The winter months can be rough for many homeschool moms.  The gray, barren days can follow one another like saltines in a box, making us feel about as drab as the view outside. If you find yourself in the midst of the winter doldrums, it might be time to do some self and school evaluation.

1.  How is Your Private Time with God?

If you have read this blog for very long, you have probably inferred that we think this is the place to begin any self-evaluation. How are you doing on having regular prayer and Bible study times?  If you have found yourself out of the habit after the holidays, now is a good time to get started again. Don’t wait until you have things perfectly quiet and organized before you spend some time in the Word. For inspiration, read this post about Susannah Wesley called Growing Moms.   If you need a jump start in this area, pick up a good devotional.  There are MANY wonderful ones out there.  One of my favorites is the classic My Utmost for His Highest.  If you have ever participated in the Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God Bible study, you might enjoy the devotional I am using this year called Experiencing God Day-By-Day.  I find it helpful to read the daily passage and the thoughts about it in the devotional first, then read the passage in the Bible itself (in the context of the chapter surrounding it).  Then I pray, asking God to show me what He wants me to see in that passage.  Having a journal to jot down what He tells me and other thoughts that come up is a necessity as well.  This time need not be in the morning, but I find it to be my best time before my mind is filled with my ‘to do’ list.

2.  Does Your Marriage Need Attention?

Valentines Day is right around the corner.  Instead of just stocking up on candy  for the…kids (see #3), why don’t you plan a special time to bless your husband that day?  A handmade valentine, a special dinner, or a babysitter for the kids and a bundled up stroll along the beach or a country road might be just the thing to help your husband know he is special.  Does he like to watch the game on TV, play golf, or putter around in the garage?  Maybe just sharing an activity of his choice would be appreciated.  We homeschool moms often need to work harder at getting quality husband-wife time into the schedule!

3.  Are You Paying Attention to Your Own Health?

Most moms are marvelous when it comes to keeping kids dressed warmly, drilling those math facts and doling out vitamins and vegetables.  BUT… what about ourselves?  Are you exercising regularly?  “They” say that thirty to sixty minutes most days is about the right amount of exercise, but that might be pretty difficult if you have little ones.  You can do something, even if it is popping in an exercise video during naptime.  Some virtual accountability might be in order to help you get and stay on track. My friend Cindy showed me this very handy website through Prevention magazine where you can track your exercise, everything you eat and even your mood.  Go to “My Heath Tracker” near the top right  of the page, set up a free account, plug in what you weigh and what you would like to weigh, what you have eaten that day and what you have done for exercise. It is very informative!   If you are already an exerciser,  The Daily Mile might be helpful.  It is an online social training log wherein you can find friends, log in your runs/biking/ walking miles or times, can blog about your thoughts and encourage your friends. It has Twitter and Facebook interfaces as well.  My college-aged daughter’s friends encourage each other in their exercise programs through this venue.

One other health resource I wanted to share with you:   As a 3 1/2 year cancer survivor myself, I am always reading about new ideas and research in the area of cancer prevention.  I came across this free report you might be interested in downloading and reading – it is a food guide for cancer prevention and survival.

4. Is Your House in Order?

I even hesitate to ask that question – I can hear the groans from here!  I mean in good enough order that you are able to function, and obviously we are going to have different tolerance levels here.  Personally, I find it very difficult to focus on school when the house is totally out of control.  Develop some routines and do your absolute best to stick to them.  My favorite resource for keeping the dust bunnies at bay is the Flylady routines.  She talks about controlling C.H.A.O.S. (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome ) by dividing your home into zones and cleaning a little each day in that zone as well as working on general clutter. Go to her website and click on Getting Started for more information.  Make sure your children have age appropriate chores as well! We are big on checklists at our house.  Behind children’s bedroom closet doors is a list in a page protector that says “M’s room is clean when…..1.  All clothes are picked up off the floor and either put into the laundry basket or folded neatly and put in the drawer.  2.  All school papers are punched and put into notebooks and trash is thrown in the trashcan.” etc.  Build into the day a quick pick up before Dad gets home (see #2).

5.  How Many Out-of-the-Home Activities is Too Many?

Did you really enjoy Christmas and New Year’s vacation, in part because most or all of your outside activities ceased during that period?  Did the more relaxed schedule and extra time with your dear hubby and charming children yield better relationships between all of you?  Was it easier to keep the house under control and eat healthier because you weren’t constantly running from one thing to another?   Hmmm.  Maybe this means you/your children are doing too much outside the home.  They do call it ‘home’ schooling, y’know.  Give some hard thought to evaluating each of your and your kids’ activities and consider what you can cut.  Many homeschoolers choose one activity and/or one sport per child per semester.  Husbands’ insight can be helpful here.  My friend Jennifer recently gave me some godly advice on just this subject.  She said, “Lay everything at the feet of Jesus.  Only pick up what He would have you pick up.”  (See #1)

6. Is Your School Curriculum Working for You?

This is the season when we want to forget about this school year and just start planning next year.    It isn’t a bad thing to start looking toward the coming year and making plans, but we do have to finish this year! Try to get energized about finishing this year well while you are dreaming and drooling over what you want to do next.  Getting your school records organized is a good start. I am a long time user of  Homeschool Tracker software.  They have an absolutely free basic package that you can download immediately, which I used for a few years, but if you plan on homeschooling during the high school years (and I hope you do!) spending the $49 and buying the PLUS version will enable you to keep much more detailed records, apply the weighted grading scale that we have to use in South Carolina, and use many more helpful features.  See the comparison between the free version of  Homeschool Tracker and the paid version here. If you decide you can afford the $49, that is all you will ever have to pay because they offer free upgrades. Additionally, the few times I have had questions not answered by the detailed online tutorials, their free software support has been almost immediate.  This software has been a valued tool in my family and has considerably cut down on paper, our family’s biggest nemesis.   Do me a favor and if you decide to purchase the Homeschool Tracker software, please consider typing this code in the Referral Information page of the shopping cart under “Make Selection – **Customer Referral (I have a code)”: FNZ9E .  If you do that, I will receive a small referral bonus.  I appreciate it!

Now, start evaluating your homeschool curriculum.  Most likely you have used it for almost a half a year now.  Is it meeting the needs of your family… or is the honeymoon over? I am not suggesting that you immediately ditch whatever you are using now–just take notice of how it works with your teaching and your kids’ learning styles.  Are you enjoying it?  Are your children enthusiastic about using it?  Does it motivate them to complete their lessons, and are they retaining the information?  Do they discuss it with your husband at dinner, or want to find out more about a subject or person that they learned about during ’school’?  OR Do you have to hound them to get their work done?  Do they constantly denounce it as boring?  Are you having difficulty staying interested yourself?  Dialog with your children about what they think.  What do they like the best about school?  What do they like the least?  Why?  Children can give us some great insights if we would just ask them and really listen to their answers.  If you find that they are bored and unmotivated, adding some living books and more hands on activities might be just the thing to liven things up!  Try to hone in on their interests, as well. We have many well-written, high interest, living books listed on our Books! pages if you need some examples.  If you have a budding artist, instigate some picture study, or create a lapbook that dovetails with your studies.  Instead of your typical textbook book report, try assigning a Book Review.  Try a new, fun way to present or review material, such as the one suggested in this post, The Question Box, or this one, Make a Lapbook!

Use this opportunity to tweak things a little and you might find yourself out of those doldrums and excited once again.  Remember that Mom’s positive attitude sets the tone for everyone else.  I hope you have found some of these ideas and links helpful – I would love to hear your recommendations as well!

In His Service,

On this blog post I had planned on sharing some helpful links and information I have collected to help you hit the ground running this January.  But instead, I want to let you know about a sale going on now to benefit the Estes Family.  Many of you are probably familiar with Jeff and Kate’s company, Hands and Hearts.  They create and sell hands on history kits of entertaining and educational activities to augment history curriculum.  You might know that the Estes family of ten includes a darling, fragile three year old named Noah, who struggles with mitochondrial disease, an ultimately terminal condition.

What you might not know about the Estes family is what they have faced in the last few years:

• Jeff has been out of work after the company he worked for downsized and had to lay him off.
• Federal laws concerning children’s products have radically changed, drastically reducing their company’s profitability
• Noah has had multiple hospitalizations, usually sudden ones that cause Kate to have to drop everything and rush Noah to the hospital in Greenville, SC and Jeff to have to be home with their other children.
• Caring for Noah at home has become more and more challenging with his special medical needs.

Although committed to living debt free, the Estes have seen their savings dwindle.  They are torn because, frankly, it takes both Kate and Jeff to take care of things at home with Noah’s needs and frequent hospitalizations. Jeff needs to work at home.

Thankfully, Jeff has found a business opportunity that he and Kate have researched and feel would be right for them in their challenging situation.  The trouble is, they don’t have the funds to get it started.

And… this is where YOU come in.

Christian self-publishing friends have donated a FANTASTIC list of  homeschool products that are available to those who make at least a $39 donation to the Estes family.  The number of items goes up with the amount of your donation. You are welcome to donate more or less, as you wish, but the Estes family would like to use the income from this sale to give them a way to support their unique family.

If you would like some awesome homeschool products and to help the Estes family, please click here.  If you would just like to make a donation, I’m sure that would be fine, too.

Thanks for taking the time to read about this very difficult situation, and whether you are able to donate or not, please pray for this precious family.

Feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested!

In His grace,

Recent question: Can I homeschool my [non-traditional learners] Charlotte Mason style?

Answer: Of course!

As we discuss in our parent manual, parents teach and children learn in a variety of ways.  Some prefer to absorb information by what they see, for example, reading a book, watching a movie or viewing a live demonstration.  Some learn best by what they hear, such as when listening to a lecture, verbal instructions or an audio book. Some prefer to learn through what they do, or retain more by moving around as they are taking in information through another venue.  For example, making candles instead of reading about how they are made, or doing jumping jacks while practicing multiplication tables.   Most people utilize all of these learning methods to some degree, but  prefer one over the others.

Traditional school seems to be notoriously crafted to benefit the type of learners who like to sit still, learn things in a logical progression, and read about rather than experience what they are learning about, to the detriment of the others who don’t fit that mold! What a blessing it is that we are able to craft our learning opportunities to fit our children’s natural bents!

Charlotte Mason understood children. Many of her teaching methods and principles already incorporate a variety of learning methods.

Nature Study

Advocating as much time outside as possible, Ms. Mason suggested children experience nature first hand.

Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of the bee, ant, wasp, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragon-fly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way.

Rather than spending up to six hours outside every suitably-weathered day as Ms. Mason suggested, many homeschoolers satisfy their outdoor longings by taking at least one nature ‘walk’ per week, identifying and recording the different trees, flowers, insects and birds that come across their path.  (Some of our favorite books to use for these activities are below.)

Observing nature incorporates all the senses:  watching a bumblebee extract nectar from a flower while listening to its low buzz…feeling the gentle wind flow through your hair while listening to the leaves rustle…feeling the rough outer layer of a seashell and the smooth-as-glass inside, then holding it to your ear and listening to the ‘ocean’…

We help our children hone their powers of observation as they study their subjects, write about them and make detailed drawings in their nature notebooks, all while using visual, auditory and kinesthetic modes of learning.

Next week we will talk about other aspects of Charlotte Mason’s methods of learning in conjunction with learning styles.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

P.S.  These are some of our favorite books for aiding our nature studies. Check them out!
Handbook of Nature Study
Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)
Peterson Field Guides; Rocks and Minerals
Peterson Field Guides; Wildflowers
Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of N.A.

P.P.S.  Read about one way to incorporate hands on (also known as tactile or kinesthetic) learning in this post called, Make a Lapbook!

January always brings a bit of a struggle for me.  The spiritual side of me wants to spend copious quantities of time in prayer and the scriptures, searching for God’s direction, asking Him to guide me and help me focus on His priorities for my life as we tackle our last school semester of the year.

But the spiritual side has to wrestle with the “practical” side that wants to DO SOMETHING. NOW.

I want to  PLAN everything myself,  make school bigger and better, add this over here and that over there, as well as insert another activity or two in an already busy schedule.

In other words, instead of seeking what God wants to do in and through my life, our family, our homeschool – I tend to want to make MY plans and just ask God to bless them.  How wise is that to act as if I know best?

I constantly have to remind myself that it isn’t about me, and rather than making ten New Year’s Resolutions, finding the perfect planner for 2010, or setting my personal and professional goals on my own, it would be a more profitable use of my time to seek more of HIS input first.  After all, He has the big picture!  He is already working in my life and that of our family’s, and it is my place to join Him in what He is doing rather than setting off in another direction.

Listen to advice and accept instruction,
and in the end you will be wise.

Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:20-21

How puny my plans must be compared with the Maker of the Universe’s!

Here are some other verses I am praying over as I seek to know His plans for our family for the coming year:

I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills {his purpose} for me. Psalm 57:2

The plans of the diligent surely lead to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty.  Proverbs 21:5

But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Exodus 9:16

But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations. Psalm 33:11

Commit your works to the LORD and your plans will be established.  Proverbs 16:3

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.  Ephesians 3:19-21

Am I the only one who struggles with this?  What do you do to keep yourself on the wise path?

God’s blessings on your New Year!