Homeschooling in all ways!

Just a couple pictures of the boys buried in their free-reading books. Both are munching apples as a snack and doing what they're usually doing:


Nathanael: soaking up every last ounce of heat he can get from the wood stove!

Mikael: Semi-contorted in some weird position that the rest of us aren't ever able to duplicate! Yes, he's sitting on his bottom (on a stuffed, squishy soccer ball) on the floor, holding his book open with his foot, eating his apple and reading happily away. He was so absorbed that he didn't even know I took the picture!

It's so much fun to school at home! Not typical classroom stuff, that's for sure!

Reason to Homeschool

Just wanted to share this reason for homeschooling, from The Old Schoolhouse:
"I can't think of anything more intensely sanctifying than living together in the crucible of shared family experiences. In this context, none of us can escape the reality of our own sinfulness, and none of us has the opportunity to go too long without the correction, compassion, and/or encouragement of a brother or sister or parent or child. Each of us is challenged by those around us-those who observe us constantly and who see us without a facade-to align our practice with our faith, to love our Lord and our neighbor "not in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth." Call it Extreme Sanctification: Homeschool Edition. Where else will you find so many daily opportunities to run to the Cross, to repent, and to rest in the sufficiency of the work of Christ, if you give up homeschooling?"

Amen to that! Boy are we in the crucible right now.... Couldn't be because Nathanael is turning 13 in 11 days, or because our sinfulness now has such a huge impact on the family when all relations are strained due to these 'teenage moments' we deal with practically every second! Lord give us grace and a new perspective!!!

Now I know why everyone warned us that the teen years were coming!

Homeschooling - we're at it again!

This week has been a mad scramble (except for yesterday!) to find math curriculum for Mikael and Nathanael and to learn all I can about the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling. Whew, I've been on the phone and internet more than anything else and I'm tired! But, I'm also excited about our new adventure, and some of where I get some of that excitement is from Homesteaders Heart: Homeschooling, where I'm learning all about Charlotte Mason. And I have only to find a reasonably priced Saxon Math 3 for Mikael and then I'm done with that exhausting adventure! Then on to book lists, ect.! This beginning mid-year thing isn't all that fun, but it is where the Lord has placed us, so I'm going to dig in and get going. The next thing (after morning spelling and grammar) is to find in the local library system a couple of books that I need to read through in double time: A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections of the Gentle Art of Learning by Karen Andreola, A Charlotte Mason Education by Catherine Levison, Home Education in Modern English: Volume 1 of Charlotte Mason's Series by Noelani Laurio Leslie, and some other "unschooling book"!
So, now I'm off to get something done other than stare at the computer screen. Oh, and yesterday I did get all my plants in their new homes. They've been in pots since the move and it felt good to get my hands back in the dirt and put roots back in the ground. Roots are pretty important, you know. If the roots aren't in the right kind of soil, the plant just won't grow. Reminds me that I need to be planted in the "right soil", that of the Word of the Living God! How about you? What kind of soil are you planted in?