Did you know that homeschooling doesn’t have to be expensive? I get my PACEs at Midwest Educational Warehouse where the average cost for a complete grade level with answer keys is $327. I’m planning to hang on to the answer keys my older son is using now, so I won’t need to buy them again when my younger son reaches this grade level. The average cost without answer keys is only $217!

Midwest Educational Warehouse offers homeschool families high-quality, individualized curriculum, published by Accelerated Christian Education and International Learning Solutions. If you’re interested, you can call the Warehouse at (309) 663-2518.

I love it!

I went to see my friends over at Midwest Christian Academy today, and I told them about the nice time I had at the CAHSA Mom’s Night Out. Well, as it turns out, the staff at MCA were very excited to find out that there is a home school association in this area! They all wrote down the information so that they can refer local families to CAHSA in the future.

How nice!

Charlotte Mason advocated short lessons for younger children, growing progressively longer as the child matures. Elementary-age children’s lessons should be no longer than fifteen or twenty minutes on one particular subject before moving on to something else. In this way, the habit of full attention is encouraged and children receive a broad education filled with many varied subjects.

Even though we are using PACEs, I have applied this concept of “short lessons” to our homeschool routine, and the results have been fantastic! Nathan is more motivated and even his handwriting is neater! An added benefit is that he seems to have better retention of new concepts since we aren’t covering so much at one time. Instead, he has several days to practice a new skill before moving on to something else.

Less is more!

It was hard to wake up this morning. No, I guess the WAKING up wasn’t hard, it was the STAYING awake that was the hard part. I got up and dressed without much ado, and then accompanied my three early-morning companions downstairs. They were SO cheerful and excited about this new day. They wanted to eat their breakfast right away, and all I could see were dirty dishes and a cluttered counter. I trudged around, picking up empty yogurt containers, dirty spoons, and all the while thinking that a nap sounded really good! Finally a little breakfast was served to my eager preschoolers. That freed me up to get coffee brewing. Maybe coffee would help! Read the rest of this entry »

Nathan is working on Science PACE 1040, and he’s learning that one way we get minerals into our bodies is by eating vegetables. This PACE includes a fun experiment to prove that vegetables have water and minerals in them.

Here’s how we did it:

We filled two jars with water and then put red food coloring in one jar and blue food coloring in the other jar. (We were generous with the food coloring to make a dark color.) We chose two stalks of celery from the middle of a bunch so they were lighter in color and had more leaves. We cut off the ends to expose the veins, put one stalk in each jar, and then we waited…and waited…oh, yes, this was an exercise in patience, too!

By the end of the day, we could see just a little bit of change in the leaves, and by the next morning, the change was even more obvious! The “blue” celery looked vibrant, and the “red” celery looked dead, but they were both still shades of green. Now, after several days, the new colors have finally taken over! One stalk has red leaves, and the other has blue leaves.

How fun!

Thanks to a seemingly never-ending kitchen renovation project, we decided to do the unthinkable and go out to lunch on Easter Sunday. We knew that we might be asking for trouble, but we decided to take that risk.

Our first restaurant of choice was closed, so we looked across the street from there at the Pizza Hut. A pizza buffet sounded good!

Amazingly, the price was very reasonable (under $30 for our family of eight), and we had the restaurant to ourselves! The food was hot, the children were able to go up to the buffet numerous times, they all behaved well, and we had a great time.

I know it’s not glamorous. It’s not traditional. And there aren’t any leftovers. But it was relaxing, fun and there are no dishes to clean up!

As I think back on the meal, my mind pauses on Mike and Amelia, barely able to see over the edge of the buffet dishing up their plates. I also see Isaac and Laura on each side of the baby, feeding him bites, playing with him, and cleaning up his little messes. He loved their attention and we all giggled at the antics on that end of the table! I also remember with a grimace, Amelia on her back scraping old gum from the underside of the table. Yuck!

It may not be the most flashy Easter dinner, but I hope it’s one I remember for a long time.

This morning I was lounging in bed after nursing the baby, watching him play and scoot around. He would crawl over to me, stand up, then let go and balance for a moment before plopping down on his little bottom. I’ve seen him do this before. But he never seems to be discouraged by his repeated failures. He doesn’t seem to feel that his task is impossible. He just keeps trying. One of these days he’ll start walking, and the effort to get there will be long forgotten.

I couldn’t help but compare his tenacity to my own. How often I think I’d like to learn something new, only to quit after experiencing failure a time or two. Learn a new language! (*plop*) Lose weight! (*plop*) Keep the house tidier! (*plop*) Read that camera instruction manual! (*plop*) Learn to write poetry! (*plop*) Learn to play the guitar! (*plop*)

It’s easy to explain away my failures. After all, maybe my metabolism is too slow, or my brain is too old, or I don’t have enough free time, or best of all, it’s not my spiritual gift!

But maybe I just need to keep trying.

My father says, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly….until you can learn to do it well!”

None of us likes failure. But if we can view our attempts and failures as part of the road to success, maybe we will be more encouraged.

Come along with me and let’s take baby steps!!!

The inagural podcast from iAmTheTeacher.com is available. As this is our first one, we may be tweaking and adjusting it.

4/17/2006 - 1:40 a.m. updated

I do NOT like getting up early. Never have. I’m much more of a night owl. So in some ways it seems like God has a sense of humor in giving me small children who love to rise with the sun. For many years I’ve fought it, insisting they stay in their beds until I am ready to get up. Finally I just gave in and started getting up with them. But so often I sit in a huddled heap wincing at their bouncy cheerfulness and wishing I could just go back to bed! Read the rest of this entry »

The other day, in the middle of a very ordinary day, I was struck with how God provides for us way ahead of time before we even know we’re going to need something. Oh yes, we all KNOW that, but do we really? Read the rest of this entry »