Homeschool Hop Theme Free

As I tried to figure out what I wanted to write about since this is a Theme Free Hop this time around, I had many thoughts go through my mind. I then decided to write about the book I believe was probably the best book I have ever read. It is the only book that I have read from front to cover at least three times.

The Ghost In The Little House A Life of Rose Wilder Lane by William Holtz is a biography of Laura Ingals Wilder’s daughter Rose. It speaks through Rose’s eyes as to what it was like to be the daughter of Laura Ingals Wilder. From a little girl who’s life was far from easy, never really feeling like she belonged, though her parents loved her dearly. Though the family struggled from poverty, Rose road a donkey to school, and just never felt like she fit into this town. Rose had such a passion for books that by the time she finished the 6th grade she had read every book in the school. Little did she know this would carve out her livelihood.

After high school Rose moved to San Francisco. She never seemed to stay in one place long. She made her way in life through her writings. Accredited for helping her mother to get started in her writing. Some times what Rose had to say in her writings were very controversial towards the government and society as a whole. Never really forgetting where she came from, Rose even had a new home built for her parents but her mom refused to live in it. Married and watching it failed, just reinforced all the pain and sadness that Rose had felt all her life. Yet, she plunged ahead in life and in her writing.

After the death of her mom, Rose had inherited everything, she no longer needed to write to make a living, she then settled into a life of travel. Her travels took her all over the world, she overcame serious illnesses through her travels, but she never allowed her health to stop her. Her last journey to go to Vietnam though ended short in 1965 when she went up to bed healthy and well, to die sometime in the night alone. She never took time to really write out any words of reflection to what life meant to her or what could be said to be her final words, but one phrase that she loved, came from an ancient Greek seafarer:

A ship-wrecked sailor, buried on this coast,
Bids you set sail.
Full many a gallant ship, when we were lost,
Weathered the gale.

The book is nearly 400 pages, and is not an easy read in the least, but in my opinion it is a book worth reading, packed with more history not only about the life of Rose Wilder Lane, but the history of this country, through the eyes of a girl who felt like such a ghost in her own life. I always felt upon reading this book, that deep inside Rose lived such a part of her mother, her strength, ambition, and stubbornness, but it was also a part of Rose that while she spent a life time trying to escape it, she always returned to it in heart.

Homeschool Blog Hop/Time For Mum

I have spent the last two weeks thinking about this very question. What do I do for myself? What is my Sanctuary? What is my thing? How do I recharge, relax, rejuvenate myself to be energized for my family?

I have many interests and things that I enjoy doing. Blogging tends to be my escape right now, or is it? I love to write and find that blogging gives me just that a time to shut out the world and just write. I know my blog is about my family and to be more specific Selena, but you know what my family is my refuge. I get recharged just through them.

I have never been a mom who needed a whole lot of time to myself. I never really can relax when I am not with my family. I steal a few minutes out of my day to spend time in the bible, usually first thing in the morning. I use quiet time in the afternoon or nap time which ever it ends up being to lay back close my eyes and just meditate on the wonderful things I have in my life, which is usually my family.

I think the times I feel the most recharged and rejuvenated, ready to go again, is when I can look around and see how every little thing I have done in the day has made a big difference for my family. When I can see the light bulb moments when Selena has learned something new and is totally excited beyond control, then I know that I have moved a mountain for her, and her excitement recharges me to keep going. When I see in my husband that he has once less burden upon his plate, or he has time to watch his baseball game because I went the extra mile and paid a bill, or ran an errand for him, I feel recharged and ready to go.

When I can lag behind on our nature hikes and watch the two of them walking hand in hand knowing that when we left home the laundry was done, the bathroom cleaned, the beds made, the dishes done, then I feel recharged knowing that those things made this family outing possible. When I can enjoy watching my husband throw his line in the waters to fish, again knowing that this is not something that I particularly enjoy, but he is because I have gone out of my way to make sure he got to go fishing, then I feel recharged.

Much like my mother and my grandmother and even my great grandmother, parenting has been our career. We’ve worked when we needed to, but mostly we have been mothers. We have never asked for much more then our needs being met, but instead we have asked what can we do or have to make our families lives easier, better, more enjoyable. We have taken much pride in knowing that every dollar we have tucked away every week, is the money that is paying for our summer vacation. We take much pride in the fact that our talents are spent on our family through baking, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and that the products of our efforts all go for the pleasure or needs of our family.

I guess what I am saying is maybe I try to get up before my family to spend some time to myself, and usually am the last one to go to bed at night, just reflecting on all the things I have provided for my family, taught Selena, and learned myself, is all I need for a perfect boost of energy to keep me wanting to move on the next day. I am a simple person, I don’t need malls, day spas, though sometimes these do sound great, time alone or away to feel that I am ready to move on. If I did then I would be living in the wrong place that is for sure, as we don’t have any of those luxuries here.

I am just me, purely and simply put. I am first and foremost a child of God, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother, my life has been laid out before me, predestined, guided, and most of all rewarded within every turn I take throughout my day.

Head on over to Our Worldwide Classroom for details as to how you can participate and share in this Blog Hop!

Homeschool Blog Hop #11 Family Pastimes

The thing I love most about my family is we all have different interests that just blend together. We have a lot of the same interests, but at the same time we embrace our differences and allow time for each person to do these things that they are passionate about.

Some of the things we enjoy doing as a family:

1. Nature Hikes….weather permitting we can usually be found out side discovering the world around us. We truly live in the best part of our State for this, as we have so many things to explore, from rain forests, ocean beaches, mountain lakes, mountain trails, to country life, and city life. No matter which direction we go in there is always something new to see and explore.

2. Sports….many times especially when the weather is not cooperating to get out side you will find us watching sports. We love baseball, basketball, football, and we each have a few sports that not everyone likes. We live in a great area for sports as well, from the Seattle Mariners, Seahawks, Sounders, there is plenty of sports events we can go watch in person as well.

3. Laughter….we always have a house full of laughter, each one with our own sense of humor that blends in harmony to keep laughter a continued sound in our home.

Some of the things I enjoy that my husband doesn’t necessary enjoy but embraces:

1. Long drives….I love to drive. I don’t care where I drive to but I love to drive. When we go out as a family I am the one always doing the driving. I love to go nowhere (basically just drive and see where we end up). My husband doesn’t mind these long drives, as many times he sees things he wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t taken a wild turn up a road not knowing exactly where we were headed. Selena just goes along for the ride, but does enjoy when we stop to explore.

2. Photography….I always have my camera close by. I love to take pictures of my family, nature, and just about anything I find interesting. Anyone who has followed my blog realizes I am not in very many pictures, funny how I love to take pictures but never have cared to have my picture taken. This is probably what is appealing Selena to photography as well. She is already asking for Santa to bring her a camera for Christmas.

3. Reading…I love to read, rather it be a good book, magazine or here on the Internet I love to read. I read with Selena all the time, and enjoy all the time I can find to read for myself.

4. Writing….I have always loved to write, from letters, blogging, journaling, and even poetry. I will sit for hours when I can and just write, sometimes about nothing at all but what I feel, or what I am seeing around me.

Some of the things my husband enjoys that I don’t necessary enjoy but embrace:

1. Fishing….my husband loves to fish. I use to enjoy fishing with my parents when I was younger, but they never knew the meaning of enough of a good thing and I burned out on fishing. I do however love to go and just watch my husband fish, rather it be at a lake, river or stream, I can watch him for hours fishing, just give me my book, camera, or tablet for writing. Selena enjoys just being out in nature, running back and forth between Papa and I telling us everything she sees.

2. Being a home body….my husband truly is a home body. He could spend all his free time when he isn’t fishing just sitting around the house. I suppose in a lot of ways this has been the hardest thing for me to embrace, as I tend to love to go, but I have learned to embrace it and realize it does feel good to sit at home too. These are good times for Selena to do some of the things listed below.

The things that Selena loves not included above, that she shares with us:

1. Reading! She can’t get enough of her little books.

2. Arts and Crafts!

3. Games, card games, board games, imaginary games.

4. Swings, bikes, water fun, digging in the sand or dirt,

Basically the normal child stuff!

I broke mine up like this as you see, grandparents, raising Selena we have had to come to the realization we don’t always have the energy that younger parents have, so we have had to learn balance in our world. We have had to embrace doing many things that we don’t always have the energy for, or figured we would not be doing at our age. I feel that it doesn’t matter what you do as a family, it is being together. Embrace your differences, and learn to enjoy every aspect of being a family, that is the best gift you can give to your relationship, as well as to your children.

Homeschool Hop #10

This weeks theme at the Homeschool Hop hosted by Kylie at Our Worldwide Classroom is to answer one question:

What is your favorite subject to teach or learn with your children?

I have to say my favorite subject or subjects to teach and learn with Selena are Geography and History. As a family we are able to enjoy exploring the world, the history buried within our world, and our own backyard.

I myself always loved these subjects in school and always found so many interesting nonfiction and fiction books based on the blend of geography and history. Coming from a family of pioneers I have had a great passion for following their paths from Sweeden to where they homesteaded, a quest for how our family ended up where they finally did. I feel that within these two subjects one can teach so many other subjects at the same time, from reading through literature, math, science, and just the desire to want to learn. I know that Selena wakes up every morning and the first words out of her mouth is “Let’s talk about something new today.” She can’t get enough of her little geography and history lessons. We are able to go out and explore with hands on, to being here at home looking at maps, making maps, to learning facts from everything from books to the Internet.

We have mapped several States so far, and continue to work on these as we go along. We are making a wonderful scrapbook that I hope proves to be the foundation for all of our Geography and History lessons from here on. When we finish the States we will look at the Continents and different Countries. We have taken a lot of time here of late to just explore our State. From lighthouses, volcanoes, and yet to come rivers.

Many of you know I started a postcard exchange at Christmas time. This proved to be a great success and I discovered many mom’s who participated with Selena and I, as well as using this in their own schools. I have now introduced a weekly linky for all Geography/History posts. You are all welcome to link up at anytime that you teach a little Geography or History. Just keep an eye open for my button to appear every Wednesday, and no you do not have to participate in the postcard exchange to link up.

I am linking this up to Our Worldwide Classroom.

Homeschool Hop #9

What Are My Favorite Things?

There are so many things that just make me happy. I look at life so differently now in so many ways after my battle with cancer, but I would have to say the one thing that I have always loved and still do is just getting out into nature. I am more at peace and so happy when I am taking in the beauty my world holds.   From the power of the Ocean to the serenity of the Mountains.

The best part of both worlds here is that I love sharing them with my family. I love just watching as my husband and Selena enjoy the same things I enjoy, and sharing these things with them.

Nothing else really matters to me, when I find myself in the serenity of being outside. I love to explore, discover, and share all this with my family. The wind in my hair, the smells of nature itself, and the beauty all around me. These are my most favorite things.

A few other favorite things I like:

Yellow roses, the smell of a baby, the warmth and safety of being in my husband’s arms, and hearing my older children’s voices on the phone and knowing they are thinking about me as much as I think about them. Reflecting on my childhood, and holding close and near those memories and knowing that this family was chosen for me.

Knowing that each person in the above picture contributed many things to make me into the person I am today. Now that is the most special thing, and my favorite realization.

Homeschool Blog Hop #8

After a nice break the homeschool hop is back up and running! Since there is no theme this week, I thought I would take some time to just tell you how I got into blogging, but mostly how I got into blogging about our homeschool adventures.

For numerous years I had a couple of Websites, that I designed and maintained. I enjoyed this so much, but as time went by I had so much more inside me that I wanted to share. This was about the time blogs started becoming some sort of a fad, they were still considered an online diary or journal. I played around with a few here or there but it just didn’t seem right at the time.

I started this blog and really had no direction for it. I seldom posted anything on it since I really didn’t know what I wanted to share. At the time I was active at Ivillage, and met up with Natalie from Mouse Grows Mouse Learns. She shared with me her blog many times, since we really seemed to be on the same page with our girls.

Believe it or not I totally shut off my Internet service when I found out I had the cancer. When I came back on line and began to see everything that Natalie was writing about and started finding other homeschool mom’s blogs, this just happened to be at the time we were starting to look at preschooling and doing more with Selena. I believe this was the true beginning to my blog, when it finally had an identity and became what it is.

I enjoy being a part of the Homeschool Hop as it has brought many new faces, and blogs into my path. I enjoy reading all your blogs, and though at times I am slow at leaving remarks, believe me I follow and I do read. Anyway there you have my story in a nutshell, on how I became a blogger!

STOP: Please DO NOT add your link below unless you have a post published about the blog hop and the current theme, and the McLinky code showing in that post.

Homeschool Hop #7

By Request Theme For The Week: State Requirements

I feel pretty fortunate to live in a State where our requirements are pretty liberal as far as homeschooling goes. I have researched a couple other States when we thought we might be moving and was surprised to discover how restrictive other States are. I am so glad we did not move for this reason.

Washington State

State requirements to be able to homeschool:

1. At least one parent must have 45 college credits or have taken the homeschool college course. There are two other options: you can be supervised by a teacher in the education field who meets with you once a week or the school superintendent can deem you as being qualified to home instruct your children.

Our Responsibilities as a homeschool family:

1. File an intent to homeschool every year with our school district beginning upon when the child would enter the 2nd grade or by age 8. This has to be done every year by the beginning of the school year.

2. Have the child tested yearly from 2nd grade on. These tests can be obtained from a certified provider, we can administer the tests ourselves then have the provider grade them. We can also choose to do a group testing with other homeschoolers as well. Test results are part of your private homeschool record, no one else receives a copy

We do  have an option to the annual testing, we can have a teacher in the field check our progress and write a comprehensive letter as to our child’s progress.

Records we must keep:

1. Our homeschool records should include the student’s annual test scores or assessment report and immunization records with any other records we keep pertaining to the educational activities we are doing.  These are our private records and do not need to be shared with any state agency. However should we choose to enroll our child in a traditional school setting we might have to share them for grade placement.

Other:

We can request that our child be allowed to take certain classes or participate in extra curriculum activities offered by our school district, the schools by law can not discriminate against our request.

We can also ask the school to furnish our materials such as text books. The schools do not have to furnish us with the newest text books being used, but at this point they do have to furnish us with text books.

We can use any curriculum we desire to use or homeschool in any fashion we desire to. HOWEVER it is our responsibility to see that our child is learning. How this is determined in this state is beyond me, and I have yet to figure out how they know this information without seeing our test results (I suppose this is on the books to cover the school system).

That is pretty much our laws in a nutshell. We can utilize the head start program for graduation or write our own diploma and furnish the needed information for college enrolment.

STOP: Please DO NOT add your link below unless you have a post published about the blog hop and the current theme, and the McLinky code showing in that post. Please ensure you have linked directly to your blog hop post and that the title includes the words 'blog hop' somewhere. All links added are checked via McLinky and those without these details are removed immediately. We are all enjoying this immensely, please play fairly as the majority of blog hoppers do! Thanks for participating, have fun!

Home School Hop #6

Theme For The Week: 10 Random Questions

Time for a bit of fun this week. Just copy the 10 questions below and enter your answers after each one of them for this week's blog hop.

I can't wait to see all of your answers.

1. What time is it right now? 6:41 A.M.

2. What are you wearing? I am actually still in my Pajamas.

3. What is your mood? Light and happy.

4. What is one thing your children learned today? Selena learned that Papa sometimes rides with someone else to work. She didn’t like the fact that he got into a strange vehicle. Too Funny!

5. What did you (or are having) for dinner? We will have meat loaf with Scalloped Potatoes.

6. What's one book you are currently reading? A Bible Study, “Seeking Him” and the Bible.

7. What behaviour (in people) is the most common but also the rudest? When they think it is ok to offer unsolicited advice on parenting, marriage, or life in general. I put the emphasis on unsolicited, this is different then when we ask, “What do you think?”

8. What can you see out of your nearest window right now? Dark, completely Dark.

9. What are you currently praying for? Peaceful heart and spirit.

10. What is your favourite hot beverage? Hot Chocolate.

STOP: Please DO NOT add your link below unless you have a post published about the blog hop and the current theme, and the McLinky code showing in that post. All links added that do not play fairly are removed.

The Home School Hop #5

If you haven’t checked out The Home School Hop, you really should, it is a lot of fun, and a great way to discover new home school blogs. Kylie at Our Worldwide Classroom hosts this weekly blog hop, so go on over and check it out!

This week’s theme is “What’s Your Style?”

I know that there are fancy names for all sorts of different styles. I am a person that does not like labels, so I don’t refer to anyone style. I teach within what feels comfortable to me, and try to use teaching methods that will achieve success for Selena. If I were to refer to a particular style or styles I would have to say I am somewhere in between them all. After homeschooling my older children I have already learned that learning is as individual as the student is. My job as a teacher is to learn my child’s learning style and teach accordingly.

I do order a complete curriculum every year. Do I use it all? No, I do not, but I do like having the resources at hand for inspiration. I never expect that we will work all the way through a workbook or textbook. I don’t think it is always necessary for the countless hours of such repetitive work that is found in workbooks or textbooks. Yet, I do like to have these as resources for new concepts.

I really prefer to teach to my child’s interests. While I love to do themes, I have discovered that Selena is not. Her learning style is once I know it lets move on! Themes do not work very well here, as generally by the second day Selena is sick of the theme and detaches from her school work.

I love to use life experiences to teach by, I feel sometimes these are the best ways to learn for anyone, however I feel the structure of having assignments that are due in a particular time frame is in itself a great tool that will be needed throughout life. I also am a firm believer that learning is a 24/7 event, therefore I home school year around, with breaks from formal learning as deemed needed on either my part or Selena’s.

With all that said, I guess my style is a blend of “School at Home”,  “Relaxed or Eclectic” “Unschooling” and “The Charlotte Masson” styles.