Getting Out of the Way

So, today was a typical day in the Musteric house, except that Daddy has been out of town for four days, it's Monday, and there have been a few late nights lately. It is just after 1pm, now, but I've learned a big lesson already. I need to get out of my kids' way when it comes to their disagreements way more often.

Lately, the girls been having fun playing with a large branch that came down from our large maple tree during the crazy wind last week. They've used it to prop against a tree to make a fun teepee covered with a sheet and a blanket. It makes a pretty cool fort, I must say.

This is the same tree whose limbs they have also thrown ropes over about 12 feet up so they can belay up and down the tree. (Have I mentioned that we are pretty free-range around here?) So, the girls are happily playing in the fort with ideas of completing their schoolwork outside on this gorgeous fall day.

Enter the big brother, home from band at the high school, who is looking forward to swinging on the ropes from said tree. Do I need to elaborate?

It ended in a loud screaming match outside (in full view of folks in the church parking lot and with the windows to the preschool next door wide open, of course), and resulted in the branches of the teepee being snapped in half. Whoa, nellie. It was a big blowout. Big. I can't say when I've ever seen the kids so angry with each other, and that's saying something.

I sent the offending party to his bedroom to cool off and get some school work done away from the crying sisters. I did so without much anger, amazingly. (Thanks be to God.) They all had some cool down time, we got a bit of history done, and I went upstairs to talk to the boy. I kept it cool. (Again, thanks be to God.) I didn't say much, really, just talked about what happened and how unacceptable the behavior had been.

Then, I left.

I said nothing further to anyone about the incident while we went on with schoolwork with the girls. When we finished, I noticed that he was no longer in his room. He wasn't in the bathroom. He wasn't downstairs. I started to panic a bit. I wondered if he had left the house without telling me. You know how paranoid a worried mother gets...we always start thinking of the worst.

Then, I looked outside. There he was, building a bigger, better, stronger fort up against the offending tree. Not for himself, but to mend things with his sisters. Thanks be to God. There now seems to be a great forgiveness going on out there in which I'm not going to meddle. They really are growing up. Growing inside to become people who know when they've done something wrong and then think of a way to not only ask forgiveness, but to repair the breach. It's a beautiful thing.

Three Little Notebooks

This is the story of Three Little Notebooks who changed our homeschooling days for the better.

So, I have not always been the most organized of homeschool teachers. That may be understating things. I have put lots of energy and time into choosing good curricula, changing them when it was apparent that a change was needed, and teaching the kids how to use them. When it came to actually getting them all done on a regular basis, however, some things always seemed to fall through the cracks or get forgotten several weeks into a new school year.

Enter the absolutely wonderful blog by Sarah Mackenzie called Amongst Lovely Things. I read her lovely and reassuring book called Teaching From Rest last year, and it began to work on me in wonderful ways. While owning my own lack of organization and daily diligence in my work with our children, I began to relax into my role as a teacher and take lots of her wonderful ideas to heart. I knew that I could no longer go about our days willy-nilly, and that I needed another plan so all three of our school-age children would get the attention they need, as well as to develop their own sense of diligence in their work.

The blog post linked above seemed too simple to really work, but I figured, why not? A fifty-nine-cent composition book per child was a small price to pay compared to the $15 record-books I had tried (and failed) to use in previous years. Hallelujah! It works. Every night (or early in the morning), I just jot down a checklist for each child of what they need to do for the day's work. It keeps us all on track for the day's work. *Read: It keeps ME on track. There is a lot of satisfaction of checking something off the list. And I don't spend time trying to plan out weeks at a time, knowing full-well we won't get it all done. One day at a time. It mostly all gets done, and I can adjust things daily when they need it.

The Best-Laid Plans

Hooray! All of the homeschooling books and materials are finally here. My best-laid plans are made. The notebooks are organized. The school room is on its way to being finished and ready with the correct books on the shelves, while I weed out a few extraneous things as I settle finally on what we will use this year in our studies.

I have high hopes for the coming school year, like I do every year. This year, though I have put much more time into planning, and my biggest goal for the year is to bring more diligence to our daily work. Diligence in myself is going to be the biggest hurdle of all, I think.  I know that our plans will not be followed to the letter, since there really is never a "typical" week with four children all learning at home, a pastor's unpredictable schedule, and the knowledge that there will be areas where we will have to re-evaluate and make adjustments to our plans.  But, grace.

With grace and diligence at the forefront of my mind, here are my grand plans for the coming year.

Morning Time

I've been doing a lot of reading and listening to podcasts about adding a regular morning time with the children all together to do the things that instill honor, beauty, and truth into our hearts.  So we will begin each day with a rotating basket-full of things to do together.

Bible reading
Poetry memorization using IEW's Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization
Working through A Midsummer Night's Dream using How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, and moving on to other Shakespeare plays as we finish.
Artist and Musician Studies
Nature Walks


The Eighth-Grader

Our eighth-grade son will continue his work on becoming more diligent in his studies, while also delving deeper into his areas of passion.  He is a big chemistry buff, so he will finish working through Ellen McHenry's The Elements and Carbon Chemistry.  And he is currently reading some works of fiction about an element hunter named Itch.

He will continue using the Life of Fred series for mathematics. He is about mid-way through Beginning Algebra, and will move on to Advanced Algebra when he finishes that.  We may revisit the Elementary Physics book as well, if he finishes his chemistry work early.

He will be focusing on the Middle Ages in history this year, using the resources from History Odyssey for the logic stage.

He will begin a high-school vocabulary textbook and move away from simply spelling words, as well as continuing his study of Latin using First Form Latin from Memoria Press.  We will also use Fix-It Grammar from IEW to reinforce grammar and good writing form with the two older kids working together.

We will also spend the first semester working hard at the free Mensa for Kids writing resource, aiming for competence in writing essays and reports.

The second semester will be spent delving into logic using the resource The Art of Argument. (Though I'm not sure I want to teach him to argue any more than he already does!)

He will continue his study of martial arts, specifically Shuri-Ryu Karate and Weapons classes, as well as some reading on the topic and working on learning more Japanese. (We may ask for Uncle Marc's help, here!)  He will also attend the local middle school every day to play trombone with the eighth-grade band.

The Fourth/Fifth-Grader

Our almost-ten-year-old daughter will be working this year on continuing the basics, and moving into more in-depth studies.  She will be doing her first year of in-depth history study of the Middle Ages, also using History Odyssey, but at the grammar level.

Science will be done together with her younger sister, studying zoology and anatomy using Elemental Science's living book series called Sassafras Science.  I'm pretty sure she will take a detour to spend some extra time on marine mammals, since that is one of her passions.

She will begin using the Phonetic Zoo for spelling, work with her brother on the IEW grammar books, and continue daily writing assignments while she works diligently to master the basics of language.

She will begin the upper-level Life of Fred math books beginning with Fractions. She's a mathy girl, so I believe she'll work quickly through them.

She will continue competitive swimming through the Toledo YMCA. She has made some great friends, and is in excellent condition from all that time in the pool!

The First-Grader

Our seven-year-old will continue to build upon her basic skills, focusing on reading fluency by reading lots of fun books together.  She will probably begin formal spelling this year, but we won't be sure which resources we will use until we try a couple to see which fits best between All About Spelling and Spelling Workout.  She will finish the second half of Peace Hill Press's First Language Lessons.  We still use the older version that is a non-consumable book containing the first two years of grammar basics.

She will begin Math U See Alpha this year, with the hope that using more hands-on manipulatives and video instruction will help get her over the hump with basic math.

We will add in studies in Middle Ages history with The Story of the World, and working with her older sister on life science activities.

She will also continue taking karate lessons like her brother, but is still at the age where we like to let them experiment with different extracurriculars to find the one that they like best.


It sounds like a lot, and it is!  You can see, though, that as each child gets older and more capable of independent work, we can add more and still enjoy time together in the afternoons before the evening rush to activities begins.

Monday is the day!  Here's to the best school year we can have.

Grace, Grace, Grace

   There's nothing like opening my dusty blog titled, "Growing in Grace" to start a new school year with high hopes for resurrecting this space, only to remember suddenly that I have a son who needed to be picked up at the high school!  Grace, grace. I made it on time just to see him walking out the door. Grace, grace.

   Normally, I would have been beating myself up for my forgetful, distracted ways, but today, I chose grace.  Really.  This is a new thing.  Maybe I am growing. I'm not saying that I shouldn't set myself an alarm every day so I don't do it again, but today I chose to remember that it's only the second day of this new schedule, that it's totally OK not to be perfect.  I am working on that perfection idea. God doesn't ask me to be perfect, just to be faithful.

    This is not the post I came here to write.  I came to write up my plan for the coming homeschool year.  And I will do that.  I will do it imperfectly.  The school year will not go perfectly according to my hard work of planning the curricula, the schedule, the speed at which we will move and learn.  And hopefully, I will continue to choose grace for myself and for my children as we begin this year with a first-grader, fifth-grader and eighth-grader.  Grace, grace, grace.

   If you're looking for encouragement for the coming homeschool season, you must read the book Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie.  It is transforming my thinking about teaching my children.

Restart

Here goes nothing. Years ago, I started this blog, hoping that I would have some helpful things to say and that someone might read them and find them edifying.  Obviously, I couldn't keep up with it.  So, here I am again a few years and one more child later, trying to restart.  Currently, I'm really looking for a way to keep track of what our children are doing in their home learning. I am honestly horrible about writing down and keeping track of what we do each day. Since, I usually hop on the computer anyway, I thought it might be handy to just keep track here, and maybe someone else will enjoy seeing what we are doing.

I'm hoping that this will be a mix of our homeschooling life (crazy as it is), my thoughts on parenting and home-keeping, and ponderings on theology and faith.  I miss writing on a regular basis; and I hope that this will start to be a nice outlet for this stay-at-home mom.

Light

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:5

In these short, short days of winter, when there is so much more darkness than light, we stop. We ponder. We wonder at the mystery of the unimaginable light of God coming into the world, covered in skin and bones and hair and that sweet, sweet newborn baby smell. We stop to consider the great love of our Creator who loves the creation so much that he sent his only Son into the darkness to bring about everlasting light among the people.

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Usher in the final coming of your Light, when we will no longer need sun or moon or stars, but only the glow of your face. Illumine our hearts to bear your light to this world in all that we do. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Humble Parenting

Mark 9 (NRSV)

³⁵[Jesus] sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

So today, as I read the new Advent-Nativity devotional book that Matt gave me as an early gift, the above passage was part of the Gospel reading. Somehow, as many times as I’ve read and heard these verses, I never really put verses 35-37 together in my mind. Somehow they always seemed separate to me. You know, if you want to be first, then be a servant. OK. Got that. (Not that I do it all that well, but I understand, you know?) Then, it seemed like a separate thing to me…welcome everyone in Jesus’ name, even little children. Well, that seems obvious. Who wouldn’t want to welcome children, right?

Here’s the thing, though. When I read it this morning, I thought about what it means to be a mother in Jesus’ eyes. It’s putting myself even after my children. Serving THEM means welcoming them. It means being last, even behind my children. In my sinful, false-martyr-like mind, I often hear myself saying, “When do I get to…” Fill in the blank: eat a hot dinner, have a career that gains me some kind of recognition, get to sleep a whole night without waking up, wear nice clothes that don’t have rice krispies stuck to them, have a house that is clean and tastefully decorated, worship without having to leave the sanctuary with a child screaming for Elmo, and the list goes on and on and on and… Wow, I really do think about myself way too much.

What would it look like if instead, I spent my mental energy in prayer and humility, asking how I can serve Jesus by serving my children instead of wondering when I get my share. The faces of my children are the faces of the God who loves and who not only gave up a hot meal, but gave up his glory and honor to come into this world as…a child. I imagine Mary, nursing her newborn baby, chasing after him as a toddler, searching for him when he was in the Temple, all the while serving humbly the God of the Universe.

So, I’m going to pray for the humility and patience I need to remember that in serving my own family, I am serving the God of the Universe. I might not miss that hot dinner quite so much…