First let me add the back story. Our daughter was coming home from college and we had to get her little brother moved out of her room and back in the big bedroom he shares with his brother. They are 14 and 16. After the 14-year-old’s paraphernalia was removed, I dusted, vacuumed and made her bed for her.
As I was working I heard my eldest son trying to talk his brother into moving into the loft for the summer. It went something like this: “It will be so cool!” “You will love it!” “We’ll move the bookshelves and it will be private!” “I will help you!” “Let’s go ask mom.” The 14 year-old wasn’t saying much as he moved his stuff back down the hall. They came. They begged. I am still on narcotics from the car accident two months ago. I am in no state of mind to be making life-altering decisions…. like giving up the homeschool/sewing loft at 11 p.m. thankyouverymuch. I told them I didn’t care. And I didn’t. And I went to bed.
Fast forward two and a half hours to a metal wheel sound waking me up in the dark of the night. Yes, it was 1:30 a.m. I stared at the ceiling and told my husband, “This is all my fault. That noise…. it’s a pulley. I taught him how to use pulleys about 7 years ago.” We got out of bed to witness THIS:
Our 16-year-old son had made himself a castle… in the loft…. way past midnight… with a drawbridge (run with a pulley that hung from a bike hook screwed into the ceiling) …. and crenals and merlons cut from cardboard. It WAS SO COOL that he decided to move in himself. I shook my head in dismay and confessed to my husband that I also taught him about castles…. and crenals and merlons. I asked my creative son what we should call him now. Obviously he replied, “King Austin!” Of course. Silly me.
The next morning, I questioned how long he planned to live in his castle. He looked at me with hopeful eyes and answered with a question, “All summer??????” Those were his big blue puppy dog eyes staring at me. Fine. Whatever. “You will be patching the hole in the ceiling in August.” “O.k., thanks, mom.”
This could have been worse, I told myself as I climbed back into bed. I’ve also taught him about catapults, guillotines, war trenches and fur trappers. Oh, it could have been WAY worse.
With the sun shining and the temperatures in the comfort zone, we have been spending far more time outside in March than in December, January and February combined. Nature Journals have been forced upon my children and one out of three is loving it. That’s pretty good odds… and I love it, so we’re even Steven. I’m trying to teach them about botany, art, relaxing and creating in God’s creation. You’d think a kid who doesn’t have to sit indoors and do math would jump at the chance to draw in the sunshine. But no. If my boys ever lie on those long black leather couches and explain how I ruined them, I’m sure the Nature Journals will be mentioned. But that does not deter me. :o)
Last week we ventured out the front door to draw a Texas Ebony tree in our yard. This is a REAL Nature Journal… not a fake Nature Journal… so there are rules to be followed. AND this has to count for a botany grade for a high school student. Not like a “draw-a-dumb-tree-and-color-it-green” journal. NOOOOooooooo. The requirements include, but are not limited to: draw the shape of the tree, the bark, the leaves, the leaf arrangement, the thorns (we’re in Arizona… all the trees have thorns), the flowers, the seeds, the pods. And when you have all that drawn with exact measurements beside each, the leaves need to have their shape, venation and margin analyzed and recorded. SEE?! Not your average lame Nature Journal.
So, after the Texas Ebony had been admired from afar, with a magnifying glass and everything in between, we gathered around the kitchen table and I asked to see the renderings. Three of four were identifiable. The fourth tree, however, was …… ……. interesting. I questioned said artist, “If I gave your picture to Dad and sent him to the front yard, could he locate the Texas Ebony?” (We only have three trees in the front yard.) “Probably not.” “Go try again, son.”
And the nature loving just keeps on rolling here at L.A.K.E. Academy, a homeschool where gifted children thrive…. whether they want to or not. heh heh heh.
Last Friday at homeschool park day the moms FROZE in our chairs! It was so windy and cold! Well, for Phoenix, that is. It wasn’t windy at our house when we left, but 10 minutes later when we pulled into the park we hoped and prayed there were jackets in the back of the van. Thankfully, I found one for myself… my son’s hockey jacket from 5 years ago… when he was 11. No, it didn’t exactly fit, but I was able to zip it up and block the blustery cold out. It fit quite like a wetsuit. A wetsuit that is too small.
The wind blew and blew for the two hours we were huddled with arms folded tightly in the sunshine. One of my sons kept asking me, “Mom, do you know what your hair looks like?” I could see my shadow and knew it was an amusing shape… and ever-changing shape. “Mom, did you do your hair this morning?” “Mom, you should really go look at your hair.” There was nothing I could do, so I didn’t bother. For some strange reason, my 14-year-old son was extremely concerned about my hair… and my image. Maybe it was HIS image???
Yesterday was park day again. Imagine that! Friday just keeps happening over and over. Prepared for wind gusts of 50+mph, I donned a sweat suit with jacket and LOTS of hairspray. Lo and behold, winter ended in Phoenix. It was 74* F with sunny skies and not a trace of a breeze. Yesterday was also the day the moms play flag football with the kids… and lose miserably, I might add. I couldn’t even keep my jacket on sitting still because it was so warm. After playing football for ten minutes I was frying, looking for my water and a shady spot to collapse.
Spring has sprung. The air is warm, the flowers are blooming. God, please let spring last more than ten days this year!!! Please!!!
Remember me complaining about teaching English as a second language? Remember me whining about teaching adding and subtracting over and over and over again? Remember me handing over my Colombian Princess to her brothers so they could teach her math, so I wouldn’t feel like banging my head on the kitchen table, like all good homeschool moms feel like doing? Remember me being so sick of BOB books that I wanted to cry… and just maybe I did a few times. I assumed this was ALL due to English as a second language. OR my lack of skills in teaching English as a second language. And I thought maybe I was too old to have the necessary patience to teach a small child again. NOT SO, as it happened. (That was for you, Jane.)
Nora’s piano teacher commented to me that it seems Nora has difficulty discerning when the notes on the music staff go up and down. She asked if she also has trouble with reading or numbers. DUH! HER EYES! Today was a special day. ALL four Crosby kids lined up and had eye exams. Guess which one needed glasses for reading and math and piano??? Yes! She picked out darling little glasses that are purple on the top and clear on the bottom. They will arrive in a week.
The joy in my heart is almost unexplainable. In the ophthalmologist’s office, after the diagnosis was given, I gushed to my eldest daughter, “I feel like the clouds over our homeschool have just cleared and there is a ray of sun shine beaming down giving me hope again.” She’s been by my side for 19 years…. she rolled her eyes at me and exclaimed, “Don’t you think that’s a bit dramatic, Mom?” But it’s not. It is truth. Straight up. God showed up and I don’t feel quite so lame anymore. I’m even a tad eager to see if adding and subtracting is CLEARER now! Glory be! Thank God for other people who are paying attention to my children!
I’m not real thrilled that it is August. This is the month that school is supposed to start at LAKE Academy… our homeschool. I am at the lake currently (Lake Tahoe) and I am slightly getting inspired to start thinking about getting ready to begin maybe planning some of our curriculum, being that we are studying a few national parks this year that are also in California with huge redwood trees like the ones I am staring at out the window. I am the most unready of all 11 of my previous Augusts. And I am almost okay with that. Almost.
Guilt tried to consume me last night in the 27 seconds between my head hitting the pillow and when I was actually asleep. But it was only 27 seconds of guilt and I had the presence of mind to ask God to rid my brain of said guilt. He did… with sleep. Today, in the wake of realizing that it is August THIRD, I did break out the coil-bound notebook that does have 2 1/3 pages of notes. Those two-and-one-third pages are ALL I have planned so far for 10 months of study with my three pupils…. and it’s in outline form, so I do have a bit of work to do. Only 137 1/3 blank pages awaiting my attention. One thing I have learned in my 11 years of homeschool planning, is that IF I plan all ten months before we start, we will NOT finish what I have purposefully painstakingly planned. If I plan a few months or units at a time, I am FAR more inspired to be creative in small chunks throughout the year, knowing that we WILL finish what is planned.
Our upcoming school-year will consist of the study of seven national parks on the western side of the United States. We plan to do between four and six weeks of study at home and then CAMP for a week at each of the parks. THAT is my kind of homeschooling. We are schooling with another family who is also close to normal, so it will all be just fine. Yes, it will be two wild-n-crazy homeschool moms camping with eight children ranging in age from 7 to 17. Awesome! She is a science geek and I am a history nerd, so most subjects will be covered with some art thrown in for good measure. Geology. Astronomy. History. Conservation. Botany. Dendrochronology. Eco systems. Nature Journaling. Art. Oh yeah. This is the type of homeschooling that I have only dreamed of for 11 years. Please stay tuned to see if it’s all I think it’s cracked up to be.
Yes, the Mayans were right! 2012!! THE END! American History was the topic this past year for my homeschool class of high schoolers… and it ends day after tomorrow. We started in 1440 (Go ahead and guess why we started there!) and ended in the 1970s. I told the kids if they want to find out what has happened in the last 42 years, they are on their own! The Vietnam War ended and we were done. Kaput. Finis.
We did add a bit of culture and art to the study to keep it interesting (for me!) and we debunked several idols from these youngsters’ minds. “Like what?” you ask. Well, it seems of few of them were drawn to the hippies…. the Jesus people… the Kennedy’s… the Beatles… all for glamorous reasons. Then we studied some of their lifestyles, choices, outcomes and habits. Not too glamorous after all. Perfect! That is why we homeschool! To look at REAL history.
Another homeschool mom (who might just be crazier than me!) and I sat together today and did some planning for next school year… which we decided will start two weeks after all the public schools here in Arizona. Because we can! Yet another reason to homeschool! We were at an Abeka display/sale in a nearby hotel. If you don’t know anything about Abeka, it is a Christian based curriculum that is EXTREMELY thorough… so thorough that it actually contains TOO much school work for the average kid to endure. It is great, in my humble opinion, as a “pick one topic each year” curriculum. So we used it for American History and I loved it. Next year we are using it for spelling and vocabulary.
Anyway, back to the two of us rockin’ cool moms sitting at the table amongst sold-out Abeka moms. We had another curriculum opened that teaches Godly character… and we were talking through a list of national parks that we hope to visit this coming school year. We were discussing weather and what time of year would be best for us to go to each one. She was explaining, and I was listening, all the science teaching that can be coordinated with the findings at each park. We were planning our weeks of study at home… and our week at each park. Eventually we noticed that the workbook moms sitting around us were all staring lustfully at our plans. One finally blurted out, “I want to school with you two!” hahahaha…. why do you think we do this? We don’t want to be bored! We don’t want to use ONLY books! We don’t want to wear out the kitchen table! We want to live learning! I wanted to scream “Abeka is boring! Look out the window at what God made for you to enjoy!” But I didn’t. The salesman was quite an impressive figure and I wasn’t sure I could take him, if need be. The looks in their eyes solidified WHY we do what we do! My friend whispered to me, “I think they just do school at home,” implying that they aren’t truly “homeschooling.”
We want our kids to love learning, to see creation as an organized and amazingly ordered system that WORKS, to appreciate great men and women who have endured and suffered and succeeded and lost and lived out their beliefs. But most importantly, we want them to know God. To love God. To serve others. To use their individual talents for the kingdom. THAT is why we do what we do!
Here is our first original baby girl…. all growed up and glowing. She is graduating from homeschool highschool. It doesn’t get much better than that (except for her mother, who is DONE teaching this one…. one down, three to go! I can smell freedom in 2022!)
Our church, CCV, put on a grad appreciation night that was a tear-jerker. Good grief! What a great bunch of kids who have a solid foundation to build on as they go their separate ways next fall. One thing I loved was the youth pastor’s encouragement to them to find a church where ever they are at college and SERVE! Love it! Don’t just go and coast. Don’t be a pew warmer. Reach out and be Jesus to others. Awesome.
Here is Larisa trying to face the 18 year old fact that she has cheesy parents. You’d think she would have caught on by now!
We spent last week at Monterey, California and God blessed us with unbelievable weather for April on the coast! Sunny and gorgeous! My friend, Connie, got our whole family hooked on searching for sea glass…. I’m not quite sure why it is so addicting. Possibly because it is FREE and the colors of glass are so amazing. We found this little cove, after much climbing and crawling over large rocks, where the waves were bringing new pieces of glass with each crash and roll. After my entire tennis shoe went under the water, in pursuit of a huge green treasure, even I joined the freezing barefoot ranks and took the plunge. Usually I prefer to view the water, not feel the water.
The majority of our discoveries were green and brown….. 7-Up and beer bottles in past lives. But we did find some rare gems in PINK!, red, yellow, white and royal blue. My 15-year-old son saw a shining royal blue bottle in a thrift store and asked if we could buy it and throw it in the ocean…. for our next visit in three months! GREAT idea!
What do we do with the sea litter, you ask? There are mini jars at the beach house that have sorted-by-color sea glass…. so I added my finds to that happy color display. For homeschooling we count this as math…. sorting. :o) It could also be categorized as history, science and social studies. Whatever we call it, it was the BEST kind of schooling, in my humble opinion. The rest of the family brought home their glass pieces …. I’m not sure why. Possibly because they were FREE and the colors of glass are so amazing!
And no, we didn’t color coordinate our clothes with the ocean… it simply worked out that way. It was a matchy-matchy sort of day all the way around.
(This picture has nothing to do with this post…. but it’s cold outside, so I picked a snow picture!)
Math is different around the world. I’m convinced of that. My husband was taught math in Canada and he DOES NOT do multiplication the way I was taught here in the good ol’ US of A. And he’s not converting from metric either; he simple learned a funky, three-step process to do the facts, and I merely memorized them. On occasion, I do use my fingers for the nine’s times tables, but that’s only really late at night. [You know... hold up your ten fingers. Bend down the number you are multiplying by nine. Read the tens and ones with the remaining fingers. I.e. 9x4 Hold up your ten fingers. Bend down the fourth finger from the left. There are three fingers standing on the left (tens = 30) and six fingers still standing on the right (ones = 6) Hence, 36.] But my dear husband’s process has you subtracting and adding numbers up and down from the number you started with. And you’re supposed to remember all these numbers as you go. Too many steps for my little brain.
Today, at the kitchen table while teaching math to the little Colombian princess, I was assuming that Colombians learned addition differently than I did. Here are the equations and her answers:
15. 5 + 4 = 24
16. 3 + 8 = 27
Get it? I didn’t. For a LONG time. Finally I explained that it was a pre-test and I didn’t expect her to know how to do those problems yet. THEN I SAW the DOTS. She draws little dots and counts them. For the first problem, she drew 15 dots, 5 dots and 4 dots. She counted them all and wrote the correct answer! SHE WAS INCLUDING THE NUMBER OF THE PROBLEM! Hahahaha! And she DID know how to add them ALL! So after we got it all ironed out, it was smooth sailing. Colombian math is just like USA math, but probably not like Canadian math! (If I can help it!)
Last weekend I had the joy and privilege of speaking to the Arizona homeschoolers in a mid-year refresher. We all found sitters and gathered together in a hotel in Mesa and can I just say that it is so energizing to be with your peeps. We are all in the trenches together. We are parents lacking socialization with other adults all day long because we’ve chosen to school our kids at home. We laughed, we cried, we laughed some more. We shared our victories and our struggles. No matter how hard our journey seems, there is always one other family who has it WAY worse than we do… and it secretly gives us hope. If they can keep on schooling, so can we!
We listened to Tim Hawkins’ new homeschool song:
and we laughed until we cried. Happy tears with my peeps. It doesn’t get any better than that.
As the evening progressed, there were door prizes, laughter, a Southwest buffet and then I shared our homeschool story…. the challenges, the kid that couldn’t read, my failures as a homeschool mother, the triumphs and what we’ve learned along the way. It’s cathartic to give your testimony. It not only gives hope to others, but you realize how God pulled you through your circumstances and you’re still alive to tell the story.
It was a good weekend. And I’m ready to finish the homeschool year now. Not quittin’ anytime soon. Thank you, my peeps, for showing up and keeping me on my journey with my kids.
Welcome to My Sister's Jar. The story behind the blog lies in the original post on Feb. 2, 2008. Type "giddy moments" into the search box to find it.
I'm a homeschool mom who loves to speak and write, encouraging moms to press-on in motherhood. Two of my books are available NOW! Laughing in the Midst of Mothering and Laughing in the Midst of Marriage. See them at www.LindaCrosby.com or www.cbd.com.
I have four children, one of whom is adopted from Colombia, so there are LOTS of adoption tidbits here.
~~~~~~ Linda Ann Crosby
