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Our Philosophy of Education

Last year was our first year of homeschooling and I feel like we did more of "school at home" than "homeschooling"  I'd like that to change and embrace homeschooling.  While planning for our upcoming school year with curriculum choices I was challenged to make a philosophy of education and really evaluate what was important to our homeschool and why we are doing this. Ev & I spent some time brainstorming what was important to us and this is what we came up with:

Our Philosophy of Education


We believe that parents are responsible for training their children.

We believe that parents should be the models of Christian behavior and that children are always watching.

We believe that parents are ALWAYS training their children. Through example, unconditional love, nurture, praise, encouragement, natural consequences and consistent age appropriate punishment; discipline is achieved in all areas of life.

We believe that studying God’s Word and memorizing scripture keeps our hearts in tune with the Lord’s will. Our main goal in life should be living Godly lives that please, honor and bring glory to the true and living God.

We believe that God created us for relationships with Him and with other people; we will work towards having a heart for and to serve others

We believe that learning time should be structured and deliberate in order to help our children gain strong work ethics and a sense of responsibility.

We believe that practical life skills are just as important as academics.

We believe that our bodies were made for movement and we believe that physical education should center around building life-long habits & developing a healthy lifestyle through fitness & nutrition

We believe that we are tasked to be good stewards with what the Lord gives us including money, possessions, and our time.

We believe that being a good steward doesn’t come naturally and needs to be instilled through example and purposed training.

We believe that communication skills are essential to life and employment including reading, writing and oral communication we will strive for excellence in these areas foremost.

We believe that each of us processes information with a unique combination of learning styles and needs.

We believe that natural curiosity should be nurtured and will lead to a love of learning.

We believe that our goal as parents is to raise our children with the ultimate goal of being responsible, self-sufficient, God fearing adults who personally claim their faith and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We believe that it is important to study “normal subjects” so that our children are able to merge into the world that is larger then our home at the time we decide.

We believe strong problem solving skills are important. We will encourage our children to try many different approaches looking at a problem, and with gentle guidance lead them to a solution. Sometimes frustration will occur but “giving up” is not an option.

We believe that children should be exposed to and challenged to try new things.

We believe that we live in a modern world and that it is important to stay abreast of technology for use in life and employment.

We believe that God has a plan for each of our lives, and that academics helps us to discover that plan, trust Him to lead us in fulfilling that life purpose, and as a result, give Him glory for what He has done through us.

CATSCRAP CT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh you guys I have been bursting at the seams, dying to share.  I made the catscrap CT!!!   If you don't know what a CT is look here.  Now my all time favorite designer Creashens (Shen), picked me up onto her CT a while back.  Shen (my all time favorite designer) sells at Catscrap (my all time favorite store).  The store is loaded with talent, and I can't even begin topick favorites because they're all so good! 

I've been hanging out there and doing some of their challenges ~ and even winning a few challenges.  I've been shopping there forever and I can't tell you enough how much I crazily love this team.  They put out their CT call (where they announce they are adding to their Creative Team and ask you to send in your application) on May 1 and I applied May 1.  THEN I had to wait 2 weeks for the call to close.  Then I had to wait like 5 days to hear the email response (Which freaked me out cuz I thought it was a rejection until I saw how long it was) and then I had to wait until TODAY for the announcement.  So like I said, it's been KILLING me to wait.


Only 13 lucky ladies made the team out of I don't know how many applications, they were SWAMPED i'm sure!  My first requirement was to make an All About Me Page so here it is.  My soul bared on paper: 

50 State capitals song or is it capitols?

I guess as a homeschooling mom I better look that one up!  I'm pretty sure it's capitols :)



Lyrics:
Baton Rouge Louisianna, Indianpolis Indiana,
and Columbus is the capital of O-hi-o.

There's Montgomery Alabama,
south of Helena Montana
then there's Denver Colorado,
and Boise Idaho.

Texas has Austin
then we go north,
to Massachusetts Boston
and Albany New York.

Tallahassee Florida
and Washington D.C.,
Sante Fe New Mexico and Nashville Tennessee.
Elvis used to hang out there a lot, you know.

Trenton's in New Jersey north of Jefferson Missouri,
You got Richmond in Virginia,
South Dakota has Pierre,
Harrisburg's in Pennsylvania and Augusta's up in Maine,
and here is Providence Rhode Island next to Dover Deleware.

Concord, New Hampshire, just a quick jaunte,
to Montpelier, which is up in Vermont,
Hartford's in Connecticut so pretty in the fall,
and Kansas has Topeka
Minnesota has St. Paul.

Juneau's in Alaska and there's Lincoln in Nebraska
and it's Raleigh out in North Carolina, and then,
there's Madison Wisconsin and Olympia in Washington,
Pheonix Arizona
and Lansing Michigan.

Here's Honolulu, Hawaii's a joy
Jackson Mississip-pi
and Springfield Illinois,
South Carolina with Columbia down the Way,
and Annapolis in Maryland on Chesapeake Bay,
They have wonderful clam chowder.

Cheyenne is in Wyoming and perhaps you make your home in
Salt Lake City out in Utah where the buffalo roam.
Atlanta's down in Georgia and there's Bismark North Dakota,
and you can live in Frankfurt in your own Kentucky home.

Sa-lem, in Oregon, from there we join,
Little Rock in Arkansas,

6 years ago today

6 years ago on Apr 7th my little brother took his life.  There hasn't been a single one of the following 2190 days that I haven't felt the pain and sometimes anger of losing him.  He was one of those with a magnetic personality, someone you just wanted to be around because he was fun, sweet and had a laugh that made you want to laugh too.  Alorah asked me yesterday why I was crying so much and I explained that it was the anniversary of Uncle Trev's death.  Her response was I thought his birthday made you sad.  I explained that while it does, at his birthday you remember what an amazing person he was and you can remember good times, at his anniversary all I can think of is the pain, the horror of that night and the loss.  That night is so vivid in my head and it overtakes it all.  I have dreams and flashes of it, and I feel sad every moment.

Every year I commemorate him on my blog.  And I posted this a few years back in the hope of remembering the positive times on this day.  I love you so Very, VERY Much, Trevor Micah, and I miss you even more.

Settlers of Catan

About a year and a half ago I found this awesome strategy game called Settlers of Catan.  It was on a homeschool blog and I was looking for fun homeschool games.  It was invented in Germany in 1995, and has just gotten popular here in the states.  According to my lil brother who came back from Amsterdam a year ago it's also all the rage in Europe.  He was amazed when we pulled it out to play at Christmas.  (He was also amazed that we had Nutella).  We had to special order it as it wasn't available in any stores at the time.  I was stunned to see it in Target yesterday ~ stunned.  I am so cutting edge :)

So about 6 months or so ago we invited our good friends the Kerrs over to play this super fun game with us.  We knew that they loved board games as well and frankly they are two of our favorite people and we're always looking for an opportunity to hang with them.  Long story short they got HOOKED on the game as well and not only figured out that we were initially playing it quite wrong but that it can also be a ticket to divorce court.  Just kidding, but do be forewarned that if you are super competitive this game can get intense. 

So it's kind of become our "thing".  We collaborate on dinner than get the kids comfortable with a movie and get our Catan on.  It's my idea of a perfect night.  Especially when my mad strategy skills kick in and I win like last night.  BOOYAH!!!

Shaun & Bonnie:

The Game Board

Shaun seriously contemplating his strategy.

Ev setting up his pieces.

Bonnie contemplating as well

My hand

Shaunie boy CONCENTRATING!

And these sweet kids concentrating as well :)

My Isaiah was soooooo sweet with Bri, Bri last night.

And my darling husband who hates the paparrazzi I can sometimes be.

The Only prescription is more cowbell!

We were watching a show last night ~ a very serious drama. This song came on and I was CRACKING UP. All I could picture in my head was this skit.

Naughty Mommy

So the challenge this week over at Catscrap is to "makeover" an old page.  This is the second page I created after I started digital scrapbooking, not horrible but definitely not my cup of tea now that I've found a groove and a style I like.  I've always loved the title though!

 Sorry I don't have any credits on it, as it was before my gallery posting days.  Here is the updated version:

From Dainty kit by Creashens (catscrap.com & twolittlepixels.com)
Heart on a string
Stitches

From Pitter Patter kit by Creashens (catscrap.com & twolittlepixels.com)
hearts
tan paper
Pink Paper

From Smitten kit by Creashens (catscrap.com & twolittlepixels.com)
patterned papers

Alpha:
Luv Song by CD Muckosky (littledreamerdesigns.com)

Journaling
You were so sad that your Daddy left the garage while I was taking some photos of you.  I don't know if you thought he was going somewhere special without you?  But three year old you was devastated and being the naughty Mommy that I am I snapped every second of it.  Naughty Mommy!

Makin Tortillas

As the resident Mexican in Ev's family (j/k) I was given the job of making tortillas and my grandmother's Mexican rice for my brother-in-law's birthday dinner which was a bit of a Mexican Fiesta.  Gourmet Chicken Mole, Rice, Beans, homemade guacamole, homemade salsas, tortillas & nopales.  I set to work about 1:30 in the afternoon and shortly thereafter Z wandered inside.  

Turns out yesterday we were in like a bizarro world or maybe it was just opposite day.  The girls worked outside in the yard with Dad while the boys stayed inside and cooked with me.  Strange and Bizarre because the boys, Isaiah in particular is typically glued to his Dad's side.  We're talking glued.  Mom is chopped liver compared to Dad.  But something about watching me make tortillas sucked him in.  After watching me make about 5 he said ~ hey can I go wash my hands and help?  I was like ~ ummm yeah, definitely.  We had a great time and he was an amazing helper.  Although some of his tortillas ended up looking like Texas, for the most part they looked like Hawaii, which was our goal :)

He rolled I cooked.  Totally takes me back to my Mexican roots and makes me think of my Grandmother. 

Need some extra flour to roll with. I think this is what I love most about my granite counters.  I love the way they look, but I especially love rolling tortillas straight out on the smooth cool surface.

Gotta put a bit more flour out each time you roll.  It's important because that's how you get that extra layer of flour on your shirt :)

Making a good ball is important to the process and to getting Hawaii shaped tortillas

My helper was pretty proud of himself.  I forgot to take pictures of the finished product but we ended up with 3 dozen for Uncle Christian's birthday fiesta.

Latest Set of Layouts

Time to post a few more layouts I've done recently.  As of late I've been in a really scrappy mood.  I'm on the CT for Creashens and I get to create with all her GORGEOUS product (still pinching myself) and she has some fabulous girly kits in the past few weeks.  Check out the links!

Everything from the NEW pitter patter kit by Creashens available at catscrap and twolittlepixels

Everything from Smitten kit by Creashens available at catscrap and twolittlepixels

Everything for this layout is from Brand New Day kit by One Little Bird available at Catscrap.com

Journaling reads:
Moments like this remind me that every day is a gift. They remind that I need to treasure every moment, that my time with you is limited. and there is no rewind or do over button. Moments like this remind me that my job as a mom isn't a trial or a "job". They remind me what a priviledge it is to have you as a part of my world. Moments like this remind me of the specialness of you. They remind me that you are unique and no one in the world is knot together like you. They remind me that you are a miracle, that I was chosen to guide and teach you and what an awesome responsibility it is to be your parents. Moments like this show me that you love moments with me. That it doesn't take much to bring you joy, that you are really very simple to please. Moments like this show me how easy it is to build a memory that lasts a lifetime.. Moments that you will treasure as well. Moments like this remind me that it's the simple moments.

If you think I'm cute . .

Was cruising through photos to scrap tonight and I came upon this picture.  I loved this shirt!!!!  SO appropriate for my blonde, blue-eyed boy that looks JUST like his daddy.  I can't even explain to you the delight I had having a blue-eyed child.  I am so taken with his Daddy and how handsome he is, that it is such fun to have his clone.  Just a quick post because I love this photo and the message on his shirt :)

Confession Time

I was sharing with friends our most embarrassing moments and it made me giggle so hard that I thought I'd give you a moment to giggle too.  These are my most mortifying, beet red moments.  Please take pleasure in my discomfort :)

#1.  Babysitting

I grew up for a large portion of my life on Military Bases.  Texas, Hawaii, different ones in California.  The only place we weren't on base was in Ohio.  In high school we lived on Beale Air Force Base outside of Wheatland, CA in the Yuba City area.  An important element to my story is that on base, all the houses are cookie cutters, exact replicas of the one next door.  Not like in a newer subdivision  where every 3rd or 4th house is the same.  I mean EVERY house exactly the same as the one next door. 

My sister taught in a private school in Marysville and recommended me as a babysitter to one of her friends that lived on base.  I showed up to babysit little Megan (toddler age) late one afternoon and was delighted by the family.  I knew Megan and I would be fast friends.  I fed her dinner and we headed out for a walk.  We returned to her cul de sac around dark.  Megan lived at the end of the cul de sac.  I took her out of her stroller and we headed inside, down the front hall into the living room, WHERE TWO PEOPLE WERE IN THE BUFF!!!  As I averted my eyes I noticed that the house was decorated quite differently than Megan's house.  I stammered out "This isn't Megan's house is it???" and fled next door to Megan's real house.  I don't think I ever told Megan's mom about that awkward encounter, but it is burned into my mind.  I just wanted to die, I wanted a hole to open up in that random stranger's house and just take me away.

#2.  Fairy Tale Town
This one tops number one, it's a whopper.

We were visiting FairyTale town here in Sacramento (my kids call it Humpty Dumpty Park).  I had Alorah age 3 and Isaiah a few months old.  Isaiah rode around in this SWEET stroller.  It's called a sit and stroll.  It's a car seat that have wheels folded into the bottom.  You push a lever and wheels pop out to make it a stroller and a handle extends from the top.  Here's a photo

Anyway, it was getting late and the park was closing.  In fact I think it was already closed and they may have asked us to leave.  We were parked at the rear of the park so rather than go all the way to the front, I decided we should just save time and go through one of the turnstile gates at the back of the park.  Example, not the actual gate:

I sent Alorah through first and Isaiah (in the stroller) and I followed behind.  We made it 2/3rds of the way through and got stuck.  STUCK, because as I tried to reverse my way back into the park, I discovered that it doesn't reverse.  NOT AT ALL!  Alorah had already made it through the gate and was waiting on the other side as I sat stuck.  I very calmly asked Alorah to please sit on the curb and wait for Mommy & brother while I internally panicked.  I decided to just wait a minute until a park worker came through to close up and find me.  I waited 10 minutes until I started crying.  Another 10 minutes until I started yelling and another 10 minutes until someone found me.  All while my 3 year old sat on the curb.  See God knows, if it had been Isaiah 3 on the curb, he would've taken off.  But it wasn't it was my obedient first born.  Who asked a few times why Mommy was crying and yelling but stayed put none the less.  It was a long 30 minutes until I was found by a young clueless worker, who had no idea what to do.  And an even longer 20 minutes until the fire department arrived to get me out.  It was horrible but we survived :)

I hope you got your laugh for the day in or at least a chuckle. 

Gotta tell ya . . .

I've had a full plate lately.  It almost seems like it's been busier than the holidays for some reason.  I'm teaching a group of  9 homeschool girls and parents the ins & outs of Photoshop Elements with the ultimate goal of designing a 100 page yearbook by year end.  It's been very time consuming and it's stretching my brain :)  What I didn't count on is how rewarding it would be.  The girls LOVE photoshop & digital scrapbooking.  I mean seriously LOVE it!  Not to mention that the stuff they're creating is knocking my socks off!

The only problem with teaching others and having my socks knocked off is that my creativity has all but dried up.  I'm using every ounce of it to teach, not my own creations.  So today, I said enough is enough!  Creashens new kit is soooooo fabulous I HAVE to use it.  So I paired it up with a new template challenge on Catscrap.com and this is what I came up with.  For me, the journaling is a bit lame . . . after I posted it I came up with way better journaling about swirling skirts and dainty legs and all kinds of metaphors for life . . . but oh well.  I created :)

Everything from Creashens new kit DAINTY available at catscrap.com and twolittlepixels.com

We're in a contest!

Alorah & I made this video for a contest with our homeschool charter school Visions.  Well, actually all the Williams contributed!  It went live today and is supposed to be voted on by the public.  The top winner gets a HUGE prize!  Would you mind taking a few minutes out of your day to rate our video (5 out of 5 stars would be ideal) and help the Williams kids win big!

http://www.youtube.com/user/VisionsVideoContest#p/u/16/H7s7jFkY-_E

Homeschooling

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is all the outside activities and classes plus getting creative at home to help them learn.  It's not all workbooks and seat work.  In fact I would say that's a 1/3 of our curriculum.  The other 2/3 are activities.

To study ancient egypt we learned about archeology and did a dig.  We learned about the mummification process (which is extremely fascinating ~ did you knkow that they pulled the brain out through the nose?) and we prepped a mummy that we'll bury in the backyard.  We had an egyptian feast and ate with our hands (which was a bit questionable because Ev thinks they had wooden utensils to eat and a book we read said they ate with their hands)  All in all, we learned the fun way, not just reading a textbook.  The textbooks give us the facts but we try to make them come alive.

We also get creative in areas beyond history.  For math, my Zaiah - Zaiah who can't sit still to save his life (even if he is sitting still his feet & legs are moving) likes to jump up and down our stairs while reciting his math facts.  We play dominos and card games that make you add.  We do fun read alouds & historical fiction,  and we have a great time in art & technology.  We did some culinary art this past learning period and one of our snacks were these adorable snowmen:

Ingredients:  Banana slices, mini chocolate chips, carrot slivers, apple wedge & grape all on a skewer ~ don't forget the pretzel arms.

Ev & Zaiah have been having an amazing creative bonding time in Daddy & Me jr. carpentry.  They just finished up a 3 week project ~ Z's new toolbox.  Z used a compound Miter Saw & Router.  He countersunk something our other, not sure on the lingo.  My point is he did some serious woodshop work for an 8 year old AND he did it all while working with his Dad.  If Zaiah could spend time with anyone he'd always pick his Dad hands down.  But Dad is closely followed by Grumps,  any of the Uncles, Papa D & Papa.  Mom is chopped liver . . . well not really :)

I used one of my cricut fonts as a template for the words, then Ev and Z carved it out with a router(?), I think that what they used.  Now Z wants to paint the inside of the letters.  Ev is expecially proud of his hammer carving :)

Woops, One More!

See, I do keep forgetting.  I was just looking through my gallery and saw I missed this one too. 

Everything is from the Count on me kit by Creashens available at catscrap and twolittlepixels

Keep forgetting!

I keep forgetting to post my layouts as I create them.  Here are two more for my creative team with Creashens

Everything from the Wondrous kit by Creashens available at catscrap.com and twolittlepixels.com

AND Snow Bunny with all elements from the Razzle kit by Creashens available at catscrap and twolittlepixels

Lake Tahoe 2009

As I posted in the previous sledding video, we had an amazing time in Tahoe.  We spend the week between Christmas and the New Year up there with my brothers, parents, sister & her girls, and overall it's just FUN.  We spent a day having snowball fights, another day sledding, another day building snowmen, another day sledding and there were tons of games in between.  It was really a fun time for us because MOST of our kids were able to dress themselves and get themselves outside (after we pulled out all their stuff for them).  It's so different after having babies for so many years to have older kids that are just fun to play with.  I had a great time playing around with my camera up there and all the new tricks Jen Stewart taught me.  Enjoy!

Snow Angels were one of the first activities in the snow

Z was covered in snow!

Proudly displaying his snow angel

There was tons of snow eaten, it's a wonder there were no gastrointestinal issues!

Another snow eater

My niece Haley Lynn eating snow

The cutest 4 year old I know

Help, I've fallen and I can't get up!

Don't know what the pouting was about, but it's typical.

My boy filling a saucer with snow in anticipation of the snow war.  They divided into teams, built snow forts, made ammo and attacked!

The cutest 6 year old I know

She is seriously cute! 

My dad the photographer, playing with his new camera

Isaiah was constantly taking off his jacket and he would come inside from playing with his shirt DRIPPING!  We only heard a complaint once about being cold.

Cutest 7 year old boy I know

Love those blue eyes!

My poor dad had all the 3, 4, 5 & 6 year olds on his team.  I think they won the snow battle though!

More snow eating

My handsome husband preparing to attack me with a snowball.  YES, he got snow on my camera.  NO, he didn't get in trouble :)

Poor Ev, on that day he got everyone ready, sent them outside then by the time he got himself ready they all wanted to come in.  I went in the house and guilted them all into coming back out and playing with their dad.  This is him waiting on the snow fort for them.

After another hour or so of playing, Ev carried them back to the cabin.  Love his baby blues too!

Another day Dad took the kids outside to build snowmen.  The big kids built one and then the two little ones built one.  Here's my niece Haley rolling her snowball through the snow for the snowwoman (they all decided)

Lainie's snowball

Man that is hard work carrying snowballs

Dad built the base

Then they stacked their snowballs

Every snowwoman needs a hat.

Isaiah got in big trouble from the girls for eating one of the snowwoman's arms.

Carving out the face.

Adding eyes.

Hunting for her mouth.

The finished product ~ Emily.

Ev & I couldn't get enough of this little one.  My niece Lauren is absolutely the cutest 3 year old I know.  She's best friends with my Micah T.  they left a few day before we did and Micah missed her terribly.

Helping out.

Rolling big snowballs for the 2nd snowMAN.

The second snowman, Thomas, ended up with apple eyes, a cheesstick nose and raisin mouth.

They were proud of their work!

Most of the snowpeople makers, where's Zaiah?

Eating an extra arm.

My dad and I went out one evening to shoot photos of Tahoe at Sunset.  That night the sunset wasn't quite spectacular, but the time with my dad was.

I don't know if I've ever been on a sandy beach covered with snow.  It was beautiful and I especially loved this snowman someone had built on the shore.

My dad shooting

These two played the hardest with the kids, so they needed some down time.  Football helps!