Image: Vlado / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have been reading through Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore’s book  ’The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook‘.  This is the most straight talking and reassuring book yet that I have read about homeschool.  The book talks very strongly against schooling that burns out parents and kids way to early.  ….and it is very easy to feel behind, inadequate, and burned out quickly in the homeschool experience.

I wanted to share some of their socialization stuff that was really good. Read the rest of this entry →

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Money is a big deal in our house.  We just like it  My dad is an accountant, my husbands dad is an accountant, both my husband and I have degrees in business and have always been entrepreneurial.   …they kids probably didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

I have been teaching the kids about money the same as I was taught when I was their age.  They get a specific amount for allowance.  They can make more money by doing extra school work and they lose money (by the penny) for not obeying.  Just like real life, money is tied into work ethic and behavior. Read the rest of this entry →

I just started the book ‘The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook‘ by Dr.Raymond and Dorothy Moore.  I am also studying their website.

In the three years since starting to homeschool I feel like most of my time has been un-learning and figuring the process out.

First, things like:

• sitting in a desk
• having a fully structured day
• working on assignments in all classes
• testing

…and more I have come to see as necessary in a classroom setting but not necessary to children learning. Read the rest of this entry →

Story

A few weeks ago when we were unplugged we went to visit some home school friends of ours about 2 hours away for the day.  Technically it was a ‘day off’ school but as we watched them it was amazing to see them working and learning together.  Read the rest of this entry →

I am excited to share a guest post with you today from Susan of pureHOMEandBody.com.  Because today is a homeschool themed day I asked her to share some ideas for how to celebrate earth day with kids.  Thanks so much Susan for such a great post and beautiful pictures

Earth day is one holiday that many communities join together to celebrate, this year on April 22nd, but you can celebrate all of creation anytime! Just like with any holidays, there will be the temptation to “consume” themed goods – even for Earth Day. But you don’t have to compromise your Minimalistic values when you choose activities that require very little if any new materials.

The winter months can become long for many of us who crave the longer days of spring and summer. Spring is one of my favorite times of year, the days are getting warmer and plants that were dormant over winter are bursting with life. Earth Day is about celebrating, well , the Earth! There are many ways to share this time of year with your family. Find things that fit with your schedule, personal interests and capitalize on your natural surroundings. Most of all, don’t get stressed about it. Take advantage of the opportunities when they arise. Often kids are the best at initiating activities – when they are excited, follow their lead.  When you help your kids see and enjoy the wonder of creation, they’ll naturally develop a desire to take care of the Earth all year long.  Here are some simple ways we celebrate the beautiful change of seasons on Earth Day or any day.     Read the rest of this entry →

Here is a picture of Ian and I when we took the kids on a hike and to feed the fish last weekend.

Want to know what has been burning in my head for the last few weeks?

It is the small part of this talk I shared a month ago on fear and failure.  Here is the clip again.

Here is the link

The whole talk is good but what has been bugging me goes from about 11:50-12:40 on the tape.  Really the idea starts around minute 9.  If you haven’t seen the talk yet it is totally worth 15 minutes of your time… and you might need it for context.  The whole talk is inspiring and entertaining.

It really has reminded me of the truth that the biggest way we can teach our kids is by what we do (if you homeschool or not).  Actions speak louder than words is true in so many ways.  So often we use this when we talk about showing love to our children or showing that we believe in them.  These are extremely important.  But this carries to education as well. Read the rest of this entry →

Wanted to say thanks for the feedback I received last Friday on my simple homeschool post about ‘Begin With The End In Mind‘.  I also wanted to share a homeschool article that I enjoyed by Ann Voskamp ‘Why Be Crazy Enough to Homeschool‘

What I really appreciated about Ann’s article was that it said that homeschooling isn’t this virtuous perfect thing.  When I talk about homeschooling my kids I don’t want it to come across as this perfect thing that everyone should be doing.  Just because my kids are home with me doesn’t mean they will come out perfect, smarter, or better.  I work very hard at figuring out how to make it the best experience for them, but I am not perfect and just having them home doesn’t do the job for me.

Read the rest of this entry →

Image: David Castillo Dominici 

I love the concept of ‘begin with the end in mind’ from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Lately, I  have kept coming back to it with regards to education and my home schooling.  If you have been around for a while you know that I have been rethinking my homeschooling practice in the last few months….really, I am often thinking (or over thinking) most things in my life but I think that is where growth comes from.

To really simplify home schooling I want to take a look at the output and then work back to figure out how to get there.   Read the rest of this entry →

Welcome to loving simple living.  This week has been a wild one with the book release on Wednesday.  To be perfectly honest I have been stressing more than I should about it.  It is scary to do new things.  In my effort to simplify I have made room for much more new and exciting things, and new and exciting things aren’t simple….so I don’t know what that makes me or the blog but more on that later maybe.

Last week was beautiful weather.  It was like we went from winter to summer in one weekend.  To say that it was amazing wouldn’t be doing it justice.  I love the warm weather and being outside.  Last Wednesday night(week and a half ago now), as my husband and I sat outside at Chipotle for our date night dinner we decided the weather was just too good not to take off and go camping.   We had to make use of our self-employment and home schooling freedom and enjoy the heat.

Prior to this I hadn’t planned on doing a spring break for the kids, just figured we would work through and get things done.  I have been playing with the ideas of unchooling and schooling in general lately and figured we could experiment taking off ‘school’ for a few days and see what else we could learn.  I have been doing a bunch of thinking and figuring out stuff in my head lately about school, next year is going to be very different.  I will keep you posted as I figure stuff out.  This is the learning we did away from the table:

Hiking is my favorite thing.  We look for parks and campgrounds with hiking trails and do the longest ones we can find….. this one was only maybe 5 miles and the last mile was walking back to the car along the side of the road.  Much prefer the parks on the east and west ends of the country, MUCH better hiking.

Ian was upset on this walk from about mile 2 through 3 ish and threw a big fit.  He has been going through spells like that in mid morning.  Don’t quite know how to help him out of it, hope it is just a faze.  Soon he was over it and running ahead.

The kids love the walking sticks and we always have to bring them along, but they only end up using them for .01% of the time.  …  not sure why I am wearing all black… we don’t hike in fashion

Ah, proof that they do sometimes use the walking sticks.

This creek went right past our campsite.  The water was really clear and the kids had lots of fun with it.

The other side note on the campsite was that we were at least .25 miles from a bathroom in both directions.  I have never camped at a campsite that had so little facilities.  I like walking and all…. but over a 1/2 mile round trip every time someone needs to use the bathroom is a bit much.  Lots of times we drove.  When we booked the campsite on Wednesday night it was the last one available, I was amazed they were so packed so early.

Touring the fish hatchery at Roaring River State Park, Missouri.  They grow the fish here and then release them into the river lined with people waiting to catch and eat them. … not sure how natural that is.  I don’t fish or eat fish, but growing them in such close quarters and then being caught so soon doesn’t seem fun for the fish or make much sense for people (who stand there all day to outsmart a fish that was in captivity already).  But like I said, I don’t fish, so I don’t understand.

They had a bug catching net and container with a magnifying glass they got from Grandma.  They had fun catching lots of stuff… most stuff wasn’t stuff that moved.  It was easier to catch flowers and rocks and examine them.  Daddy did help them catch a butterfly that they were able to get a close look at before releasing it back into the open air.

Daddy and Ian did some hiking up behind our campsite and found this guy.  We had seen little flashes of lizards on our other walks but this one stuck around and let them get a good look.   There were Rattlesnakes and Copperheads in the park as well.  They said they hadn’t seen any yet, but they usually come out after about 3 days above 70 in a row… which would have timed them right to come out for the weekend.  … made me a bit nervous, glad we just found this guy.

We wanted to make the most of the travel experience.  We went to 6 states.  Nebraska (where we live), Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.  …not to be down on where we live, but these aren’t the most exciting of the 50 states.  Still, we wanted to cross off a few more for the kids to say they have been to.  Well over half now, we need to explore the south east a bit more to get lots of the ones we are missing.

Wednesday morning I was super tired after I had woke up early to get stuff ready for the book release.  Made a big breakfast for the kids but then they were just sitting on the couch together reading books they had gotten from the library the night before.  How could I pull them away from focused reading to do book work? It just didn’t seem right, so we spent most of the morning just reading books.  Lily found this in a ‘worst case scenario’ book she got.  She copied it out and went to great lengths to convince Ian to sign it.  After completed she taped it to the bedroom door.   The language cracks me up.  This is great early education in legal documents right?

Where do you take your kids to explore?

For those of you reading 321 Stop – stop running and start living what do you think so far?

Another 321-Stop Giveaway Started:

• Ginger Baby Mama

I don’t know where you are reading this, but here in the smack-dab-middle of the USA it is beautiful weather.  Averages for this time of year should be in the 40′s (single digits and a bit above in Celsius I think) but it has been above 70 almost all week (more than 20 Celsius).  Hardly any wind, lots of sunshine, and pure summer bliss.  There might still be a snow storm on the way…but we will chose not to think about that.

It has been great for our simple home school.  Weather probably has a direct correlation to mommies sanity.  I really don’t like the cold (even though I was born in central Alberta of freezing-cold Canada) and I just hide and hibernate for the winter.  Worked great to get lots done on my book, but not so great for any of our physical or emotional health.

But, now that it is nice, this week we have:

• Gone to the Durham Museum 2 times
• Gone to the Zoo 3 times
• Hiked 20 miles (Lily and I hiked, Ian just runs)

This is what simple home school is all about.  We do the books in the morning and then take off and explore.  We are exhausted and sore, but it seems wrong to say ‘no’ to nature.

With our actual schooling and home time I have been trying to do less structure and watch/allow the kids to explore what they are interested in.  I want them to learn to be hard-working, motivated, and focused.  That is easier to practice when they are working on something they chose to learn.  I also want to help them develop in ways that they are gifted in and interested in and if I don’t really encourage and allow them to explore they might hit life like most people (including myself) with no idea what they really want or enjoy doing.

I have been really limiting the amount of fiction books Lily is getting from the library and she has been hunting through the non-fiction.  Last week she got a bunch of books on plays and skits and we put a few little shows on for daddy in the evening. This past week she found a bunch of books on drawing cartoons.  Wednesday this week was our rest at home day and she spent almost the entire day (except for the book work she had to do in the morning) working on drawing a ‘Galaxy Pig’ cartoon.  Hours working on little squares to tell the story.  First she drew in pencil and then she traced it all with her markers.  I loved the fact that she was tackling a hard project all on her own and going above and beyond what would have ever been asked of her in a school assignment I might have given her.  With her school work, most of the time, she just does as little as she can to get by…not much different than I ever did.  I am excited to see her really pour herself into something and I want to make sure she has more of these chances in the future.

Now, because the weather is so amazing this week we decided to take an impromptu vacation this weekend.  Daddy is taking Friday and Monday off work and we are going camping.  So excited to get away for a few days.

’321 Stop – stop running and start living’ book update:

5 days till release on March 21

“When I picked up the book 321-Stop I wasn’t aware how much I needed to simplify. With gentle kindness and an extreme dose of humor Lorilee Lippencott holds the mirror up to our stuff induced lives, all the while bringing us a tool-kit to get control of it again. Three important areas of one’s life are the focus of this awe inspiring book.  Your stuff, your time, and your head. It’s your choice whether you do a little or a lot of down-sizing. Interspersed are personal stories, favorite reads, and so much encouragement. This little gem of a book is all the motivation you’ll need to de-clutter and simplify your life. I just love this book and know I will return to it again and again. Each time around and through this inspiring read will unveil a little more of “me” and my life that’s gone missing. ” – Amazon best-seller Valarie Budayr is author of The Fox Diaries