Educating Our Children

This school year has had a little different look for us. As you know if you read my blog at all - we are in the middle of building a house and are currently living in our garage so life just isn't normal right now. Any school year for us finds us doing a lot of reading aloud together and then fun learning from life but when the school year hits we do also tend to pull out some textbooks and work a little harder at learning in that way. This year that isn't happening as much but we do still find a lot of learning going on.

  Here is some of what we have been doing lately....

Megan and Aaron examining the basement as it is being made.

We have been learning about construction. Some of it is simply learning from watching but much of it has been hands on too as we built our garage and outhouse this summer and are preparing to build the chicken coop and garden shed and as we help some on the house. We are seeing a lot of interesting things that we never have seen before. A lot of learning is going on and it is happening in areas that I can really see my children (especially my sons) using in the future.

The boys gathering rocks at my parents place.

 We are learning about rocks. My brother-in-law is making a fireplace for us out of stone and so the kids and I gathered up lots and lots of rocks for that purpose. As we gathered them it was so fun to look and see all the various kinds and admire them and wonder about them. So we found our rock book and we added that to our afternoon reading schedule and we are working to learn about rocks.

A friends wedding where Mara and I did the flowers.

The kids, especially Mara at this time, have been continuing to learn and help with my wedding flower business. Earlier this month when we were doing flowers for a friends wedding Mara made all the bridesmaids bouquets plus some of the boutonnieres and corsages. This skill could be very useful for her in the future.

 We have had fun watching and learning more about farming. When we were gathering much of our rocks we went and got them from piles by a friends' field. While we were there we saw various parts of harvesting wheat and hay and soybeans. The kids were fascinated to watch the baler and the whole system for getting the hay/straw up and out of the field. This is an area that the boys are very interested in and so getting to let them be up close and near the action was very fun.

   We had the privilege of going to see and listen to KrisAnne Hall a passionate speaker about the Constitution and its history. Her 2 hour lecture was very interesting and informative and I was thankful our whole family could go and hear her. Now we have books and DVDs by her that we hope to look at soon.

  The kids have been learning a little more about care-giving. A friend of ours broke her ankle and so we have been blessed to be able to help her out a little during this time. Mara has gone over to her place several times to help with cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc and Jonathan went one day this week as well. The younger two have enjoyed helping when they can as well. It is a blessing for them to be able to learn to help out others when they need it.

   The boys have been having fun learning about machinery. There has been quite a lot of types of machinery in here and they love watching it and trying to figure out how things work. This week after watching a bobcat for quite some time Jonathan came in and announced he was going to make one. So he pulled out a bunch of old motors (from copiers, drills and things like that) and some tin and wheels and various other things. His creation didn't quite turn into a bobcat but he did get a little vehicle going that could run by the power of a motor. He had Aaron help him in his project and it was fun to see the two of them work together on it. Jonathan just loves that sort of thing and his time on a robotics team last year helped him to learn a lot. He speaks a language which is rather foreign to me (concerning motors and servos and such like) but I find it pretty cool. It is something that he loves and I love to see him learning on his own.

  Our church was given a bunch of Creation Science materials and so not only have we enjoyed watching some of the DVD's together at Sunday evening services but Mara has been reading the books (that look a little thick and dare I say look dry) every chance she gets when we have been spending extra time at the church building- which has been a lot lately since I am teaching music lessons and we also take showers there fairly often. I love to see her interest in this area. It just is cool to me how since she was little she tends to pick up (and then practically memorize) books about science - ones that I am not naturally drawn too but she really enjoys. I love to that she will then share things that she learned with me.

   Yesterday we went over to my parents and the boys and I helped with chicken butchering. Though it isn't the most fun activity ever it is part of life that if you are going to eat meat somebody needs to do some butchering and we prefer to have home raised wholesome meat when possible. This activity is educational not only in that they learn how to do something useful for living but also in learning more about the parts of a chicken body and how things work together. Science class for sure.

   This fall we have also started our weekly volunteer shift at our local Republican office. This is a time when we are exposed to various materials about our candidates and other political discussions and materials which tends to prompt discussions among our family. Our children knowing how our country works is important to us and this helps with that.

  We have also have various educational things that we try to do year round (though this summer at times we got to busy to keep up with everything but we are back at it again this fall). Some of those things are:

• Bible reading- we read a chapter from the New Testament after breakfast and one from the Old Testament after lunch.
• Bible memorizing - We are working on learning Colossians for the first time and also throughout the month we review the other books, chapters and shorter passages that we have learned in the past.
• Additional Bible learning - we are currently reading aloud through Halley's Bible Handbook.
• History - we are reading through the Story of the World again and we also like to read a lot of other historical books (biographies and such).
• Science - this is another time when we read aloud from various books. Currently our reading is from "Be Your Own Doctor" and a rock book.
• Our Fun reading which is still often educational. Our most recent book was "Rescue the Captors 2" in which we learned about mission work and other things in Colombia while just enjoying the book. We are planning on starting "Life on the Family Farm" today and are looking forward to that.
• Singing and other music- we try to sing a round together (acappella) and also sing some choruses with instruments each morning. We also practice and have a presentation at the nursing home each month.
• Art - creative arts are simply a normal part of our life. Drawing, making things and such are something that we need in our life.

This week we finally got started on some additional "school work" which is still a little bit more laid back that normal but it is helping us to sharpen our brains and learn some too. This is what we are doing:

• We are going through "Simply Grammar" by Karen Andreola. This is a neat book that explains things very nicely and has mostly oral exercises to go through. We are able to do this as a group which works really nicely for us.
• Math. Normally for Math we have used Saxon Math books. This year I knew some adjustments were needed especially for Jonathan. The way we had gone through the Math books had put the kids ahead of where they were supposed to be for their age level (Jonathan did Algebra 1/2 last year at 12 years old) and that ended up being pretty challenging for Jonathan and Megan was experiencing a few troubles as well. This year I knew that I wanted both of them to just really get very fast at the basics so with flashcards, computer games (at xtramath.com) and such we are working on that. We also plan on using Kahn Academy to advance farther in our math too. Mara finished up Algebra 2 last year and so for the first thing this year we are having her review that quickly and then she will take a CLEP test to get college credits for that work. After that we will probably have her work on some Calculus and also some consumer math. Aaron was doing fine in math but he decided that he would also enjoy a year or review and work at getting faster instead of going on in Saxon. We will take up with Saxon again next year. 
• We are having the kids to copy work. This helps them to work on their handwriting while also learning about spelling and punctuation.
• The kids are narrating the books that I read aloud to them. A Charlotte Mason method of checking to see what they have learned while helping them to remember better in the future as telling will help with memory.
• The kids are writing in a journal.
• Our homeschool co-op got started again for the school year in September and we are focusing on fine arts for that this year.

We also have various other things going on but this is our main schedule. It has been going very easily and everybody is pretty happy with our school plan for this year. We will also be adding and changing things as we go along but it is nice to at least be started. The kids also do a lot of reading on their own and Mara is still working on writing a book with "The One Year Adventure Novel".

How is your school year going? I would love to hear about the way your family does school!

The House is Going Up!

This week has been a fun one for watching the progress on our house. Last week they poured the basement floor and then put the floor trusses on and the floor boards. This week all the walls got framed on the main level. It is so neat to actually be able to walk in rooms now, see how big the windows will be and get a better feel for what it is going to be like.

  The other fun thing that went on this week was my sister and brother-in-law and their family came and worked on making our fireplace. My brother-in-law works for the railroad now but he used to be a brick mason and he offered to make our fireplace. We are incredibly grateful! We had been busy over the last couple of weeks finding and hauling rock and now we are seeing some of them go into place.

I love being able to use the real stones (many of them from our own property and some from my parents and others from the fields of a farmer friend) to make something that will be beautiful and useful for our home.

  This week also my dad with helpers cut up some of the logs from our place with his saw mill. We will be getting our mantle from a huge pine tree that stood on our house spot and he is also making other boards too. We think we may use some on the ceiling in the living room and we also would like to build a bunk bed for the boys.

  Ken and I have also been busily making decisions on rock for the outside of the house, door styles and more. The decisions seem to be nearly endless. Sometimes I feel like I don't really care and it doesn't really matter and sometimes I can be pretty picky. I just really like things that are real and natural and simple as much as possible.

   Yesterday the trusses for the next floor got delivered so it will be fun to watch the 2nd story go up next week.

Rescue the Captors 2 {A book review}

I would like to tell you about a book that I have been reading aloud to the kids lately. It is a true story about a daring missionary in Columbia - Russell Stendal and his family. This book has introduced us to a world we knew very little about - one filled with war and fighting (between Guerrillas, Paramilitary and the Colombian Government Military) and a God who can work in the midst of any sort of struggle and do things that are completely amazing. We also read about people who are willing to serve our God no matter how dangerous the situation that they have to go through in their service to Him.

 This book drew me in from the very preface. In it we read a little about the author - Russell Martin Stendal. First we read that he was born in Minneapolis, MN which I found interesting since that is our state. But what I found really cool was the fact that when he was 4 years old he prayed asking God to send his parents to the mission field so that he would have to wait until he grew up to be a missionary. I just find that pretty neat - that a 4 year old would want to share Jesus to those in other countries that don't know Him. But what is really, really neat is that God did answer that prayer and by the time He was eight years old his family was heading to Colombia to serve God there.

  This book is Rescue the Captors 2 - implying obviously that it is the 2nd in a series. I was a bit concerned to get a book 2 of a series which I hadn't read book 1 to but it didn't matter. He goes back and explains book 1 briefly and we had no trouble getting into the story from where he started this book. His first book was written during/about the time when he had been kidnapped by guerrillas and held hostage for months and he realization that though he desired rescue for himself the ones that truly needed rescuing where the ones that had captured him.

  The book that we are reading is about he and his family's years in Colombia after his rescue and of his ministry to the guerrillas and many others. He talks off traveling through many a battle line, avoiding land mines as they travel through heavily mined areas, Reaching out through books and running a radio station, flying in a small plane and dropping literature and other items by parachute while dealing with people shooting at him from below. He tells many a scary story where God works things out in amazing ways.

  The kids really have enjoyed this book, as have I, and are always begging me to read another chapter. This is pretty easy to do as the chapters are quite short. This is a small book but packed with many stories and pictures of God's work in Colombia.

  Amazon has this book available if you would enjoy reading it yourself (and I think you would).

I did receive this book for free for purposes of reviewing but the thoughts expressed are my own.

Great is His Faithfulness!

"The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,

"Therefore I have hope in Him."

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him."

Lamentations 3:22-25

Don't those words just make you want to worship? When I think about who God is, His love for us and His faithfulness I can't help but worship. How blessed we are!!  We can hope in Him. We know that He will always faithfully love us, He will care for us and He will fulfill all that He has said. He will stand by what He has promised in the Bible. Have you chosen to accept the gift of salvation that He has offered you?

Random Observations from Living in a Garage

• I have never discussed so often and with as many different people about my shower schedule. Now I know there is good reason for that as we are lacking the normal method of showering in our home (garage) but still I do find it humorous to have people asking me about our showering schedule. And I hope that the questions are not because we so obviously need one! Just for the record, I am pretty sure I have only missed one day since we moved out here. 
• It is a little more challenging to carry a pile of clean clothes up a ladder than it is to take it up a stairs.
• Temperatures in the 40's feel pretty cold - especially when trying to type or get up in the morning.
• A hot breakfast from the crockpot is so nice to get up to!! Mara made apple cake and had it warm and ready and smelling delicious when we awoke this morning.
• Friends and family are so very, very kind!! Tonight we enjoyed supper that a friend made and then after church enjoyed yummy apple pie made by my mom. I also have been enjoying clean clothes thanks to my mother.
• People, like your contractor, might find you a little strange for living in a garage (and who knows what all else) but that is all right. My brother who works at a lumberyard and sees our contractor regularly says he doesn't think our contractor will soon forget this building project and I ask "Why?" and they all just laugh. I guess maybe we aren't normal.
• Using the outhouse isn't too bad - just very inconvenient if it happens to be in the middle of a cold night.
• I guess I am glad after all that I was born in this generation but I can still appreciate the romance of warming up all your water, cooking over a fire and cuddling up under the covers to keep warm.
• I am having to be a little more diligent about living in the Spirit because though I love camping and I was all excited about this adventure I still find myself getting crabby a little easier from dealing with the challenges each day.
• It is recommended to have a decent mirror even if you are just living in a garage - that way you might not go around town with smears of charcoal on your face without knowing it.
• I found myself much more hesitant about leaving Ken and the kids on their own when I needed to go out of town to a wedding last weekend. I could just imagine the piles of dirty dishes, the filthy children (and beds!) and how grimy they just might look in church without me there to oversee. Mara did go with my and I think my mom shared my fears so she offered to have Megan stay with her but Ken and the boys actually did all right - I shouldn't have worried.
• People are interested in visiting you just to see what living in a garage is actually like. That's okay- we love friends visiting for about any reason.
• If you thought my housekeeping was relaxed before you wouldn't want to see it now. I try to wage a war against dirt but it seems just a little impossible so I am considering trying to embrace it. :-)

I hope you can laugh with me about the things we are learning! And I would appreciate your prayers as I strive to live with God's Spirit controlling my life. 

Living in a Garage - The Tour

Hello! I am glad you have come to visit. We have been busy fixing things up around here and are excited about giving you a tour! Let's get started.....

If you come to our place- to get inside you first will go through our outdoor kitchen and dining area. We are using a workbench that we had in our old garage as a counter outside. The ground is sloped here so we had to prop up one end on logs and in that spot our counter is quite high. It is very usable however. We use this area for cooking on our camping stove, washing dishes, washing our hands and getting drinks.  We made an awning out of an old banner that Ken had for his business (it is now outdated and so he wasn't using it anymore).  To see more pictures of our outside dining area you can go to this post.

When you come inside the first area is our "kitchen". We don't have any indoor plumbing but we do have electricity and so we have a fridge and freezer. We also have other odds and ends of furniture that we have put together to hold dishes and food. We hung some shelves/cupboards on the walls and then I also put up some shelves in between the studs. 

The desk on the left used to be our phone desk and a place that we kept schoolbooks at our old house.The green desk/shelf I had used in my office at the old house and the next shelf had also been in my office closet to hold sewing/crafting stuff on. All of them are working very nicely now as kitchen cupboards. In the picture above you will notice that both desks can provide a counter space as well as holding things.

The dining area is next with our table and chairs fitting nicely between the "kitchen" and "living room". Currently we probably eat around 1/2 our meals outside but as it gets cooler more and more will probably be inside. This noon we ate inside more because it was so warm rather than it being too cold.

Here is our living room. With normal furniture and a rug laid down and a nice window - it is quite comfortable!

This is the view if you look back into the garage. Computer desks to the left, shop area in the back left corner, Storage area dividing the shop area off, a door to our room, Mara's "room" behind the bookshelves and the music area.

The desks.

These are some of the shelves that I had fun putting in the walls several places in here. Shelves are so nice for storing things.

The "shop".

The music area.

Our bedroom- which will eventually be the honey extracting room. It is 8 foot by 10 foot so not real big for a California king size bed but it works. We even fit both dressers in. The ceiling is also 10 feet high so we have gone up with a lot of storage. We have clothes hanging above the bed on both ends and shelves up high as well. The height compared with the size seems rather weird as you lay in bed but it works just fine.

Here is a view of our bedroom from the opposite corner (up on the bed- I do a lot more walking on the bed than I ever used to - for making it, for getting down clothes to wear, opening the window, etc).

Mara's room is made from bookshelves and curtains and just barely holds her bed, dresser, shoe shelf and dirty clothes basket (with clothes hanging above), It was challenging to get a decent picture.

You can get a better view from Megan's room up in the attic. This is Mara's room from above.

Now we will go up!

There are three different ways to go up to the attic - a rope ladder that leads to the boys "room", a ladder that goes up right by where the rooms divide and you can get to either room that way or a door from outside at the back of the garage.

You can see that door in the picture above. Jonathan put the door in and built the ladder (out of old parts from a discarded bunk bed). This door goes into Megan's room but the boys also like to use it a lot - just going through Megan's room to get to theirs.

Here is Megan coming into her room from that door.

This is the other end of Megan's room. Her dresser is quite light so she was able to have her full sized dresser up there. The boys are making do with smaller plastic dressers right now.

This is Megan's desk in her room. Jonathan helped her build it. She can sit on her bed to use it.

Another picture of Megan in her room. She had fun getting it ready for the tour and had me even light her candle for the picture (which you can't really see - so I thought I had better tell you).

On the other side of Megan's dresser is Jonathan's area. He put up dividers and then made places to hang all of his tools.

He also made a desk for himself. It is his special place to work on his plane kit.

This is the view of Aaron's end of the room as seen from Jonathan's bed area.

Both boys have "closets" in this area.

The new windows just got put in this weekend.

This is what is looks like when you open up the garage door. We feel rather like dolls in a doll house when this happens (which is not often).

 Another part of our home is our shower. I made it out of salvaged items.

 This is the inside view. We have one area that is the showering area divided with a shower curtain from the changing area.

 Thanks for coming to visit!!
If you have any questions please ask away - I can post more details in the future. Suggestions and tips are also welcome.