Shhh! School has Started!

Since I made the decision to home school I have been doing a little practice teaching.  We have been working our way through the Scripture Alphabet series with Impress Your Kids and have really enjoyed it.  We save this for the end of our day, just before prayers and bedtime.  It helps the children settle down and also gives us some time to learn letters and do some crafting.

Cohen hard at work tracing letters.  I was shocked when he asked to copy what he traced on the lines below.  I love that homeschooling encourages children to take initiative and to extend their learning.

All of the children are present during these activities.   As a teacher I learned that I could expose students to subjects, topics etc... that were a little above them.  I just have to remember not to require that they demonstrate everything they are being exposed to.  We printed the letter L and searched for it on our letter bin.  Searching is a really important early skill.  Students need it to help them recognize letters as they are reading.  Here is a site that has some good activities that help with searching.  Not all the activities help with searching but most of it is useful.

This activity was great.  The children practiced important skills such as searching, printing, cutting and gluing. 

Today we were working on the letter L.  Since Impress Your Kids did not have a verse for this one, we found "Look to me and be saved..." Isaiah 45:22.  Impress Your Kids made lions out of paper plates.   I didn't have any on hand so we used paper bags.  The kids loved it.  This activity helped improve their fine motor skills and was lots of fun.  My son came up with the idea of using round stickers for eyes and putting dots in them.   I love these moments where we can just share ideas and work together.

There he is again - shirtless-boy! He gets something out of our time together.

I have been trying to home school as informally as possible.  Since my sons are high energy I keep things flowing without abrupt beginnings and endings.  We brought out the sorting toys and sorted together on the family room carpet.  I thought we were done but my son continued exploring.  He started to make patterns with the sorting toys and soon we were back to sorting with other attributes.  Through homeschooling my kids don't realize that they are "in school".  The learning is just woven into our daily lives.

I am thankful for the opportunity to home school and hope I can do it for as long as I need to!

Stumbling on Gentleness

I stumbled upon an amazing site that inspired me to spend more time with my children learning about God. This site appealed to me because it had very easy directions, the activities were engaging and always included an educational element.  What more could a Christian mom want?

Anyway, the site, Impress Your Kids, has activities that teach your child scripture and learn basic literacy skills at the same time.  I was excited to start this with my children.  I got all the materials ready and laid everything out.  I clicked on the first verse and found God speaking to me through a megaphone. 

"A gentle answer turns away anger." Proverbs 15:1. 

I have always struggled with anger.  My anger shows itself in yelling, name calling, and criticisms.  There are days where I feel sorry for the mess I put my children through.  I find most days I am squeezing my anger so tight so I won't "lose it".  The worst days are when I lose it and blame my kids, "if you had listened, mommy would not have to yell".  This is where I fail as a mother.  I allow my frustrations to get the best of me.  I excused my anger by telling myself that I was frustrated, tired and fed up.  So you can understand that when I stumbled on our very first verse and it is about gentleness I was convicted.

As we went on exploring this activity I had to demonstrate what a gentle answer was, apologize for my behavior and do a lot of reassuring.  I realized that through my constant reminders about what my son isn't doing right he got the idea that he "wasn't a good boy".  Our hearts lay broken side by side.  He cried and explained that he felt he "ruined everything" and he "couldn't stop doing bad stuff".  My mind searched for comforting words and I fell upon my own weaknesses.  I asked him if he thought I was a good mother.  His eyes lit up and he said yes.  I asked him if I did wrong things.  Then I said yes.  I explained that doing wrong things doesn't make me bad it just means I need God's help.   We talked about how remembering this verse could remind us that we need God's help.  

I did not expect this 'kid's stuff' to penetrate my heart.  I did not expect that by teaching my children the truth about God that conviction and repentance were going to follow.  I thank God that he can teach me to see his love through the eyes of my child.

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