Nature Study, the Charlotte Mason way

We don't take school off during the summer, but our primary focus is on literature and nature study. We do math as much as they want to, I don't put pressure on them to complete things. One of our favorite discoveries here is a nature park on the military base. It has a dozen or so of these signs with great information about local species of plants, animals, birds, etc. and has them in both German and English.

First sewing lessons

My in-laws are in town for the next few weeks. We are so excited to see them. We're headed for a two week trip to Garmisch, Austria and Switzerland. I have a few scheduled posts while I'm gone and I'll share some pictures of our trip on facebook from time to time.

The other day Ethan's button came off his shorts and provided us with the perfect opportunity to learn to sew on a button! It took a few tries for his needle to find the button hole, but he was so proud of himself when he finally got it.

Week in review: gardening and a virtual tour of China

It is so fun to see things growing in our garden! The boys had fun designing cute little signs for our vegetable garden. Our lettuce, spinach and kale are looking just beautiful and our peas, carrots, tomatoes and peppers are looking awesome too. 

The Hague Netherlands LDS Temple Pictures

When we were in Holland I had the opportunity to photograph the Den Haag-Tempel in Zoetermeer. It is such a beautiful area, cows and sheep were grazing all along the roadside and there were farm fields everywhere (not to mention tulips). The Netherlands is such a beautiful country.

As always, images are available to download free for personal use http://freeldstemplepictures.com. Commercial licenses are also available for purchase.

Nature Study- fun with ants

We have a little park a couple blocks behind our house that the boys love to play at. We went the other day and saw hundreds of huge ants crawling everywhere. We decided to do an experiment to see what ants really like to eat and if natural repellent really works.

It's what God gave you time for...

I love the saying "I was a perfect mother...until I had my first child". Looking from the outside in it seems like such a simple task, wipe a few noses, bake a few cookies, read a few stories. If only it were that simple. The world as a whole does not value motherhood on a full time basis. The world says sure it's nice to have one or two children, but why should women waste their skills staying home doing nothing?

Mother's don't just read stories, they plant seeds of character and imagination. Mother's don't just sing lullabies, they instill memories of love and a sense of belonging into the heart of a child. Mother's don't just pray, they build a foundation of faith so the child knows what path to follow. Mother's don't just teach, they inspire the love of learning and the desire to make a difference in the world. Mother's don't just have babies, they raise future leaders of nations.

Beautiful messes

I appreciated the recent article from Upside Down Homeschooling on Embracing the Imperfect. Lest any mom's think homeschooling is easy, it isn't. 90% of the time it is a struggle to stay on task, keep focused and stay positive. I love a clean house as much as anyone (perhaps even more than most) but one only has so many hours in the day and every minute spent cleaning is a minute spent away from my children. My one and only new years' resolution was to relax and not stress about the messes. I did terrible the first few months- walking into a room with stuff on the floor was like nails on a chalkboard. Then I had a baby. I had no choice, I could either scream, hire a housekeeper, or just not care. I do still care, but I am learning to not let it stress me out or feel like a failure because of it. This is what our school room/office looks like right now:

And this is what we have to show for it...

Belgium: Brussels, Waterloo and Bastogne

Our next stop was Brussels, Belgium. We went inside the engineering marvel The Atomium. This unusual structure contains the fastest elevator in Europe, traveling at a rate of 5 meters per second. The highest ball has large glass windows you can look out and see the city. Not quite as fabulous as the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it Willis) but still pretty cool.

The Netherlands: Keukenhof Gardens & Kinderdijk

The main reason for our trip of course was to see the beautiful tulips, and we were not disappointed! The Keukenhof Gardens have the most magnificent flower display on earth. They get over 800,000 visitors during the eight weeks they are open. My sister and I visited several years ago but I didn't have kids then so I didn't realize all the fun things they had for kids here. The boys said it was almost as fun as Disney World!

The Netherlands: Amsterdam

Part one of our trip to the Netherlands and Belgium! First stop- Amsterdam. It took us about 7 hours to get there since we had to stop several times to feed baby. The boys did great as always and Olivia is a model traveler, I think she only cried once and it was because she needed a diaper change. Here is the beautiful side of Amsterdam...

Olivia, three months

We're spending this week in Holland seeing the tulips. I'll share some lovely photos next week, for now you can enjoy these chubby little cheeks!

Choosing a literature based homeschool curriculum

"I'm new to homeschooling (or thinking about homeschooling), how do I choose a curriculum?"

This is THE most common question I get asked about homeschooling, and the most difficult to answer. There are dozens of ways to homeschool, and I am no expert by any means, but I'd like to share how I decide what to teach my children.

Art Appreciation

My boys don't need a whole lot of encouragement when it comes to art, however I also want them to gain an appreciation for fine art from a young age. I was never taught to value fine art and I think pretty sure I'm not alone in this.

Common Core: what it means for YOUR children

I had heard bits and pieces about Common Core but honestly wasn't too interested in it since we homeschool. Then I kept hearing it come up in news articles and on blogs and realized it's something we ALL need to be concerned about whether we homeschool, send our kids to public school, have grandchildren, niece and nephews, etc. it's something we all need to learn and voice our opinion about.

What is Common Core?

As with any issue, there are always two sides. This issue is no different. As far as the supporters (those making money off it) are concerned it's simply a national curriculum designed to make sure everyone gets the same level of education. Sounds great right?

Let's dig a little deeper.

Our 2013-2014 Homeschool Curriculum and Free Homeschool Planner

Since I am trying to be better at following Charlotte Mason's ideas this year, we are using a lot more living books and very few "curriculum" type books. This may seem like a lot of books and in reality we will read way more books than I've listed here, however these are the primary books we will be using. 

This may seem like a lot, however we will be traveling all over Europe this next year. This fall we have a 3 week trip to Italy and Greece, a trip to the UK next spring and will possibly traveling to Scandinavia in the summer. Our primary focus will be to learn about the history and culture of the places we will be visiting and if we don't finish all our literature we will save them for next year. A few of these I'm going to get audio versions and listen to in the car while we travel. 

Up next, I'll share some ideas on how to choose a literature-based curriculum. I've also updated our Free Homeschool Planner for 2013-2014 to help you organize your ideas for this upcoming school year! I updated last year's version plus added a new design.