Liesl had awoken with a smile on her face. It was one of her favorite days of the week – her study day. So far it was turning out to be a great day! Her Bible reading had been lovely. She’d been reading Exodus 24, and was surprised to learn something she hadn’t known (or perhaps noticed) before. When the Israelites had camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, Moses wasn’t the only one who actually saw God. In chapter 24, God told Moses to bring seventy elders of the people up the mountain with him. They all saw God on a beautiful pavement of blue, and they all partook of a heavenly feast. Liesl wondered how it must have felt to sit down and eat and drink God’s food with Him. Then she realized that in a way she did know what it felt like. She got to eat with God in His Word every day.
She loved the song their family was working on right now. Mom had written an arrangement of the hymn, “What God Ordains Is Always Good”. The four part harmony had been rough at first, but now that it was coming together, this song was quickly becoming one of Liesl’s favorites.
After breakfast she sat down to work on the story she was writing. It was about a little girl named Jane who was magically transported to a fairy grove, and her adventures there. Liesl enjoyed the creativity of the process. She wasn’t quite so excited about the part where she had to print out the four pages she’d written and take them to Mom for spelling and grammar corrections. She was getting better at remembering where to start a new paragraph and how to use quotation marks, but somehow she usually ended up with a good sized list of spelling words to look up and write ten times each, and then fix them in her story. You’d think with as much reading as she did, spelling would come naturally. It seemed to work that way for Wesley and Janessa, but not for her.
Liesl finished her assigned reading and worked through her math and a lesson in her herbalism course. She was pretty sure she finally understood the difference between tinctures, infusions, and decoctions. She decided to try making a nettle tincture this afternoon. It was still early enough in the year, she should be able to find young tender nettles.
“Lunch time!” Krista’s voice came over the walkie talkie. Liesl put away her books and went downstairs. Delicious rich Thanksgiving-ish smells drew her to the kitchen.
“Krista, it smells wonderful! What did you make?” she said.
Krista beamed at the compliment. “It’s the stew for supper that smells so good, actually,” she said. “I’ve got it started in the crock pot. Lunch is just sandwiches. Sorry.”
“Oh, that’s ok. I can’t wait for supper!”
~*~

That afternoon, Liesl enjoyed being free to pursue her own interests since she’d gotten the basic schoolwork out of the way in the morning. She found some thick leather gloves and went out to gather nettles. It was a gorgeous sunny day and Liesl enjoyed the sights and scents of late spring. The lily of the valley especially were gorgeous in the Secret Garden. The edge of the woods behind the Secret Garden seemed to be the best place to find nettles. There were tons of them. Liesl was careful to watch where she stepped. Her hands were protected, but her ankles were bare even though her long blue and purple skirt covered them for the most part.
After filling a grocery bag with the needed leaves and stems, she went back into the house to wash them and find a pan in which to boil them. The kitchen was still heavy with the scent of food simmering in the crock-pot.
Krista was there working at the big kitchen island. She looked up as Liesl came in.
“Oh, good!” she said. “I need help and Mom’s busy.”
“What’s wrong?” Liesl said.
“Well, I’m making chicken and dumplings for supper – well, technically it’s rabbit and dumplings.” Krista giggled, flipping her thick blonde hair back over her shoulder. “The only problem is we’re out of baking powder and I need eight teaspoons!”
“That’s a lot of baking powder,” Liesl commented.
“I know,” Krista agreed. “But the recipe calls for four teaspoons and I have to double it, of course.”
“Of course,” nodded Liesl. “Hmm, there is a substitution for baking powder if I remember right.” She flipped through the books on the cookbook shelf until she found a thin piece of cardboard labeled “Substitutions”. It was like an envelope with a second piece of cardboard that slid up and down inside. You lined up the black line with the ingredient you were missing, and in the window below, it told you what you could use in place of it. Liesl slid the line down to “baking powder”. The little window’s message read, “1/3 t baking soda + ½ t cream of tartar = 1 t baking powder.”
“Do we have cream of tartar?” Liesl asked Krista.
They went to the pantry and checked among the spices on the baking shelf.
“Yes!” Krista crowed as she found the little jar. She opened it up to look inside and her face fell. “No. Not enough.”
Liesl thought. She knew Gramma sometimes used buttermilk with baking soda. What they needed was something slightly acidic to counteract the baking soda. They didn’t have buttermilk, but maybe they could put some vinegar in milk. Liesl didn’t know how much to use, but she figured they could probably look it up. She suggested the possible solution, but when Krista picked up the box of baking soda, she shook her head again.
“How can we be out of every possible solution all at once?” she moaned dramatically. “The stew is already done! What do I do now?”
“Calm down,” Liesl admonished. “We’ll figure something out.” She went back to the kitchen and started looking through the cookbook. “Maybe you could make bread or rolls,” she suggested.
Krista looked at the clock. “Are you kidding? It has to rise for an hour twice and then bake for about forty minutes, plus time to get it mixed and kneaded! We’d be eating supper around 7:30! The littles will never make it that long and Dad would have my head!”
Liesl turned back to the cookbook. There had to be something. She turned page after page, but everything that looked interesting called for either baking soda or baking powder. Finally, she came to popovers.
“That’s it!” Liesl cried.
“What?” asked Krista, looking over her shoulder.
“Popovers! Remember, Wesley used to make them all the time when he had kitchen days? They’d be perfect with the stew and you only need flour, milk, salt, eggs, and butter!”
Krista and Liesl read through the recipe together, deciding it would be best to triple it, and making sure all the ingredients were available.
“This looks easy,” Krista remarked. “I always thought popovers were one of those things like quiche or angel food cake where you almost have to be a professional chef to get them right.”
Liesl smiled. “Nah! You’ll be fine.” She wrote baking soda, baking powder, and cream of tartar on the grocery list that they kept on the refrigerator.
“Thanks, Liesl,” Krista called as Liesl headed back outdoors.
“No problem,” Liesl replied, catching the door just before it slammed.

~*~

Dad got home around seven that night looking troubled. Liesl tried to ask him what was wrong, but he made the sign for “later” and put a smile on his face to hug and play with the little ones for a while.
That evening Liesl and Janessa walked in to find Dad, Mom, Wesley, Brandt, and Collin sitting in the living room apparently just waiting for the two of them.
“Have a seat,” Dad said, indicating the last two seats available on the couch.
Liesl and Janessa sat down quickly and waited to see what Dad had to say.
He got right to the point – a sure sign that whatever it was, was truly bothering him.
“I got a rather disturbing phone call from Paul Wright this afternoon, “Dad started.
Liesl wondered if Mr. Wright was calling off the visit. She hoped not!
Dad continued. “Paul’s been doing a lot of talking with Pastor Johansen, the owner of Blessing Lake, over the last day or two. Henry Johansen called him up yesterday with the intention of canceling our reservations and maybe even closing Blessing Lake for good.”
“What? Why?” The questions burst out all over the room. Dad held up his hand for silence.
“Be patient and I’ll tell you the whole story,” he suggested. “It’s a long story and a very disturbing one.
That’s why I waited until the younger ones were in bed to share this with you.”
That was the second time in less than a minute that Dad had used the word disturbing. Liesl was starting to get worried. Dad continued.
“Apparently there was a terrible tragedy at Blessing Lake last summer. I won’t go into all the details, but a four year old little boy drowned.”
“Oh, how awful!” Liesl murmured. She saw that Mom’s eyes were filling with tears.
“It was awful,” Dad agreed. “His mother found him. There was a big investigation at the time and Pastor Johansen was found to be without fault in the matter. But he still blamed himself, of course.”
Dad paused, clearing his throat.
“Henry thought he was starting to get past it and move on – until this last week, when he started having visions. Night after night, the scenes of that terrible evening have been replaying before his eyes. The sounds of the mother’s screams have haunted him to the point that he’s truly started to question his sanity. He has a brother who has wanted to buy Blessing Lake from him for many years, but this is the first time he’s come close to seriously considering it.”
“Wow! Is there anything we can do, Dad?” Wesley asked.
“Paul said that he has gotten Pastor Johansen to hold off on canceling the reservations and two of his sons have gone to the retreat center this morning to stay with Henry. They’ll be talking and praying with him and seeing if there’s anything more they can do to help him. At this point, I don’t think we should call off the trip. I want very much to be able to minister to Pastor Johansen – although I’m trusting you all to be discreet with your younger siblings and keep this to yourselves. I don’t want them getting nightmares.”
“Of course, Dad,” Brandt affirmed. “We know better than that.”
“I know you do,” Dad said. “I’m asking you all to pray for Pastor Johansen as well as for Dekorra and Ashton Wright, who are staying with him now.” He turned to Mom. “If you have any qualms about going, honey, let me know, ok?”
Mom nodded as she wiped her eyes. “I want to go more than ever,” she said. “Maybe having a big group of people around will help.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Dad agreed.

~*~

Liesl’s thoughts churned as she put on her nightgown and slipped into bed. What an awful thing to have to go through – both for Pastor Johansen and for the mother of that little boy! She prayed that God would give them both comfort and peace. She prayed for wisdom for Ashton and Dekorra as they tried to help the elderly man. She prayed for Monday to come quickly so they could hurry up and get there too. And she prayed for God to bring wonderful good out of even such a terrible thing. He always did. God was so good.

I read another review about this book and knew I wanted the opportunity to read it for myself, so I was so glad when the author, Adam Bolander, allowed me the opportunity for a free copy to review. The whole idea of a boy who becomes something else in order to save them just sounded too much like God’s own son becoming a human to save us, you know? I was expecting an allegory of sorts because of that. Though it wasn’t allegory, it was a wonderful book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Adam Bolander creates a world that is utterly rich and believable. The anthropomorphized squirrels (called saloli after the Cherokee word for squirrel) have a society that is well thought out by the author and given many details of its customs, code of conduct, and religion to really bring it to life. Although it seems to be written for children, and the feel of the writing bears that out, it is a story that will be enjoyed by all ages. I was drawn into the story completely and could not put it down. The writing is rich and thought provoking.

Jeremy Landers is called by Valde Abbas (God) to become a saloli (squirrel) and must learn how to live as a squirrel, how to win the trust of his tribe called Icefire, and how to follow God’s call upon his life. Finally, he must choose between his life as a saloli and his life as a human. Like a fantasy story should be, there is a clear deliniation between good and evil. Unlike many children’s stories that portray the villains as unintelligent buffoons, the dark side here is realistically powerful and insidious and it is clear that only with Valde Abbas can Icefire tribe succeed in defeating them.

Much of the saloli religion echoes God’s word clearly, but there are a few places in the book that concerned me just a little bit as a Christian reader reading a Christian fantasy. Of course, that opens up the question of whether all Christian fantasy needs to line completely up with Scripture or when it’s ok not to. But that is another Thought for another Thursday. I’m waiting for the third book of the trilogy to come out before making my final determination. However, because of the violence involved in the book (about the level of the Redwall books by Brian Jacques if you’re familiar with those) and because of the seeming theological ambiguities, I would recommend the Legends of the Saloli be reserved for more mature readers or used as a read aloud with plenty of discussion along the way.

All in all, I was very pleased with this story. It is an exciting narrative that leaves you on the edge of your seat. And, just as a warning, this first book, Approaching Storm, ends with such a cliff hanger! I just had to purchase and devour book 2, Vengeance and Mercy, immediately!

Here are some of the things we’ve been doing with pallets…

Crates to deliver arrows to the castle (or hold sheet music in the livingroom)

A really nice bench with a storage shelf below (also doing double duty as a movie prop)

A really cool great big storage box

The beginnings of a fireplace soon to be completed

Frames for castle walls

A way cool medieval looking cart…

And even a wonderful midwife’s cottage! (granted it’s just a facade, but still pretty cool) (We also have a facade of Brodor Clarke’s chapel started but I don’t have a picture of it yet.)

So, what have you made from pallets??

So, off we went on our adventure, brrumpity brrumpity brrumpity up and down the hills and round the curvy
country roads, the children chatting away. From the back seat, we heard Emilie’s little voice singing happily
to the tune of “Jingle Bells” (The Dashing through the snow part)…
“We’re on our way to the store.
We’re on our way to the store.
We’re on our way to the store.
We’re on our way to the store.”
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
You get the idea. LOL. As it’s getting almost to the level of annoyance of “99 bottles of beer on the wall”,
Mike finally speaks up, “Emilie…”
She stops. The van is quiet for a moment, and then…
A new little voice begins,
“We’re um um um um um um store.
We’re um um um um store…”
Yep, it’s Wilmer. Not even two years old. The stinker! I was laughing so hard I was crying.
And he continued. And continued.

And then Emilie joined back in, (After all, Daddy hadn’t gotten as far as actually telling her to stop.)
now making up new verses as she went along.
She sang,
“We’re going to get a present
For a baby girl…” Mike and I smiled as we listened to her sweet voice and Wilmer’s counter melody with the
rhythm of the muffler-less van.

Then she started to get a little confused. She sang,
“We’re going to get a baby girl.
We’re going to get a baby girl…”
I couldn’t help but feel a little sad, missing my baby girl. Mike started to correct her, but she’d already
moved on to the next verse…
“Cuz baby boys are monsters,
They always take my toys…”
And we were dying laughing once more!

Isn’t God good to give us such sweetness?

and here’s a picture of the little stinker.

~*~

“What a beautiful day!” she thought, looking up at the brilliant blue sky. She had already weeded and watered and she didn’t see anything else that needed doing around the yard.
After some thought, she decided to walk the trails through the woods and see if they needed any maintenance. She walked past the back of the barn and along the old stone wall. There the path turned up the hill and into the woods. Wesley had cut most of the trails the first year that the Keller’s had moved here. The trail wound back and forth, up hills and down, within sight of the freeway which marked the back border of their property, and back to within view of the house. You could come out at the Valley of the Lone Tree, or keep weaving through the woods until the trail met up with the path to the Armory. Sometimes after a long day at the restaurant, Liesl liked to walk home that way, letting the peacefulness of the forest quiet her.
Today she found a fallen tree that had blocked the path. It was smallish, so she was able to drag it out of the way and continue down the trail. A light breeze rippled through the tops of the trees and bird song trilled here and there, counterpoint to the low hum of cars going by on the freeway. A mosquito buzzed in her ear, the bane of her existence, and she swatted at it, missing it. Suddenly she stopped short in surprise. She’d almost stepped on it! There, curled up right in the middle of the path was a beautiful tiny baby fawn! Liesl hardly dared to breathe let alone move. It was so precious! Liesl knew that little fawns like this were trained to stay perfectly still wherever their mother left them, even if it was for a long time.
Liesl backed up slowly a few steps, keeping her eye on the beautiful creature. “Sarah,” Liesl called quietly through her walkie talkie. “You busy?”
“Pretty busy. Scrubbing the kitchen floor. What do you need?”
“I’m not busy,” came Krista’s voice. “I just finished cleaning the rabbit cages.”
Liesl considered. She’d called Sarah first because she could be trusted to be quiet. Krista didn’t exactly fit that description. But she was available. Liesl decided it was worth the risk.
“Could you grab my camera off the computer desk and come join me on Wesley’s trail?” Liesl asked. “I’m about halfway through. Almost to that little clearing where Collin and Stephen pitched their tent last year.”
“Sure, I know where that is,” Krista replied.
“Come quietly when you get close,” Liesl suggested. “Just wait ’til you see what I found!”
“I’m coming,” Krista said.
In a few moments, Liesl could hear the sound of footsteps crunching in the old leaves.
“Sh!” Liesl hushed her sister.
“I’m trying,” Krista loudly whispered back. Then she saw the fawn. “Oh!” she gasped. “It’s beautiful!”
“I know!” Liesl agreed. “I want to get some pictures so we can show the others without everyone traipsing back here.” She held out her hand and Krista handed over the camera.
Liesl zoomed in, filling the frame with the body of the tiny deer, and snapped several wonderful shots. She couldn’t wait to share these with Mom!
Liesl and Krista stood and enjoyed watching the fawn for just a few minutes longer. The only movements were the blinking of his great velvety brown eyes and the oh so slight rhythmic expansion of his sides as he breathed.
Finally they tore themselves away and walked back down the trail the way they had come.
“It was adorable!” Krista exclaimed, dancing as they emerged into the sunny yard.
“That’s for sure!” Liesl agreed. “I’m going to go see if Mom’s done getting the babies to sleep so I can show her the pictures.”
“Good idea,” said Krista. “I suppose I’d better get my math done so I don’t have too much to do on my study day.”

~*~

Dad got home early that night and grabbed his .22 from the gun cabinet in the dining room. “Who wants to go with me for some target practice?”
“Me! Me!” Wesley, Collin, and the oldest four girls jumped at the opportunity.
“What about you?” Dad asked Brandt who had not spoken up. “Don’t you like shooting?”
“I like it,” Brandt replied. “I’m just reading a book.”
“A book?!” Dad winked at Mom. “You know, I hold you responsible for warping our children so.”
Mom laughed. “I’ll accept that.”
They all walked down to the Valley of the Lone Tree where Dad had set up his deer and turkey targets. Mom made sure all the younger children were staying in the house with her.
It was fun. They went through a lot of shells and Dad did a lot of complaining about how the Valley wasn’t really sloped properly but Liesl was excited to be able to hit the targets several times. As they walked back up the hill toward the house, Dad talked aloud about his plans to bring in an earth mover later this summer and get a real shooting range made. Liesl didn’t get what the big deal was, but if it made Dad happy…
As the sun set that evening they sat in the living room talking and sharing about their day while Stephen and Sarah played speed chess. The twins and the little girls were in bed. Mom told Dad about Savannah’s snack that morning and they all had a good laugh.
“What we need is a dog,” said Dad his eyes twinkling mischievously. “Do you think we could tie the dog to the toddler to keep her out of trouble? Or would someone call Social Services if we did that?”
Mom giggled. “Probably.”
“I know,” Dad continued. “We could tell them that it was a seeing eye dog – only it’s the dog that’s blind!”
Liesl could hardly breathe, she was laughing so hard. “Sh,” Mom admonished. “We’re going to wake up the little ones if we’re not careful.”
They talked some more about their upcoming vacation, what they needed to pack, and what time they were planning to leave. Liesl couldn’t wait. It was going to be so much fun! Finally, the conversation slowed and Dad looked at his watch.
“It’s after nine, you guys. You should probably get to bed,” he said.

~*~

“Thank You, Lord,” Liesl prayed after she’d gotten into her nightgown. Thank You for the fun we had with Dad and for keeping Savannah safe even while she was being naughty. Thank You for letting us see that beautiful fawn. You have blessed us so very much! Thank You, Lord for everything!
~ Amen.

I’ve been wanting to do an herbalism course with her for a while, but couldn’t afford to. Recently, I found out about a kit from learningherbs.com which was within my price range. It is a perfect beginning, with four easy projects to do and just about everything you need in the box.

Today’s lesson was making an herbal salve. Olive oil was one of the few things not included, but we found some really good stuff at our local bent and dent grocery. *Love* that place!

We measured out 12oz of olive oil.

Lissa began warming the oil in a saucepan and added the packet of herbs that came with the kit. (It includes calendula, comfrey, plantain, and st. john’s wort.)

We found it hard to keep the oil from coming to a simmer without stirring it almost constantly. Lissa got a stool to sit on, but it was still a long time. We should look for a double boiler for next time.

After an hour of keeping the oil and herb mixture warm, Lissa poured it through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl.

She pressed the herbs with her stirring stick to try to get all the oil out of them.

Before continuing, Lissa took the leftover herbs out to the compost and washed and dried the saucepan thoroughly. I put away the camera while she was doing this. Which turned out to be a mistake.

I forgot to get a picture of the beeswax either before, or during the melting. Oh well. This packet used to hold one ounce of beeswax. LOL

After the wax was melted, we made our second mistake and forgot that we were supposed to measure exactly 8oz of the herb infused oil. Oh dear! We poured the whole thing into the melted wax before we realized our mistake. Not much could be done about it so we pressed on.

All the tins and jars came with the kit. Lissa carefully filled each one. We had extra liquid because of our mistake, so we used a one cup mason jar to hold the leftover salve. A few drops of lavender essential oil were added to each container.

I wasn’t sure if it would set up properly because of the extra oil, but it turned out beautifully! Apparently the recipe is more forgiving than I expected.

We are already planning to do this again with herbs we can find and dry from our own land.

Several months ago, my brother asked me to weigh in on a question he asked on his blog. It’s taken me longer than it should have, but here, finally, is my answer. LOL I thought it would make a nice post here on my blog as well.

Dear Karl,
You asked how a family like ours with many children spanning the ages and grade levels we have, homeschools. I have tried and failed to come up with a succint answer – so I will attempt the long winded version.

One thing you said in your article rang true with me. You said “We tend to separate “Schooling” from “Life” and as a result our kids grow up without any connection between the two and don’t see much point.”
For our family, this has been the key to making homeschooling “work”. So, that being said, here are some semi-connected thoughts.
There’s the practical side and the philosophical side of the answer to that question. Practically, our school day looks pretty laid back compared to many. If I were to write out what our typical school day is like, it might be something like this…
After breakfast, my 20 year old takes the baby for a while and I print out enough pages of lined paper for the younger three’s penmanship assignments. I write on them what I’d like them to trace and then copy in their own handwriting. Emilie (5yo) is learning to print her lower case letters and review her upper case ones. Amanda (7yo) is reviewing her printing by copying a commandment and its meaning (from Luther’s Small Catechism) each day. Abigail (10yo) is doing the same but in cursive.
When they’ve finished that and I’ve had them make any necessary corrections, I give them each five math problems to do. Emilie does some simple addition and subtraction, Amanda does some more difficult addition and subtraction and is starting to learn regrouping, Abigail does some addition and subtraction with regrouping and some multiplication. She is starting to learn some more difficult multiplication now as well. I make sure the first two or three problems are review, especially in areas that I know they need practice. One or two are working on what they should know just well enough to do on their own or if they’re ready for it, I’ll introduce a new concept and we’ll work together. And then I usually include one story problem. Now and then I’ll change things up and have them play a math game, or do a montessori math activity, or fill in a multiplication chart, or do some flashcards.
Then Amanda and Abigail are sent off to read a chapter in their assigned reading books and report back to me. Emilie reads with me still. She’s been reading sentences that I write down for her and has progressed from “The rat sat on the hat.” to more meaningful sentences like, “There are twelve months in the year. The names of the months are January… etc” I was just saying today that she is probably ready now to start reading for church. Since each week we read through a chapter from the Bible as a family, I can look ahead to next week’s chapter, write down the last verse in large, easy to read letters, and practice it with her on Friday and Saturday so that Sunday morning she can take a turn like everyone else.
For Bible, I like to use the old Bible History book from my gradeschool days. The girls like to listen to the stories. Abigail reads her own Bible like the older children, though just a chapter a day at this point.
During all this, the older ones are off in whatever quiet-ish spots they can find, doing their own schoolwork. For instance, Lissa (14yo) and Juli (12yo) are working together through “Life of Fred” Algebra, “Creek Edge Press” Geography task cards, and the “Prairie Primer” for literature and research. They do their creative writing as well. They come to me as needed for any help and/or permission to use google when our set of encyclopedias fail them, and to check their spelling and punctuation. Later in the day, I try to touch base with each of the older children and make sure they’re understanding and accomplishing what they should.
After the “3R’s school” is done, they’re are free to go. Throughout the day, other learning opportunities will come up. Abigail likes to write stories and that gives us a chance to talk about spelling and grammar and punctuation. They all like to bake and get extra fractions practice doing that (especially when we have to double a recipe or we have to make do with the measuring cups we can find, which is most of the time.) We read aloud each evening and that often gives us opportunities to discuss subjects such as history, social studies, science, etc. At meal times I might teach them a new hymn in four part harmony, review basics, or talk about the maps on the dining room walls.
The rest of the time we just live. We clean the house and take care of younger siblings and cook and sew and learn to knit and crotchet and wash wool for needle felting. We research ways to grow a better garden and can our produce, how to film and edit scenes for a movie. We write stories and songs. We build cupboards and castle walls. The children research and practice the things they find interesting, whether that’s leather work, or herbalism, or piano, or life in the 1930′s. They read and read and read. We play and work and live.
Which brings me to the other half of this question, the reasoning behind what we do and how we do it and why we do it.
When my cousin asked me to help her find information to help her make a decision about homeschooling her children, I encouraged her to find the answers to questions such as… What is your definition and philosophy of education? What does education mean to you? Why are you choosing to homeschool? This is something many homeschoolers don’t even think about before starting. I know I didn’t much and I was an elementary education major. We are so brain washed to think that education means sitting at a desk or dining room table, reading through a text book and doing the activities outlined within it, that we seldom look beyond that vision. When I first started homeschooling my children, my main reason for homeschooling was the belief that I could give my kids a superior education. I met a family who said that their children’s relationships with God were much more important that academics. I was appalled to find that their pre-teen children struggled with reading and I’m sorry to say, I judged them. The longer I homeschool and parent my children, the more I’m learning that they were right and I was wrong. Relationships are the heart and the root of true education – relationships with each other and with God.
Several educational methods have shaped my philosophy of education – Maria Montessori, Glenn Doman, Seigfried Engelmann, Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Somebody Robinson Marilyn Howshall, etc. For me, these are the ideals…
* I believe in starting early, teaching two and three year olds to read or at least getting a good start on it.
*I believe that tiny children are capable of learning much more than we tend to expect, especially when presented in a hands on way, and that they should be given the opportunity to do so.
*I believe in teaching in natural, along the road kinds of ways whenever possible. So much of math can be learned while shopping, baking, working, playing etc.
*I believe that the best learned lessons are those learned by those who want to learn them, therefore following my children’s interests whenever possible is a good thing, while not making their education truly child led. Rather we should both, parents and children, be Spirit led and watching for God given opportunities and directions.
*I believe in using short lessons for things such as math. I’ve found out that my children’s brains shut down at the sight of a whole page full of problems no matter how well they know the material.
*I believe that character training trumps any amount of academic learning. “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up.”
*I believe that education should be geared toward the individual rather than stamped out cookie cutter style. Each of my children have different interests and needs. My son who wants to live off the land may have no need of higher math skills. My son who rewrites computer programs to make them into the tools he needs just might.
*I believe that teaching our children sometimes involves trial and error. One method may work for one child and not for another. It’s ok to stop and try something new. It’s also ok to slog through and teach perserverance even when it’s not a perfect match.
*I believe that educational gaps are inevitable. The question is whether the student will have the understanding and the confidence to seek out the answers when he needs them.
*I believe that sometimes homeschooling has more to do with the changes God is making in me than in my children.
*I believe in giving my children the tools to learn independently and encourage them in that direction early.
*I believe in not filling their lives so full of book work that it pushes out all opportunity for real learning.
*I believe in trying not to stifle my children’s natural enjoyment of learning, and especially instilling a love of reading.
*I believe in doing my best to model a vibrant lifestyle of learning before my children.
*I believe that life is learning and learning is life. Education does not begin at 5 and end at 18. I hope to never stop learning new things and I pray that my children feel the same way.
All this comes together and meets up with my husband’s views and works itself out into an eclectic – leaning – toward – but – not – completely – unschooling – lifestyle – of – learning. It is what works for us. Others may think through their philosophy of education and come up with something totally different, leading to a very different looking homeschool. That’s ok. In fact that’s wonderful. That’s what homeschooling is all about.