Nurturing the home

 

“May our families and homes be filled with love: love of each other, love of the gospel, love of our fellowman, and love of our Savior. As a result, heaven will be a little closer here on earth.

“May we make of our homes sanctuaries to which our family members will ever want to return.”

Thomas S. Monson, “A Sanctuary from the World,” Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, Feb. 9, 2008.

Isn’t that a beautiful thought? I want our home to be like this always, but true, there are crazy days, and peaceful days. Lately, the boys and I have been enjoying books from the library, home made playdough, and a couple of cheap, blow up pools in the back yard. (Sadly, the big plastic one got too many cracks.) I love reading to my boys, but it gets a little hard to breathe. We sometimes will sit all together in the recliner chair, with a boy on each side. It’s great snuggle time, but my belly is getting so big, and I can only last one book, and then we have to move so I can breathe. Funny.

As school is starting everywhere, so have the homeschool activities in my awesome co-op. I went to a small seminar put on by my friends in the co-op, and learned more great tidbits of knowledge. Everyone introduced themselves, and stated how and why they started homeschooling. One dad said, “We didn’t want to get up early in the morning to take them to school. We thought this was a noble purpose to HS.” We all laughed.

My friend Jonelle instructed us that day. One thing I loved hearing was that she learned the most when they took their schooling from the table to the floor. I think the boys and I do that right now. We have a ‘story time’ part of the day, where I get a comforter on the floor and load it with pillows. We get some books out and read together for about 20 minutes. It’s great.

We tried some art time last week. Doing art stuff is sometimes challenging with the boys. They usually will go into destructo mode, and make a big mess. I got them each a little paint set, and let them go at the kitchen table. Kevin just wanted to dip his brush in paint, and eat the brush. Lovely. They much prefer playdough, and enjoy that one immensely.

As Ethan will be starting his first official year of school next year, I’ve begun to really search  for some curriculum we’ll be using. A sweet friend at the seminar showed me “Five in a row”, and neat study manual that does simple unit studies from reading books. The plus is that the manual is around $35, and the books used for it can be found at the library. I think it will be a good, affordable start to our curriculum. Also, the Homeschool Creations blog has tons of free printables and activities that go with Five in a Row. Added bonus!

For reading and writing, I found something called Primary Arts and Language reading and writing program. (PAL)

I asked on the LDS homeschool Facebook group about curriculum, and had a few rave about this one. I studied up on it intensely one day, and it sounds really good. It also had the Thomas Jefferson Education book on their website, which is a method I’ve been learning about. More good stuff.

For math, still working on that one. I keep hearing over and over again good things about Math U see. I’ll have to check it out.

I’m trying not to overwhelm myself the first year. Covering the basics of reading, writing, and math will be a good start. Once a week, maybe we can throw some fun science learning in there. Fridays, the co-op has wonderful activities weekly for fun social and learning. This weekend is an open house, tailored to those just starting this journey. I am so, so spoiled to have found the Share West yahoo group. They have helped tremendously helpful and provide so many great outings and get togethers.

I know I will learn a lot as we begin. It’s going to be very humbling. Not every day will be smooth sailing, but there will be much learning. Learning about Ethan, what his learning style is, what he loves and doesn’t love, and more. I hope I haven’t bored you too much with these homeschooling posts, but I want to share with you all the things I am learning

The boys enjoying summer. Although I love the wet fun of summer, I think I am ready for the heat to cool down, and for the joys of Fall, and for Brooke to come out. Almost one more month left!