The Blessing of Family Executive Meetings

Having three children in Core Phase and having to run our household while my husband is off at work could be hard with educating them at home.  But, I am so thankful to know what the Seven Keys of Great Teaching are and it gives me great comfort to put them in use on a daily basis to the best of my abilities.  Everyday my kids and I are growing and therefore our abilities should be changing as well.  When I first took my son out of public school, I had already started reading A Thomas Jefferson Education.  Everything I had read was truly what I knew I wanted for my children and myself.  I was just not sure how to put everything into motion and get things going in a way that would work for my family personally.

 I was thankful that a friend of mine had lent me her Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning a while back, because it answered some of my questions I had after reading the first book.  Sundays are an important day all around for us.  It is the Sabbath Day, a day of church fellowship and meetings, a day of rest, and now the day for our FEC meetings to help prepare us for the week ahead.  Last night my husband and I discussed our children, what they are doing well with, what they could and need to be focusing on along with what our calendar will look like for this week.  Since our children are all in Core Phase, our priority is their core values along with their learning through play.  Work always comes before play, and when we work hard we get to play hard. 

Learning has become something that is just fun for my children.  They are able to really use their imaginations, find what gets their juices flowing and run with it.  Reading aloud as a family (around 1.5 to 3 hours per day) has also opened the doors, especially for my son on what excites him as well.  He enjoys learning about the Middle Ages, knights, drawing, building with legos, painting, learning about animals, playing outdoors, learning to read, reading with others and so much more.  I truly believe that the environment he is in, as well as my daughters has made all of the difference. 

My Love For The Library And Learning My Love for Annotation

I enjoy reading so much and enjoy being captured by something I have read even more.  Books are just so amazing and I could not picture a world without them, nor do I want to.  So many to buy and even more to be read.  We have a collection at home and it is growing slowly.  It is growing slowly because I have a section in the house for them to be stored nicely and I do not have a whole room in my house just to store books.  There are certain classics that I just have to put in my personal home library, but I add them a little bit at a time.  Being a homeschooling mom, I already have places in the house that are set up the way I need for storage and I am fine with that.  I actually prefer it this way.

Why am I fine with this?  I am so glad that you asked.  I enjoy visiting my local library way too much and being able to check out books for a period of time, return them and then get new ones.  You can just call my children and I regulars, just like going out to eat or shopping.  Only much better, it is such a wonderful and free service.  The library has so much more than books.  We can check out audiobooks, DVD's, CD's, magazines, computer software and more.  They also have fun classes and shows for children, adults, and the family.  We can check out free passes to the Children's Museum as well!

My only minor issue that I had, which became a not so minor issue at times, was not having the classic on hand to refer to something I had read prior that would pop into my mind or help me with something that I was now reading or working on.  Well, that is not a problem anymore.  Not sure why I have not truly been inspired to annotate before until now, but I have found riches so to speak.  Yes, I have underlined and taken minor notes here and there regarding my scriptures, articles and books, but I have not fully put myself into it.

That all changed today!  I was inspired by a post on my Facebook Thomas Jefferson Education Group and thought I can totally do this and make it a way that fully works for me and the way I operate.  I had some spiral notebooks on one of our homeschooling shelves and got to work, with reading that is.  I am currently reading Jane Eyre for my personal study and we are reading as a family Here, There Be Dragons.  I had to go back through what I had already read in Jane Eyre so I could start annotating.  Let me tell you, it felt so good to now be able to write down page numbers with important notes, vocabulary words, and more.  I do not have to worry about not having the book personally on hand, because I now will have my notebooks filled with treasures to look over and over for years to come.

Early Morning Is My Time For Personal Spiritual Growth

My days can seem so long with my very active twin kiddos and son, and even longer when this momma does not get much sleep (which is more often than not).  No matter how I am feeling each morning I take time for me.  Either I can try to squeeze an extra 15 to 20 minutes of sleep, or I can have time for personal spiritual growth, which for me is very important.  I want to be able to pray to my Heavenly Father and thank him for all of my many blessings, guidance for my day, let him know of my concerns and for enlightenment for myself, family and friends in need of it. 

I believe there is no trade off with sleep.  This is something that I need to do before the noise in the house starts.  I do enjoy the noise and I cannot imagine my house without it, but this is my time for preparing for our family's day.  Besides my personal prayer, I enjoy reading my scriptures and talks from both the Ensign and Friend Magazines (the kids have great stuff in there) from my church.  I know that with the stresses that can arise during the day, I feel comfort in knowing that I have started my day off in the right way for me.



It may be only 15 to 20 minutes, but it sets the mood for this momma's day!

My Family's Homeschooling Journey

When fine tuning our homeschooling for this school year, I wanted to change the role media plays within my home.  I wanted the children to have a more active role if and when media is being used.  Of course, we enjoy a movie together as a family and so forth, but for the most part I wanted them engaged physically or mentally in some way.  I am so proud of myself for finding what really works great for us and then making new changes.

 I now let my children watch the show Word World a few days a week.  This show really gets my children thinking and Caleb likes to make it a fun learning opportunity.  He has paper to write down the spelling words that he learns as he is watching this show.  I love that he is so excited to show me what words he has just learned to spell and we just discuss some of the similarities, differences, and sound out the words together.  A lot of fun!  During this time I am getting a head start on lunch.  They are enjoying their Language Tree French DVD as well.  It is something that my son has wanted to learn since we are part French and have family who speak fluently, including my grandmother who lives near us.  It is amazing to be able to do this together and it is a great refresher course for me as well. 

Some days we have an audiobook or church/uplifting music (which is played everyday) playing while our family completes family chores.  It just puts my children including myself in the mood and can make it a better experience.  When I do not have one of these options during family chores we actually just talk about what is on their mind.  I really enjoy being able to discuss things with my children and I believe that they are starting to enjoy as well.  Also when it is quiet you can really think out loud and not be disrupted during your thought process.  It has become something that I am really trying to create more of  in our home because the twins are really needing it with always wanting to overpower one another.

The computer for me is something that I want my children learning when using and I am glad that my son enjoys his Brain Pop Jr. subscription, Reading Eggs subscription, Star Fall and a few other websites that are used with having an active participation.  This is another thing that is allowed for them a few days a week for a certain period of time.

Reading, reading and more reading is a lot of what we do, besides working hard and then playing together as a family.  We read classics from every subject you can think of.  I have learned that a great education can be pretty simple when you think about it.  It consists of reading about a topic, writing about that topic, discussing what you have just learned from your reading and what you wrote and then doing projects pertaining to the topic.  Then you do these things over and over again.  It is working well and even more so since we read many classics.

Our journey will always change according to my children changing, but at least for this year I know this is working for us.

One thing that will not change is that we are always working on and building upon our Core Phase.  Focusing on important values of right and wrong, true and false, good and bad, family values including religious, relationships, responsibilities, the value of hard work, and accountability.  These things right here are truly priceless.

                                           

Love Is Patient, Love Is Kind

Every day that I wake up is another day I have a chance to keep improving myself!  This is exciting, for I am an imperfect being.  I am a child of a loving Heavenly Father who loves me very much.  With that said I never want to wake up and forget to love thy neighbor.  Three very simple words with a way more powerful meaning.  As a human we all make mistakes and I am not excluded from this.  We all learn from them and hopefully become better people in the process.  At least this is what I strive for each day.  Every day I want to become a better wife, mother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend and person in general.  I do not want to lose sight of this goal no matter what situation I am faced with. 

No one said that LOVE would be easy 100% of the time, even when it comes to loving yourself.  One thing I do know is that Love is Love, as you would not give up on yourself or others.  I want my family and friends near and far to know that I love each of them and would never give up on them.  This is something I am trying to instill in my children along with always reminding myself along our way.  My blog address came to me because I really want to merrily go along with whatever is thrown my way in life. So let's all remember that love is patient and love is kind!

 

Preparing For Our School Year And Letting This Ship Sail

Another school year will soon begin. Technically that is, since we belong to a charter school.  Last year was our first year of both charter and Leadership Education.  It has definitely been a blessing for my family.  My son has an amazing Educational Specialist who comes to our home once a month and at times twice a month and not once have I felt weird or out of place for using the philosophy of Leadership Education.

I am so excited for this school year as I have made a few changes for my children as well as myself and I am finishing up making our living room and kitchen perfect for us.  I wanted to redo these two rooms for the simple fact that my children and I do a lot of schooling in these rooms.  This has given me a reason to finally finish decorating and making our rooms both beautiful and cozy with a purpose in my mind. I am not finished, but am almost there.

After reading a blog from a lady who uses Leadership Education in her home, I decided to add what is called "sharing what's mine."  The only difference is that I will be calling this "momma's corner."  What this basically entails is that I will set aside one part of each school day to sharing/ teaching to my children something that I would want them to learn right along with me.  What a great idea! My focus will be on Social Studies and Fine Arts.  I am so excited and this will be a fun adventure for my family.  Our circle time will be changed around a little bit and I already have our list of classics for the year. I was given a new set of chore cards from a friend of mine that will work out great for all three of my children and am setting this up as well.  My kids love family work. When we work hard, we get to play hard.

I am ready to board this ship and see where it takes us!!!

 

Oh, How I love my Crock Pot, Frugal Meals, and Freezer Cooking!

Every day I love to wake up with having a plan.  Knowing what my family's meals for the day are going to be is always part of that plan.  When it was just my son and husband, I felt like I could do it all.  Then our twin girls came along and let's just say it totally took getting used to.  Schedules were off balance and it never seemed like there was enough time in each day. 

Well I'm glad to say that I was able to get into the swing of things and with our family decision of myself staying home with the kids and then also homeschooling our children, I couldn't help but kick it into high gear.  I began on my frugal journey when it came to the food in our household and have not looked back.  Every week I am finding even more ways to save money on certain items.

Recently I started making homemade flour tortillas along with refried beans.  You save so much on both of these items and they taste so much better as well.  I use the crock pot more.  I love the smells in my house when there is food in my crock pot and not to mention the low energy it uses. 

What's for dinner?  Well, I am so glad that you asked.  My family is having homemade meatballs for a yummy spaghetti dinner.  My kids never say no to spaghetti.

Crock Pot Meatballs:

1 1/2 lbs. ground meat mixture (whatever you like in your meatballs)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of Italian or plain bread crumbs
1 tbs. black pepper (add amount to your liking)
2 tbs. Mrs. Dash Tomato Basil Garlic seasoning blend salt-free
1tbs. minced garlic or garlic powder (use what you have on hand)
1 cup chopped white onion (any amount or type of onion is fine, make it to your liking)
1 to 2 eggs to help hold your mixture

You can add anything you like to your meatball mixture.  This is a just a base recipe.  I change mine up all the time.  You will layer the meatballs after you have mixed your mixture up really well and then pour over either homemade pasta sauce or a homemade sauce.  Set your crock pot on low or to cook 4 to 6 hours.  Every crock pot is different.  You can tell when the meatballs are finished.  Cook some noodles and add a salad or any veggies you want for a side dish along with some garlic bread.  Voila! You have dinner.