For Today (June 1, 2009)

Outside my window...
the weather is beautiful! Sunny, breezy, JUNE!

I am thinking...
about the week ahead and the cleaning I'd like to accomplish today.

I am thankful...
that God works all things together for good....

From the kitchen...
we made some great cherry bars for Sunday that totally blew my diet!

I am reading...
Discipline by Elizabeth Elliott

I am hearing...
nothing, except light traffic and birds singing. Almost everyone is still asleep.

Around the house...
I am hoping to deep clean my bedroom today. I need to straighten my closet and armoire, vacuum the baseboards and under the bed, vacuum the blinds and lace curtains, clean the mildew off the window sills, and dust knick-knacks.

One of my favorite things...
shopping with my 6 daughters! We had a good time on Saturday, didn't we, girls?

A few plans for the rest of the week....
Katie, Emily, David and I are going to a conference at the end of the week. We'll spend the beginning of the week getting the housework done, running errands, and ironing/packing for everyone.

Here is a picture thought I'm sharing...
A new picture of Rachel, age 19, by Katie, our resident photographer

Cabbage

We picked some cabbage yesterday and cooked it today. It was so yummy with baked sweet potatoes, fresh corn on the cob, cantaloupe, and radishes from our garden. My favorite cabbage recipe is from David's late aunt.

Aunt Miriam's Cabbage

1 head of cabbage, chopped
About 1-1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1-2 tablespoons chopped green onion
salt, pepper to taste
pinch or two of sugar
About 1/4 cup water

Place butter in skillet over medium heat and melt. Place cabbage, onion, salt, pepper and sugar in skillet. Pour in water and cover skillet. Cook over low heat until cabbage is tender and water is mostly evaporated, adding more water if necessary through cooking process to keep cabbage from sticking to the skillet.

Here's a slaw recipe we enjoy sometimes.

Apple Cabbage Slaw

1 medium unpeeled apple, diced
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 celery rib, chopped
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup mayonnaise
Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Chill until serving. Yield: 4 servings.

Chore Time!

Those words are uttered a couple or three times a day at our house!

This afternoon I'm in David's office, waiting for my children to finish up fiddle lessons, so I've been working on a new chore list. My goal is to teach my children to run a house by the time they graduate from high school, so I rotate the kids through the chore list, teaching them new jobs along until they know how to do every thing in the house.

Sometimes people ask me what chores are appropriate for each age level, so I thought I would give you our chore list.

Note that these are not all the things my children help with. Everyone keeps their room neat, changes and makes their beds, does some ironing (except Abby), helps with housecleaning and getting meals on the table, and does whatever needs to be done at the moment! I have children who are excellent helpers with good attitudes. They're the greatest!

Katie is 23 and works full time, so her job is to cut the grass in the summer and facilitate supper during the week if she's home. (Lunch is our main meal, supper is "every man for himself", except for Thomas and Abby, who need help sometimes)

Rachel is 19 and teaches fiddle part time. She does a myriad of things around the house, including washing breakfast dishes during the week, cleaning the bathrooms in the morning, supervising the cleanup of the girls' room at night, and dividing up the girls' clean laundry at night.

Emily is 16. Her chores include fixing breakfast once a week, learning to cook lunch once a week, washing lunch dishes on the weekend, and washing supper dishes during the week.

Anna is 14. She must cook breakfast twice a week, supervise the girls' room in the morning, wash lunch dishes 3x a week, learn to cook lunch once a week, and do laundry on Saturday.

Carrie is 12. She cooks breakfast 3x a week, washes breakfast dishes on the weekend, dries dishes with Abby 4x a week and does laundry during the week, including hanging clothes on the line on pretty days.

Thomas is 10. He's totally in charge of trash and does a wonderful job without being reminded. dries dishes 3x a week, but I'll admit it's not his favorite job. He's learning to cook breakfast on Monday morning. And he'll be learning to dust mop the back part of the house every morning.

Abby is 6. She's still in training to clean her room, morning and night, dry dishes with Carrie 4x a week, and help fold and put away laundry every day with me. We're adding the jobs of helping me clean up the bathrooms after night baths and cleaning up the lunch table 3x a week.

Fiddlin' Around!

We went to a fiddle competition at 1890s Day Jamboree in Ringgold, GA, this past Saturday. Thomas came in 2nd in his division, Anna took 3rd place in hers, and Rachel placed 3rd in her division. We're very proud of our fiddlers!

Before the camera battery died, Katie took a few pictures of the parade and Thomas on stage with Emily.

Daily Routine

During the school year, our day begins pretty early.

It's important to me to have some quiet time before the day begins, so I usually get up around 5:30 AM. I do my Bible study and prayer time and shower. A couple of the children like to get up very early, too, to have personal time or start on school work while it's quiet. The children, except Abby and Thomas, get up at 6. We have family Bible time and then one person starts breakfast while one gets in the shower and the others go back to their quiet time. After breakfast, we study our Proverbs verse and pray. Sometimes we work on some scripture memory. Then everyone begins morning chores and gets dressed.

Around 9 AM, we start our book work. Those who can, work independently until their turn with me. I usually begin with the youngest and get her work out of the way so she can go and practice fiddle and play or listen to a book on tape. While she's working on her independent work, I work with Thomas, who has (hopefully) finished math. I usually finish with his 3Rs before time to cook lunch and he goes to practice fiddle. Sometimes I have a few minutes to work with Carrie, but I usually get to her after lunch.

A couple of the children have after-lunch chores and do those before starting schoolwork again. After lunch, I finish up with Carrie, do FIAR with Abby, and history and science with Carrie and Thomas, check papers and see how the older girls are coming along, finishing up around 3:30 or 4:00. My high schoolers set their own schedule, so they may work on into the evening if they aren't finished with the day's work. Even though it looks like every child works from 9-4, actually it's ME who's busy that long - the younger kids have breaks to do other things while they are waiting for me to do the next thing with them.

I fix my planbook so that most of the children can mark off subjects are they complete them and a quick glance shows me what has been accomplished. I like to plan for the week, instead of for each day, so we can be more flexible with which subjects get done which day. This especially helps on days when we have interruptions so the whole schedule isn't down the drain. We usually start with math every morning, then follow with reading/language/spelling, etc. I like to read history, science, and FIAR after lunch.

A few years ago, I tried a timed schedule, but that simply doesn't work for us. We have too many other things in life that happen everyday - sometimes unexpectedly, and having a certain amount of time for each thing made me feel very stressed. We are much happier with a good routine and only the time set for getting up, family Bible, school time, lunch, night chores, and bedtime.

Oh, one hint that has helped me tremendously. If there's something you're forgetting to do or have trouble getting in every day, hook it to something that's always consistent. For several years, I couldn't seem to ever get to Bible with the kids, but when I hooked it to breakfast, which we never skip, it became very easy to be consistent with it.

The Process of Planning

I'm posting this because someone asked....

Here's the process I use to plan our school year.

• At the end of the calendar year, I start thinking about what I like that we're using and what needs to be changed. I start making a list of what I would like to use with each child and looking at catalogs/internet.
• When school is out for the year, I re-read some homeschooling books and do some research on the internet. This is when I start seriously praying.
  
• I clean out the school boxes and the bookshelves and sometimes find things I've forgotten I had. :)
  
• I make a list of books to buy and school supplies we'll need.
• I made a page for each child, listing what I'm using, my goals, and notes to myself. This fits into a section of my DayTimer. I also have a page of encouraging quotes and articles which I've copied and pasted to re-read during the year when I need a pick-me-up.
  
• Start purchasing books and supplies.
  
• Clean out my desk, where I have file folders for each child's daily paperwork. Clean out the supply drawer. I bundle up all each child's work and label it with the grade and year, along with the grade sheets I turn in for my school file and my planbook pages (I keep the whole thing for a year, then keep a few samples from each grade until the child graduates).
• Make a list of composers, artists, and sewing projects and make a page for my Daytimer.
  
• Look through the math books, plan which units I want to use in IEW, figure out about 4 FIAR books to begin with, look at our science and history, planning it out if necessary, put together a plan for some subjects, like the geography we're putting together for Carrie and the science I have planned for Thomas. Choose readers and figure out Bible for each child. I buy some books that are reproducible (Daily Grams, for one) and I make copies for about a month's worth of work.
• Make a new chore chart and start training the children in their new jobs to cut down on stress at the beginning of school.
• Some years, I use the MOTH schedule grid and Post-It notes to make a grid of everyone's daily work so I can see how I'm going to get it all done in a day. However, our day works better with a regular routine instead of a timed schedule.
  
• Print planbook pages, which my husband designed to fit into my DayTimer. I write down the first month's school plan, then I plan in detail the first week's work. I always have the general plan for 4-6 weeks, then I plan more in detail every week for the next week. Make my library list, using the online card catalog. We usually "ease" into school, starting with either read-alouds or the subjects we like best and then adding a subject or two over the span of the month until we're up to speed.
  
• We do 6 weeks on/2 weeks off, so Week One, Two, Four, and Five are regular schoolwork weeks. Week Three is Arts Week and Week 6 is Read-aloud Week. The elementary and junior high kids have math 3 days per week, language 3 days per week, history and science 2 days per week, Bible and music practice 5 days per week, individual Bible time with me 2 days per week. Currently, we are off on Monday with my husband, who is a pastor. We have school Tuesday through Saturday. Groceries, errands, library, and fiddle lessons are on Thursday. Not everyone goes with me on errands, so the ones left at home work on schoolwork. Tuesday and Wednesday are our "big" school days and most of our work is finished by Friday afternoon. Saturday is a catch-up school day and getting ready for Sunday. Friday or Saturday is housecleaning. The high school students are scheduled for most subjects to be done 4 days per week, with Bible and music practice 5 days. They are self-governed with regards to their schedule.

School Planning and Prayer

I've always prayed for what I'm going to use for school- prayed about general school plans, prayed about how to solve various learning problems, asked God to help me with each child's curriculum.

But last year I became very discontented with the direction school was taking. I spent a lot of time thinking and praying about the whole school thing. I wanted it to be even more of a lifestyle than it is. I wanted to stop doing things just to be doing them and I wanted school time to be more satisfying for all of us. I stole time wherever I could for a few weeks and thought and prayed about what my dreams for each child were. What was my vision for my time with each child? What did I want to be sure we didn't miss doing? What was truly important? What priorities should I have? What was in God's mind about each little person who He's given to us? I prayed and waited for the Holy Spirit to speak to me and I really listened.

The Lord was faithful to speak! I wrote down a short list of dreams for each child and as I look back over them at the end of the year, I see that we did, in fact, enjoy and accomplish almost each thing on the lists. Here's Abby's list from the past year: Plenty of hands-0n learning, read character building stories, have plenty of snuggle time and nature study, appreciate art and music and learn to do more things around the house. Thomas: Continue to work on character, appreciate art and music. Carrie: Sew more and work on her cooking.

While we were on vacation last week, I was able to spend part of each morning praying about a variety of things, among them my goals and dreams for the upcoming year. The Lord spoke several things to me about each child and I'm still thinking about those things, but for each child, I have words of wisdom and ideas from the Lord especially fitted for him or her.

I keep a section in my planner where I make a page for each child and list each subject and what we're going to be using for each. I make little notes to myself to help me remember all those great ideas I come up with over the summer and notes about what I want to remember to do with that child in the future. And I write down my dreams and goals to encourage myself to stay on the path that I feel the Lord has laid out for us.

Praying for our children is so important and there's much, much more to it than simply praying about school. What I'm talking about is just one tiny part. But I want to encourage you to pray about everything, not just the big stuff. It's hard to hear the voice of the Lord in the every day noise, but it's so worth it.