The Revealed Home School Life

I never ever wanted to home school my kids. I've wanted them out of the house and in public school for a long time. This was the year I was going to have three in school/two at home. And then home school happened.

And let me tell you.

I love it.


Yes, it began because my kids' teachers were awful. It was a "last resort" kind of response to sub-par education, but it became more. As I was preparing and thinking about home school I wanted to talk to other parents who were thinking about home schooling, planning on doing it, or already in the groove. Luckily, I know enough home schooling families here that I feel I'm well supported. It's nice knowing people who also know that home schooling isn't as weird as we all thought it would be and who know that I'm teaching my kids and not using the excuse of home schooling to be lazy. Trust me, there's nothing lazy about home school. Well, I do sleep in later than I did before. But why in the world would I get up at 6:15AM if I don't need to shove my kids out for a bus at 7:30 anymore? Right?

One of these fabulous people I talked to has kids around my kids' ages. And get this, HE'S been home schooling HIS kids for a while now. His wife actually works with Nathan and he stays home with the kids and teaches them. His kids are way smart by the way.

I asked him why he decided to home school. His reply? "I felt I wouldn't get enough time with my kids if I sent them off to school."

Whaaaat?

That was the exact opposite of how I felt. I was pretty sure we all needed a break from each other, because we drive each other nuts. Plus, I wanted to write my books and sew aprons and clothes and quilts without interruption. Yep, there it is. I wanted some time for myself. With 5 kids there isn't much time to go around. Add to it a church responsibility that is like a full-time job and I'm amazed I have time to breathe, really.

"I felt I wouldn't get enough time with my kids if I sent them off to school."

Wow. I felt awful.

He continued, "There are so many things I want to teach them that I think are important and I thought if I sent them off to school I'd only have them for an hour or so in the morning and then a few hours after school and then it's bedtime. When would I teach them those things that I think are important?"

I began to change my perspective. Home schooling became more at that point. Yes, the awful teachers are a big factor in our decision and the main reason why Nathan agreed to home schooling. No, I don't spend my days constantly teaching my kids the big life lessons, at least not intentionally. But every day I know my kids are learning something, are realizing they can do something they didn't think was possible, are grasping concepts that were out of their reach the day before, and they're doing these things TOGETHER. And I get to see it happen. How awesome is that?!

Our home school days are infinitely better than our lazy summer days. We begin the day with a song, usually from the children's hymn book our church uses, but sometimes the kids ask for a "grown-up" hymn. Then prayer, the pledge of allegiance, the Oklahoma pledge, and scripture study are next. We just finished reading the kid's Book of Mormon, the one with pictures and descriptions underneath. They loved taking turns reading it to each other. Then we move on to other school stuff. Usually since I have them all together after scripture study we do one of the subjects that we can do together like history or science. Then we separate. I'll work with one or two kids depending on what we need to do. I might do math with Megan and Jeremy together while Emma listens to a book on CD or practices her writing. Then I'll switch and do math with Emma while Megan and Jeremy finish their math work that doesn't require me being right with them. Then I'll have Megan listen to Emma read while I do writing and grammar with Jeremy. We go like this, switching around until snack/lunch time. Usually after we eat the kids like to get back together and I read to them. Right now we are reading A Series of Unfortunate Events. We just finished The Wide Window and tomorrow we'll start The Miserable Mill. I'm excited because now Jeremy and Emma have no idea what to expect since the movie only covered the first three books. Nathan and I took turns reading the books to Megan a few years ago, so she remembers some of what happens. Then we do P.E. For this we try to be creative. They can ride their bikes, do archery, or take turns calling out random exercises and a number while music blasts from Pandora. The random exercise days are my favorite because it's so cute watching Emma try to do push ups while Jeremy totally rocks them. Plus, it's fun watching Lincoln try to do any of what they do :)  If they have been really good all day, they might get to do a special P.E. like Just Dance on the Wii or something I love which I stole from Pinterest (thank you, Pinterest!). Have you seen those workouts geared for Harry Potter movies? For example, every time Hagrid says, "I shouldn'ta said that," the kids have to do 20 jumping jacks. Every time someone does a spell, they have to run in place for 30 seconds. And on and on and on. My kids love it because they rarely get screen time. I love it because I can just write the exercises on the white board and go make dinner. They don't simply zone out while watching the movie, at least not for the first hour or so. After a while when they're worn out I let them sit and watch the movie without all the exercises, but we usually have a die hard who will try to make it all the way to the end doing each of the exercises.

The awesome part of all this? We start school 45 minutes later than the public school and end 45 minutes sooner (most days).

I'll write more later about what textbooks we're using. I wanted to include it here, but this is already pretty long. I just wanted to give an update here for those who were wondering what our home school days have been like. I know some of you who know me well wondered if I could really do it. I don't blame you, I wondered, too.

Fabric Seeds Giveaway!

My fabulous sister-in-law who has an online shop for her dang cute aprons and quilts and literally the world's best caramels has a shop for fabric now, too! YAY!

Her shop is called Fabric Seeds and right now she is having a  . . . . GIVEAWAY! Let's cheer for awesomesauce giveaways! Wahoo!

Ok, now here's what's up. Right now she is featuring fabric by Moda and Riley Blake Designs. She has these fabrics in yardage, fat quarters, jelly rolls (does anyone else think of jelly filled donuts and get hungry when they hear "jelly rolls"?), and charm packs. She also has quilt patterns for sale.

She says on her Fabric Seeds Blog that there will be more fabrics and patterns to come. I'm sure that soon to come will be her own quilt patterns because she is an amazing quilt designer.

So go by there, order some fabrics, an apron, and don't forget the awesome caramels, and enter the giveaway . . . . . . right . . . . . . .  now!

Pictures for Grandma

My mom asked for pictures of the kids (assuming she wouldn't be able to recognize them at the airport next time we visit) so I thought I'd do a post of our recent activities.

 Playing with Lincoln. Of course.

 Emma LOVES the game Memory and asks to play it constantly. Really. I mean constantly.

I took Jeremy on a play date to the children's museum (and by consequence, Emma and Lincoln). So here are a few pictures of the kids from that day. Most are of Emma because she kept running off anytime I wasn't super glued to her side. Jeremy spent most of the time with his friend, Arthur and his dad.

 Jeremy wouldn't enter the sand pit. After several attempts to get him to go in I finally gave up. I thought it was because he was having his "social issues" where he just didn't want to play with other kids, but when we left he told me it was because he didn't want sand in his clothes and then have to go to school in dirty clothes. Makes sense.

 We've also been experiencing more snow.

I've been fighting against it though and refuse to wear my coat most days.

And see that blasted orange piece of something I'm not supposed to say sitting there at the end of my drive? It's been there for about a month at least. Will someone from the city please finish the street so I can back out of my driveway without worrying about hitting that huge thing? I mean really, the snow is gone now, and won't be back for a couple days. Do something now!!

 Quick! Seriously, the drive from the city buildings isn't that far from me. See those houses behind the orange thing? Those are the city hall.

 And here's Emma with her black eye. She tripped at a friend's house two Sundays ago and hit her eye against a train table. She doesn't even realize it's there, so that is good. But now she's got a scratch above the same eye because she took her stick horse and knocked down a picture frame from the mantle. It landed on her head before breaking on the carpet. Or maybe it was her hard head that broke it after all.

 And in baby news, Lincoln rolled over!!

 He was going for the blanket you see on the far right. He was very excited when he finally got it.

The only other thing I've got pictures of that we've been up to is that I've made more of those little wooden peg dolls.  I bought this serving tray at Joann Fabrics for half off and then bought some sheet metal at Home Depot. I cut it to fit in the tray, glued it in, and ta-da! The magnets I glued on the bottom of the dolls after I painted them stick to the sheet metal and have made for lots of play time for the girls.

I actually have one ore doll that I made for them, but the magnet fell off, so I have to glue it again.

I had Nathan drill into two of them and then thread ribbons through little metal things we screwed into the holes to make necklaces.

I'll get a picture of the girls wearing the necklaces later. They are asleep right now.

Well, Grandma, I hope those pictures will last you for a little while :)

Bowling for Soup, Texas, and a Great Brother In-Law

I have to say that I have the best brother in-law ever. Seriously. Normally I keep my music at the bottom of the blog page, but today (and for who knows how long) it is right here at the top. It is also on auto start which I don't normally do.


Why the switch and what does this have to do with my brother in-law? Carlos sent Nathan a link to a song and told him that he thought I'd like it. So of course Nathan sent it to me. Check out the first song on the play list. It's by Bowling for Soup and it's called Ohio (Come Back to Texas). Is anymore explanation needed? I didn't think so.

I LOVE this song. I laughed out loud (many times actually, Megan kept asking me what's so funny) and I cried (luckily the kids are in a different room, so they didn't ask me what was wrong).

Nathan, don't you think I belong in Texas? I do. And Texas belongs in me.

Here are the lyrics according to elyrics.com

"Ohio (Come Back To Texas)"

She said she needed a break
A little time to think
But then she went to Cleveland
With some guy named Leelan
That she met at the bank

There's nothing wrong with Ohio
Except the snow and the rain
I really like Drew Carey
And I'd love to see the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame

[Pre-chorus:]
So when you're done doing whatever
And when you're through doing whoever
You know Denton County will be right here waiting for you....

[Chorus:]
Come back to Texas
It's just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
And forget all about the Lonestar State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
And I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway

I think I made a mistake
It's not that easy to take
She went to make a deposit
Then she cleaned out her closet
Guess I'll sit here and wait

For her to come back home (I'd wish you come back home)
It shouldn't take very long (so long so long)
I bet she misses the sunrise
And Mrs. Baird's fruit pies but I could be wrong

[Pre-chorus]

[Chorus]

Troy Aikmen wants you back
Willie Nelson wants you back
NASA wants you back
And the Bush twins want you back
And Pantera wants you back
And Blue Bell wants you back

I got a premonition
I'm taking a petition
And the whole state's gonna sign

Come back to Texas
It's just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
And forget all about the Lone Star State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
And I've got every slow dance saved

Come back to Texas
It's just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
And forget all about the Lone Star State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
And I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy, MOM!!!

We love you!

***The pictures associated with the description below have disappeared off the blog. I'm still trying to find them. I put these two up until I can find the ones I want.***



I kind of surprised my mom with an impromptu photo shoot today. She wasn't happy about getting in front of the camera, but I think she looks gorgeous, just like always. I won't tell you how old she is, because she isn't old. . .and because I'd like to not be kicked out of her house a day before going back to Ohio.

Anyway, thanks for taking another day off work to be with us, Mom. We loved spending time with you and hope you had fun, even if the kids did give you a headache:)

The Yellow Rose of Texas

For my family in Texas


I'm glad y'all are safe.
I love you!