A glimpse inside this journey called life...

About Me: I have been married to my soul mate for 13 years. We have three beautiful children that fill our life with happiness. Our oldest son will be 8 in April and our twins just turned 5. We also have a precious 12 year old lab that was one of our first babies, a giant housecat that is full of love, and a sweet bunny rabbit. If my kids have anything to do with it we will soon have baby ducks, a hamster and a puppy to add to our family mix!

About Our Family: Our family loves the outdoors. We enjoy camping, hiking, swimming, and spending time in the mountains. We take a lot of day trips to zoos, museums, parks and waterfalls. We are always looking for new adventures to take our children on. We are firm believers that childhood is precious and each day should be lived like it is our last. My kids love both art and nature. After researching all of the different "methods" of homeschooling I decided in the end that Charlotee Mason would make a perfect fit for our family. We absolutely love the nature journals, limit of technology, daily nature walks, and hymn and bible study that SCM has included. Of course we include our personal touch by adding in tons of arts and crafts (most nature themed). We really enjoy field trips and try to do one a week.



 My First Born: First is our very bright and passionate 7 year old son. He is a eco-conscious, eager to please child who loves helping others. He especially loves caring for animals and wants to be a zoologist one day. He has a deep desire to learn and we cannot seem to fill him with enough knowledge. He loves reading everything from chapter books to encyclopedias and is a natural whiz at spelling and math. He plays golf casually and tennis competitively. He loves music and learned to play the piano by ear when he was 4. A lover of all living things, he recently asked our extended family at Thanksgiving if they knew they were eating a "real" turkey, one that had never hurt a soul! This is one boy you will never catch stepping on a bug. Each day with this sweet boy is such a blessing.






My Flower Child: Next is our only little girl, our 5 year old flower child. She is a passionate, tree hugging little artist that wants to save the world. She knows what she likes and is 100% not a follower! Her favorite color is rainbow, her favorite flower is a sunflower and she wants nothing more than to save the rain forest! Almost all of her clothes are splashed with paint and on any given day you can catch her with a paintbrush behind her ear. I have never seen so much passion bundled up into such a tiny package. My only fear is that one day she may tie herself to an ancient tree to save a forest from being bulldozed! Her other love is ice skating. She started skating this past August, and has wanted to be on the ice every day since. She is our perfect little angel, half girly/girl half tomboy and I thank God everyday that he blessed me with such a sweet girl.





Our Baby (by 2 minutes!):  The baby of our family is our sweet 5 year old and is 100% boy. He is full of energy and always has a long list of questions. He loves learning new things and stores them away to amaze us later with facts only he could remember. He is a charming little daredevil who has a smile that could melt an iceberg. He loves nature and would live outside 24/7. There is never a day that is too cold or too hot for him. He wants to go out at 6am and look for toads and has to be forced inside when he is still outside stargazing after dinner. He enjoys drawing what he finds in nature and also writing stories about insects. He is our little gymnast and soccer player. This boy is fearless and makes sure that there is never a dull moment. He reminds me so much of myself, always searching for the next adventure. He wants to be an astronaut when he grows up so he can walk on the moon. I am so blessed to have this sweet child that has such a passion for simply living out his life.



My Old, Neglected Blog...   http://raisingorganicbrownies.blogspot.com/

Our Curriculum 2013

Science/Nature Study

 

 

 

 Our Nature Journals

 



 History

 

Geography

 

Handwriting

 

Copywork

 

Language Arts

 

 

Math

Current Poetry

 

 

 

Current Animal Autobiography

 

Other
We use http://simplycharlottemason.com/ for our Literature, Hymn Study, Scripture Memory, Music Study, Art , Handicrafts and Life Skills. We love using Living books and incorporate them into everything we are learning. 

We also have all of the Golden Guides for our Nature Walks. I highly recommend these. They are great for children who are not quite ready for the full Field Guides. They fit perfectly into their Ranger Vest or back pockets and they love more than anything to pull them out to identify the treasures they find in the forest! We also have the Bird one as they have recently gotten into birdwatching. :) 

 

The Magical Tree

One of the greatest things about being a Mom is you get the chance to experience childhood all over again. Yesterday among our busy activities of school, playground, Jr Team Tennis Practice and Awanas, we somehow stumbled upon the perfect climbing tree. Let me just say we have encountered many trees among our hikes and camping trips but I can honestly say this was a tree in a league of it's own!

It's limbs were large and strong, stretching all the way to the ground as if extending it's hands to the children. It's overhanging limbs with leaves created a magical playground hidden from the rest of the world. As we climbed underneath into this special place, I couldn't help but feel like a big kid. My children giggled and squealed in delight as they climbed, hung upside down like monkeys and ran from limb to limb as if they were in an enchanted forest. They gave big hugs to this tree, although there little arms could not even cover the front of his enormous trunk. They discovered that this tree looked like it had a face (it really did appear that way!) so they began telling it their wishes in hopes the tree could help make them come true. They whispered to each other, eyes wide and full of wonder as they waited for this tree to talk to them. When the wind blew the leaves would shake they would take that sound as the tree's voice. There giggles echoed among the small forest and I know that sound will be forever recorded in my heart.

It is such a wonderful feeling for a Mom to see the innocence of your children believing in their own imagination. For those precious few hours everything else went away except the pure magic of childhood. Too often in our world today children are forced to grow up, stop dreaming and understand how the world really works. I cannot imagine wanting that for any child. Childhood is so short and so very precious. I say let them play, let them wander, let them dream, simply let them be the small innocent children that God intended them to be. I know that yesterday we made a wonderful new friend, one whom we will visit very often in the near future. I am going to make sure I have my camera in hand on our next visit so I can capture a portrait of this very special tree that will most likely always be rememberd as part of their sweet childhood!

Our Adventure
I have decided to start a blog of our homeschool life. I think that it will be wonderful in the years to come to look back and reflect on our journey.

So I am going to start at the beginning of our journey which began last year. This is an overview of our first adventure in becoming a homeschooling family...picking a perfect curriculum.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Okay, first let me say that I  have never been the best at making decisions. I tend to over-analyze, over-think and over-research every single one I  make. So of course when it came to my kid's education this was the case as that decision is one of the most critical ones I have ever had to make. I began homeschooling a little clueless of what exactly I was doing. Scared, confused and excited all at once, we set out on our new adventure. It was overwhelming with all of the different types of curriculum that are available now. Of course we all want the best for our children, so I felt obligated to explore each and every one. I spent countless sleepless nights on my computer researching methods, looking at blogs, and reading millions of reviews.

Hind Sight is always 20/20
My advice for new homeschooling moms would be this: When you find something that feels right, go with it and quit researching! The wise old advice of following your heart could not be more needed in the decision of homeschooling. I stumbled upon the teachings of Charlotte Mason and instantly felt at home with all of her ideas on education. I however kept researching and in the end was too scared of trying the Charlotte Mason way. I felt that I needed something safer for my first year, even if it was not my style. By doing this I ended up spending a small fortune on a "box education" that did not fit my style or the style of my children. If I had just followed my own heart I would have gone with the right one to start off with and saved myself not only money but the time and trouble. After a few months, I found my children moving on with their lessons but not with the passion that I knew was inside of them. So after some deep soul searching I have gone back to my first choice and could not be happier.

A PERFECT fit for our family
We are now a Charlotte Mason Homeschooling family and my kids are thriving. They have become so passionate about learning that I find them reading their books (event their math ones!!) by flashlight after bedtime! I have found the perfect fit for our family and could not be more excited about it. It so wonderful to be teaching a method that fits so well with my own style. We are all loving our new schedule and our new curriculum choices. The kids are actually doing school for longer because they want to continue after the lessons are done and that makes me one happy homeschooling Mommy! :)