A "New" House

Just a quick, fun little post.

I am in the middle of my six month purge. I'm giving myself a full week to accomplish this, as I have always thought it had to be done in a day and never finished - I usually ended up with a bigger mess than I started with!

So we've been moving furniture to fit our new needs, throwing stuff in the suburban to take to the local thrift store, and filling the back of the truck with all of Mom's papers that's she's been afraid to toss. I am pleased with the progress.

Apparently though, not as excited as my son. He came in the first day I moved the furniture around and said, "Mom, are we getting a new house?" his eyes wide with wonder.

"Yeah!" I affirmed. "Cool, huh?"

He nodded and left the room.

Well, yesterday he came back through - the house is really starting to take shape at this point. He runs over and tugs on my blouse.

"Mom! I LOVE OUR NEW HOUSE!"

And I didn't even have to endure a move. ;)

Anyone Studying Nazi Germany?

Shiloah, I apologize. I don't know how this ties in with the theme of the week - but it's what's on my mind.

It's funny how sometimes our studies take a turn on their own. I accepted the book Defying Hitler from Tracy two months back. Then I lost The Time Machine that I had planned on giving to my oldest daughter to read while my core kids learned how to tell time. I kept going right where I had placed it, and it just wasn't there - but The Great Escape was. This isn't including the other book that stared me in the face, begging me to pick it up - Three Against Hitler.

Have you ever glanced at a bookshelf and no matter how many times you glanced at it, the same book always ended up in your line of vision? Or perhaps the title screamed for you to pick it up? Once opened, you found yourself memorized by the contents, wondering why in the world you took so long to open it?

Thus has been my experience the past week. I'm not sure WHO needed to learn about Nazi Germany. I put it that way because it's not the war itself we have been learning about. Defying Hitler is about the events leading up to the war. The Great Escape is (ya'll probably know this) about the POWs who escaped the prison camp by digging a tunnel under the Nazis. Three Against Hitler is the story of three young people (15, 16 & 17) who sought truth and through their actions ended up in front of the Blood Tribunal. One was executed while the other two were imprisoned during the war. All three stories are about resisting propaganda and surviving with convictions intact. Well, there's more than that, but that seems to be the reoccurring theme. All three are true stories, written by those who experienced it first hand.

My husband, myself, and my scholar are studying these things together. We've been trading books back and forth and discussing as we go. It's been an enriching experience - fascinating. And it wasn't even on my list for the year! Here's what we're reading this week:

My husband - Defying Hitler. He has already read Three Against Hitler and The Great Escape. I don't know which core book he's in.

Me - I finished Three Against Hitler Sunday. I've just started Defying Hitler. BOM scripture study.

Scholar - She just finished The Great Escape. She's in the middle of The Phantom Toll Booth - when she's done with that she's going to read the one I just finished. She's reading The New Testament for seminary.

Practice Scholar - The Freedom Factor. She's reading the BOM.

Love of Learner - Any and all phonics books she can get a hold of that she practice reading on her own.

Core - Stellaluna

Family scripture/core study - Doctrine and Covenants

Examinations

In keeping with the topics we started, I thought I'd talk examinations. Which, I admit, I am TERRIBLE about when it comes to my home school. I forget the value of requiring the mind to sift over information it has already soaked in to form answers.

I found my 11 yr old daughter last week going through an examination on her own. For years I have tried to inspire her to learn about writing. I have hoped that through reading and watching me write she might pick up the torch and get busy with me. Alas, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure meant nothing to her and she could see no purpose in her future for it.

Then my husband who is teaching Italian at the commonwealth school asked her to write 5 sentences in Italian. She couldn't do it. She didn't know what a sentence was. He told me this a little upset (I can understand that) Friday. Tuesday she came to me and asked, "Mom, what's a sentence? How do I make a sentence?" She's ready to learn.

Sometimes failing is as valuable as winning.


What we're reading:

All: Core book - BOM

Dad: Finishing Ender's Game, a western and Prophets, Principles, and National Security (I don't know what he's studying for scriptures right now)

Mom: Prince Caspin, Prophets, Principles and National Security, Making of America, and Principles of Teaching, New Testament

Scholar: Fahrenheit 451

Practice Scholar: The Making of George Washington

Love of Learner: One of her Dick and Jane Books

Core: M&M's math (go figure - I can't tell you how many times this book has been thrust into my face! lol!)

Bringing Home to the Environment

We have received an opportunity to attend a Constitutional Class. Recently due to the LEMI Commonwealth school we have our two older girls in, it has come to my attention that my 11 yr old is severely lacking in some core issues when it comes to government. So I brought her with me.

It was a little boring for her, but she stuck it out until we were ending and then disappeared to find her sister. I didn't mind because it was quite a lot for an eleven yr. old. In fact, for awhile I wondered if I was doing the wrong thing. Then something funny happened. She started asking questions, and talking about things. The only time I worry about my children is when there isn't a dialogue going on!

It occurred to me that by bringing her with me, she might not be absorbing everything said, but she is in an environment where seeds of truth can be planted in her heart. Things said will come back later in conversations as the exposure begins to take hold and someday, I believe, these things will no longer be boring but passionate for her.

I would love to have these kinds of discussions in my own home. You know, passionate, informative discussions. But first I must expose. First I must inspire. Then I will get to respond. Sometimes, we as mothers have to look outside of ourselves for the inspiration to happen - and then we go get it. We bring home to the environment of inspiration.

What are we reading this week?

We are getting ready for a homestudy - which means what would normally pass the Mom inspection does not pass now. So reading is at a minimum but we are still reading...

Dad - ???

Mom - Prophets, Pinciples, and National Survival complied by Jerreld L. Newquist, King James Version Bible (NT), Making of America by Cleon Skousken, and No Doubt About It by Sheri Dew

Scholar - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury & BOM in both Italian and English

Practice Scholar - John Adams, Reluctant Patriot of the Revolution by Lenard Falkner & BOM in both English and Italian and Making of America by Cleon Skousken

Love of Learner - The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz

Core Phasers - The Very Hungry Caterpillar and If You Give A Mouse A Cookie Series...

Family Dinner - A Time to Discuss

I checked to see if anyone had written about mealtime before I added my two cents, since in two hours it'll be time for a new topic! Alas, there are weeks that require time away from the computer - this was one of mine.

I wanted to share how much I love mealtimes where we are all present and we have fun/meaningful discussions. I add the fun in there because there is no discussion that my husband is involved in that isn't fun! He just has that knack.

We once had a friend come over to dinner (a single, male friend, mind you). We like to invite friends over because they bring to the "table" new and fresh ideas. Before we even started with the prayer, the kids had already had three light discussions and one serious one with him. I sat down to eat, and David says to me, "The energy in this room is electrifying. They're all highly intelligent."

Wasn't that a sweet thing for him to say? I know he was being earnest with me too, because I've been told the same thing by others. I not only allow my children to discuss topics at dinner, but encourage it. I want them to grow up being not only able to articulate themselves, but comfortable in doing so. What better way to learn this than in a loving environment, with the comfort of good food setting the mood?

Just today at lunch my oldest (14) and I were discussing what "running in different circles" means. She had mentioned that she never sees the son of a friend of ours at church because he's older, and they don't hang out with the same people. So I said, "Oh - you run in different circles, huh?" She stated that not only did she not know what that meant, but half the time she had a hard time understanding my vocabulary. With my 11 & 7 yr olds listening and chiming in here and there, we discussed how reading classics could increase one's vocabulary, and how maybe Clive Cussler, great author though he is, might not cut the mustard for one's education.

I admit, it was lost on the boys, but the twins are still learning the core lesson of not conducting a food fight, so I'm okay with that. :)

Family dinner - great time for family/group discussions. A good source for discussion starters (if you're lacking some ideas), is The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy by ED Hirsch. Good stuff.



What we're reading THIS week (with notes about last week's reading):

Dad - The Road to Serfdom (to be completed by Thurs for colloquia)
Brisingr
BOM (I forgot to add our core books on the list the last few posts!)

Mom - The Road to Serfdom (yep - done by Thurs)
Making of America
The Constitution of the United States
(Jane Austen got put on the back burner)
BOM

Scholar - Brisingr
Intelligro Math
BOM (In English AND Italian)

Practice Scholar - Caddie Woodlawn
(note - last week she read the entire book of The Red Scarf Girl! She has never read a whole book in a week - she surprised herself and I'm so very proud of her! Talk about material for great discussions!)
She's picked up a core book of American Nursery Rhymes and is educating herself of some of the rhymes and songs that it contains that she somehow missed earlier.
BOM (In English AND Italian)

Love of Learner - We just finished tonight Pheobe the Spy!
Great Expectations (almost done!)
Has BOM read to her.

Core - They LOVE those "Values" books. The ones that are biographies about different famous people, but they throw in an imaginary friend so the story is explained without it being too dry for little ears. My LOL loves these too. We have several and sometimes I'll pick up others from the library that we don't have. My 5 yr old has picked these up again, so we're reading these along with Mother Goose Rhymes. I also read the BOM to them.


Family - New Testament, King James Bible
So You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? (we took a break last week)

Environment #2 - Colloquium

I'm going to post on colloquium from a "You not them" standpoint.

My scholar's personality is such that she really doesn't like colloquium - she endures it. Although she has asked me to read the same scriptures with her in order to have colloquium with her over the readings because her seminary home study manual states she has to write what she's getting out of it. She says other than writing down the scriptures, she has no idea what to say. This from a girl who has already gone through two years of LEMI Commonwealth with teachers excited about her papers. So she sees a NEED for it, even if it's not her favorite thing.

I LOVE colloquium - I miss it when I don't get to go. I hope Tracy gets on here and talks about hosting one - I go to hers. Colloquium, in an environment that allows you to speak freely (Tracy does this well) is an excellent source. You get varying opinions to open your mind - to see how other people think, as well has having new perspectives that you would never get just reading it by yourself.

Just because a book resounds with you doesn't mean it will with another. For instance, we recently read Man of the Family. I didn't get to go to that colloquium, but I talked to Tracy and another member about it recently. They all thought it was a fabulous book - I hated it. It is not a classic for me and will never be on my shelf! If I had been at the group, I still would have voiced my thoughts because Tracy allows everyone to have their own experience. I can see where if it is not a safe environment voices would be stifled, and learning would not progress.

I think that's important to remember as we offer colloquium for our children.

I've also recently made an interesting observation. Cultural differences! I'm LDS, living in an LDS environment, but because my family are recent converts and we come from Texas, the way Russ and I express ourselves is completely different than the way most of the people in our group do. Russ told them recently that he hated the book 1984 so much he went outside and chopped it into pieces. Shocked me a little, since it was my book! The difference was I thought it was funny - Texans are passionate people! The people in our group thought he was nuts. It bothered me a little until I thought about the cultural difference. They have been brought up in a much more reserved atmosphere, where we were brought up to embrace passions and act upon them. I don't think either are wrong - they're just different. That is something to consider when you're in a group - not everyone has been brought up the same.

I look forward to reading what everyone else has to say. :)

What we're reading this week:

Dad - I have no idea.

Me - Mansfield Park - I've never read a Jane Austen book!

My scholar - this has been interesting. Last week she was reading a Clive Cussler book and she started telling me how she was disenchanted with his writing style. I told her maybe she needs to take a break, and her dad told her how she needed to realize that writers are people who use the power of the pen to get across their own ideas to the people. They talked about how Clive Cussler had written a book where he wrote the whole story in metric because he felt the US should go to metric since the rest of the world had. They had a colloquia right then and there over the books she had read - it was interesting to watch! She is waiting for my Amazon order to come in today to start on one of the books from LEMI that starts this Friday.

My practice scholar - she's pouring over drawing books. She has started her own blog to showcase her work as she practices.

My love of learning girl - We're slowly getting through that Charles Dickens book, and the name of the book she reads for her liberty girls is Pheobe the Spy by Jean Fritz.

My Core boys - I decided to do nursery rhymes with them. I did this with my love of learner a yr or two ago and we had such fun - I thought the boys might like to do spider cakes and fluffy marshmallow lambs, so we're doing that. I like the checkerboard book - a lady at colloquium does not. Another example of YOURS, not MINE. :)

As a family: We're still getting through You Want Women To Vote, Lizzie Stanton?

Secure, Not Stressed

Shiloah, I just sent you an email saying I lost the topics.. sorry! Please resend! :)

I wanted to write about an experience I had two wks ago. I was at a meeting in Idaho Falls where parents are working out the kinks to start a commonwealth locally. There is already a commonwealth in Pocatello that my children attend, so I mostly went to watch and listen, to see who was involved, etc.

My husband and I arrived a little late due to work schedules, so we sat in the back. Introductions were going on. Not only were parents to introduce themselves, but they were to ask a question that was burning on their mind. As we listened to the other introductions, I mulled my question over. Finally the woman conducting the mtg asked me for mine, and I confessed I didn't have one. Other parents had asked either commonwealth type questions or pretty basic questions (ie: does TJed really work). I made the statement that I was in that secure, not stressed state, and since we were already attending a commonwealth, I didn't have any questions pertaining to that either.

What really bothers me about this moment was there was a gasp that erupted around the room. I heard some say "Wow" and other words of the like, and I felt that some of these parents looked at me like I either had it perfectly down or I was lying. Neither were true. I am SECURE in the process. I know it works - I've seen miracles happen in my own home as I've put it into practice. Commonwealth has been FABULOUS. We used to drive over 2 hours to get my oldest to Pocatello - this year my husband is teaching Italian at the school. I'm not STRESSED at all about the future - it's going to be great, esp. as I keep working on my own CORE.

I write that down because I heard Dr. DeMille once say that we're always working on CORE - isn't that in a book too? Sorry, I've read too many of them to remember references anymore - I need to do some revisiting to freshen my mind. Anyway, it bothers me a little when people say they are stuck in CORE. Do you read the Bible once and then never pick it up again? No! We read it over and over... why? Because we're always working on CORE! (Assuming you read the Bible, of course, if you don't choose a core book of your own and insert word.)

So, the big confession is, I don't have it all together - but I am not stressed about it. I just expressed frustration to two mothers last week how I was 37 yrs old and I hadn't figured out a part of me yet! It doesn't mean I'm not secure. I know eventually it will all come together for our good, as long as I keep moving forward. Which, I do. I think secure not stressed is that inner peace you feel when you know you're on the right path. That's where I'm at - and it's weird, but the more secure I feel, the less questions I have. Maybe because I know I'm the one with the answers - I no longer look for answers without - they're all coming from within (as in answers to prayer). Which, if you think about it, as the expert of my home, makes perfect sense.

The Why Question, and How TJed Found Me

Hmmm... an intro. I feel weird sometimes doing these Shiloah... everyone else's intros are so short and sweet. I'm too complicated. lol!

I guess I should start with the basics, huh?

I'm Aine, and I've been married for 17 yrs to the funnest guy ever. We have 7 kids: 14 yr old girl, 11 yr old girl, 7 yr old girl, 4 yr old son, 4 yr old nephew (that we want to adopt), and twin boys, 2. We have a scholar, a practice scholar - the practice scholar is newly developed, a love of learner, and all my boys are, of course, core. We moved 5 yrs ago in Sept. from Texas to Idaho. I started a blog back then, and have blogged ever since. My family laughs and says I'm addicted - I have so many interests (poetry, short stories, novels, homeschooling/TJed, family, adoption, etc.) I share them all on separate blogs so that I don't overwhelm my in-laws who just want to see cute pics of the kids. It's a running joke. I am a writer - it's part of my mission.


Why do I homeschool?

There are so many, many answers to that. Maybe someday I'll write them all down. The most important reason I guess is the one that I go back to when I start to feel ineffective - because I feel like it's part of why I'm here on earth. This is my calling - to give my children a great education and childhood without turning them into mindless zombies that can't think for themselves. Sometimes I wonder if I've failed in that last part, but I always remind myself that hormones are stronger than my good intentions. :P

I know that sounds harsh. I was stifled all my growing up years, trying to be who people wanted me to be, instead of learning who I was. Until recently, I wasn't even sure of my mission. I have spent the better part of my life denying it. I still feel inadequate at times as I seek to understand it, develop it, and embrace it. I homeschool in hopes that as I help my children find their missions and embrace them, that they will not be in their 30's, 40's, even 50's saying "Gosh, I hate doing this." I want secure, happy adult children who are excited about their lives and what they're doing. That's why I homeschool.

Ah, so how TJed found me.

I am a native Texan - I consider Montgomery to be my hometown (my family moved there in 1979). We had a group in Houston (I think it's still down there) called CTR Beacons of Light. When my oldest daughter (now 14) was 4, I decided it was time to find out about this homeschooling stuff. That way I would *know* what I was doing when it really mattered a year later (go ahead and laugh at my naivety - I do!). So I stopped by our library in the church and asked the only other mom that I knew who homeschooled how she did it. She looked at me and said, "Aine, I don't think you want to do it my way. But here's a brochure. I can't go, but maybe you'd like to."

It was the first conference Jolene had ever put on, and they invited Glenn Kimber (Love of Learning Curriculum available at GWC bookstore) to speak. The rooms were small and I sat literally under him while he spoke, and I had a glow in my heart I hadn't known for a long time. What he said was right for me. For several years I came to hear him over and over. I wanted my kids to enjoy his schools when they got older. I couldn't understand the waning interest of the women around me - they wandered back to the conveyor belt way of doing things, because it was "safe". I was frustrated.

Now, I've always been Internet savvy. So one day I'm looking over some emails from a yahoo group on homemaking, and a woman named Donna Goff had sent some emails talking about family rhythms. I was intrigued. So I started emailing her, asking her questions. She sent me to her Mentoring Our Own yahoo group (about half the size it is now) and told me about TJed. As I read her archives, I thought, "Geez. This sounds a lot like Dr. Kimber's stuff, with different lingo."

So I went back and reread the archives on the Kimber's yahoo group (I don't know if it still exists) and ran across a woman by the name of Cherie Logan, who had the year before opened up a website called "The Noble Child" (I see Shiloah has put her blog on the sidebar). This was a breaking point for me, because she incorporated BOTH Kimber and TJed together. Again, I felt that warm glow, and knew it was right for MY family. I've always known that just as no two people are alike, no two families are alike. If we aren't alike, then how could what is right for me be necessarily right for you? It might be, but it might not. One size NEVER fits all. I believe that with all my heart.

I've since then had the great blessing of moving to Idaho (that's a whole other story) and have enjoyed the benefits of Mom Schools, Commonwealths, and Colloquium. I got to take the Basic Training Class from Diann Jeppson and Jody Palmer, and have been facilitating that class for other moms this past year. I've attended Oliver DeMille's Math Seminar, Analee's Hero Generation All Day Seminar, the ALYI all day conference thingy (lol - I've got a twin bouncing on me - it's hard to think) among others. We even had the pleasure of having dinner with Shannon Brooks with other Moms and Dads in the area - that was fun. Don't gasp too loud - I've never attended a Face to Face. Maybe someday I will. I'd like to. It's all about timing. My daughter is talking about attending GWC - I hope she continues to flirt with the idea.

I'm excited Shiloah has started to look to creating a colloquium in her area. I had started to look to do that in Texas, but by then it was apparent we were moving to Idaho - it was where we were supposed to be. Where we ARE supposed to be. And I am eternally grateful. I love all our new friends here, and we make new ones and increase in friendship of the old ones every year. It is an exciting time!

That's my intro., complicated, but complete. ;)