The Homeschooling Wife

Eleven months ago, my husband and I settled that the current school year (22-23) would for now be our kids last year at their school. Going forward we would homeschool. It was a huge change for us. I stepped out of the workforce, we are relying on God to provide for our gym as my husband is the only breadwinner, and then of course for the kids. Many times I have had the question, "What about socialization?"

But other questions have been more on point:

• curriculum
• co-op or not
• fieldtrips
• schedule (calendar and daily)

So, I'm sharing this, and going to update the tab on my blog with more details.

But first, a general "disclaimer." I live in Texas, which is an amazing state to homeschool in. Texas requires only that students be taught 5 things.

1. Reading
2. Spelling
3. Grammar
4. Mathematics
5. Good Citizenship, which entails:
1. Federal Holidays
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. History
4. Government

Anyone who lives in Texas and wants more details, I recommend visiting The Texas Homeschool Coalition website. An amazing resource. Every state is different, I highly recommend checking your state's requirement. Now some government schools will argue that you have to notify them officially that you are pulling your kids if they have been attending them. I would suggest if your state doesn't, get your child's academic records, and copies of test scores before they ever hear about you thinking of homeschooling. The schools can be very hostile. 

Now we had our kids in private school, so all I did was opt out of automatic re-enrollment. 

So here is how we homeschool, what we use, and what we do.

Curriculum

      This took work. I researched for months before making decisions. I reached out to families that have homeschooled for years. Scoured websites and blog posts for reviews. I wasn't just going to be schooling one child, but 3, in different grades (5th, 3rd, and PK4). Here is what I ultimately decided on:

5th Grader & 3rd Grader

• Math, Christian Light Education
• Language Arts (Grammar, Reading, Spelling, Writing), Common Sense Press
• Bible, no curriculum. As a family reading the Bible chronologically, and doing scripture memory.
• History/Social Studies - NotGrass History - using their 50 states curriculum this year, additionally say the following pledges: Texas Pledge, Pledge to the American Flag, Pledge to the Christina Flag, Pledge to the Bible
• Science - The Good and The Beautiful - various unit studies
• Handwriting - 3rd grader only, Zaner-Bloser

PK4

• I found an amazing PK4 packet at kindergartenreadyskills.com. I formerly was a preschool director (licensed) and thought to make everything, but her workbook was chef's kiss!
• It includes: alphabet, letters, tracing, mini-month units on weather, hygiene, etc. But I did switch the order of the letter teaching to a phonetics system

Additionally, since I have a 5 year old, we do a general calendar time which is a great review for all three of my kids. And come January we will be adding a typing program for my 5th and 3rd grader, currently reviewing some recommendations.

Language Arts was the only curriculum that really gave me pause. I was also looking at IEW's curriculum but decided it wasn't for us. 

Co-op or Not

      When we made the decision to homeschool, it came after months of prayer and mediation. I felt that God was telling me that I need to spend the next year focused on my husband and my kids. Keep close to home. My husband supported this. Around the time we made this life altering decision, our church announced for the 2023-2024 school year, they were sponsoring a Co-op! And they did ask if we would be apart of it. We said no. Not forever, but for this year for sure based on our understanding of what God was wanting from us. We will revisit it in the future. But I do say, I enjoy the freedom of being with my kids, our own schedule, and if we need to shuffle life around, it only impacts us. I know some people who absolutely love their Co-op. And maybe one day we will experience one. But not today.

Fieldtrips

We haven't yet taken any dedicated ones. I plan to plan better for the Spring. I will use Christmas Break to do more research. But honestly we have had many family commitments this semester. We have gone to a few parks mid-week, and connected some with other homeschool families. I even joined a Facebook Group for our area that plans 2 to 3 events a week. I need to review and sign up to participate in one or two.

But don't think we are homebodies. We run errands together. Meet my husband for lunch, or just visit him at the gym. We have visited friends of mine mid-week and enjoyed fresh air. Also the library is usually a bi-weekly visit for us.

Schedule

      Our calendar isn't as set as one would expect from me. I have a general idea of what I want us to do, and when to have off. We "follow" the districts around here for the major holidays, and we haven't settled on what summer will be like. My husband is on board with a "year round" mindset, and I don't disagree with his logic. I am thinking for summer we won't do a full course load, a modified day, but our kids will still be engaged in focused learning.

Daily/Weekly though we have our routine down by now. From 8-8:30 we usually start our learning time. And here is our order:

• Bible - daily scripture reading, daily devotion, prayer time (kids also have prayer journals), scripture memory review. Also, for where we are in our daily chronological reading I will find coloring sheets or projects to reinforce the lesson/reading.
  
• Mathematics - Speed Drills first, then lesson or quiz/test
• Language Arts, 3rd grader does his Handwriting after. Will probably have 5th grader do keyboarding after her LA lesson.
• History & Science
• History:
• Each of the 50 states is 2 days worth of lessons, so we do 2 states a week
• The History curriculum had the option to purchase books that go with each region, I purchased these. While my kids do their journals, I read a chapter a day.
• Science
• As we do unit studies I pick the focus. We started off going over Biblical Sexuality (different vendor) so that my kids could understand male & female as God intended. Now we are using TGATB for our studies. Currently we are going over "Health and the Physical Body." 1 lesson a week, and generally there is a hands on project or task. I will add supplemental reinforcement worksheets to test that the kids focused on the lesson.
• Calendar - review the days of the weeks, months of the year, the order the occur, weather.

Now all this takes roughly 3 to 3.5 hours. That's right. We DO NOT school ALL day. Once we get through our morning, than we live life. Run errands, tend to the house, visit family, go to the park, have lunch with my husband, I workout. Kids help do chores, watch movies, play outside, play with the chicken (check if she laid an egg), goof around on their tablets. Then come Saturday when my husband works a shorter day, there usually isn't housework to do unless its a big project. We are free to attend birthday parties, or go to the movies, or anything because we aren't forced to get everything done on one day off (Sunday still is set aside for church).

Now regarding my youngest who is in prekindergarten. His schooling does not take as long as the 3rd and 5th grader. He is required to sit through Bible and prayer (planting seeds and setting the example). Then once his siblings are on their math lesson, we review his lessons. Usually 2 letters a week, and 2 numbers a week. We have worksheets the saturate his mind with the current letter/number, and I work with him on understanding, recognizing and identifying. We additionally read together, and he has calendar time with us. His total school day is usually 1 hour. That's it. Then he plays with Legos, playdough, kinetic sand, or does puzzles. He watches Bluey, The Kratz Brothers, and even movies. He loves being outside and will chalk up our back deck with his drawings.

In the future, it could be more difficult. They could go back to private school if finances allow. But right now I am basking in this life we have created. If we continue to homeschool til all 3 graduate I easily see us joing a co-op when they hit high school, just because chemistry for sure was not my thing and I did struggle with Spanish. But I must admit I love the freedom we have to learn at our pace, and with what interests us.

Tragedy in Texas

Yesterday morning, while my family was at church, learning God's word, singing praises to His Holy name, a few hours away, another church, was devastated. As that church congregation gathered to do what I was doing with several hundred others, an evil man came in with a gun, and fired on that congregation.

Yesterday, 26 saints of God went to heaven. The youngest an 18 month old; 12 to 14 of the victims were children; and the pastor's own 14 year old daughter in that number. Roughly 20 others were injured, at least half of those are still in critical condition.

Friends, nothing is sacred, nothing is holy anymore. When I go to church, to worship, praise, and study the word of God, I leave the world behind. I do all I can to leave my worries at the door, at the cross, so I can focus on God. But last night, when I went to church, I was watchful, I was leery. The choir sang a phenomenal song, we have practiced it for weeks. But there was a weight on my heart, and I feel on the hearts of many because of the news we received after leaving church that morning.

I reference the Sandy Hook incident often in my writings, due to it happening right after the birth of my daughter Abigail. I was new to motherhood, and the flood of emotions of having a life to care for, to tend to, to protect...Sandy Hook stirred those even more. And I felt that the little bubble I had created at home with her was pricked when I finally turned on the news that December day. I was in a hormonal haze that had me thinking the world was perfect. I knew, and know, that the world is not perfect. But, there was an innocence to that chapter of my life, that abruptly ended with the devastation of that school shooting.

And yesterday...I feel we are in the last seconds of this current age, and I know things are ramping up as a woman in labor, but I was shocked by the events of yesterday. This isn't the first church shooting in recent years, and not the first shooting incident period. In the past few months there was Las Vegas, and even the terror in New York just a week or so ago. We barely have time to recover, reestablish a new sense of normal, and there is another incident, lives taken, communities shattered. Upon hearing about the death of the pastor's child, my heart just hurt. The entire event is a travesty, but lets think about that man and his life. He is a pastor, the shepherd to his flock. He needs to tend to them, the families that have lost loved ones. And he needs to do that all while he is in mourning, his baby was taken from him suddenly, and he wasn't there. It is almost too much to endure. I am praying for that poor man, that he will endure, he will have strength, and that he will live out a testimony for Christ, that even though he is dealing with a loss, he will still serve, be faithful, and help others.

I hugged my children a bit more yesterday, cuddled longer than normal, breathed them in. We are not promised tomorrow, and we do not know how our time will end. We need to do as much as we can each day we are blessed to have.  Let us remember this:

Psalm 34:18 (ESV)

 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted

and saves the crushed in spirit.

And this:

Right now we need to pray for those who lost loved ones, the pastor to have strength, the first responders to be brave and to recover, and that the light of Jesus will shine bright in this situation.

A Hurricane Named Harvey

I was born in 1985, and mainly lived in the Corpus Christi area all of my life, minus 11 months in Austin. Then in 2008 I moved to the Houston area. Three months later, almost to the day,  I experienced my first hurricane. Ike.

It truly is astounding that in 23 years living in Corpus Christi I didn't experience any hurricanes. I remember Ike very well. The time without power, how rude people were when it came to getting supplies and necessities leading to Ike's landfall. Luckily a cool front came through after and kept the temperatures bearable. People came together afterward, helped each other, you saw a true sense of community. Every year since, I have been mindful of hurricane season. I watch the news, I keep water on hand, and dry goods that area easily prepared.

When Harvey developed last week, I was mindful once again. Before any schools were cancelled I took a trip to the store for more water, snacks, dog food, and things of that nature.

And then on Thursday when schools started closing (mine included) I went back to the store. I remember us having to cook everything on the bbq pit due to losing power, and my husband was mindful of that too (we didn't know each other during Ike, but had similar experiences). So I went back to the store for charcoal and a few fun snacks for the kids. The lines were long, but people were being nice, helping each other, and no one was frustrated. People patiently waited. Then I picked up dinner, and again long lines, but again patience. And even more impressive - the people working, with no clue of when they would go home - they had patience, and smiles.

It is now Monday, and the rain has not stopped. It started heavily Friday evening, rained all day Saturday and Sunday (some spells of no rain, but those were few), and here we are almost done with the morning this Monday, and it is still raining. Not only have we had rain, we have had wind, and tornadoes. Night and day phone's are going off with warnings and watches. The emergency alert system breaks through every show telling people to seek cover, don't drive, hunker down. To say that the Houston metropolitan area has been devastated would be an understatement.

For people who are not familiar with Houston here is something information I have found:

For my non-Houston friends the below details may help you understand the devastation:

The Houston area is huge. The greater metropolitan area is circled by the Grand Parkway - which is 170 miles long. That makes the area of the circle inside the Grand Parkway over 2200 sq. miles.

2200 square miles of densely inhabited, urban and suburban, areas is flooded.

Imagine if the entire state of Delaware, with twice the population of Manhattan, was under water.

That's Houston.

It's still raining.

The pictures...they are sad but encouraging. Throughout this ordeal people have lost everything. Houses have flooded, cars have been washed away. I have read the accounts of friends who were dry and a minute later water was rushing into their homes before they had a chance to get stuff put up and way. Friends have shared images of the water in their houses, water covering their vehicles. Areas that have never flooded, well, did. But this is Texas. A beautiful, wonderful state that defies odds.

People are coming to Texas from all over the country to help. But even better, is that Texas is helping Texas. Communities near and far (Texas is a big state) are sending resources, and people to help. And its not just first responders, or those trained, but every day people, the average Joe's are loading up and heading our way. People with boats are driving to Houston (and just south of here, all the way down to Corpus Christi) to help people who are trapped on roofs. There was a nursing home with water in it, with residence still in it. And people posted about it, it got to the news, and they were rescued. 

Here is a great link by the NYTimes that shows how much water Houston has received: before-and-after-harvey

I sometimes bemoan social media, but I have seen it used wonderfully to help people in need. Anything can be a tool for good and for evil. And lately it seems like social media has been a big stick stirring the pot of discontent and discord in our country. But over the past 4 days I have seen it used to aide people in need, bring people together, unite communities in prayer. And even today, it is being used to encourage people that if you are at home, no water in your home - use your time to clean out your closets so you can help those who have lost everything. I have seen it used to update people on which grocery stores are open so people can replenish their supplies.

Projected rain still to come as of Monday 8/28/2017

Harvey isn't done yet. More rain is expected over the next SEVERAL days. A friend lives just a handful of miles away and she has recorded over 36" of rain at her house since this all started on Friday. Please continue to pray. Texas is showing the nation what community is about. We are helping each other, we are supportive, and we are mindful. 

Personally, we are well. We were able to get out and about Friday and Saturday and had dinner both evenings with my in-love's. There was food, fellowship, and games. It was a good distraction from being in our house for so long. The ditch behind our house yesterday was the highest I have ever seen

Ditch behind our house on 8/27/2017

it. And that was looking from our back door (part of our fence fell Friday). Here's the thing - Houston was built on bayou's. There is water all around. We expect flooding to happen with rain events. But this is unprecedented. Today, the ditch is so far down, we cannot see it from the back door, and I have no desire to put my rain boots on and go look where it is at. One of our local grocers did open this morning, and I saw a friend post about it. She grabbed us some milk and banana's - Brock drove up to meet her in the parking lot. We have food, and now having milk we can cook a few more things other than soup. We have power, there hasn't been flooding on our immediate street, and the drainage system we have is pretty spectacular. Neighbors are checking on neighbors. We might be bored somewhat in our house - the kids do have some cabin fever - but we are well. It could be so much worse - as it is for many that we know. And through the days ahead, I will place my hope in the One who created the storm. The One who has numbered days, and knows the steps I will take.

Isaiah 25:4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,

Psalm 57:1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.

Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Pray for Houston, Pray for ALL who have been impacted