To Quit or Not

Sis has spent the last two years in an amazing Christian organization called American Heritage Girls.  This time introduced her to new friends, new knowledge, new social experiences, and new interests.  She is blessed to spent time getting to know a few girls who have become great friends.  One girl and her family in particular became a homeschooling family we enjoy meeting at the park often.  Learning about geology and creation in this group setting allowed her to not only expand her insight but also to work with others on projects and experiments.  Social gatherings like "lock-ins," skate nights, rock climbing, and late overs provided experiences with other girls that only young girls can enjoy.  Above all, her world was open to new interest such as sewing and horseback riding.  Now she is feeling pressed for time.  Her desires to spend more time with the horses and working on her sewing creations is forcing her to think about moving on from AHG---essentially quitting.  

So often parents do not allow their children to make the decision to leave an activity once the commitment has been made and completed for the term.  They encourage their child to press on and continue.  I trust Sis knows her heart and how she desires for fill her time.  I won't guilt her over her decision to leave but will have open and honest conversations on why and future expectations she has for herself.  When we support our children in the small decisions they build the confidence in themselves to make bigger decisions praying and trusting in their God given path.

Making Passionate Learning Possible

What does that look like in real life?

  Sis loves horses.  She spends the day working with them and caring for them once sometimes twice a week.  A trip to the library provides a bag loaded with picture books with horse characters, nonfiction books on horse breeds as well as historical significance, and DVDs on horses.  She will uncover each subject in her reading and viewing.  You may insist that math is a stretch, but calculating cost of food over a given time period or amount of room required by each horse on a given ranch could prove to be complex and living math. 

Bubba is consumed with baseball.  He is playing little league games with his team and closely keeping track of his stats on an app his coach uses.  Batting practice includes using a Zepp tracker that monitors his hand speed and bat speed to aide in making improvements. Tons of real life math.  Biographies on Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson are completed and on his shelf.  He watches professional games, observes rankings, and follows certain players.  A new show he found is ESPN Sports Science on YouTube that digs deep into the how and why players are able to perform.  

Yes, if you are following closely writing has not been covered. Both children are able to keep notebooks with ideas and interesting facts they discover and record.  Sis and Bubba maintain personal, private blog that family follows and comments on weekly.  In every post, each are able to share what they are researching and learning as often as they like but mostly on Mondays.  

Passions Take Time

Each of us are created uniquely by God.  Which includes our children.  Each child is formed with particular interests and passions.  When we invest energy in a passion it becomes part of our journey. This journey takes time.  Thus passions take time.

You can not expect to understand and go further in areas of interest with out investing time.  So often, I hear homeschool moms make the statement that they unschool or pursue interest led learning in free time, after academics.  In order to follow their passions, children need limitless time to settle, ponder, and experience in a field.  

Are these areas strictly scholarly?  Basically, no.  Any interest has history, science, reading, writing, and mathematical aspects.  

How is that possible?  Our life is made up of naturally occurring bits of these subjects.  When learning independently these subjects are not needed to isolate the information.  Everything is related and connected.  But often for parents who are "schooled," we like to see these ideas covered.

In the next post, I will give real world application to making this possible.

Apology & a Hug

Sometimes I blow it as a mom.

*I don't follow through on what I say I am going to do.
*I get grouchy and complain.
*I don't give my children enough space.
* I give my kids too much space.
*I laugh too loud and embarrass them.
*I lecture and use too many words with my children.
*I don't listen carefully enough to their desires.

These times are easily forgiven with my heartfelt apology and a hug.  Thankfully I can remember to forgive as readily when they offer an apology and a hug.  

Holy Struggle

In a perfect world, I would live God's truth daily being an example of a Christian wife and mom in relationship with Jesus.  Attend church weekly, host bible study, serve in local outreach ministry, lead daily devotions with my children on a consistent basis.  Instead I live in a fallen world.  I need more Jesus daily.  I sleep-in and miss church, yet go for a weekly hike and experience God's creation.  I am a bible study drop out due to my calling as wife and mother that has me on my knees praying daily.  I volunteer along side my children at a youth ranch praying for troubled children as I water horses.  Daily devotions happen over a slow breakfast as we connect and share how Jesus is working in our lives.  The Christian life I am walking doesn't fit perfectly in the holy box.  It is messy.

Spring Fever

Taking time to enjoy Spring has been amazing for our family.  In April. we took the challenge to be outside everyday.  #outsideeveryday  Amazing we did it!  

How?

Hiking
Playing near the river
Biking
Walking the dog
Baseball
Playing at parks
Flying kites
Blowing bubbles
Nature walks
Gardening
Picking up litter
Yard work
Mowing yards
Skating

These sound fun, don't they?  Try some.  The conversations, the fun, the memories created during these activities are overwhelmingly rewarding.

Shifting into Baseball Mode for the Family

For a little more than the last month baseball has taken over our life.  As I wrote earlier, baseball serves many lessons to our players.

Today, I am so grateful our pace of life can shift as we move into the baseball season.  3 nights a week (fortunately only 3) we are at the ball field practicing or playing games.  My husband coaches our son's team, I keep the score book, and sis loves to volunteer in the snack shack.

How do we make it work?

*Allow time to sleep in on mornings after the game nights
After playing games, we usually don't arrive home till 9:00 p.m.  That means everyone still needs bathes and time to calm down.  The kids are often starving so a heavy snack is required as well before tucking them in about 10:30 (on good nights).  With such a late, stimulating evening, I really let the kids wake up when they are ready.  We are still able to our things and often have an outing planned such as hiking, horseback riding, or park afternoon with friends to motivate them to get moving naturally.

*Lighter activities on baseball days
On days we have games, I make sure we spend the morning reading, playing games, and working on hobbies so everyone has rest time in the afternoon.  This allows us to feel refreshed once it is time for dinner.

*Easy favorite dinners before games and practices
I don't know about you but my crew's attitude can revolve around food.  I try to keep dinners a favorite kid meal.  For us this means spaghetti, tacos, and chicken pot pie.  These meals also must be easy for me.  I don't want to get rushed or overwhelmed either.

I hope this helps someone out there.