Cultivating a love for learning

After reading and talking about scarecrows in our BFIAR
book this week...Runaway Bunny. We decided our garden
needed a scarecrow too. I found one in the attic, an old fall
decoration and said Why not?

Kathlena with her first braids. Emily use to wear

her hair in braids like this all the time. Her friend

Chloe called them "Emily braids" because Emily

always wore them this way. Emily is so excited that

Kathlena's hair is now long enough to braid. It turned

out pretty cute. Emily has dreamed about having a

little sister to braid hair with and I am so thankful that

she has Kathlena and that Kathlena has such a wonderful

big sister to look up to.

Kathleeena Braids!!

After our first year of homeschooling from a box a couple of veteran homeschool parents in the homeschool community taught me how to cultivate a love for learning. This method of learning completely changed how I viewed education and my motivation for teaching and learning. I like most went to public school and I did quite well in school. I attribute most of my success though to the fact that I had "home school" parents who were teaching me to love learning. They just did it with less hours per week. My Dad I have talked about before, he can fix anything and learned this from his father. So, I learned from him that failure gets you one step closer to success, how to problem solve and be resourceful. I married a man who was raised this way also.
I think in part this is also why home school veterans like Steve and Becky Lambert, Chris and Ellyn Davis, Ruth Beechick and Little Bear Wheeler resonated with us so well and steered us in the direction of thinking about education outside the box. I am so thankful for this because I think I would have drowned amidst the "schooling" at home methods. The idea of sitting up late at night grading papers reminded me why I did not want to be an education major in college. I prefer the Hebrew method of learning as we walk along together learning.

In the eight months since Andrew and Kathlena have been home I have become even more sure of this way of learning. This is how they have picked up English. They do everything with us. I continue to be amazed at their growth both physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

Recently, we were watching Dr. Jobe Martin's Incredible Creatures DVD's which talk about amazing features that animals have that can only point to a creator whom Dr. Martin, once an evolutionist now turned creationist clearly names as the one and only God of the Bible. Andrew has retained so many interesting facts from watching one DVD one time. It has also caused him to ask questions in light of what he is learning from our scripture reading time and what he has learned from the Catechism for Children. He is so inquisitive and I love that I am here for those moments of discovery.

Today while on our walk, Andrew started working on his Mailbox Math again. He is now quite good at reading random 2-digit numbers as we go from street to street. We are working on predicting what number will be next and the concept of evens on one side and odd on the other(a practical lesson for finding addresses one day). Math has become a game to him and he likes the challenge. He also learned the concept of more and less, most and least today with M&M's. M&M's are one of my favorite math tools...well and jelly beans. Now the pages of his math book come alive from a few hands on activities. He enjoys doing his math or maph as Kathlena calls it.

Kathlena has been cracking us up on our walks lately as she is beginning to recognize more about her surroundings. In her Scarlet O'Hara sounding voice she calls from her stroller while pointing to houses in our neighborhood "This is not my home!" until she sees her home and gets very excited exclaiming "It's my home, It's my home, It's my dog-Chase" I remember months ago when Andrew began to recognize and distinguish our home from the other houses in our neighborhood. It is a sweet sound to hear them exclaim "It's my home!" like a soldier who has come home from the battle.

The my dog in question being walked.

Emily and J.Michael are good at working independently and responsibly on assigned tasks. There favorites are doing research on projects. Whether it is how to raise crickets or photography composition to anything they can dream of or read about. Of course this is the way I learn too. If I don't know something then I can head to a book or the Internet and find out.

Emily our photographer. This is a self portrait. I love this picture

as it captures the essence of our sweet, creative Mimi.

As I was writing this tonight I heard Chase barking and barking which means he has found something. He had cornered a opossum. It was a big, ugly one too. Andrew, J.Michael and Emily were still awake so I let them get up and come outside with a spot light and camera in hand. Another learning opportunity knocking at our door...never a dull moment. I am sure that tomorrow we will be talking about nocturnal animals such as the opossum and how one could end up in our yard.