adoption training

I know.  I told you that I'd post more on homeschooling today.  I'm a big, fat liar.  Because I can't talk about anything right now except what we did this weekend.

John and I went up to Tyler, TX for our adoption training weekend.  We are working with a small agency, so small that they only offer one training session a year.  We were accepted into the program last fall, but we have been waiting for this weekend so we can get this show on the road.  I kept thinking that we just had to get past the training.  But when we were in the middle of the training, I knew that this was more important than just a milestone to pass up.  It was rich.  It was soul-filling.  And butt-numbing.  We sat for a long, long time.

I'm still processing.  This training was less on the how-to's of adoption and more on the Biblical foundations of adoption.  It focused on the beauty of adoption, but did not leave out the messiness and heartache of adoption.  We were reminded that adoption is birthed out of loss and pain.  But that redemption can be found in the broken.  We are promised in the scripture that God makes beauty from ashes.

To give them beauty for ashes, 
      The oil of joy for mourning, 
      The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; 
      That they may be called trees of righteousness, 
      The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:3


We are in awe that He has called us to this point- to be adoptive parents.  To be a part in the real healing for a mother and her child.

From here we begin the process of more paperwork, criminal background checks, TB tests (for all of us), home study, fire inspection, and our autobiographies with our photo album.  And then we wait to be chosen by the birth mother.  There is a lot of waiting.  A lot of things that are simply outside of our control. But we are confident that God has placed us on this journey for a reason and we will trust in His timing (with only occasional melt downs along the way- I'm sure).

free e-book

I am stepping away for the weekend, but will continue my homeschooling posts on Monday!  Sonya Shafer from Simply Charlotte Mason is offering a new, free e-book entitled A Thinking Love.  I haven't read this one yet, but I have read much of her writing and thoughts on CM.  This one looks just as great as ever!

Have a wonderful weekend!

homeschooling {Bible and Buddy}

This post picks back up where we left off after {circle time} and our {typical day schedule}.  After circle time we move into Bible study.

I am very excited to share with you the Bible curriculum we use!  I love it and have learned much myself by using it.  And it's really cool to hear my four year old recite the books of the New Testament from memory- I ain't gonna lie!

We use The Bible Study Guide for All Ages.  They offer books according to your child's age and extra resources to buy.  A special note:  be sure to investigate all shipping charges on their site.  The first one that pops up is very expensive, but you can get it mailed media for much cheaper.

 Buddy spends most of his day in play time!

Now on to my Buddy boy.  After Bible study Moonpie has some independent learning activities that she does and I work a little with Buddy.  He is only 4, so the work we do is short and often times involves legos or blocks!  I set up a time for Buddy so I would be mindful of spending some one on one time with him and he feels big having some "school work" to do like his sissy!

When teaching children under six, I take my cues from the philosophies of Charlotte Mason, Waldorf and Montessori.  Both CM and Waldorf don't recommend formal schooling until first grade.  So our learning time is multi-sensory and fun!  I also try to include some Montessori elements during this time using the book Mommy Teach Me: Preparing Your Preschool Child for a Lifetime of Learning by Barbara Curtis.  This is a fantastic resource!

We also do some basic letter work and number work.  For letter work we use the book Big Thoughts for Little People by Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor.  This book has been updated, however we use the original copy that I picked up in a thrift store for a quarter!  Currently we are working through the book, one letter per week.  I introduce the letter by reading the page and then we make our letter rock.  

This was one of those ideas that made me feel like such a creative genius!  We have rocks all over this house (I'm sure you do too!).  I decided to put those rocks to work!  On Monday Buddy chooses a rock and then attaches a letter to his rock.  We do the capital letter on one side and then the lower case letter on the other.

The letters are just stickers from the scrap book section.  I found a big pack at Hobby Lobby.  

After Buddy gets his letter on, we mod podge it so it sticks really well!  He likes to stack his rocks, put them in order, put them out of order and so on.  This has been a very fun activity for us!

Later in the week we will continue doing letter work.  I don't buy workbooks for this- I just make it up as we go.  One day he might paint a giant letter using water paints.  One day he'll roll it out in play-do.  Another day he might cover the letter with stickers, bopper paint, or beans.  

I just make sure he is following the basics on how to make the letter correctly.  For fun extensions we might have a sound hunt (find 5 things that start with the /b/ sound) or search for the letter in a book.

For number work we read counting books and do dot-to-dot.  That's pretty much it.  He loves dot-to-dot and will do an entire book if I let him!  We like the Buki books and can find them locally.

We have also enjoyed using the Kumon tracing book, number book and folding book (this is beginner origami-lots of fun!).

After Buddy's time is up, he likes to spend some time playing with his legos or blocks while I work with Moonpie on math, reading and language.  After lunch he joins us for history or science.  

Most of Buddy's day is spent playing.  His book work time maybe takes 20 minutes of his day.  The rest of the day is spent in the dirt, looking at books, building and playing with cars.  Oh- and as of late- "writing" letters to everyone.

One of my priorities in our day is that a love of learning is stoked in my children.  For Buddy this looks like little "schooling" and lots of play and cuddle time.  So that's what we do.

**For book links- see side carousel**

homeschooling {planning and resources}

this post is part of a series. see:  post 1 post 2

Some good questions have cropped up from earlier posts!  One question asked is what led us to homeschool.  This is coming- in its own post or series of posts!  I can't seem to consolidate it into a concise answer.  I tend to be "wordy" (in case you haven't noticed).  

Another friend asked about what resources I use and when I plan.  I think I can answer that here, briefly (ahem). 

*The first resource I read when I was searching for our homeschooling style was For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School Susan Schaeffer Macauley (see the sidebar carousel for link).  

This book introduced me to the philosophies of Charlotte Mason, and from that time on I was hooked!  This book is HIGHLY recommended!

(What made me love CM was her emphasis on books and nature study.  And the overall gentle approach she took in learning.)

Since then I've read and looked into many of the companion books written about her teaching style, but the most helpful that I've found has been the website Simply Charlotte Mason.  This site wonderfully breaks down the different components of CM's ideas and has resources linked up to each one.  So easy to use!  There are also Ambleside Online and Charlotte Mason Help that are very informative and helpful.  I've found that different people are drawn to the different styles of each.  I also peruse the Sonlight website, but I've never actually purchased anything from them.  Their book lists are fantastic!

A word about planning.  

When Moonpie was two, I listened to a borrowed tape series (and a borrowed walk-man, haha!!!) from a friend.  I cannot for the life of me remember who this speaker was, but she was wonderful and confirmed many of my heart's desires for what I wanted our homeschooling experience to look like.  I decided early on that I wanted our learning to be based on history.  I say "based on" from a unit study perspective only.  I do not have a great grasp on history and never felt like I understood where Biblical history met world history.  I wanted my children to have a good understanding of both, so I decided to go from this point.  When I have a good grasp of what we are going to cover in history for the year, my planning is much easier.  Now, for the actual day to day, we don't really spend all that much time on history.  I know that sounds strange and contradictory, but it's true!  The concept of a historically based learning simply works well for my brain.  Makes me feel like we have a launching point.

Back to planning.  Once I figure out the over arching themes I want to incorporate for the year, I research materials.  Our library is limited, so I buy most of what we use (used bookstores are wonderful for this, but cost in time rather than dollars).  A dominating philosophy of Charlotte Mason's is that you learn from REAL books.  So our "curriculum" money is mostly spent on books.  And that's always fun!

A few weeks before our school starting date (although we tend to some sort of unit approach during the summer months) I carve out some time to draw out a basic scope of what I want to happen.  Then I plan the first six weeks or so.  Some people plan out the whole year at this point, but because I like to shake things up pretty regularly, planning the whole year at once isn't good for me.  For example, I knew that this year we were going to study the ancients in history, but Christmas fell in the midst of our Egyptian studies...and I was tired of Egypt.  So we spent the whole month of December learning about how the world celebrates Christmas.  It was fun and spontaneous- and needed (for me!).

On Sunday nights I sit down and look over the week and do some planning accordingly.  This isn't necessary all of the time.  Sometimes, I'll sit and plan out the next 6 weeks at once.  But taking time on Sunday nights gives me a good grasp on what our week looks like.

As far as specific resources go- I'll get more into that (like book lists) with each post.

*the very, very first homeschooling book I read was The Big Book of Home Learning by Mary Pride.  I picked it up on the $5 table at a book store.  It was great!  I do recommend this book if you can find it used or at the library.  I'd loan it to you, but the special friend who borrowed it 4 years ago is (apparently) really enjoying it and hasn't returned it yet! 

homeschooling {circle time}

The first thing we do to kick off our "school" portion of the morning is circle time.  I must disclose here that I began doing this a bit grudgingly.  I had wanted school to feel more organic and breezy, but Moonpie wanted it to be more official feeling.  I have now come to really enjoy our morning circle time.  It has turned into a time that we discuss what our day/week holds, enjoying good poetry, music and stories.  Here is our break down:

• We come together and sit on the living room rug.  Moonpie has probably already set up our area with comfy pillows and our circle time basket (which I should have taken a picture of - sorry about that!).  In our basket we have a small calendar, a book of poetry, a bean bag, and a book of songs.

• First off we look at the calendar and discuss the day of the week, the date, the month and the year.  It goes a little like this: "Today is Tuesday, February 23rd, 2011.  Yesterday was Monday, tomorrow is Wednesday.  What is something special we do on Tuesdays?  Go to the library!" etc.  

• We read our poem for the week.  Usually we have a specific poet we are studying, however we are currently reading out of Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected for Boys and Girls Helen Ferris Tibits (see carousel in sidebar for link).

• We sing songs out of our Wee Sing books ( I always find these while thrifting).  I like to choose a song that has motions to go along with it, or we might play instruments.

• We read a seasonal story out of our season basket each day.  Since yesterday was President's Day, I read to them out of our book Little People Who Became Great: Stories of the Lives of those Whom Every Child Should Know Laura A. Large.  This book came to my through my Great Aunt's estate.  If you can find it, buy a copy!  It is such a wonderful book.  My children actually clap after I read them the short biographies.  Yesterday we read "The Little Boy Who Once Was Poor" the story of Abraham Lincoln.

After circle time is over we usually move to the table for Bible study.  I mentioned yesterday that we are very flexible with our schedule.  I am also very flexible with my planning.  After reading about Abraham Lincoln we decided to look up how big the cabin was that he lived in as a child (18 ft x 16 ft).  We then went outside and measured out what this would look like.  

Designing the interior of the cabin.  Beds, table, fire place and stool all added.

For some reason my children thought it looked huge.  So we started adding everything a home would need.  After the parent's bed, Abe's bed made of leaves and the table were added, they began to see how small it actually it was.  

Buddy working on Ma and Pa's quilt.  And as always, enjoying his picture being taken.

This was a great exercise.  And totally not planned.  

Moonpie working on Abe's bed of dried leaves.  She even added a stack of books tucked in between the "logs" in the wall!

After this we moved to another unplanned activity- building a log cabin out of biodegradable packing peanuts.

Moonpie's little cabin and grass.  Lots and lots of grass.

Buddy adding his grass.

I enjoy this about homeschooling so much!  When an idea comes to me or one of my children on a whim, we can go with it and see where it leads.  Today we will pick back up where we left off in our studies of Ancient Greece with just a bit of catching up to do.

Like I mentioned above, before we started doing circle time, I dreaded it.  It sounded too contrived and laborious to me.  I have found that it is really very easy to put together and is a wonderful time to review concepts, share thoughts and have some fun!

homeschooling {a typical day}

It has occurred to me that this is the time of year that people begin looking forward to the next school year.  I have had many conversations lately with both strangers and close friends about "what homeschooling looks like".  Some are just curious and some are seriously considering the option for their family.  I have decided that for the next few posts, I am going to focus on how we homeschool in our own home.

First off- I must mention- that homeschooling looks very different in every home.  What we do here may not work for you.  And that's ok!  The lovely thing about homeschooling is that you can make it whatever you want it to be to fit your family and your individual children.

We have a loose homeschooling structure that works very well for us.  It is very flexible, but structured enough that Moonpie feels comfortable with it.  Buddy is pretty much good with anything we do- just their personality differences.

I do not have a timed out schedule that I follow.  Some find freedom in that method.  That plain stresses me out.  What I do is see how the morning starts off.  If the kids are really in creative play mode, I don't interrupt that.  I let them play until I begin to sense that things are about to go down hill.  So one day we might start school around 9 am.  Some days we don't start until 1 pm.  It just depends on the level of their imaginations, if we have morning errands or if I have morning work that needs to be done.  However, most days we start school around 10 am.  And this is what it looks like:

• Morning chores
• Circle Time {Moonpie and Buddy}
• Bible Study {Moonpie and Buddy}
• Buddy's Guided study time/ Moonpie's independent study time
• Buddy plays quietly/ Moonpie's guided lessons
• Free time
• Lunch
• History or Science {Moonpie and Buddy}
• Literature 
• Rest Time
• Creative Time
• Outside Play
• Nature study {Friday- Moonpie and Buddy}

Throughout the week I am going to flesh out what we do during each of these times.  We don't follow a curriculum, but I will share with you what I have pieced together for us.

If you have any specific questions, please ask away and I'll do my best to answer them!

TeacHaiti

photo credit:  Heather Hendrick Sit a Spell

Remember my friends that are serving in Haiti with their four boys?  Well, Heather's boys are participating in a Readathon to support TeacHaiti.  From TeacHaiti's website:

The goal of TeacHaiti is to provide annual 

education scholarships to some of 

Haiti's neediest children who would not otherwise 

be able to attend school.

This is a wonderful organization to support!  I love that Heather's boys have taken this challenge on.  Kids helping other kids is such a beautiful sight.  Maybe your kids can be involved too!  Take a minute to go on over to Heather's blog and see how you can help out!  

 

love

In honor of Valentine's day, I'm spending less time on line and more time with the loves in my life!  So here is a linky list of past posts that I love:

Pink Love

Love Letters

Buddy's Haircut

Mr. Handsome Man

Letter to Summer

Beautiful Moments

Plums

10 Years

Happy Valentine's Day friends!

this moment

{{{as inspired by soulemama- one single, wordless moment that is worth hanging onto}}}

somebody's not happy

This is Jenny.  

After one day of bliss and being loved on by her person

she ended up here.  

Hanging by her ears and tail.

I love how thoroughly unhappy she looks in this picture.

That's more like it.

This kitty is very much loved.  And named after our favorite of the moment, Jenny Linsky.

If you'd like to make your own Jenny, you must check out Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love.  

cultured butter

Remember last year when I started making our butter in the blender?  Well, lately I'd been wanting to try to make cultured butter, so Moonpie and I gave it a shot last night.

When you culture butter you allow friendly, beneficial  bacteria to grow in it, making it easier to digest and healthier for your body.  It's the same idea as yogurt- only it's delicious butter!  I would love to get to the point where our family consumed probiotics in every meal, and not through supplementation.  Rather, through whole, fermented foods made right in our kitchen.  So far this morning we have  lacto-fermented granola, cultured butter, and fresh made yogurt ready to go!  This makes me excited!

If you look back at the steps to make butter that I posted last year, there is an extra step in culturing.

After pouring the raw cream off into a quart jar, I added 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt, covered the top in cheese cloth, and let it sit out over night (more like 12 hours).  The next morning I didn't have time to work on it, so I put it in the refrigerator until I had time the next evening.  I let it sit out to around room temperature (which is around 65 right now- it's the warmest I could get it!) and then picked up at step 2 (in the original tutorial).

This butter doesn't taste much different than our regular home made butter.  It's just as delicious as ever!

*Notes for next time:  I think I will leave the cream out for about 24 hours next time instead of the 12 that I did this time.  I would like a little more sour next time with more beneficial cultures.  I realize that trying to culture anything in  my chilly kitchen right now is a difficulty.  Just ask my sour dough starter (that never started).

I'm linked up on GNOWFGLINS Twister Tuesday!  Check out some other great traditional recipes!

weekending

{{{inspired by Amanda}}}


We had the best kind of weekending!

the kids in their thrifted snow bibs (buddy's were a size 10/12!)

Snow day

Daddy home

Pot of taco soup

Pan of cornbread

Loaf of banana bread

No house projects

Hot tea

thawing out the chicken's water

Puzzles

A movie

Books

just a peek

A celebration of love

A major reprieve from the cold

A beautiful extended drive through the country

Fruit bars from the convenience store

My favorite people, my favorite experiences...all wrapped up into one wonderful weekend.

he took some pictures...then he made me cry

There is so much to think about in the adoption process.  Sometimes it hits all at once, and sometimes I forget that it's real.  Like I mentioned before, knitting is helping in this.  Having the tangible presence of this baby helps me remember that s/he is real and will be coming soon  (fingers crossed).  I also started looking into stocking up on cloth diapers.  After receiving the first package in the mail, John gently 'encouraged' me to hold off a little longer.

You know, until we know the actual age of the child.

One of the many gifts of this journey is meeting other people that have similar callings to adopt.  Those of us that are Christ followers are all called to care for the orphan.  This is spelled out in scripture plainly.  But I believe that this caring will look different for different people.  For us it is opening our home, but our care for the orphan world wide does not end there.

Recently we met a couple that has answered the calling to care for the orphan by offering their gifts of photography to adoptive families.  They also are certified foster parents and have just welcomed their first foster child into their home!  I am so moved by their commitment to love a child that they will only have for a short time.  Fostering, to me, is the greatest act of selfless love.

We met up with Ryan and Sara in downtown Bryan to take some pictures for our adoption portfolio.  We have to put a portfolio together to present to birth moms.  Ryan and Sara want these portfolios to look awesome, so they offer their services for free.  Ryan is such a talented photographer and is so easy to work with.  Buddy is a tough customer, but Ryan's patience and gentleness with him coaxed out some pretty awesome pictures!

Ryan posted several from our shoot on his blog.  Then he wrote some really nice things that made me cry.  Go over and check out his stuff!   And if you have any photography needs, please give Ryan a look.  I know you won't be disappointed!

it's chilly... and some books

We are having some very cold weather!  I know, some you of are really suffering, like with actual snow and ice.  But for us 18 degrees is super cold.  Living in an old house can be hard this time of year.  With the heater going and a space heater plugged in- I can't get my bedroom warmer than 60 degrees.  Without the space heater it hovers around 50!  The living room is another story.  It is way colder in there.
Imagine my chagrin when the call just came in that they will be shutting off my power today.  For just 20 minutes.  But if it's 60 degrees in my house with the heat on, how cold is it going to get?

I'm a wuss about cold.  I know I am.  Feel free to tell me that!

Oh- and did I mention that our pipes are frozen?

And that the chickens slept in the laundry room?

Me thinks we will take this "arctic blast" warning a little more seriously next time!  It's just so hard to believe when it was in the 70's over the weekend!

Ok- enough complaining.

My friend Rachel posts the books she's read for the month on her blog.  I love that she does this because I always take her suggestions and read them too!  It's hard for a mama to find good books when there is little time to search for them.  So I appreciate that she does this.  And it's great to have a record of the books read throughout the year.  My goal this year is to read 35 books.  Not including my herbal texts.  This is lofty.  But I'm going to go for it!

Books read in January:

The Elephant Keeper Christopher Nicholson
This novel is haunting and interesting...and a bit strange.  It is about a man, living in 19th century England that is a horse keeper.  His employer buys two elephants and takes them in his charge.  He ends up following the elephants owner to owner as they are bought and sold.  It has a strange ending that left me a bit unsettled.  Like things hadn't been resolved.

Remarkable Creatures Tracy Chevalier
I loved this book!  It is historical fiction, that is one reason I loved it so.  It presented some big questions about fossils, God's design and the role of women in 18th century England.  It is written beautifully.  Read this one.

A Hole in Our Gospel Richard Stearn
I partially read this book.  It is very good- but the point is reiterated several times and I'm a quick learner!  It is written by the president of World Vision- an organization that we love and support.  If you are searching for how Christians are to care for the poor of the world, this is a wonderful resource.  I'll probably pick this one up again and finish out the parts that I skimmed.

moonpie celebrates- part 2

the decorations


I love to look at pictures of elaborate children's parties.  I am on OhDeeDoh all of the time checking out the beautiful parties going on up in there.  However, when it comes time to throwing my own party, I prefer simplicity.  Just like I prefer it in every other area!

A few weeks ago when we were at the library, I noticed an entire set of 1950's Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedias.  I grabbed a stack of them, setting them aside for party time.  

There is so much inspiration on the web for making things out of book pages.  Over on Dottie Angel I found heart streamers...perfect for our party and Valentines Day!  {{{I must pause to say...I am absolutely smitten with Dottie Angel.  I want to invite her to live in my little shed, however there is no moss to be found and she may not like it in the summers.}}}

These were very easy and fun to make!  We cut out hearts from the books and I just sewed 'em right up. I plan on leaving these up until March.  Or maybe forever.  I love them!

Next we set out to make a banner out of the pages.  Moonpie took over this job and wrote out S-E-V-E-N in glitter glue.  I stitched a length of binding across the top to make it hang.  I love for the children to be involved in all of the stages of the planning, and I think Moonpie did a lovely job on her banner!

Our bookworm cake was for sure the main feature!  The kids thought he was pretty cool!  I stacked him up on some of my old books and perched him next to our jars o' snacks.  The snacks were limited this year because we actually served lunch.  Moonpie dipped several pretzel rods into (fair trade) chocolate and Buddy helped roll them into sprinkles.  The rest of the snacks were basic- carrot sticks, clementines and plain pretezel rods.

For the goodie bags I simply ripped out a page of the book and glued it to a brown bag from Hobby Lobby.  Inside the goodie bags we placed a yummy earth sucker, a thrifted book and a secret treasure box with bookworm glasses attached!  These were the typical Groucho Marx glasses with the nose and eyebrows removed.  I attached  a little poem I came up with at the last minute and then almost burned the house down trying to make it look cool.  Moonpie was behind me the whole time saying "please be careful Mama."  "We really don't need to do this Mama!"  "Please don't burn yourself Mama!!!".

These little boxes were my most favorite element.  John worked 2 days on these getting them ready.  And I love the way they turned out!  Our children have already stuffed theirs with treasures, and I'm hoping Moonpie's buddies do the same.  John was pretty relieved that we only had 4 children over.  I can't imagine how long it would have taken if there would have been more!
Here's to having a husband that puts up with all of my over ambition!  I think he's my enabler because he always says "sure, we can do that".  That's right.  It's all his fault!!!

And that was it.  Very simple.  Very manageable.  Just the way I like it!  As in most things in my life, it is more important for me that my children be a part of the process than to have a perfect picture at the end.

***one last thing- before the book police come and hunt me down.  These books were going to be thrown out, living in a land fill.  I was more than happy to give them a second chance at life, sitting on the shelf of child concealing treasures of the heart.  And yes, turning some pages into hearts.  I know this isn't for everyone, it was actually rather hard for me to do.  But I feel like it was a worthy use of what essentially was going to be trash.***