His Love for Geography

Thomas continues to amaze us with his aptitude and ability to learn geography. Recently we tried his hand at the geography game that we have been using this year, supplementing "My Father's World - Countries to Cultures" curriculum. It's at lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz . Todays challenge, the USA. Wayne had recently tried the same game and missed only one state and earned a score of 147 (of 150 total). Thomas attempted the same game and scored 134. My attempt (and truly it was an stretch for me) scored far below their scores. I had Thomas laughing aloud at some of my answers. Guess I am the one who needs the practice with the location of US states. Not surprising. My group school experience was an exercise in "learning for them, not for me." I studied (memorized) so that I could do well on the test, took the test, then quickly forgot what I had studied. Now I have the opportunity to learn for me. I love homeschooling!!

Tickets to Anywhere

by Thomas
I would like to go to the mountains. I would like to take a plane. I'd take a friend. I would stay two weeks. I'd like to go to the mountains, because I could ski.

By Mari
I would like to go to Hawaii. I would go by plane. I would take a friend along. I would want to be there for 10 days. I would like to go to Hawaii because I've never been there.

Us

We are a family of 5. Dad/husband Wayne age 37, Mom/wife Marie age 39, Son Thomas age 7, Daughter Mari age 5 and Daughter Irene age 1. We have a yellow lab age 10 and hundreds of red wiggler worms. They live in a rubbermaid tub in our son's bedroom as a compost/science experiment. We live in suburban Minnesota. Wayne works for a large corporation. Marie is at home, homeschooling the children and doing other things necessary to run a household. We began homeschooling our children when they first arrived, however we didn't realize it at the time. Formally, we began homeschooling in 2003 when our eldest child turned 5.

Our first years we used a literature based approach curriculum, primarily Five in a Row. We supplemented that with numerous things that we have around the house. In addition, we used the math curriculum by MathUSee. Currently we are using the curriculum by My Father's World called Countries to Cultures. We are also using MathUSee, Spelling by Sound and Structure, the Rosetta Stone French Language course offered through our local library and multiple other things we have in our library for English etc.

Science at the Kitchen Table

Yesterday presented a wonderful homeschooling lesson. There we sat, the 5 of us at the kitchen table, eating breakfast with dad, before he heads off to work. We first noticed a pair of duck waddling around the small patch of woods to the rear of our house. "Lulu and Leonard?" we wondered. A pair (affectionately named by our neighbors) had layed eggs in our neighbors yard last spring and we, along with other neighbor families, anxiously awaited the arrival of their ducklings. Had the happy couple returned? Were they to chose our yard for the nest site this year? We continued to watch them look for a suitable site for a nest (at least that is what we thought they were doing) as we talked about the difference between the male and female colors, the way the female seemed to be leading the male around the area etc. when we noticed one, no two, no three and finally four bunnies chasing around the woods as well! We were all so excited to see such life in a small area of the yard. We wondered about their proximity to the ducks and discussed the fact they were not predators of each other. The bunnies were playing a chasing game and at first didn't seem to notice the ducks. We quickly got out the National Audubon Society copy of Field Guide to Mammals and searched through the rabbit/hare section to find that they were Eastern Cottontails. We learned how they are different than New England and Desert Cottontails, as well as marsh and swamp rabbits. We read about the mating dances and learned that if no young were lost (which doesn't happen), within 5 years one single pair together could produce, with their offspring 350,000 rabbits. WOW!
So there we sat, reading, discussing and watching out our kitchen window, both ducks and rabbits, in our pajamas, as a family, before 8 o'clock in the morning. It doesn't get any better than that!! Later in the day, I went to the library to pick up our books on hold and found a few books on ducks and rabbits. We read them right away!

Why we homeschool

Several years ago, as we were contemplating enrolling our son in kindergarten we were not satisfied with the options available for us. It wasn't that we didn't find excellent schools with super academics and curriculum or that we were unsatisfied with the entire institution. We just didn't find peace when considering those schools for our son. We shopped around at many schools and weighed the pros and cons of each. We narrowed it down to 2 and then thought that we would revisit the one top choice (a Christian school in a nearby community). We attended the evening open house with our son Thomas. Wayne and I had visited that same school earlier in the day and thought it wise to show Thomas the school that he may be attending in the fall. As we sat there listening (for Wayne and I it was the second time in one day to hear this information) to the administrators and teachers describe their school and the things that the school offered, I found myself thinking to myself "I think I'd like to be a Christian educator one day. But how would I do that? I'd have to go back to school to get a teaching license, put the kids in day care etc. etc." Then, God placed into my hands "you can do that now, with your own children, at home". WHOA! I didn't realize the magnitude of that message then, but knew that our future would be changed significantly. Wayne and I began praying about what choice would be the best for Thomas. Homeschooling was it. We did much research and continued praying. We were soon convicted that this was God's plan for our child. We were uncertain about how homeschooling worked. We wondered if we had the skills to do it. We felt baffled by all the choices of curriculum that could be used. We looked into support groups and things that were offered in our geographical area and were amazed to find the numbers of families and opportunities available. We kept praying all along. With God's great mercy and grace, we have come to find that this is truly where we as a family should be. This is God's plan for our children and we will answer the call.