Outsmarted 4to1: Bookie Monsters

Homeschool changes are coming about in our home......

     At first I was scared............

               And than I was worried...........

                              Now I am just plain excited...........

I will tell you more about these changes after this weekend when I come home from my HIP mom retreat.  I will be learning more and I am sure getting even more excited.  Change is good!

In the mean time here is a little peak into our homeschool feast.....

WE WANT BOOKIES!

Just like Cookie Monsters devours cookies and wants more and more and more.  That is how it is at our house with books.  We devour them and want more and more.   The kids have been learning and absorbing many wonderful works, Kendal's vocabulary has improved greatly and mom could not be happier. 

Since we have begun our homeschool journey we have read so many great books; Swiss Family Robinson, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, The Indian in The Cubbard, Old Yeller, A Wrinkle in Time, Little House in the Big Woods, The Whale Rider, The Island of the Blue Dolphin, The Miss Adventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff, Count Karlstein, Tuck Everlasting, and other great works.  Right now we are reading Laddie.

This is usually how we roll with books in our home; listening to fiction in the car, reading fiction with mom, reading fiction on their own, each child has a nonfiction topic they are studying, everyone has a biography, we all read and study out of Story of The World, the girls read American Girl or My America books with mom for girls club and the boys read a biography of a great leader with mom for boys club.  I love this and I am no exception.  Right now I am reading/listening to, Laddie, Out of Control (about Amish girl), My America Hope in My Heart, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Accent of George Washington, as well as anything I can get my hands on about Thomas Jefferson Education. 

In addition to all of this reading the kids and I have been diligent with our scripture studies.  I have a new calling in our church, Gospel Doctrine Instructor, and this leads to a lot of study and discussion.  I am teaching out of the New Testament and have found myself completely enthralled with the books, Jesus The Christ and The Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ and His Apostles.  I am learning so much and passing all I learn onto my kids at scripture study.

WE WANT BOOKIES

GIVE US BOOKIES

I ask myself every day, how do we keep track of all of these books and keep the story lines separate?  I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we discuss the books in depth, while we are reading and after we are finished reading.  I just started book discussion with the kids after we read and I am so bummed that we have let such good literature slip through our fingers without discussing it after completion.  Our first discussion was on The Little House in The Big Woods by: Laura Ingell Wilder, the kids surprised me with topics like; jealousy, lying, technology and discipline.  My favorite part of the entire discussion was how they incorporated what we were learning in scripture study into our discussion.  Our second discussion was on a Wrinkle in Time, I loved that book.  The kids loved the imaginative characters and again I loved the gospel discussion that we had on darkness and light.  We talked about how our lack of self worth can make us weak to temptation and how we can encourage self worth in each other.  I took notes on our discussions and wrote a paper about our thoughts.  The kids loved it and would say, "Hey I said that part".   I love books!

MY LB, he is trying to keep up with our stories.  He likes to hear about them at the dinner table and every once in awhile he gets bits and pieces in the car or in the evening when we all read together.  He likes to ask the kids about how they turned out or what happened to this person.  He also is studying like a BOOKIE MONSTER, he is in business school right now and is studying more about money and how to effectively manage it.  He is diving into books by Dave Ramsey, reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and the One Minute Millionaire.  I just know we are going to be as rich with money as we are with happiness someday (just kidding).  We will be smarter with the money the Lord has blessed us with.

I am so happy with homeschooling right now.  I know that the Lord is guiding us and smiling down on my wonderful little family.