Sutherlin School Room

To Tell the Truth...

2010-05-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

It is so tempting, when documenting one's life, to only show the good things. This happens often in things like scrapbooking and blogging, even the proverbial family Christmas card. I find it occurring naturally in this case simply because the good days are so good that I want to share them and the bad days are so .... blah. Who would want to read about that?!

Well, the truth is that not every day at home is wonderful. We aren't always building models of ancient architecture or creating gloopy messes in an attempt at kitchen chemistry. Sometimes we are just messy. Sometimes we are even lazy. I've honestly been amazed at how incredibly well this first year of school has gone, but still ... we've had our moments.

Saturday was one of those moments. I sat down to grade a back log of papers and discovered something amiss. A certain child had not been truthful in their work, only finishing about half of each math lesson, but trying to hide it cleverly. The principal was called in for disciplinary procedures for the first time. It was not pretty.

You see, wherever your children are taught, there will be temptation. There will be frustration. There will be mess and irresponsible behavior occasionally (I hope for your sake it will only be occasionally!) Children are growing and changing, struggling just like you and I over what is right and what is wrong and what they can get away with so that they can hurry back to the t.v. show they are missing or their favorite computer game. In the end it all comes down to a different kind of education: Teaching their hearts.

Yesterday I sat with the offender and we read from Romans 7 together. Verse 19 really struck home. "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." Isn't this so true? What a valuable life lesson. Those words were written by a man who lived several thousand years ago, teaching people about Christ across the known world at the time, suffering and eventually dying for the cause of Christ, and yet he admits this struggle. Not only does he admit it in a letter to his friends in Rome as a means of encouragement to them, but God preserves his words (something I find miraculous in and of itself) so that I can learn and grow from it, you can, millions of others, and then, on May 3rd, 2010, I can share those same words with my child in the first steps of their Christian walk. What an amazing thing!

Life for no one is perfect. Life is hard. Even in this incredibly blessed life I am living, where I get to stay home with my beautiful children and teach them all the incredible things of life, I also have to teach them how to handle the hard things. Things like lying, cheating, stealing, laziness, etc. They are growing up and with that the lessons will get harder. Pray for us. I, in turn, pray for all of you and all of our children, that the Lord will fit them with the armor of truth and righteousness, that they may be "more than conquerors through him who loved us."

My scribble books...

2010-04-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

My brother, the genius behind Unstressed Syllables.com , has challenged his readers to post a photo of their scribble books for all the world to see. "What is a scribble book," you say? A scribble book is a book or notebook of some kind for a writer to capture their thoughts, meant to be carried around with them at all times. I don't have mine at ALL times, but I do have a good stack of scribble books lying around the house. I keep one for each project I'm working on and that is where I add notes on characters or plot, draw diagrams or maps, and occasionally write entire sections of the story. This is then what I refer to as I am typing my draft.

My first book was done almost entirely in a set of notebooks. Occasionally I would sit down at the end of the day to type up my draft, editing as I went, and find myself a few hours later with another chapter or two that I hadn't started out with in the notebook.

I am currently working on a first draft of a book called A City On a Hill, which is the third book in a series. I had promised myself I wasn't going to write it at all if the first wasn't picked up for print, but lately I just can't stop thinking about this story. It needs to be told even if I am the only one who will ever read it. This, I find, to be the best kind of writing - writing done for the author's enjoyment. You can tell when a writer really loved his/her story. The characters seem more real, the action more fascinating. It never seems forced, but flows because the writer is simply chasing the story to its end.

So, when you see a notebook in my hand, you'll know I'm just chasing a story to its end.

My Son is Now a Reader!

2010-04-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

It happened like this: My mother had brought over a stack of books from her school's bookfair that she thought the kids might be interested in reading. I can't remember how they ended up in the car, but on our way to Evie's speech therapy appointment one day, Grayson sees this book with a dragon on it and picks it up to look at it. As we are climbing out of the car, I realize Grayson is reading a book. That seems strange, and then I notice that it's the book mom had bought. How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. This isn't a little bitty book, but an honest to goodness chapter book (think Harry Potter 1.) He read and he read, carrying that book around with him. We found him reading at night, when he should be sleeping, we found him reading when he would normally be watching television. Everytime I turned around he was reading!!! We noticed that the book was coming out as a movie (what a coincidence!) so we promised to take him to the movie if he finished reading the book. In just a short week and a half he had read the whole thing.

"Hey, mom! Did you know there's another book after this one? It's about being a viking pirate."
"Ummm.... Grayson, I think we have that book. LilliAnn got it a few years ago, but didn't like it. It's on the shelf in the schoolroom."
"Really?! Can I read it?!!"
So, now he has read the second one - with record timing! As a reward, we went out and bought him the third book and discovered that there are 7 books in the series! Yikes! This could get expensive. But how do you put a price on my son's new-found love of reading?

"Reading opens doors" my professor used to say, and it is so true. When we learn to read we learn to find answers and information that we didn't have access to before reading. Now we can explore the world on our own, not having to wait for knowledge to be spoon-fed to us. When we read, we can be free.
As if reading wasn't enough, Grayson took it a step further.
"Mom, did you know Vikings had their own language? It looks different than ours. They used symbols."
"No, I didn't know that, honey."
"Mom, can you teach me how to write Viking?"
"Ummm..... " This is at least the fifteenth thing he's asked me to teach him in a week that I didn't know. Until this I had believed myself to be very clever, but this kid is testing me... and I am a loser. Anyway, back to the story.
"Ummm..... let's look it up!" So, we look it up on the computer. What do you know? There's a website where someone has typed up the whole rune alphabet and matched them up with the ancient Norse sounds so that you can decipher/write in Old Norse. He hurries to copy it onto blank paper and disappears.
The next morning I find a book on my desk:
How to Rite Viking by Grayson Sutherlin.

Each page was illustrated and he had included all the information he had gleaned from the internet. He had even crumpled it to make it look ancient.

Amazing! Even with the bad spelling, I am astounded by the effect this book has had on my son. This is why I wanted to be a teacher. This is why I want to be an author. Because, books do this to us! They inspire us. They make us want to know more, to do more.

I would LOVE to thank Cressida Cowell for her work. She did what I could not do.... she inspired my son to read and to love learning in a way he had not before. For that I will be forever grateful.

A New Year - in March!

2010-03-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

This month, while public school children across the country were going off to spring break, we started a new school year. Somehow in the excitement of our first year of homeschooling, we had managed to get ahead - way ahead! I thought in the beginning that we would take a big break when we finished our curriculum for the year, but as the day approached I knew that wouldn't work for us. So, I ordered our new materials in February and we all began eagerly counting down the days till school would start again. (We are so weird!) The thing is, we just finished ancient history and somehow along the way the kids had noticed that the next items on the list were vikings and medieval Europe. This was all the motivation they needed to get busy finishing their work. They began making plans to build catapults, learn archery, write secret messages in some mysterious viking language and design a whole medieval village out of their Legos. Of course, this is music to my ears! When the books arrived they couldn't wait to dig in, so they scattered them across my bed and just had to read them right away. I almost cried (but instead I grabbed my camera!)

So, here we are in the last week of March and I now have a 1st grader, a 3rd grader and a 5th grader in the house. Amazing! I can hardly believe how much fun we have had along the way and to see them eagerly digging through books and devising new projects to take their learning farther just melts me where I stand. I never really believed it would be this good - I hoped it would, but I didn't really think it could happen to us. It did. God is good. I hope we never go back.

Homeschooling with preschoolers

2010-02-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hello, again! I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged. I will try to be better. Life has been such an adventure this last year! Now all of our boxes are unpacked and we are finally settled in our home. School has continued and we are nearly done with our first year's work. I am ordering our next year's materials next month so we should begin in April. We can hardly wait! I think I can definitely say that our homeschool experiment has been a total success. We are happy and healthy, our home is clean (shocking!) and our minds are full of a lot of new and wonderful things. I can't believe how much I have been learning, too! For instance, this week we read about Alexander the Great, Socrates, Aristotle and Archimedes (just to name a few.) I knew almost nothing about all of these men. It is so embarrassing to see the gaping holes in my own education. I can't explain how I feel as I see the excitement on little faces as they discuss the philosophers and ancient kings, or as they hear and recognize some great work of music or a literary phrase they remember from our studies. It's safe to say that I am jealous of my own children.

This week we have two of my sweet nieces here with us and they are joining in with school each day. I have always wondered how other mommies do it with little ones around. They had me up earlier than usual (remind me to kiss my older ones for learning to sleep in!) and their first question was, "what are we doing in school?" Actually, now that I think about it, I believe the first question was, "What's for breakfast?" but the second question was definitely about school. So, my crew pulled it together and started school at 7:45. We tried to keep up with the little ones and they had us hopping from one subject to the next. All our work was done by 10:30!

Here's how I did it:
We started our day all together reading the Bible and singing together. Then, we split up into two learning groups. The little ones (5, 4, and almost 3) all made up one study group while the older two (9 and 7) made up the other. I sent the youngers in to watch an episode of Word World on PBS and the olders sat with me to read our history together. Then, I sent the olders to work on their writing assignments for the day while the youngers came in for a phonics and writing lesson. (We reviewed the letters M and N.) After our fun lesson, they went in to watch The Letter Factory by LeapFrog with the assignment to watch for the letters M and N. The older two then worked on math lessons, LilliAnn on her own today and Grayson with me since he just graduated to a new math book. After that, I sent the older two to do their independent readings while I taught the younger group a math lesson. We used little toy barns and animals to practice counting, adding and grouping. Then, we sorted them for a while and finally I left them to play while I looked over the finished writing assignments for the editing lesson I'll teach next week to the older two.

This was all very fast paced for me, but the kids seemed to think it was business as usual. One thing I have noticed is that my kids don't make as much mess and get into as much trouble as they used to because having school at home keeps them busy and engaged with mom all day. They just don't have as much opportunity for mischief! Then, at the end of the day, we all can work together to clean up and the house stays clean. Why didn't I do this years ago? I guess God knew the timing would finally be right this time around. I'm so very glad that it is!

A lot to be thankful for...

2009-11-30T08:45:00.000-08:00

I can't believe another month has disappeared. This month has been CRAZY! Here are the highlights:
* We moved into our new house (YAAY!) which is so beautiful and just absolutely perfect for our family. Thank you to all the wonderful friends and family who helped us move.
* I led five young writers through their first NaNoWriMo as they tried to write their first novel. It was an amazing adventure and I loved every minute of it. Sadly, my own novel didn't get touched, but there is always next year.
* I have almost finished my two online grad classes. This has been a serious challenge (ie, I was in way over my head!) Still, I think I will end up with two A's and renew my license next year.
* We have nearly finished learning about Greece and have had a lot of fun. Can't wait for the winter Olympics to start!
* Thanksgiving was amazing this year! We hosted both sets of parents and had a wonderfully relaxed holiday followed by fabulous shopping and then a visit from Aunt Shannon and Uncle Jeff with our cousins.

I still haven't found my camera! Maybe that needs to go on my Christmas list.

Busy, busy, busy

2009-10-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted lately. It has been busy around here and I have misplaced my camera, so posting just didn't seem high on my priority list. Here are a few recent highlights:

We have been studying ancient Greece. A few weeks ago we discussed the architecture and learned the different column styles. The kids picked up on it pretty quickly. We even got to examine a miniature frieze that my mother has from Greece. Then, we used clay to build our own columns and friezes. Grayson and Evie both chose to make Doric columns while LilliAnn took on the more challenging Corinthian columns (which we learned are not actually Greek, but Roman architecture.) I'll post pictures if I can ever find my camera.

Our noveling club has been fabulous! The kids are all so amazing. We are ready to begin writing our novels now that we have developed characters, diagrammed our plot arcs and detailed a few of our settings. It has been such a joy for me to lead them through this adventure and last week they really gratified me with their excitement. They all agreed that they couldn't wait to get started on their novels because they have so many ideas now for other stories that they want to write. Nanowrimo starts in just one week, so we are about to start the real work. I can't wait to be bragging about their success!

I know that we have had a lot more excitement than all of that, but all my brain can think about right now is the move that is coming up in a week. Thank you for all of your prayers for our family and for your support this year in our homeschooling adventure. We love you all!

Our Junior Novelists Club

2009-09-22T05:32:00.000-07:00

National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo) is coming! Each November writers across the country put their thinking caps on, find a quiet place to hide and start on a crazy adventure together: writing a novel in one month. Actually, the official goal is 50, 000 words in one month, but we are all aiming for a finished novel. This year there will be five new novelists working toward the finish line through Nanowrimos Junior Writer's Program.

Friday afternoon, five brave little souls from the Levy Homeschool Group started their own Junior Novelists Club. I had the immense joy of leading them through all the rites and rituals pertinent to starting a new club such as creating a secret handshake (shhh! Its a secret!), writing a solemn oath (I pledge to never write a boring story...) and making up a really cool, totally original name for our club (The Creative Adventure, Flying Bionicle, Gorgeous Novelists Club).

Once all the official work had been completed, we got down to the real business of writing. Each member is working to earn their badges and this week they explored the concept of Genre. Then, each member chose a genre for their novel and began writing a list of items that they felt MUST be included in their book. What creativity! I can hardly wait to award those lovely badges this week at our next meeting.

{By the way, lest you think I am inordinately gifted with creativity, please be aware that I borrowed all of these ideas from another source who freely offered it to those of us who want to lead young minds toward literary greatness. Email me if you would like to view the link.}

Quiet Moments

2009-09-01T05:42:00.000-07:00

I know I have been posting mostly about all the big, fun projects we have been doing lately, but I've decided that as much fun as all of that is for me, it is really the quiet moments that make this experience so rewarding. Here are a few examples:

The other day we were sitting in church and Evie took out her notebook to entertain herself. After doodling for a while like she normally does, she turned to a fresh page and began writing a few of the words she has learned in school. I sat smiling proudly at her, tears in my eyes, when suddenly I noticed Graham look down at her paper. He looked up at me in astonishment and I nearly lost a tear. What a precious moment we shared over that child's golden head, there in the silence of church.

Grayson decided at the beginning of the school year to skip second grade math and go straight to multiplication. Despite a few small concerns over this, I have moved forward with the theory that student-led learning is more effective (a theory you can read about in many educational journals, but hardly practiced in our schools.) Well, we have breezed through the "times tables" and he is just amazing me with his understanding on this subject. What normally would have taken several months in 3rd grade has only taken us three weeks in 2nd grade. Yesterday I introduced the 9s to him and he panicked. I showed him two different tricks and then remembered a third, but he kept saying, "I just don't see it!" Finally, I got out a fresh sheet of paper and wrote as clearly as I could, keeping all the numbers in straight, even columns to encourage the visual pattern in the list of multiplication facts. Then, I asked him to explain to me what I had just said. He did this word for word, but still seemed convinced he didn't understand. So, I gave him a sample problem and showed how I could come up with the answer just by using my "tricks" I had shown him. He got it. He did 5 more problems, including one that was basically algebra to show me how he understood. Wow! We did a happy dance with his sisters to celebrate. Once again, what would have taken a week (at least) in public school had only taken us 10 minutes at home. Incredible.

Today I got the kids started on their lessons and then went to start laundry and return some phone calls. Suddenly, I realized that all the kids had disappeared and the house was eerily quiet. I went upstairs to shepherd them back into submission, but when I opened the bedroom door, the scene that met me nearly melted my heart. The younger two were cuddled up on either side of LilliAnn as she sat in her bed reading Heidi. How could I interrupt such a precious moment?

As I tiptoed away I said a prayer of thanks to God for our new lifestyle and all the quiet little moments of learning and love that now fill our days.

Weekend fun

2009-09-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

The fabulous thing about homeschooling is its flexibility and ability to bring a family together. Last weekend we got to enjoy both of these benefits on a little trip out to Camp Carter. For those of you who don't know, Camp Carter is a property that Graham's family owns out near Quitman, Arkansas where we all like to go play in the woods. They are building cabins there and we generally enjoy family time and nature hikes while we are there. So, it seemed the perfect place to get messy with a big project I had been planning for our Egyptian study.

After spending the morning with grandma and grandpa, Graham took the kids into the workshop to help them build wooden frames, which was a lot of fun to watch. They all did really well, but Evie seriously impressed Daddy with her skills. She was not at all afraid to put a little force behind that power drill and she handled it like a pro (well, like a pro who is only about 3 feet tall, but still...)

Once they were finished, the kids and I hiked down to the creek to begin the real point of all this: making mud bricks. We had been studying in Bible about how the Israelites were building cities for pharaoh out of mud bricks and I'm sure you all remember how one of the ways pharoah punished them when they asked to leave was by taking away their straw supply for the brick making. I always thought this meant they had to make bricks without straw, but actually, Exodus says they had to go find the straw themselves and still make thier expected quota of bricks, which considerably added to the length of their workday.

Well, we decided to see how hard thier work must have been by testing this out for ourselves. We started mixing mud in big buckets using a mixture of clay, soil and sand from the creek bed, water and straw. This alone turned out to be an extreme task. Not only does it take an enormous amount of mud, but a seriously strong arm to stir such a nasty mixture (did I mention the mud smelled incredibly foul since it held a lot of rotten leaves. The kids kept asking why it smelled like poop.) After all this, we finally decided it was ready (or at least that WE were ready to move on) and we began pouring/scooping the muddy mixture into the brick molds.

The first one was horribly sloppy and water seeped out of the bottom, trickling into pools that we now considered to be the equivalent of stinky booby traps. Moving on to the next brick we had a bit more success, but by the time we got to the third brick frame the mud was almost gone! We only had enough to fill it half way. (Did I mention these were giant buckets?)

So, here is what we learned through this messy adventure:
1. Brick making is hard work that would have to be perfected in order to ever make any substantial structure.
2. It takes a lot of work, time and physical stamina to make mud bricks (although a few thousand slaves would certainly make the job easier.)
3. Not only does it take a while to make the bricks, but it takes a lot longer for them to dry. One could argue that in Arkansas, they might never be dry. Good thing we have so many trees.
4. Homeschooling rocks!

Another Great Week of School

2009-08-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

Our third week was just as much fun as the first, but a lot more comfortable. We've finally gotten used to our routine and the kids have been doing great with their studies. It is amazing to me how much we can accomplish in such a short amount of time with our lessons. Grayson has been doing great at his multiplication studies and keeps scoring just one point under his sister on the quizzes (who is two grades ahead of him!) Evie's reading has been incredible and her writing is almost as impressive. I am so grateful that we get this one on one time together to play and learn as a family. It has been such an amazing and precious gift.
This week we continued our study of Egypt with a look at what it meant to be called Pharaoh. We loved exploring the British Museum's website that gives kids a glimpse into ancient Egypt. LilliAnn started researching the gods and goddesses of Egyptian mythology and is planning a big project that she will share with us at the end of our study. In Bible we began reading Exodus and learned about the Hebrews becoming slaves to Pharaoh. We read some of David Macauley's Pyramid (which is amazing!) and then began building our own small pyramid out of sugar cubes. This was only somewhat effective, although it did teach us a lot about the importance of accurate math calculations and the problem solving skills necessary to complete a building when materials don't work the way you had hoped.

LilliAnn began sewing lessons and so far has learned how to measure, cut fabric, and sew a straight seam. She was very eager and patient as a student. I think we'll see some wonderful work out of her this year.

Evie has worked very hard on her reading and writing this week, finishing two pages of illustrated story so far. She is very proud and I have to say that her family is equally proud of our little reader. We have all enjoyed hearing her read aloud to us. Even her brother and sister have been excellent cheerleaders, celebrating each new success with cheers and dancing.

I am so proud of us all, honestly. We have really learned how to work together, share together, play together and encourage one another through each day - and those are the lessons that are priceless.

Evie's Excellent, Perfectly Great Day

2009-08-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today Evie became a true reader when she read her first sentence. Then she read another one. WOW! I had decided I was working myself into a corner with the word building (phonics) because she couldn't seem to read when I put a book in front of her. She would completely blank on the words even though we had just worked on them moments before.

So, I tried a technique called Guided Writing, hoping that the new angle would add some excitement and motivation for her. I said to her, "I want to write a story. Would you help me?" That got her really excited. "Okay, I am going to write a story about my cat." I started making up a sentence using the words we had already learned together and then asked her to help me write it by sounding out the words with me. I wrote as she spelled aloud each word. This allowed me to model correct writing for her like punctuation and capitalization. She was thrilled to be helping me build my sentence.

Soon we had finished two sentences about my silly cat who sat on my hat. She giggled and laughed over that and then I asked her to read it. Wow! This method works! Since she had already worked to build the words in our sentence, she knew them. This meant instant success as a reader, which is really the key to motivation. She needed to see that she could do it on her own. Not only that, but she was finally able to see how reading and writing could be meaningful to her. Now that she knew she could write a sentence, she immediately wanted to begin writing her own silly story. Amazing!

It is so fun to watch her grow and learn right before my eyes. I am so glad that I have these moments. Praise be the the Lord our God, who is so very good to us. He spoils me.

Egyptian studies - what an Adventure!

2009-08-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

We have been studying about Egypt for the last two weeks and it has been such fun. The highlight of our week came just after studying about scribes and their use of papyrus. We took a little walk down to the pond and looked at reeds growing on the banks. Then, we looked at photos of a family making paper out of papyrus. We finished by making our own paper from torn strips of newspaper that we boiled and then mushed up in a processor, pouring the gray globby mess into screens and patting them into thin rectangle sheets that we set out in the sun to dry. It was a lot of work, but the kids were very proud of their finished product. The next day they practiced drawing Egyptian hieroglyphs and were rewarded by a chance to add their own markings onto their handmade paper.

Grayson chose to draw a scene on his paper. It is a falucca traveling passed Papyrus reeds on the Nile. LilliAnn used hieroglyphs to describe herself and it says, "music, draw, spirit"

Evie Learns to Read... well, almost.

2009-08-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it. I should say, "We Did It!" I have to admit that though the week was full of fun projects and exciting learning moments, there were also a few tears shed by us all and at least one "I hate school!" from Evie. Still, I would say things went well.

Evie is finally learning to read and is writing a bit, too. She really put up a fight about the whole reading class idea, but I won her over. It went something like this:
Evie: "I don't want to do this." Arms crossed over her chest in defiance.
Me: "Come on, honey. Don't you want to read? Think of all the great books you could read me."
Evie: "NO!" head shakes emphatically.
Me: Sigh. "If you give me five minutes of your attention - with a smile - I'll give you 5 minutes on the computer playing any game you choose. Is that a deal?"
Evie: "That's a deal!" Giant smile and instant attention.
Me: (Wow! That actually worked?)

So, thinking I should probably use my time wisely because I might not get a second chance with her, I pulled out a set of sparkly post-it note style letters that I bought on a whim. They got another smile out of her. I started with the letter A that we had already discussed and started a phonics lesson on word building. We moved sticky, sparkly letters around making "at" words until she had a nice long list of words that she could read all by herself. By the time we were finished, ten minutes had passed and she had forgotten to be miserable. Wow! I forget that I really know how to do this stuff!

By Friday she had more than 30 words in her "Words I Know" notebook and she was talking about writing her own story. (Is she a Pogue, or what?!) So, it looks like I have a goal for the next week: take Evie from novice reader to budding author. Sounds like fun to me!

First Day of School

2009-08-03T10:59:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful day! The kids and I started school this morning with such excitement and the day did not disappoint. We taught Evie about the calendar and today's date, and practiced writing the letter A. They helped her practice writing the number one by making lots of play money and then set up a store out back to allow her to practice counting. Then, we read a book or two and LilliAnn learned to upload photos into publisher to create a book about our first day of school while the other two drew illustrations. We finished the day with a trip to B&N to pick out the free books the kids earned this summer through their summer reading challenge and then home to enjoy a 1st Day of School celebration at tea time. I hope every day is as wonderful as this has been. Tomorrow we'll be adding a bit more work, but they seem excited to dig into our study of Egypt, so I am confident there won't be any complaints.

A Brave New Adventure

2009-07-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like it is finally going to happen. All our books are neatly placed upon the bookshelves in our make-shift school room, our schedule is on the wall and lesson plans have filled my notebooks. We are beginning this adventure with a study of ancient Egypt followed by a look at Greece and then Rome. The kids and I can hardly wait. I've been wanting to homeschool since before LilliAnn was born and in four days it will finally happen.

Maybe homeschooling doesn't seem very brave to you, but I've spent years not following this dream because I was afraid of the criticism and disappointment of others. This year I finally realized that my children were growing up quickly and I was about to let all of our hopes and dreams for our children disappear without a fight. Their time in (award winning) public schools has been a nightmare so far, to say the least, and their education has really suffered for it. I found myself having to reteach at least half of what they had supposedly covered in school each year. What a relief to finally be fully responsible again for their education. Though, I realize this means I get all of the blame if they don't succeed, I guess I have always carried that blame anyway, so I might as well get all the joyful benefits as well.

I hope you'll say a prayer for us when you read this. We are all very excited, but we still rely on the Lord's guidance here. That's why we've adopted this scripture as our motto for the year:

"All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace." Isaiah 54:13