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It's difficult for me to encapsulate my definition of education because education is everywhere in everything. It is life. It's growth. It's improvement. Education is so much more than school (or home school), which is merely one structure from which we aim to become educated.

Education, to me, is placing ourselves, and those we are responsible for, on the path of eternal progression, and moving forward. All light and knowledge are part of this. There is no division between temporal and spiritual. All truth is God's truth. In this way, there is no end to education. There is no graduation from eternal progression.

Part of our eternal path, is to gain success in our earthly life. I feel that my role as a mother is to help my kids obtain success here that will prepare them for this life, and in turn, for the eternities.

This includes, but is not limited to:

1. Building Christlike attributes and character.
2. Loving and understanding the Gospel.
3. Being exposed to a broad base of knowledge, with deep understanding of topics of interest, talent, and passion.
4. Realizing personal life mission.
5. Possessing skills that will enable them to support themselves and their families when/if necessary.
6. Embracing God-given gender roles.

When people ask me what we do for home school, it's difficult for me to explain. We don't structure it like public school. It's a life style of learning. I like to call it Life Education.

Happy Learning!

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The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Tiffany Aching, age 9, is a responsible  and sensible girl. She makes cheese and watches after her sticky little brother. Generation after generation of Achings have been sheep herders.

But Tiffany wants to be something more. She wants to be a witch.

When creatures from Fairyland start invading her farm, she does what anyone would do...arms herself with a frying pan.

Luckily she has a better weapon. The Nac Mac Feegle, also known as the Wee Free Men, are on her side. They're tiny blue men with lots of tattoos. They love to fight and drink strong drink. Their battle cries are hilarious. We laughed out loud when they said, "They can tak' oour lives, but they cannae tak' oour troousers!" They're also always chanting, ""Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willnae be fooled again!" ***

Tiffany has mixed feelings about taking care of her brother all the time, but when he is whisked away by the evil Queen of Fairyland, she knows she doesn't have a choice but to save him...and of course, the Wee Free Men are more than anxious to help.

Once they are in Fairyland, the story gets a bit more complicated, with different levels of dreaming and reality.

This story is not only entertaining, but it has a multitude of life lessons. I read it after a friend said that it was a great analogy for becoming a leader. Because of this, I saw many great insights I may have missed. After a series of dreams, Tiffany realizes, "The secret is not to dream. The secret is to wake up. Waking up is harder."

Tiffany is a great character. She wonders about her lack of emotions. She knows she has a seed of greatness inside of her, so she seeks a mentor to help her become what she wants to be. After all, everyone starts small, "like oak trees". She believes in herself and does what she has to do.

In terms of age-appropriateness, I recommend this book for tweens and teens. Like I said, the Nac Mac Feegle love their strong drink. Also, Granny Aching, Tiffany's grandma, smoked cigars. The cigar packaging plays a large part in the story and is once said to look like a naked woman's sillouette if you hold the package just so.

I read it aloud to my kids, skipping the things aforementioned. Use your judgment.

***Funny story. One evening in AZ, the kids, in desperate need of a bath, were marching through the house chanting, "No baths, no showers, no soap. We won't be fooled again!"

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Each morning after breakfast, we do a Mini Lesson, which is a short lesson about whatever random thing I think of. Sometimes the ideas are inspired by the kids and sometimes not.

Mini Lessons are a great way to introduce ideas and concepts that don't already fit into our daily work...and they're pretty much the kids' favorite part of the day. I never tell them ahead of time what it will be. The surprise helps keep them fun.

Here are some of the lessons we've done...

1. Tell a short story that includes basic shapes. Trace the shapes in the air while you tell it, and then have everyone draw an interpretation of the story. After you've set the example, have the kids tell a brief story and have everyone draw theirs, too.

2. Compare a flat world map with a globe. Find where you live on both. Identify the 7 continents. Color and label the continents on a blank world map.

3. Measure things around the house with a measuring tape/ruler. Record findings. (When we did this, we discovered that Y's neck is bigger around than his big sister's and brother's necks! No wonder we can't button the top button of his church shirt!)

4. Make coin critters! We absolutely love this idea from Family Fun.

5. Make paper airplanes. Talk about lift and gravity. Color and label a diagram of a wing.

6. Build card houses. (This one turned into a zoo for little stuffed animals.)

7. ABC Gratitudes. Write out the letters A-Z, one letter on each line. The first person fills in something that they're grateful for that starts with an A, then passes it to the next person, until you have a whole alphabet of thanksgiving.

8. Work on memorizing the 50 States Song.

Right after Mini Lesson, I read aloud to the kids, so I like to finish with something they can do with their hands while I read...usually it's some kind of coloring. They also like to embroider, finger knit, draw, and write notes while I read.

I keep a running list of ideas that is easily accessible because some days I have lots of ideas and other days I don't.

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A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Little Princess has always been a favorite book of mine. Though bittersweet, it leaves you wanting to live a more grateful, imaginative life.

Sarah Crewe has lived a privileged life, to say the least. She has always been given everything her heart desired, and been waited on hand and foot. You might think that a girl like this would be spoiled and selfish, but Sarah has a generous heart. She entertains the girls in her boarding school with wild stories of India, befriending even those less popular.

When Sarah's lot in life changes drastically, she becomes a penniless servant, hungry and cold. She pretends to be a princess, and reminds herself to be gracious and share the little she has.

I highly recommend this story for listeners of all ages. Like I said, it was a favorite of mine as a child, and now I realize that it still holds a place in my heart.

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Just because we homeschool, doesn't mean we want to miss out on things like the first day of school! We are joining a co-op this year that meets once to twice a week, and we started this week with a visit to a local museum. The kids were excited, so we put on their new clothes and backpacks and started our new school year with a bang.

We have a revamped schedule we are working on. Here's what it looks like so far:

5:30 My Personal exercise

6:00 My personal time for prayer and scripture study

6:45 Family Scripture Study and prayer

7:15 Breakfast/Dishes
Fold and put away one load of laundry together
Weekly Worky (Monday-make bread, Tuesday-dust/vacuum, Wednesday-bathrooms, Thursday-windows/mopping, Friday-according to need)
Personal Chores (Get dressed, brush hair and teeth, straighten room...)

9:15 Quick-Pick up

9:30 Pledge of Allegiance
Memorization (write out what we are trying to memorize that day, then memorize through actions, marching to the rhythm, taking turns saying lines...)
Mom School-A mini lesson on whatever I think is lacking (like symmetry/assymetry)

10:30 Read-aloud during snack

11:00 ROW to Know-Quiet, individual reading or writing time

12:00 Lunch-discuss what we learned during ROW

12:30 Math

1:00 Quiet Time

1:30 Free Productive Time (pretty much anything except friends, media, or outside time)

(2:30 Errands if we have any)

3:00 Free Time

5:00 Everyone comes in to prepare for dinner time.

6:00 Dinner/Dishes

6:45 Family Read-Aloud

7:30 Bedtime

9:30 Grown-up bedtime

So, there you have it...our basic outline. And, yes, we are very flexible with it.

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You are probably familiar with Usborne Books. Have you seen their Science Encyclopedia? It is a beautiful book that has gotten lots of love around here. It's basically a textbook, but one that is pretty enough and interesting enough to just sit down and read.

This book covers the basic topics of Materials, Mixtures & Compounds, Energy/Forces/Motion, Earth & Space, Light/Sound/Electricity, Plants, Animals, and the Human Body in a friendly way that will appeal to elementary age students. Then, when one of the topics strikes your child's interest, he can visit the websites recommended to go along with the topic or try one of the experiments.

We recently grew our own crystals out of alum, based on an experiment in this book. 






It was a fun experiment, and though the Usborne Science Encyclopedia 3 Comments on The Usborne Science Encyclopedia, last added: 8/28/2010