Library Card Blessings with 3M Cloud Library and Overdrive

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our library system?!

Well, I do.  Let's just say that my love for our Sacramento Public Library system continues to grow and grow.  My family is truly blessed by our library and I am so grateful for the amazingly free resources they provide for our family personally and for our community.  Now, every library system is different but many happen to use the two services that I will quickly go over here on this post.  If your library system does not have these services available I can assure you that they do have others that might be similar so the best way to find out is head on over to your library's website or better yet on over to you local library and talk to your Librarians.  They are there to help you and truly enjoy what they do.  I adore our Librarians and the entire staff.  And let's not forget about the volunteers.

3M Cloud Library and Overdrive both make it possible for you and your family to borrow ebooks and audiobooks for free!  I will add that with Overdrive you will be able to watch movies and shows on top of that.  What I find wonderful is that everything is connected to your library card itself.  Everyone in our family has a library card and that makes it possible  for our family to have an additional 50 items checked out on our cards per service.  Since we take advantage of both services that makes it an additional 100 items that we are able to checkout that do not count against our other checkouts that me make when visit our library.

Woohoo!!  I knew you would be excited!!


What I find so convenient is that we are able to check out or put these items on hold without needing to leave our home.  In fact, we can do it from anywhere.  We are talking about convenience here and the fact this is free.  You will be able to download the apps to listen to your audiobooks and read your ebooks from your phone or tablet which is another convenience.  If you love audiobooks and have not heard of these fabulous resources please check it out!  We listen to audiobooks every single day so for me this is just a wonderful resource.  It is also great if you like audio lessons for languages and much more.  We utilize it all.

I hope that you are able to utilize these resources with your local library and that this has been helpful in any way.

Be Kind To Yourself, Simplify And Use That Crockpot!

Last month before Thanksgiving I had gotten really sick and it took weeks to get well enough to even do the easiest task at hand.  It was rough for me to say the least as I am not one who can just simply sit still.  Well, little did I know that this was going to change things for me and see things in a different light.  I think it is a wonderful thing how our Father in Heaven can help direct and guide us in any situation with the help from the Holy Spirit.  We just have to listen to that still, small voice.

I am so thankful for the opportunity that my family and I had to just slow down...alright really slow down!  I have found myself enjoy having less things go on and truly be in our HOME.  As you know we are a homeschooling family and as I was working on our 6 Month "No" again I decided that this upcoming semester we will not be doing any outside classes.  Just a monthly park day and a few other homeschooling meet ups.  It's not that they aren't fun or that my children did not enjoy them but that it truly did take a lot of time away from what I know we are in need of right now and I have seen a huge change these past few weeks.  No feeling rushed and needing to stop a project or learning activity because we need to hurry up to get to the next destination.  With knowing of these minor but crucial changes for my children and I during the day I knew that I wanted to be better prepared having everything we needed for all that I wanted incorporated at home.  Let's just say that I am very excited to start a few fun little classes with music and art with my children in our home.  That means our dog Blue get's to join in and he loves when we are reading and learning!  It makes him happy!

One thing that is in need of a change is our family dinner time.  It's more like the preparation that comes before the gathering at the table to eat the meal as a family.  I really want it to feel like I have been in the kitchen all day  but without the being in the kitchen all day for one meal.  I am trying to have less snacks in our home aside from fruits and vegetables, nuts and a few other things which means that I really want my children to eat more during our meal times.  Since dinner is our last meal of the day I must make sure that they eat enough and are full so I do not hear how one is hungry two hours later before getting ready for bedtime.

I LOVE my crockpot!  Well, I have one big crockpot and one small crockpot.  I need one more big crockpot now.  I have always liked the idea of having one crockpot meal each week but something came to me when I was figuring out the simplifying of our home.  Why not three days a week or more if need be?  This can go for using crockpots for the entire meal, the main dish, sides and more. It truly is up to you.  As for me, it is just something that will continue to make my life easier so why not use it more!?!

For Christmas Eve we had a rotisserie style whole chicken that I cooked in my crockpot!  Say what?! That's right.  My crockpot.  I had seen it before but had not tried it out for myself until now.  I make baked potatoes in my crockpot and other dishes so it was a great time to try it out.  Super simple and easy but very delicious and looked like I put in way more effort than I actually did.

Prep your whole chicken like normal taking the gizzards out and cleaning it, then choose your seasonings.  Whisk your seasonings together to make your rub.  After you put the rub on your chicken in the crockpot it goes on high for 4 to 6 hours depending on the size of your chicken.  What I did after it was cooked through was place it in the oven to broil for less than 10 minutes to give the skin that crispiness we like.  That's it.

It was moist and delicious!  You can do this weekly which is what I plan on doing as you can get a whole chicken for a great price a lot of the time and use different rubs depending on what you plan to do with the chicken.  This is great to do if you want to use the meat for enchiladas, chicken salad and so much more.  The wonderful thing is that you do not need to do much at all to make this.  The same goes for making baked potatoes, mashed potatoes and so much more in your crockpot.

I encourage you to use your crockpot more if this will help you to feel a little more peace when thinking what's for dinner.  Just a little preparation and the possibilities are endless for us all!

I will be sharing more crockpot ideas with you soon!

You Silly Goose We Must Open Up And See What's Inside

Oh, silly goose!  Petunia is her name as well as the name of the book which is a wonderful children's picture book filled with so much interpreted through a sweet story with wonderful artwork.  Last week my daughter Kylie picked out a book from the library that she wanted to read.  Actually, it's more like wanting to read from looking at the cover.  I don't mind.  We always have over 100 library books in our home at any given time and as long as I take a peak and find it alright we give it a go and bring them home.

We are a homeschooling family as you know and I do something with my kids 5 to 6 days a week known as our "kidschool" which takes place in the morning after our devotional time and we all are gathered (sweetly for the most part) around for me to read stories, go over things that I am excited to share with my kids, educational games and more.  It can last anywhere from two hours or a bit longer.  It just depends.  Then we break up and my kids get excited  for their individual studies (learning with one on one), more family work (chores), and so forth.  You could say that most of the time we are all excited for our chores.  They have their days!

We do a lot of reading in our home and love every minute of it.  I love that my children enjoy reading as well just as much as I do.  Why?  Because to some reading is just simply reading but to many of us out there it is so much more powerful.  So many doors are opened becasue of it and we grow not only individually but together as well.  I guess this is why I teared up reading Petunia aloud to my children.

The main character Petunia was tired of being the silly goose.  Can we blame her?  She stumbled upon a book and remembered a family sharing how wonderful books were and how they can bring us great wisdom.  She did not realize however that just holding a book under her wing was not what could bring her that wisdom.  She thought that was enough.  Poor Petunia.  After the catastrophic events that took place with her friends all because she thought she was smarter than everyone else because of the book under her wing she came to realize something after it fell to the ground and it opened up.  There were pages and they were filled with written words.  These were words that Petunia could not read.  And this is where I began to shed tears while finishing up reading the last few pages to my kids because these words were and still are so very powerful.

"It was not enough to carry wisdom under my wing.  I must put it in my mind and in my heart.  And to do that I must learn to read."

After we finished this book a thought entered my mind of why I felt these words strongly in my own heart and mind.  We will often go places and people often ask my kids what they learned in school today.  They always smile and say that they are homeschooled and how they were able to read so much that day.  Such beautiful answers as yes, we read a lot and so much of learning is from reading with added projects and more.  We are able to do so much but I will say that reading jump starts so many things!

In order for our children to gain much knowledge and wisdom we must make sure that they have great access to the great books from before our time and of our time today.  I love this quote from President Gordon. B. Hinckley.  Think of us adults.  In order for us to become better educated in any topic we must read from the great works.  Just like the Gospel.  We cannot just carry our scriptures under our own wing without reading the words written inside of them.  We would lose and miss out on so much.

I have found an eternal book friend who is my book twin! We became friends through belonging to the same groups online which all include books.  It is wonderful.  Brenda and I have read books that speak the same volumes to us and I truly cherish our book conversations.  We just get one another and it is a wonderful thing.  Hello Brenda!!!!!

I cannot imagine my children not being able to experience the Gospel through scriptures, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Little House Series, Pinocchio, Frederick Douglass, Mary Seacole,  Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Linocln, The Trumpet of the Swan, Number the Stars and The Harry Potter Series, along with all of of the great people and works from long ago through today.

So, yes!  We must put the written words in our minds and our hearts!

That Want to Learn, An Upset Stomach and Fun With Homemade Pizzas

The morning started out like most mornings we have here in the Sanderson household with much going on.  I normally wake up pretty early.  But, just to clarify, it is not as early as my husband who is a truck driver.  Let's say that he gets up when the moon and stars are still lit up in the sky (now that is beyond early).

Well, because of my getting up early my son is usually up early as well.  I know I am not the quietest person to get things ready for the day when the kids are asleep, or anyone else for that matter but I try my best.  I never said that I have magic powers to make that happen!  I do the best I can and that counts for somerhing, right!?!  It's more like he is a light sleeper.

My son will either read a scripture with me, draw, read aloud to me from one of his chapter books (so I can be near to help him with any words if needs it) and much more.  Something that he has been excited about lately are two workbooks.  I know!  Some like to use workbooks and some do not.  As for me, if it is something that my child wants to do and learn from, I am all for it!  It is a wonderful tool and all three of my children LOVE workbooks and worksheets.  It is a great tool for my family.  They like to do these activities during what we call our "Tablework Time" and I enjoy helping them when needed.  Seriously one of my twins could sit there for an hour and it has been really fun for her to do the whole time.

Lately, my son Caleb has been taking two workbooks out of our cabinet a lot.  One is a Sylvan learning Spelling and the other is a 100 Words to Know by each grade.  I really could care less about the specifics, but I chose these because they had such a variety of activities within the workbooks and with ones that my son finds fun to do.  It was cheaper than printing off a bunch of sheets in this case.  Besides, he has been working on his reading and spelling.  It is something that he is excited about right now and as a parent I chose to run with it.

My kids must make special sound effects with almost everything they do.  Seriously! Caleb even more than his sisters.  Here's one time that I was super excited to hear these noises.  I was in the kitchen preparing lunch and all of a sudden the sounds had begun, along with bursts of excitement.  Shouts of phrases like "I did it", "Come here, Mom" and more.  Thankfully our kitchen is smaller and I can go back and forth quickly.  I took a look at what he was doing.  Each time he worked on a question and answered it without my help he would get excited.  He was so proud of himself.  It was a wonderful moment.

I know that he works on a lot of things on his own, but I see more of a passion now and a want to do his best job at things.  I was very happy to have been able to witness that while preparing lunch.  It made my heart very happy.  I just had to stop what I was doing to capture a picture of the moment.  So glad that I did.  He could not stop smiling.  

Later on my stomach was upset and I had to sit down.  It was nice to listen to my kids play nicely together for a bit and help each other out.  Caleb truly is a great big brother.  We listened to an audio book from earlier and thankfully I already had the pizza dough going in my bread machines.  It felt great to know that dinner would still be served later and that pizza night did not need to be changed to another evening.  I promised my husband pizza!

I still taught my cardio class that afternoon.  I am glad I was able to do so.

By the time we got back home it was time to get dinner in the oven.  I just really needed help.  My twinsies came to the rescue.  I am very grateful to have been bringing my children up all along to know that family work, chores and helping out when can is very important.  Helping out in the kitchen is one of those things.  Yes, there has been many times that I could maybe get things done much faster without the help, but it would not benefit anyone in the family if I have not tried to make an effort.  Helping to get dinner going so we could eat was one of those times.  Unless you do not like pizza it is fun to help make.  Especially, when you are a kid!  The dough was already made and cheese was grated.  We were off to a great start.  My girls helped with making the pizza sauce and putting the ingredients together on the pizzas.

Happy twinsies!

That's right!  I let my kids lick the spoon when they are finished spreading the sauce on the dough and eat a pepperoni slice when I know they are finish preparing a pizza.  Oh, the horror!  I know.

Smiling faces after a job well done.

The whole day was not perfect by any means, but we had some awesome moments that really helped me to get through the day in great spirit.

My Love For Barbara Keeps On Growing...She totally is a TJEd Mentor All The Way!

Well, this past school year just flew by with our charter homeschool.  We definitely will keep a schedule during the summer, but will have a lot of outdoor and fun activities throughout!  We are so fortunate to have our ES Barbara.  She is such a gift.  My kids and I are keeping her.  As summer approaches, we only have one more meeting for the school year and it makes me a little sad, but we will be keeping in touch over the summer.  We also will be having a lunch date with just us adults and my friend who also happens to have Barbara as her ES.  We are the lucky ones.

Let me explain what an ES is.  It stands for Educational Specialist.  At our charter school each family is given an ES and they are there to help support you.  They also take care of monthly samples to put in each child's portfolio, help the parents with choices in curriculum (if you choose to go that route), help in putting purchase orders together, enroll students in classes if they want to take any, keep attendance and records in general, along with so much more.  I would say that the main thing is to serve as a huge support system for you and your family.  I will say that Barbara has been the most supportive ES that I could ever ask for.  Honestly, she listens to me and values what I feel is best for my children.  She always gives such great advice and at the right time when it is something I need to hear.  Always!

Again, she has always supported my wanting to use the TJEd philosophy.  This woman gets it and totally is a TJEd mentor!

Seriously!

Yesterday we had our monthly meeting and we were chatting like normal about books (we love books and so do our kids), along with taking care of the attendance and all that good stuff.  Then, we moved on to what our kids were learning about and how one of her son's were all registered for the upcoming school year with South Sutter (the charter school we use).  I mentioned how my son Caleb is all signed up with Duolingo to utilize the free program for his French.  Learning a language young is awesome and French is part of our heritage.  Totally making my Grandma proud!!  My kids and I are having a fun time with it.  Truly something special.  It just so happens that one of her son's is taking Spanish in school right now and Barbara decided that she is going to learn Spanish as well to help out, along with just to learn for herself.

Here we go with

You, Not them and

Inspire, Not Require

I am very excited that she will have all three of my children under her watch for the upcoming school year.  I would not have it any other way.  Again, we thank you for all that you do for our family and for your friendship too.

We love you!

Having a Love Affair With Learning

This past week I was able to add in a little bit more of personal study time here and there.  Trust me when I say that it has added up tremendously.  The amazing thing has been watching my three children surround me even more with a want to actively engage in whatever it is that I am doing.  I have pondered over this a lot.  I keep working on my own education and in return I am helping my children to see the importance of working on their own.  When we are able to focus on what's of importance in our own lives and work on these things, it becomes clearer how to better analyze our own family situations and then to fine tune what needs to be changed in order to make it happen.

I know first hand that during certain times in our lives it may seem easier said than done, but I know that this is why we are so lucky to have so many wonderful tools with TJED.  I was listening to a TJED audio in the car earlier this week, well not exactly.  Let's try a few of them!  I truly needed to listen to these again. After all, they are classics.  Let me just tell you the the DeMille's never cease to AMAZE me.  Oliver mentions how many people who come in contact with TJEDers think that we do nothing and how clearly that is not the case at all.  If you feel that you are not putting in work or feel that what you are doing is not enough, I just have to share this with you.  We all need to hear these words.  When I first started following this philosophy more fully in 2013, I was very fortunate to have amazing friends who had been on this path for a while and were there for me to ask questions and just share the beginning of my journey with.  It was a great help and comfort for me.  Now here is another comfort for us all, no matter where we are on this journey!

INSPIRATION is CHALLENGE
INSPIRATION is WORK
INSPIRATION is HARD WORK
-Oliver DeMille

Listening to another audio I was able to hear about the Stick, Carrot and Love Affair.  I know I have heard it before, but it really struck a cord with me.  There is room for the carrot, which would include some type of reward.  But, we truly want to have a Love Affair with wanting to learn.  The more I read, the more my children want to read.  When I work hard with our family work, my children do the same.  Just earlier today I was working on my French and guess what!?!  My children joined right in. Not by force, but because they saw that I was engaged in it and they wanted to do the same.  Our Kidschool gives me an added piece of mind.  It is actually something that my children and I look forward to now.  We found what works for our family and that is the key.  What works for one family might not be the case for another.  The great thing is we have the power to find what does work!

 We have a long way to go, as the journey is life long!  But, what a great ride already!  Even on a not so good day.

Finding My Family's Weekly Rhythm

I have found that for my family, sticking to a tight schedule does not go well and neither is it healthy for us.  It took me a while to come up with a rhythm that works well for us.  For the most part we are able to stick with it. The most amazing thing about this is that if our day does not completely follow this I am fine.  Why?  Because I have found comfort with letting our days flow. 

 Yesterday, I knew that I wanted to share some of what I had been learning about Mary Seacole for our kidschool.  Let me just start off by saying that if you have never heard of her, you should learn about her!  We talked about both Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale which then led to talking about the environment that Florence stepped into when she came to help regarding rats and lice.  I talked about why she moved things higher up and focused on keeping medical tools sanitized which my son wanted to learn more about lice and how others get it.  After this, we talked a little bit about the Crimean War.  I am going to further research more information from books on this matter and guess what!?  That's right!  Another kidschool will focus on the Crimean War.  It was so much fun and our kidschool went over, but I was not stressed out about it.  I was enjoying how things were flowing.  

Our rhythm consists of different block times.  This is one thing that has really helped me out.  I am not focused on a specific time that is right down to the minute, but rather a time frame.  My mind does well with this.  I feel that I have always been a person that has needed to have such structure that if anything had changed I would be lost.  I am so happy that this has put my mind to ease which has also helped my children not feel stressed out.  No running around our house trying to make something work or fit that only would cause us to get less done in a day.  That's right.  As a family my kids and I are able to focus on what's important during the day and we get even more accomplished.  This helps a great deal as my husband has a work schedule that leaves me alone with our kids way before the sun comes up.  We are able to enjoy our time when he is home because our days are smoother.  

One thing that never changes within our routine is that at the beginning of our kidschool we read scriptures, I read a children's scripture story, we sing a children's song or hymn and we say a morning prayer together.  This makes all of the difference in the world for our days.  I know that my kids and I need this to help jump start our day.  I also need my own personal time before my kids wake up.  I know that not everyone is a morning person, but for me this is also essential.  Some days I may have more time than others, but I need it.  I use it for personal study.  It is time well spent.

If you have a schedule our routine that is not working for your family and only causing stress, find out if little changes will help things to be better.  We should enjoy our time spent together.    

 I encourage you to find your family's rhythm!

You can find the amazingly free printable pack over at the Proverbial Homemaker blog!  Tauna has many wonderful resources!

Here is the link!

http://www.proverbialhomemaker.com/a-weekly-rhythm-planning-without-strict-schedules-printables.html


Head on over there and enjoy her freebies.

Bringing Fancy Nancy To Life

A few months ago my children stumbled upon the Fancy Nancy Books at our library from author and illustrator duo Jane O'Connor and Robin Glasser.  It was no surprise to me that my daughter Kylie absolutely loves the character of Nancy.  She is quite the fancy girl herself.  But, my other daughter has a love for the character's go make it happen attitude which was not surprising either.  What had caught the attention of my son Caleb was the inserts of French words and meanings throughout each book.

A few days ago we read Fancy Nancy Ooh La La!  It's BEAUTY DAY and it was very fun.  It was all about Nancy wanting to make her mom look fabulous for her birthday and turns their backyard into a spa.  Very fun!

Well, we just had to bring the book to life.

After we read this book, I wanted my girls to have their first SPA pedicure experience and it was at home, of course.  Must stay FRUGAL!

 My husband had gotten me a spa foot bath for Christmas and it has been something that I have wanted for a while.  I love the idea of pedicures and having them done often, but am not willing to pay a lot of money for one.  I know, my mind stays on frugal at all times.  It was a lot of fun to be able to have my girls test the spa foot bath out and they enjoyed every minute of it.

We also made up fun names for the nail polish colors that they had chosen.  Kylie's was Rose and Caylee's was Apricots and Peaches.

Making Audio Books Accessible For All With LibriVox

My children and I have found that we really enjoy listening to audio books.  We go to our local library weekly and have found a great selection.  The only issue is that we eventually have to return them and I have found that I want to have them on hand at all times.  Starting my own audio book collection is very important and doing so with the least amount of money is a must.  I know that Audible is a way to get amazing audio books, but at this point in time I will not be a member any time soon.  I am very frugal and find many resources to make things possible with spending the least amount of money.  It helps my family to save for things that we need or would like to do later.

LibriVox has been my frugal answer!

I am so thankful for the many volunteers that have taken their time to make this work.  I have also done some research and this seems like the best site to actually get free audio books to download onto your computer, flash drive or even burn onto a disc.  The other wonderful thing is that it is ad free.

Once you are at the website, click on CATALOG and it will take you to the next screen where you can search by author, title or reader.  There are many readers and everyone will have their own preference when it comes to style of reading, along with voice.  For those of us who belong to the TJED Discussion Group on Facebook, we are lucky to have links saved for certain past discussions and there is one regarding LibriVox readers that others have preferred to listen to.

Thank you, Heidi! This gal has kept up with connecting past discussions according to topics making them accessible for us at all times.

Once you find a book that you would like to download, click on it and then you will see a screen like this.  This is The Adventures of Pinocchio (version 2) by Carlo Collodi.  Now, look at the picture on the right of the screen.  This is where you can download the CD case insert.  I would definitely recommend doing this if you are making CDs.

   
 Happy Listening!

Early Mornings Are For Me

I enjoy my early mornings very much.  It was not something that I felt was for me before (after my kids that is), but they truly are.  As a mother who stays home with her children, I am always surrounded by my little joys and would not have it any other way.  This does not mean that I do not enjoy or deserve a little me time that involves my own personal development and growth.  It's true.  I have found that during this time when my children are still asleep, it has been the perfect time for me to have prayer, scripture study, read, study and this morning blog.

Since I have started this routine for myself, it has opened new doors and insights for my children.  I have set an example.  A great one indeed, where my children get up and grab books or do other activities that I feel work for our family unit.  of course, there are mornings where I have started a few chores and then my children will grab their clothes to start sorting out their laundry, ask to start dusting or to do something else to help me before I get breakfast ready.  For me, these are a part of academics.  I want my children to know and see how important family is and know that for us it is valued with such importance.

My son is reading more now and likes to bring a book he is reading to the kitchen table and sit beside me.  Immediately, I will stop what it is I am reading or doing to give him full attention and to help him sound out words that he might need help with.  This is important to me, as I want my children to know that I value the great choices they make.  It is that same as if they were making a not so good choice and I stop to explain why we do not make those kinds of choices.  Besides, I am working on a better groove for our afternoons, that will allow myself thirty minutes of personal time.  My twin girls are very high energy and we have been working on the importance of quiet time.  Everyone, no matter our age, not could use, but need some form of quiet time.  I am a believer.

Mornings help me to have a better day all around and in return help my children to have a better day too.

In Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning by Oliver and Rachel DeMille, you will learn about the ingredients.  Ingredient #3: Mornings is what I reread this morning.  The book is a classic and I find myself coming back to the TJED books often.  This ingredient can be found on page 67 and I wanted to share a few quotes that stood out to me this morning.

"The persistent lessons of morning time are the foundation our children learn."

"Mornings are the daily default, and if you set and manage the default schedule well, the family will naturally get up and get into the regular routine."

"It takes discipline at first to get the routine established, and again modifications may be necessary as children move through phases and seasons change."

"Morning is, for most families, the best time or Kidschool."

There is so much more valuable information regarding this ingredient and if you have not read it, please do!  I only gave you a taste!

Farm Day

Caleb was dipping crackers into the fresh butter he just made for a snack

On October 3rd, I was very lucky to be able to go on a field trip with just my son.  The two of us left early that morning to head to Yuba City.  Our homeschooling charter school was able to have students who signed up go for free.  As soon as we got there we were greeted by others from the school and Caleb was handed a Farm Day t-shirt which  he immediately put on, along with the other students.

All of the kids could not wait to go inside.  The ES in charge of helping with the field trip was given a list of the 35 stations that each school was able to choose from.  There was no way that any school could get to all of the 35 stations in a two hour window, so it was nice to see what was offered ahead of time.  We were able to complete 13 stations, which was more than we thought we could have completed.  Each station that we went to, all of our children were actively engaged and asking many questions.  I thought it was fantastic and the speakers were very knowledgeable regarding their topics.

Our children were able to make a little container of butter, feel wool, touch animals, learn about different types of soil, dairy goats, walnuts, and so much more.  I know that my son really enjoyed this field trip and I did as well.

Wool

Petting a dairy goat

Ropes!

It was a happy day on the Farm!

What A Blessing To Have This Special Lady As Our ES (Educational Specialist)

It is October 2nd and I wanted to make sure that I finished this post tonight!

Well, where do I begin?  I made a decision that I was going to homeschool my children in October of 2012.  My son had just started Kindergarten over a month before.  It was not something that I had decided before I had children or anything like that, but something that had just fell into place.  I had prayed about it and much consideration had taken place to get to this point.  After having multiple conversations with a few of my friends, I decided that I was going to not only enroll my son with South Sutter Charter School, but I wanted to use the TJED philosophy.  Was I crazy?  Not at all!

Honestly, I was very excited for my family's new journey.  But, at the same time, I was nervous knowing that I would be working with an ES who would be assigned to my family through the school with not ever meeting them beforehand.  Seems so silly, right?  At first, that is how it seemed to me.  I actually had signed my son up for the school year that summer and had left after just talking to our previous assigned ES a couple of times.  Something was just not right and the spirit was telling me that it was not my time.  It was disappointing, but something greater was in store.  Every ES is different and it is not to say that they are not a great fit for other families, but it was just not going to work for my family.  I guess you can say that was the very beginning before I gave it one more shot!  This next shot was the real deal, so to speak.

Anyhow, I was guided to try again and everything felt so right!  From day one Barbara had shown a light that has only shined brighter and brighter with the time she has spent with my family.  She has an essence about her that is absolutely wonderful.  Truly.

My son gets excited to see his Mrs, Barbara every month.  He talks to her about many things and she listens.  Children really enjoy having conversations with adults and knowing that we are truly listening and are being engaged.  She knows his strengths and what interests him and even made a work folder for my son.  He has enjoyed Mrs. Barbara bringing lots of stuff  that our family can use for our learning every month and wanted to have other options of things he could do during certain times of the day.  Last month she had put in some fun worksheets on trucks, art, math, French, practicing writing, and sheets that go with the DRAW WRITE NOW books.  No, these things are not required for my son to do.  But, he likes to do these because they always pertain to what he is excited about.  This has been a great addition that she puts together herself.

It is great to have Barbara in my life.  She is more than an ES for my family.  It is nice to have meetings at my house where we even have a chance to eat lunch together sometimes and have meaningful conversations that even leave me more inspired after she has left.  I am very grateful and thankful for her making this an amazing experience for me and my son.  My twins love her as well and next year they will have her as an ES too!

Before she left my house yesterday, my son was talking to her about a few things and he had mentioned to her that he was going to practice skating outside for the first time.  Immediately she had told him that he was learning by practicing his skating.  That it could count for physical education too.  But, not only that, he was learning a new skill.  Of course, Caleb smiled.

The more I have implemented and created a Leadership Education (TJED) within my home, I am happy to say that this lady only adds to it!  It is great to talk about classics with her too!

Thank you for all that you do seen and unseen!  We truly appreciate it!

Our New Year of Homeschooling Adventures Has Begun

Wow!  We have started another school year this week and it is more amazing than the last!  I feel that each year my family gets in a better groove.  There is always room for improvement with anything, but we are finding what really works for us.  It sure brings a smile to my face.  My children are thriving in the learning environment that my husband and I have provided and that is what brings me great joy.

TJED has definitely  been a wonderful experience and it does not just magically all come together right away.  We did not get here over night, but the blessings are amazing and well worth it.  Just keep at it, reading, soaking up all you can learn and be an example.  Model what you would like to see happen.

My girls enjoy doing chores.  That's right!

We were able to score this Children's Britannica Encyclopedia set for FREE!  Everyone knows I love a great deal and saving money!

My son will frequently let his sisters join him during computer time that he has earned for learning games during the week.  Very sweet, as I know being a brother to twin sisters can be very rough sometimes.

This is what an Evening looks like in our home!  Yes!  Isn't this great?!  TJED Ingredient #12 Evenings!  This is a beautiful sight and just melts my heart!

Sunday Always Sets The Tone For The Week To Come

When you read Leadership Education: The Phases Of Learning, you will come upon what is known as "Ingredients" and there are a total of 55.  That number can seem like quite a lot.  But, as parents we are the experts in our own home and know what is of importance, can work, will not work and so forth.  Since I have started my journey on TJED, I have fine tuned and found what works better for my family and what simply we can do without.  As the seasons change, obviously what works and is best for my family will change.  But, with the guidance from my Heavenly Father, I am not worried at all.

One thing for sure is Sundays are a must!

This day had already been of importance to me.  But, as I incorporated Ingredient #1: Sundays, it has become even more crucial to keep things the way they are now for my family.  With our FEC (Family Executive Committee) meeting in place on this day, it truly has set the tone for our week.  My husband and I are a team and we discuss what is going on during the week, how our time will be spent, discuss our children and with my seven year old son he let's me know what things he would like to work on and helps me in planning field trips.  My son and I also talk about his feelings, what is of importance to him in his learning and we talk about how his Core Phase is coming along and how he is growing.  He knows that before he will move on to LOL he must have the Core Phase Curriculum down. 

That's right on page 40 in the book, we know there is a simple curriculum which consists of:

right and wrong
good and bad
true and false
relationships
family values, especially spiritual culture
family identity, including family history and mission
family routines and responsibilities
accountability
the value and love of work and play

In this simple curriculum of Core Phase, a lot is covered and they are of great importance.  As an adult, I know we can always add to what we have learned and gained during this phase, but it is crucial to lay the foundation.

Yes, my children and I learn a lot each day and work on topics in many subjects, but my main focus is that my children understand that Core Phase is the basis for a great life.

Taking care of pets is an important job.  It is not just about playing with them.  Who says hard work cannot be fun?!

I have said it before and will say it again.  When we work hard, we can play hard and even enjoy it more!

Security Within My Home While Learning

If you have any knowledge of TJED, then you most likely have heard of the Seven Keys of Great Teaching.  Well, there is an eighth key which just makes absolute sense and goes with the others.  This key is Secure, Not Stressed.  When first starting this homeschooling adventure I was worried.  Let's admit it, most of us are and not because we believe we are making a mistake.  It is because we are worried what others might think and listening to those non supporting little voices in our head shouting out all of the reasons that we should not.  You heard the voices, right?  I knew that I was not stressed out anymore when I was able to answer to someone that I homeschooled because I can and it fits with everything I believe in.  Short and simple.  That is really all anyone needs to know.  Yes, I am always going to make changes according to my children's needs, but I know that I will be guided into doing so. 

I am so grateful for the area that I live in, because my family does not feel out of place and our family and friends have chosen many types of schooling for their children.  Some are public schooled, some are private schooled and others belong to charter schools.  Those who homeschool either belong to a charter or do not.  How awesome to me that we all have made choices and no one puts anyone else down.  After all, we are all doing what we feel is best for our children and our family. 

Morning time is something that I enjoy, because my children and I are working along side each other contributing to doing daily morning chores and eating breakfast together.  A wonderful blessing for me.  Right after we always have spiritual thoughts for the day and then we start reading about animals.  One of the topics that my children and I are so fascinated by is Heavenly Father's creatures and there are so many.  Also, science in general is something that my son enjoys learning about and I am happy to learn with him.  My kids have four magazine subscriptions that we get to learn from.  I am also the mom who knows the value of these and in our family and they are considered classics for us.  To keep our magazines in great condition, we put them in sheet protectors inside big binders.  Such a great tip to know!  We also use our library to check out books and science kits that always include experiments.  Like I mentioned before, I absolutely enjoy our morning time.

Today is one of our math days.  We set up time specifically for math a few days a week.  Now, we also learn about math on other days, but it is not part of our structured time on those days.  It just happens to flow into our day.  We use Singapore Math as it was given to us free of charge and  it happens to work well with my son.  He is a visual child and he likes using this curriculum.  The only thing I would say with curriculum is that technically you do not need it, but if it works well with your family then by all means use it!  We read a lot of books about math topics on our math days as well as the rest of our week.  I love the Math is CATegorical series, Sir Cumference series, and many more.  They are great classics for us and all of my children enjoy reading them.  Think about the kitchen, so much math and science goes on in there as well.  We definitely use this great space with teaching both of these subjects in our home.  Math journals are also fun for kids!  My son has one and he jots down what notes that he would like to have from the books that we read.  I think having a journal for any subject is a fabulous thing if it seems fit with your child.


Feeling Secure, Not Stressed in knowing that what you are doing is right for your family!

Math and Science can be made fun within your home! 

Caleb enjoyed reading this book.
 On the Scale, a Weighty Tale!

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.

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.

                                           

Homeschooling And Making Use Of My Local Resources

 

 

I absolutely love homeschooling my children.  It was something that I had prayed and prayed about over and over again.  The spirit was always strong in that yes, I was to take the step and do it.  My family makes it work and I enjoy the Thomas Jefferson Education way, along with the South Sutter Charter School.  Right now in our lives I could not see it any other way.

My son is so eager to learn so many different things and I enjoy that we can both learn new things together and as a family.  There are those that might think that my children do not get much socialization, but let me assure you they do and so much more.  My son has learned how to deal with not only those his age, but those younger and older as well.  Since we have taken the homeschooling route I have made sure to learn about and use all of my local resources that I can for my children on a weekly basis.

My family and I are so lucky to live near a wonderful library.  We are there at least twice every week.  They have so many free programs for children, school age and adults as well.  We love their Story Time program that the youth services librarian has put together. The children that go there get to listen to her read a couple books, sing songs and have fun play time every week.  It is a great program for children up to age five.  They always have something going on for everyone and it is a great free resource for not only checking out books, movies, science kits and free passes to the Children's Museum, but also for so much more.

There is a program where we live called First 5 and they are another wonderful resource that my family uses.  They have weekly play groups for children up to age five and they get to do fun art projects, have toys for the children to play with, read a story during snack time (they provide the snack).  Every six visits the child gets a free book to pick from a box and take home to add to their library.

The internet has so many free websites that can help with many subjects and I am grateful to be able to utilize these as we absolutely enjoy getting free history audios to download for use with schooling worksheets and lesson ideas all from the world wide web. 

Our home is a great resource as well!


                                                                                                                                

Just take a step back and look at what's all around you, there are so many more resources that I could go on, but you get the picture.

Homeschooling continues to be a blessing for my family and with learning about and utilizing our local resources it can be an even greater experience!!!