Teaching Tips For a Houseful

On Friday I left to go to a Homeschool Conference drove 2 hours to get there, 5 min out of the car I got really sick!! Like the sickest I have ever been as an adult. I sat on a handicap bathroom floor for 2 hours puking, the world was spinning I was weak and could hardly walk. I finally found the lady I came with and asked her to take me to my hotel I slept there with baby for a couple hours and tried to go back. And quickly learned I should have stayed at the hotel. I ended up with a fever and kept going from sweating to freezing cold. While at a booth paying for my stuff I fainted.Not only did this happen once but twice! I scared a poor women and had to reassure her a million times id be OK.
Anyhow when I got back to my hotel I went to bed. Today was much better and I got what I needed.

On Monday at the homeschool meeting I'm going to be sharing on teaching tips for a houseful so I thought I would blog a few of my points I'll be sharing.

Baby/toddler/pre K years and beyond
Mom should resit temptation to be busy- stay home and be home focused. These are not the years to start a home based business (pampered chef, Tupperware ect..)I made this mistake when I had 4 littles and while I thought it would be great to have a little spending money it pulled me from my children's needs. I was either busy delivering things and small ones missed naps or I was out in the evening not home to say goodnight to them.
We need to prune out those things that pull us away. John 15:2 says that we prune what is good in favor of what is best- most fruitful. So if that means gymnastics is at toddlers nap time and he is falling asleep on the way there and you need to wake them up to go in for the hour. Then they fall asleep on the way home again but wake up coming into the house. Then for the next 4 hours until bedtime the whole family suffers from the crying whining toddler. These are the years to not be busy!

K-3
Children in this age group need lots of mom time. While they may seem ready for some independence it isn't time don't rush it keep them close. Different children will develop in all areas at all different ages.

Grade 6 and up
So much is changing in these years emotionally and physically. Try and think back on those years on how you wanted to be treated. Show LOTS of mercy and understanding. This is when late nights in parenting start up again but now it's late nights of laying on the bed talking.
This is also a good age to start theological studies and roles start to change from dictator to mentor friend.

Rant

I really wanted to share this cause it is so true.
A friend of mine wrote it and I couldn't of said it better.




Recently a popular Christian counseling program set me back on my heels with an uncharactaristically biased and careless rant against a certain type of Christian family, based on second hand information from a caller who was complaining about them.

I don’t need to rant back about that in particular, but it did get me to thinking about the rock and the hard place that some of us are between. It may be because of homeschooling, or being visibly conservative, or being open to (or having already) a large family, but the critiques come from all sides, and sometimes they arrive at the same time, with completely opposite messages.

The radio show caller reminded me of one of the common things I’ve seen that homeschooling and large Christian families fear (with good reason). This fear, and the real experiences of this problem, have been published and discussed among homeschoolers and other “odd” types of families for as long as we’ve had any kind of forum for discussion. People look at us and judge. People who pride themselve on their progressivism and tolerance feel free, with us, to be judgemental. They watch our children’s behavior. They make assumptions about us based on the way we’re dressed or the house we live in or the state of our housekeeping.

On the one side, if we are too casual, or wearing thrift store clothing, or if our children are noisy or occasionally disobedient, or if we have laundry piled somewhere and not neatly folded in drawers, or if the kitchen floor is sticky and there are dishes in the sink…we are obviously incapable of living this lifestyle and properly caring for our children, and we should just get sterilized and send them to public school where they can be cared for and taught properly.

On the other side, if we present ourselves to the public as neat, clean and tidy, and our children are reasonably obedient, and everybody works together to keep the house running efficiently and with minimal chaos…we have obviously beaten our children into submissive little personality-deficient robots and are obsessed with a romanticized view of homemaking and deprive our children of a childhood making them so busy cleaning up their toys and we should get sterilized pronto and send them to public school where they will be properly cared for and socialized.

If you ever read snark blogs or message boards and even a few “news” articles about the Duggar family, or about conservative Christianity in general, you will see this for yourself. In almost the same breath, armchair psychologists will simultaneously critique the “robot like” obedience while criticizing the “obvious chaos and misbehavior” in a family. Or sneer at thrift shopping for clothes while at the same time growing sour grapes over the family’s financial ability to feed umpteen kids (though of course, parents who really love their kids would feed them organic). And when that gets tiresome (or someone points out inconsistencies) there’s always good, juicy gossip. A family like that can’t be psycologically healthy. The father obviously has a messianic complex. The mother is addicted to pregnancy. The parents are obsessivly overprotective. The children are clearly either going to grow up to be psychopaths or dreadful ignoramuses. Who wants to guess at some seedy happenings going on there? Oh yes, how could there not be! Let’s imagine!! In one such discussion, readers were assured (by someone who is undoubtedly an expert) that there was no reason to feel jealous if they met “one of those” families, who appeared well-pressed and whose children were well-behaved. Because, you know, it’s almost certain that the poor kids were beaten into fearful submission and had no real relationship with their parents. After reading that, I can never hear a compliment about my children’s behavior, without wondering if the compliment-giver is assuming I’m some kind of abusive monster in private.

And of course, if any such family should dare to try to explain or answer these criticisms, or God forbid express happiness and pleasure with the life they lead, then it’s fair to call them prideful, arrogant, judgemental and also in complete denial about the horrors of the life they’ve chosen. Apparently “live and let live” does not apply to us.

No matter what we do, someone’s got snark for it. Somebody’s got a diagnosis. Somebody’s got spiritual superiority over us. It seems hardly worthwhile to bother answering objections, given how irrational and inconsistent so many of them are. And yet it we don’t, it seems like capitulation or even agreement.

Rock. Hard place.

Zachary has a dream of opening a bakery one day, He wants to call it "Big Z's"
my mom is one of his biggest encourager's. She took him home Monday afternoon to let him practice icing. He did really well for his first time piping.

Recently in our city our buses had adds put up that say "There probably is no God so quit worrying and enjoy your life" yesterday on my way out to meet a friend the bus drove through the intersection and spray painted right across it said " Psalms 14. When I got home I went to look it up it says " The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God",they are corrupt,"

I have to admit someones bravery made me laugh a little.

I have been really digging into the Psalms lately, I love how there is a Psalm for almost every feeling or thought. I love how each one is a reminder that God is in control. How he knows us inside and out, though and loves us even when we arn't too love able.

Chris recently challenged me on pressing forward and keeping my eyes on the goal. I find I often can catch myself being idol, a time waster. So I took some of his gentle reminders and boy oh boy what a difference it has made in 3 short days. I am getting so much more done, and with a joyful heart. It's scary how quickly we can turn our eyes off the Lord and not even know!

All 7 children woke up in the night with fevers, but even through teary eyes and sleeping kids on the couch it was so nice to just be. I sat in the rocking chair for 2 hours with my two small girls. And Rachael leans down a kisses Hannah on the head and whispers "your such a little gift" then she pops her thumb back in her mouth and leans against me. I though to myself so often I am up doing something or on the phone or zoned out on the computer, but today I ignored the outside world and fully embraced them. Thinking that I was self-sacrificing to bless them but in turn it was me that was blessed.

Brown Boys Baptism 2011

Happy 2nd Birthday Jude

Homeschool Burn Out? Day 5?

So am I losing readers? am I boring everyone to tears? I may only chart this for 7 days, it's getting close to the end of the year anyways. Today: Austin read Psalm 113 to all of us . I pointed out verse 9 to them "He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother. Praise the LORD!" And shared with them how much I love how I get to spend my days. I read to them all 2 chapters out of Prudence with the Millars. A story on jokes that are not funny but could cause harm, and one on table manners. We then chatted about things we all need to work one. Read Sir Circumference and the Isle of Immeter (Math Adventures) to the younger crowd. Chris read Seven Silly Eaters to Jude and Rachael (again) Austin did a lesson of English Zach did 2 lessons of math Natalie did a multiplication sheet. Presley did 5 pages in Word Building We cut out flowers and each wrote lists of things we are thankful for. Natalie is turning out to be just like her mom. One of her flowers says "Hannah's chubby legs" Today we made a rain gauge for Science and read a little bit on precipitation and the different kinds. On another note we took Jude to the doctor today because he complains his legs hurt ALL the time. After trying a bunch of different things I took him in. Our doctor is concerned about the development of the bones in his legs due to how much Prednisone he has had. In a 12 month period he was given it 10 times due to the chronic croup. He ended up with a growth in his mouth because of it. So now I'm waiting to for an appointment with a ped. If you think of him keep him in prayer, as his nights are often long and painful as our are too since we are up rubbing little legs.

Homeschool Burn Out Day 4?

Today we,

Austin read Psalm 112 to everyone and we talked about the chapter. He then wrote it out along with Zachary.

Mom read Created to Work to all the boys, the chapter was about trusting the Lord to give you wisdom when you ask for it.

We watch another teaching DVD about culture and how the Hebrew word for actor was hypocrite and during the time of Jesus theater was huge and that's why he often used hypocrite in his parables.

Natalie did a a multiplcation work sheet and 30 mins on her violin.

Presley did 6 pages in his ACE Word Building PACE. Presley also did 30 mins on the piano.

Mom read to Rachael and Jude " Bedtime ABC"

Homeschool Burn Out? Day 3

Today was much better.

Austin got a lesson of English done. He worked on his bible memory chapter. Him and I watched our teaching DVD on The Rabbi. Very interesting it was explaining what the tassels on their garments ment and how each one stood for the 5 books of the Torah and the 300 and something laws.

Zachary did some copy work and did 5 pages in his ACE English PACE.

Natalie ( who has finish grade 3) Made a card for a friend and did some chores.

Presley ( who is also done grade 1) drew another picture for a friend to be mailed away.

Mom read to Rachael and Jude Seven Silly Eaters and God's little Jewels.

Then for the afternoon we joined our local homeschool group for a game of ball hockey for the big kids and the little ones played at the playground for a couple hours.

Homeschool Burn Out? Day 2

Today we ended up having company for the day, so no formal book work got done. We cleaned up in the morning got lunch together and then had lunch with friends. The children played outside all day.

Homeschool Burn Out?

I have decided for 2 weeks I am going to blog everything we have done for school. Because for some reason I'm going through a "school rut" and I'm thinking if I write it all out I will see we are in fact getting things done.

So you may find it boring for a little while.

Austin did some copy work as he is memorizing Psalm 111. We read and talked about this chapter.

Zachary wrote a letter to his pen pal and also drew him a picture of WWII fighting jets

Natalie wrote a encouraging letter to a friend

Presley wrote his pen pal also.

Mom read "Less than Zero" ( a math story) to Natalie, Presley, Rachael, and Jude

Read Created to Work to Austin and Zachary talked about "blind spots" in our lives and why it's good to have others point them out and to be humble.

We watched a teaching DVD called "the promise land" talking about the sermon on the mount.

Started a unit on weather with Austin, Zachary, Natalie, and Presley they took a thermometer outside for 3 mins and charted the temp. They charted what the temp was between there fingers, room temp water, ice water ect...

Zach did 30 mins on the piano

Natalie did 15 on piano and 30 on violin

Presley did 15 violin and 30+ on the piano

On top of that music they had a practise with their teacher at 30 mins each

Little Gift