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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.