Who Chooses the Studies in Your Homeschool?

This afternoon I took my middle daughter out to lunch and on a shopping trip. Every year before school starts, I take each child by themselves to lunch and shopping. This gives me an opportunity to visit with them alone and see where we are headed in the coming year. I knew my 15 yo was interested in sports so we went to 3 used book stores in the area. The last one had several sports books she wanted to read, so I bought them for her. When school starts, she will have time to read and write about each one. In the back of my mind, I’d like her to write a paper on what makes a great athlete, based on her readings. She may want to study sports all year and that is okay. If she studies sports for 2 hours each day, she will come across math, history, science, literature, and so forth in her studies. I will use her interest to form her school work.

I tell my kids that they will need to pick a subject area to study, in addition to their basic studies. I expect their basic studies to take 2-3 hours and we will have 1-2 hours in the afternoon for their chosen studies. Their basic subjects are history (usually done together as a family), writing, and literature. For my youngest, I will still assign him math and a little grammar/vocab, too. But, I know he will learn and remember more of what he “wants” to study than what I assign. Believe me this is far from my personality. I like to make those assignments and let them work, but that is not what is best for them as they learn how to be a leader.

Let your kids make some decisions about what they want to study, even if it is motorcycling, biking, or sewing. Let them choose and begin to be a leader in their own studies.

Kerry

Inspiring Our Kids

One thing I think is important about inspiring our kids is being excited about a study ourselves. I know when I hear a speaker that truly inspires me, he is usually fired up about the topic he is sharing. I want to be excited about what my kids are studying, so I try to start with their own interest.

I try to look for times that my kids are excited about something and then pursue that area of interest. We use school to study that area. Last spring our family watched Apollo 13 and everyone was curious about space, the moon, space travel and so on. I decided we should pursue this area the next week. It was nothing big; I simply pulled a book from our shelf and read it aloud to my kids the next week. The book was Destination Moon, published by Vision Forum. It is a biographical account of Jim Irwin and his trip to the moon. My kids did not want me to stop reading each day. I also had some extra space books in a basket for them to enjoy.

To carry this a bit further, last week we visited Wes Callihan, who lives in the country – no city light pollution. We could see the entire sky and Wes knows where all the constellations are. He pointed out many constellations and told the story of some. My thought is to pursue this interest when we formally start school. We have star charts and I hope to have my son draw out some of the constellations. I hope to have him read some of the myths behind the constellations. I say “hope” because I will talk to him about these ideas and see if that is what he wants to do. If he has other ways to study constellations, we’ll head in that direction.

How do you inspire your kids?

Kerry

Frugal Friday Ideas

I am always behind on sending in ideas for Frugal Friday. Here are a few more ideas:

1. Goodwill - We have found some of the coolest clothes at Goodwill this summer. My girls each found a formal dress for $12.99 that they can wear to upcoming balls here in Moscow, Idaho. When my hubby was giving one of his Teen Business Workshops outside of Austin, we had an hour to kill before the lunch break. I had no idea what was nearby, so we started driving around. We found a Goodwill Store and stopped to browse. That's when we found the dresses and some other items. We had to get back and pick up Steve, so we decided to return after lunch. We found some more deals, including a book on the Darwin Awards. That book has brought many laughs for our family over the summer.

ps. The girls wore their new dresses to the Trinity Fest Ball and they looked beautiful . . . of course mom would say that!

2. Make Your Own Seasoning Mixes - I grew up using a variety of spices to make spaghetti sauce, taco seasoning, etc. So, I automatically did the same thing once I was living on my own. I buy large containers of spices at King Dollar for $1 each. These include parsley, basil, oregano, chili powder, garlic powder, etc. I do not measure; I just sprinkle it on top of the meat or sauce. After a few tastes, I get the flavor I want and . . . voila!!! It's done. Yes, I do believe I save money because I can't buy seasoning packets for less than $1. And those packet only last once.

Kerry

For A Laugh

The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight shoes.

The nice part about living in a small town: When you don't know what you're doing, someone else always does.

Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.

Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks two sizes!

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it will always be yours. If it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with. But, if it just sits in your living
room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your telephone, takes your money, and doesn't appear to realize that you had set it free....... You either married it or
gave birth to it.

Kerry