Spring Break

We are leaving tomorrow for our spring break vacation. 

Michael and I will celebrate our 15th anniversary in May and decided to take a little trip to celebrate.  Because the off-season rates are still in effect, we found a lovely place to stay, where we will be secluded for four days, for a price so low we could not pass it up.  So we are taking our anniversary trip a little early and intend to sit on our cabin's deck, which will basically be in the tree tops, and bird watch.

Cool mountain air. Singing birds.  Ahh... I feel relaxed just thinking about it!

I had hoped to finish up my Considering Homeschooling? series before today and have everything in my queue, set to publish while we are gone.  Alas, it did not happen.  The holiday brought extra responsibilities and fun, and I did not want to neglect or miss out on either. 

I will resume the series next weekend, Lord willing.  I also plan to publish my final TOS reviews by the end of next week, too. 

But for now... I am off for my little birding getaway with the man I am blessed to call husband.

Happy Easter and spring break (for those taking this week off, too)!
Dawn

Considering Homeschooing? Answering Your Questions, Part II Intro

I have a few friends who are considering homeschooling their children next year, and they have asked me a bunch of questions.  I started this mini-series as a result of those conversations.  If you missed Part I about the pros and cons of homeschooling, click the link to read. 

The other main question I am asked relates to curriculum suggestions.

I wrote a little on this topic last year and compared buying a curriculum to purchasing a new car.  It helps to have an idea of what you want before you start looking, and asking friends for suggestions is a great place to start.  However, it is good to keep in mind that one size does not fit all, and different seasons of life create different needs.  What works for your friend or favorite blogger, may not necessarily be the best fit for your family.  What suits you well this year simply may not the next. 

Finding a curricular fit for your family can be tricky.  Have you ever seen a dress on the rack at the department store and thought it was lovely... until you tried it on?  Just like some styles flatter us, and others don't, certain curricula will work wonders in some families and flop in others. 

This does not mean the curriculum is poor, or one family is right and the other wrong.  It is a matter of style and needs, and homeschooling gives you the freedom to be flexible.  If you buy a dress that does not fit well, it will not look good on you, no matter how beautiful it was on the rack or how lovely it looks on another woman.  A poor-fitting curriculum can have the same effect and make schooling uncomfortable.

With that said, do not feel the pressure to get it right the first time.  You will make adjustments each year that you homeschool.  In fact, I am seven years into the process and have not found a "perfect" curriculum for us.  I am an eclectic homeschooler who likes to build a versatile program that combines a number of resources and teaching/learning styles. 

I will share about what we have used since we started this journey and some of my feelings about each program over the course of the next few posts.  Some of the programs we have chosen have fit as if tailored for us.  Others have needed some adjustments to work, and some have just been a really bad fit. 

Whatever the case, the work of God's grace has been what has carried us through.  So, I will end by reminding you to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."  (Matt 6:33)

The Lord will provide, and by His grace, you can homeschool your children.   

Happy Curriculum Hunting!
Dawn

Considering Homeschooling? Answering Your Questions, Part I

It is the time of year when many parents are making decisions for the next school year. I have a number of friends who are considering homeschooling and have asked me two main questions.

1. What are the pros and cons of homeschooling?
   
2. What curriculum do you suggest?
   
   

Since I have been giving so much thought to these questions lately, I thought it appropriate to share my answers here. I will start with a list of pros and cons, which could be quite lengthy. I will try to condense it to those things I consider most important.

I will write about curriculum choices in an upcoming post but will start this post by listing the CONS of homeschooling.

• It's a lot of work.
  
  I would like to water this one down a little and tell you that the work is always enjoyable or not very taxing. But that just wouldn't be truthful. Sometimes the work is fun. At times it is lighter than others. But, there are things that must be done, want to or not, and sometimes they are a headache. Even if you find a program where your children basically self-teach, there are still papers to grade, input to give, schedules to supervise….
  
  BUT, before you let that deter you, please consider this. Have you EVER done anything worthwhile that has not required effort on your part? Can you think of any cause more worthy of your best effort than the discipleship of your children?
  
  
• If I do not keep a proper perspective, the weight of the responsibility can overwhelm me.
  
  Any time my child struggles to "get" something or does not measure up to my expectations, I am tempted with feelings of failure. I also face the temptation to measure my success as a homeschooler against other homeschoolers as well as public and private schools and to wonder if my children would be doing better if in the care of a teaching professional. I have had these thoughts and I am a teaching professional.
  
  Grace is the only answer for this. Homeschooling is an exercise in faith. It requires trusting the Lord with these things moment by moment in order to resist these temptations. Otherwise, they can suck the life out of me, my children, and our homeschool. Pride is the problem, and the Lord is using homeschooling to rid me of it.
  
  I have to be gracious with myself, too, and understand that my children will have trouble areas as they learn and that I am not always to blame. I must be gracious with my children and create an atmosphere where mistakes are okay and where if at first we don't succeed, we will try, try again.
  
  
• At times, I feel the homeschool stigma.
  
  Many people don't understand homeschooling, and sometimes it wears me down or just plain hurts. Some people are very nice and encouraging, but some people act uncomfortable around me. I have to find ways to break the ice and build bridges with these folks, which is not something I do naturally. Others can be down right rude or hostile. Again, the answer is grace. God always provides His grace abundantly in these situations and uses them for my sanctification. Similarly, these situations can open the door for talking about the Lord and sharing the Gospel.
  
  
• There is a cost, and it should be counted.
  I do, in part, mean a literal cost. There are books and supplies to buy; however, we spend much less money educating at home than we would on private school tuition and believe the cost difference over public school is worth every penny.
  
  There are also the costs of the previously named cons that I would advise parents to consider. At the Olive Plants Academy, we homeschool in the name of Christ and face a spiritual battle as well. Many people enter homeschooling with the notion that it will be perfect and lovely and that it will be a cure-all for the problems faced at school. Do not wear rose-colored glasses while making this decision. The enemy shoots his fiery darts at Christian homeschoolers, and we must be equipped with the full armor of God when entering into this battle.
  
  

Now for the PROS….

• I have been present for moments I would have missed if my children were in school.
  
  This is huge for me. If my children were taught by someone else, I would be jealous of their teacher. I LOVE that I have hundreds of memories of my boys having "a-ha" moments. I have had a front-row seat to one of the most beautiful events ever, watching them grow in grace, maturity, and ability.
  
  
• I am developing a deep relationship with my children and enjoy the fruit of it a little more each year.
  
  It is rocky at times. Hysterical at others. Frustrating. Enjoyable. And wonderful. But good or bad, happy or sad, we are together, and they are learning commitment, respect, trust, and the importance of family. Each day with my children, causes me to reflect on Jesus' relationship with His disciples. Homeschooling gives me the opportunity to follow the Master Teacher and teach my children like Jesus did His disciples.
  
  
• Homeschooling opens the door to a myriad of educational opportunities.
  
  I have been able to pick curriculum to fit the individual needs of my children. I have accelerated their studies when needed and have slowed down and re-taught a number of times. We take as many field trips as we like, work on projects, take on educational hobbies, and basically, allow the boys ample opportunities for discovery.
  
  
• We have never been asked to leave our faith at the schoolhouse door.
  
  I am involved in the public schools and know that there are Christian teachers who love and nurture the children in their care. I know they are cautious about what they teach and try to be a witness to those who are not in Christ and build the faith of those who are Christians. I know this because my husband is one of those teachers. I used to have that job, too, and took my responsibilities very seriously. I also know families who navigate the murky public school waters well and train their children to be "salt and light" through that journey.
  
  We decided to homeschool, however, because we did not want to navigate those waters at all. We believe that job is much more difficult than the work of educating at home.
  
  We believe the homeschooling process should serve to make salt saltier. We worship together each morning. We read our Bible as often as we want. We study all subjects from a Christian perspective and learn to defend our worldview. We make mistakes along the way and learn to confess and to forgive. We seek God's grace in all these things. Basically, we spend the day in fellowship with each other and the Lord in our home so that when the time is right our children will be prepared to be a Christian influence in the world.
  
  

There is much more that could be said, but these are the biggies as I see them. If you are considering homeschooling and have questions, please feel free to email me or leave your questions as a comment.

Grace and peace,
Dawn

Product Review: Sue Gregg Cookbooks

I received Sue Gregg's Introducing Whole Foods Cooking for this review.


This is a very thorough book for newcomers to whole foods cooking. It contains useful information from getting started and organizing your kitchen to nutritional information and sample menus. And of course, it contains recipes.

Of the 26 recipes included, we tried 17. I asked every one in the family to rate each item on a scale of 1 to 10 immediately after eating it. All of the recipes averaged an 8 from our family. With the picky bunch that lives at my house, that is a really high score.

I also give the recipes an average of 8 out of 10 for ease of preparation. I only had difficulty finding one ingredient. The rest I either had on hand or was able to find at my local supermarket for a reasonable price. My grocery budget did not suffer as a result of cooking from this book.

Although I am not completely sold on whole foods, some of the recipes from this book have become family favorites. My boys ask for Taco Chips Ole on a weekly basis. My husband loves Tuna Bunsteads, and I am a fan of Fruit Cole Slaw, Orange Tossed Salad, and Sweet Lite Dressing. The dressing is fabulous and only has 22 calories per Tbsp. Seeing how it only takes about 1 minute to whip up a batch of it, I have not bought pre-made salad dressing since receiving this book.

If you are an experienced whole foods cook, this is not the book for you. The majority of it focuses on the how's and why's behind whole food. If you are a whole foods newbie, you will find everything you need to make a whole foods transition in this great book.

Sue Gregg offers a number of other cookbooks, including Breakfasts, Lunches and Snacks, and Meals in Minutes. All of her cookbooks are reasonably priced, and except for the introductory book I received, offer a good number of recipes. Introducing Whole Foods is available at the Sue Gregg Cookbooks site for $17.  You can find more information on whole food cooking and Sue Gregg Cookbooks by clicking here.

I received the product mentioned in this review for free in order to provide an honest review. I have received no other compensation.

Bisquick Giveaway

Kimberly @ Raising Olives is giving away this prize pack...

Pancakes are a top commodity at our house, and that cast iron skillet would be a welcome addition to my kitchen. Visit Kimberly for more information on how you can enter this fabulous giveaway.

The winner is....

Amy

@ Look to the Sky

Welcome to everyone who joined Olive Plants during this giveaway! I hope I will see around often.

Congratulations, Amy! Your books are on their way.

Dawn

Not Me Monday: So NOT Homeschooled

This weekend we played a game of Apples to Apples.

Are you familiar with it? It is riotous and probably our favorite game. There are a set of red apple cards which contain different nouns. These can be anything from common household items to famous people.

There is also a set of green apple adjective cards. Each player takes a turn being the "green apple". He picks a green card, reads it to the other players, and they each pick one of their red noun cards to be the perfect match for the chosen adjective.

Green Apple reads through the nouns offered by the other players and chooses the one he thinks is the best match. The player who offered the chosen card gets to keep that particular green apple card, and the first player to earn a set number of green apples wins the game.

Now, hysterical moments never arise when playing this game.

For instance, Wilbur did not match silly with silly putty and manly with men. He did not think having the definitive answer was too funny the first time. His reaction the second time was not priceless.

Wilbur did not offer "pro-wrestling" to Orville as a match for exciting. Orville decided that was the most exciting choice in his hand to which Wilbur did not exclaim, "Yea! Pro-RESTing is mine!" Orville's follow up? "Pro-resting! That's not exciting; that's just a bunch of people going to sleep!" That was not funny, and we did not laugh until our side ached!

Finally, when looking through his red apple choices for "absurd", Orville did not ask who Shania Twain is.

He did not ask, "Is she Mark Twain's wife?"

Oh... he is so not homeschooled.

And I did not laugh until I nearly hyperventilated because he knew more about literature than pop culture. Nope! Not me! Because I am not a homeschool mom!

Curriculum Clean Out Giveaway

Spring cleaning has begun at the Olive Plants house.

Boy, is it needed, too. The long, hard winter has taken its toll on our house, and it feels good to clear away the clutter, wipe away the dust, and watch order return to our home.

One of the hardest parts of spring cleaning for me is starting the process of emptying the school shelves. As a curriculum pack rat connoisseur, my shelves are always too full.

And crazy sentimental me, I do not want to let anything go because it all has such meaning...

I can't sell that book. I taught Wilbur to read with it.

I remember the day we did this. Oh, how can I part with this?

I can't throw that out. Orville told the funniest joke about the picture on p. 12.

But alas, the Olive Plants house is bursting at the seams, and books, teacher's guides, and activity packs are popping through the crevices. So it is time for me to get over it spread the wealth.

The Curriculum Choice has motivated me to get moving in my efforts to de-curriculify with their Spring Cleaning Curriculum blog hop.

Yes, I really just wrote "de-curriculify". It's my blog, and I can make words up if I want, right?

I am giving away four books in the First-Rate Reading Basics series. Each book contains activity ideas and reproducibles to support basic reading instruction. There is one book each for vocabulary, phonemic awareness and phonics, fluency, and comprehension. I used these books with both of my boys in the early years to supplement their reading and phonics instruction and have loved the results.

The boys enjoyed the activities and did not learn words like "de-curriculify". Honest!

To enter, leave a comment with the title of your favorite children's book. I will accept entries through Monday, March 22 at 11 p.m. The next day, I will select a winner using random.org and notify the winner via email, as well as announce here and link to the winner's blog.

I will do my best to mail it promptly next week and not cling to it with my last heart string. I may stand at the post office and wave as the delivery truck departs, though.

For additional entries (please leave a separate comment for each entry):

• Subscribe to receive Olive Plants via email




• Grab the new Olive Plants button and display it on your blog (leave a link)




• Follow Olive Plants




• Follow me on twitter- @Homeschooldawn

If you are new to Olive Plants, welcome! Please take a little time to look around and be sure to introduce yourself.

If you are an Olive Plants regular, take a minute to hop over to The Curriculum Choice and check out their great giveaway and the other participating blogs. There are some real goodies available.

Happy De-curriculifying!

Dawn

Sweet Shot of the Week

This picture was not taken recently but almost 9 years ago.

We were at a favorite park, and I took several shots that day of the boys on the play equipment.

This one, taken at a clubhouse, turned out the cutest.

Wilbur, peaking through the window, is not quite 1.

Orville, leaning on the wall, is not quite 2.

Homeschool Dawn, behind the camera and exhausted from chasing two little boys with a camera all day, is smiling and cherishing this simple but precious moment.

Thank you Darcy, at Life with My 3 Boybarians, for hosting Sweet Shot Day. Visit her blog to see more heart-warming pictures.

National Pi Day

photo credit

Did you know that March 14 is National Pi Day?


Get it?

3-14
three point one four

Edited from original post: This year we have the chance to celebrate the Pi Day of the Century!

Since pi = 3.141592653...

(Thank you, Google!)

...we have the opportunity to celebrate 3-14-15
So make sure you have dinner at 9:26:53 and you will be a Super Pi Star!

But if you're like me, you'll probably just eat whenever there's time. ;)

Okay, back to the original post....

Since March 14th falls on Sunday this year (Not really! It's on Saturday in 2015), we will complete our activities on Monday. Here is what I have lined up for the day.

1. Complete a few of the activities from this resource.
2. Go to the pool and determine how many laps each of us can swim in 3 minutes, 14 seconds.
3. Calculate the average number of laps we swam.
4. Calculate the circumference and area of circles of varying sizes.
5. Create a piece of artwork using circles only.

And last but not least...

Enjoy a Pi(e) Dinner!

Oh yeah!

 

Pie. For Dinner!

 

My people are all about the pie. Chicken pot pie is a favorite that has to make its way to the table every now and again. In fact, pie dinner became tradition at our house purely by accident.

One night, I was utterly exhausted-- completely out of spoons. (That's code for energy among those with chronic illness.) I looked something like this...

 

The hungry people at my house still required food, though. And for some strange reason, they looked to me to provide it. Shocking, I know.

I plodded into Kroger and didn't have the energy to make it past the bakery. The apple pie looked really good. It was already baked and everything. And it had apples... that's fruit, people! Fruit!

Don't judge me.

As healthy as my plan was, I knew Michael would want more than just pie. Perhaps some ice cream on top? So I sent the boys around to the freezer section to grab a carton of French vanilla. The clever one saw pot pies and grabbed four of them. My two little stinkers came running back up to the front of the store so proud of what they had acquired.

Look, Mommy! Pot PIIIIIES! We loooooove pot pie!!

We can eat apple pie and pot pie, and it will be a big pie dinner!

A tired, spoon-less mother cannot argue with that logic or temper that enthusiam. Pot pie and apple pie it was.

I was declared the best.mom.ever as my sons danced around the dinner table, stuffing their mouths with various pastry delights, singing the apple pie version of Bill Cosby's "Chocolate Cake Song."

 

 

Mom is fly... give us the apple pie!

 

Shazam! Pie dinner was born. Now, the tradition lives on every March 14th. Pie dinner has rightfully moved to Pi Day.

 

This year, I have a few more available spoons and will serve my secret weapon, Ham Pie, with Michael's all-time favorite dessert, pudding pie.

Real cooked food! I'm so granola.

Ahem, here are the recipes:

Ham Pie (adapted from a Ham and Swiss Pastry Bake found in this cookbook)


2 cups cooked, cubed ham
1 cup grated cheese (we prefer swiss)
1 bag of Mirepoix Style Blend
(Kroger brand frozen veggie, thaw first; if you don't shop at Kroger it is about 1 1/2 cups combined of chopped carrots, onion, and celery)
1 tsp dried mustard
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup light mayo
1 9 in deep dish frozen pie shell, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Mix all ingredients and pour into pie crust
3. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes
4. That's it! It's sooooo easy!

Dawn's Pudding Pie

2 large boxes of instant pudding
3 cups of milk (I use 2 %)
1 large tub or 2 smaller tubs of fat free Cool Whip
1 graham cracker pie crust

1. Mix pudding with 2 cups of milk.
2. Stir in additional milk, until the mixture is smooth but not runny.
3. Stir in cool whip and mix on high until fluffy and firm.
4. Pour into pie crust and refrigerate for about one hour before serving.
5. Seriously, that's all! Easy Peasy, too.

Isn't Pi Day the best holiday of them all? You can't get any easier than that, folks... except maybe to get yourself something store-bought. But you would never do that, would you?! Lol!

(Go ahead... buy Marie Callender's! I won't tell.) :)

 

If you plan to celebrate, please share any fun activities you have planned!

Happy Pi Day!

Dawn