The calling.

I have been reading through homeschool blogs and have read so many stories of mom's saying they were called to homeschool. I feel the same. It is truly a calling. Before there were reasons and research, there was a heart call. It happened for me in the worst of the winter. I was in day two of my Beth Moore Breaking Free, bible study homework. A study about changing your line; about generations.
As I read through the lines of Kings, in 2 Chronicles 26 through 28, it hit me suddenly. I felt like God was saying.... prepare, get ready to homeschool. It was an answer to the prayers of my heart... for my children to always know that they are loved, that they would always know God, and that they would choose Him back.
The scripture unraveled in my mind like this....

2 Chronicles 26:4-5 (King Uzziah) ~ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.
2 Chronicles 26:16~ But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. (An act reserved only for consecrated priests.)

2 Chronicles 27:2 (King Jotham)~ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done, but unlike him he did not enter the temple of the LORD. The people, however, continued their corrupt practices.
2 Chronicles 27:6~ Jotham grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God.

2 Chronicles 27:9-28:3 (King Ahaz)~ Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. And Ahaz his son succeeded him as king.
Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David, his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made cast idols for worshiping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

For me it was clear that King Uzziah messed up and his son who succeeded him, King Jotham, chose to keep this as a humbling example. He made a choice to remember and change it- to stay humble and steadfast before God. But as for Jotham's son, King Ahaz, why on earth did he walk away from God in entirety? The parallel for King Jotham's life answered this question....

2 Kings 15:34,35 (King Jotham)~ He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple of the LORD.
*all parenthesis mine

It occurred to me then that Ahaz fell because he was immersed in a culture in opposition to the LORD God. His father followed God closely at home, but it made little impact on his young life.

In all this my mindset was changing. That I needed to not only follow God but to build his precepts into my children's lives. They will have to make their own choices but I am responsible for giving to them any wisdom that God has showed me. I want them to see the truth first, at home. My heart is for the best for them. The best that I know how, and only with God's strength, I will take on this new adventure. I choose to guard their little hearts and minds, and God is in control of the rest....

We got mail :)

I have been waiting for a few more things that I have ordered, and are coming snail mail style- our english, art, and this.... These road and bike safety resources from ICBC were free to order online. Added to our H&C Ed stuff. Order here: http://icbc.com/4teachers

My active boy.

PE- I was trying to find a program of sorts for gym, but physical education is going to have to be less planned out. It will be as simple as bike riding or more structured like playing on the soccer team. I might even throw in some snow day activities like So You Think You Can Dance, Cardio Funk (my kids love this exercise/dance video).

So fast, he's a blurr.

Posing.

life skills

I want to use this Jessica Seinfeld cookbook for some H&C Ed learning. We will have to adapt it to our no-dairy protocol, but the basic concept is useful. The beginning of the book has nutritional guidelines, talks about what our fruits and veggies have in them and what they do for our bodies, and it also has a list of kitchen utensils.

Paint a pizza. Dairy-free even.

We have recently started to write out a menu before we grocery shop. It works great for a budget, and we have kids with allergies so it helps mom's brain to have ready-made dinner ideas that everyone can eat. Last week we had Grandma over for a homemade pizza dough instructional.... this is the stuff that can be used to teach the kids about life and nutrition. Look at that, haven't even technically started to "homeschool" and we are learning up a storm;)

kneading hands

"painting" our bowls before letting the bread rise

"painting" on the sauce

And eat.

*Each of our kids created their own pizza by picking their own toppings, and this makes the pizza dairy-free for the ones who need it to be.

RECIPE: 

Basic Pizza Dough

4 cups flour

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp instant yeast

1 1/3 cups warm water

Add dry ingredients together in mixing bowl. Add oil and start on speed 1. Gradually add water (if still dry add 2 tbsp more water). Once dough forms a ball, turn out onto floured surface. Knead and fold until smooth. Grease large bowl. Pinch dough together so that there are no holes for air to escape. Turn ball over so top is greased. Cover with towel and let rise 1-1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 450F. Cut dough into parts. Put on greased pizza pan and push out to sides (or in a kid-size mini pizza circle). Add toppings. We suggest- Paint with a drop of olive oil, then paint on the tomato paste/sauce, olives, mushrooms, pepperoni, ham. Oh, and cheese for the ones who can have it. Bake about 15-20 minutes (depending on size of pizza- watch for browned edges).

Homeschool. A general thought.

I wrote this out somewhere else in an attempt to think-on what my reasons are practically. It fits it this spot too.....

I choose to homeschool because:
~ I love my kids and want the best for them. I find it exciting, and encouraging to them, to be a part of their learning.
~ I have found that the standard of education has declined and for an example; I had taught my oldest son to read with a preschool phonetic program (not finishing the last twenty lessons), and he is at about a grade two reading level while still in Kindergarten.
~ The reaction to bullying has caused an attitude of punishment rather than teaching manners and respect, and has taken away some natural "boys being boys" play. I am against any bullying still, just so no one freaks out, and I am not meaning to take away the seriousness of that.
~ To go along with the last point, I want to teach my kids to love and cherish each other and family. I want to instill in them my values and beliefs. Things such as love, patience, charity, respect of self and others.... and the list goes on. I want to give them a firm foundation to become confident, generous, loving, unselfish, down-to-earth people.
~ I don't want my children to be "sheltered" in the sense of how I, and I am sure many other people, view homeschoolers. I do however want to guard their little hearts and minds from issues that are detrimental to their well being at this young age. I have already encountered numerous issues that are not age-appropriate in my mind; such as discussions surrounding the normality of sexual experimentation. Again.... AGE FIVE.

I have heard many other reasons for the choice of homeschooling.... what are yours?

Begin

We are at the beginning, but we will not always be. A few months into this year was when the decision was made to homeschool our oldest son in the fall. Then came research. I talked to moms here, up North, and elsewhere. I had to decide if I wanted to register or enroll. We picked enrollment because it is government funded and it keeps your kids up to par with the Ministry of Education standards.
We enrolled with CHeS. I am loving this online school so far. We have a mentor teacher who oversees our family and they have a great enrollment program. Working through enrollment was rewarding and confirmed for me that I am at the right place. It took me through a process in which I found out my teaching style and educational philosophy, my learning style, and my child's learning style.
Then came the time to research and research some more. I must have looked through a hundred websites and blogs. After this it was off to a homeschool convention to pick up most of our books and take in a little information (and with a dear friend for a mom's night away).
At this point I am waiting for the rest of our resources to come, snail mail style, and then I can start planning for the year. I am hugely excited. I will add more pics as the books come in.

Fine Arts

Art- Here is one of our art ideas. Looks like fun!

Science curriculum

Science- I picked these after much researching and a few suggestions from my son about what he wanted to learn.

Socials curriculum

Socials- A full Canadian curriculum from Donna Ward. Books about provinces, the animals in each province, an atlas, a map, fun story books, a book about Canadian money, and a workbook to go along with it all.

Math Curriculum

Math- I heard about Math-U-See from a few friends. I love that it is practical and comes with fun building blocks to bring it to life for the kids.

teach up a child

At the beginning of this year I began to feel a change in thought. A desire to homeschool my kids that I never had before. God was showing me things that I had never seen before about raising up my kids. I had always wanted them to go to public school to learn, and to learn to stand for what they believe. But there were questions in my heart about how to raise up my kids with a strong and good belief system. How to teach them to be kind and selfless? My son was, and still is, in kindergarten and I have found so many issues that I disagree with in the school system. First disciplining issues and unacceptance of faith issues. Then just plain old education issues. I began to see the best choice for my children was to teach them at home, to encourage them and to let them run with their learning. I have had numerous confirmations that I am doing the right thing. I first talked to my husband and he gave me full permission to go ahead in all of this. I never thought I could homeschool and had no desire at all, but then I realized that I already had been. We, my son Aiden and I, had started a book that my friend had taught to two of her children while homeschooling. He was reading by kindergarten. So here we go and here's the intro to our blog. There are more stories that stem off of this one. We are still in the planning stages and are excited for the changes coming. Hope you have fun reading too.