Getting it Together

When life throws you some curve balls, it can be hard to get back on track. Having challenges is part of life. We all have them at various times, some more than others it seems. With educating our children at home, we often find that difficult circumstances greatly alter our ability to stay with our education plan. We find ourselves detoured as we meet the challenges we face. Sometimes we are detoured far longer than we expected and it is easy to feel guilty, depressed, frustrated, or all of these things combined. If our trials have been of a very severe nature, like death, loss of job, new baby, etc. then we may find ourselves so discouraged that we may give up completely.

How do we overcome challenges that slow down our education?

1. First, realizing that everyone will face challenges in life at some point makes it a bit easier. We need not feel alone or that we are the only one. Yes, other people's challenges will be different than ours, the focus is on that everyone HAS challenges that derail their education at some point, even though they may be very different in nature.
2. Next, we need to not beat ourselves up over lost education time, passion for education, and loss in attitude towards education. When we face difficult trials in our lives, we turn to what is often called "survival mode". We cut back on things that are non-essential and turn towards getting through the day. This is a built in coping mechanism that is given to us by our creator to protect life first. We shouldn't feel guilty about doing this during the most difficult parts of our trials. Over time we can add more of the non-essentials back in. I know, how can education be non-essential? In terms of survival, education is not on the level of essentials, it takes back seat to food, shelter, safety, and personal relationships.
3. The first two steps are mental preparation and giving ourselves permission to cut back. The third step is to look forward to a return to our educational plan in a timely manner. Depending on the trial, it could be months before you can return to a full educational path. Trials that derail us completely like death, severe health problems, and a new baby will take the longest to recover from. Trials of a financial nature, discipline problems, moving, etc. will often take a change in attitude and a few weeks to get back on track. You are the only one that can determine when you are ready to return. Your children may even be very happy to be off-track! That will discourage any mother and make you wonder why you do it all. But, you will find that one day you will feel inspired to return to the schedule and you will feel the pull to bring the family back to the way of education that you need.
4. Once you feel that pull to return your family back to education, take some time to write notes or make a plan to ease back into the schedule. One of the most damaging things I've done in returning to our education plan was to "jump in with both feet". My children were suddenly told that the next day we were starting back to a full education schedule. It was a difficult day and I've learned since to add things in week by week rather than all at once. Usually it is the guilt that drives us to suddenly return to our education schedule in full force.

As we are getting it together after a month of trials, it feels good to get things back into action one step at a time. Our approach is to:

1. Pick a date we will begin returning to our education schedule. For us, that will be after our oldest goes back to college. We decided to extend our annual break a few more weeks to allow us to have more quality family time together. Normally I would start to feel guilty about this, but with so many deaths and health issues in the family, I think we need this extra time.
2. Decide what parts of our schedule are the most important to start first. One area that has crept in is a lot more entertainment than I normally allow. The first thing to change will be a reduction in our entertainment and to make the hours it is allowed to be firm again.
3. Make a plan for which week to add in schedule/rules to the plan. Our next schedule changes will be adding in devotional, kid school, and classes outside the home. These will have various start dates and will be added into the schedule with a plan in place, knowing that our schedule will steadily increase in demands.
4. Follow through with the plan to return to full education schedule. Knowing the plan helps everyone have an understanding of what is expected and when it will be expected. We typically discuss the schedule and the "step-up" plan a few weeks before we start it. Having the plan laid out helps everyone transition with a good attitude and makes the transition much less painful.

There will always be hiccups to any great plan. Learning to roll with it and adjust and tweak the plan as needed is important to remember. I'm feeling much better about our return to home education and hope to have a smooth transition.

Please share your tips and experience on getting back to home education after life's trials.

July - A Month of Trials

I often write about the ups and downs of homeschooling. Today's post will be of that nature. I feel it is important to share all aspects of home education and family life in order to put things in perspective...

If you read my personal blog, then you know both of my grandparents on my dad's side passed away in June within 10 days of each other. That has been a trial for me even though I have a strong belief in life after death and eternal families. I still miss them. I did not get to go back to their funerals and feel sadness about that. Now, my father has been very sick and in the hospital and my mother's health is failing rapidly. My mother has either severe Alzheimer Disease or dementia. They are not sure which, but in the last 3 months she has lost the ability to speak almost completely, making communication with her non-existent.

With all of these family trials, it has been very hard for me to focus on our education right now. My personal studies have almost completely stopped for the time being. I'm thankful that we had already planned our annual break for the month of July. It seems perfectly timed with all that is going on. I leave that in the hands of providence and recognize that this decision was made without prior knowledge of how our lives would be right now, but I know the Lord's hand is in it all.

We did take a day to enjoy nature in our favorite nature conservation center (see picture). It had rained and cooled off considerably and we seized the opportunity! What a happy day!

I hope to resume some semblance of our regular routine in August as planned. The kids feel my sadness. They are doing well with everything really and everyone is relieved that we have this break.

Football Camp

Chris has never been super sporty, but he has played baseball and soccer several seasons. Recently his interest in football began building and he asked if he could go to football camp this year. To my surprise, there was a football camp offered at our local middle school for $30 for the week long camp. I guess for that price we can try it out! (Chris is sitting on the far right of this picture in the olive green shirt.)

Needless to say, Chris is loving it! He is taking it well that the other boys have played before, some for several years, and has taken their encouragement and suggestions without offense. I have to say that people are much nicer here in general. We have been impressed that most people here are slow to criticize and very positive. I can learn a lot from the people here and hope that I do not come across too negatively.


Getting adjusted to the humidity with his asthma is his greatest challenge. He needs his inhaler if he is going to be active, especially with the humidity, something he is not used to. In Arizona, he only needed his inhaler once in awhile, usually if he was sick with something else.

The homeschool laws here state that homeschool students can play with the school district in which they live. My biggest dilemma is that I will be working some days and will not be here to get him to practice. So, there still may be a hindrance to him playing.

I also found a couple of homeschool sports leagues. We will be going to a meeting about their teams next week. I'm hoping that their practice times will be manageable with my new job. Mike works way too many hours to be of any help chauffeuring kids around and we have not found any other homeschoolers with boys close by.

Marshmallow Canons

Chris LOVES making things. He says he is leaning towards becoming an Engineer. I think it would be an awesome career, based on his likes, dislikes, and abilities. He and his friend took apart the Marshmallow Guns he made the other day and made this...

Summertime Projects!

Summer brings a lot of changes for most families, ours is no exception. We typically take June off as a family break from the regular home education schedule. This year we have already traveled to Arizona and Sam is home with us for the next few weeks. Everyone just seemed itching to do some personal projects so we made a trip to Wal-mart and Lowe's to get some supplies and here is what everyone is doing.

Duck Tape

"I don't believe in much, but I believe in Duct Tape." ~ Miles on the final episode of Lost.

Duct tape is amazing stuff! I seriously think everyone needs an abundant amount of it for emergency preparedness. We have been making luggage tags, purses, book bags, wallets, etc. Mike was so surprised that my book bag was completely made of duct tape. He just couldn't believe it!


There are a lot of cool colors out there for Duct Tape. Here are some of the plans we used for our first projects before we started doing our own designs. Duct Tape Woven Purse and Cute Duct Tape Purse

Marshmallow Guns and Nunchucks

Chris has always loved making weapons, including wooden swords and shields. He made three different models of marshmallow guns to determine which design worked the best. Another tip he told me was to stuff the handles and the butt of the gun with TP to make the air pressure higher inside the gun.

The nunchucks are solid wood from a piece of dowel he had already. I was a little concerned about having him practice with these in the house. I wish he would have used a softer substance!

Week 23

I do not have much to report this week. Chris has been at Scout Camp all week. When I was planning which months to take off, I was not aware of when the various camps would be and what not. Apparently I should have planned to take June off and school during July.

Chris - At scout camp he earned some Merit Badges - photography, animal study, bird study, and pioneering.

Marly - Reading: "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"

Mom - Reading: "Man of the Family" by Ralph Moody and started "Walden" by Thoreau. I couldn't get into Walden so I switched to "Man of the Family" which is the sequel to "Little Britches", one of my all-time favorite books. Math: Math-U-See Pre-Algebra - relearning different properties. Government and Freedom: Re-reading "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen.

Mom School is dropped for this week and next due to various camps.

Week 22

I love summers! I feel like I am able to focus on Me, not Them so much more by studying and getting ready for next year's curriculum. So, you will see a lot more about what I am studying than what the kids are studying. They are out being kids...with some reading and fieldtrips thrown in too.

Chris - Reading: "Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo"

Marly - Reading: "If You Come Softly" and "Hush".

Mom - Reading: "The Promise" and "What is Seen and What is Not Seen", Math: Math-U-See Pre-Algebra (see Mom Notes below), Writing: Sense and Sensibility report, Other: Studying for Government and Freedom curriculum by re-reading The 5000 Year Leap by Cleon Skousen.

Monday - Fieldtrip: Library Day - Subjects: Government and Freedom - We watched the third section of "Key Constitutional Concepts". The website has free lesson plans and video links if you sign-up. It is free!

Tuesday - Fieldtrip: Walnut Canyon Cliff Dwellings (see post Walnut Canyon) - Subjects: Math and Music - We read from "Mathematicians Are People, Too, Vol. 1" - Sir Isaac Newton.

Wednesday - Subjects: History and Art - We read "The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 2" - The Celts in Britian

Thursday - Subjects: English and Grammar - Review of various adjectives and adverbs through sentence diagramming.

Friday - Day Off

Mom Notes - I have decided to update my skills and relearn some of the things I have forgotten since taking College Algebra. I took the pretest and discovered that I needed to go back and fix some gaps in my math memory. I feel that this will help inspire my kids to never stop learning, or relearning, for the rest of their lives.

Summer Reading Programs

Every year we participate in some kind of reading program, typically through the local library. I have found a few more summer reading programs to share. Please post any others you may know of.

• Chuck E. Cheese - Read for two weeks and get 10 free tokens. Good through 12/31/09. (There are other rewards here as well.)
• Scholastic Summer Challenge
• Barnes & Noble - Earn a free book!
• Half Price Books - Feed Your Brain - for kids 12 and under.
• Borders - 50% off certain items - for kids 12 and under.

Year-round free online program - Book Adventure.

Grand Canyon & Other Stuff

Grand Canyon
Last Wednesday (was that a week ago?) we went to the Grand Canyon with Les & Ronda's family. They stayed the night and we all got up early and drove about an hour to the canyon. It was such a beautiful day! Here are some pics from that trip. It rained on the way home, but at least we did not get rained on at the canyon.

Chicken Run (Nope, not about the movie.)
We worked on a fenced area for the chickens Saturday. They are getting bigger and needed room to roam...safely! We added a doggie door to the coop so they can get in and out of the coop as needed to get out of the wind, rain, and snow. Our bunny, Joey, decided he wanted to explore that area too and had a great time hopping around. He was hilarious doing some extra little hops and twists to show how excited he was to be out in the dirt. The bunny has a hard time with the doggie door, he sometimes slips off the ramp and takes several attempts to get into the coop/shed. I need to get that on video...it is so funny!

Bunk Bed
Chris got a bunk bed for his room off of Craigslist. It is one of those with a futon couch on the bottom. We spent hours putting that thing together on Saturday. *whew!* He is happy to have the couch so he can sit on that while he plays Playstation games and uses his Linux computer that we built together. We now have plenty of beds so come on up and visit!

Goat Barn Anyone?
We are looking for a large shed or small barn to house some goats. Marly is anxiously waiting for the right price on milking goats, but she needs a place for them to stay first so we can keep them safe (see More Nighttime Visitors). She has saved up close to $200 for the goats, but it is far from enough for a shed for them to live in. Heavenly Father has blessed us with several things to allow us to have animals and I believe he will send something our way when the time is right. Craigslist and Freecycle have been huge blessings!