Sanjaya's parts! But here's the big news: Chris Sligh had an emergency root canal earlier that day!!!! And yet he came out and sang his solo, duet, group numbers, and played the guitar for himself and others. He didn't take painkillers for fear of being loopy onstage. He was in great form. What dedication to his fans and his music!

I like Chris Sligh a lot. But Melinda Doolittle is my absolute favorite. My daughter was cheering for Gina, and my son is a Blaker Boy. We were a small part of a loud, appreciative crowd!

My seats weren't as far back as I thought they were. The kids and I were in the 14th row from the stage on the floor! So I am the world's best mom. None of their friends got as close as we did. Yay, me!

We were right behind Goliath, holding up a "CHRIS SLIGH #10" with the zero slashed out. Holding it up every time Chris came on stage. He also got in my way with his photo and video stuff. Later on he spilled his beer on my shoes, so he's on my list ...

Well, I am giddy. I've never had such a great concert experience before, I teared up several times. Phil, Melinda, LaKisha, and Jordin all have voices that tug at my emotions. And sometimes I got teary just because I was there, in great seats, having fun with my kids. My kids were jumping and waving their arms. It was a great night, the Idols looked like they were having fun, and it was such a treat to see the guys play their instruments! Heck, it was a treat to be breathing the same air as them! hehehe

The crowd was on its feet every time Blake came on stage, and most of the times that Chris Sligh came onstage. Oh, and Chris R too - I was surprised at how popular he was; I can't remember where in the Top 10 he was eliminated. I think Haley and Sanjaya got the least love, but there was still clapping, waving, and shouts for them as well. No boo-ing. Greenville, SC is a very well-mannered place to be. :-)

I had read a review in which the writer was astounded at how "sexy" the show was, considering it is supposed to be family friendly. I really felt it was family friendly. Sure, Haley appeared at one point shaking her booty in a white fringed micro-mini, and yeah, Lady Marmalade was sung by LaKisha, Gina, and Haley as French ladies of the night, but most kids would have no idea that the song was a hooker song. I mean, it was popular when I was in high school, and I and my friends liked singing the French lines and the gitchee gitchee goomee yah-yahs. I promise I had no idea what I was singing until a student from French class translated for me! Talk about shocked! I didn't sing it after that!

One of the biggest hits was the five guys performing Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. Phil was on keyboard, Chris Sligh, Blake, and Sanjaya were on guitar, Sanjaya also had the tambourine, and Chris R was rocking on the drums! It was so cool! I have to say that I'm sure this concert tour beats all the others, though I haven't attended any of the previous ones, simple because the Idols could play their instruments. Jordin played her guitar during one of her performances as well. We saw the Idols sing on TV, but singing with instruments was new for the tour and added a new and much-appreciated element to the program.

All in all, we had a fabulous time! Even if we did leave with less hearing than we started with...

My Daughter's Story

2007-05-11T22:07:00.001-04:00

My little girl was born 6 weeks premature to an alcohol and drug addict. The birth mother had gone to the ER with false labor 7 times prior to the baby's birth, and she was "high" every time.

The baby was 2 lb. 10 oz. at birth. My husband and I first heard about her when she was 5 weeks old. She was still in the hospital, and social services was looking for a foster home for her.
Since we already had a 10 mo. old foster son in diapers and on the bottle, I couldn’t imagine why we would want to lose more sleep and have even more diapers and bottles, but my husband didn’t want that poor baby to spend any more time in the hospital. We went to visit. She was so small, I feared she would slip through a gap in my cradling arms! She had light brown skin, and we thought she might be biracial. Her bio mother is black, but the bio father is unknown. We thought our foster son might be going home soon, so we decided to lessen the grief of losing him by letting another baby into our hearts.

We agreed to be the baby's foster family and brought her home when she was 6 weeks old, weighing a whopping 5 lb. 6 oz.

She was a slow grower. She slept 20 out of 24 hours every day! I had to wake her to feed her! She was very petite, and I loved to dress her up and take pictures. She started going to physical therapy, and finally started walking at 20 months. Then she moved on to occupational therapy (to develop fine motor skills), speech therapy, and early language intervention group. At age 5, she had a brain scan that showed that the part of her brain that controls motor skills was smaller than it should be.

To help her motor skills, I put her in a gymnastics class. She loved it and eventually mastered hand stands and cartwheels, among other skills. Her therapist said that she shouldn’t be able to do those things, but my little girl didn’t know that! She used to perform gymnastic floor routines in talent shows, but she’s outgrown that and would rather sing or do dances that don’t involve leotards.

When by God's grace we were finally able to adopt her at age 2½, the adoption worker described her as a solemn child who seldom smiled except at her foster parents. She didn’t have much facial responsiveness for a long time, and she wasn’t affectionate. She would cry if we gave her a stern look and throw up if she got a leg swat or if she got hurt while playing. She’s nothing like that now; look at her sternly, and she will laugh. She only throws up when she is ill, which is rare. She is very expressive and loves to jump in my lap and give me hugs. She hugs everybody! Or if she’s in a bad mood, everybody knows it from her screeching and door slamming. She has been diagnosed as having ADHD and has always been an impulsive child.

I was going to send my little girl to K4 where her brother went the year prior, but the school went to a full day K5 program, and so all K4 students were going to be bussed into town. My little girl was smaller than anyone else her age, and I wasn’t about to put her on a bus for hours a day! So I decided to homeschool her with her brother (who didn’t do well in K4, other than at making friends and playing).

My daughter asked Jesus into her heart when she was 6, and went forward to be baptized when she was 8. Sometimes she prays the most amazing, spirit-filled prayers you ever heard! At other times, she rattles off some rote prayer to get on with the program, so to speak, but at least she’s volunteering to pray!

Over the years she’s played soccer and basketball and been an Upwards basketball cheerleader - she liked the cheerleading the best, being the girly-girl that she is. She took 2 years of piano lessons, and she would like to take violin or guitar lessons. She’s had 4 years of voice lessons.

My little girl finally learned to ride a bike without training wheels when she was 7. She learned to tie her shoes when she was 9. This is how it happened -- she saw a pair of red, rubber toed sneakers with shoe strings and wanted them. I said, "I can't buy you that kind of shoe until you learn how to tie them!" She hadn't been interested in learning until then. (She would tell me she would learn to tie her shoes when she grew up!) She said, "Okay, show me how to tie them!" So I demonstrated the shoe-tying for her, she immediately tied the shoes herself, and I bought her the red shoes!

My daughter is now 14. She loves pink, red, and purple. She loves hair and fashion. She loves the beach and can stand in the surf and listen to the waves roar for a long time. She still likes Barbie, though she’s aware that she’s probably "too big" for that stuff. She can read and likes Nancy Drew, but would rather play a Nancy Drew or Barbie video game or listen to music than read. Her favored style of learning is musical. If the lesson is set to music, she’ll learn it -- like the multiplication tables and geography songs.

Jasmine isn’t strong academically, but she does have her strengths. She can make a great batch of peanut brittle from memory and has won many blue ribbons for it. She has a great verbal memory; when she’s in a play, she memorizes all the parts! She loves to sing, dance, and be the center of attention, but she’s also quick to encourage others in their efforts. She has taken some amazing photographs. She is a very healthy eater. She has never been very fond of fried foods or meat, preferring fruits and veggies; she loves carrots. However, she is a candy fiend; if it’s fruity, chewy, or makes bubbles, she wants it! She still has 20/20 vision, even though most preemies develop vision problems. Maybe her diet has made the difference. She’s physically strong for being so thin! She is great at coming up with a goal and making a list towards attaining that goal, and following through! If she wants to play outside, she will make a list of the chores she’s going to do to earn the privilege, and she’ll work hard to get the work done.

Yes, my daughter is different. Sometimes I wish she were normal so that she would fit in and have friends like everyone else -- like she wishes she had. But she has a special gift. She is uninhibited and shows her feelings, and since much of the time she is happy, she spreads joy wherever she goes. She dances joyfully in the aisles (of stores, not church); she lives for the moment; she loves life.

I asked Jasmine to tell me what was important for people to know about her. This is what she said: "I’m a very talented young lady, and I love to sing and dance. I’m a very good actor. I’m too big for Barbie dolls." (What did I tell you??) "And I love my Mommy."

My Son's Story

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The boy who became my son was born fullterm and weighed 6 lbs. 7 ozs. and had a full head of hair. He was born with cocaine and marijuana in his little system. I asked his bio mother about her eating habits, and she said she ate chips and junk food! No prenatal care at all. We met him in the hospital when he was 4 weeks old. He was described as a jittery and irritable black male. The whole row of babies were asleep except for him; his eyes were wide open! The nurse put him in my arms, and he didn’t cry! I was so in awe of him.

The next day my husband and I took and passed an infant CPR test, and we left the hospital with our first foster baby. I couldn’t believe that nobody tried to stop us -- a white couple -- from leaving the hospital with a brown-skinned child wrapped in a baby blanket. We didn’t know how to pronounce his birth name, so we called him Barry.

He missed Christmas being in the hospital, so we took "Christmas" photos of him in a Christmas stocking, and beside a cardboard fireplace and potted poinsettias - in January. He didn’t pay much attention to what we were doing.

I was working full-time. My husband had started a home-based business, so he was Mr. Mom. Other women made such a fuss over him for being a full-time daddy!

I was so happy when Barron started sleeping through the night at 3 months. Well, I wasn’t happy at first. I was scared! He was sleeping in a bassinet beside our bed, and when he didn’t wake up for his bottle, I woke him up! He slept next to our bed for about 6 months. When he became more active, we moved him to a crib in his own room.

He was a pretty good baby. He didn’t exhibit the symptoms of a drug baby. Sometimes he cried for no reason, and I’m not sure if that was related. He wouldn’t be hungry or wet or cold, but he would scream, and I would cradle him and cry too and when that didn’t help, I would swaddle him in baby blankets and put him in a dark and quiet room, since my arms weren’t soothing him. Finally he outgrew that. He didn't do it all the time, anyway, thank goodness.

I was always surprised when I saw our reflection in a mirror and saw how much paler than the baby I was. He was so dear to my heart! I would cry when I thought of losing him. I prayed that God would allow him to be raised by Christian parents.

He was ten months old when we brought another foster baby, a girl, home. He liked the baby a lot! I have lots of cute pictures of them together.

He learned to walk at 12 months, and I think he was on target for everything. A normal boy as far as anyone could tell. He was affectionate and talkative and loved to crawl all over his daddy!
The birth parents relinquished their rights, and we were able to adopt him when he was 2½.

He was 7 when his father walked out.

He's 15 now, and struggles with ADHD, loves Scouting and video games and paintball, and has lots of friends. He has won photography and singing competitions. He also has some issues to work through and has been in counseling for a few years. He loves his current mentor/therapist. He's like a big brother/father figure.

I think being raised in a transracial home has helped him see everyone as the same; his friends are black, white, and hispanic. He had an Asian friend in the past, but we lost track of him. The only people he says that he is prejudiced against are racists. I'll accept that!

Why I love Homeschooling

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1. Family togetherness

2. Control over curriculum - the ability to choose quality materials that are geared to my children's learning styles and that have a Christian worldview

3. Flexible schedule, and being able to work around various appts.

4. Fewer distractions for these two ADHD children!

5. The ability to move as quickly or as slowly through the lessons as required for the student to understand and master the concepts

6. Just KNOWING what it is they are supposed to be studying rather than being in the dark.

7. No homework in the evenings - more family time. Homework is to prove to the teacher that a student mastered the material. A homeschool parent knows from working with the student individually whether he or she mastered it; no homework is necessary.

8. The ability to gear lessons to the child's interests

9. More time for extracurricular activities such as sports, science, or the fine arts

10. Field trips geared to child's or parent's interests!

11. Three meals together, and time to teach the kids how to cook and other life skills they will need

12. Social benefits. At one time I had more control over who the kids played with, and they played well with each other too. My kids never felt that the opposite sex had "cooties" or that they should only be friends with kids that were their age. Homeschooled kids typically get along with all ages and are more likely to carry on intelligent conversations with adults as well!

13. Reduced peer pressure

14. No labels among classmates - who's got brains, who's stupid, who's artistic, who's clumsy. There is safety in learning, testing, experimenting at home. Example: a developmentally-delayed 9-year-old who has only mastered stick figures will be humiliated by her peers in art class. Her artistic development will probably end right there. At home, she can experiment and enjoy art, and by the time she is 14, she will have developed more drawing skills, all because no one judged her and told her that she couldn't draw.

15. The opportunity to work on character issues. I may have a lot of friction at home (did I mention that I'm dealing with two teenagers now?), but when the kids are off with their various groups, I get good reports on their behavior. They are kind and helpful kids.

I could probably think of more, but I'll stop here. Yes, I know that homeschooling is not for everyone. When I share the joys of homeschooling, someone is bound to get defensive, but this is my blog about my interests - one of which is homeschooling! I know that public, private, and Christian schools churn out some model students each year. So does the homeschooling community. You do what works for you, and I'll keep doing what works for me.

Peace and blessings!

Book - Confessions of a Single Parent Homeschooler

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Confessions of a Single Parent Homeschooler is part personal testimony and part homeschool survival tips. This book has practical encouragement and suggestions for ALL homeschooling families, with special uplifts for single parents. Brenda has been homeschooling since 1997, and since 1999 as a single parent.

The website offering my book for sale has disappeared (!!!), so if you'd like a copy, leave a message for me so we can make arrangements. The $12.50 price includes shipping in the continental US. I can take PayPal payments.