Our New Homeschool Room - A Tour

 Our New Homeschool Room - A Tour

We moved to a new home this past March and a fun part about a new home is finding a flow within the home for how things will work best!  The upstairs of our new home (hopefully I can give an entire house tour later) is all for the kids.  They love that they have an entire floor to themselves.  It technically has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, but it also has 3 "extra" rooms (two of them are for our homeschooling and one is a playroom).  To give a full tour of our new homeschool room I actually need to start in the big kids bedroom!

 

Our oldest 3 boys, currently ages 7, 5, and 4 all share a room with two sets of bunk beds.  I would guess that our 1 1/2 year old son will also want to join his brothers once he is in a big boy bed.  From their room, there is an entrance to what was a HUGE walk in closet, which then flowed into a large room over top of the garage.  Well with a lot of boys who don't really care about clothes and a lot of books which the boys LOVE we decided to turn the walk in closet into the library.  Each boy still has their own dresser in their bedroom to separate their clothes.  In our past house the library was in the basement, so it was hard for the kids to get another book at night when they wanted one.  Now we constantly find them getting new books when they are ready to read a new one at night!

 

At the entrance of this space we have a wall hanging of St. Jerome; the patron saint of librarians and also a crucifix.  We are using the same system to organize our books with color coordinating stickers that we started in our past home.  Check it out here:

Organizing Books

 

 

On the opposite side of the library room we have a small desk.  One thing that I really wanted to create in our new home was more individualized work areas.  As our children are getting older I know that they will want more separate quiet areas to work.  There is also a desk in the kids room at the end cap of the one set of bunk beds that they can use as well.

 

From the library (or old walk in closet) you then enter a big room above the garage.  We turned this room into our main homeschool space.  We will probably not ALWAYS do school in this space, but it is very nice to have a space for everything.  We got the big bookshelves with bins at Coscto.  The outer (tall bookshelves) are filled with puzzles, educational games and flashcards.  The center bookshelf has a bin for each individual child's book work and then some art bins, etc.

 

On one side of the room we have a comfy reading chair, a small table where the children can work individually with me for instruction and then a television.  I debated putting a TV in their school room, but we have been watching DVD's for Latin instruction and a few other instructional movies so it is nice to have it all in the same space.

 

On the other side of the room we have old fashioned desk; a double set and a smaller single one.  We also have a computer desk.  Our older children have started to learn to type and also enjoy researching topics on the computer.  We use The Circle device to monitor internet usage and Covenant Eyes to help monitor internet content.

 

That's it for our homeschool room at our new house!  Thanks for stopping by!

Curriculum Plans for 2017-2018

It's that time again to start planning for the next homeschool year.  I love that as time goes on we can continue to add new things and explore new curriculum and ideas while also keeping with things that we love!  Here are our plans for the 2017-2018 school year.

First of all, the biggest change is that we are joining a Catholic Schoolhouse co-op!  I have looked at this program for years and always loved the concept of it, but always got nervous when it was time to take the leap.  But this year, we leaped and we couldn't be more excited.  As each new school year approaches I like to take time to pray and reflect about my needs and preferences as the mother and teacher and then our children's needs and preferences.  These were a few things I wanted to focus on as priorities this next year:

• Continuing to prioritize faith based learning and a relationship with God (attending daily Mass, family and individualized prayer time, praying the Rosary more together, etc)
• Foster and increase a love for learning
• Finding a way to promote more in depth the "extra" subjects beyond Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (music, art, science, history) more consistently each week
• Promoting and fostering positive friendships consistently for each child
• Allowing for our children to gain role models and respect elders outside of me as their mother and teacher

When thinking about and focusing on these priorities I realized that a Catholic Schoolhouse co - op promotes each of these!  We will meet one day a week for 4 hours with a wonderful group of Catholic homeschooling families in our community where each of our children will be in different "classrooms" (including our 1/ 1/2 year old in the nursery).  They will learn about history, art, music, religion, math, Latin and memory work each week from different instructors.  This coming year we will be doing Tour 1 which is American History.

In the past we have enrolled or strongly used Seton for our work at home, but with this big change of adding Catholic Schoolhouse we are also making ANOTHER big change.  We decided to switch to focusing on Catholic Heritage Curricula as our main core at home.  We have used a lot of their products in the past and love them, but a huge reason we chose to make this change is because their curriculum follows a four day week (instead of 5 days with Seton).  So now on the days that we do our Catholic Schoolhouse Curriculum we can focus on that for 4 hours and then be done for the day and not feel like we are getting behind.  So, here are our plans for the 2017-2018 school year!

Ryan (7 1/2 years old) 2nd/3rd Grade

Mathematics:

• MCP Mathematics Level C
• Life of Fred: Goldfish, Honey, Ice Cream and Jelly Beans

Religion:

• Faith and Life Series: Our Life with Jesus
• Online Faith and Life Resources
• At the Feet of Mary:  A Hands On Religion Resource
• Catholic Mosiac
• Catechesis of the Good Shepard Level 2

English/Spelling:

• Language of God: Level B
• My Catholic Speller: Level B

Reading:

• Memoria Press Second Grade Literature Set with Novels
• Animal Folk Tales of America
• Prairie School
• Courage of Sarah Noble
• Little House in the Big Woods
• Tales from Beatrix Potter
• Independent Reading Novels

Geography:

• MAPS, CHARTS AND GRAPHS, LEVEL D, STATES AND REGIONS

Handwriting:

• Catholic Heritage Handwriting: Level 3

Science:

• Behold and See 3

History:

• Our United States of America:  Catholic Social Studies
• This is CHC's 4th grade History curriculum, but since we are studying American History with Catholic Schoolhouse I wanted to continue American History at home this year.

Latin:

• Prima Latina

Art/Music/Enrichment:

• Weekly Art Lessons with Catholic Schoolhouse
• Weekly Piano Lessons
• Second Grade Enrichment (Memoria Press) - Two Days a Week

Connor (5 1/2 years old) 1st/2nd Grade

Mathematics:

• MCP Mathematics: Level B
• Life of Fred: Edgewood and Farming

Religion: 

• Faith and Life Series:  Our Heavenly Father
• He did Seton's 1st grade Religion book last year, but we choose to do CHC's 1st grade religion curriculum this year because we are not yet preparing him to receive his First Reconciliation and First Communion this next year.
• Catholic Mosiac
• Catechesis of the Good Shepard: Level 2

English/Spelling

• Language of God: Level A
• My Catholic Speller: Level A

Reading:

• Memoria Press Story Time Treasures
• Billy and Blaze
• Blaze and the Forest Fire
• The Story About Ping
• Keep the Lights Burning, Abby
• Stone Soup
• The Little House
• Miss Rumphius
• Independent Reading

Geography:

• Maps, Charts and Graphs B

Handwriting:

• Catholic Heritage Handwriting: Level 2

Science:

• Behold and See 2

History:

• Our United States of America: Catholic Social Studies

Latin:

• Prima Latina

 

Art/Music/Enrichment:

• Weekly Art Lessons with Catholic Schoolhouse
• Weekly Piano Lessons
• Memoria Press Kindergarten Enrichment
• He did the 1st grade enrichment along with his older brother last year.  This next year I am going to teach the Kindergarten and 2nd grade, so he can follow with either and / or both of them.

Luke (4 years old) Pre School / Kindergarten

Mathematics:

• MCP Mathematics: Level K
• Little Folks Number Practice
• Life of Fred:  Apples and Butterflies

Religion:

• Who am I: Kindergarten
• God's Love Story
• Catholic Mosaic
• Catechesis of the Good Shepard: Level 1

English/Phonics/Handwriting:

• Seton Phonics: Kindergarten
• Little Folks Letter Practice
• Catholic Heritage Handwriting: Level K

Reading:

• How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• Luke is already on about lesson 20 and doing a great job! 
• Little Stories for Little Folks

Art/Music/Enrichment:

• Weekly Art Lessons at Catholic Schoolhouse
• Making Music Praying Twice at Catholic Schoolhouse
• Memoria Press Kindergarten Enrichment

Peter ( 1 1/2) - Tot School

Reading Stories, Cuddling, Playtime and hopefully taking a nap once a day for us to have some time to focus on more structured lesson time!

See what we have done in the years past at our Homeschooling Page!

Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb - A Book Review

 

Pregnancy and Infant Loss is heart wrenching.  It is real and it happens often, more often than most of us know and more often than many people talk about.  Thank you to Heidi Indahl of Peanut Butter and Grace for writing the amazing book .  To anyone who has experienced a loss of any kind, please do me the favor of buying this book Blessed Is the Fruit of Thy Womb: Rosary Reflections on Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss.  No matter if your loss occurred last week or decades ago I promise this book will speak to you.  If you know of a mother, sister, aunt, cousin, friend or even stranger who is or has experienced the loss of a child through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss please consider getting them this book along with a rosary.

My first real exposure to infant death was as a new college graduate working as a Labor and Delivery nurse.  There were so many families enduring loss, too many families.  It did not matter if a family lost a baby at 8 weeks or 40 weeks, it was devastating.  One specific family remains in my heart through all of these years.  They were a Hispanic family who spoke very little English.  We had an interpreter in the hospital who helped the mother get checked in an answer all of the initial questions but they were not able to stay with us the entire time.  The mother had learned in her doctor's office earlier in the day that her twin girls had passed away at 24 weeks gestation.  Labor needed to be induced to deliver them and afterwards this tiny little labor and delivery room filled with family.  This mother and father already had 5 other children who came to support their parents and give their love to their sisters.  There were aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and grandparents.  It is the grandfather who will forever be etched in my memory.  I remember the sweet little girls were wrapped in blankets in a bassinet together and this grandfather had his hand over their heads and prayed the Rosary as he cried.  Big tears fell from his face onto the faces of his precious granddaughters.  It was so raw to see the pain, but also the love of this family and beyond that their faith in God during a difficult time.

Next, was when I was newly married, yet before my husband and I had any children that a good friend of mine had a miscarriage.  I was so sad that she and her husband had lost their little baby, but I felt awkward and did not know how to best support her.  I am so glad that even still she felt comfortable to open up and share her experience with me.

Fast forward a few years and after having three wonderful and healthy sons my husband and I found out on the weekend of St. Nicholas's feast day that we were expecting our fourth child.  We were thrilled and so excited.  A few short months later we found out that our baby Samuel Nicholas had died.  I was 11 weeks pregnant and devastated.  Thankfully, I was supported my an amazing husband, a wonderful family, and a beautiful community.

As the years went on my husband and I were blessed to have another child and I figured that we had carried our cross of the loss of a child.  We continued to watch our friends experience losses, but I got better at joining with them in prayer and understanding the heart ache.  Then this past March on the same day that we bought our family's dream house we found out we were expecting again.  A few weeks later I realized that yet again God's plan was for our baby to go to Heaven. 

All of these experiences have been difficult.  Watching the loss of babies from strangers, friends and even my own children is devastating.  Yet, through it all, slowly, these experiences are bringing me closer to God.  Heidi's book, Blessed Is the Fruit of Thy Womb: Rosary Reflections on Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss is like a mini retreat where you walk through each of the mysteries of the Rosary and reflect upon the pain, the questions that you have, the people you need to thank, maybe even the people you need to forgive within the experience of loss.  It is a book to help you take grief and doubt and with courage and faith move it to trust.  Beyond the wonderful mysteries of the Rosary and Heidi's fantastic reflections to each of them there are also beautiful prayers, questions and a place to journal thoughts.  It is a beautiful book, and a true gift to women to help heal wounds and open up through prayer to God's promises to each of us.

Please find the book here:  Blessed Is the Fruit of Thy Womb: Rosary Reflections on Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Loss

Our Liturgical Table

Prayer is one of the most important parts of our daily lives.  As 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 states, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  Before I even get out of bed in the morning my goal is to say a quick prayer.  If I am leisurely awaking it is often the Morning Offering, but if I am answering the call of little ones it is simply "Jesus, I give this day to you." 

We try to weave prayer throughout our day in our personal lives, our marriage and with our family.  We continue to add to and adjust our Family Prayer Schedule as time continues.  When our oldest son was preparing for his First Reconciliation this past fall he made a special little prayer book to help guide him through prayer as he is going to bed.  In our past home we had a special place to promote prayer, a Little Oratory.  It was a beautiful place to come together as a family, but as we were moving into our new home this spring we realized that we did not have the same little space in our new home so we wanted a new idea.

Because of the changes in our new home, but continuing the desire to have a place that promoted prayer we decided to create a Liturgical Table in our living room.  It is in a predominate place in our home that you pass by multiple times a day.  As our children are getting older they are enjoying setting this table with me as the liturgical calendar continues and feast days are celebrated.

Lent

This table included the Stations of the Cross from Jesse Tree Treasures, a print from Catholic All Year and our Mass Kit from Almond Rod Toys.  Along with these treasures we also decorated with purple candles and linens for the liturgical color representing preparation.

 

 

First Communion

 

For our son's First Communion which was also the weekend of Divine Mercy Sunday we decorated with Easter Lillies, an image of the Divine Mercy and the quote from St. Pope John Paul II "We are the Easter people and Halleluiah is our song."

 

May

During May we continued to celebrate Easter and also celebrated the month of Mary.  We had a beautiful Mary statue predominately in the middle of our table with a Rosary that we had brought with us when we visited St. Padre Pio's relics when they came to our state. We had two images stating "Fiat" meaning "Be it done to me according to thy word", and "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."

 

June

 

During June we celebrate the end of Easter with Pentecost, the birthday of the Catholic Church when the Holy Spirit came to the apostles to guide them to bring the message of the Church to the world!  We also celebrate Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  As we prepare for Pentecost we included red candles and linen, a beautiful prayer of the Holy Spirit "Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love." and also the book The Twelve Apostles.



Listening to the Holy Spirit - And an Apology

I have struggled a lot with what to do with this blog.  It started as a fun way to talk to and show family and friends what we were doing as a family.  It then opened up to the amazing on line community where even though we are miles apart and sometimes never have even met, friendships form.  I have taken breaks, I have made the blog private, and then I keep feeling called back to it.  I keep feeling the calling to reach out, I keep enjoying the hobby of writing.

Recently I read the book The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher.  It is a bit of a controversial book, but the main point that I took away from it is that the Church is dying, and it is up to US to save it.  That really got to me, like being punched in the stomach.  It is up to us, it is up to ME!  So I took that to prayer, what am I doing to save our church?

I am trying to live a virtuous life as a Christian woman.  I am trying to live out and build up a faith filled marriage.  I am open to life and trying to raise our children with the end goal of guiding them toward Heaven.  I am trying to reach out to friends and families in our community to show them compassion and support, whether it being attending Mass, nurturing friendships, participating in Bible Studies, bringing meals to others during difficult times, and more.  Yet, I keep feeling called to more.

I keep thinking that there needs to be something BIGGER, something more that I can do to bring more people to knowing Jesus and having a true relationship with him.  I then struggle with discerning how I can juggle that calling with my very important and time consuming roles of a wife and mother.  I question and doubt how many people I can actually be reaching with a little blog and what good that is really doing.  Yet then, while I was discerning this and praying to the Holy Spirit about what to do I kept getting signs and messages.

I had taken my blog off line for a while and did not think anyone would really care or notice.  But you did.  I started getting e-mails and messages asking what happened to the blog, asking if I was ok, and checking in with what was going on in my life.  After all of this time of it being me who was the one who is writing and talking; during my time of discernment and trouble; it was all of you who came to me to check in and make sure that I was ok.  This is where I need to come back and apologize.  You, everyone who is reading this, everyone who is supporting me, everyone who is passing my thoughts or messages along to others are ENOUGH.  This little community is a good and healthy outlet that the Holy Spirit is calling me to, during a busy time of my life to reach out to others.  You all are what is saving the Church.  Coming together to support each other, to cheer each other on as we attempt to answer our vocations, to help each other raise and educate our children, supporting each other during difficult times is Jesus within each of us thriving today.  We are the future of the Church and little by little people will see that the Church is still alive within us all. So, thank you for listening.  Thank you for being patient with me.  Thank you for being a part of this community.  I really do appreciate you all.

Ryan's First Holy Communion

 

We celebrated Ryan's First Holy Communion on April 22, 2017.  We had just moved to our new town and into our new parish, The Church of the Holy Spirit a few months ago.  We are so blessed that they welcomed our family in with open arms and allowed for Ryan to receive this wonderful sacrament there.  It was a beautiful day and as Ryan said when he was leaving the church after he had received Our Lord he said when asked how he felt, "very grace filled!" 

 

 

The night prior to his First Holy Communion Ryan was thrilled to receive his first blessed Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel from our parish priest Father Grell.  He is wearing it proudly and when I asked him if it made him feel special he replied, "No, it makes me feel HOLY!"  Ryan had also been learning about and praying to Blessed Imedla prior to his big day who is the patron saint of First Communicants.

 

 

Watching Ryan get ready for his big day really made me realize how quickly he is growing to be a young man.  We had bought him a brand new suit and he was so excited for his First Communion Tie and his new golden cross tie pin.  I loved to watch those simple moments of his Dad helping him get his tie straightened. 

 

The way that the Mass was organized parents sat alone behind the First Communicant.  Since our other little ones couldn't sit with us and we wanted Ryan's grandparents to be able to focus and enjoy the Mass as well, our youngest two stayed home with our favorite babysitter during the Mass and joined in during the reception afterwards.  All of Ryan's brothers still wanted to join for a special picture to remember Ryan's special day.

 

Ryan had so much joy before and after the special First Communion Mass and we were so thankful to have his grandparents, uncle and even Godparents join us to witness this beautiful sacrament!  Another thing that I adore about Ryan is how much he loves Jesus.  Before Mass started he asked if he could say a quick prayer in the Adoration Chapel.  I simply love how much he truly understands this wonderful gift of Our Lord giving of himself to us through the Sacrament of the Eucharist. 

 

 

Afterwards, we had a fun reception at our home with family and friends.  It was a wonderful day!