A Rhythm of Rest

Lunch is eaten, and the kitchen's clean. I've changed from jeans into sweats and I'm sitting in a comfy chair with my favorite blanket (because it's freakishly cold in Houston on this the second day of spring ;). And this is where I'll stay for the rest of the day, although the computer will be soon replaced by a book. It's Sabbath Day and time for sweet rest.

There are a million things I could be doing. Two loads of laundry are sitting in the basket waiting for me. Lesson plans need to be completed. I need to cut and file a stack of coupons. And it goes on and on and on and on. Instead I will choose to blog, read, play games with my boys, nap on the couch and read some more. I emphasize "choose" for a reason. Rest is not easy for me; it doesn't come naturally. Checklists and tasks come naturally. Productivity comes naturally. And rest doesn't feel productive. It doesn't feel like I'm doing anything.

This past fall at a conference I heard a wonderful talk about rhythms of life. Many were mentioned but what impacted me was when the speaker talked about the rhythm of rest being critical to a healthy life. I guess I have always known that. Heck, it's one of the Ten Commandments:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. ~ Exodus 20:8-11

I had never seriously considered that this applied to me though. I felt God nudging me and my mind began to fill with excuses why I should be exempt from this command. "My life is just too busy to stop and rest, God." And just as quickly I realized that if the God of the universe chose to rest, maybe I should too. Immediately after that dh and I talked about trying to set aside Sunday (after church) as being a day of rest for our family. It's not the only time we rest but it's a biggie.

What has that looked like in our home? For us it has meant that beds go unmade. We empty the dishwasher Saturday night rather than Sunday morning. Sunday meals are prepared on Saturday and we eat on paper one day a week to minimize clean up. Mommy sits on the couch wrapped in her favorite blanket and journals, reads, blogs or catches up with a friend on the phone. Daddy does much of the same and we ask the boys to try and find quiet things to entertain themselves (yes, try is the operative word here with a house full of three busy boys - giggle). It has been a discipline for me to learn to rest. It still doesn't feel natural but it feels good. I start the week refreshed and ready to work hard for six more days.

I can tell you what it's not, too. It's not a legalistic list of don'ts. Today I was excited to try a new recipe. That was a want-to not a have-to. It felt restful so I cooked and cleaned. A few weeks ago it was amazingly beautiful outside so I spent an hour or two pulling weeds, enjoying the sunshine. It was work but it felt restful and peaceful. It charged my batteries and helped me get ready to start a new week.

I guess that is really what a day of rest is all about. It's a time to reflect, a time to recharge our batteries and prepare to meet a new week. Previously I said rest, "doesn't feel like I'm doing anything." And while it may not be an official task like taking out the trash or mopping the floor it very much is doing something. It's doing something for our souls.

What does rest look like for you? Do you have a rhythm of rest in your life that is healthy for your soul? I'd love to hear.

Reflections on Academic Hits and Misses so Far

Forenote: I almost didn't post this because it just seemed so long and windy and random. In the end I decided to push the "publish" button for a few reasons. First, I want this record for myself to remember the journey because ultimately I am blogging for me. It's my online journal, my place to "think out loud". This post really is just me getting my thoughts out there to clarify what's been mulling around in my brain.

Second, I never want to make it seem like I have it all together. I don't. Not by a long shot. I don't think any of us do but it can be so easy to make it appear that way, even without meaning to. We often don't want to meditate and write about our failures; it's so much more fun to write about the successes. And as a result we can make it look like all our days are good and all our curriculum choices are successful and implemented with excellence. Well here is one for the record that shows otherwise.

I hope this encourages someone...somehow...sometime. :)

Boy am I glad I have three boys. That way I can fix all the mistakes I've made with my firstborn and apply the lessons learned to his younger brothers (lucky them - lol).

I am now in my fifth year of homeschooling. These years have flown by and it makes me realize that the two and a half years I have left before junior high are fast approaching. And I mean fast! I realize this is not a race, not at all. Yet it is my responsibility to make sure my boys are educated at a level that will allow them to pursue any course they desire and they feel God calling them to when they get older. And that preparedness starts now, when they are young, not just when they are in high school and college is looming on the horizon.

This has been on my mind a lot lately and here are my thoughts as to where we've been and where we are going broken down by subject:

Math:
(Right) - Horizons. I will continue to use Horizons. We have enjoyed this program tremendously. I love the scope and sequence as well as the pace. The farther we get into this curriculum, the more I like it!

(Improvements)- I didn't follow the TM enough when Thatch was younger. I didn't take the time to drill and cement those math facts to the point of automaticity. Mistake. And now he is in Horizons 4 and we are spending time drilling addition, subtraction and multiplication facts he could and should have learned two years ago.

I will also spend more time playing strategy games with the boys to develop mathematical thinking. Games like chess, Othello and Blokus.

And I will use Evan Moore's Daily Word Problems each day as a warm up and to provide more practice with this skill.

Spanish:
(Right) - We are loving Elementary Spanish on Discovery Streaming. This year I have doubled up Thatcher's lessons so that he will complete the entire 3rd/4th grade unit this year and in fourth grade he will complete the entire 5th/6th grade unit. My goal is for my boys to be fully bilingual when they graduate and this program has gotten us off to a good start.

I am glad we started with so many fun games (see both posts) in the younger years as well. My boys think Spanish is so much fun. Cute side story: today we were at Space Center Houston and Thatcher walked straight up to a group of teenagers visiting from Mexico, stuck his hand out and said, "Hola! Me llamo Thatcher. Como te llamas?" (Translation: Hello! My name is Thatcher. What is your name?) The kids crowded around and hugged all over him.

(Improvements) - I want to further accelerate this process. I want to get my boys reading Spanish sooner with the help of books like Las Puertas Retorcidas/The Twisted Doors: The Scariest Way in the World to Learn Spanish! or First Spanish Reader: A Beginner's Dual-Language Book. This will also ensure that my boys are receiving not not only parts-to-whole Spanish instruction (predominate method in Elementary Spanish) but whole-to-parts as well.

History:
(Right) - SOTW was the right choice for us for our first history rotation. I've enjoyed it so much and so has Thatcher. I must say that one of our favorite things is listening to the audio CD's read by Jim Weiss.

(Improvements) - We started gung-ho with a history notebook in first grade: mapwork, color pages and written narrations ala WTM and the SOTW Activity Guide. We switched in second grade to oral narrations ala Charlotte Mason which are a much better fit for us. But everything else stopped. Haddon is a crafty kid unlike his big brother so I am thinking that we'll create several simple lapbooks along the way for him as we go through his history. Honestly Thatcher would have benefited so much from this as well but when he was at that stage I had two babies in diapers so it just wasn't going to happen. ;)

Phonics/Reading:
(Right) - We got off on the right foot! Explode the Code is a huge hit in our homeschool. Inexpensive, easy to implement, not teacher intensive and most importantly...effective! :) This series has now taught two of my boys to read.

(Improvements) - I have realized that I haven't required enough independent reading for Thatcher. We read all day across the disciplines - history, science, logic, math and so on. But he is with me and we read together. Also each evening he reads for an hour before bed but those are books of his choosing and I don't check for understanding. I have begun implementing more independent reading time across the curriculum for him at different times during the day. He is sent to read a science book that goes along with what we are studying at one point. He is given a chapter book to read and then we discuss at another time in the day (which of course means I have to pre-read the night before and be prepared for this discussion). If we have extra history books from the library he will read those as well. My goal is to have him read for about an hour each day (not counting bedtime fun reading).

Science:
(Improvements) - Starting with improvements this time...insert huge cyber sigh here. This is an area where I can say that we have not had too many successes. Too many babies in our first years, too much therapy in recent years and not enough planning on my part to find something that really works for us. Because I am not "sciencey" (Ha! Did I just make up a word?) I need a pick up and go science curriculum that is all laid out. All I can say is that I will find something that works for us. Not sure yet what that looks like but I'll let you know as soon as I do! ;)

(Right) - Here is what has worked: A fun unit I did based on this My Body book. As a matter of a fact, I sure meant to blog about that waaaay back but never did it. Another cyber sigh. I need to be sure I can find that so I can do it again with Haddon and Beckett in a year or so. We have also loved the Let's Read and Find Out science series. I have collected many, many of these books over the years, most from bookcloseouts.com.

Grammar:
(All improvements here) We started with FLL 1/2 back in first grade. It was not a good fit. At all. I now know that it was too auditory and too repetitive for Thatch. Around the same time I started reading Charlotte Mason's works and she advocates a delayed start to formal grammar instruction. Soon after I also discovered Analytical Grammar and Junior Analytical Grammar and decided to wait.

And now I'm nervous. What if AG isn't a good fit and we've waited all this time? I had been having uncertain thoughts but pushed them down. When a friend shared the same concern it bubbled back to the surface.

If there is something we've done right in this area it's that we have done tons of incidental grammar through our spelling program (see below) but nothing formal for over two years. Now I've been looking at Rod and Staff, Easy Grammar, Growing with Grammar and Shurley Grammar. So many programs; so little time. Whichever program I decide on I will start early with Haddon and work through it gently. Or then again, I may change my mind. ;)

Spelling:
(Right) - We have enjoyed Spelling Wisdom from Simply Charlotte Mason. Thatcher will finish the first half of Book 1 this year and the remainder in fourth grade We started with Spelling Workout after we finished the entire ETC series and it just seemed like so much busywork for Thatcher. He is a natural speller with a fantastic visual memory and a strong grasp of phonetic rules (thank you Explode the Code!). SWO was just not helpful for him. We went the total opposite direction and decided to do spelling through copywork. Now he is learning to spell though poems, Scripture and selected passages of literature.

No improvement here but I have thought about the fact that Haddon is a different kid and this type of spelling program may not work for him. It may be back to the drawing board in a few years once he finishes ETC. :)

Writing:
(Right) - I feel like we started off well here. Lots of good copywork along with reading tons of quality literature to provide excellent models for language. I studied different methods of teaching writing and decided I wanted to follow the progymnasmata - a series of writing and speaking exercises which develop the skill of eloquence incrementally. And to that end I discovered Writing Tales which I am so excited to start using next year with Thatcher. After corresponding with Amy, the author of Writing Tales, I decided to wait and start Thatch in this program in fourth grade based on her observations that most boys do better waiting until they're a bit older to begin WT.

(Improvements) - I need to fill in the middle better next time. I am considering using Writing with Ease for Haddon in a few years. I need to require more writing in the younger years, beyond just copywork. I have heard from several moms that in order to be certain your child is ready for WT they first need to be confident in writing their own four to five sentence narrations. I need a fill in the blank between copywork and being ready for WT in fourth grade.

Art:
(Right) - We have enjoyed Mark Kistler's Online Art Lessons this year. Also Ed Emberley's drawing books have been a great success. Haddon prefers the online lessons and Thatch prefers the Emberly books but I have them do both several times during the week. I feel that they learn different skills from each.

If you happen to be interested in the Mark Kistler online lessons you can go to the site and see sample lessons of every level. And then head over to the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op where you can purchase a three year subscription for only $49 which is 50% off the regular price. :)

(Improvements) - I wish I would have started art lessons earlier. Also I still want to work through How to Teach Art to Children with the boys. It's been sitting on the shelf for two years now. I also want to get back to doing more art appreciation through picture studies ala Charlotte Mason.

Other thoughts about things to improve upon: I want to include more classical music into our days as well as more nature walks, nature notebooks, music lessons and physical education. I wish there were 30 hours in a day!

Five Dollar Friday: Pumpkin Oat Pancakes

Dark chocolate is a passion of mine. And pumpkin is another. I love all things pumkin...except pumpkin pie. It's a texture thing. So it was a happy day when I came across this recipe which combined pumpkin with another love of mine, oatmeal. Yum! This recipe is really wholesome using wheat germ, whole wheat flour, oats, eggs and pumpkin, which is super high in vitamin A. Want to know another great thing about this recipe? It uses buttermilk. I am a huge fan of buttermilk. If you have never used this wonderful ingredient in recipes then get ready for a surprise. Recipes for baked goods that include buttermilk are tender and just amazing. I promise. Almost all my favorite recipes for biscuits, cakes, cornbreads and the like include buttermilk. And yet one more great thing is that you can double the recipe and freeze the leftovers. They reheat beautifully in a skillet with just the tiniest drop of oil. The outside will crisp back up like they just came fresh out of the pan. You will rarely find my freezer without a huge bag of these yummies!

Pumpkin-Oat Pancakes

served with fresh fruit

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg white
1 whole egg

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup lowfat or skim milk

Dry Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons wheat germ

1 tablespoon sugar (or to taste)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine oats and buttermilk. Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes to soften.

2. Add the remaining wet ingredients and blend well.

3. In a small bowl, comine all dry ingredients. Stir them into the wet ingredients, mixing until batter is fairly smooth. Add more milk if batter is too thick.

4. Pour about 3 tablespoons for each pancake onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or skillet. Flip pancakes when underside is golden and tops begin to bubble.

5. Serve with butter and real maple syrup

Just a few thoughts about this recipe...depending on how thick you like your pancakes add/take away some of the milk. More milk = thinner pancakes and less milk = thicker. I used quick cook rolled oats because I always seem to have these around that need to get used up. I also like to use more cinnamon and sugar than what's suggested. Haddon's favorite way to eat these is smeared with peanut butter before dumping on the syrup and I have to admit it's pretty darn tasty that way! That kid'll smear anything with peanut butter though. ;) If you don't already, consider switching to real maple syrup. If you are used to the stuff most Americans call syrup it may take a little time to get used to but you won't miss the corn syrup and preservatives for long! I calculated the cost using the pure stuff.

Cost breakdown: $3.09 (leaving $1.91 to buy whatever fresh fruit you want to go along with your pancakes - we love strawberries in the spring when we can go pick our own at a local farm)

$.08 - 1/2 cup quick cook oats

$.25 - 1 cup buttermilk

$.26 - 2 eggs

$.03 - 1 tablespon oil (I used canola)

$.25 - 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (any leftover puree you can freeze if you don't need it right away)

$.05 - milk

$.10 - 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

$.04 - 1/3 cup all purpose flour

$.06 - 2 tablespoons wheat germ

$.02 - 1 tablespoon sugar

$.03 - 1 teaspoon baking powder

$.01 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

$.01 - 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

$.28 - 4 tablespoons butter

$1.62 -1/2 cup pure maple syrup

A Mommy Brag

I promised Haddon I would post these photos almost a month ago (bad Mommy!). He was so very proud to have completed a 100 piece puzzle all by himself! After he looked at it the first thing he said was, "Mommy, will you post this on your blog so everyone can see?"

Here you go sweet boy! We are so proud of you. :)