Journeys Through Bookland

About a year ago a wonderful friend of mine recommended this amazing series. I was intrigued by her description, of a ten volume set of books filled with the best children's literature of all time. I mean who wouldn't want that...right?!

So, I started doing my research to find out even more. I was also curious how hard it was going to be to purchase a set of books published in 1939. I kept freaking out a bit because, it just seemed to good to be true. Could there really be a set of books with some of the best literature in it? Its been almost a year now, and after a lot of searching I FINALLY received my own complete 10 volume Journeys Through Bookland set...and I think I'm in LOVE!! Not only are they BEAUTIFUL, but the stories, poems, and illustrations within the books are fantastic.

As I unpacked each book tonight I began to have an inkling of the deep connection and love Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and other great men must have felt about their precious libraries. I gently rubbed my hand across the red leather covers as I took each volume out of their packaging. I was in awe at the intricate designs, and craftsmanship that went into each book.

The house was quiet as I unpacked my box. All the kids were in bed and asleep. For some reason I stopped and looked at my little stack of books. I reflected on the intentional life I am choosing to live. I thought about all the things I am now so willing to give up. Things that are distractions, and will get in the way of my spiritual growth, educational goals, and family vision are easy to recognize and say no to now. I realized how important this shift has been to my happiness, my success as a mother, and my marriage.

I looked back to my stack of red leather books, and smiled. The thought of reading volume one in bed made me smile. I had thought I knew what made me happy a few years ago, and could never understand why it didn't last. I picked up my books and headed off to my room...thankful for the path I am on and the journey that lies a head.

Pinocchio

I have to say that its been kind of shocking reading the REAL Pinocchio!! The two older kids and I have been trying to get through it for a few weeks now. Each afternoon we spend about 5-10 minutes reading just a bit from it. What we've discovered is that Pinocchio is very selfish, mean, and sometimes down right nasty. It has been nice to be able to talk to the kids about his behavior, and how ungrateful he is to everyone around him. I think in the end I'll be glad we read it, because of the conversations I've had with the kiddos, but boy oh boy did Disney really change this story up a bit.

Monday UPDATE:: We read Pinocchio some more today, for about an hour, and the kids and I are finally starting to get into it. Thank goodness the little selfish boy is starting to recognize just how lazy and terrible he is, and he wants to change. This is a nice transition for the kids to see. :) I think I'm going to end up liking this book...I hope. Its just been hard because Disney changed the story so much that its very different than what we've heard before.

Having a plan...and living life!

Having a plan with my life is making all the difference. It makes everything easier, because I've already made most of the decisions I used to have to make on a daily basis. Two examples are work and school. At the beginning of this year I made a plan and then wrote it down. (I think the writing it down has been key for me.)

[WORK]
I decided that my kids were ALWAYS going to work before we did school, and that I was going to stop doing their chores for them. Its been three weeks now, and we haven't missed a weekday yet!! The kids are starting to just do their jobs without asking why or complaining. I knew it would work, but to see it happening in my home is stinking exciting.

[SCHOOL]
I also decided that we were going to be consistent with the amount of 'school' time we did each day. In order to give me the best chance of success I implemented a few things.


1.) I started making daily schedules and study suggestions. This has helped me plan out the day and be realistic with what we can accomplish.
2.) We started waking up earlier. Getting up and having family devotional right off the bat is so empowering!!
3.) I decided no matter what I'd try my best to inspire the kids to study. Sometimes we haven't started until after lunch because its taken us so long to get our jobs done. Other times we've gotten started late because one of the babies is crabby...BUT no matter what we've done our best and its be AMAZING!! I think it was Charlotte Mason that talked about the power of habits. All I can say to that is AMEN!! Good habits are powerful!!
4.) We changed our TV policy to NO TV during the week. This has totally changed the tone in our home. I can't even describe it, but our home is more peaceful, more satisfying to be at, and more loving than it has ever been before. I am so glad we did this. Its been hard at times to not watch a little CSI or Office, but then I think of what our home has been like for the past three weeks. Then its easy to remind myself that the benefits TOTALLY out weigh the little bit of sacrifice I've given.


Our school room doesn't look like most classrooms. Today Megan insisted on doing her school work with army guys all around her...I was cracking up, but what the heck she was doing her math so I won't complain. :)

[ITS SO FUN TO PLAY]

With the TV and Wii off I often find my kiddos small and big off playing with their toys for long periods of time. I keep pinching myself, because its almost to good to be true. After 3 weeks of NO TV and Wii during the week we are FREE!!

Brea found the Potato Heads today, and played with them on and off during the whole day. She is SO dang cute!!

The little boys are in love with their Star Wars action figures! Hyrum's gotten a few new ones lately as a reward to re-learn how to poop on the potty. He's been potty trained for a year now, but for some reason regressed and starting having pooping issues. However, I'm happy to say that the Star Wars action figure incentive program has worked wonders. He's completely potty trained again, and has 6 new action figures to boot!!

[BECCA'S BUMP]

Today Becca split her head open on our fireplace seating thingy. Thank goodness we already had a ear re-check set up for today. The doctor checked her out and his prescribed a band aid and anti-biotic ointment. So we are good to go!! Look how cute she is!! No little bump is going to stop her from having a good time.

EGGS!!

We didn't' get lots of eggs during the hot Arizona summer! In fact I had to actually start buying eggs from the store again...oh the embarrassment!! I mean its flat out a disgrace to have chickens that don't lay. Thank goodness they are starting to redeem themselves. Yesterday Jarom went out to feed the chickens, horses, and collect the eggs. And guess what...he brought back a mother load of eggs. We must have forgotten to collect them for a few days, because he had 18 eggs in his basket when he came in. WOO-HOO!! Our chickens are rocking!


Today Megan took on the task of cleaning the dirty eggs so they didn't look quite so disgusting. (The four eggs we collected today looked especially YUCKY!!) By the time Megan was done with them they were sparkling. That's my girl!!


We now have an official 'chicken cleaning brush.' Oh the joys of having animals and fresh eggs...I wouldn't trade it for the world. So if anyone wants green eggs and ham come on over. We've got LOTS of green eggs.

Nicholeen Peck...WOW!!

[THE SEMINAR]
The parenting seminar on Saturday went great. We had a fabulous turn out, and I was once again inspired by the information Nicholeen gave us and the vision she cast for our families. What was even better was for Scott to hear it with me!! The only thing I wish was that I'd have been able to have Nicholeen and Spencer stay with my family so I could have been able to hang out with them more. Oh well!!

So, ever since the seminar we've been talking about how we can incorporate even more of what we've learned from Nicholeen into our home. We decided that we're just going to focus on a few things each week. This week we decided to implement couple meetings and family meetings (which we've been spotty on both for a while). We also decide to do a special 'training' (or brush up really because we've talked about this before) on how to accept instructions, no answers, and how to disagree appropriately.

[Couple and Family Meetings]
The 'rules' and 'guidelines' Nicholeen suggests for these two VERY important family meetings has made all the difference in them being successful for our family. We've been kind of doing them inconsistently for the past 6 months or so, so I know they work!! But for some reason we haven't been super consistent with them. After hearing Nicholeen talk about them again on Saturday, Scott and I were recommitted to start holding consistent couple and family meetings. I'm so glad she reminded me how important these are. They really set the tone, and make parenting so much easier. Yesterday we had our meetings, and already its made such a difference.

[Family Training]
Tonight we had our family activity which included, dinner, root beer floats, and some training for us and the kids. Yesterday, Scott and I decided what our default system was when a child decided to...not listen to instructions or accept a no answer. We wanted to first teach the kids what we expected them to do when they were given an instruction or told no to something. Then we wanted to do some roll playing so we could all practice.

First, Scott explained how we expected them to act when asked to do something or when told no. It was awesome to see their little faces fill with confidence as they understood what was expected of them. Scott then taught the kiddos how to disagree appropriately. They were totally excited about this one. I loved telling them that we don't expect them to always be happy when they are told no to something, but we do them to stay in control and disagree appropriately. I think these are all such great adult skills to learn...what a jump start they are getting to learn them as children!!

In order to get a rootbeer float each child had to go through the training and pass it off by roll playing it with Scott. We all had a great time as we practiced our new skills, and gained clarity on what is expected in our home. I'm so excited to keep practicing these parenting skills, so my home is a place of love, order, and joy!

Music Day!!

Thursdays have turned out to be our family's music day. I love it, but boy is it a bit crazy.

[Let's Play Music]
My three oldest are in a fabulous program called Let's Play Music. They are in their second of three years and all I can say is WOW!! Its such a fun and inspiring program that teaches the kids all about music and gets them playing the piano. I can't wait for Hyrum to start next year.

[EVMCO]
This semester we added to our music day the...East Valley Music Choral Organization. It's an incredible choral program that not only teaches the kids about how to sing, and musical theory, BUT also uplifts them and talks to them about the power of spiritual music. My kids are really enjoying it so far. The bonus is that lots of the kids friends are in the program too, so while they are waiting for their siblings to finish they get to play with their friends. This works out great, since they don't get the daily dose of recess time like most kids do at public school. I'll have to take some pictures next week to document all the fun they are having.

Scott has also joined the organization, and he has been SO INSPIRED!! Its kind of a sacrifice because he has church stuff every Tuesday evening and now he has EVMCO everything Thursday. Oh well? Its such a great thing for him I don't mind.

[What a fantastic life!!]
I just have to say how blessed I am, and how grateful I am for the Lord and His vision of who I can become. I have struggled with holding my kids accountable to their household duties in the past. However, what I've found is that they are happier when they are pushed and when things are expected of them. And guess what...I'm happier too!

I was inspired at the first of the year to stay more organized, and keep my kids more informed of what is expected of them each day. The results of those two perhaps minor shifts in the way I approach my day has made a HUGE difference in my life. I am so grateful for personal revelation, and the peace and blessings it can bring to my life. As I've worked and studied side by side with my kids this year, miracles have started to happen. They respect me more, and I respect them more. The love between us has increased, and our home is a better place to be. I feel like I am getting closer to creating a house of order...and its exciting. I've got lots of work to do, but I'm starting to see the bigger picture with more clarity. I pray that through the grace and love of God, my dream of creating an 'ideal' home will become a reality.

If at first you don't INSPIRE...try try again!!

I LOVE the TJed philosophy of education!! The TJed philosophy has 8 keys of learning. One of them is INSPIRE NOT REQUIRE. Amen to that!! I know without a shadow of a doubt that if my kids are excited about something I can hardly stop them from learning. However, they aren't always feeling super inspired...so what do I do then? That is where my strategic planning comes into play.

I feel like one the most important jobs I have as a mother (at least as far as the academics go), is to inspire my children to get excited and have a desire to learn. IF my kids are NOT excited to learn, it's my job to switch gears...start exposing them to fun subjects and ideas, maybe I need to plan an activity, or perhaps I should just start reading to them.

[My little Experiment]
This year I've been able to put this idea of "If at first you don't INSPIRE...try try again!" to the test. Here are my results so far:

PROOF ONE: This summer I decided that I wanted to study ancient history with the kiddos. I didn't really ask them if they were interested in studying this...mostly because my oldest is only 10 and didn't know enough about ancient history to make an educated decision.

I picked the books we'd read, and on the first day of school I told the kids how excited I was to start studying ancient history. I told them about the different places we'd be learning about, and why I had always just loved this time period. Then I just started reading. Everyday we'd read a chapter or two out of The Story of the World. At first, they would kind of listen, as they colored or quietly played near by. Now, 5 months later, they beg me to read our history book each day. Its their favorite thing to learn about, and they never want to skip it. We are even reading a history book (right now we are reading a book called The Trojan War) for their bed time story...and they love it. WOW!! I just can't help but smile when I think about it.

PROOF TWO: A while back we turned car time into book time, by always listening to an audio book while traveling in the car. Even if its only a 5 minute drive, we turn the audio book on. I LOVE IT!! The kids don't always love the books we are listening to at first, but by the middle to end of the book they don't even want to leave the car, because they can't wait to find out what happens next.



PROOF THREE: In our daily schedule I have time reserved for personal quiet reading. However, most of the time it doesn't really happen. I've been trying to figure this out...and it finally hit me. For my 10 and 7 year old to sit by themselves, and read a book they really have to want to read it. So duh?! It wasn't happening, because I hadn't found the right book yet. So, now I realized it was my job to figure out what books I needed.

For Jarom, I had heard of a book called The Lightening Thief in mind. It is a fictional series I recently heard about that is set in modern times. What really struck me about the book is that it incorporates the Greek gods. PERFECT!! For Megan, it was easy. She was starting a new semester of Liberty Belles, and they were going to be reading Kit. I knew she'd devour the books (like she had with the Kaya series). I ordered both book sets from Amazon, and they arrived on Monday.

My theory was right. The reason quiet reading time wasn't happening because they didn't want to read. No it was because we didn't have the right books. Ever since they arrived Monday night I have hardly been able to pull them away from their books. Megan has finished two of the six books in her series and Jarom's already read 80 or 90 pages. WOO-HOO!! There nothing that warms my homeschooling heart as much as seeing my kids beg to read.



PROOF FOUR: Cooper, my little 6 year old wasn't reading at the beginning of the school year, and to be honest wasn't really interested in working with me at all. My goal was to have him reading by Christmas, but he didn't know that. All he knew, was that I asked him every day if he'd read with me. If he didn't want to read from the Bob books, then I worked with him for 5 minutes on the letter sounds, and then read aloud to him. Before long he was trying to read the Bob books, and eventually he wanted to read them with me. Yesterday, he finished the first set of Bob books, and read the final book in our Family Home Evening. He was so proud of his accomplishment...and I was THRILLED!! Tonight, Cooper read Hyrum's choosen bedtime book. It was the fun Bernstein Bear Book called, Inside, Outside, Upside Down. He was beaming, and I was so excited that he felt confident enough to read it for us.


MY CONCLUSION: I believe that if you just keep trying to inspire your kiddos or yourself to learn eventually you'll get inspired to learn. It might get a bit frustrating along the way...but I've found (at least for myself) that if I just keep trying, eventually I've been able to figure out exactly what it is that inspires my kiddos.

My new motto for 2010:
If at first you don't INSPIRE...try try again!!