Conflict makes me sad....

{And in corner number one....}

So there's a big "Bru-ha-ha" in the homeschool world right now......do I even want to enter into the waters of the conflict???  Sure....I guess I'll dive in...

Before I do, let me give you a little bit of my story.....

I initially was a college drop-out.....I left for Ithaca College at age 17 and returned home 5 weeks later...quite broken.  I made a deal with my parents to attend a local Christian college for 1 semester.  In my mind....I was out of there at the semester's end.  I didn't want to have anything to do with God.

Well....I got assigned a roommate who would kneel by her bed every night to pray....very weird for me.  I would actually hide in our bathroom and peek out until she was finished....it just really freaked me out! 

My RA asked me to be a part of a Bible study.  I got involved more because I was lonely and bored at night than I really wanted to be a part of a Bible study.  But, while in it, I noticed that when those girls prayed......it felt like they were really talking with someone.

I completed the semester willing to come back for the following year.  To make up for my lost credits from dropping out, I took summer classes at the local Community College.  It was in one of those classes that I was faced with a choice.....do I really believe in an historical figure called Jesus Christ?  I remember closing my pink notebook and praying in the middle of the lecture.....yes, I do believe (My professor by the way didn't!)

That was a changing point in my life......no I didn't have any wild ways to put aside, but life became clearer for me and I suddenly had purpose in my life and I understood that Someone loved me and died in my place...

Fast forward to one night in the back of a car with a bunch of friends.....Geneva College at that time was amok in controversy over some different theological positions. Being very new in my belief, I stated...."I am not sure that we can really know the mind of God....."  Well, one of the passenger in the front seat turned around, pointed a finger in my face and told me that I wasn't really a Christian.....all because I disagreed with him on a theological "truth".....

Right now there is a lot of mud-slinging in the Christian homeschool community because Ken Hamm---founder of Institute of Creation Research was dis-invited from some of the regional Homeschool Conventions....not because of his academic opinion, but basically because he pointed his finger in the face of another respected speaker and believer and said....."You are not a Christian!"

I still vividly remember the emotions that I felt that night in the backseat of the car......sick and weak....how can another believer hold the scales of judgement in their hands.....isn't that God's job?

I feel the same way about this whole controversy......I posted some comments on a blog and have gotten some rather interesting responses......again, I just said that only God was present at Creation.....do we really know how He did it?  What if we find out that we're wrong??? 

Is a Young Earth viewpoint necessary for entrance to Heaven?  Is the purpose of Genesis really to be an historical, scientific record....could God be bigger than our interpretations???

Wow....didn't know that position would create such strong emotion in others...

The reality is this....we are probably not all going to agree.....My friend, Nancy and I have very different viewpoints on the age of the Earth and various things....yet we are still very close friends.....and have had great discussions.....postive and open....yet we never change our individual positions and still walk away friends.

So, why is this issue of Old Earth vs. Young Earth, global flood vs. regional flood turning into one of squabbling little kids screaming...."No...I saw the toy first!"

How sad our Christian world is when we spend so much time and energy attacking each other..........

At our church, the pastors rotate being "on call".  Recently, it was my hubby's turn.....it was a heavy week with many broken lives desperately seeking help....a listening ear.....Godly counsel....

Lives that have been destroyed by a spouse addicted to alcohol.....gambling......pornography......   Lives that have been fractured by divorce....adultery......cancer....the death of a loved one.

I don't think in any of those cases, the wounded person even cares about when dinosaurs existed or how old the Earth really is or if evolution is true.....they are desparately seeking One who loves them and can help them put the pieces of their life back together....

When Jesus began his public ministry, he unrolled a scroll from a passage in Isaiah that would have been very familiar to his listeners.....he said:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
      for the Lord has anointed me
      to bring good news to the poor.
   He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
      and to proclaim that captives will be released
      and prisoners will be freed.

Jesus' mission.....one that I'm eternally grateful for since I was one of those brokenhearted prisoners!

You know....if somehow evolution was proven tomorrow as some irrefutable scientific law, it would not shake my faith....because my faith is based in a mysterious relationship with the Creator not in the complete understanding of His creation....

my thoughts.....

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Homeschooling: Spring Lapbook Ideas

{First Day of Spring Ideas.....}

Are you looking for some fun ideas to freshen up your school routine?  Here are some ideas for spring....

Have you ever checked out squidoo??  One of my favorite homeschool bloggers, Jimmie's Collage, does a lot of squidoo lenses.  They are AWESOME!!  The author of the lens adds all the links, worksheets, and book information that you need to complete a little unit study.

HERE's one on spring....it includes lapbooks on spring, plants, and rainbows!

{Spring Lapbook on Squidoo}

 

HERE's one by Mission mama on Sprouting Science.  You can click HERE for the pdf!  VERY CUTE ideas for elementary school science!

Personally, I just love Homeschool Share......here's their unit for Trees.  It includes poetry, science, and even a little bit of state history!

Homeschool Share also has a Botany lapbook.......this is for your older elementary student.  You can download the PDF HERE.

Here are some FREE Spring Printables:

Worksheets from First School

Worksheets from Enchanted Learning....(not all are free)

TONS of stuff from DLTK

Happy first day of spring!

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Homeschooling: School Choices

{What are my options?}

Well.....I am nervous about writing this post...very nervous because it seems like there is always tension and conflict when it comes to" school choice".....

Over the past few weeks, our newspaper has been running a lot of articles about charter schools....particularly online cyber charter schools....

There's a lot of conflict associated with them because cyber schools pull funding away from public school systems.....the articles keep criticizing the cyber schools for taking budgeted money away from public school students.....but no one yet has taken the time to ask the question "WHY are so many students flooding away from the public school system into these cyber schools?"

My children are and have been cyber school students....(my older boys are not for the time being but we may return for middle school)....we get a free computer....free printer.....free curriculum....and some other wonderful "perks".....(I know that probably makes some mad already!)

So why did we "run away" from our local district?

We live close to our district line....truthfully, we live closer to our neighboring district elementary school than our own.....a few years ago, that neighboring district was scoring about 20% higher on our state standardized test than our home district....20% is ALOT!  Our district was seeing math and reading scores in the low 60%'s.......we were the third lowest scoring district in the county....


So what does that mean for the student who is excelling.....a lot of trips to the library!  Our older son would quickly finish his work and then make 5-10 trips to the library per day to read books....As we compared the academic progress of our boys with kids in comparable grades in other districts, we saw that our boys were lagging behind and we were very concerned....but bring them home again?


We had tried homeschooling....and I failed!

It was when I had a 1st grader, a K-4 and a 15 month old daughter.  During the 2 months that I lasted homeschooling she "washed" her Barbie's hair in the toilet, "painted" herself and the wall with lipstick (while wearing a pair of my underwear around her neck!) and painted her toes red on my white carpet...and that was in ONE day!!!  (And I am a strict mom!)

So what do you do when you don't have the financial stability to afford private school and your district is lagging academically.....

........one option is an online cyber charter school.

An online charter school has a certified elementary school teacher assisting you, grading your child's work and a rigorous curriculum that your child can follow at his OWN pace!  That means that if your child is moving quickly through their work they can move to the next grade and they do not have to wait for other students to catch up with them.....it also means that the struggling student can take time and actually learn the material and not have to move on with the rest of the class "just because"!


When I first started cyber school, the hardest part about it was that we didn't fit with any community.  True homeschoolers didn't want us because we were still "tied" to the public school system......public school parents were annoyed because we were funneling money and "homeschooling."

It was a very lonely first year having both boys home....until I got involved into a co-op....met the most amazing women....and found friends and a home..... filled with support!

As I read the newspaper articles I realize that it's easy to point a finger and judge and critize and decide what's "best".....but for us, it's personal....it's wanting the very best for the children that God has entrusted us with....and for now that's a mixture of homeschooling and charter schooling.....we may change our mind down that road...

but for now.....we do.......what we think.......is best........for her....

....and yes, she made the shirt herself.....she wants to be a "crafter" and scientist when she grows up!

If you live in Pennsylvania, there are SO many cyber charter schools....here are a few:

The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School

PAVCS

Commonwealth Connections

If you live another state, I would encourage you to look at the K-12 Schools.  Here is a MAP LINK that shows you if your state is participating for free online education.

The biggest thing to remember about your child's education is that there are A LOT of options these days and what is right for one child doesn't always "fit" another!

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Preschool Lapbooking.....(it's not just for homeschoolers!)

I stumbled across the idea of lapbooking because of my friend, Carla.  She showed me a lapbook that her son had done on Knights and I was hooked!  Truthfully though, it is my daughter who adores making a lapbook!


Here are some that we have made....

This was made by my (at-the-time) 4 year old daughter.....

It has been so long since we did this, that I don't remember where we got all of our printables.....but you can see that I just used clear wide packing tape to tape a piece of yellow cardstock to the center as a flap.

 

HERE is a DLTK site with some Thanksgiving printables.....

At this time, we were working on colors, so I just found a leaf pattern and had my daughter paint the top leaf and then we did each color on an individual leaf. She really enjoyed this activity!

Another idea:

One of the books that we read for preschool was A House for Hermit Crab.....a very fun book!

Homeschool Share has this entire lapbook for free HERE!

We learned months of the year, our address, types of shells and even did letter "H" activities.

For the alphabet activities I used 2 websites....Homeschool Share Free Alphabet Notebook and First School Alphabet printables. 

I also used those 2 websites to make an alphabet notebook for each letter, too.  I would just take a piece of cardstock and we'd glue the printable activities on the front and back of the cardstock for each letter.

 

This is a view of the back of the folder and, actually, it looks like I just glued her alphabet notebook page to the back of the Hermit Crab lapbook....

HERE are amazing directions with videos for how to make the folds and the mini-books for a lapbook!! Honestly...it took me a while to figure out how to fold the file folder....

Two of my favorite sites for lapbook ideas, direction, and FREE supplies are: Homeschool Share and Jimmie's Collage.  Jimmie's Squidoo Lenses are invaluble!!!  They are just packed with information, worksheets, ideas, resources....

  

We didn't just do lapbooks and alphabet notebook pages for our year of preschool.  I also supplemented my daughter's preschool year with Get Set for the Code Books A-C.......

....and Math K5 by Bob Jones....

Truly....the time it took me to do this daily was about 15 minutes!!!  Many days, I would quickly print off a paper from one of the sites and have her work on it.  These resources gave her such a head-start that we are about to being first grade 1/2 year early.

If you'd like to see ideas that I've done with my older boys, let me know and I can do another post......we've done ones mainly in science and history!

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Homeschooling: Schooling multi-age/grade levels

I definitely get  a lot of interesting responses when people find out that I homeschool......I once sat beside a woman at a spaghetti dinner fundraiser....she was a complete stranger who looked at me and said, "What makes you think that you are qualified to homeschool....."  Hmm....how do I answer that one? 

Another frequent question that I am asked is.....how are you able to homeschool multi-age/grade levels.....I find this question very interesting because it make a HUGE assumption about the public school classroom....it assumes that all 20-something students in a public classroom are operating at the same skill level in the same grade.......which they are NOT! You can have a very wide range of skill and reading levels....especially in an elementary classroom. 

 Honestly.....one of my fears about homeschooling was looking at the minimum 6 subjects per child and multiplying by 3....that would be 18 subjects per day??  How would that be possible??  Wouldn't I completely lose my mind trying to do that??

I came about our current system that we use by accident....My son spent a couple of years in public school and his first grade teacher had a great idea for how she had students complete their morning work....each morning she would have a "to do" list on the board. 


Students would work their way through the list and check-off the work that they completed.......the problem that our son had was that he would finish his work very quickly and then spend the rest of the morning making 11 trips to the library to check-out books.... he ended up spending a lot of time in class "waiting" for the other students to get their work done.


Well.....I use a variation of my son's first grade teacher's "To Do" list.....

I write out a daily list of work for my kids to complete....I make little check boxes that they cross off (or scribble out!) when they finish that assignment.  I always write History and Grammar or Science and Grammar last because they complete those assignments with me.  They also always do Math with me.

I have combined my kids together for science and history so that cuts down on 2 subjects for each.....and a lot of their work is completed independently with me looking over their shoulder and making corrections.

The younger grades like my daughter take SO little time!  She can be finished with her lessons in about 15 minutes.....we've actually been doing double lessons and she will be finishing kindergarten this week.

I also keep a master lesson plan book for each of my kids.  Usually in March or April, I start to plan for the following year.  I pull together all of their curriculum and start writing lessons plans.  Donna Young has amazing free printables......here is the link for the lesson plan forms.

 

My plan book keeps me on-task and helps me to see the bigger picture of where I am going....

There's no perfect solution......I still spend a lot of time going back-and-forth between kids and feel like pulling out my hair!...... but the "to do" list does keep them on-task when I am working with their sibling.

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