The Transition from Homeschool to Public School - part one

So many people have asked me how our year went since we sent our girls to public school after 5 years of homeschooling. I have SO many thoughts on this so please bear with me as I try to put them in to some semblance of order.

The easy answer is WONDERFUL. The transition wasn't much of a transition at all and the girls adapted fabulously to their new surroundings. We are thankful and blessed that things went better than we could have ever hoped or imagined. Praise God for that!

Now let's back up. Our daughters both attended 2 years of Christian preschool. Then our oldest attended one year of public school. In the midst of her year there I was just not very impressed with the class environment. I went in to help many times and it always seemed there were so many distracting things happening in the room and my daughter didn't seem to be challenged much. That year I began to think about homeschooling. At first I was overwhelmed with the idea of it and really felt I wasn't sure it was something I could EVER do. But I decided to spend the rest of the year praying about the decision. My husband wasn't completely in love with the idea at first either, so we committed to praying and just waiting to see where the Lord would lead.

By the end of the year we felt the Lord assuring us and we had decided that we would keep her home the following year. One huge deciding factor was my husband's schedule, and the fact that once she was in school all day/every day they would hardly ever get to see each other. By the time she was home from school, he would be off to work. By the time he was home from work, she would be in bed. Being that we're such a close family and love spending so much time together we just knew it wouldn't work well.

So beginning with first grade we started homeschooling her. The following year when her sister started kindergarten we decided to just keep her home as well. So for 5 years we homeschooled. It was great and we had lots of fun but as with anything there were challenges. Some of the many bonuses were countless hours together as a family, making our own schedule and going on trips/vacations whenever we felt like it because no one else was in charge of our scheduling. It really was wonderful and we have SO many great memories from those 5 years. I also feel blessed that we were able to do it while the girls were young and so impressionable.

Last year, near the end of the school year our oldest started asking if she could go to public school in the fall. She was finishing her 5th grade year and would be entering middle school. In our town there are 3 elementaries but only one middle school. So 3 of her best friends from church would also be attending middle school with her, even though they had been in different elementary schools. Basically, she wanted to go to school with her friends and also began saying she just wanted to see what it was like to go to 'real' school. She really didn't remember much about kindergarten and her school experience and wanted to see what it was like.

Our youngest on the other hand, is most definitely a Mama's girl. And I don't say that to shame or embarrass her - it's a wonderful thing to be close to your Mom {or Dad} and she had really never known anything else as I had been her only teacher {other than preschool}. She would have told you last year that she was perfectly happy staying home with Mom for school for ever! That being said, she and I had almost daily battles over school work. As much as she loves me, it's hard to take direction from the one who you also live with day in and day out. Her struggles over spelling put both of us in tears on an almost daily basis. There were countless times I would cry out to my friends on Facebook for prayer to just make it through another day of homeschooling. So even though I LOVED having my girls home with me, it was definitely very hard at times and put a strain on our relationship at times too.

When our oldest first started asking about going to school, my first answer to her was 'nope!' When she asked why I said simply 'because that's not what the Lord has led us to do'. Unfortunately I hadn't actually sought the Lord about it in a long time. I had gotten into a comfortable groove where I felt that *I* knew best. See I am one of those control freak Moms who likes to think I have it all under control and that *I* am the only one who knows whats best for them. {I'm just going to put this out there and say that I see A LOT of well-meaning Christian Moms who try to control TOO much of what their children do - friends, we need to allow our kids to make their own choices and decisions and yes, even learn from their mistakes! Not saying we give them all power to choose everything in their lives, but still, we need to give up this false sense of security we call control!} **stepping down off soapbox** =)

Anyway ... so my first reaction was NO. Do you know why? Fear. Plain and simple. All those what ifs were slamming through my head ... all those ideas of all the 'bad' things that could happen or all the bad influences I thought they would have in public school allowed me to live in a state of fear. And fear is what made me keep them home! It wasn't at first, when we began our journey of homeschooling we truly did seek the Lord for the decision and felt truly at peace with it. But when was the last time I had honestly sought Him lately? Was I still listening to see what HE wanted us to do with our girls and not just what *I* wanted to do?? Or was I allowing my own irrational {OK, some things ARE legit} fears to guide our decision making?

So the more she asked questions about wanting to go to school, the more I was reminded that I needed to pray about it. Just as we had made the decision to bring them HOME after much prayer, we also needed to give the idea of sending them back to school much prayer. We also began to have LOTS of conversations with the girls. Almost daily we would talk about the pros and cons of each school environment, we talked with lots of friends who go to public school and we even went and visited both schools. We met with the principals and guidance counselors and took tours. Our oldest even got to go shadow a 6th grader for an entire day so it would give her a better idea of what a typical school day would look like.

Then one day I came across this blog post - When Fear is removed. I would highly encourage you to take a few minutes to read it, but basically it's about a woman needing to make a big decision and her friend encourages her to take fear out of the equation, then make the decision. It really began to sink in with me that I was allowing my fears to keep us paralyzed, where I kept the girls home with me citing that I know best when really if I took fear out of the decision I knew deep down it was probably best for ALL of us if they were given the opportunity to spread their wings.

Another line from the post hit me right in the gut "In its unhealthy form, fear is, at best, an obstacle … at worst, it is an agent of paralysis and atrophy. When removed from the equation, fear is left without power and the right choice rises to the surface." There it was. That paralyzed state of continuing to do the same thing year after year not because it was the best thing, but because I was too afraid to do anything else. I was paralyzed. Trying to maintain CONTROL. Choosing my kids friends, choosing their curriculum, choosing how their day went, all ME - making all their choices. Thinking I was in control.

I'm sure you already know this, but it took me awhile to learn. We're not REALLY in control of our kids. The Lord is. As much as we're given the chance to think we are, from choosing breastfeeding or bottle to what their first food will be, to what their bedtime will be - it's still the Lord above who ordains their steps and orders their days. Shocking, right? He's given us the amazing gift of being Moms and even allows us to make those all-important choices {how fun is it choosing a new baby's name?!?!} but He's still the One in charge when it comes right down to it.

Needless to say, after reading the blog post on fear, praying a LOT and even a whole bunch of tears we began to shift our thinking. Instead of an instant NO answer, we began to say 'OK, we'll pray about it, research it and see where God leads'. We asked our very closest friends and family to pray with us, as I mentioned earlier we visited the schools and we just kept the conversation and prayers going. Some of the events during this time we believe were absolutely God-ordained like when we went to the Board of Ed to ask some questions and it turned out that the Middle school orientation was set for the VERY NEXT night. Had we waited a few days we would have missed it. But the Lord planned it perfectly so we could attend and find out more information and our daughter could see many of the other kids who would end up being her classmates in the fall. There were several things that happened just like that where it just seemed that the Lord was opening doors and leading us through them. The timing of it all could not have been more perfect and again we felt these events were the Lord leading us to trust Him and see Him leading us towards this decision.

We still had our fears about our youngest daughter. Our oldest is quite confident and our youngest is much more shy and reserved. Would she get eaten up by the wolves in school?! ;) Would she be OK without Mom? Would she even WANT to go to school?! At first she was hesitant. Each time we'd ask her she'd say 'I don't know.' She couldn't express her feelings towards us about it and we worried about pushing into something that would overwhelm and upset her. But little by little she also came around. I know it may sound funny, but knowing our daughter's personality you have to understand how huge it was for us when instead of saying 'I don't know' she began to say 'well I MIGHT want to go to school'. For her, this was a HUGE step and for us it was a HUGE relief. No Mom wants to worry that they are pushing their child to do something the child is absolutely petrified of doing. And in her own little way she was showing us her confidence in making this decision and even her excitement when one day she began talking about having her own locker and what kind of backpack she wanted to get. ;)

And so with much prayer we made the decision that they WOULD attend school in the fall. In many ways it was such a relief to have the decision made and in a whole world of ways it was just the beginning of all my worries. But I knew the Lord was asking us to trust HIM and Him alone and that was what we were going to do. Little did I know that trusting God isn't just a one time thing - it's a constant choice we have to make every single day ... and there would certainly be times in the coming school year that would bring me to my knees and cause me fear and challenge me to recommit myself to trusting God, over and over again.

But this is getting VERY long already, so I'll close for now and share part two with you another time. =)

Total Language Plus - a Review

This year our family began using a Language Arts program called Total Language Plus. In the previous years we have used other programs that were mostly worksheets and found that our girls were getting a little bored with those. So this year I researched some new options and through the recommendation of a friend came across Total Language Plus.

Total Language Plus is a family owned and operated company that was created by Barbara Blakey and her husband. It was born out of their desire to create an integrated Language Arts program for their own children, who they were homeschooling at the time. Instead of giving their children a separate book for spelling, grammar, vocabulary, etc, they created a user friendly curriculum that included all of those components in one spot.

When purchasing Total Language Plus for your child there are basically just two things you'll need. The first is a book, the second is a student guide that goes along with the book. The books that have been chosen by TLP are outstanding literature based books and many are award winners.

The best way to get started with TLP is to check out their website, and take a look through the titles that are offered. For each grade level there are several different choices, giving you {and your child} some different options depending on what you think might interest them most. The books and study guides are offered for children from 3rd grade all the way through 12th grade - but you could easily use one novel for more than one grade level, simply by adapting the work load for each child depending on their abilities/age.

Each year your child will complete approximately 3-4 books / study guides. They will spend anywhere from 7-11 weeks on each book. This gives them lots of time to read and comprehend each book and to use the book to incorporate all of the elements of language arts learning.

This year, for example, we chose the following books for our fifth grader:
Charlotte's Web
The Cricket in Times Square
Caddie Woodlawn
The Wheel on the School

For our third grader we chose the following books:
The Courage of Sarah Noble
The Sign of the Beaver
The Whipping Boy

These are the books with their study guides.

What I love about TLP is that it's all-inclusive for Language Arts. The study guide provides everything your child will need to study each novel they read. In the front of the book is this handy planning grid. It shows you what your child needs to do each day for each area of Language Arts [spelling, vocab, reading, grammar, etc]. For the most part, it follows a 5 day school week plan, which of course you can adapt in any way you choose.

So for example, on Monday they would do Grammar A, Vocab A, Spelling A, Dictation A, etc. It's very easy for the student to know what is expected of them each day.

Since Caddie Woodlawn has 7 units, we could finish this book in about 7 weeks, so long as we did a 5 day school week every week. There are times we miss days or take days off though so sometimes a book will stretch out for a couple more weeks than it suggests.

One of our favorite things about TLP are the Writing/ Enrichment ideas which are found at the beginning of each new unit. These are fun ways to really incorporate the story into your own life. They offer suggestions such as 'take a canoe ride, try eating succotash, go to a Native American museum, etc' - all of these ideas help the child get a little more familiar with what is going on in the story.

We have found that some of the spelling words are a bit tricky, but the great thing is that they do a lot of practice at reinforcing the words and their meanings. For example, on this page the students match the spelling word with a list of it's synonyms. We have also played flashcard fish and flashcard spoons, all of which help drill the meaning of these words into our memory. [I'm including myself because I've learned some new words and meanings right alongside my girls this year!]

I also love how the Word of God is included in the studies too. Although the novels aren't necessarily Christian stories, they do have good moral concepts and are reinforced with scripture through dictation.

I asked my girls what they like or dislike about this Language program. My oldest, who LOVES Language Arts says she likes it all because it makes learning Language Arts fun and she especially likes the fun activities like doing crosswords and word ladders and such. She said she doesn't like that the novels are sometimes too long. ;)

My youngest does not enjoy Language Arts much at all, no matter what program is being used, but she did say she enjoys the enrichment projects and drawings. She does not enjoy writing stories and said the spelling words are a bit hard. You will notice in one of the pictures below that she doodles all over her page. ;) This is just not her favorite subject but overall she has done really well this year. Sometimes I will allow her to answer me orally instead of writing out her answers and she enjoys that a lot more.

These are some of the fun activities included:
Coded Words

Word Searches

Ball Toss

Crossword puzzles

Overall we have been very happy that we made the change to TLP. The only things you will want to buy on your own to go with the product are some flash cards, a blank notebook for each student and the typical school supplies of pencils, markers, erasers, etc.

The cost varies by each book / unit study, but on average each student guide is about $20.95 and each novel is about $5 to $8. I have found MANY of the novels at my local used book shop though, so if you want to save yourself a couple bucks, you could look for them elsewhere. You will want to order one study guide per student, but the novels are obviously reusable.

The only thing I would recommend that TLP change about their product is that they add some color to their workbook pages or maybe even some illustrations. Everything is black and white and full of words, but no pictures .... which to a child might seem a bit boring and dull. Otherwise I am very happy with the product and the price.

If you're interested in learning more about TLP please visit their website at:

TOTAL LANGUAGE PLUS.

*Disclaimer, I did not receive anything in the way of product or compensation for this post, I simply wanted to share a bit about what curriculum we use and what I like about it.*

We're melting ....

And I'm NOT just talking about the snow outside!

Today was a rough day. It started out good. In fact, after I had my quiet time I logged on the computer and checked FB and a very sweet friend sent me a message saying 'not sure why, but the Lord brought you to mind today and just wanted to tell you I'm praying for you.' Awww, I was so touched. I jokingly messaged her back and said it was probably because I've had such a lack of discipline with my exercise and eating well lately!

Little did I know ....

Fast forward a couple hours. During school time we ended up with one girl in meltdown mode today. Crying, refusing to do school work, carrying on for HOURS.

Now, a lot of times I don't talk about the struggles of homeschooling. Many days homeschooling is a JOY, but I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that we have some REALLY hard days too.

There are a few reasons why I don't talk about the bad days much.

First, we ALL have bad days, and who really wants them documented for all the world to see? I mean, I'd much rather my kids remember the great things about their childhoods and not have to read about their every bad behavior on my blog.

Second, I sometimes feel like I'm throwing my kids under the bus when I complain or talk negatively about them. They're old enough now to know what I say or read what I write and just like I would never bad talk my hubby on here, I don't think it's fair to bad talk my kids either. I think it would shame them and make them feel bad and that's certainly not the intent of my blog.

Third, there are so many nay-sayers when it comes to homeschooling. Sure I've thought about calling up the school and sticking my kids on the bus at times - but in general this is a path that we believe the Lord has led us to take. So even though we have bad days and many times I might question what we're doing - it doesn't mean I'm giving up on homeschooling!

Anyhow ... the thing about homeschooling your kids is that you constantly question yourself. When they struggle with school you worry and you wonder if you're doing the right thing, if you chose the right curriculum, if you just don't have the ability to teach them. It all comes down on YOU.

I cried about it today. Sat right there on her bed with her and we both cried. It's hard. It's frustrating. I want to help her, I want to make school fun, I want to make life easy for her ... but having an EASY life isn't always part of God's plan.

Later tonight we had some time to talk and snuggle. I explained to her that life IS hard sometimes. We have to do things we don't want to do. We have to struggle through things in order to learn and grow and be stretched. We had a great talk. I'm so thankful that tomorrow is a new day.


And so thankful that the Lord KNEW how my day would go and placed my name on my friend's mind ... that HE cares so much for little ol' me and goes before me and orders my days is simply amazing! {And of course, thankful for wonderful, praying friends!}

Week of Thanksgiving

So, this may come across as totally random, but that's okay. First, every week I read lots and lots of amazing blogs, things that encourage and inspire me and every week I think to myself 'I should share the wealth! I should let others know about some of my favorite posts for the week!' {And every week I forget!} Anyhow, here are a few I came across this week that I especially loved or found encouraging.

First, there is THIS POST from Rachel at Finding Joy. I simply love her honesty and I admire her desire to choose joy in all things. This post spoke to my heart in particular because I can so easily fall in the trap of comparing myself or my home or my life to others. I promise you will be blessed by reading it.
I especially loved when she said:
I want to live inspired by others.
I want to live encouraged by others.
I want to live grateful for my life.
I want to live thankful.
I want to live getting my worth from the Lord.
YES, YES, I do too!!



Next, but also along the same lines, is THIS POST from Amy at The Blessed Mom. No, I am certainly not enough, but HE is!

Next is THIS POST from Edie at Life in Grace. She talks about the mundane things of life becoming sacred when we realize our high calling. Below is one of my favorite parts of her post:

Perhaps this thing I’ve come to dread—-this daily drudgery—-is in fact my greatest teacher, in disguise.
Teaching me to live in this moment. With these children. And this sacred work. It’s really all there is.
Today is the day of salvation.
So, I hold on tightly to little hands. And I stir the soup. And I fold the towels.
And I say thank you for this work, this calling.
And for this blessed ordinary day—where grace and mercy rain down and turn water into wine, drudgery into vocation, and curse into blessing.
Ahhhh, those blessed, ordinary days! If only I can learn to see them as the gift that they are!

And then there is THIS POST by Ann at A Holy Experience. I have come to love her 'Weekends are For' posts so much. She always gives a few different ideas for the weekend, including a way to worship, an activity to do with the kids, sometimes a recipe to make or thought to ponder. But every weekend these posts encourage me and inspire me to make the most of my weekends.




And now ... two BEAUTIFUL homeschool 'school rooms' ... Alicia from LaFamille just moved into a rental but still did a wonderful job of making their school stylish and vintage and drool worthy. Also, my bloggy friend Lora at My Blessed Life and her family just recently moved into a new home and she finally got around to posting their learning room pictures - the built ins her hubby made are gorgeous and make the room look amazing. {Insert pep talk ... OK Kathy, you CAN be content with your dining room/school space ... remember those posts above about not comparing!? ;) }

Now that you've seen some lovely links for the week, I wanted to share a way that I am trying to challenge myself. See I have this terrible trouble with being addicted to Facebook. A friend of mine was challenging herself about a month ago to go for a whole week without Facebook, and to learn to turn to God throughout her day, not to turn to FB every time she was happy, sad, had news to share, etc.
I was so challenged by her words and thoughts that I decided to try it too. When I started out, I didn't say I would stay off it for a whole week, but I simply made myself stay away for a few days ... which turned into more days, which turned into a whole week! And get this, it was one of the best weeks I've had in a long time! We accomplished so much stuff that week!

So with this week being Thanksgiving {which I'm hosting} and with much to do, and wanting to turn my heart towards God for this time as I prepare for the holidays I've decided to challenge myself again and stay off FB for this week. Will I stay off for a whole week? Not sure yet. But I know that I need to make myself take this break.

I am planning to have a little fun with the girls in our homeschool this week. We'll be doing our basic math and language arts lessons, but we'll be adding in some fun lessons on Thanksgiving and maybe some crafts and stuff too. And maybe taking a small break from the other subjects .... we'll see how it goes!

Hope you all have a great week!

“Between” Girls Devotional

This year for our school Bible time I got this great devotional for the girls to use. It’s called Between God and Me and it’s by Vicki Courtney. The one I bought is a study of the book of Proverbs.

I had to write about it because we are loving it SO much and I didn’t want to keep it to ourselves! It’s set up to look like a fun, vibrant, girly magazine and it’s chock full of great information.

I love that they help interpret the strange wording of the Bible in a way that young girls can understand.

I love that there are practical applications with activities and questions.

And I really love that the topics covered deal with typical tween girl issues like friends, bullies, being honest and truthful and listening to your parents instructions.

 

Here are the girls with an activity they did the other day … I love that our school is named after this verse “Above all else guard your heart, for it is the Wellspring of life” Prov. 4:23 … the girls made a picture of their guarded heart.

So if you have young girls I would HIGHLY recommend checking this great devotional book out! We found ours on Amazon.com.

Wellspring Academy Week 5!

Holy Moly, it's been another week already?! Where does the time go? Well last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend a women's conference at a great Christian camp here in New England and then I feel like the rest of the week was a total blur! We had a busy and fun week including lots and lots of rain and wind ... and ONE nice, hot, sunny day in the middle of the week. We were also babysitting little R that day so we went to the library and the park and had a really nice day.

Aside from that it was a typical week {is there really such a thing?!} and we continued in our studies as usual. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't take any pictures this week. I need to be better about that!

But there was one day that stood out and I wanted to share a little story from it. We have been learning about the Inuits of the Arctic in our history course and on Thursday the girls were assigned to write a story about what it would be like to live on the frozen tundra like the Inuit did. They both slumped in their seats and proceeded to give lots of grumbles about how they couldn't think of anything to write and they had nothing creative to say.

I told them that they had to complete the assignment before we could move on to anything other fun things for the day, no matter how long it took. After talking for a few minutes my oldest said 'oh, you want us to MAKE UP a story?' and I was like 'YES, be creative! Make something up!' So finally they got writing once they understood what they had to do! LOL

AND, they ended up blowing me out of the water ... they wrote out their stories, then they shooed me out of the school room for awhile and they planned a play to act out what they had written. About 20 min later they called me back in where they had set up props and they acted out the whole story that they wrote! I videotaped it and I was just sooooo impressed! I love how they chose to change their attitudes and not only do their best but actually put a lot of creative thought into it. They did a wonderful job! I love how these types of things can really be living lessons and hope that it will really help them remember more of what they've learned.

I do have two photos to share with you ... when I was at Ladies camp last weekend the moon looked absolutely stunning, so I went out at night and used me super zoom and snapped this great shot! I love how you can see the texture and different colors of the moon - I've never seen it so close {with the exception of professionally taken photos}. I thought it was a neat picture to show the girls since we are studying Astronomy.

And the leaves are just starting to change - I love when there is still a little of the fresh green color mixed in with some gorgeous splashes of color!

Next up - more about the Ladies retreat!!!

Have a great week friends!

Wellspring Academy Week Four!

Have we really been in school for 4 weeks already?!

This week we ... learned a new method for the 3, 6 and 9 times tables ...

Multiplication is here and is in full force this year and I gotta admit ... we're struggling! So we're trying to learn them any way we can - and yes when I say WE, I do mean that I too am relearning them right along with my daughter!

We also tried something new for lunch time and I will be posting more about this very soon ...

We took some breaks to go outdoors and enjoy 'recess' ... jumping rope is great for getting your heart pumping!

AND, we played some hand-clap games ... 'Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack ... all dressed in black, black, black ...'

This is what Trouble was up to at the time ...

We are still working on studying the Sun in science class. Yes, we're taking a bit longer than the suggested 2 weeks per chapter but hey, it's our school we can do what we want, right?!

These are the girls Sun collages ... I love how they both added Sun Flares!

Then, just to prove how hot the sun can be ... we took a magnifying glass outside and tried to see how long it would take to melt some frozen Hershey's bars ... it took less than 2 minutes!

Ummmmm ... then we ate the melted chocolate! That's my kind of science!

Later in the week we made homemade applesauce from all of those apples we had picked on Monday ...

There isn't much to do since it's a simple method - but the girls helped peel apples, I chopped them and then we threw it all in the crock pot ... {with brown sugar and cinnamon of course!} Recipe and instructions coming soon ...

And there ya go ... another fun and educational week here at Wellspring Academy!

Field Trip #2

This week we took another field trip - this time to the Apple Orchard! I love fall and everything about it and going to pick apples and pumpkins is definitely a yearly tradition for us.

It took all of 10 minutes for us to fill 3 large bagfuls and I finally had to tell the girls to stop picking or we'd end up with too many!

Nothin' better than a freshly picked, tart, sweet apple!

I love the color of all the fallen apples on the ground ...

We also took a walk through the pumpkin patch, although we decided to wait on buying them - they had some great, big, huge ones though!

Love it when they pose willingly for me!

LOVE the bright orange pumpkins!

We browsed the gourds and squashes too .... Hope like that this one was shaped like a giant acorn!

I'm always enthralled by the beautiful swirl of colors on the indian corn ... forgive me if this is a dumb question but how exactly do you make indian corn? Is it just dried out corn cobs? If so, how does it get all those gorgeous, marble-y colors?

Big, bright, beautiful Mums! Gotta get some for my yard SOON! My summer garden and flowers look terrible now and we need some color.

It was a great field trip ... coming soon I'll post about making homemade applesauce with all of those apples!