Disclaimer: This series of posts is written to tell my story of why I decided to homeschool and what I have learned a long the way. These are my personal feelings and direction the Lord has given to me and my family. That does not mean they are your answers. I don't want you to feel guilty at all nor that I'm telling you this is the only way. I write it because people have asked for honest answers to why I chose to do this, and I want to be completely open and honest back with them.
Every mother has them. Those days when you are completely exhausted, frustrated and you hope your children live to see their dad come home.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Why I Homeschool: It's My Repsonsibility
Disclaimer: This series of posts is written to tell my story of why I decided to homeschool and what I have learned a long the way. These are my personal feelings and direction the Lord has given to me and my family. That does not mean they are your answers. I don't want you to feel guilty at all nor that I'm telling you this is the only way. I write it because people have asked for honest answers to why I chose to do this, and I want to be able to be completely open and honest back with them.
A couple of years ago the church released the new handbook, and we had gone to the trainings about it. They promised us the more we studied it the more we would receive revelation for our callings. Elder Bednar told us that this handbook should also become the handbook for the home. I found that the more I studied it, the more I started getting personal revelation concerning my own family. I started feeling very strong that it was my responsibility to teach and raise my children. Especially when it comes to the gospel, morals, and spiritual needs. No other institution could do it better than me. In fact I love this quote by Ezra Taft Benson.
"You are the best teacher. This is the most effective teaching that your children will ever recieve. This is the Lord's way of teaching. The church can not teach like you can. The school cannot. The day center cannot. But you can, and the Lord will sustain. Your children will remember your teachings forever. Mothers, this kind of motherly teaching takes time - lots of time. This is your divine calling." (Ezra T. Benson)
I had things in the Church handbook and other talks by the prophets and apostles stand out to me. Emphasizing that is my responsibility to teach my children gospel principles and righteous ways of living. Paragraphs like the ones below from the church handbook.
As part of our Heavenly Father’s plan, we were born into families. He established families to bring us happiness, to help us learn correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and to prepare us for eternal life.
A couple of years ago the church released the new handbook, and we had gone to the trainings about it. They promised us the more we studied it the more we would receive revelation for our callings. Elder Bednar told us that this handbook should also become the handbook for the home. I found that the more I studied it, the more I started getting personal revelation concerning my own family. I started feeling very strong that it was my responsibility to teach and raise my children. Especially when it comes to the gospel, morals, and spiritual needs. No other institution could do it better than me. In fact I love this quote by Ezra Taft Benson.
"You are the best teacher. This is the most effective teaching that your children will ever recieve. This is the Lord's way of teaching. The church can not teach like you can. The school cannot. The day center cannot. But you can, and the Lord will sustain. Your children will remember your teachings forever. Mothers, this kind of motherly teaching takes time - lots of time. This is your divine calling." (Ezra T. Benson)
I had things in the Church handbook and other talks by the prophets and apostles stand out to me. Emphasizing that is my responsibility to teach my children gospel principles and righteous ways of living. Paragraphs like the ones below from the church handbook.
Parents have always been commanded to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4; Enos 1:1) and “in light and truth” (D&C 93:40). The First Presidency proclaimed:
“We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.
“We counsel parents and children to give highest priority to family prayer, family home evening, gospel study and instruction, and wholesome family activities. However worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform” (First Presidency letter, Feb. 11, 1999).
Parents have the primary responsibility for helping their children know Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ (see John 17:3). Latter-day Saint fathers and mothers have been commanded to teach gospel doctrines, ordinances, covenants, and ways of righteous living to their children. (seeD&C 68:25–28).
I started feeling the huge realization that when the day came to stand before God
The problem I was running into was that I felt like I did not have adequate time to be able to do that. I started feelin
The problem I was running into was that I felt like I did not have adequate time to be able to do that. I started feelin
Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children more time eating together, more time
working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power. - Julie B. Beck
working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power. - Julie B. Beck
A few years ago, Bishop Stanley Smoot was interviewed by President Spencer W. Kimball. President Kimball asked, “How often do you have family prayer?”
Bishop Smoot answered, “We try to have family prayer twice a day, but we average about once.”
President Kimball answered, “In the past, having family prayer once a day may have been all right. But in the future it will not be enough if we are going to save our families.”
I wonder if having casual and infrequent family home evening will be enough in the future to fortify our children with sufficient moral strength. In the future, infrequent family scripture study may be inadequate to arm our children with the virtue necessary to withstand the moral decay of the environment in which they will live. Where in the world will the children learn chastity, integrity, honesty, and basic human decency if not at home? These values will, of course, be reinforced at church, but parental teaching is more constant. - Elder James E. Faust.
As part of our Heavenly Father’s plan, we were born into families. He established families to bring us happiness, to help us learn correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and to prepare us for eternal life.
Parents have the vital responsibility to help their children prepare to return to Heavenly Father. Parents fulfill this responsibility by teaching their children to follow Jesus Christ and live His gospel.
Parents have a divinely appointed responsibility “to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World”; see also Mosiah 4:14–15).
A home with loving and loyal parents is the setting in which the spiritual and physical needs of children are most effectively met. A Christ-centered home offers adults and children a place of defense against sin, refuge from the world, healing from emotional and other pain, and committed, genuine love.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Why I Homeschool: To Be Able to Fully Serve
Disclaimer: This series of posts is written to tell my story of why I decided to homeschool and what I have learned a long the way. These are my personal feelings and direction the Lord has given to me and my family. That does not mean they are your answers. I don't want you to feel guilty at all nor that I'm telling you this is the only way. I write it because people have asked for honest answers to why I chose to do this, and I want to be able to be completely open and honest back with them.
As I look back over the last year and a half at the different feelings and decisions we came to, I don't know that there was one singular event that determined the moment we decided to homeschool. It was a myriad of promptings, thoughts, research, feelings and inspiration that directed us to this decision. It reminds me of Elder Bednar's description in a series of movies "Patterns of Light" about how we receive revelation. Ours resembled the slow rising of the sun, that eventually made things brighter and more clearer. Some insight we didn't even gain until we took that leap of faith and actually started homeschooling. There were small answers, directions and things that eventually led to our final decision to pull our kids out of the public schools and take on the responsibility ourselves.
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It had been something I had considered for over a year before Beau got his answer as well and we made our final decision. So what were some of those things that were catalysts? What are the things that prompted that decision. I hope to share them with you in these series of Why I Homeschool. The reasons are not in any specific order. They were all percolating at the same time. I will just be writing them in the order that they come out.
About 2-3 years ago, I went through a couple of miscarriages, that emotionally took quite a toll on me. I started to appreciate my family more, the children I had been blessed with, and I started seeing the stress, daily activities and demands that were taking a toll on my family as we were trying to do so much with church callings, school (both Beau's schooling and the children's), our work - both Beau's and mine, and just family life and demands. At the time I was emotional and physically spent from the miscarriages. I was at one point juggling the callings of Ward Young Women's secretary and the teacher for the weekly Strengthening Marriages course for the stake, my husband had been serving as the Stake Young Men's President during a very busy summer of youth activities and had just barely gotten called as the Ward High Priest Group Leader. Between our two callings it seemed that we were gone many nights of the week and I was on burn out.
While serving in Young Womens we did not have any leaders who were able to attend Girls camp and because I recently had my miscarriage, I was no longer pregnant and was now eligible to go. I did not want to. I still was emotionally and physcially recovering from my miscarriage, and all I wanted was time with family, of which there seemed to be very little. Beau had missed lots of work time, and had been unable to get much research done, I felt like he had sacrificed too much time for me to take another whole week off for girls camp while he watched the kids. I was torn. I knew I needed to serve, I knew I should say yes, and yet I couldn't. I knew it would be too much. I went to BYU Women's Week burned out and in need of answers. I felt guilty saying yes to my family and no to church service, and I wasn't sure what to do. The Lord gave me answers through Sister Beck, he gave me permission to focus on my family. I was finally at peace. At that point in our life, that is what we needed. Our family needed each other and time for each other, there are times to serve and there are times when we need to say yes to our family instead. I told them I couldn't go. I just couldn't do anymore.
Over the next few months I felt like I could focus on my family, I started healing physically and emotionally. Ironically the morning the girls left for camp, one of the leaders backed out and I had 20 minutes to get ready to head to camp, the Lord told me I needed to go. There was no one else, and there were no other options. I was emotionally able to just pick up and leave knowing Beau would take care of everything at home, and in turn the Lord blessed me with an amazing spiritual and emotional healing week. I had started becoming frustrated and sometimes almost bitter about the amount of service the church was putting on family, specifically those in leadership callings that were doubled up. Our family was suffering, and I was frustrated with the family being the most important structure in the church, and yet the church taking us away so much from our family that it had began to suffer and didn't seem to be that important to the many church demands. The Lord took me to camp where he softened my heart, showed me things I needed to see about some of the policies our local leaders had set up that seemed so unrealistic and demanding on families. He reminded me of what Beau and I have always wanted to do and covenanted to do and that was to serve the Lord with all our hearts in any way we were called. I was reminded of the hymn sitting quietly on top of a mountain that has personally resonated with me most of my life.
I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go
It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me.
But if, by a still, small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord with my hand in thine,
I'll go where you want me to go.
I have gone in directions during my life that were not my plan but the Lord's, directions he's needed me to take. My ultimate desire was to serve where ever he would have me go. In fact this last weekend a couple sang a beautiful rendition of this song at our Stake conference that once again tugged at my heart, reminded me of the sincere desire to serve where he needed me, and confirmed at that time that homeschooling was a road and a path that he needed me to go, even though it was not the norm.
The last day of girls camp as I was preparing to go back home to our busy, hectic life, the Bishop made a comment to me that I don't write here to brag about it, but because of what it reminded me of. The moment he said it, he reminded me of what Beau and I have always tried and attempted to do. He told me something along the lines, "I honestly wish there were more families like the Tippetts. Families that lived on a partial income, that aren't full time and busy in the world, that are willing and CAN serve any time they are called upon to do so. They can drop things at any moment to go and serve, and most people are unable to do that even if they wanted to. They have nothing holding or binding them down so they can do it. They can leave at a moments notice if asked, or called upon to do it." When he said that it hit strongly that this is the way we had just sort of set up our life. We both had created very flexible schedules in work and school so that we could drop or serve at last minute. We have wanted to be able to do that. Our goals for the future is to find employment opportunities and other ways and means to continue to make that possible. Hopefully, the business Beau is starting will provide for our needs in that way before too long, at the same time acknowledging that it takes time to build a profitable business, and we will have to work up to being able afford to go whenever we are needed.
A couple of months after returning home I was called to serve in the Stake Relief Society. I knew life was not going to get any less busy or hectic between both of our leadership callings. I could not realistically ask to not serve, and had come to grips that there will probably never be a down time between Beau or I when we will have small, quiet, simple callings. (Oh to someday be the primary pianist. That would be such a happy day.) In reality I knew we were still going to have much asked of us, gone most evenings, and we needed to come to terms with that. In the process, the kids started school. I started seeing how by the time my children got home from school, we did homework, ate dinner it was time for one of us or both of us to run off to church meetings and responsibilities. I started to see that we had no time for our children, and our children were starting to complain and cry for us not to go every time we told them we had to go.
I did not want my children to grow up hating church service because it took their parents away all the time. They are young. They needed us and our time. Especially in this uncertain world. They needed one on one time with us. They needed the stability of us being here, and yet they were getting very little of it. We would try to explain where we were going, why were serving, but that didn't always help.
As we started contemplating homeschooling, this was one of the huge benefits that I felt was there. It was an answer that would solve both problems. The lack of family time that our children needed, and the ability to serve in any capacity needed. I would be able to spend good quality and adequate time with my children all day that I didn't feel guilty leaving them to serve in my calling or other responsibilities we might have with work, civic or church. I knew that it would open up our schedule freeing us from being on someone else's schedule and demands. If we needed to leave town at a moments notice, we could. If there was a family emergency we could go. If we needed to help or serve someone or somewhere we could. (Now if only we could convince family and other's that we really aren't that busy and they can ask for help. :))
Ironically it would seem that with our busy and stressful life, that adding homeschool to it would make it even more busy and crazy. And there are days that are like that, trust me! But the majority of the time it has made our life much simpler. It works with family life. It ebbs and flows and we can schedule things in a way that works with our family instead of against it. It has made things more relaxed in our home. We aren't as stressed when we have a busy streak of callings and meetings. We can meet our family needs when they need to be addressed during the days, rather than just waiting for the craziness to let up so we can then meet our children's specific needs or a general family need. It has been freeing really. It has just been one more piece to our family's goal of being able to serve whenever and whereever we are needed, and has now made it possible to serve together as a family.
I am hoping that I can show and give my children more opportunities to serve those in our ward, community and extended family. I hope that others will not see the Tippetts as too busy to ask for help because I homeschool all day. (I'll give you a hint, we're usually done by 1-2 and have all afternoon to pursue other things. We also can do work in the car while we travel. We also can do school somewhere other than our home if needed. My kids can bring work along and do it while I help someone. We can make up the work on Saturday if we are needed on a day during the week. That is the beauty of homeschooling! It really can make us available to help.) I hope they feel like we are an option. There have been a few times already this year when there was a need to serve and help for meals after a funeral. I could take my children, we could stay as long as they needed us to and they were able to help serve too and be a part of the Lord's work.
Homeschooling has really helped a ton in the dilemma of church service and family. Of meeting both demands and needs. It has helped me not feel guilty about serving, because I already had the chance to serve my kids regularly every day. I am also hoping that in the future, it will keep our lives open so that we may be ready to serve whenever and wherever the Lord calls us.
As I look back over the last year and a half at the different feelings and decisions we came to, I don't know that there was one singular event that determined the moment we decided to homeschool. It was a myriad of promptings, thoughts, research, feelings and inspiration that directed us to this decision. It reminds me of Elder Bednar's description in a series of movies "Patterns of Light" about how we receive revelation. Ours resembled the slow rising of the sun, that eventually made things brighter and more clearer. Some insight we didn't even gain until we took that leap of faith and actually started homeschooling. There were small answers, directions and things that eventually led to our final decision to pull our kids out of the public schools and take on the responsibility ourselves.
.jpg)
It had been something I had considered for over a year before Beau got his answer as well and we made our final decision. So what were some of those things that were catalysts? What are the things that prompted that decision. I hope to share them with you in these series of Why I Homeschool. The reasons are not in any specific order. They were all percolating at the same time. I will just be writing them in the order that they come out.
About 2-3 years ago, I went through a couple of miscarriages, that emotionally took quite a toll on me. I started to appreciate my family more, the children I had been blessed with, and I started seeing the stress, daily activities and demands that were taking a toll on my family as we were trying to do so much with church callings, school (both Beau's schooling and the children's), our work - both Beau's and mine, and just family life and demands. At the time I was emotional and physically spent from the miscarriages. I was at one point juggling the callings of Ward Young Women's secretary and the teacher for the weekly Strengthening Marriages course for the stake, my husband had been serving as the Stake Young Men's President during a very busy summer of youth activities and had just barely gotten called as the Ward High Priest Group Leader. Between our two callings it seemed that we were gone many nights of the week and I was on burn out.
While serving in Young Womens we did not have any leaders who were able to attend Girls camp and because I recently had my miscarriage, I was no longer pregnant and was now eligible to go. I did not want to. I still was emotionally and physcially recovering from my miscarriage, and all I wanted was time with family, of which there seemed to be very little. Beau had missed lots of work time, and had been unable to get much research done, I felt like he had sacrificed too much time for me to take another whole week off for girls camp while he watched the kids. I was torn. I knew I needed to serve, I knew I should say yes, and yet I couldn't. I knew it would be too much. I went to BYU Women's Week burned out and in need of answers. I felt guilty saying yes to my family and no to church service, and I wasn't sure what to do. The Lord gave me answers through Sister Beck, he gave me permission to focus on my family. I was finally at peace. At that point in our life, that is what we needed. Our family needed each other and time for each other, there are times to serve and there are times when we need to say yes to our family instead. I told them I couldn't go. I just couldn't do anymore.
I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go
It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me.
But if, by a still, small voice he calls
To paths that I do not know,
I'll answer, dear Lord with my hand in thine,
I'll go where you want me to go.
I have gone in directions during my life that were not my plan but the Lord's, directions he's needed me to take. My ultimate desire was to serve where ever he would have me go. In fact this last weekend a couple sang a beautiful rendition of this song at our Stake conference that once again tugged at my heart, reminded me of the sincere desire to serve where he needed me, and confirmed at that time that homeschooling was a road and a path that he needed me to go, even though it was not the norm.
The last day of girls camp as I was preparing to go back home to our busy, hectic life, the Bishop made a comment to me that I don't write here to brag about it, but because of what it reminded me of. The moment he said it, he reminded me of what Beau and I have always tried and attempted to do. He told me something along the lines, "I honestly wish there were more families like the Tippetts. Families that lived on a partial income, that aren't full time and busy in the world, that are willing and CAN serve any time they are called upon to do so. They can drop things at any moment to go and serve, and most people are unable to do that even if they wanted to. They have nothing holding or binding them down so they can do it. They can leave at a moments notice if asked, or called upon to do it." When he said that it hit strongly that this is the way we had just sort of set up our life. We both had created very flexible schedules in work and school so that we could drop or serve at last minute. We have wanted to be able to do that. Our goals for the future is to find employment opportunities and other ways and means to continue to make that possible. Hopefully, the business Beau is starting will provide for our needs in that way before too long, at the same time acknowledging that it takes time to build a profitable business, and we will have to work up to being able afford to go whenever we are needed.
A couple of months after returning home I was called to serve in the Stake Relief Society. I knew life was not going to get any less busy or hectic between both of our leadership callings. I could not realistically ask to not serve, and had come to grips that there will probably never be a down time between Beau or I when we will have small, quiet, simple callings. (Oh to someday be the primary pianist. That would be such a happy day.) In reality I knew we were still going to have much asked of us, gone most evenings, and we needed to come to terms with that. In the process, the kids started school. I started seeing how by the time my children got home from school, we did homework, ate dinner it was time for one of us or both of us to run off to church meetings and responsibilities. I started to see that we had no time for our children, and our children were starting to complain and cry for us not to go every time we told them we had to go.
I did not want my children to grow up hating church service because it took their parents away all the time. They are young. They needed us and our time. Especially in this uncertain world. They needed one on one time with us. They needed the stability of us being here, and yet they were getting very little of it. We would try to explain where we were going, why were serving, but that didn't always help.
As we started contemplating homeschooling, this was one of the huge benefits that I felt was there. It was an answer that would solve both problems. The lack of family time that our children needed, and the ability to serve in any capacity needed. I would be able to spend good quality and adequate time with my children all day that I didn't feel guilty leaving them to serve in my calling or other responsibilities we might have with work, civic or church. I knew that it would open up our schedule freeing us from being on someone else's schedule and demands. If we needed to leave town at a moments notice, we could. If there was a family emergency we could go. If we needed to help or serve someone or somewhere we could. (Now if only we could convince family and other's that we really aren't that busy and they can ask for help. :))
Ironically it would seem that with our busy and stressful life, that adding homeschool to it would make it even more busy and crazy. And there are days that are like that, trust me! But the majority of the time it has made our life much simpler. It works with family life. It ebbs and flows and we can schedule things in a way that works with our family instead of against it. It has made things more relaxed in our home. We aren't as stressed when we have a busy streak of callings and meetings. We can meet our family needs when they need to be addressed during the days, rather than just waiting for the craziness to let up so we can then meet our children's specific needs or a general family need. It has been freeing really. It has just been one more piece to our family's goal of being able to serve whenever and whereever we are needed, and has now made it possible to serve together as a family.
Homeschooling has really helped a ton in the dilemma of church service and family. Of meeting both demands and needs. It has helped me not feel guilty about serving, because I already had the chance to serve my kids regularly every day. I am also hoping that in the future, it will keep our lives open so that we may be ready to serve whenever and wherever the Lord calls us.
This Week
For one I used to be an avid journal writer and have volumes of journals from my high school and college years. I have a few for when we were first married, and then they tend to slowly get less and less. 10 years later in our marriage, I wonder what I have written to show for it. Luckily I do have some blog posts, random books and journals that I've recorded a few things in, but I feel there needs to be more. A lot more.
Today I read some of these quotes that once again reminded me why I've felt the spirit to be pushing me to write more again.
"Those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance in their daily lives."
- Spencer W. Kimball
"I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day nomatter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done." - Henry B. Eyring
Maybe these promptings have to do with our History lessons this last week. Our look at what History really is. His Story. The story of God's dealing with his children, the fall and rise of nations and people as they either remembered him or forgot him. Maybe it has to do with the timeline we made that shows my family's place in the great eternal timeline of this earth's life. Our place in these latter days, in preparing ourselves, our families and our posterity for the Second Coming of the Savior Jesus Christ. Seeing our place in His Story, his timeline. Knowing we had a specific time and place to come and am I recording what we are experiencing now in this very unique, amazing and difficult time in the history of the world.
I tend to see the Lord more in my life when I do write. I see how he answers my prayers. I see how he has guided things in the long run over my life or long periods of time. I become more grateful. It also helps me formulate my thoughts when I have many on my mind. I also know that my children love reading about themselves, the happenings in our lives, and flipping through scrapbooks and photo albums remembering the times that we spent as a family. I love to look back and see how I've grown, how far I've come, and sometimes wonder why I'm still trying to learn the same lesson for the 5th or 20th time.
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
It has also reminded me of the book One Thousand Gifts. What a beautiful story Ann writes about how simply writing down her blessings every day completely changed her, and what it can do for us. I love this book. Taking the time to remember lessons we've learned, blessings we have, things we took joy in during the day, the struggles we go through can benefit us so much. But to actually take the time to write them down can change me, my posterity and possibly others. When it's written down, it's there to come back to. It's there in a time of need. It's there to refresh our memories, relive those tender mercies and have something to share and pass on.
I want to do so much better at this. I'm not that great at it lately. I really don't know how I'm going to change the habit either, but I really want to try. I want to make it consistent again. These two pages of a week in our life, is my start for this week. Sometimes I want the visual. Plus I really want to finish the goal I have for myself, of having this last year documented and printed at the start of 2013. In order to do that I need to get caught up on a few weeks, and get back in the habit of recording the upcoming ones.
Our life these last few weeks have been mixed with blessings, stress, busyness, good friends, exhaustion, sickness, learning opportunities, and moments of peace and joy. I'm not promising that I'll suddenly do better at writing about all of it, but I sure hope so.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Getting Started
This week has been our official week of homeschool. We did a few things the last few weeks but they were more hit and miss as we were gone for a week for one last trip to visit our families in Star Valley. It then took a couple days to get settled back in, get the house caught back up and get my curriculum ready that we changed at last minute. So officially we started this week. How has it gone?
Monday: It took us a bit to get the kids going and they were willing to get started and we got quite a bit done. But by the time we finished up at 3:00, we were all exhausted. I could not have every school day go like that. There are still lots of other things that I needed to do, prep time that was needed, down time, and some play time for all. We had to change something.
So I picked up a book that another homeschooling friend of mine recommended. Love to Learn by Diane Hopkins. It's full of tips, advice and suggestions from a long term homeschooling mother. In the little bit that I read that evening I made some changes to the structure of our day, my priorities and the next couple of days have gone awesome. We have now completed all of our daily schooling by noon! Leaving the afternoon for errands, playing, jobs, chores, music lessons, design work or lesson planning for upcoming days. Oh I hope I can continue this for the rest of the year. It has been awesome. Here are a few of the changes that I made.
I am up by somewhere between 5-5:30 am.
I spend the morning reading my scriptures, doing any other preparation needed for the school day. I shower or try to have breakfast ready by 6:30, so we can get everyone up, eat and have morning scripture study with Beau before he leaves to be to work by 7:00. I am hoping to get a 1/2 hour of exercise in there somewhere too.
If I get on the computer I don't check email or browse the web. I only do what is necessary to prep for school. I don't let myself check any of this until we've finished school in the afternoon.
I have everyone get ready for the day - dressed, hair fixed, teeth brushed. The first one to be ready for the day get's first pick of the chores for the morning. (This morning was the first morning I tried this technique. What has been taking them anywhere from 30 minutes or longer to do, took them exactly 3-5 minutes. They wanted first choice on chores. It was amazing. They didn't know what their chores would be, and they knew if they were the last one they would probably get stuck with the worse. I think we'll continue this method for getting ready.
They also were more willing to do the chores because they chose what it was rather than me telling, and it was something different every day based on what I needed done. We had been having arguments over zones lately because someone's didn't get messy and it wasn't fair that they didn't have to clean when another one was super messy. Plus there have been items that needed to be done that weren't getting done because they weren't on the regular chore schedule. I decided I would write the chore list based on what needed done instead of a set one.
While they are working on chores, I do dishes, throw in some laundry, pick up any major areas, and if needed also shower and get ready. Depending on the amount of family work I have that needs to be done in the morning we'll start school either at 8:00 or 9:00am.
I then pull the kids together to start school. We start with a quick devotional where we start with prayer, learn about a virtue for the week. This week is kindness (since it has really been lacking in our home lately.) We learn a new song. This weeks was "Kindness Begins With Me." We practice our memorization of the Living Christ and either play a quick game or read a story about the virtue.
We then start do our Family School Curriculum with our subject for the day. This is done with everyone together.... hence the name "Family School" :) I am really excited about this curriculum and will share more about it in a later post. This usually takes us 1 1/2 - 2 hours to do the lesson for the day. I was waiting to do this after the kids did all their individual work and we weren't getting to it clear until the afternoon and we were all getting restless at this point. After reading Diane's suggestions I decided to do it first.
After we do the subject for the day, we then do individual assignments, which I had been doing all together at the table so I could help everyone. It was taking forever. I decided to take Diane's advice to have them learn on their own away from distractions. Meaning away from each other!
I created a weekly assignment log that has what they need to do every day for their individual lessons. They include:
copywork / spelling
write in their journal
their specific writing assignment for the subject of the day
reading for 20 minutes
the math lesson for the day
Then rotating day by day it will have music lesson, tech lesson, or Spanish for the day. They were given the instructions that they are not allowed to have free time or play until all of their boxes have been checked off. They can do them in any order. They need to do it in a room completely by themselves. If they procrastinate it and never finish it for the day, not only did they loose play time or free time, they will find all of the same assignments given to them the next day completely blank so they can start all over. (My friend suggested this method, that after a few days it works wonders at stopping the procrastination and distractions.) I will go around to help them with any problems they have or questions. They can skip the ones they don't know or need help with.
It was amazing how fast the older ones were able to get their work done. I was able to spend part of that time working one on one with Isaac on his reading lessons. It also works well because Belén usually takes a pretty long nap in the mornings.
We have been done by noon the last two days with this schedule. We were able to have the afternoon to run errands and go to piano lessons. Today I was tired and could take a nap without feeling guilty, get caught up on some laundry, dry some food and do some reading that I was wanting to catch up on. I'm hoping to also use the afternoon for a chance to get out in some sunshine and do something physical with the kids.
I had a friend that is starting her first year homeschooling ask me how my day was set up and our schedule. I don't know that we had a major schedule in the past which did make it difficult sometimes to get through everything, or everything just took a lot longer than it needed to. So right now this is my new schedule and new plan and it seems to be working. There will be times when we have more detailed assignments where school might go until 1:00. There will be other times when an individual subject might get dropped so we can fit something else in together, or because a lesson will take more time. But it seems like those will be easier to work with and deal with than having the whole day mixed up.
I'll keep you updated on how this works the rest of the year. I know there will be days that just don't work out like this, but even if most of the time it was working we seem to be getting a lot more done in shorter amounts of time.
Monday: It took us a bit to get the kids going and they were willing to get started and we got quite a bit done. But by the time we finished up at 3:00, we were all exhausted. I could not have every school day go like that. There are still lots of other things that I needed to do, prep time that was needed, down time, and some play time for all. We had to change something.
I am up by somewhere between 5-5:30 am.
I spend the morning reading my scriptures, doing any other preparation needed for the school day. I shower or try to have breakfast ready by 6:30, so we can get everyone up, eat and have morning scripture study with Beau before he leaves to be to work by 7:00. I am hoping to get a 1/2 hour of exercise in there somewhere too.
If I get on the computer I don't check email or browse the web. I only do what is necessary to prep for school. I don't let myself check any of this until we've finished school in the afternoon.
I have everyone get ready for the day - dressed, hair fixed, teeth brushed. The first one to be ready for the day get's first pick of the chores for the morning. (This morning was the first morning I tried this technique. What has been taking them anywhere from 30 minutes or longer to do, took them exactly 3-5 minutes. They wanted first choice on chores. It was amazing. They didn't know what their chores would be, and they knew if they were the last one they would probably get stuck with the worse. I think we'll continue this method for getting ready.
They also were more willing to do the chores because they chose what it was rather than me telling, and it was something different every day based on what I needed done. We had been having arguments over zones lately because someone's didn't get messy and it wasn't fair that they didn't have to clean when another one was super messy. Plus there have been items that needed to be done that weren't getting done because they weren't on the regular chore schedule. I decided I would write the chore list based on what needed done instead of a set one.
While they are working on chores, I do dishes, throw in some laundry, pick up any major areas, and if needed also shower and get ready. Depending on the amount of family work I have that needs to be done in the morning we'll start school either at 8:00 or 9:00am.
I then pull the kids together to start school. We start with a quick devotional where we start with prayer, learn about a virtue for the week. This week is kindness (since it has really been lacking in our home lately.) We learn a new song. This weeks was "Kindness Begins With Me." We practice our memorization of the Living Christ and either play a quick game or read a story about the virtue.
We then start do our Family School Curriculum with our subject for the day. This is done with everyone together.... hence the name "Family School" :) I am really excited about this curriculum and will share more about it in a later post. This usually takes us 1 1/2 - 2 hours to do the lesson for the day. I was waiting to do this after the kids did all their individual work and we weren't getting to it clear until the afternoon and we were all getting restless at this point. After reading Diane's suggestions I decided to do it first.
After we do the subject for the day, we then do individual assignments, which I had been doing all together at the table so I could help everyone. It was taking forever. I decided to take Diane's advice to have them learn on their own away from distractions. Meaning away from each other!
I created a weekly assignment log that has what they need to do every day for their individual lessons. They include:
copywork / spelling
write in their journal
their specific writing assignment for the subject of the day
reading for 20 minutes
the math lesson for the day
Then rotating day by day it will have music lesson, tech lesson, or Spanish for the day. They were given the instructions that they are not allowed to have free time or play until all of their boxes have been checked off. They can do them in any order. They need to do it in a room completely by themselves. If they procrastinate it and never finish it for the day, not only did they loose play time or free time, they will find all of the same assignments given to them the next day completely blank so they can start all over. (My friend suggested this method, that after a few days it works wonders at stopping the procrastination and distractions.) I will go around to help them with any problems they have or questions. They can skip the ones they don't know or need help with.
It was amazing how fast the older ones were able to get their work done. I was able to spend part of that time working one on one with Isaac on his reading lessons. It also works well because Belén usually takes a pretty long nap in the mornings.
We have been done by noon the last two days with this schedule. We were able to have the afternoon to run errands and go to piano lessons. Today I was tired and could take a nap without feeling guilty, get caught up on some laundry, dry some food and do some reading that I was wanting to catch up on. I'm hoping to also use the afternoon for a chance to get out in some sunshine and do something physical with the kids.
I had a friend that is starting her first year homeschooling ask me how my day was set up and our schedule. I don't know that we had a major schedule in the past which did make it difficult sometimes to get through everything, or everything just took a lot longer than it needed to. So right now this is my new schedule and new plan and it seems to be working. There will be times when we have more detailed assignments where school might go until 1:00. There will be other times when an individual subject might get dropped so we can fit something else in together, or because a lesson will take more time. But it seems like those will be easier to work with and deal with than having the whole day mixed up.
I'll keep you updated on how this works the rest of the year. I know there will be days that just don't work out like this, but even if most of the time it was working we seem to be getting a lot more done in shorter amounts of time.
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