Family Updates

It has been a few years and we have changed and grown a bit, so it's time for an update.

We now have seven children and they range from 11 to 2 years old. There are five sons and two daughters who bless each other with friendship and companionship. They learn from each other constantly and encourage each other as only siblings can. The oldest four often read to the younger three. They also teach them math through play and experience. They all play incredibly well together. Science is a passion for them all. We are constantly learning about creatures (animals), weather, and the natural world around us. They also have a good foundation for their animal knowledge due to having nearly 30 fowl on our small homestead.

As of this post, we have twenty-five chickens and four ducks. Of our chickens, four are roosters and twenty-one are laying hens. We've raised and butchered our own meat chickens, but it was a serious undertaking and they were rather stinky, so I'm not sure we'll do that again soon. It was an adventure and I am thankful for the experience. The kids also got to learn a lot through it as well. It is spring, and the ducks have been laying in a location I can't find, so we may well have ducklings in a few weeks.

We have finally found a church to attend and feel like we finally have planted roots and found friends. Our kids have also started investing in friendships and have blossomed as they have done so.

We are busy, but this season is such a blessing. We are all growing, learning, and changing. We no longer cloth diaper, but we do try to eat as "whole foods" as we can. We're working our way to a debt free lifestyle, but it is definitely a struggle at times.

Now, the answer to everyone's number question: we don't expect to have any more children, but only God knows if we will be blessed again or not.

Blogging Again?

With my life, one can never tell if I'll blog religiously or not. We now have seven children, four of whom are homeschooling. It is a busy season in life, but it is a wonderful season. I have been blogging at another blog, but I think it is time to give each a purpose and time to get things out there. I know that not very many people follow this blog, but maybe it will find someone who needs encouragements and hope for the hard days they're having. I am hoping to spend a few hours a week blogging. Maybe I can get a post up once a week? Who knows. But I will be updating here soon.

What season of life are you in? Are you busy or fairly relaxed? Are you enjoying babies, toddlers, elementary ages, middle schoolers, high schoolers? Or adult children and grandchildren? I'm looking forward to our future while we're in our season of toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary aged kids. Soon enough, we'll have a house full of teens and young adults who will be rushing off to work or church or friends...yes, this busy season is special.

May you feel blessed by the cuddles and wiping noses. May you see the blessing in the needy toddler and upset preschooler. I'm praying for you.

Homeschooling Without Curriculum

For those who know me, I homeschool. That's not new. I also "unschool". We live of life of learning. For math, I have started using worksheets so I can assess where my boys are for their testing this summer. For the rest of it, we read or discuss or research as a family right on the spot. Want to know about the weather, drop what you're doing and lets go learn. That storm isn't too bad. Tell me what you see as we stand outside in the pea-size hail (nothing too dangerous though). Those bugs, yeah. Let's look that up. Oh, you're bleeding...ok, yeah, I can explain why your blood is read. Little questions become study opportunities if you let them.

Yesterday, I was sharing with my mom about how we watch "Pocahontas", the Disney one. The kids asked why the Indians and the "pirates" were so angry with each other. Side notes: First, we discussed who the pirates were. Second, I am not offended by being called an Indian and I'm pretty sure neither is my father, nor was my grandma or her mother. Back to the story at hand...my mom asked if I write down what we learn about every day. What? Why had that never occurred to me? We learn all day every day. I never thought to document it. If the school district wanted to see what my kids know, they'd have to sit and quiz them about everything from blood, the Indians, to chickens, to potatoes, to boogers, to diabetes, to guitars, to volcanoes...they would be here all day!

Why don't I document our discussions? It never occurred to me! Why not? Simple! Because it's our life. We discuss everything. I'm not shy about anything. My kids saw something about how male seahorses "give birth" to the babies. They asked if they have the babies how human mommies do (we've discussed those things and honestly, it was totally normal. We aren't afraid to discuss sex with our kids at age appropriate levels at our house. Maybe I should blog about that?). That led to research with everyone around the laptop watching a seahorse birth and discussing how fish lay eggs typically and they get fertilized. Just a normal day at our house.

I do write my own curriculum, but it's not really written. It's just life. If you have a question, let's look it up. We do sit for reading time and math time. We have to work on those as they are fighting me on those things. Science, social studies...those things? That's life! I think if more families lived their lives teaching their kids how to learn instead of focusing on just learning stuff for tests, we might be better off.

Our Unschooling Homeschool

I've changed so much since I had my third child. I used to believe that conventional ways of doing things was best. Some times, the only way of doing things. Now, I find that it isn't. I wear my youngsters much of their infancy. I feed my family as much unprocessed foods as possible. I focus on life rather than things and our faith more than anything else. I have also found myself changing my mindset on education and learning.

Currently, we live in a state that discourages "unschooling," as it is called. Having said that, I am an unschooling mom. I homeschool my children by encouraging them to learn about what they want to learn about. Right now, I am pushing reading. Not purely because the state will require them to read soon, but because they keep asking to learn how to read. They want to, so we are learning through play, daily life, and a little study time.

I encourage my kids to play all day long. The boys learn the most when we are playing and being active. My oldest has learned basic math skills and science "stuff" (like gravity and magnetic properties) simply by playing. I would rather learn by play. We have completely shaken off the traditional method of learning and have replaced it with a lifestyle of learning. I use every opportunity to turn simple moments or ordinary ones into learning and teaching moments. Life has become our school and the world is our classroom.

I am currently still trying to decide how I can meet my state's requirements for home instruction while sticking as much to unschooling as possible. I don't know that we can really continue it since some counties are strict about having a set curriculum and school session calendar. We are holding out hope that our children's curiosity will drive them to learn even if we have to have books and study time to meet states standards.

How about you? Are you a fellow Unschooling family? What do you do to encourage your children on their journey? How do you help them on the way? Do you have state requirements like we do? How do you meet them?

The New Normal

I have five children now. Life is the same as it was before my fifth baby's birth. The only real difference is that I have a baby strapped to me most of the day and I am co-sleeping again and nursing all the time. I nursed Ziva (21 months old) until she was 19 months old, so I nursed almost all of my pregnancy so nursing hasn't really changed. 

Rhett -  2 Days Old

The new normal is better than I could have ever imagined. My baby nurses like a champ, sleeps like a champ as well, and is well loved by all his family. His siblings fight over who gets to hold him and who gets to watch him while Mama runs to the restroom. I sit, watching my kids, all five,  and am completely blown away by God's grace and mercy. He has blessed me more than anyone in my life ever imagine and certainly more than I could have hoped. 

Ziva, the little Mama in our house

We haven't gotten back to homeschooling yet because we've had Grandma and Gran here back to back and nothing gets done when we have family visiting. It's okay. I'm not going to waste their time with family pushing reading and math because I'm told it's more important. We see them for a short time each year. We'll just push school into the summer. 

My cooking has...suffered. We are eating a lot of processed stuff mainly because I've gotten some sweet deals on it and I need the ease of it. Slowly but surely I am getting back to our natural, unprocessed way of life. The real kickoff for that is Thanksgiving. Nothing processed will be at our meal. I cannot wait! We have Gran visiting us (my mother-in-law) and there is a huge surprise in store as well! I am so excited! I hope to have my camera out so I can share photos with you when the surprise is revealed. Did I say I'm so excited?

Daddy playing ball with the boys while Mommy heals

My husband's career has also finally seen progress. He reports to his new unit soon and will finally know what's going on with potential deployments, promotion potential, and reenlistment. After 2 years of training and 3 years of waiting, we are seeing progress! I am praising the Lord for every great thing He has blessed us with. It doesn't seem like much to people in our lives, but it's important to us.

As far as post baby life for me, it's been great. I healed fast. I feel great. I felt great about a week after. I've pushed myself faster, further, and harder after this c-section. At the same time, if I hurt, I stopped. It's been so nice and such a blessing.

Our new normal is great. It's blessed by the Lord and I haven't been this content or happy with life ever.  My husband is seeing success at work, which is a blessing for everyone. The kids are being kids and are blessing me at every turn, even in their anger, exhaustion, and fighting. God is so good to me!

The First Day Prep

On Monday, I decided that I was ready. While all of my little ran around in the toy room/guest room, I sat down with a bunch of resources and tried working out what we were going to do for schooling. I had purchased some Alpha Omega curriculum in the spring when it was on sale. I had originally planned on using their Lifepacs for kindergarten, but that style of learning just doesn't work for him. He's not a master it and done kind of guy. Instead, I'm using the Horizons curriculum as a the base, but not strictly. Both boys will be starting with kindergarten and they both learn slightly differently. Knowing that, I wanted to have a central curriculum for the boys that I could adapt for each other them. I printed off these nifty A-Z Handwriting worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler for each of the kids to use. I also found some number ones with different themes online (and of course, I cannot find the site I used now). 

Since my boys are busy boys, I'm adapting a lot of the lessons to be more physical. We will be moving and playing a lot because they learn best when they're moving. I know this isn't how most people teach their boys, but I don't want to set them up for frustration and failure. I will teach them to sit still for their schooling, but right now, that's not my goal. It is to teach them to read and write and basic math skill. I think it will be best for everyone in this house if we do that by integrating games and play into learning. 

I have my planner set for the first week to see how it goes. I'll evaluate after that week and then change what needs changing. We're starting on Monday...I'm hopeful that the boys will like it and that we can make it fun and engaging. 

*Note that these are NOT affiliated links...just crediting people who deserve it.   :)