11 days in..

I'm 11 days into my homeschooling journey, and though I anticipated posting after the completion of each week, I can tell that being able to manage my time in a way to make that happen will prove to be quite difficult. 

 I'm here now though, and I can honestly say that the first two weeks of homeschooling have me pretty excited to see what the future holds.  I am eager to take each failed and successful experience to make our schedule and our lessons enjoyable and meaningful for the whole family.  I want Paxton, Tobias and Naomi to love learning, and to eventually be self motivated learners who follow their passions, desires and God given talents to live out their callings.  I'm excited to have the opportunity to tailor learning experiences to each of our children's unique personalities and learning styles, and to do this I am constantly trying to rid myself of the idea that this is merely school at home.  I have found myself slipping into the inflexibility that my teacher side feels nudging when learning takes us down a new path- but I want to finish what's in my plans.  The irony of it all is that the thing that gives the homeschooling skeptics the most comfort about the fact that our family has chosen this path is that I am a certified teacher, and it's when I start believing that my home is a classroom that I our lessons begin to falter. I'm eagerly digesting nuggets of wisdom from a plethora of homeschooling blogs and re-educating myself on what's truly most important when it comes to the education of my children. I'm excited because the passion I once had for teaching special education that dissolved after having Paxton and had really been slowly fizzing out prior to that for a variety of unfortunate reasons has been reignited and redirected towards homeschooling.  There will be challenges for sure ( there already have been many!) but I am excited for the challenge.  

Paxton and Tobias are doing our memory verse hop- learning Genesis 1:1.  

 Paxton learned about infinity, and then created a book where he was able to independently think of several places where numbers are found.

 One of the places Paxton told me numbers are found are on the rectangles on the back of cars, he now knows they are called license plates 🙂

 The Tuesday after Labor Day The Lepley's and Anderson's had our first virtue of the month club where we talked about being a cheerful worker.  Here the kids are all drawing pictures of themselves completing various tasks cheerfully.

 We practiced being a cheerful worker by opening a lemonade stand, and giving the proceeds to Hurricane Harvey victims! Here Lucy is yelling " Lemonade, get your fresh lemonade" to some of our neighbors.

 Paxton painted an excellent advertisement for our sale.

 After the event the kids all cheerfully pitched in to make our cleanup a big success!

 Here is Lucy stirring our simple syrup to mix with the lemon juice for our fresh squeezed lemonade!

 The kids generated some great ideas about what it looks like to be a cheerful worker, and Paxton seemed to have the most input about what it does NOT look like ( Not that he has done any of those things before 😉)

 Paxton and Tobias playing together, pretending to feed these puppets a delicious feast of fruit.

 Friday was our first day of Homeschool Co-Op, so after changing Naomi out of her first outfit of the morning due to her massive poo explosion we headed outside for a photo before our 4 minute drive to co-op. What a blessing!

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 Paxton sitting next to his buddy Porter during co-op in their Lego building class. He had a great time and we are excited to go back this friday!

There were so many more great experience that just didn't get captured on camera, but I look forward to sharing more in the future.

Will he be starting Kindergarten in the fall?

It's been 3 years since I have written on this blog.  Since then we have devastatingly endured 2 miscarriages, and joyfully added two beautiful blessings to our family, Tobias (2) and Naomi ( 4 months).  There have been several more fun parties that I look forward to sharing at some point including an octonauts party, farm animal party, bob the builder and the latest which was  Paxton's 5th Mario birthday party.

Now that Paxton is five we have become accustomed to the question of whether or not he will be starting Kindergarten in the fall.  We smile and reply that while he will be starting "kindergarten" we
will be homeschooling. Here are the most common comments we receive...

1) You must be so patient to be able to do that.


2 )How are you going to home-school high school?

I rarely give in depth answers to these questions when asked in passing, and so as I begin this home-school journey with intentions to invite you along for the ride via this blog I am going to briefly comment on each.

1) I always thought I was a naturally patient person.  I believed that I would never be a yeller, that I could keep my cool in almost any situation.  Through out the years I have realized that this was oh so very wrong.  I am not a patient person in and of myself.  I have yelled during my teaching and
parenting years far more than I care to admit.  I have started to pray for patience- which as a side note: if anyone tells you not to do this because then God will test it... well, I want to suggest that is superstition not spirituality. If God needs to test my patience in order to give it to me, then I will praise Him because He knows what I need far better than I.  I also believe that I have a Father who loves me, and He could very well give me just the amount of patience I need for each moment without putting me through a crazy trial in order to do so.  All this to say: No I am not a patient person.  My prayer is that God will use homeschooling to refine me into the woman he created me to be, including increasing my patience.

2) There really isn't an in depth answer required here: one year at a time people, he is only 5!

Paxton's Train Party

Paxton's train party ended up being a lot of work, but totally worth it in the end.  I won't write too much though, because I think the pictures can all speak for themselves.  Enjoy! My parent's, Patrick and I all worked together to make various aspects of this party come together. Patrick's mom brought delicious meatballs to share, and also provided the AMAZING cake she had made by a co-worker of hers.  This party was truly a team effort!

Awesome sign made by my dad.  Guests were asked to take a picture with their group behind the sign before entering. I would love to have a copy of your pic if you have one! Text me :-) 

 This was Patrick's major project of the party, with some help from my dad as well.  This is still in my parents garage because I just can't part with it. I am thinking it could make a great addition to a playroom in a future house!

 The horse was something my parents already had, and we figured why not put it out for the little ones to enjoy- and they surely enjoyed it.

 Although trains are undoubtedly Paxton's very favorite thing, he was pretty excited about this bubble station- it was quite possibly his favorite part of the party!

 It was such a joy to see all of the kids running around and truly enjoying themselves.

                                              Another shot of the entryway to the party.

               

                                             

                                         This was where we put Paxton's gifts as they arrived!

                                            Our Sweets Station before the cake arrived

                                            ...and the cake, which by the way tasted as good as it looks!

                                     Some of our best friends! Such a blessing to celebrate with them

 These were our party favors. In the bags were train whistles, bandannas and a create your own train sun-catcher kit...there were supposed to have chocolate coins as well but we realized last minute they contained peanut products, and my cousin has a peanut allergy.

 I couldn't find any great shots of our salad bar train when it was filled, but this might be the best shot I have.

 This was the salad bar train before we added all the yummy salad toppings. As you can see, we had a lot!

                                       My high school best friend Ruth came with her then fiance Kevin.  Since                                       then they have tied the knot, and she was seriously the most beautiful bride ever!