Progress

It is hard for me to believe that five months have passed since we began school!  What an amazing five months!  I think we have really settled into our routine now, and I am seeing so much progress.  I feel incredibly blessed to be able to witness our children's growth firsthand and on a daily basis.

Today I showed Amelia how much she has improved in handwriting since September.  We were both impressed!  She has grown from an early reader, reading several words and learning phonics skills, to being very nearly an independent reader.  She told me today that she loves to read, and that melts my heart! (Probably even more so because I too love to read!)  Most assuredly, she would not have said that a couple of months ago.  She tells me almost everyday that she loves math.  There are rare days when she doesn't want to do her school work, but most days she tackles it with enthusiasm.  I am so proud of the progress she is making!

Here she is with a picture we colored on our first day of school in 2011.

Brenna is soaking up so much from being present during school.  Some days she wants to sit down and work on "school work", but often she is content to play and pop in from time to time to work on her letters or numbers or whatever Amelia happens to be doing.  She was thrilled a couple of weeks ago when part of Amelia's lesson included "opposites".  Amelia didn't really need that part of the lesson but it thrilled her to teach Brenna, and Brenna was thrilled to jump right in.  I love to see them working together and learning from each other.  Brenna even challenges Amelia every once in awhile!  She has learned the days of the week very well and often chimes in before Amelia when I ask what day it is and what yesterday was and tomorrow will be.   Of course, this makes Amelia furious but challenges her nonetheless.   

Here's Brenna showing off some of her school work.

Grant is making progress all his own.  He is immensely curious and into EVERYTHING!  I can't even being to keep up with the messes this baby can make.  His favorite activities include emptying baskets, drawers, cabinets, etc., following the vacuum cleaner and turning off the power switch, playing ball, climbing onto the dishwasher when the door is open and climbing the stairs.  He is on the verge of walking and I can only imagine how that will add to his ability to cause chaos in our house.  However messy he may be, he is an absolutely delightful little boy.  He is almost always happy and content with whatever is going on around him.  I am constantly amazed as he learns and grows even though he is our third. 

Here he is trying out crayons for the first time.  Even Grant gets in on school time occasionally.

First Day of School

I spent a lot of time over the summer finalizing plans for our first year of homeschooling.  We picked a curriculum and I had delved into it well before time for school to begin.  I prepared the room we are using for school with the things we needed and realized at the last minute that we had desks and a book shelf, but no chairs.  So in the midst of packing for our family vacation, I hunted chairs for us on Craigslist and found some just in the nick of time.  I thought I had a pretty good plan and we'd be ready after returning from vacation to jump right in.

I did have a plan, but there wasn't much about our first day that went as planned!  Beginning a school routine was a big change for all of us.  We were used to having structure to our days, but the school schedule completely changed our structure.  The kids were used to eating and getting dressed at a leisurely pace for the most part, but I set a start time for school and that was an adjustment.  On top of that, we started on a Tuesday and Tuesdays are different because Brenna has dance and Amelia has piano on Tuesday mornings.  All-in-all we were pretty successful at getting ready and out the door.  With dance and piano lessons complete, we got ready to go to our school room just in time for Grant's morning nap.  At 10 months old, he still preferred to be rocked to sleep so that delayed the start of our day by another 20 -30 minutes.  With the baby asleep, we jumped right in to school work just in time for the girls to say, "Mom, when's lunch?"  

You get the picture.  Every time I thought we were going to have a nice chunk of time to get to work, something happened.  I anticipated that schooling with 3 children with varying needs would be a challenge, but I could not have anticipated how big of a challenge it would be.  The first week was trying for a lot of reasons. (Grant having an ear infection being one big one.)  At one point during the week I even told Dustin that this may be our first and only year of home school!  Thankfully, after much prayer and trial and error, I can say that we have a new routine.  The children have adjusted well and I can honestly say, so have I.  I don't think they even remember that they used to have a weekday schedule that didn't include school time.

I have learned so much in the weeks since we began school and it is a continuous process of learning and refining.  I think that this continuous process is one of the beauties of home school.  I constantly learn and adjust as needed to meet the needs of our family.  I've learned how to work our weekly schedule, taught Grant to put himself to sleep for nap time, and found out that school time can be a real joy for all of us!

Amelia on her first day of school.

 Brenna ready for her first dance class.

What's in a Name?

As I contemplated creating a blog about our family's home schooling journey, I cringed at the thought of giving it a name.  I am terrible at naming things.  I analyze the possibilities until I've talked myself out of every option I once considered reasonable.  I couldn't begin to count how many hours I spent searching names on baby naming websites when I was pregnant with each of my children.  It doesn't matter how big or small the naming task, it is always painstaking.  In all of my planning over the summer for beginning school I was excited to get started blogging, but I couldn't settle on a name.  I even consulted a few family members for suggestions, but nothing resonated with me.

Since I wanted the blog to focus on home schooling, I decided that using the thesaurus may prove useful.  As I examined the entries that resulted from searching for "educate", the word "cultivate" caught my attention.  It is a word that I think of as usually being associated with gardening, however the other meanings listed are what caught my eye. The first definition is "to prepare or work on in order to raise crops", but the other meanings beyond that include "to develop and improve by education or training", "to promote the growth or development of", "to devote oneself to", "to seek to promote or foster."  These words did resonate with me.  I couldn't think of many more that would encompass the goals of a homeschooling family.  Cultivate, however, is not a catchy name for a blog.

That settled, I decided to give naming a rest.  I hadn't given much thought to naming the blog for some time and in an ordinary moment one day in the car with my kids I stumbled upon the answer I had been searching for.  The children have a CD of "Sunday morning songs" they love to listen to in the car.  As they often do, they asked if they could listen to it on the way to wherever we were headed.  The third song on the CD is called "I Am a Promise" and is one of my favorites.  I'll share the some of the lyrics. 

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise with a capital "P"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And I am learnin' to hear God's voice
And I am tryin' to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

I love this song!  Every time I hear it, I am reminded of the tremendous potential that I have been entrusted with as I care for my children daily.  It is easy to lose sight of "the big picture" in the day-to-day tasks of raising children, but this song reminds me that God has a plan for each of them, and for me, far beyond what we can see in the here-and-now.  Our children are promises entrusted to our care.

Finally!  The blog has a name.  I must admit...I named the blog awhile ago.  In the meantime, our family went on vacation, school started, and life has happened.  Six weeks later, here I am!  I am still excited about this new venture.  We get asked so many questions about home schooling and so many people want to know how it is going.  I hope that I'll be able to give you a glimpse into our sometimes crazy, but always rewarding days of cultivating promises.

Let the Blog Begin!

Earlier this week my sister updated the blog she started 5 months ago, and I noted her comment that she may be the last one on Earth to start a blog.  As far as I can tell, I now may be the last one, but my intention has been to start one since before we began home schooling in early September.  (Anyone who reads this and has done or is doing school at home will know why it has taken me so long to get started!)  I was (and still am) excited at the prospect of sharing our home school journey.  It has been a tremendous experience for myself and the children so far and my hope is to be able to share a little of our family's experience with our friends and family.  I hope you'll check back often for updates on our school days and maybe a few family happenings too.  With an inquisitive five year old, a tenacious two (about to be three) year old, and a curious, busy one year old there are sure to be plenty of noteworthy accomplishments to share.