Seasonal Schedules vs. School Schedules

This post ended up getting really, really long, so I broke it up into various elements that I will share over the next few days . . .

JoVe from Tricotomania wrote a post called “Contemplations on the School Year.” I would like to share some experiences our family has chosen as well as my own thoughts on some issues she brings up. To begin, JoVe said:

I have been struck recently by how much homeschoolers seem to be tied to the school year. Many of the blogs I read commented on stopping for the summer, or starting up again recently.

Later, she adds:

I suspect that those with more onerous reporting requirements find that the reporting timetable has some influence on the timetable of their activities. That said, I’ve noticed at least a couple of mentions of ‘logging’ activities during the summer that will count towards compulsory hours spent or whatever.

For the first about thirteen years of having children, my older children didn’t understand the impact of “summer vacation”. Oh, they had heard it, because most of their friends have been public or private schooled, but it didn’t impact them in a way that made them take a close look at it. We were strong unschoolers in the early developmental learning stages of my children’s lives, so learning happened all day and all year long without any significant formal learning activities.

During that time for our family, there were natural shifts that occurred when school started for their friends. Instead of playing almost all day long with them, all of a sudden, their friends attended school for much of the day and then homework loomed before play could begin. Instead of seeing this as a problem, my children seemed to take the beginning of school for their friends as a natural time to use for their own creative outlets and alone time (being so many of mine are introverts) instead of having to reject a friend’s invitation to play when my child was interested in refueling alone. I believe “homework” had a negative connotation to my children, because once the school bus dropped off their friends in the neighborhood, my children expected free access to them, but “doing their homework first” was the gulf between them.

As I reflect on our family’s rhythms and activity choices, I feel weather impacts our schedules more than school. For our family, late spring through summer and into early fall provides more opportunities for diverse learning outdoors. The natural science world is alive and fully operating in its glory. It has more pleasant weather opportunities, where we have lived, for active outdoor play whether at playgrounds, street play (since we have usually lived on cul-de-sacs), forest explorations, sporting activities, and zoo visits. Long-distance traveling also is more appealing for the predictable driving conditions, particularly toward those water destinations and camping endeavors. Overall, summer is higher on the list for outdoor learning activities!

On the other hand, winter time is when we all like to do another type of learning that brings us inward . . . physically and mentally. This is the time I found our family doing the family read alouds, personal reading, drawing, building Legos, and generally more focused learning. Simply in regard to the weather, there was less friend interaction, and more alone time. For trips, winter time seems to encourage visits to the museums, libraries, and other indoor facilities. This was also the time to plan the “out-of-season” special excursions.

Our family capitalizes on what each season offers as it pertains to learning. For example, my hubby enjoys science so he gathered the children together for “nature time with dad” in the early fall that was nature walk driven. He created “Science with Mad Dad” in the winter that was experiment driven. Further, sometime between 11-13 years of age, each child and I would collaborate together in creating a more formal, goal-oriented rhythm to their learning. By the time they were 13, each would usually be working on their own from a schedule we created together that would entail a “full workload” of about 3-4 hours of formal goal-based learning. This internal mind work was geared toward winter, so we often start up on these goals in October and end in March. It was at this time that Abbey proclaimed, “Oh, now I know why summer vacation is something my friends looked forward to!” as she anticipated “taking a break” from her full schedule down to a self-determined pared-down version for the summer. Of course, she realized that she was choosing when she was finished with this type of learning based on the “call of the outdoors” beckoning.

That said, I absolutely recorded all of these activities, good weather activities as much or more than the winter activities, on any formal reporting needs we had to accomplish for our state’s homeschooling requirements. I made specific note to myself that most states end the “school year” one day, and the next day is considered the beginning of the next “school year”, and so it could be reflected in our reporting requirements!

Eric and Abbey playing in a creek in the summer:
The mean http://respitecaresa.org/fiesta-noche-del-rio-will-support-the-kids-of-respite-care/ cheapest viagra age of the men was 59.2 years.

Eric and Abbey playing at the museum in the winter:


Eli creating his “worlds” in the winter:


Eli playing a water game with siblings and friends in the summer:


Life Without School Post – Bookworms

Yeah! My post is up at Life Without School entitled “Bookworms”. When I wrote it a few weeks ago, it just flowed off my fingertips. It’s my preface musings before I want to write a post that delves a little bit more into the reading world of my children. But, I wanted this posted first. So, let me know what you think 🙂

I’m cheating off today with this post because the day is almost gone, and I wasn’t able to complete the blog post I started earlier today. It takes a long time for me to put my thoughts together! Often, it’s because I’m putting my thoughts together as I feed off someone else’s thoughts . . . the extravert in me, I guess. The one I started hopefully can get published tomorrow. So, this keeps me on my daily goal of posting on my blog.

100_1817100_1397check over here viagra generika If the period is heavy enough to require changing tampons more often than every one or two hours, or if females have a period that lasts more than a month.

Why is it that there’s always an animal nearby, especially a cat, when reading happens in our home?  LOL!

Rhythms

I would like to write in my blog on a daily basis. The thing is that I have to find the time that allows for my in-depth thinking when I write in my blog, at a time that I feel like writing in-depth, without trampling on other more pressing wants and needs. So, I’m going to try to do it first thing after my morning routine . . . which means around this time Monday through Friday at least.

The new fall rhythm started on Monday. It came right after my weekend presenting at the VA Homeschooler’s conference, which was a blast! I was able to meet Stephanie from Throwing Marshmallows, and she was exactly as she appears on her blog and on e-mail. In fact, I find that if a friendship develops through these mediums, when the chance occurs to meet in real life, it has been so natural and affirming, and the friendship blossoms like old friends meeting again. So, I am a total believer in friendships being able to develop on-line! Stephanie wasn’t feeling well, but when we were able to get together, we had an endless supply of topics to talk about 🙂

I was also able to meet Jeanne, another featured speaker, at the conference, that I bumped into on an unschooling list. She was also very easy to form a friendship with, and she, Stephanie and I spent hours Sunday morning bonding, sharing, and supporting each other’s journey. I love my women friends that value what I do! I was able to gather some strength and insight from this conversation in parenting my youngest, strong-willed child.

What a great conference, with diverse and fabulous workshops, and awesome organizers and attendees! I encourage anyone in the area to consider attending it in future.

It certainly got me focused on one of my passions: understanding and celebrating the right-brained, visual-spatial, creative learner. Which lead me right into my new, carved-out time dedicated to trying to write my first book about the same topic. So, Monday through Friday mornings are about writing this book. But, writing in my blog may help me kick start my writing brain, or that’s the thinking . . .For getting best viagra prices amerikabulteni.com results it should be taken at least an hour before actually going for sexual intercourse.

I’ll admit, this weekend at the conference around such passionate women who want to make a difference helps me believe that I am capable of doing the same. Do others feel that way, or is it my idealism showing? I want to empower and unite others in a cause and belief that is important to me and change the world! Is that too much to ask? LOL!

To end, I’ll share one of my own beliefs I created, that I have been honing for a while (and I encourage feedback and suggestions for improvement). I created it in response to all those people who remark “how amazing I am”. The fact is though, that *I’m* not amazing, but the life I am living amazes me, and humbles me, and stretches me. But, it stems from the blessings from and knowledge I have of a loving Heavenly Father and the awesome plan of happiness earth life offers. So, my “quote” reflects how I feel my life has been up to now, and how I hope it will continue:

“I am an ordinary person, given every day opportunities. Life becomes extraordinary in the taking and building up of those opportunities.”

Oh My Gosh!

It’s my hubby and I’s anniversary today, and we both forgot . . . LOL! When I posted the previous post, I saw the date, and went, oh my gosh! and looked over at my hubby, who is on the other computer across from me, and I stated, “It’s our anniversary today!” He went, “Oops!”

Well, so much for 21 years . Most importantly there are no check stock purchase cheap levitra pregnancy side effects.. . LOL! I get rewarded everyday, so that’ll have to do this time around 🙂 We’ll celebrate next week, when we have some breathing room. We’ve both been filled with some crazy days, at his work and me at home.

Busy Week . . . So Much to Write About

There is so much going on for me to keep my nose above the water with . . . too much to explain to everyone. Basically, it is the nitty gritty of getting interventions going for each of my three boys with special needs, and the day to day workings and needs of seven children.

Anyway, I am trying to prepare myself for the workshops I will present this weekend in Virginia at their homeschool conference. One is a workshop I’ve done many times and it is at a very well organized place. The other is one I’ve given a few times, but I’ve revised it a bit for this conference utilizing information I created because of my blog!

Anyway, after this weekend, I have carved out some time that I will be devoting a portion of to my blog, so hopefully, I’ll be posting more. What’s funny is that I have eight posts in draft that I started after being inspired from another blog, but never finished, or frankly, simply referenced the post to get back to when I have time. Does anyone else do this? Hopefully, I’ll do something with those drafts in the next month.

Tomorrow’s filled with testing for Adam to continue his state services, a doctor appointment for William to finally start figuring out his GI issues from birth, and then dinner at night thanking the young lady who worked for me with Adam and Alex this summer as it is her last day tomorrow, along with my sister-in-law, who is leaving for college in a week. So, no time available tomorrow besides try to get my bags packed.The cerebellum controls acquisition de viagra buy at drugshop coordination, precision, and accurate timing.

Then, Friday morning, Abbey and I take off for the conference. I’m so excited to meet Stephanie over at Throwing Marshmallows, and simply be surrounded by excited homeschoolers, and spend some girl time with my daughter away from the chaos that is our lives surrounded by our special boys.

Anyway, I’ll touch base when we get back and try to get started on some of those draft posts!

Rosetta Stone Homeschool Special

Since I brought up Rosetta Stone on my recent meme, and then I saw a comment on it at Throwing Marshmallows, I thought I would bring up the special I received in the mail. Since I said I wanted to get it for a couple of my children, but the price is so big, I decided the deal was too good to pass up. I bought the Japanese set and received it two days later! Eric’s been on the computer every day with it ever since.

Anyway, the deal is to buy any Level 1/Level 2 set package (regular price $349) for $299, and you will receive free shipping and a free headset microphone (priced at $19.99) if you order by August 31, 2006. You need to use the offer code hsm861.

I have no stake in sharing this deal with you. I decided to capitalize on it, and wanted to share the deal with anyone contemplating adding Rosetta Stone to their homeschooling journey this year 🙂

The most common sciatica symptoms may include pain in the testicular purchase cialis additional info region, paid off sexual drive, decline in low libido, sperm creation and erectile dysfunction, though more research is required for confirming the connection.

Self Discovery Through Type Testing

The Learning Umbrella recently had a post about personality style and homeschooling style inspired by taking the “What Type of Homeschooler Are You?” test.  She said:

How much does your personality affect the way you homeschool? I, for instance, could never be an unschooler. I don’t like to be without a plan and a schedule, and it makes me very nervous when people act spontaneously.

But there may be people that it does work for, and their kids may be thriving and destined to grow up just fine.

So – how much of your “style” of homeschooling is your choice because of philosophy and how much is because of personality?

Interestingly, I had been thinking about the same thing, except with parenting styles.  Of course, I think parenting styles also have a strong connection to the homeschooling style of choice, which may all go back to personality style, as this post is considering.  But, as I’ve also been contemplating all of this, I have felt strongly that I have changed my styles, whether that is parenting or homeschooling, based on the needs of my individual children.  I have such a unique family, with strong personalities within the whole, and it has been my instinct to give each what they need from me.  I felt I was in the better position, as the adult and as the person who chose to bring each child into my life, to stretch and grow and learn in order to support their temperament needs and facilitate their style of learning.

Well, an interesting thing happened when I have stumbled on these tests and participated.  I would like to share my discovery, and see what you all think, and ask if someone has seen anything similar in their life.

First, a once close friend of mine was heavily into the Myers-Briggs personality type tests and asked if I would take it, as she had a guess for me.  So, I did here, and this is what I was categorized as being like as a worker:

ESFJ (Extravert, Sensing, Feeling, Judging)

Feeling types seek continuity through harmonious relationships and collective values. They excel at picking up on the tone of a situation and acting accordingly, adding warmth to a cool setting or turning sour into sweet. They will naturally seek to know what people do well, what they enjoy, where and how they work, and understand what they need in order to make the appropriate connections with other people. They weave and strengthen the collective fabric of social conventions and interactions.

Let an extraverted feeling type know that you are in need of an accountant and they will most likely give you several names. They seem to have an infinite number of acquaintances from all walks of life and are always on the lookout for people in need and those who can help out. Inclusiveness is important and they are particularly sensitive to those who are excluded.

Harmony comes from good, supportive relationships and upholding collective values. They are always focused on the other person, feeling a glow when those around them are happy, and troubled when something is amiss. They are natural cheerleaders, often expressing support, gratitude, and encouragement, and heaping praise onto those they appreciate. They take note of what is being done and what needs doing, offering their help and assistance wherever necessary.

As team players and project leaders, they have a gift for rallying their players, focusing on what is being done right and each member’s strengths. They are loyal and they expect loyalty. They carry conversations well, finding common ground with their speaker. They tend to find the correct and gracious way to respond in any given situation, no matter how tense or uncomfortable it is.

It is well to note that extraverted feeling types will uphold a wide range of values, simply because shared values are what create harmony. Some will profess the importance of tough-minded logic, justice and scholarly debate because their environments have these shared values. They tend to adopt the collective values of those they love and ‘belong to’.

The write up above and at this site seems to reflect my general personality to about 2/3 based on my own assessment.  Well, about a year later, when I joined this blog family, Ron at Atypical Homeschool had a quiz on what kind of mother you are.  I thought, okay, that would be fun to see how my personality comes up as a mother.  Well, guess what?  Did I have a surprise, and to me, a validation of what I felt had been happening through my mothering experience.  It came up with this:

(INTP:  Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving)

Your type is: intp —The “Love of Learning” Mother

“I keep the encyclopedia in the kitchen so we can look up things together while we eat.”

    But study has not successfully established that this drug can be taken with or viagra price this page without any meal.

  • Intellectually curious and patient, the INTP mother relishes those times with a child when they are learning something interesting together. Whether they’re at the zoo or computer terminal, she sparks to answering his or her “whys” with in-depth responses or new knowledge.
  • The INTP mother is also objective and introspective. She listens to and discusses children’s ideas and questions as she would those of a peer, fostering self-esteem and confidence. Open and non-directive, she allows children the freedom to do for themselves and quietly encourages them to believe they can do it.
  • Independence, autonomy, intellectual development, and self-reliance are probably the INTP’s highest priorities for her children. An avid reader, she naturally imparts an appreciation and love of reading as well.
  • Drawn to all types of learning, the INTP may also value her mothering experience for all the new insights about life it provides her.

Did you catch that?  My mothering personality is the EXACT OPPOSITE of my working personality type!  First of all, the description that was provided of my mothering style quite perfectly describes my view of myself.  Beyond that, I found this discovery very interesting (as is my nature if you go back and read . . . LOL!) and did some thinking and comparing over the past several days.  This is what I came up with:

With the following traits:

They will naturally seek to know what people do well, what they enjoy, where and how they work, and understand what they need in order to make the appropriate connections with other people.

Harmony comes from good, supportive relationships and upholding collective values. They are always focused on the other person,

As team players and project leaders, they have a gift for rallying their players, focusing on what is being done right and each member’s strengths.

They tend to adopt the collective values of those they love and ‘belong to’.

as fodder in my personality, relationships indeed are very important to me, and it is one of my “gifts” to “see” who people are and what they need from me in order to fully be themselves.  It’s interesting to consider the idea that I may have “adopted” the values, or in this case, the value of individuality each of my unique children required and demanded of me, as indicative of my loving and belonging to them.  So, in one sense, what I pursued in my parenting is reflective of my personality traits.

On the other hand, it shows that one can change and stretch and grow in order to give what others need.  This is reflective in my total opposite mothering personality.  So, it appears that this phenomenon may have occurred both because I value relationship and meeting the needs of my children, which is also part of my personality, yet, it changed me dramatically.  And yet still, who I originally am is intact as well, and is usually the personality I use with people and relationships outside my home.  I also see it come into play as I conduct the “business” of interventions for my children with autism.  Actually, I find the “driven” working me doesn’t have a healthy place in our home, so I’m grateful that I intuitively took the useful parts of my personality and grew them in benefiting my children in allowing them to be them, and yet blessing myself through the awesome experiences they have provided me as their mother (as noted I value in the mothering type explanation)!

So, then, it doesn’t surprise me that my type of homeschooler that came up was:

What Type of Homeschooler Are You?


Salvador Dali Melting clocks are not a problem in your reality. You are an unschooler. You will tolerate a textbook, but only as a last resort. Mud is your friend. You prefer hands-on everything. If your school had an anthem, it would be Dont Worry, Be Happy. Visit my blog: http://www.GuiltFreeHomeschooling.blogspot.com
Take this quiz!

Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Although we are individualist unschoolers, which means each child pursues learning in the way that works for them and makes sense to them (i.e., structure, flexiblility, natural, texts, etc.), it is I, as the mother, who remained the most flexible to follow the path of what each child desired and needed, and I jumped in with all of my heart to figure out what I needed to do within myself to either not interfere with that process, or to assist and facilitate.

Kinda complex all in all; but kinda cool.  Did anyone follow me?  What do you think!?  Opinions desired . . .

Homeschooling Resource Meme

I’ve been out of action on my blog for some time, although I religiously read everyone else’s blogs from the Dashboard (I love that feature!).  What I need to do is figure out a proper time to sit down and write, because it always takes me a good amount of time to compile my posts, and I’m trying harder to be more available to my children throughout the day, sooo, be patient and I will try to get going again.  Anyway, I’ll use Stephanie’s tag on me from Throwing Marshmallows to get started . . . 

1.  One homeschooling book you have enjoyed.  In my early years, John Holt’s books really had an inspirational impact on my decisions.  The two most memorable would be Teach Your Own and How Children Fail.  I link to the new version of “Teach Your Own”, by Pat Farenga, but I don’t know how close to the original it follows in the meat of the text.  Otherwise, you can search at Amazon for used versions of the old text.

2.  One resource you wouldn’t be without.  Other parents doing the same thing as me, whether that be homeschooling, autism, the intervention my children desire, the learning style of my child, adoption, parenting, etc.  My best sources of information have come from other parents!

3.  One resource you wish you had never bought.  Every spelling resource I bought that was based on word lists by category, like transportation words, water words, etc.  The two resources that worked well were The Natural Speller and Word Roots.

4.  One resource you enjoyed last year.  Instead, I’m going to share the resource that had the greatest immediate impact that I think happens to be fabulous for all styles of homeschooling because it’s so short, sweet, and effective:  Daily Grams.  Another resource that was an instant success after having failed to find a good resource with a previous child’s interest has to do with video game computer programming.   Game Programming for Teens was inspirational to Eli’s continuation in this skill as he began his serious interest in it at 14.

5.  One resource you will be using next year.  Eli loves math and he uses it extensively in his programming, but he didn’t want to use the Saxon series within a few months of trying it.  It didn’t work for him.  We tried Alegebra I from Math U See, and he enjoyed it, so we will continue with Geometry this year.
WHAT HOMEOPATHY COSTS? Your first consultation with a private homeopath will usually cost between INR http://www.midwayfire.com/?product=7914 purchase cheap levitra 500 to INR 10,000.
6.  One resource you would like to buy.   Rosetta Stone, and I probably will for Japanese.  It’s expensive, though . . . but it appeals to my oldest after trying out the demo CD.

7.  One resource you wish existed.  Hhhmmm.  I’m not good at this type of creativity.  So, I’ll piggyback on Stephanie’s idea . . . it was a good one:  A library that ran like Netflix…keep the books as long as you want, no late fees, books are mailed to you. Would need to allow way more then 5 books at a time and would need to have every book I could ever want available. Not asking for much, huh?

8.  One homeschooling catalogue you enjoy reading.  Love to Learn

9.  One homeschooling website you use regularly.  Life Without School for insights.  Homeschool Journal for blogs.  Yahoo Groups for my e-mail lists aut-home-fam and homeschooling creatively.

10.  Tag five other homeschoolers.  Since I’m really still a fairly new blogger, and most of who I know are here, I tag whoever reads this and is interested in putting one together 🙂

Cats and Star Wars

I’m going to do a little showing off in this post 🙂 Abbey has been making awesome and creative homemade gifts for her family members the past several Christmases. This past Christmas, Abbey combined Alex’s love of our five cats, pretending they are interactive with each having their own “voices”, his love of Star Wars, as well as viewing videos over and over again into an awesome homemade movie starring our cats in a Star Wars theme. If I do say so myself, it is AWESOME.

Abbey has been working hard over the past some months to try to find a way to put her video on You Tube. Through much learning and troubleshooting the process, she has finally accomplished it by putting it in three “episodes” to view the whole thing. You can link to Episode One, Episode Two, and Episode Three.
This nitric oxide is the part of a chemical chain reaction and it gets all the blood pumped into the penis by relaxing the muscles attached to corpus cavernosum of the penis (obviously) .this enzyme is responsible for proper erections as it triggers and restricts the contraction and relaxation of penis muscle. Read Full Report levitra 60 mg
To give you a little backdrop to the personalities of the cats, Socks is the “old patriarch” of the home, Belle is the “pre-Madonna”, Sunflash or Sunny is the “cry baby”, Xena is the “girl warrior”, and Toby is “the rogue”. Enjoy, and stay tuned for a surprise extension of the ending (hint, “The End” isn’t completely the end :-))

The Art of Imitation

We finally had our front porch roof repaired last Wednesday from a leak we had been experiencing for some years. I had no doubt that my two youngest boys would be there with bells on watching and imitating. With a large third story window overlooking the porch roof, it would be a breeze to have front and center seats in watching these men at work. I had my camera ready for the action that would inevitably follow. Here are my favorites:

100_2053100_2079

 

In the spring, our family was sad to have the owners of the empty lot next to our home clear it in order to make it more appealing to buyers. Although all the small trees that had grown into medium trees had to come down along with a large, mostly dead tree, it was great fodder for more imitation from Joseph, who absolutely loves construction vehicles. I was able to capture a few gems:

 

A man’s penis is an important part of owning and driving a car is knowing how to get free purchase cialis visit this website, you need to know a new type or erectile dysfunction called moderate erectile problems.
100_0852100_0853

Having had two children completely without imitative skills because of their struggle living with autism, I still don’t take this type of amazing natural ability for granted. With a whole lot of work, both boys with autism can now imitate to an equivalent level as their peers. However, it is not as automatic or engrained to their being as it is with these two younger boys. I always stand in awe, and at the ready with my camera, to capture the art of imitation.