Totschool Yearend Review

Since we are wrapping up our 2019/2020 school year, I thought I'd take some time to review some of our academic experiences. I've always done some form of preschool, which I prefer to call 'totschool'. For our family, it's just a part of our day where the younger children learn basic academics. I prefer to call it totschool, so as to include some of my middle age children who enjoy that time of our day too; but may not want to participate if I called it 'preschool'. This year our totschool included my children who were two, three, five, and seven. 

In years past I have used a variety of different preschool (totschool) systems, most of which included 'calendar books'. These books went over a multitude of different facts. But over time these little notebooks ended up taking upwards of thirty minutes to complete with each child. Now that I'm educating eight children, my time is stretched thin. Even though we lean towards unschooling, I still like to do some form of learning with each of my children each day. After much prayer and research last year I decided to drop our daily calendar books and create a totschool board.

In an effort to explain our tot school program in it's entirety I did a post at the start of this school year; you can fin it here. I titled that post Homeschool Preschool because that's what most people would call that specific type of lessons. Today I'm going to elaborate on what exactly was a success in our totschool program that I custom designed to meet our younger children's academic needs. 

The most important key component was my planner. Y'all that planner was a LIFESAVER!! I've always planned our school years, but this year I went into detail overdrive and planned every single minute detail of our lessons. Since I'm pulled in so many different directions each day it was a huge asset to just open my planner and plug and chug! It was also was great for the few times when I was out of commissions and my husband or one of my older children stepped in to facilitate our totschool lessons.

My favorite part of our totshool was the totschool board. I loved this board so much that I've decided to expound on our board next year ~ well actually I'm going to do two boards. This year's board covered: calendar, counting, shapes, color, letters, alphabet, seasonal song, months, days of the week, and the weather. Next year I'm going to add: skip counting 2s, 5s, and 10s, sight words, number words, seasons, and personal facts like address and phone number. I plan to continue to use our totschool board with the same four children, but Abby Lou will be added to the bunch; yes, even a baby can participate. 

Honestly, there isn't anything I plan to drop from our totschool lesson plan. I feel like after 15 years of homeschooling, I have finally figured out a younger children's academic program that works for our family. If there's one homeschooling truth that I've learned over the years, it's that what works for one family may or may not work for another family. Keep trying new programs or styles and continue tweaking until you can figure out what best fits the needs of your family. 

There was a few components to our totschool program that I hope to improve upon. The first being our table time totschool activities. I have educational toys boxed up which I had planned to rotate each day, unfortunately this did not happen consistently. Second, I was not committed to assembling our weekly sensory boxes. And third was our educational game time, or rather lack thereof ~ sigh. As you can see our totschool wasn't perfect, but we had a goal we were working towards, and I'm confident next year we will further refine our totschool .  

The good thing about homeschooling is it's a never-ending learning process for everyone involved, especially the parents. Sometimes the lesson plans do not go accordingly, but sometimes they do, and that my friends is a really good feeling. There are plenty of extended seasons of homeschooling when nothing goes right. But, when we do experience those rare unicorn moments of success, its those sweet little victories that are at the core of what encourages me to keep on doing whatever it takes to create the best learning opportunities for my children. 

 With another year of homeschooling under my belt, I can say without a shadow of a doubt: I wouldn't change a thing. I'm so grateful for the gift of homeschooling. It truly is a blessing to get to watch my children learn and grow in wisdom and truth. I especially cherish the fun we get to have learning together, whether it's with my younger crew of totschoolers or my older children of highschoolers ~  its all a gift from the Lord.   

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Freedom Rally

Our family had the privilege of visiting our state capitol where we participated in a Freedom Rally this past Saturday. We met up with some dear friends to caravan the two hours it took to get down to the capitol. Thankfully, it was an absolutely gorgeous spring day in the South!

Anytime we venture out of the house, especially when the trip is going to be longer than just a jaunt around town, it is an event!  A day trip of necessities for us is like what most people would take on a week long vacation, lol. We have two diaper bags, a change of clothes for my five year who almost always gets carsick, and of course food. It takes a lot of planning and preparation for us to go on a day trip. But this adventure was one for the books and one I will always remember. 

We brainstormed as a family to come up with the best rally signs. Since the only stores open to buy craft supplies was Walmart and Dollar Tree, we were unable to find large markers so we had to paint the signs, which took about four hours to make four signs. Sheesh, talk about a lot of work, but we were all pleased with how well they turned out and we even received complements on them. The camaraderie was amazing at the rally and we were able to share our signs with others to use once our younger crew got tired of holding them.

It took a little while for us to actually find where the rally was located, but we managed to get there on time even if we did have to walk a fairly long way from where we parked. As we were walking up to the gathering, one of the other protestors had a nasty fall. An elderly lady missed the curb and fell and smacked her head on the sidewalk. She had a horrible gash on her head as well as terrible swelling to her face. The paramedics came to patch her up, be she opted to stay for the rally. Talk about an encouragement in patriotism! One of her family members was treating her wounds with essential oils which let me know she was in good hands. (Love it when I see folks who know how to use natural medicine.)

There was a decent amount of people at the rally. People from all walks of life passionate about preserving the Constitution of the United States, pleading for the reopening of Alabama. People who want to work and to choose how they protect themselves and their family from illness. Several news outlets were there taking pictures and videos. There were even people protesting the protest. There was a strong police presence. They seemed nice and did not interfere, they even stopped traffic when the rally finished with a march up and down the sidewalks on the road where the rally was located. 

We had plenty of opportunities to explain to our children a myriad of different subjects. From what people meant by their signs, to why people were protesting the protest. It was a perfect homeschool field trip. We engaged in conversation with several different families. We shared our stories and why we were there, and what we hoped to achieve by attending the rally. It was amazing to see so many young folks there as well as family's with children. We all have a stake in this country and desire to see it moving again.

Brent Sheridan was sharp on the megaphone at the rally. He definitely managed to capture the heart of the message we all desired to make clear. Our country is not facing a health crisis but a Constitutional Crisis. We value our freedoms and hope to preserve them at all costs.

The rally lasted an hour. We had planned for a picnic lunch which we had packed the night before, unfortunately we forgot it in the chaos of getting out the door. {{Goran}} There was a fun little family owned cafe on the road where the rally was held. They let us use their bathroom a couple of times during the rally for our little kiddos who just couldn't 'hold it'. My husband promised we would come back and purchase lunch from them. 

Apparently the cafe owners didn't believe him, because when we returned to buy our lunch, they said they were shocked to see us back. My husband responded with he was a man of his word. Sadly we live in a day and age where people don't mean what they say. It is one of our deepest desires to teach our children to keep their word. Their character means something, and when you say you're going to do something, you do it. Children learn best by watching what we do.

The Alabama Capitol is absolutely beautiful. We arrived early enough that we had time to walk around and explore. The government buildings were gorgeous with emmaculant grounds. We've never been to the capitol before, but our brief experience this go-around is enough to encourage me to plan a trip down there just to explore the buildings. 

It's an unusual time for our country. Unprecedented measures have been taken to revoke Constitutional rights from the American people. While we understand there are people sick and dying, there is never an excuse to void the Constitution. Removing the ability for Americans to work and provide for their family's is unacceptable. It's time we all worked together as a united front to reach a solution that values all humanity as essential and not just a few. 

It was truly an honor to be able to express our Constitutional right to assemble and protest the current state of affairs. Lord willing it will not be too much longer before the masses realize we don't have to sacrifice anyone to effective disengage this 'silent enemy'.

With Love and Hope,

Jennifer

Easter Funschooling

 This year's Easter funschooling week was full of blessed family time making treasured memories. As I mentioned in my Easter Totschool post, my husband was off from work, so he was able to join in on our special Easter activities. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and we were able to do all kinds of fun projects inside as well as several outdoor family projects. Easter in the South is typically a wonderful time as Spring is in full force which makes the celebrating all the more enjoyable.

This year we made a cross silhouette project. The children painted a sunset scene with paint onto white construction paper. Then we cut out of black construction paper a mound with three crosses and glued it on top of the dried painted sunsets. I think this is one of my favorite Easter projects we do.

Y'all know I love our directed drawing projects. Well here was a cute bunny that we drew for our Easter funschooling week.

Everyone really gets into the directed drawing projects around here. Seeing everyone's creative personalities come out into their drawings is so special to watch and experience. There's something so amazing about watching a child grow and evolve in their creative abilities. While we don't do regular art lessons, I do try to give the children opportunity to be creative with making sure we have necessary supplies and the encouragement to explore their creative nature.

Of course no holiday is complete without making cut-out sugar cookies.

And yes we start them young in this house. It was really sweet too, because as is usual I was multitasking when we were making cookies this year, but everyone was made sure Abby Lou got a turn to make her cookies (and no, she is not eating them yet, lol).

While it is a lot of work and mess making cut-out sugar cookies, I wouldn't trade it for anything. All the special memories we have created over the years making cookies at each holiday are priceless.

There was a time my OCD, perfection side would want to 'fix' all these cookies and make them esthetically appealing, but I've come a long way, and all I see is love, joy, and happy times with my family. It's more important for my children to have the opportunity to participate, make messes, and explore life than it is for their creations to meet the 'world's standards'.

My older children made these editable bird nests. Well, Lydia helped too by putting the eggs on, but mostly they were made by a collaboration of my big kiddos. These candy/cookies were a big hit with everyone. They were a combination of no-bake oatmeal cookies and Rice Krispie treats. Obviously a perfect combination. 

Our family dyes eggs every year. Only two dozen since we have hundreds of plastic eggs. Even though we own a ton of plastic eggs for hiding, it's just way too much fun to let go of the tradition of dying eggs. Being present and doing things with my family really is my happy place. It's not work or a burden to do these things; it's a privilege. 

Abby Lou had her first experience in dying eggs. She acted as if she knew what she was doing ~ go figure. These babies just keep getting smarter and smarter.

Finally we played a minute-to-win-it game where everyone had to stack and unstack plastic egg halves. This wasn't what I had planned for our Easter minute-to-win-it game, but it's what ended up happening when I realized the game I had planned, the younger children would not be able to play. For me it's all about including as many family members as possible in our activities. 

Life is strange and different now, I don't know if life will ever resume to what it was two months ago, but I do know that I can make an effort to keep my family's life as normal as possible. I'm thankful that this Easter we were able to pretty much keep life the same as it has always been. Did we go to church? No. but we did have church; it just happened to be at home. I refuse to stop living life amongst these uncertain times. I am 'keeping on keeping on' for the sake of my sanity and for the protection of my children. They deserve my best, and that is what they shall have. When I look back on all the pictures and videos of our Easter funschooling week, I'm so very grateful that I can create AND make these special memories with my family.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer 

Easter Totschool

Our Easter week this year wasn't really much different than other years except for two things. The first being my husband wasn't working due to being furloughed, and the second being we could not attend physical church. Thankfully, we are not newbies to homechurching and have done it many times throughout the years. While we did miss celebrating the resurrection of our Savior with like-minded believers, there definitely was no shortage of our family acknowledging the significance of the Easter holiday.

As y'all know we love to celebrate the holidays. When planning for this year's Easter totschool week, I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to do some spring crafts along with our Easter projects. The children and I were super thrilled to have daddy home for our Easter fun week, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances. 

Our Easter week sensory box included felt bunnies, plastic grass (Easter basket filler), rubber bunnies, cloth carrots, small plastic carrots, and a wooden scooper.

Y'all know my kiddos love making the marbled pictures so for one of our Easter crafts we made marbled eggs. I cut out egg shapes from white construction paper, placed the paper in a shallow cake pan with paint squirted on the egg. We put three marbles in the pan and the children moved the pan to make the marbles roll through the paint.

I didn't realize the paint colors I had chosen resembled Mardi Gras colors until after the fact, but they turned out cute and the children had fun making them.

Next the children took plastic eggs and painted with them. 

To make sure the 'stamps' resembled eggs it took a minute to dig through all my plastic eggs and find ones that were cut long ways and not across the middle. To be honest I had never really paid attention to how plastic eggs were cut until we did this project. But, if you were curious, not all plastic eggs are cut the same way. Daddy was super sweet to get involved with several of our Easter projects this year, which made our children super happy.

I found this awesome Easter Story snack mix on Pinterest and had the children make it. As the children added each ingredient we talked about the symbolism of how it related to Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

I love making snacktivities with my children. It's so much fun learning through different avenues. Not all learning must be done with a text book, even if they are valuable resources. 

Making the Easter Story snack mix was a big hit with my people and I think it will be added to our Easter traditions for the foreseeable future.

Last we made these cute handprint chicks. I must admit this was not the easiest project for my age group of children. I prefer to do projects that the children can do mostly on their own. This one required a good bit of big kid/adult help.

We did quite a few Easter projects as an entire family. I will share about those projects in my next post which will elaborate more on our Easter Funschooling week. Today's post, is focused on our Easter projects that were done mostly by our youngest children. 

I know I say it pretty much every time I post about a totschool fun week, but I will say it again; I really love that I planned for these fun schooling weeks. It's allowing us to break away from our normal schedule and do some focused unschooling activities. While I will always consider us purposeful unschoolers, our normal academic routine does include a little bit more structure than our funschooling weeks. I do not consider our funschooling weeks, non-learning weeks, they're just learning weeks with a different approach.  I'm so thankfull God has given us the ability to learn through a myriad of different venues and outlets, but mostly I'm thankfully I GET to be present for all of my children's learning experiences. Homeschooling truly is the BEST.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

St. Patrick's Day Fun Schooling

I must admit this is the first year we have had a St. Patricks Day celebration, but I decided it was high time we rectified my negligence with some special fun schooling. I'm always up for any opportunity to celebrate life and learn with my family. It seemed all the more important to celebrate St. Patricks Day this year, with all the upheaval that is currently going on with the Corona Virus and quarantines. I am doing my upmost best to keep my family's life as normal as possible. After all it isn't their fault that this is happening during their little lifetime.

Thankfully there are so many free and cheap resources out there to help celebrate nearly every occasion. All it takes is a little time and intentionally research. Planning fun activities with your children does NOT have to be complicated or costly. Pinterest and the Dollar Store are my go-to places when I'm trying to put together a family celebration. But, don't freak out and think if you can't go over the top that your family will Not enjoy your special surprise ~ they don't care about the details, they only care that YOU tried and made THEM a priority.

When every one went to bed, the night before St. Patrick's Day, I set the table with festive tableware and decorated with supplies found at the Dollar Store and dollar spot at Target.

We made dyed green, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. 

I printed off some coloring sheets found at Teachers Pay Teachers as well as an interactive notebook so we could study more about St. Patrick and how the holiday is celebrated. We also watched some Irish dancing on YouTube. 

Our sensory box included little green pots, foam clovers, plastic gold coins, pinchers, and dyed green white beans. I also found two St. Patrick Day necklaces that I added after this picture was taken.

The littles made a rainbow craft. I cut out a cloud that they colored and then they glued rainbow strips of construction paper to the cloud.

We did a fun science experiment with Skittles. 

We placed Skittle candies on a plate in a repeating pattern and then poured hot water in the center. Just enough water until it touched the Skittles. The hot water melted the color of the candies creating a rainbow of water.

We were super stoked about this activity, because so many of our projects do not turn out; but this one turned out perfect!

Last we made Rainbow Snack Bars 

My family loved the snack as it was a fun variation of Rice Krispie Treats. 

RAINBOW SNACK BARS

3 Tbsp butter of margarine

10 oz package of miniature marshmallows 

6 cups rainbow round cereal

Spray 9x13 baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside. Pour cereal into a large bowl. In a medium sized pot melt the marshmallows and butter, stir continuously. Pour melted marshmallow mixture into cereal and stir. Coat hands with nonstick spray (if necessary) to mix thoroughly and pour into pan. Lightly smash into pan, spreading evenly. Let completely cool and then cut into bars.

As you can see I didn't spend a whole lot of money and we didn't go overboard celebrating St. Patrick's Day. We enjoyed some quality family time and made some amazing memories. As I have mentioned many times before, yes it took a little bit of my time to put this together, but in reality it didn't take more than an hour, and it was well worth it to me. Even if there wasn't things going on outside of our control, requiring us to spend more time at home, making every day count and living it to our fullest should always be a top priority. Never waste a single moment God gives us to live ~ for our lives are a precious gift from the Lord.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Why We Homeschool

Every family has their reasons as to what led them to homeschool, and honestly for us it wasn't just one reason and it wasn't what you probably think it was. Now, 15 years into homeschooling our reasons continue to grow and evolve. Even when we have really bad days or seasons of difficult homeschooling days our reasons WHY always supersede those challenges.

While we do not homeschool to 'school at home', we are continuously educating our children. It is a precious gift from the Lord, and we do not take it for granted. Homeschooling has always been apart of our lives and at this point I can't imagine what our lives will be like when our last child graduates. Thankfully, even if we don't have any more children, we're still looking at another 18 years of homeschooling, and for that, I am extremely grateful.

I will never profess to know it all when it comes to parenting, much less homeschooling. I do know without a shadow of a doubt that homeschooling is exactly how WE are supposed to educate our children. Yes, we have struggles along the way, and even days when I don't want to do it anymore, but the Lord always carries me through those 'dry' seasons. Holding on to the following reasons as to why we homeschool, always keeps me grounded and determined to finish the race God has set before me.

1. We don't want our children attending an establishment where God is not permitted
2. We believe the scriptures say that parents should train and teach their own children
3. We believe the scriptures say we should not be 'unevenly yoked' with non believers
4. We don't want our children taught false teachings such as in regards to science, history, and our government 
5. We don't want our children taught sex education without our consent
6. We don't vaccinate
7. Having our children at home allows for more flexibility in our schedule
8. Public and private school are both extremely expensive
9. We have several children with learning challenges and if they were in a traditional school environment we fear they would be forced to be on medication or neglected in their academic lessons
10. We also have one child with a depressed immune system and being in close proximity with other children who may be sick is not ideal
11. We don't want our children forced to learn things at someone else's pace just because they think it's whats supposed to done
12. We don't want our children in a bullying environment where there is little to no adult intervention

To be honest I could on and on about why we homeschool, because the reasons just keep growing as our world continues to spiral out of control with little to no morals or values.

Every parent has their reasons why they make certain choices regarding their children, especially as to where they will be educated. While I'm extremely passionate about homeschooling, I understand that each parent has to do what they feel is best. Our family's reasons to homeschool are unique to our family and may or may not resonate with other families. Thankfully God has given each family their own special journey to travel, there is no wrong our right way. For us it just so happens that homeschooling is the best choice for how we educate our children. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

February at the Zoo

We were blessed with a family pass to the Birmingham Zoo from an extended family member this past Christmas. It was really an awesome gift for us because honestly, I'm just too cheap to pay for what it costs for our family to go to the zoo. When weighing out whether or not to purchase a family pass to the zoo, I always envision the dozen of activities I could plan and do with my children for the same price. It doesn't help that the zoo is a solid hour away. That's with no pitstops along the way (and lets face it there's always one who has to go to the bathroom in that *one* hour). 

Due to the size of our family, it's far more economical to purchase a yearly pass than to buy individual tickets. Which is why we were so grateful for the zoo pass. Plus half my kiddos had never even been to the zoo, so trust me when I say they were stoked to receive such a great gift!

Since the pass is good for 12 months, we are hoping to visit the zoo 12 times. Ideally this would be once a month, but that just isn't practical due to inclement weather. We missed visiting during the month of January, mostly because of the weather but also because Abby Lou was just a few weeks old. Since the weather cooperated twice in February we were able to go to the zoo twice. 

The first visit was just me and our nine youngest. (Our oldest lives on his own and is of course working full-time, since he is an adult, lol ~ but I still miss him, especially when we go on family adventures). The first trip to the zoo was an adventure to say the least. My three year old screamed the entire time, my five year old puked all over himself and the van on our way there, and then proceeded to NOT behave very well at all. UGH!! Thankfully, my children remember it as a fabulous time, but for this mama, fun would not be the word I'd use to describe that little zoo excursion.

Our family was able to work in another trip to the zoo with Daddy on Presidents Day. The weather was a little to cool for my comfort zone, but it was perfect for everyone else. We had a fabulous time, and everyone was extremely well behaved. We ended up staying for three hours and then we concluded the trip with a picnic outside the zoo premises. 

It was wonderful to be able to experience the zoo twice in one month. We were able to see different animals each time. We are all looking forward to watching and experiencing the zoo transform throughout the seasons. Hopefully, since March is upon us, it won't be long before we can plan another trip to the zoo.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Valentine's Day Funschool Week

 

It's taken me many years to figure out how to balance the mingling of fun schooling with the 'hard core' schooling. I will always consider us unschoolers for the simple fact that I do not in any shape or form believe the current mainstream academic system is what educating children should look like. I am a firm believer that education should be child-led with the gentle navigation of an older advisor of sorts (i.e. a parent). Learning does not have to be boring or only achieved through books ~ it CAN be fun and pursued through hands-on creative exploration. Hence my intentional efforts to incorporate fun schooling into our school year.

Since we have a broad range of children; when we have a holiday or other reason for a fun schooling week, I plan for totschool activities and activities for the older kids, but all the children can participate in either group of activities. Usually the big kids participate in any snacitivty we do while the little kids join in on most of the big kids projects.

Our first Valentines Day fun schooling week activity was to do a 'Bee Mine' directed drawing.

I found this directed drawing for free on Pinterest. The children were allowed to use any medium they wanted to color their drawings. Most chose colored pencils, crayons, chalk pastels, or oil pastels. 

Next we did a science experiment with conversation heart candy.

They dropped the candies into jars of water, baking soda water, and vinegar. Unfortunately, nothing happened. {{sigh}}

As a last ditch effort for some kind of reaction, I had the children run next door to their grandparent's house to get a can of Mountain Dew to put the candies into. One of the three candies we put into the soda floated, but nothing else. A friend on Instagram told me that they tried Sprite and that the candies "danced" when dropped into that kind of soda. Maybe next year we'll try to make the little heart candies dance in Sprite.

Then we did a STEM activity where the children used toothpicks and heart gummies to make structures. 

All of my children thoroughly enjoyed this project, and told me as much many times! 

And as is our custom for pretty much every holiday, we made cut-out sugar cookies using Valentines Day cookie cutters.

We waited until later that night, when daddy was home, to decorate them. We turned on some Christian jams and had an awesome time decorating cookies. (Picture of iced cooked located at the top of this post.)

Of course no holiday is complete without a fun minute-to-win-it game.

The children took the conversation heart candies and sucked them up off of a napkin and put them into a cup. We played the game three times. The first time the children used ten hearts, but that was too many, so we cut it down to five hearts for the last two games.

We did another science experiment with chenille stems twisted into hearts soaked in Borax and water. They were suppose to crystallize around the stems, but that did not happen for us ~ insert groan!! Which meant we had two Pinterest science projects that did NOT turn out this week. I guess sometimes you win and other times you don't. We still had fun doing the projects, and then of course laughing hysterically when they didn't turn out like they were supposed too. Oh well ~ I tried.

Our final project was to complete a Valentines Day interactive notebook that I found on Teachers Pay Teachers. We studies about the history of Valentine's Day. We also watched some YouTube videos on the topics of St. Valentine, The Taj Mahal (referenced in our interactive notebook lessons), and the history of Valentine's Day. 

Even though I was really sick with Strep throat this week of Valentine's Day fun, we still managed to pull off a very enjoyable week celebrating the gift of love. There was a time that I kept most holidays super low-key, life has a funny way of evolving and changing. As I mentioned in my last post, having older children and one who is grown and moved out, really changes your perspective in life. I'm 110% determined to make every day count that I have with these children, because there will come a time when all they will have is their memories of me. I'd hate to think I wasted the precious time I was given with them. Creating treasured memories does not mean spending a lot of money or doing elaborate things, it just takes a little bit of time and creativity.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer