Preparing for a new year

I’ve spent most of the last year trying to find the balance between home and learning. With lots of rabbit trails in between.

In the last 2 years we have played with:

• The Classical Veritas / Memoria press basis that God has slowly put together in our home,

• Ambleside version of Charlotte Mason – complete,

• Unschooling or relaxed schooling with a classical bent, with leanings towards Thomas Jeferrson but not quite getting their.

In each variation I have learnt things, but each has had its downfalls.

• The Classical model per-see is to pressured, to formal we seem to stress through the day trying to fit everything in, surely that isn’t what we are meant to be doing.

• Ambleside seemed to leave out to much of the writing that I have come to enjoy from my children. It was fun, but the richness of learning how to communicate was missing. It was too easy for my beloved kids to coast without doing anything much, or rushed as I tried to read and hear narrations from each of my children.

• The relaxed model saw us either getting lost in art which was too much of a culture shock for me. Or it found me trying to get the kids motivated, doing a few lessons of each subject and having the kids fade away because without the regular exposure to latin and maths these subjects became big black holes.

So where does this leave my trio.

Our next adventure is a combination of all three.

• We’re keeping the balance of curriculum that we have acquired. In each subject I find a depth of learning experience that I really enjoy. They feed each other and interrelate to a language rich, beautiful and solid Christian education and so I am happy.

• But I’m dropping the pressure and the schedule. We’ll work to a mix of daily subjects – i.e. avoiding the black holes and not getting stalled.
  
  
• For the other subjects, history, bible, art and science we’ll do blocks of afternoon study. Indepth individual studies from 1-3 weeks long where we can dig in thing, reflect, play and create. The rest, music, and nature and artist studies are gong to fit around the edges, sometimes informal sometimes as a short block.

I’m hoping we have come home. Its been a long journey. It’s been tied up in doing the best for my kids, but also trying to justify my choices, keep a road map and try and prove to the critics that we are doing the right thing. I;m looking forward to relaxing a bit more and enjoying the journey. Then again I thought this at the start of last summer - and then one afternoon on the beach re-created everything.... have I finally learnt those lessons ...

I missed St Nicholas's Day

I missed it!

Fortunately Dancing Butterfly didn't and after a quick Mummy isn't it the 6 th. Isn't it St Nicholas' day we managed to scramble together gold covered chocolate bars instead of the usual gold coins.

It was fun to see it become part of the tradition, fun to see how after only 3 years the children knew the story, fun to enjoy discussion afterwards on dowry's and family and togetherness.

It slotted in well with the thoughts of community and family I have been having as we have wound our way through the middle ages.

Space

Dancing butterfly had fun writing this couplet - she extended it to cover the whole of the solar system. An this time mum didn't manage to join in the effort....

Space

Up in space I see the golden Sun,

Beside the sun sits Mercury the one.

Mercury’s friend, hot but rock, Venus stands,

Perfectly great earth comes next with lands.

Mars is next, red orange with holes still,

Jupiter and Saturn are doing quite well.

Uranus rolls and looks sleepy and blue,

Neptune looks like it has the flu.

Pluto’s friends are comets I think,

And spaceships go up while I write with ink.

Stars sit up in the amazing space,

But I think that’s enough for this place.

Christmas in Summertime

I ended up answering a e-group email and as I started writing it all came back. So I figured it was worth posting here as well.

We must be weird – because somehow Christmas has never gotten as complicated and I’m still trying to work out if we are missing something – but we are happy with what we do …..

Incidentally for one one side of the family tree Christmas is a big deal, for the other side Christmas is a family get together and very very relaxed. We are somewhere in between, lots of tradition, not too much stress.

Oh and our main emphasis is that Christmas is a birthday party and Santa doesn’t visit us.. Also it’s a little hotter and therefore laid back because after all you can only do so much on a midsummer’s day.

We do one present for each of the kids, and one for each member of my husband’s family and my mum.

Our kids do presents for each other with a $5 limit – it makes them think about what and why. Lately they have tended to thing outside the square and make something themselves – especially those that are
inclined that way.)

We also do Christmas vouchers (Vouchers for the kids that let them have dessert after dinner, lollipops where we go through the supermarket, stay up one hours, a day off school etc.) Fun stuff that make the year a little more fun. I think this is the favorite thing they look for on Christmas morning.

My husband makes a large batch of Russian Fudge, and we give it away in wrapped in cellophane to close friends and anyone that surprises us. Yep he makes enough that we get to enjoy it as well.


I send out personal handwritten Christmas cards to friends out of town, or email people I only catch up with once a year – that’s my main stress.

We run a sweet filled, verse filled advent calendar – that sometimes includes things we should do to prepare for Christmas.

Our Christmas decorations consist of a small live tree – which I need to replace this year as the last one needed to be planted out – we add one decoration each year a symbol celebrating what God has done in the year in our family. We record it in a tiny notebook that also sits on the tree and read it as we decorate the tree. It’s a very special time. It gets decorated when we get the urge, and taken down - yep when the tree looks like it needs to be outside again.

Christmas eve is either Church services, and / or driving round looking at everyone else’s Christmas lights, the lights idea is new to our part of the world so only a few people decorate their houses.


On the day

Breakfast when we get to it is Christmas mince pies. Thats the fruit filled type.

At mid-day ish we have a simple Roast Turkey meal, and plum pudding, started with something special in the way of nibbles, but not over the top. If we don’t have a church service, my husband gets out his guitar and plays and we sing. If we come across another family at a loose end, they are welcome to join us – normally then I kinda make it a bit more pot luck.

And the evening meal – well being pragmatic as always – its leftovers for anyone who is still hungry, from memory it may be that that is when we get round to finishing off the main meal and having dessert. And we cut Jesus' birthday cake. (The traditional English rich fruit cake with Royal icing.)

The afternoon – well we relax and the kids play, traditionally as Kiwi culture we should play cricket, but the kids aren’t old enough yet. I suspect this year it might be that we make it.

Blessings in a Bookstore

I found a new bookstore. A one stop shop for most of our home school needs - Beth's Bookshop

OK I did know of it before now, but I risked putting the email out that asked if they were able to supply international and what it would cost to ship my largish order down here. Normally thats a scary time, you're almost committed but shipping varies heaps from company to company - and now that all international shipping is priority - its a reasonable slice of my home-school budget.

Wow - dealing with a real and sympathetic person made such a huge difference to the experience.

It was neat to have a store that was almost custom made to 75% of what I use or will be using next year. Even better the first shipment arrives within 2 weeks of when I first put in the order Something very unusual in these parts. I was just emailing to see if it had been shipped when it arrived on the back doorstep.

So I'm adding my favorite bookshop to the sidebar..

Changes

I'ts been an interesting weekend.

Tiring, unsettling, the winds of change are in the air, but right now I'm not ready for change - not big stuff, which is good. I spent enough of Friday considering how comfortable I am being planted and knowing I don't want more upheaval. Relieved, because at the end of the weekend it's a nudge toward trusting God and moving our school a little closer to where he wants it to be ....

I struggle with keeping us on schedule, keeping the lessons ticking over, doing what we're supposed to be doing... by the way my kids don't believe in schedules ...

And if the truth be known most of the time I simply want to be caught up in exploring and enjoying the discovery.

But I want to know that the journey is a safe one, one that honors God and helps my kids to grow. Each time I pray it through I come back to a picture of a patchwork quilt. Lots of separate bits and pieces woven together into a beautiful whole. To weave that quilt means I have to be prepared to walk an independent way. To follow a school path that isn't neatly out of the box, to trust when we aren't on schedule. Maybe its just me learning that homeschooling isn't about being finished the book in the year, keeping on schedule and following the school year. And yes some times I are slow in learning I think i revisit this concept every year.

I can handle it a bit, but to simply wander and learn that scares me. To let the prepackaged stuff be part of the journey but not what sets the pace. Their pace always seems rushed to us, we keep loosing the joy, and stopping and hunting for it again.

Poetry Play

We all ended up writing poetry over the last week, so here are some of our creations

A Strange Flower

Yellow white center,
Creamy petals, green grass leaves,
Living together

Dancing in the wind,
Swaying like ballet dancers,
Gently looking up.

By Dancing Butterfly (10 yrs)

Squeak
Says the mouse following the rat,
Meow, purr purr,
Said the cat looking for the rat,
Squeeeak!!!!!
Says the rat running from the cat.

By Happy Feet (7 yrs)


My Attempt,

Bumblebee

Angry and buzzing
Rushing between the flowers,
Fuzzy energy

or inspired by one of the Iris's in the garden,.

Creamy white petals,
Cascading skirts of yellow,
Cascading iris.








I've enjoyed our times playing with poetry it's one of the highlights of this year.

Directions

It had been been a long day, a day of ups and downs...

In the midst of unexpected bills and disappointments one verse stoods out, an old familiar verse, but not one that had ever been personal, in the way that it was today.

He has told you Oh man what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.' Micah 6:8.

Walk with me, trust me, do right and show mercy, soothing words to my soul today.

But there was more than that. As I sat in the consulting rooms of the Optometrist - a guy that seems to care more about doing a good job than the time it takes, that isn't expensive, that has time to make sure that you understand what it happening and the skills to get his diagnosis right. .

The verse took on a slightly different meaning.

What does God want for my kids at the end of this home school journey.

Am I to ensure that they have great jobs, that they fly through College/University, rule over the country.
Or
Am I to raise good honest people who will pass on the blessing of honest workers in a society that no longer fosters or values these traits, for a God who sees them as essential.

Its been a long day, but an encouraging one.

Welcome

My blog name reflects our family journey, as well as the increasing awe I feel simply being in nature. As a family we have had our ups and downs, sometimes it seemed more downs than ups as we have grown from young passionate Christians to older and hopefully wiser - tempered ones.

Along the way we have traveled home to home, and in several of the last houses the garden both when we arrived and when we left has been a symbol of our time there. There have been weedy, overgrown gardens - and uncared for churches, barren gardens and barren places in our lives, peaceful gardens and times of refreshing.

At the beginning of 2006 God placed us in a rose garden. A small suburban section with almost no lawn and over 50 rose bushes. We pulled out a few for the children to have a lawn to play on - but most are preparing a blaze of color for November. The garden is a gift and reminder from God of his faithfulness - because without him we would never have dreamed this gift possible. The house comes with the option of putting down roots and being fruitful, each member of our family is ready to embrace putting down roots. It has been a long journey and we are glad to be home.

I still need to dot the lavender plants through the garden. It has taken a while to have the courage to make it mine, to say which plants belong there and which should go, and so I'm only slowly making it mine.

A Snapshot of our Homeschool

I spend yesterday ordering my main books for next year. We are finally I hope settled into a pleasant place.

After jumping through various forms of classical education, the Well Trained Mind, Ambleside, and brief time with the Thomas Jefferson ideas we are back where God originally planted a mixture of curriculum from recommendations of friends along the way in this journey, I will learn one day..I will...

My three children work well together and we combine History, Bible, Literature and Science at least for the next year..then i may have decisions.

My nearly 11 yr old is at 6th grade next year, my 9 and 7 yr olds are will both be at 4th grade level - although I am trying to sidetrack the younger, keeping him busy is difficult.

We tend to run a loose schedule, each Child has a tick-list on which they are meant to cover at least 10 of a possible 13 things - some are more flexible that others. It gives them a chance to choose what they are up to each day, but also gives me some control that we cover what we need to in a week.. A full complete tick-list though gains a mini chocolate bar at the end of the week.

Language Arts,

Classical Writing, Aesop for the younger two, Homer and Beginning poetry for Dancing Butterfly and myself.
Commonplace book as we find things outside of this.

Classical writing has been the one thing couldn't give up when we tried Ambleside.

I loved the idea when it was born, struggled to pace it for my daughter before the workbooks were written, and now love the package. We 've had to work at finding the balance between being overwhelmed and having it rule our lives but it is worth it. I love all the things it teaches in terms of reading, writiing and understanding a piece of prose or poetry.

Now we pace ourselves, enjoy the challenges and watch our writing improve each month.

Maths

We will be continuing with Singapore's off the shelf local edition of "My Pal's are Here". It's slightly lighter than the Primary maths, has 'real money' and metric measurements.

Beside this we use Miquon and Key's to both programs give me scope to move side wise when my children get overwhelmed, or bored. We get either depending on the children. Dancing Butterfly is at grade 5 going on 6 and Einstein and happy Feet are both on Grade 3.

Latin

Latin stays with Latina Christian, and our first venture into Henle. Us girls are taking the plunge to the big book - which would be scary except that the first lesson looks like review so I'm hoping we are fine. The boys are working on LC I with Einstein back at the beginning and Happy Feet going full steam ahead. Can i put him into LC II in the middle of next year?

Greek

Yes I now realize we shouldn't have started two languages together, but it's fun and my challenge for a stay at home mum. Were using Elementary Greek and heading for level 2. Well all except Einstein - who doesn't really like languages and is reviewing from the beginning. Hopefully this time without reading the answers first.

That's our morning subjects .. the ones where I'm slowly chilling into the idea of just do the next part each day and ignore how long it is or isn't taking us.. I'm getting there slowly, and the kids are dong well. Actually I'm a pretty happy mum when I look at how they are getting on.



Our afternoons are when we get to be a little more creative, sit back and read, narrate, and do activities around Bible, history, literature and Science. Its also our art time.

Bible

This year we have been working our way through the last Third of the Old Testament. - roughly Chronicles to Malachi.

For Bible I've been using the Veritas press cards and activities. Veritas has become more of a spine than a total program, but since i like the way the activities start the kids into solid bible reading and interpretation I like having it in the background. I also like the way I get challenged and discover new insights - and that's after a three year bible college degree.

We take turns around the table reading the passage 5-10 verses each and stopping to discuss as we need to. The discussions are fun and make our bible study times.

We normally turn the worksheet questions into a narration, but I am trying to move to a more creative - narration or similar based summary for their notebooks.

History

I've gotten lost in the Middle Ages - we were meant to cover the Reformation as well, but will be re-scheduling that to next year. There has been so much to explore - yes I love church history, the Vikings, the whole castles and English history thing that I may have gotten stuck, and we will leave the rest for next year.

Our history time is much like Bible, we use the cards as a jumping of place, add in literature, a narration, and the activities that fit. Normally we do one to two activities a lesson so we cover most of them. We don';' do the tests, and we don;t do chronological memorization. My aim is to get a glimpse of how other cultures have lived, and an overview of human (especially Western Christian) thought has developed.

Literature

Literature is the fun, crash on the couch read and discuss time that we aim to have every afternoon, an sneaks into the family read-aloud time that we have most evenings before we head to bed.

This year, Alice and Wonderland, Beowulf, and now King Arthur by Plye have made it into the official literature time. With Alice and Beowulf we used the Veritas press guides, the latter being included on the history CD. They were fun, but lot's of writing in Alice that has since made us more cautious in how much writing about a book we do.

In the evenings we read either Historical Fiction with Dad, or something fun and light. Currently it has been Augustine goes to Kent.

Science

Officially we use the Apologia Elementary books, this year Astronomy. We narrate them and any demonstration or activity that adds to what we are learning. But I don't do all or even most of them. Some we leave out because the same activities get used in other subjects.

Science though also pops up at our family discussions, which would be more than enough if my trio didn't want science in school time as well. Dad is a Science teacher, and Einstein breathes electronics, lego, engineering and physics. So a lot of science work just happens along the way.

Art

I love Artistic Pursuits as an all round drawing, art & craft, art history program. it has to be one of the favorite parts of our days, My boys are currently doing variations of sculpture in the third book of the K-3 series, and my daughter is working between the two books of the grade 4-6 program. Just doing drawing got a little heavy for her, but alternating every 2-3 units seems to be fine.

Nature Study

Nature study and our family reading -aloud and night must be the two main things that homeschooling has embedded in our family culture. I am sure no new bird species gets to wander through our garden without being noticed and watched. My husband and i always loved to walk in the New Zealand bush as a means of relaxing from our busy careers but no nature has a far greater role in our lives, and I love the opportunities if brings to reflect on our work, God and the beauty he has created.

Nature study also adds in read-aloud books to our afternoons - so many good books so little time. We're reading through Burgess Bird Book - because Happy Feet loves birds. We also squeezed in "Pagoo", and "My Side of the Mountain" this year .



That covers the main parts of our learning time. We also attempt to learn the keyboard, mum alongside the kids with only the books. It kinda works but very slowly. The Ambleside composer, artist and poetry rotations also make their mark on our days, so life is very probably way to full - but I wouldn't really want it any other way.