Record Keeping the Essentials!!

Do you keep a grade book? Does your state require attendance sheets or a portfolio? What are some of the best methods of organization that you have found to keep up with all of the school records for the year? Are you an organizational expert or do you find it to be a hassle? What about online forms--can you recommend some good sites to others? Share with us your greatest successes and your greatest flops in this area!

Okay, so before I say anything on this subject I must point out that I am organizationally challenged... but am slowly getting better! I have been thinking about it lately and how I need to find something that works for me. In Texas we are a private school and not required to report anything to the state however I want the benifits from record keeping and in years to come I may need records from our first years of homeschooling considering we live by the command of God and go where He calls us, which could be anywhere :0).

I will be honest, record keeping and organization alone scare me and quickly overwhelm me. I was not taught how to be organized and so I struggle. So let me tell you what we do right now: when Superman finishes a project he hole punches it and puts it in his subject folder and any art of his he files in his own art folder. I keep my own little records on a little calendar where everything is written down as to what lesson we are to be on each week. Last year I made a Year at a Glance and will eventually get around to doing it again this year but we really just try to enjoy the whole process of living and learning and so not all of that can be "recorded". One way though that I am keeping records is to Weekly Reports which is working out great for me personally.

I am looking forward to reading Record Keeping the Essentials from other teachers!

Vist me at my Homeschool blog: Growing Minds of Wisdom

JOYfully in Him,

Back to School!

I am in the middle of my first cup of coffee anxiously awaiting our first day of school at Growing Minds of Wisdom. At the end of the day I will post a reflection of our day at GMW, so come by and see what we did and how we did on our new found daily adventure. :0)

JOYfully in Him,

Traveling Thoughts...

We are getting ready to leave for 11 days, to visit family and interview at 2 different churches. My heart is in a state of mourning for just wanting to be home, to just dwell here and wait on my amazon homeschool package. We start school here on September 7, I am very excited and can't wait to get started! We will be studying all kinds of cool things as we live and learn together. I was really hoping that all of my curriculum would have come in already so that I could take it with me and plan out our year but I will have to wait until we get back.

I have a lot of thoughts about homeschooling and if you were to ask me about homeschooling I would leap at the opportunity to express my overzealous heartfelt love of it and importance of it. I am a huge homeschool advocate. I do not feel that it is something to be pushed onto someone but I do feel that it is something that ALL Christian parents should take into serious consideration in the perspective of eternity and a Christ centered education. I personally am in love with it, I can not imagine sending my children to the system of goverment education, I wholeheartedly believe God's design for children is to be at home with their parents, learning from them. I know that this is not the majority view, it is considered crazy that common "uneducated" parents could "teach" their own children but I think it is crazy to give my chilren to an "educated" stranger to "teach" them. Who's children are they? Mine or the government? The teacher's or mine? How can I allow someone else the responsibility of raising the children that God has intrusted to me? Homeschooling or home education is a life of sacraficing in many ways but God always provides, always! The blessings of teaching our children at home in the refuge of Christ far out ways the struggles and the ridicules.

I don't want anyone to read this post today and think I am judgemental in anyway towards those who choose not to teach their children at home, I am not. I simply want to encourage those who do not to dwell in the holy scriptures and pray about the opportunity to teach your children at home in a Christ centered education.

I found this little clip the other day that explains a sliver of my thoughts:



JOYfully in Him,

How do you schedule?

I have not participated in the Heart of the Matter meme in a while. I really like them because they challenge me to think about our homeschool and encourage me to make improvements and enjoy this homeschool journey. Here is Friday's meme...

We want to know how you schedule your lessons and your day to day activities. How do you decide what to teach each day. Are you a morning or afternoon schooler, or does school in your house span the entire day? Please share your methods.

We started out this 2007/2008 year fairly structured with a good schedule and we followed it better than I had expected. I am not by nature a very organized person nor am I one to "follow" any real daily schedules though I thouroughly enjoy the idea of them and especially making them. As of right now we do not have any laid out daily schedules and where a part of me likes this (the lazy part of me :0) there is that other part of me that knows I really need to lay some sort of daily plans down. Last year I planed everything out and left our the dates that we knew we would be out of town but being in the ministry it has been difficult to stay in line with our schedule and I know that this is how it goes and that it is one of the huge benifits of homeschooling, tweaking and rearranging. I planned out 42 weeks in all studies minus all of the weeks off, which were rather sporatic at times. This year is going to be different. We are not going to be taking as many weeks of family/holiday mini vacations because of our current position with our church. So instead we will do a 3 weeks structured and more formal and 1 week relaxed, hands on, field trip learning to make the last 3 weeks really come to life in their little minds and my own :0).

Considering how I decide what to teach each day I am always sure to include math, history and reading in our daily schedule. Science always, whether planned or not, gets it's time in our day so I don't worry about it plus we love science so there is no need to. We also enjoy spelling and copywork is not something that we really ever fret over so it is usually simply done. Grammar is something I started this year but ended up dropping it half way through but will begin again this coming year but again it is never a struggle. I tell you, my Superman enjoys all subjects to a certain degree, the only thing that he struggles with is the not being able to spend the time he is wasting on these subjects playing with his toys and outside.

We have typically been morning schoolers but we are going to transition to an all day schoolers with less formal education and more living education aka Charlotte Mason philosophy. We are currently in the begining of our summer and since we were not able to finish some of our studies we are going to continue casually with them until August. HERE is our year at a glance for 2007/2008 and one of our daily schedules HERE, these were our in the year schedules and here is our little Summer Schedule (not charted out) that we will begin to loosely follow this Monday:

6:00 (I am going to work down to 6:00 by 15 minute increments, starting with 7:00am) This is my block of Morning Quiet Time where I will first get dressed, wash face and apply make up and then start coffee but begin with water as I spend some time in prayer and in the word.
6:45 Turn on the radio and grab a cup of coffee, check email, bank account, bills and other things and if time allows enjoy a few pages of a current book and then begin a quick straighten up along with laundry.
7:30 While laundry is going begin breakfast for soon to be awaking family.
8:00 Instruct/train boys to make bed, get dressed and find themselves ready to serve and eat. then they will take turns washing dishes and clearing table every other day with some assistance.
9:00 Finish up laundry and then have a little family Devotional
9:15 Outside nature walk/study time.
10:00 Play a math game Outside if not to hot or windy other wise at the table.
10:30 Spelling time with words taken from current reading books and other while T-Rex has a 15 minute sit still training time (and this will vary according to his current struggles)
11:00 FREE PLAY
12:00 Lunch, clean up and discussion on our memory verse
1:00 Music time and family play time!!
2:00 Rest hour... while Butterfly and T-Rex rest/nap Superman and I will quietly read, create and just enjoy some alone time. :0)
3:00 Superman will enjoy some time to do puzzles and various other kinds of quiet play(Tuesday and Thursday 45 minutes of video game time) while I learn Latin from Memoria Press and do other needed activities.
4:00 Book read aloud time with small snack
4:15 Everyone is up and given a special 30 minute video time while I start dinner
4:45 A special clean up time to prepare for Daddy to arrive home from studying, this includes faces, hands and feet cleaned up along with a nice and tidy house with joyful attitudes.
5:00 Family dinner and table prepping time (all littles will be envolved) while daddy is given 30 minutes to just enjoy being home without any expectations!
5:30 Dinner and Discussion and then family clean up.
6:15 Desert and History with Daddy! and then family free time!
7:30 Bath, pjs, clean up and family worship.
8:00 Bedtime for all littles!! Special clean up time for Momma.
9:00 Creative and Planning Time for me! Hopefully I will make good use of this time to make special fun things along with important things and plan out things for the next day or week!
10:00 Night time routine and then some scripture reading and prayer with Expresso before I call it lights out!

I am excited to get started with our new homeschool schedule. I pray it fits our little family but of course there will be a lot of exceptions as life comes in and rearranges our pretty blocks of time :0).

It's Quiet

It's to quiet. Last night was my first night spent away from my baby Butterfly. My little home is empty. I enjoyed sleeping in for the first time in my own bed after almost 14 months especially after the terrifying dream I had. I am going to be heading off here is just a minute to attend a homeschool bookfair that I have been looking forward to for months. I have to admit, I am a little lonely this morning, like I said: It's just to quiet here this morning and I miss all the noise.

But, don't worry... I will enjoy some of the quietness here and there. :0) Have a great day and a blessed Mother's Day weekend if I don't talk to you tomorrow!

JOYfully in Him,

Releasing Thoughts to Roam...

I have been emotionally and spiritually confused about Embracing the Journey. For me this place is a constant weight in my mind leaving little space for anything else. It holds all my thoughts captive and consumes all my spare time, yes this is my own sinfulness, I agree. I have thought of all other possibilities but I know that the temptation will proove to strong for my self control. The temptation to scratch, to release, to dwell, to search and enjoy is all to much for me... I have been lead inwardly to let go, to be silent with my thoughts... silent but not absence, to still allow my heart a small piece of it's desire in expression but not through my own thought out words but through others. The idea is to release my thoughts to roam elswhere for awhile.

In life we must examine the things that are consuming of our precious time and whether they are worthy to take up the our space in this journey, I have found it, this place where my thoughts live to be to high on my list of priorities. My heart, mind and time have been taken advantage of and consumed.... and now I feel driven to disperse them where they rightly belong... my children, my husband, my home, my education, my children's education, my devotion to God, my life in general. I have not been rightly dividing my time among these. My thoughts need room, need space to be free to think creatively towards these important areas of my life.

From this moment on I will begin to share my heart mainly through the ideas, thoughts and hearts of others in quotes, music and art. Scripture will fill most of the spaces in here as it is the nearest to the expression of my heart. My desire as always is to encourage, inspire and uplift other like minded women in their calling of motherhood, marriage, homekeeper and in their continual walk with Christ.

My thoughts will be free to roam and express as they commune with my brain and heart in my continual growth as a teacher over at Growing Minds of Wisdom in an attempt to understand the knowledge I am obtaining and trying to retain and how I am applying it to my children's minds and experience in education.

JOYfully in Him,
Kelli

Pails on Fire

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." - William Butler Yeats

What happens when you fill a pail? It sits there. It sits there and waits to be poured out. As a teacher I do not desire to just fill a pail full of water knowledge to just sit in waiting to be poured out. I believe education is more than that it is or rather should be that of lighting a fire, a burning desire for the knowledge not a passive inferior cistern. I believe that just filling the pail, the mind of our children with information we are failing to supply them with a real education. They will not come out of it thirsting for more but dry and weak, or at least this is how I "see" it. All I know is that they attempted to fill my mind for 9 years and I didn't come out thirsting for anything other than water.

It's easy to think that is all we are doing here, filling pails. We are filling pails but the way I think of it is we are also setting these pails up over a fury flame My children, I hope to fill their minds with exciting knowledge but also in the process I hope to set their little minds on fire for not only more knowledge but also and most importantly to extend their minds and the knowledge imparted to them for the glory of the Lord, the center of all knowledge and life. We have the amazing experience and privilege of setting their minds on fire.

So now the questions is "Just how do we light the fire and not just fill the pails?".

This was an extremely encouraging quote for me to think upon tonight and I am anxious to read other's thoughts on it, visit The Heart of the Matter to read them as well.

Be obedient

Romans 1:1-5 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake.

Every other Sunday we are hosting a small group at our house directly following church, where we come together for fellowship over a good meal and then dwell in the word together in good discussion lead by my husband. This last Sunday was our reunion from a winter break, we came together ready to dive into His word through the words of Paul in Romans. We walked slowly through the first chapter soaking up so many awesome truths, some that seemed unreachable for our limited minds, some that were encouraging and others that were difficult to hear, grasp and swallow that convicted our hearts in our walk with Him and that prayerfully will coninue with us through out the days, weeks and months to come constantly revealing to our stubborn hearts and ways more of His direction for our lives, things of grace, righteousness, faith and obedience.

My husband shared something that he fournd to be deeply encouraging in his faith through his own personal study of the tex and one that has now found its way into my heart and that I can not seem to leave. The obedience of faith... what does this mean? Profoundly a lot more than you think.


Whatever we do should be done out of obedience of faith which means that our lives our every decision is not based on our own personal desires but rather on the basis of our faith, and it is done for His names sake... nothing more! When we are making a decision today think... "Is this in obedience of faith?" Something that is amazing about this text is the power of grace that enables us to have this obedience. The relationship is profound this morning to me. Don't rely on your own power today, it will run dry and proove to be superficial and weak, but relyon THE power, the power of GRACE and your faith will be strengthened and victorious as you live in obedience of it. So when you bake bread today... do it in faith. When you vacuum... do it in faith. When you do the laundry, clean the bathroom, play with your children, discipline and train them, speak to your husband... do it all in faith. Examine yourself as you walk through this day, for His names sake, don't just simply walk, for your names sake.

Be encouraged... what you are doing every day though it may seem mundane, pointless and unimportant at times it is profoundly not, what you are doing is walking daily in His grace, His power, that He has given specifically to you for your specific calling, He has enabled you to do what you do each day and I believe we have a wonderful way to bring Him honor through our calling. May each step we take today be in obedience of the faith.... which is only possible because of the GRACE He has supplied us with...

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Tips and Tricks of a Homeschooler

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With homeschooling it is easy for others to casually think that we can take off at any time since we are home and all. The idea is that we can simply put school on hold for a few hours or even a few days to comply with new plans and this is acceptable in some cases but not always. I have taken school on the road before and in Walmart but when the whole day is going to be sabotaged what do you do? We live out of town and so I want to try and allow both visitors and school to co-exist. Trying to compile all of our subjects into a very small amount of time can be to stressful on all of us and can take away from the in "depth" learning of each subject when we have to do this but it is do-able. I sometimes wish we had our own building that we could run out to and that way we are not "home". This would help with a lot of things such as daily distractions such as phone, cleaning, computers, toys, and cooking and it would take away the casual idea of school because you must actually "go" to school which gives the illusion somehow that it is more important and can't be interrupted. Maybe not but it seems like that is the way it would work.

When considering the daily distractions I am realizing these...


1. That I need to commit a designated amount s of time strictly to homeschooling. During that time if the phone rings then it will just have to ring, it is not vital that I answer every call in case of an emergency. There is such thing as a message that I can check just for that reason.

2. Cleaning must take a back row seat in our classroom even though the classroom is it's domain. In order to help relieve the temptation of picking up the broom or vacuum I must have a cleaning routine that allows me to have a clean house before we begin school. And then if I allow it to slip and not follow it then I must be disciplined in putting homeschooling as an absolute first.

3. Cooking again needs to have a specific time of its own so that it does not call me away from my priority of teaching my children.

4. The computer and tv. These 2 distractions need to be highly supervised and restricted during any and all school hours. The computer can become a major distraction for me personally and the tv can play a big hindrance in the obtaining of and enjoyment of learning. I hope to give myself an open pass to "play" on the computer or blog at a specific time in the morning only with absolutely no exceptions can my time run over, a bodyguard would be nice to escort me out if I do decide to resist. The tv is restricted until Friday in which they are given 2 hours of time to watch either individual cartoons or 1 select movie.

5. Always start somewhere near your scheduled time otherwise the clock can cause havoc.

6. Self can really get in the way to if she is aloud to rein the emotional pool. Let's face it we don't always "feel" like enforcing school on our children because it drains a lot from us and causes us to pour all of the energy that we have out just to get through it all. She is always with you and she is hard to silence sometimes but there is another that is gently guiding you… But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16

And with encouragement I am realizing these...


1. It is extremely important in this journey. My littles need A LOT of it as well as me! Stickers and stamps are awesome ways to encourage a job well done on worksheets, tests and copywork. MySuperman responds really well to this.

2. I have scripture printed out and posted on our refridgerator to encourage a right mind as we travel through each subject. Whenever I can see the rotten fruit of idleness during math I point to Colossians 3:23 on the fridge and gently remind him of this wisdom. And whenever I can feel the struggle of patience coming on I look to my sheet and am reminded of His wisdom and am encouraged.

3. Enthusiasm and a good attitude! When I am enthusiastic I can see that my children often reflect the same and having a good attitude and keeping it encourages them in the begining of school and through out!

Something else that I recomend is to have a nice quiet time in the afternoon where you can all relax and enjoy eachother. What we do, and I look forward to it each day, is turn on some classical music, Bach and this cd are our favorites, grab books and all sit on the couches in our living room and just ENJOY! It is always a truly wonderful time. We usually enjoy our own books for about 30 minutes and then snuggle together for our read aloud. Snacks are often provided.

That is it! These are just some things that I am learning as I walk this path of homeschooling. It has been an amazing experience for me and I am looking forward to the many years ahead and for what God has planned for us. Visit The Heart of the Matter today for more tips and tricks from other homeschoolers, be encouraged!

Each Day's Journey

Have you seen this? I have been sadly ignoring it for weeks and now after finally taken a moment to read what it is all about am going to join!! The Heart of the Matter is hosting this little Friday meme which is going to be very encouraging and fun. I am coming in a little late, as usual.

This last Friday the theme was A Day in the Life. I must admit that we have not had very many typical days lately due to just a lot of rush. I have however made a new schedule that I very roughly followed this last week when we were able to. My devotion to the mornings went fairly well, I got up each morning earlier than I have been so + for me and I have been really enjoying my alone time with the Lord.

At last here is our Daily Schedule:

Each Day's Journey...

5:00 – Quickly obey the call of the alarm, slip into the bath, get dressed with makeup, grab a cup of coffee, throw in laundry and then be STILL as I come into the presence of the Lord in worship, praise, prayer and in His word.
6:30 - Switch laundry and straighten and prepare as the sun rises before my Littles arise from their sweet slumber, fold laundry with Revive Our Hearts.
7:00 – Get the boys up and dressed, begin breakfast as family reunites from their separation.
7:30 – Breakfast devotional, catechism, memory work and goals for the day. Quick kitchen clean up, brush teeth, chores and anything else left in preparation.
8:30 – Begin our school day with prayer. During this time T-Rex is playing in his room with various toy and Butterfly is just waking up. I will get her dressed and feed her during:
 First Language Lessons/Copywork
 Horizons Math
 Spelling Workout
9:30 – Break!! Enjoying Books together and a quick clean up *vacuum and put clothes away*
10:00 – Come together for 2nd half of school:
 Science
 History
 Read-Aloud
11:30 – Finish any extras and then enjoy some free time before Lunch!!
12:30- Just enjoy the gift of time in relaxation(not cleaning!)
1:30 - Classical Reading time together, grab some books and sit on couch as we independently enjoy a good book or 2 or 3
2:00- Exercise/Play time
3:00- Prepare dinner and Daily Chores
4:00- Mandatory Outside playtime if not to cold otherwise inside play
5:00- Begin dinner, eat and then clean up as a family and then have some Family Time!
6:45- Start calm music as we all prepare for bed with quick clean ups, pjs, teeth brushed, get water.
7:15- Begin bedtime routine: poetry, songs of worship,prayer and kisses (lots of kisses) goodnight
After the littles are all in bed my evening begins:
Detailed straightening of each abandoned room, preperations for tomorrow, time with hubby, some computer time, reading time, study time and then prayer and lights out by: 10:00 or 10:30.

That is it! This is my hopes for each day's journey but they very rarely walk directly down this path, they are often detoured and sometimes even dead end but the main hope is that while we all walk in our day's journey we will do it in a manner worthy of the LORD, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (1 Corinthians 1:10-11)

We're all a little Cooky!

We will begin another round of homeschool on Monday. I can not wait to get started again, Growing Minds of Wisdom. In honor of the beginning of our 2008 Homeschool year I give you this video: