Homeschoolers Beacon

2011-12 Schoolhouse Planner offer !

2011-03-31T07:26:00.001-07:00

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New forms this year will help you:

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Plan a course of study over four years.
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Don't wait! Take advantage of great prices with the special presale going on now until April 14.

A new baby and a new school year

2011-02-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted anything, this is the first since the birth of our fifth child who is now five and a half month old.

Our homeschooling life defiantly changed with having another baby in the house but It was not as hard as I thought it would be. What I mean when I say "not as hard" is I was so tired while I was pregnant that I found it difficult to accomplish just about anything ,once the baby was born I took a couple of weeks off and then was very eager to start a new school year( and do a little catch up :). Our sweet little baby boy is very fussy and needs to be in mommy's arms most of the day which makes doing anything with my hands almost impossible ( house work has suffered the most) but hasn't really impacted our school day. I am very well rested because he sleeps like a dream at night and I can still be teacher for the other children while holding a fussy baby during the day. Sure it would be nice if he had naps during the day and was happy to play a little while why we did school work but he doesn't so we have had to adapt, no big deal. It is so important to my husband and I to be educating our children at home that we will do anything to overcome and enjoy this precious time with our children. This is a gift and we are thankful.

Mommy Day's

2010-02-11T15:33:00.000-08:00

This is my first pregnancy while homeschooling and its been a little more difficult then I thought. Even though I am expecting my fifth child ( later in August) its the first time since my other children started school that I've been pregnant. I started homeschooling just after having my fourth child so I never experienced the exhaustion that comes with pregnancy mixed with schooling two children and entertaining two other children at the same time. The only reason I even have the energy to write this now is because I am exiting the first trimester and have some of my energy back, thank goodness! Don't get me wrong everything is going very well and I feel great but being tiered is very tough when you have so much in a day to accomplish.
I am so blessed to have a very supportive husband, children and parents who have all helped me during this time. My husband always picks up my slack when I'm pregnant and never complains , he has said though that this part of pregnancy is very lonely for him ( poor guy). My children help out extra with little complaint, setting the table cleaning up , folding laundry and even helping with potty training our youngest. My parents offered to come two mornings a week to teach the kids for me to give me a chance to rest!! That has been amazing for the kids and my self.
Now that I've just told you about the great help and positive side of pregnancy and homeschooling I'll let you in on the part I would rather not let anyone know, "Pregnancy Days". We all know that children educated away from the home have "Snow Days" and In service days off from school, well we don't but we have sure made up for it in the last two months!! Yes I am admitting to skipping far to many days due to me being pregnant I am not proud of this but it seemed to be the only way to survive! We don't miss every day but things have been very sporadic during this time , sometimes teaching only half of our subjects a day, teaching in the evening when my husband is around, or not schooling at all. I worried allot about this everyday but then noticed over time that the kids were still learning, how could this be? My 5 year old was reading things he wasn't before and my two year old was describing the morning sunrise as a beautiful pink and orange sky and I hadn't taught her those colors! After those moments I realized that I am just a guide to them and God had already given them the ability to learn.Even with out my routined instruction they have continued to learn and are doing just fine. I know now that this is just another season of my life and things won't fall apart during a time when I need to rest and keep my self and baby healthy.I need to thank the Lord every day for blessing us with the opportunity to homeschool and for not judging me for taking "Mommy Days" when I need it and opening my eyes to new things at the same time.

2010-01-14T05:39:00.000-08:00

Please Keep HATS in your prayers and if you can donations are needed to continue their work there.Checks can be made out to Hands Across The Sea Association and sent to: Hands Across The Sea Box 101 Yarmouth , NS B5A 4B1
HATS Haiti Mission Team 2010
haititeam2010.blogspot.com

2009-12-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

No matter how organized I get in September it never last long, why is that? Will we ever get on a schedule that last a whole school year? I know the kids are doing fine and are getting their core subjects but there's so much more I want to cover and when I'm organized we get it all done. So I know what I have to do and I've done it before so why does it take me so much time to get motivated !!
Really when I think about it reevaluating things several times a year is probably not entirely a bad thing. We change, our activities change, the kids and life change through out the year so really school does too ,sometimes whether we like it or not. Being able to LEARN to adapt and be flexible is the beauty of homeschooling. I say that but during this time of reevaluating our schedule I had to do the same thing with all the activities out side of school time too. I was going to town seven days a week taking kids to Ballet, tumble bugs, karate, Bible study, homeschooling group, play dates, church and appointments! I felt school was starting to suffer and I was exhausted!
What I did about it. Well first of all I prayed about it , I need to know what we were doing was important to God and if I was honouring him through all of our busyness. The answer I got was no, surprise, surprise! Second my husband and I talked about what God was reminding me to do for our family and what we as parents were trying to achieve and agreed activities and busyness were not apart of that plan and not honoring to God but pressure from the world to have "well rounded" kids. I remembered that my role as Wife and Mother was to be the heart of the home and if I was never home how could I fully protect and meditate on what God has called me to do.Thirdly I edited our activities, the Lord gave me the peace and wisdom to do this , I could not have so easily done this alone!! We are now home every weekday except Friday afternoons when we go to our homeschooling group and have the weekends to sleep in, have family and friend time and church. I hope this is something we can always remember and hold on to while our family grows .
I know I will and am still having a problem some days fitting everything in but its more about fitting in all of the character building, bible and life skills then being away from home. Keep your focus on the Lord and you will accomplish what he has called you to do.

Homeschool Co-Op

2009-10-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that starting Friday October 16th we will be starting a homeschooling Co-Op. We will meet every Friday afternoon (except holidays) at 2pm, the length of time is yet to be determind but it will not go past 4pm. We have a location to meet at and when its not available we will do a feild trip our meet at a different location. We are hoping to have parents and other vollenteers to help teach classes each week. If you would like information or would like to be added to the contact email list you can email me at kitchen.ellie@gmail.com or leave a message on the guest book.
Some ideas for classes are fire prevention, science, wood working, music, art, operation Christmas child/who and where are the people we are helping( 3 lessons),
and much more. I would LOVE to get some more ideas for classes and feild trips.
This is a great oppurtunity for home educated families spend some time learning in a group setting and to give parents a break from teaching one day a week! This is not only a chance for the adults to share knowledge and skills with the kids but mabye you have a teenager who has something to share with a group of students. We are open for volenteers and ideas!

I Love U

2009-10-01T09:54:00.001-07:00

I Love U

Posted using ShareThis

The fall season

2009-09-26T17:27:00.000-07:00

Fall is my favorite time of the year, its when the air gets crisp and the sun seems to shine brighter. The leaves on the trees turn into beautiful bright colors and everything looks new and fresh again. I love that my routine begins again and new activities start. I love picking the fresh fall fruits and veggies and going to the markets. It's also my favorite time of the year to do outdoor activities, there's nothing better then a cool sunny fall day spent out side to rejuvenate your soul! This is the season of my life for quality family time.
Some of the things we as a family like to do and extra fun for school in the fall are: Visiting farms, to pick apples, plums, pumpkins and grapes. We visit different markets and talk about the importance of buying local when ever possible. We will do a Unit study on farm life and talk about the important roles of each person, animal and different farm equipment used, this is a great time to visit a working farm . All ready this fall we did a study on ocean animals and did a shoreline clean up at our favorite beach, this opened up awareness of keeping shoreline creatures safe and cleaning up our fragile environment. I think our family eats better, feels better and plays better in the fall!

CBC Mainstreet interview

2009-09-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

If you missed the series that Mainstreet ran called "Thinking Outside the Classroom" You can hear them again on the website but not for long.

www.cbc.ca/mainstreetns . The one I took part in is labeled" From the practical to the spiritual. We scan the province to get a sense of the variety of reasons people choose to homeschool. I'm the second person in the interview.

Thank you to the CBC for doing this week long series on Homeschooling.

First Day Back to School!

2009-09-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

I am happy to report that today was a delightful first day back to school! I was organized, prepared and completed each subject in the time frame I had slotted . Sure we're starting a week later then public school but we don't have snow days and in services three times a month, so I think we're doing just fine. When my husband got home from work today and asked all the kids how school was the all yelled at the same time "Awesome", so I think today was a great start to a long year ahead.
I was thinking back to this time last year wondering if things went so well and yes the first day was great but things were pretty rocky a lot after that if I remember correctly.Being organized and not having a clear plan was my first hurtle. Once I sat down with my husband and talked to him about what was important for both of us to accomplish with the kids education that year things became to look up again. I listed the subjects and activities and made a schedule for each day.This was vital to keeping me on track.
The next hurtle I had to jump was dealing with teaching the two oldest and entertaining the two youngest. Sometimes I could coordinate naps with school but this sometimes met changing our daily start time from morning to afternoon (our two year old was not napping as much anymore).
I found this hard because even the best intentions to complete school in the afternoon sometimes ended up not even happening. This was a pattern all year and is a must to fix this year.The children and I both need the consistency that doing school the same time brings.
The third big thing that prevented us from being consistent last year was doing too many activities away from home. This is something I have to change even if it means we miss out on somethings that are important to us.
How am I going to learn from my mistakes and tackle all of these issues that plagued us last year?
A lot of prayer and guidance on the Lord because I can't do all of this alone, lots of great books by women who have been through it all before me and an amazing scheduling system.Thankfully I have Marlene from Homeschool and More ( located in Petitcodiac, NB) she is fantastic at directing me to useful and sometimes life changing resources. At my most recent visit to her store she highly recommended a book called Seasons of a Mothers Heart by Sally Clarkson and Managers of Their Homes A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Homeschool Families. Both of these books were life changing for me and are going to help me keep my focus and keep me organized this school year.
Best of luck to everyone this year and I'll keep you updated on my new direction and outlook for this year.

CBC Mainstreet Interview

2009-09-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with Stephanie Dormet the host of CBC Mainstreet. We did a short interview regarding the reasons why We homeschool. Like every parent who chooses to home educate their children I had a long list of reasons we chose this route.They really focused on our religious reasons which is our most important reason for homeschooling. They were going to be asking the same question to many people to find out their different reasons and people from many different areas .
CBC Mainstreet is on 3pm-6pm and is found at 92.1 FM.
SEPT 3 - 11 Thinking Outside the Classroom

Fall is fast aproaching

2009-08-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe the summer is coming to an end ,we are only two short weeks until school starts again. I had great intentions on schooling through the summer( because our schooling was often disrupted last year due to having our house for sale) but that didn't really pan out. Its probably a good thing because I am so excited now for the new year to begin after a long break.
I am now organizing each subject making sure I have everything I need. I have half of what I need for math and I'm totally missing a Language Arts book I had wanted to get. I have lesson plans to prepare , a school room to reorganize, and a Homeschoolers Beacon group meeting to get ready for. Even with all the work to do I love the thought of all the things my children are going to learn this year and the adventures we will go on. I can't even imagine missing out on their day to day achievements .What a blessing it is to be called to home educate your children.

Finding Enough Time in The Day

2009-07-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize for not posting anything for so long. In the future I hope to post something new at least once a month.
This year has been very busy with schooling the children, having our house for sale, my husband doing to schoolwork online and working at the same time and many other commitments on top of all of this. It's had me thinking alot this week of all of the things we do each day and about all the other things we wish we could fit into our day. What I mean by this is we overload ourselves so much each day and wonder how we could ever fit in more time with God, more time cleaning our homes, playing with our kids, time with our spouses, having time to ourselves, reading a book, planning lessons for school.....I could go on!! How do we ever find enough balance in our lives to do the things we have to do and the things we love to do?
I believe there are many possible answers to this question . The first being we need to stop wasting time doing the things that are not as important and plan better. We need to stop worrying about the future ( Matthew 6:34 ), and we need to listen to where God is directing our priorities for the day. Starting our day off in prayer asking God to place on our hearts who or what is most important for the day is so crucial. If you listen, he will lead you to the important tasks of the day AND allow the time to complete them. Be still and quiet with him each day and he may show you that one of your children needs a little extra attention with a school subject or that dusting the furniture would perk you up just enough to spur you on to do a little more cleaning. It could be calling a friend to say hi or giving your husband the extra attention he so badly needs. We get so busy with "stuff" that we don't even stop to see the needs of others or ourselves.
I think what I need to do is once and a while write down the things that I would like to accomplish and see if God leads me to fit them in my day. I'd like to be more organized so I don't waste so much time doing silly stuff and worrying about where I might be in the future if I don't get done today what I set out to do. I also want to relax and spend time on the lasting things in life, my relationships with God, my husband, children, family, friends and I can't forget myself also!!
I have a good example of a day I had this week where my priorities were all wrong. I woke up the other morning thinking of all of the big things that had to be accomplished before I even got out of bed. I had to clean the house because my husband was having a friend over to watch a show in the evening, I had to go shopping with the kids for groceries, cook a hot dish for a pot luck that I was going to in the evening and somewhere in between pay attention to the kids. Instead of praying about my day I just went all day fretting about it and ended up accomplishing the wrong things.
It was muggy and pouring rain outside, which made the whole house feel damp and yucky, and I had no motivation to clean it. I defiantly didn't feel like lugging my four small children to town to go shopping for much needed food in the pouring rain so instead I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what I was going to make my family for supper and what to take to the pot luck. The only solution I could think of on MY OWN was finish cleaning the house do lots of laundry, put together what ever I could find in the freezer for the family for supper and skip the pot luck ( that I knew about for weeks but didn't prepare for) and go grocery shopping in the evening so everyone can have breakfast in the morning.
So I finished the day lying in bed thinking I wasted the morning complaining about the weather, didn't start any house work until late in the afternoon and realized that our friend cares enough about our family not to care what our house looks like so I could have done half the work. I did way more laundry then was needed for the day. I could have packed the kids up in the car and taken them in the rain to get the food I needed to make supper(we wouldn't have melted), and I could have been prepared in advance with a meal planned to take to the pot luck before the day of so I could have gone and had the much needed time of fellowship with other women from my church. I would say I should have asked God to place on my heart the priorities for that day!Lesson learned!
I didn't tell this story to dwell on what I could have done but that I realize the importance of recognizing that I don't need to be in control just focused on God and a little more organized!

My visit to Homeschoool and More

2009-04-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

My husband and I had an opportunity to go to the Homeschool and More Store in Petitcodiac ,New Brunswick a couple of weeks ago about 40kms out side Moncton. This is a great little store that is in the home of a great family who together run this business. I've ordered from their catalogue before and was very pleased with the selection and how quickly my order was completed. If you ever have a chance to check them out either online ,the catalogue or by going to their store I think you will be very pleased with the selection . They carry parent resources, Bible, The Mission minded family, pre-school, Language Arts, Mathematics, thinking skills, Canadiana, world geography, world history, special focus-Africa, science, trades and life skills, languages, art appreciation, music, crafts, coloring books, Alpha Omega and other.
They were very busy that day trying to finish their next catalogue so hopefully it will be available soon. Homeschool and More will be at the NSHEA 2009 Conference and Resource Fair at the Dartmouth Spotrsplex May 30th . Its really amazing to have this so close to us. I am a huge supporter of local ( Maritime or Canadian) anything! I love to be able to meet and talk with the person I am buying from it makes for a very pleasant experience and you can feel comfortable asking questions and in getting advice. I have many years of teaching ahead of me and feel allot more confident now that there are great resources and advice close by. A lot of the books I list on this blog are found at Homeschool and More.
http://www.homeschoolandmore.ca/

Burning Bush- how Homeschoolers Beacon was created

2009-03-29T16:58:00.000-07:00

It's ALWAYS hard when God calls to us from a burning bush! One evening I sat down to take a breath after getting my four children off to bed and tried to think what (of one of many things) I was going to work on . I had great plans early in the day to sit down in the evening while my husband was out and the children were in bed and do my devotional in my Bible, catch up on some reading or work on my lesson plans for school. Instead , when all was quiet I just sat with a blank mind as if I had nothing to do! This seemed very strange to me because I was really looking forward to this time for myself all day. Then I was suddenly filled with a great desire to to have a homeschooling meeting. That lead to me planning to host it, organize, do a devotional and I thought up a logo and name for the group ( all in just over an hour).This was God not me!This is not something that comes naturally to me. The devotion came with a turn of a page in my Bible .I was brought to the story of God calling Mosses from a burning bush( found in Exodus 3: 1-15 )and I thought ,when God calls us from a burning bush and asks us to do something very difficult everything in us says no and thinks of reasons why we can't do it. The lies creep in, you can't organize a meeting, you can't lead a group and give encouragement to other homeschooling families. For you It may be ,am I qualified to school my children?Are all of my children's needs being meet? Is this really what God has called me to do?
Gods response to Moses is great. He doesn't laugh and agree that he can't do what he's asking him to do . He doesn't walk away in disappointment he simply tells Moses," I will be with you" .The responsibility for rescuing the Israelites remained with God even when Moses was commanded to head up the committee. This goes the same for when he asks us to do things for him . The responsibility remains with God to fill his purposes , but the choice to be involved with him is ours.
He was with me guiding and giving me the tools I needed to pull this off . He directed me to the right resources and people to help me start this group and have our first meeting. It turned out great and I hope the group grows and reaches many homeschooling families. Thank you to my husband and friends for your kind words and support.Most of all thank you God for always being with me!