Great quote about hyperactive boys :-)

"If Ritalin was around in Thomas Edison's day, we'd all be sitting in the dark" --Carol Barnier, author of How to Get Your Child off the Refrigerator and into Learning

A definite praise!

A Great Victory for California Homeschoolers

In a unanimous decision, the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District today ruled that “California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education.”

Today’s decision stands in stark contrast to the opinion this same three-judge panel issued in February, which would have made California the only state in the union to outlaw home education had it remained in effect.

“It is unusual for an appellate court to grant a petition for rehearing as this court did in March,” said HSLDA Chairman Mike Farris, “but it is truly remarkable for a court to completely reverse its own earlier opinion. We thank you for your prayers and give God the glory for this great victory.”

Curriculum choices, a summation

I am really excited to say that I have finally ordered almost all of the curriculum and workbooks for school! I have already received most of the books, and I am only waiting for one more shipment.

I say "almost" because I have ordered everything we need to start the year, but I will need to order KONOS when Michael gets paid again. I am watching to get the best price on Ebay and since we do not plan to start school until the first week of September, I am giving myself time to find the best price (and time to prepare).

I am using this post to list the books we will be using, and a summation of the "new" curriculum ("new" meaning the different types of curriculum that we haven't used in the past).

I am looking forward to a new approach to teaching the boys, and in my search for curriculum KONOS seemed to be exactly what I was looking for.

About KONOS:
According to their website, it covers the following subjects

Bible

Character

History

Science

Literature

Writing

Practical Living

Field Trips

Critical Thinking

Arts/Crafts

Music

Drama/Speech

Geography

Social Studies

Health/Safety

How is KONOS different
from other curricula?

KONOS is distinct from other curricula in that it features:

· Godly character trait focus

· Units with all subjects integrated

· Hands-on, experiential activities

· Discovery learning

· Multi-level, family teaching

KONOS uses the entire library as a textbook and the whole world as its curriculum.

I have had several high recommendations for it. I love the fact that we as a family will study these subjects as a unit-together, and the fact that it gives me a library reading guide. I love the fact that every subject is based on a character trait.

For the three R's we will be using ABeka Math, Phonics, and Language, the Getty-Dubay Italics handwriting course (I talked about in an earlier post.. if you want to see a picture, go back a few posts), and Spelling Power. Even though KONOS covers reading, I still ordered the ABeka reading curriculum for the simple fact that I love it so much! Justin will be reading Pilgrim's Progress this year, one of my favorites.
So we will be doing both ABeka reading and following the KONOS reading schedule. Needless to say we WILL BE doing a lot of reading!

About Spelling Power:
Spelling Power is complete. It includes lists of the 5,000 most frequently used words organized by Phonetic principles and spelling rules. It can be used all the way through high school!
It came highly recommended by Rhonda Pepple (who taught me high school English & Grammar). I am hoping to have some really good spellers before it's over :-)

In addition to KONOS history (which uses a time-line), we will be using several books I ordered back when my boys were babies. I have been waiting for the right opportunity to teach from them. They are as follows:
Don't Know Much About American History
Don't Know Much About The Fifty States
Scholastics Encyclopedia of the Presidents and their Times
and Pa-pa's gift to Justin: Eyewitness book about Presidents.
I also have a nice set of flashcards teaching the fifty states and their capitals that I ordered "way back when". It's funny that when I ordered those books & flashcards I had no idea I would be home-schooling!

Going back and reading my curriculum list gives me a huge reason to praise the Lord! Even though it has taken a little more planning and time to get good prices on a lot of the items, a lot of them are brand new or like new in condition.
I have been ordering a little bit per paycheck. Here's my praise: I am happy to record that so far, as opposed to last year's $500, I have only spent around $200 for EVERYTHING so far (and ordered at my own leisure) and this includes my teaching resources ! And hopefully after KONOS is ordered, it will still be less than $250! The beauty of this homeschooling thing is that I can research and find resources at my own leisure and time frame. This luxury, in itself, has been a huge financial blessing for us.

Now that I have almost all my curriculum, I need to get my schedule ironed out. September starts Michael's new day shift schedule (perfect timing!). Since I am just now getting my curriculum and still need to order KONOS September seems a whole lot better than August. :-)

Convenience Parenting

We live in a culture of convenience don't we? Certainly if something is more convenient, we might pay more for it. Who wants to skin those carrots when you can buy some that SOMEONE ELSE has already skinned and prepared. Ah.. the luxury! Just rinse and pop right into your mouth.
Look a little closer though. Those baby carrots cost twice as much more and you get less! It only takes a couple of minutes to skin them, so why not do a tiny bit of extra work so you can be a good steward of your money?

I am laughing at myself for using this example, because yes, I have on occasion bought the baby carrots. And of course I am not criticizing anyone for buying them. That would be absurd.
But it does present such a great teachable moment doesn't it? *grin*

I was having a conversation with a friend recently. The conversation was geared in the direction of how inconvenient parenting our kids can be. She basically said that sending them to school is the only break we get from them so,for goodness sakes, why in the world would you HOME-SCHOOL them? You are nuts, Kim! She then continued on and on about how inconvenient children are.

What about a missionary? As a friend once stated, no one questions the sacrifices that a missionary goes through to take the gospel to the lost. Most people don't even question if they can or cannot do it. God will help them because He called them to do it. But when it comes to motherhood, then our convenience is always considered. Is motherhood always easy? Did God call me to motherhood? Are my children my mission field? If He did give these little treasures to me to parent, does that not mean that He trusts me (calls me) to do the WORK it takes to teach them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?

What about my own selfish desires?

If God called me to motherhood, then it's my job to be the mother He called me to be regardless of what I may or may not want. We are all so caught up in "me-ism". We are so worried about "ME" time, that we are missing out on the biggest joys of life.

Are we so worried about ourselves that we aren't willing to DIE to ourselves? Some of the most awesome moments in my parenting have come when I chose to put my own wishes aside and pray with, play with, read to, and teach my boys.

I don't know about anyone else, but I not only expect hardship but I hope that when it does come I will embrace each moment as teachable. Molding me and my family into what God calls us to be. I can do nothing else but obey His calling and embrace it regardless if it gets in the way of what I want for me.

What am I teaching my boys if instead of facing hardship head on, I run the other way?

Recently I was thinking that maybe I should "lay off" on being so open about my housekeeping difficulties. I have noticed that, for example, I might say things to whoever may be standing beside me at the time, "I just cannot keep up with this laundry!". I think I should maybe lay off being so open so that people won't think "well, if she can't handle that then she can't handle homeschooling".
Or if I say, "Wow, I am tired today", then for some reason people take that as an opening to say "well you chose that road when you chose to home-school".

But on the other hand if I pretend to be "miss perfect" then deep down I think I am being somewhat hypocritical. Yes, I am sure I do need to lay off telling about every struggle but, on the other hand, I am a REAL person with real struggles. And these real struggles may be hard, BUT should I allow them to keep me from pursuing God's calling on my life.

No, home-schooling won't be easy. But does it HAVE TO BE EASY for me to embrace it?
No one expects that missionary to just chuck his call to the mission field just because it will be hard? We have been so brainwashed in this culture to run from hard-ship that we are missing out on God's blessings. May I embrace God's call on my life... even the hard things. Perhaps one day I will be able to look back and see how God used it (hardship & trials) to mold our family's character into what God would have us to be.

Children Who Will Change The World

"If you fear not what people can do to you, you will become dangerous to society" -Dr. Jeff Meyers

I want my children to be fearless to the point of changing the world!

First post

Well, This is my first post. I debated about "do-ing" a blog about our home-school, but I must admit that I see this type of blogging as being very positive.

Before I even kept a blog, I kept a journal. I still do.I love to go back and read when my boys were babies!

I know school doesn't start until August or September, but I have already begun my preparations. I am still debating whether or not to go with KONOS curriculum for unit studies. It looks really neat because everything is revolving around character and they are big on using a time-line for history.
I have had some high recommendations for it, so I may buy a used copy on Ebay and "try" it for now. But I have definitely decided to go with ABeka for Math (I have already purchased 3rd grade teacher books for this), Phonics(have Justin's already) , and Language since I am so comfortable with ABeka. I had it from K-12 and I taught it at SCCA. However, now that I have done quite a bit of research, there is so much more out there. Not that ABeka can't be fun, but there is more fun and creative stuff... stuff that makes learning exciting!

I am also trying to decide whether or not to try The Getty Dubay Italic instead of traditional cursive. The idea of italic is that it has no loops, so it is very easy to read and in my opinion very beautiful.

Here is a picture of Italics. I got this book at the library and honestly I think I am going to teach it to myself too! The Lighthouse Christian bookstore has them in curricula form for home-schoolers! Yay!

And this is the way they used to write. Why did they change it?!!!! Here is a picture... what do you think? I especially love the way they do the capital letters.

I think it's beautiful!

Yes, it's summer-time and we are doing a lot of biography reading.

I personally am reading the biographies of Maria Von Trapp (The Sound of Music). I am enjoying it immensely!

With the boys, I have read a biography of Abraham Lincoln, a simple story about Beethoven, and now we are reading about Benjamin Franklin. I have George Washington, George Washington Carver, Christopher Columbus and others waiting. Our library has a lot of educational videos and DVDs that I am already taking advantage of. You see, I am trying to teach my boys that learning is constant. Not only from 8-3 (although we will still follow a scheduled school day). I want them to love it and learn to find things out for themselves.

Another thing I am going to work on is their manners. I got a both a book and video about manners just this week to begin with and will continue to work on it. Another book we are going through together (we just started) is called Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends by the Mally siblings. I hope that it affects them greatly!