Update! February 2017

Hanging out in Florida for a bit!

Quick September update

Zach looks so young here with Bruce!

 Ok, not really!  These are old! But I don't have time to do a proper update & I'm feeling sentimental.....

This is a self portrait, by Abbie...

Of course, we relished the 3 days per week that Papa J was home - and every beach day!

August update

Had a quick get away to Chicago - 4 hours on the train w/ 3 littles & we actually enjoyed most of the trip ;0) Little guy here cried the last 2 hours but it's all good - we had an awesome time with the Cheese Monger peeps!

I did a bit of painting & woodworking to update the hollow core doors upstairs - I'm happy w/ the results

I found this end table in the burn pile & made it into a play kitchen for Mac! The old one was pretty nasty after having 6 kittens use it for a litter box BLEH

Our wild garden....love it

Our 3 awesome boys soaking in the lake - Zach was giving his beloved some swimming lessons

I guess I was busy or feeling creative or something??  Made these sallopettes for Mac out of an old silk skirt.  Wears GREAT for playclothes & is solf as...oh wait....

another Chicago pic - "The Farm at the Zoo" in the park by JG & AG's apartment (not AJ anymore!).

    Do those handmade backpack thingies make them hipsters?

Papa J getting in his cuddle time

Let's all go buy westies & combis & live on the road, ok?? ;0)

Back to school?

Yesterday a reporter from a local TV station called to ask if I would do an interview about homeschooling for their series on Back to School.  I had been up most of the night before with a sick Ben, so I initially told her no & gave her someone else's phone number!  But then Josie asked who had called & got excited about being on TV & talking about home education - so we called her back & she came over - whee! We didn't do a lot of staging or even cleaning up because I wanted it to be real. The more minimalist I get though, the easier it is to keep things tidy ;0)

The reporter did a good job keeping the heart of what I wanted to say, despite editing 45 minutes of conversation for a 3 minute segment.  She wanted to know if homeschool students were more successful than public or private schooled children, & I told her it depended on what your definition of success is - is it bragging rights with your friends or grandparents? Is is an eventual PhD w/ tons of $ coming in (again, bragging rights)?  Those are not our goals or definitions for success today.  They may have been at one time, but I think life experience & a divine change of heart has altered the way we think about success.  We've always said that if our children love God & love others, then we as parents & they as our children, are successful, even if they are "just" selling fruit by the side of the road!  Well wouldn't you know it??  They are!!!  Zach now has a food truck & Abbie is a cheese monger in Chicago at the Farmer's Markets!  And they both have a deep love for our Father, his people, & his creation.

I also emphasized that education is not just the filling of a bucket; a child's whole self needs to be educated.  As in Waldorf education, I believe children's hands, hearts & heads (in that order) should be 'trained in the way they should go'.  Training their hands to work & experience creation comes first starting at birth.  Then you begin training & shaping their hearts to love God & others.  THEN you begin a formal education of the brain.  Of course I've just over simplified it, but any good child development guru will back me up - Steiner, Montessori, Piaget, etc. Yes, a 4 or 5 year old (or younger) can begin learning to read - but that shouldn't be the main focus for that age.  Reading aloud to children of every age & stage (even into high school!) has enormous benefits across the board - and while books on CD are awesome & we also love them - nothing replaces mom or dad or older siblings.  Why? Because the CD won't stop to define new vocabulary.  The CD (even if it's Jim Weiss or EB White) won't stop to discuss the moral issues at hand, or the the faith that could be built in a conversation about character & how to handle hardships or successes.  Read alouds build everything from family ties & common experiences to vocabulary & world view.  Sometime I'll start up book reviews again & list our favorites ;0) But even those littles can learn the rhythm & rhymes of language, begin to point out where the words are on a page, find the the periods, find the letters in their names, even memorize simple poems & nursery rhymes.  All the beginnings of learning to read & literacy.  These things are all organic in nature - not in a lesson plan or curriculum & it doesn't matter if you homeschool or not, if you are reading to your children every day you are helping them learn to read.  Again, a lifestyle.

Art & music education, while disappearing from many public schools, is still a huge daily part of our life.  Violin is 6 days/week, recorder coming in soon.  Art is built into as many subjects as we can & is integral to truly making material understandable, enjoyable, & their own.  We use art to narrate history read alouds, record science & nature concepts, & of course just for the sake of doing art!

Here's the link to the interview if you'd like to see it:

http://khqa.com/news/local/home-schooling-more-than-just-academics

Feel free to leave a comment & let me know what you think!
Shannon

Not just bookwork!

Where have we been??

Oh, just marrying off our two oldest!  Crazy, I know.  But great things can come from great homeschool groups + home church ;0)  I promise I'll update here more often, but if you want more pictures & more consistency, check out mamj41 on Instagram (that's me! but no, I'm haven't been 41 for a few years now ha ha).
Thanks & see you soon!
Shannon

 Zach & Julia, July 3, 2016

Abbie & James, June 2016

January & February 2015 - NEW BABY!

We've had lots of playtime with these friends over the winter - they are so sweet :0)

"Mr. Squishy" aka Mac arrived the first week of January....just 11 days "overdue"!  5th baby, 3rd at home w/ our midwife - but my first water birth.  I recommend it & would do it again (although I am 42 so not sure how many more littles will come our way!)

Honey Bunches acted as doula for our midwife - she did an amazing job & is the perfect picture of calm & comfort during birth.  She also kept me from drowning myself!

Happy Mama J!

Tweeters & Jam had an uno fest for about a month - reinforced colors for him & he picked up numbers fast, while Tweeters seemed to enjoy making up different rules & teaching Jam how to play!

Everyone is enamored with their new baby brother/& at 10 wks he has never been short of snuggles :0)

Plenty of snow this winter, and the littles go out every day no matter the weather.  I could call it Forest School but I'm not out with them really teaching anything ha ha - but - I know they are learning tons by just being outside with each other exploring the woods around the house & the beauty all around us.

Bandit violin - aka just listen to the notes without looking & make sure you are playing them in tune

HB did an art project they all enjoyed: sharpies on ceramic tiles, then dabbed with alcohol to make a shiny effect!

Jam is so into learning to write & read these days, always catching him writing something.  Tweeters is even teaching him cursive....

We had some old playdough so made a land for the dinosaurs & some baking soda/vinegar volcanoes! Been awhile since we've done this but they love it every time!

Finally tried that corn starch/hair conditioner dough & it is really so so soft!  One day play though - isn't as soft after about an hour of play & is pretty messy.  Henna by HB before she went to visit the Ginger in Montana again...

The beach is still fun even in the winter - here is a sandy ice castle

HB & the Ginger

Sweet Papa J enjoying storytime with his young uns

Flash, just relaxing :0)

Tweeters doing some 100 chart work.  First I cut the numbers into rows of 10 (she knows how to count by those) & she put them in order; then we cut them in half & she practiced counting by 5's (she's getting pretty good at that, especially since we watched the Schoolhouse Rock skip counting video!  Ahh, brings back memories...).  Next we'll do 2's or 3's & finally 1's.

Snow painting with spray bottles & colored water!

Colored salt from eons ago when Abbie was little!  We made pretty layered jars.  Winter is such a good time for crafts.

Oh those first sweet weeks with a tiny little new bundle from heaven...and they go so fast....

It is now the 3rd week of March & we are in Florida for our yearly snow bird escape with Gma & Gpa L!  It is so beautiful & warm & we love the extended time with family :0)  The Ginger joined us again this year & HB is planning to move to Montana to be closer to him when we return...2015 is already becoming a big year of change for our family!  A new one in the nest & an older one flying...bittersweet but part of life & so far I am adjusting fine (now ask me how very much I miss HB in a month or so....)!