Learning Rocks

One of the things I'm finding to be the most rewarding about homeschooling is the freedom it gives you to learn from just about anything. You can take almost any object, situation, or experience and expand on it as much as you like. This summer, we used rocks to help us learn.

Gracie has always been a rock hound. Everywhere we go, she's looking at the ground, finding cool ones and stuffing them in her pockets. One of my favorite memories happened one day when she came home from kindergarten. I had just had Luke and couldn't drive yet, so her grandmom dropped her off. She got out of the car, and her pockets were bulging with rocks. As she ran up the driveway to greet me, her pants fell down around her ankles! Sometimes she finds really interesting ones, but most of the time, they're just your average driveway variety. Until Elise found out Gracie likes rocks...

Elise is one of the most interesting people I know. She's a missionary with YWAM and has been all over the globe- Australia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia- lots more- and now she's in Latvia. But even though she's across the ocean, and very busy, she takes time out to think of Gracie and enhance her education.She started collecting rocks for Gracie from all the different places she travels to, and I have to say, the rocks she finds are much cooler than the rocks in our driveway!

                                                                                             

                                                       (I told you she was cool)              

Elise was home for a few weeks in July, and brought a bunch of rocks for Gracie. The rocks from Latvia are my favorite, because one is actually a piece of a castle, and the little one is amber (Gracie loved that, because now she has a fossil) The one from Sweden is interesting too, because it's really black and looks like it may have been volcanic in origin. Elise labeled them for us, and then it was time to do our homework!

                                                                  
We went to the library and got a book about each country.We had already been studying some other countries from our FIAR curriculum, so the rocks were a great way to continue what we were already doing

After we read about the country, we located it on the map. I don't mean to brag, but I don't know any other seven- year- old who can find the Baltic states on the map. And Caleb can find Pennsylvania, 'cause that's where Thomas the Tank Engine lives!


Then we colored each country's flag, and wrote the capital and language on them.
                                                                             

                                                                          
We still have a few more countries to cover, but that's kind of the beauty of it- we can do it at our own pace, just for the fun of it, and still be learning tons!

And, most importantly,since the rocks came from Elise, it's the perfect way to teach Gracie about missions. I'm able to show Gracie, "Look, this is where Elise went, so she could tell people about Jesus. This is what the country is like, these are some rocks!" And Gracie can really understand that. Instead of just imagining what missionaries in other countries do, she knows a real person. Her world gets bigger and smaller at the same time.


I'm hoping that we can make up a nice display box for the rocks so Gracie can show them off when she moves into her own room. Right now she's been keeping them in her nature box with the rest of her treasures.
                                                                                  

                                                                                          

I also had to find a solution for all the other rocks that were coming into the house. While I'm glad Gracie is interested in them, I'm also tired of stepping on them! So we decided to make a rock garden. We got a cheap planter from Home Depot and I planted the flowers the kids gave me for Mother's Day. Then we put Gracie's rocks around it. Now every time she finds rocks, she knows right where to put them. It's become one of my favorite things to look at.                                                           

                                                                           
Thanks Elise!

I'm so scared...

                                         ...about homeschooling right now!

                                                                                   


The summer has just flown by and books have been trickling into the house from UPS every few days.  I've  been getting really excited and making all kinds of plans in my head. Today is a lazy day and the perfect opportunity for me to sit down and plan out the first few weeks of school. My idea is to start the last two weeks of August and use that time as review/practice time to kind of "ease" our way into the school year. Instead of starting with our curriculum, I thought we would do some fun math games, read some library books, do a unit study on farmers and go apple picking.

Gracie and Caleb were playing in their room, and Luke was in the living room playing with blocks. I got out every single book we have, a blank paper to brainstorm on, the calendar, and my planner book. I sat down, and what seemed like 75 children descended on me. Luke decided he wanted to sit with me and was hanging on the back of my shirt with one foot up on the bench screaming. In the process he flipped himself sideways and hit his head on the floor. Caleb decided very sweetly to make me paper flowers and began cutting out petals and gluing them on the flowers. Except he can't really cut OR glue, so there were bits of crumpled up glued paper everywhere. Then Gracie realized she was ravenously hungry, which happens about every 20 minutes, and asked me to make a smoothie. So I left the books and two sentences I had written and got out the blender. I put the fruit and juice in and Caleb appeared in front of me, stepping on my feet and pushing the blender buttons. Gracie was telling me a detailed story about the neighbor's dog and Luke was still screaming. I finished the smoothies and poured a glass for Gracie and myself, as the boys don't like them. Except today Luke decided he DOES like them, and was trying to grab Gracie's glass and saying, "Numma numma numma!" over and over again, then opening his mouth wide and saying, "Aaahhh". He came over to me and I crouched down to give him some sips. Caleb wanted to show me his unceasing affection by climbing onto my bent knee and wrapping his arms around my neck. Luke got jealous and did the same, and their combined weight caused me to topple over. It became pretty clear now that I wasn't getting my smoothie back, so I gave Luke mine and started making more.Withing seconds, he discovered it was much more fun to paint things with the straw than actually drink it and now I have really sticky tiles. I poured my second one into a cup and Caleb asked me to come look at what he had made. I followed him to the dining room where he proudly showed me the map he had put up on the wall. Only instead of putting it up with tape, he Elmer's-glued it to the wall. So now I have sticky tiles AND sticky walls.

Then, just as quickly as they appeared, the 75 children were gone, leaving untouched smoothies everywhere. I got absolutely nothing accomplished, except for making a giant mess of books, papers, and smoothies. And now I'm sitting here, wondering if this is how the year is gonna be? If I can't even sit down to write out some plans, how will I teach them anything?

AAAAHHHH!!!

My grandmom has a saying- " I don't know whether to laugh or cry!"- and it has definitely been that kind of morning. I've decided to laugh, but I've also realized that the game plan I had in my head for this year is not going to work. I definitely need to come up with a strategy for keeping the boys busy. I'm planning on including Caleb more, but not formally, and I need to think of something to occupy Luke, whose biggest problem is he thinks he's 5 and should do everything his siblings are doing. Here's what I've come up with so far:

a sandtable

yeah, that's pretty much it...

Many Things

                                                                         

We all know one of those "perfect" women. You know who I mean- she's slim and perky, always dressed nice; she has four mild-mannered kids, and a beautiful, well-kept house. Like a "Better Homes and Gardens" house. She's always on time for church and Bible study and volunteers at her kids school or homeschools them all while still keeping that house immaculate. Meanwhile, you are struggling to keep it together with "just" two or three kids. There are no clean socks left and the baby is starting to smell funky. Your kids won't stop fighting and the dog just threw up. Your floor feels like flypaper and you are really, REALLY hoping that's chocolate over there. How does she do it? How come she can pull it off and you can't? If you're like me, you think she's just a better mom. A better person. A better Christian.

Being that woman has been my goal since I got married, even more so since I had children. For the past nine years, I have tried my hardest to be her. And I know I'm not alone. Being this June Cleaver-kind of wife is a recurring theme among Christian women. Visit any Christian bookstore and you will find whole sections on home management, cleaning, meal-planning, organizing. There's even devotionals on it. There is no doubt in my mind that many Christian women equate homemaking with holiness. After all, we're helpmeets, right? 

I was making fairly good headway being that woman.  Then, my husband was taken hostage. The company he works for took on several huge accounts. But they didn't hire anyone! He is now averaging about 70 hours a week. I don't usually see him till after the kids are in bed, and being the sole parent for all their waking hours is taking its toll. Not only being the only one caring for them, but being the only one disciplining them. Always feeling like the bad guy. So for the past few weeks, things started getting not-so-great around here. The housework started spinning out of control and I was tired of breaking up spats. Sometimes I was tired and let behavior slide. Other times I would snap. Caleb wasn't obeying well and Luke was screaming and Gracie was getting an attitude. There were lots of whiny noises and bossy comments. "What is wrong with these kids?" I wondered. "They're miserable". Then I heard words that seared like a hot knife: "They're miserable because you're miserable." 

That moment changed my life. I was doing everything backwards. I was worrying about keeping my house clean and my kids behaving. But it was like the white-washed sepulchers. It only looked good. Inside was bad attitudes and disharmony. Like Martha, I was anxious over many things, when only one thing was needful. I decided to choose the good part. I decided to worry about my kids' hearts and not their grubby hands. To worry about their walk and not what shoes they're wearing. To check if their minds are in order and not if their rooms are. I decided to bring them all to Jesus' feet, where we will sit, together, while He teaches all of us.

I think we Christian women need to just let it go. I really think Satan is using this perfect Christian-Betty Crocker-Martha Stewart ideal to thwart us. To make us less effective. To make us resent our kids. To store up treasures for moths and rust to destroy. I think instead of the benchmark of the perfect Christian woman being a lovely Yankee Candle-scented house it should be flour all over the counters from baking with the kids. Paper scraps on the floor from letting them be creative. Dishes piled up because you were busy reading to them. I think we should stop being concerned when our houses aren't perfect and start being concerned when they are.  Before we know it these little people will be gone and we will have nothing but perfect houses, filled with regret. Choose the good part!