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This week, I’ve been working on a couple of painting projects for my niece and her husband. They’re building a mini putt-putt golf course, and their opening day is set for May 18.

One of the projects I had to do was to paint a mural of the Grand Canyon on two adjoining walls. Not an easy job, but I had a printed photo to use as a reference, so I thought I was ready to go.

The first day we had some errands to run, and we didn’t arrive at the site until about lunch time. After a late start, I worked on one wall of that mural for hours, stopping around 8 p.m. At first it looked like a big blob, said Cassie; as the mountain began to take shape, it looked more like a volcano, Lillie insisted. Despite all of my efforts, I decided she was right. Perhaps this Grand Canyon would only be adequate.

The next morning, before we headed to the putt-putt place, we searched the internet for a better reference picture. We found one, and when I went back to work on the mural, I decided to start on the second wall. In just a little while I had another mountain up – and it looked like a mountain from the canyon. The color scheme was totally different, though, and the two walls didn’t match at all.

It didn’t take long to figure out the first painting had to be re-done – covered over entirely with lighter colors. All eight hours worth of work from the previous day had to go. But some great lessons were learned in the process:

1. Find a decent reference picture before beginning a mural of the Grand Canyon and

 2. When you do a job, do it the very best you can, even if you have to do it over.

 Even if my children don’t learn the first lesson, I want them to learn the second. They saw me work hard on the painting the first day, and then they helped me paint right over it on the second. 

 It’s turning out to be a grand canyon after all.

This weekend, the children and I headed to Alabama to help out my niece and her husband. They’re working on putting together an indoor putt-putt golf course, and they have quite a few projects we can help them with. So, we threw some clothes together, packed up our school books, and headed out.

I’m glad we have the opportunity to work with them, and I’m thankful the kids can be a part of it. I come from a large family, and when someone needs  something, someone else is usually available to help. Whether it’s moving, remodeling a house, or hosting a drama camp, someone will be there.

That’s not to say we don’t have family squabbles. With eight children, thirty grandchildren, and spouses, there are sure to be disagreements, squabbles, and hurt feelings. But we work (or sometimes muddle) through them, and then we’re back to supporting each other as before.

I want my children to grow up with the same mindset. I want them to remain close to each other even after they are grown.  I want them to be willing to lend a hand and help each other if they can. I want them to always know that their family cares about them and the events in their lives.

So, today we’ll be going to the putt-putt course to work on the decorations. They’re using the United States as a theme, and this past weekend they finished building a cave for Carlsbad Caverns. My son John had the opportunity to work on that project, and today he’ll be helping build wooden frames for the Redwood Forest.  Cassie and Lillie will be painting records for Graceland as I work on a mural of the Grand Canyon. We’re looking forward to working hard, making memories, and sowing good seeds for future family relationships.

Although we weren’t involved in a co-op this past year, my children were part of a literature class put together by a couple of homeschool moms. Yesterday was our class for April.

Our literature class meets the fourth Thursday of the month from 10:00 – 11:30 at the centrally-located home of one of the families. Students divide up into four groups: grades K-3^rd,4^th-5^th, 6^th-8^th, and 9^th-12^th.

Every month, students in each group are assigned a book to read – one that can be easily found at our local library. Some of the books they’ve read this year include Misty; The Whipping Boy; Shiloh; Sarah Plain and Tall; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe;, The Cricket in Times Square; Carry On, Mr. Bowditch; A Wrinkle in Time; Call It Courage; and The Bronze Bow. Then, when we meet together, students break up into their groups in different rooms of the house to discuss the book they’ve read, with one of the moms leading the discussion.

The K-3^rd group is the largest group, so they usually meet in the living room. This younger group reads one or two picture books and then work on a corresponding activity, such as making a craft. This past week they read a story about a dog and made “dog” biscuits that were actually baked treats for the kids. Of course, not all of them were shaped like dog biscuits – the children shaped them into stars, squares, and even a rock.

The class has lent itself to other activities as well. When the middle school class was reading The Hiding Place, a special guest was brought in who was a girl in Holland during the Holocaust. When the older elementary students were reading Tall Tales, they created their own tall tales and shared them with each other.

With only one class to go for this school year, literature class has been a great way to get together while reading good books!

Photo by Faeyran

To join or not to join a co-op next fall…that is the question. It’s a question I ask myself every spring as co-ops begin accepting applications for the next school year.

We’ve been part of two different co-ops, one for just one semester, the other for a year. When we joined the first one, my children were eight, five, three, and six months. We had several friends who attended the co-op and loved the enrichment classes that were offered. The year we joined, though, the format changed a bit, and my eight-year-old was in a math class with other third graders. It didn’t go very well. Homeschooled elementary students, even those in the same grade, tend to work at math at different paces. Depending on the curriculum used at home, students might also be learning different concepts.

They changed that class to Spanish for the next semester, but a couple other things weighed in on my decision to stop. The class was experiencing a lot of discipline issues that went unresolved. Also, the financial cost was more than we could comfortably afford, and it was hard helping out on my required days with a baby in tow. So, we finished off the year at home.

Two years later, a friend approached me about joining a Classical Conversations co-op. We participated for a year, and since I taught the finances worked out all right. We didn’t re-join, however, because I still wanted to follow the curriculum we were already doing at home, and the lessons from the co-op just became extra work we had to do. Classical Conversations is a great program if that’s the basis of your curriculum, but it just wasn’t the right one for us.

So here we are, with my oldest going into eighth grade next year, so I’m thinking about co-ops again. Co-op classes can be great resources for teaching those upper level classes like Chemistry, Biology, and Algebra II. We looked at a co-op on Monday that offers those types of courses to middle and high school students for a very reasonable price. Right now they’re full, however, and we’re on a waiting list. I’m not sure how long the list is, but the director encouraged me to consider starting a new co-op with friends who are also interested.

So now the question becomes… to start or not to start a co-op?

Photo by ShelahD

Ever have one of those days? Recently, we’ve had one, this one involving a lot of injuries. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working through some back problems, so I started the day with quite an ache to deal with. My oldest, John, had a sore knee from playing basketball the day before, so he woke up achy too. Nevertheless, I was determined we would get our schoolwork done.

I called for my daughters to get out of bed, and moments later eight-year-old Lillie came into the kitchen crying. She had fallen off the ladder of her bunk bed and bruised her arm. We tucked her arm in a sling for the day, which made her feel a little better. It wasn’t even breakfast time yet, but I already knew it would be hard to get our schoolwork done. Still, we kept going. Not very well, but we tried.

We almost made it to lunch time and the end of math when five-year-old Luke began to cry. I turned (slowly – my back was still hurting) to see what happened.

“I poked myself in the eye…” he said through his tears. I held him for a minute, and then he continued. “We all got hurt. My eye, your back, John’s knee, Lillie’s arm…”

“We’re re having a rough day, aren’t we?” I agreed. “But Cassie’s still fine. And in a minute, we’ll head out to sewing class for the girls, and we’ll all feel better.”

Luke recovered fairly quickly, and though we didn’t quite finish with school, it was nearing time to go. I pulled out some fruit and bagels for a quick lunch in the car, as well as other items we needed to take along. John grabbed one of the bagels and spread it with cream cheese, and we all headed out the door. With my aching back I was moving slowly, and by the time I reached the van everyone else was already inside.

As I was about to shut the sliding door on the side, John suddenly moved up from the back seat and pulled a piece of the bagel from his mouth. He looked at it for just a second, then threw it out into a bush.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He got out of the car and started searching for the piece of bagel. “I just lost my tooth!” he said. “It got stuck in that bagel.”

“Was it loose?” I asked.

“Yes, it was a baby tooth,” he answered. “Look, my mouth is bleeding.”

Though I probably should have shown more compassion, all I could do was laugh. What a conclusion to a day of mishaps!

Photo by AMagill

This past Wednesday, we met together with a few other homeschooling families and put on a program at a local nursing home. We had a 30 – 45 minute time slot, so the children took turns playing instruments, singing, dancing, and reading scripture. When they had finished, they had about ten minutes to walk around and talk to the residents. The residents really seemed to enjoy it.

Organizing a program like that may seem like a lot of work, but it didn’t take much time at all. This is all I did:

1. First, I called the nursing home to set up a time. Wednesday was their best day, and the morning worked well for us.

2. I then sent out an email to homeschooling families we know and asked if any of their children would like to participate. If so, what would they be interested in doing? Would they want to do a solo performance or sing with the group? The children could also recite a poem or read a story they wrote.

3. Next I compiled the responses into a list of who would be doing what. I decided to have our group perform in age order, as it’s harder for little ones to wait for their turn. We started off with Luke, age 5, singing “I Had a Little Turtle” and ended with Andrew, age 16, singing “Puttin’ On the Ritz”.

4. I included a group song (“Jesus Loves Me”) at the beginning and another at the end (“This Little Light of Mine”). I had a few other group songs planned, just in case we had more time to fill.

5. That’s it!  I printed out my list a few times and gave it to the other moms when we met at the nursing home. Some of the performers were a little nervous, but they did a good job. All in all, it was an easy activity to plan, a good experience for the children, and a blessing for the residents.

Photo by Bill in Ash Vegas

Once a week, I teach art lessons from my home to homeschool students. Most of our projects involve drawing or painting from life or photographs. But as we are finishing up the classes for this year, we decided it would be fun to have a day of abstract art.

I have a class of boys ages nine to twelve that meets every other Tuesday, so yesterday we gave modern art a try. We used several different methods of painting the masterpieces, the best being spatter painting. It was an easy and (according to the boys) a very enjoyable project. This is what we did:

1. First, each student put on a paint shirt if they weren’t wearing old clothes. Painting can get messy!

2. Then, for each student, I supplied a half sheet of posterboard to paint on. We went outside and nailed the posterboard to a tree with just one nail in the center at the top.

3. Next, they chose the colors they wanted for their paintings. We used craft acrylic paints, and they squeezed them out onto styrofoam plates (their palettes).

4. The students then chose the brush or brushes they wanted to use. I had a container on the ground with brushes of all sizes, including larger house-painting brushes. I also had a container of water available for them to wash out their brushes when they needed to.

5. Then the paint went flying! Each boy stood in front of his paper and spattered the paint by using quick flips of the wrist.

It was interesting to me to see how deliberate the boys were in their choice of colors and where they made the paint go. Each painting was a unique original, and, by the boys’ reactions, a lot of fun to create!

This week happens to be a week of recitals for our family. On Wednesday, we’re joining with other homeschooling families to perform for the residents of the local nursing home. The children will play musical instruments, sing, and recite scripture and poems. On Friday, we’ll go to the local college, where Cassie’s flute teacher (a music major there) will accompany her as she plays her solo in front of other students at the school. Saturday is the big piano recital at a nearby church, where John and Lillie will each play two pieces they’ve been working on for the past few months.

I’m not sure how all of these events made it into the same week, but I am sure that I want my children to participate in all of them. Ever since they were small, I’ve tried to take advantage of any opportunity to have them stand in front of an audience and perform. They’ve sung in church on Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and any other day the pastor has asked the children to sing. They’ve recited poetry at talent shows and 4-H Fun Day. They’ve performed in skits and plays.

Do they enjoy it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes they whine and want to quit, but I have them do it anyway. I was involved in music in school, and I understand what it’s like to be anxious when you have to perform in front of others. Even today, I become nervous when I have to speak in front of a group, even a group of people I know well. But I also know it’s a great life-skill to have, and that the more you do it — the more you practice — the easier it is to do. Sometimes the children will mess up. Sometimes they’ll make mistakes. Sometimes they’ll perform perfectly. But every time is a learning experience.

Our state doesn’t require yearly testing, so this was the first year we tried it. My seventh-grader John took a standardized test with a group of elementary and middle school students.

I decided to have him take the test this year for one main reason: we want him to go on to college, and that path requires standardized tests for admission and scholarships. The more practice he has at test-taking, the easier it will be for him to take the SAT or ACT in the last years of high school.

If I wasn’t sure about making him take the test before, I was after I told him I had signed him up. He begged and begged not to go, as he tends to be afraid of the unknown. He needed to know it wasn’t so bad.

Happily, John recognized two of the students in the testing group, and he felt a little more at ease. By the second day he was much more relaxed, and by the third day testing was no big deal. Goal accomplished.

This week the scores came in, and we were excited as we studied them together. A friend of mine has her children tested every couple of years to see how they’re doing and what she may need to work on with them. John did well in every subject, though his scores were lower in history and geography.

I’m not sure how helpful these test scores are in helping me fine-tune my teaching, though. The history questions consisted of world history, and we’re learning American history this year. John also told me after the test that he made a lot of educated guesses. He didn’t realize until the end of the second day that he wasn’t supposed to answer questions he didn’t know.  

Will I test again next year? Yes, I’ll have John take the tests so he can feel even more comfortable with the process. For us, seventh grade was a good year to start.

I’ve tried a number of different methods of assigning chores to my children, some of which have worked better than others. About a year and a half ago, though, I found a system that has done well for my family. Here’s how we do it:

Each week, I print off a new “chore list” for each child. I list the chores on the paper, with the letters M, T, W, TH, F, SAT, and SUN (representing the days of the week) after each one. As the children complete a particular chore for the day, then, they simply mark off the corresponding letter or letters.

 I like to call the first set of chores our “Good Morning!” chores, though the kids don’t quite agree. But they are easy things to do. Good Morning chores include making their beds, getting dressed and putting pajamas away, brushing hair, bringing dirty clothes to the laundry room, putting away clean clothes that have been folded, and feeding the pets. When everyone is finished, we all sit down for breakfast and devotions.

I wrestled for some time about when the children should complete their chore lists – before school, after school, or in the late afternoon before Dad comes home; after school has worked best with our schedules. So then, when the children are done with their schoolwork, they pull out their lists again and continue on down with jobs such as tidying up various rooms in the house, sweeping outside, folding laundry, and cleaning their bedrooms.

Also included in the after school list is “Put Away the Things in Your Box.” A friend gave me this idea, and it has relieved us of more than a few arguments as we clean. Each child has a box on a bookshelf near our kitchen. As the children clean up their assigned rooms and find toys or books belonging to their siblings, they just pick them up and put them in the appropriate box. No one says anymore, “That’s not mine. I shouldn’t have to pick it up.” Instead, they just put it in the box so the owner can put it away.

All this may sound like I’m an extremely organized homeschool mom with a clean house, but all those who have stopped by can tell you that’s not so. Some days go better than others, some days we’re more disciplined than others, some days the house looks a lot better than others. But at least with the lists, we all know what needs to be done.