Dusting off..

Cough, cough, hack, hack…sneeze!

 

      Excuse me while I dust off my poor neglected blog. A few layers of dust have gathered while I was away doing all that a wife and homeschooling mama does. You know, things like enjoying long relaxing baths, watching programs of my choice while eating Bon Bons, relaxed grocery shopping and –-Yeah right! More like running to and from multiple doctor and other appointments, crazed last minute grocery shopping trips…with the kids, house chores that never end, keeping track of the wild and busy boys while trying to also keep up with a growing teenage daughter, researching and planning for another year of homeschool and, the list could go on and on but we’ll just leave it at I was busy.  

While our lives were tumbling in and out of oblivion, I lost my motivation to write here as I love to do.  I miss writing more than a few sentences or two like you do on Facebook, and I miss visiting all my blog land friends, which I have tried to keep up with occasionally when I had a few spare moments, and I miss sharing our lives and my thoughts, even if I am the only reader.

This last year has been a whirlwind of day-to-day and at times moment-to-moment. But we are still managing, somehow, to get up and get things going each day and get at least some of what needs done, done. This last year has also brought us many changes that we are adjusting to and a few new challenges we are learning to deal with.

In just a few short weeks we will be beginning another year, our 10^th year, of homeschooling. I am excited and nervous as my oldest will begin her 9^th grade year, which here is officially… (Insert drum roll here) HIGH SCHOOL! Yes, I am a bit shocked we are here already and not quite sure what to think. Thankfully, we do have a basic plan laid out and will be working on final details soon, which I hope means that I will have the first few months figured out, or at least mostly figured out very soon. Then, we will just see where this road takes us, and hopefully, it will stay on the path I have planned, but if life or God decided different (which is pretty much a given) then we will adjust and as the GPS device says, “Re-routing new course.” Either way, we will figure it out.

Along with a high schooler in our homeschool this year, we will have a 6^th grader and a 2^nd grader, if you count grades. We don’t do work per grade as much as we work according to specific needs and levels of each of the kids, so I am often having to think when someone asks what grade the kids are in. Which I’m sure makes for another questioning look directed at us weird homeschoolers. That’s okay, by now those looks and other comments don’t bother me anymore.

Well, it looks like my spare time is up and it’s time to run more errands and wrangle these kiddos. I hope to be back soon and get back into writing daily.

Today’s quote for you:

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

-Hellen Keller-

 

-Amber-

Sharing our homeschool journey...

A few years ago I decided to be much more open about our homeschool journey. I posted more about our homeschooling on my blog, I shared many of our adventures and things we have done on my Facebook page, and I talked openly with all that asked or commented on our choice to homeschool.

I did so after spending the first years of our homeschool journey worrying daily about what others thought and trying desperately to live up to the standards of others. I tried to make our homeschool something others would expect of a "good" homeschool family. But along the way I realized I was spending too much of my time trying to appease others and accomplish what I thought was expected instead of focusing on my kids, their needs, and what truly worked best for them.

By opening up our homeschool journey to others I found that not only did I have more confidence in what I was doing and the choice we made to homeschool, but more people, family and friends, began to join in on the fun and help us along the way.

Of course there are still many that do not share our view on education and homeschooling, and that's ok, but I have felt that opening the door to what we do and who we are has given those we know a better idea of what homeschooling is, or least what it is for our family.

I have really enjoyed sharing our homeschool journey, as I really do love and believe in what we are doing. I have greatly appreciated when family and friends have offered their support, advice, encouragement, and supplies or field trip ideas. I like to think that being more open about our homeschooling and what we do, has given those we know another view on homeschooling, and helped give positive thoughts and feelings when they think about homeschoolers.

Everything I share about our homeschooling, I do so because I like to share and of course as a mom, I love to show off my kids and what they do. It is never meant to shove our choice in anyone's face or compare our journey to another's. Everyone and each family needs to decide what is best for them and their needs, their wants, and situation. Our way is just that, Our Way!

Creative learners...

It might be better said that we explore, experience, and enjoy life and the opportunities with the freedom to follow our interests and creative ideas, than to say we are unschooling. As we still parent our children and require them to do chores, follow rules, and be respectful, with consequences when these are not done. I still instruct my children to take showers, clean their rooms, to use their manners, and to respect their elders. I also ask them to read and write a each day.  Many unschoolers do not ask their children to do these things, they trust the children or teens will do what’s needed when necessary.  I’m sure many that in many families that works wonderfully, but I am not quite there just yet, and I honestly do not know if I’ll ever be able to completely let go in that way.

  The term unschooling has a variety of thoughts and assumptions tied to it, though I believe most do not understand what it is truly meant to be. In most circumstances unschooling can be a wonderful way of life, and a very natural way to raise children. 

 

 I am just beginning to understand what it means to be truly unschooling. At the moment we would not likely be considered “real unschoolers” in most circles, and that’s quite alright with me. This is where homeschooling can be anything you make it, whether it has an official name or not. I guess for us a better term for what we are doing, which is still very much “unschooling” in my mind, might be, “Creative learners.”

I am so used to trying to fit everything into a nice neat little box, though with my kids and our crazy life I should know better, that I sometimes forget that life doesn’t have to be divided into boxes and be neat and tidy. One also does not need a proper title to what they are doing, how they are learning, or who they are. It is quite enough to just be you and to live the life you have, however you see fit. No set rules or checklists required.

 

Our first official day in our unschooling journey...

 I'm not sure if it would be considered and official start to unschooling as unschooling is not set by rules or boxes you can check, but if so, we have officially started unschooling. I am excited and nervous at the same time as I am tossing us into uncharted territory, without a map, checklist or rules.  Yet, I am looking forward to going and doing on a whim, to explore as the inspiration hits, and to do what I believe will truly work best for us. I have checked out multiple books, looked through many web sites and blogs, all on unschooling, and still feel as though I'm jumping ship and joining "those" people...and I'm completely thrilled about it.

I do not have everything figured out just yet, or know quite where this journey will take us or if it will even last the next six months. But at the moment we are all excited and ready to jump in feet first with everything we have.

The kids made me laugh yesterday morning as they wandered around for a time, asking what they should do, as they are used to having set assignments or a list of things to be done for school each day. They did enjoy having more time to relax and wake up in the morning before they began their morning responsibilities. After breakfast and more asking of what they should do and my reply of "What would you like to do?" they each decided on a project and jumped in.

Lady Bug decided to spend time working on corrections to a story that she and her youngest brother have been writing together, then she decided to start a new story of her own. She has always enjoyed writing and I love that given the opportunity to pick what to do, she chose to write. She even ended up so involved in her writing that I had to work to pull her away so she could eat lunch before we had to go pick up her little brother from his enrichment program on time. In the end, I think she spent a few hours working between the two stories.

Wild Thing, my middle son, decided he wanted to work on making his corn-cob pipes. While reading, "Frosty the Snowman" to the kids this Christmas, he decided he wanted to make corn-cob pipes just like Frosty had. So he took it upon himself to research how to make them and watched a few videos and read different articles often enough that he now has the instructions on how to make a corn-cob pipe memorized. He enjoyed picking ears of corn for us to eat and then cleaning them off and setting them in the window to dry. Then yesterday, he finished cleaning them off and cut them into smaller pieces and drilled the necessary holes. Now he only has to find, buy, and add the bamboo sticks to the pipes. In case you're wondering, cutting dried corn-cobs is much harder than you'd think, or at least harder than I thought it would be.

He is making one for his grandfather who does smoke a tobacco pipe, but as he doesn't want anyone to smoke Wild Thing said he is only making these pipes for decoration. He is very concerned about the health of other's, and often tries to find ways to encourage people to make healthy choices.

 He has always enjoyed hands-on activities, and is quite creative when it comes to finding projects to do. As soon as he gets an idea in his head, it's nearly impossible for him to change direction until he has had a chance to try, or build whatever it is that he is wanting to do. This is where letting go of the traditional "schoolish" thoughts are going to give him an open door to learning. 

After lunch, the kids both decided to work on some crafts they had going. Wild Thing worked on painting a wooden model of a pirate ship, or Black Pearl if you ask him, and Lady Bug made some cute picture frames out of popsicle sticks. Of course after all these projects were done, there was corn dust and paint everywhere, but there was also peace in the house and we all enjoyed the day. For that, I am very thankful.

While on the drive to pick up Little Man  the kids and I talked about our day and what they thought. We discussed what they thought unschooling was, what they would like to do or add into our unschooling journey, how they both felt they learned best, and what benefits unschooling may have long term. I was glad to have their ideas and thoughts on what they were interested in doing and how they may go about learning what it is they wish to learn. I also was pleased to hear how they thought unschooling may be a good fit for our family.

Every day and through every conversation, I feel more and more confident that this (unschooling) really is the best thing for us all right now. I watch my kids and see the spark in their eyes, and hear the excitement in their voices when they have the freedom and opportunity to follow what they are interested in, and it gives me the courage and faith that this will work out, somehow.

I have decided that to help me to be able to truly let go of the old thoughts on what homeschooling should be and the worries of what others may think, I am taking this month to focus on us all having fun and exploring what's around us. Lots of field trips, crafts and fun activities, reading just for fun, and making time to just enjoy each day and being in each other's company, that's the plan.

At the end of each day, as I have done since September, I journal about our day and add photos when possible, showing just how much the kids have done, learned, and experienced. After looking back through the journal so far, I see that the most memorable and educational moments are those in which we were away from the text books and "schoolish" things and involved in exploring and trying new things, reading for fun, and being creative.
I'm look forward to reading our journal at a later date and reading about the adventures we've had this year.

Our unschooling adventure begins...now!

  We have made quite a few changes in our homeschool journey over the years. This is our 9^th year homeschooling and like most we started with a set curriculum and did school-at-home. Each year I would change a few things to fit our needs better and over the years I became more comfortable making my own lesson plans and eventually planned most all the lessons, though I still used a math curriculum for the kids and a few workbooks here and there to fill in or to get ideas from. The last year or two we have moved into a very relaxed unit study style of homeschool and it has done very well for us. Though in the last few months we have felt burned out and in need of a change, and a break. It has been a long rough year and we are now feeling the full effects of this last year.

I have been feeling pulled or maybe lead to make a drastic change in how we homeschool. So after a lot of research, talking with hubby and the kids, and some more research, we are making the move to an unschooling style of homeschool. Though, I haven't figured out all the details of how this will work just yet. I want to embrace the unschooling life as much as I can. I’m afraid it may somewhat limited because of my personality, but we're going to give it a go anyway.

I'm not the best one to explain what unschooling is just yet as I am still researching and trying to figure out exactly how we will do this. I have found a few posts that explains unschooling quite well and a blog that has many wonderful posts on their unschooling adventures. The first link, “Zen Habits Unschooling” will take you to a great post that describes much of what we are looking and hoping for.

Zen Habits Unschooling
The Natural Child Project
Stories of an Unschooling Family

 I realized after deciding to set the curriculum and school books aside for now, that letting go of the traditional way of thinking about learning opens up opportunities in ways I never imagined. The kids and I have talked about what we each would like to do, what projects we plan to work on, and things we'd like to work into our daily routine. I have to say that I was quite happy when the kids all said they wanted to keep our couch cuddles and reading time. We would read together before, but we often ended up putting it off until after our other work and workbook pages were done. Which of course was more often that I liked, and would mean we missed reading together that day. The kids still did their own reading, we just weren't always able to get our family reading done, which I feel should have been a priority. But I’m excited that it is a top priority now.

For a long time, I was too worried about having pages in a workbook filled out or having each and every single math or English lesson done. I was more concerned about making sure my school planner had enough “schoolish” assignments listed and checked off, and making sure we did enough to appease what others would expect a proper homeschool family to do. Even though, I knew it wasn’t what we needed to be doing.

Looking back, it was clear even then that the kids learned far more when we were out on one of our adventures, working on a hands-on activity, spending time with grandparents and great-grandparents, or reading about and exploring places the kids were interested in. Very few if any workbook assignments have been remembered, yet all three kiddos can tell you every detail of each of our adventures and stories we’ve read or activities and projects we’ve done. I’ve known this for a long time and have tried to adjust things as much as I thought was right.  I have come to a point when the tears over a math lesson, or frustration with diagraming a sentence (not necessary until late high school or college level) and stress over concepts one is clearly not ready for, is not acceptable to me anymore. Homeschooling is not something we do between the hours of 8am and 3pm, it truly is a life style and when that lifestyle or something within that lifestyle begins to affect the family harmony and relationships and ability to move forward, a change is needed.

For us, that change is not giving up on homeschooling, it’s taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. The bigger picture I see, is not a race or competition to finish on top or first. It’s the journey of exploration and learning how to learn and to love learning. This is why we are making the change. I want for my children to have an absolute love of learning and exploring, not a long list of memorized facts or formulas. I want them to be inspired to investigate and dig deeper into what they find interesting. I don’t want them to trudge through what a school book says they are required to do. I want for them to have the freedom to pursue what they wish, and to have the freedom, support, guidance, and resources to do so.

I am making a leap of faith into what I truly feel is right for all of us. Don’t tell, but I’m also keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that this journey I see play out in my head, will be everything I think it will be.

You’re welcome to join us on our journey as we jump in with both feet and see what happens.

          

Homeschool Project Fair Photos...Finally.

Once again, life has been busy and I have not had the time to update my poor neglected blog.
I am glad life is busy as it keeps me from adding too much more to my plate, but I sure look forward to a few lazy days up in the mountains and far away from the city!

As I promised, here are some of the photos from our Homeschool Project Fair back in May.
I was very pleased with how well it turned out. We had 20 projects entered, which consisted of simple projects from kids as young as five to quite involved projects done by a whole family.

We had art work, photographs, Lego creations, models, yummy projects that were shared with all, sweet scented candles, and more. Here are a few samples:

 

We had a young lady enter a history of Lego's project. It was a fantastic project. She had a great deal of information as well as a few samples of Lego creations and a video she made on an iPad.

Another young lady entered a project showing the geography of South America. She included a game in which visitors were asked to locate the different locations within South America. Sadly, I tried the game and was only able to locate three of her twenty-five listed places to find. Guess what I'm working on this summer? Yep, some geography!

We had a wonderful young lady enter homemade candles, which she made herself. They were very pretty to look at, and they smelled wonderful.



Lady Bug entered a drawing of a mermaid she had done earlier in the year. She loves to drawing.
The history of Popcorn was a hit! Everyone was happy to have a tasty treat while visiting the fair.
Our youngest fair participant was only five years old. She made a lovely painting of flowers in spring.
One of the Lego creations entered, was a Dog Park. He put a great deal of thought and work into his project.
Another little boy entered his project of the human body. He was shy, yet he did a great job telling everyone about what he learned while doing this project.

After spending a few months working on some Colorado history and then focusing our attention to the history of mining, we (the kids, myself, and my mom) worked to create this mining town model and display board with detailed information about mining back in the 1800's and pit mining now days. Having family involved in these projects has been a wonderful experience for us all.

The clock was made by the kids' grandpa for his dad many years ago. We were excited to use it in with our model for the fair.
The kids did most of the work on our model. They, with some help from grandma or myself, built cardboard buildings, a water tower, farm fencing, trees, and even a boardwalk along the old town stores.

We had a great time working on this project and learning a great deal about mining history. With the success of this project fair, we have decided to make this an annual event for our homeschool group and other interested local homeschool families.

Little Man had fun creating a Lego jail/castle, a car, and a motorcycle to go along with the dragon. Wild Thing  found a model of the Spirit of St. Louis, and after reading a little about it, he painted the model then went on to make a Lego model of it as well. He also entered a drawing he had done earlier in the year,  which he won a ribbon for at the homeschool art show this winter.
And last, our post card collection. A few months ago, we decided to start collecting post cards. We hope to have all fifty states by Christmas this year. We have already been sent cards from twenty states and nine or ten different countries. We were sent some post cards that belonged to my grandma who passed just a few months ago. One of the post cards we were sent is over a hundred years old! We are having a lot of fun collecting these cards.

The word of our project fair reached so much more than I imagined. Though we did not have a huge turn out of those visiting the fair, I found quite a few groups and organizations had heard about the fair we were putting on. In fact, we even met a local council woman that stopped by to support fellow homeschool families. She had heard about our fair in the local paper and as a previous homeschooler came by show her support and say, "hi." She was happy to see these children have an outlet to show their creativity and be recognized for their hard work.

A week after the fair, we held a reception of sorts for the fair participants. We enjoyed some snacks and handed out awards, ribbons, and a copy of all the comments left by our visitors. Before the fair I worked up a comment form for everyone who visited to write encouraging words to those who entered projects. Each project had nearly 20 comments from visitors, all of which were very kind and supportive. There we very simple comments such as, "Great Job", to more detailed comments telling the kids how creative and informative their projects were. The comments may have been my favorite part of the fair. Every kid/teen that entered a project was given a great deal of positive feedback on their project and hard work. I believe this will have a hand in encouraging these kiddos to join in our fair again next year.

There is so much more that went into this fair and even just in our own projects though I don't have the time to write another book to tell you everything. Overall the fair was a great success and wonderful experience for us all. I look forward to our Homeschool Project Fair again next year!

Tomorrow is the Homeschool Project Fair...

Picture of a corner of the mining town model the kids and I have worked on for
our upcoming homeschool project fair!

A peek at the display board for our unit study into mining.

 Tomorrow is the big day!
 Tomorrow we are having our 1st Annual Homeschool Project Fair!
 Everything is finally done and I can sit back and relax tonight (yeah right) right after dinner is done and cleaned up, dishes are done and put away, rest of laundry is dry, folded, and put away, kids are bathed and put to bed, and one last minute email is sent to the project fair participants, then, I can sit back and relax!

I am worn out and I'm not sure if my brain will still function after tomorrow but I have really enjoyed putting together this fair. I just hope that tomorrow goes well and that there are no issues! Most of all, I hope the kids enjoy this event and really get something out of it, as well as the public getting a chance to see into the world of homeschooling.

I will make sure to get back here soon and share some photos from the fair!
Wish me luck!

An ADHD Adventure...





ADD and ADHD, each can be seen as a curse, a disability, a blessing, or simply an adventure.
Our family has decided to see it as an adventure. Yes, this adventure often resembles a de-railing  freight train, but still, it's an adventure! And like all families with children, we have our good days and our not-so-good days.

I won't go into the long details, but a few years ago we, I, finally admitted, (hubby knew for a long time, I just took awhile longer to admit that he was right) that we have a child who has been blessed with ADHD. Yes, I say blessed, because I don't believe God curses anyone. I believe that we are given the opportunity to take our life and all the baggage, and make something of it, and to show others just what God sent us here for!

I know that each child with ADD or ADHD has a very different life. Some children are much more affected by their add/adhd than other children, and some are far more limited in their abilities than others due to add/adhd or other.

In our case, we have a wonderful young boy, who at 9 years old is incredibly busy, smart, very compassionate, and has an amazing imagination. On the other hand, he has a difficult time sitting still or focusing on school work. He is often distracted by noise, light, movement, or the thought that he might me missing something. He also has struggled with reading and writing for a long time.
Though this last few months he has improved greatly in his reading ability, and now will read...for fun! Previously, it was like pulling teeth to get him to read, and he could only get a few lines in before he was so frustrated that he'd give up. But slowly, we found ways to help him focus and to not have to work so hard to read. We worked, and worked, and worked together to read more and more, until finally he was comfortable reading on his own. Now, after his hard work, and finding a book that interested him, he is reading a large, for him, book and his confidence has soared.

Another area of struggle for him, is writing. He is able to write but has a very difficult time getting thoughts from his brain onto paper, he also has a hard time with spelling which adds frustration. What we have done to help, is when he is going to write something, I often will write, in his words, what he is to write on a small dry erase board. He then will copy that onto his paper. It really helps him get everything onto the paper. Otherwise, his mind is so busy that what he wanted to say, is long gone before he gets it written on the paper.

Today, he surprised me and reminded me just why I love homeschooling. His handwriting has always been rough, another struggle for him. Yet, today he was beginning a letter to his new pen-pal, and he worked so hard to make his writing neat and uniform. His letter looked wonderful! I was so proud of how hard he worked and how neat his handwriting was! I made sure to let him know how great he did. The best part was watching him smile at his own work, and show me each letter that he felt he wrote well. It was nice to see him have such pride in his work.

When children struggle with things like reading and writing, it's incredibly important to point out that which they do well, and to help them see how their hard work has paid off!

In our home, we have re-named ADHD from

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to:

 

          A- amazing ability to  

D- do, see, learn, and

 H- handle all things

 D- differently

 

 



Things I Never Expected In Our Homeschool Journey

Things I Never Expected In Our Homeschool Journey

1. To argue with an 8 year old boy about some dinosaur facts...only to find out he was right the entire time!

2. To learn right along with my kiddos.

3. To enjoy re-reading my favorite books as a child...over, and over, and over!

4. To spend entire days on the floor, stairway, or under the table (aka: fort) doing school work.

5. To learn enough about bugs, dinosaurs, and sharks, that I feel I could have a degree in animal science.

6. That watching my children read their first words would be so amazing that I would be reduced to tears!

7. That our mental health day trips (spur of the moment trips on days when school and life are just not working) would turn out to be some of our best memories.

8. That laundry, cooking dinner, visiting grandparents, camping, fishing, and enjoying a day at the museum, all count as learning!

9. Our time spent outdoors would be just as, if not more, important that the academic lessons.

10. I never imagined how my children would bond, as they spent each day together learning, arguing, playing, and loving each other.

11. The talks that my pre-teen daughter and I would have because of our choice to homeschool.

12. The enjoyment I would get out of teaching my children and watching them learn.

13. That I would have to earn a science degree to fulfill my 9 year old son's thirst for science.

14. The videos we would watch all in the name of homeschooling. And the amount of information we would learn form those.

15. That we would end up trying every method of homeschooling there is.

16. That I would end up planning unit studies complete with awesome field trips and activities.

17. The amount of cuddle time we would have as a family for reading.

18. The wonderful discussions the kids and I would have over lunch.

19. The way (some) family and friends would reach out to be involved with or help our homeschooling.  

*20. I never dreamed homeschooling would completely change my life, forever. And that I am truly thankful for.

List it Tuesday Link Up- Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers:

Homeschool Our Way...

After the first few years of homeschooling and trying to stick to the schedules and routine of different curriculum's, we have moved into a very eclectic style of homeschooling. We've used many different resources and methods from different curriculum's and styles of homeschool. We have tried just about everything. Which as busy as it made our homeschool at times, we have also learned what works and what does not work for our kids. I have also found that I have a hard time sticking to another's set schedule or curriculum plans. Call it the rebel in me, but I'm not the best at following rules or plans of another. So we have gone from a strict curriculum schedule to a Charlotte Mason style, to unschooling, to unit studies, and everything else in-between.

 In this journey of discovery, I have found that we do best with a unit study style of learning. Meaning, that we pick a topic or time in history and focus much of our attention on that topic. Wild Thing especially learns much better this way, since he typically hyper-focuses on one topic at a time anyway. I feel that when we are able to dig deeper into one area of study and not have to divide our attention into many other areas of study, the kids and I all learn a great deal more. Yes, I am learning right along with my kiddos.

In December we decided to start, in January, a unit study based on Colorado history, important people of Colorado's history, and mining in Colorado. I spent quite a bit of time researching the books at our library to see what we could use. I also planned out a few field trips that would go along with our unit study, and some hands-on activities as well. We will read through many of the books, or skim through them, and use any other resources we can come up with.  My mom even joined in and has begun the process of gathering items and planning for us all to build a model of an old mining town.

With such a great library system here, I was pleased at how many books I ended up finding for our unit. One of my favorite books so far is a book of photographs dating from the late 1800's to the early 1900's in Cripple Creek and Victor. It has some amazing old photos and writings explaining mining and life back then. It's great for the kids to be able to see these photos as the towns looked long ago so that when we travel there in a few weeks, they will be able to have a visual comparison of the town then and now. Another favorite so far is a book of important people in Colorado's history. It has just a few pages about each person, so instead of trying to pick one person to focus on this time we are learning little bits about many people.

Along with the books, I have been looking for some documentaries on mining and life during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. So far I have not found what I'm looking for but I have found a few short videos online about mining during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Wild Thing also found a series on Netflix about gold mining in the Bering Sea. Which was interesting to watch, as I had never thought about mining from the sea floor. . This is the part I enjoy, where the kids are able to learn from so many resources; videos, fiction and non-fiction books, trips, internet, and even family members. True learning at it's best.

Along with building a model of an old mining town we will be taking a trip to a mining museum here in town. We will possibly re-visit the Ghost Town museum that is near by as well. Then, at some point we hope to sit down with my grandpa and great uncle who worked in a mine years ago, and listen to their stories and ask some questions. This will count not only for school history, but it will be a great lesson in family history as well.  In a month or two from now, we have plans to travel to Cripple Creek and enjoy a personal tour with a worker from one of the active mines.  A tour, I will add, that may include watching one of their mining explosions. We are all excited to see something, even if it is the side of a mountain, get blown up. Not that I'm all that happy with the mining process, but it is still part of  our life history and future and I think it would be good for the kids to really understand where some of our society's resources come from.

That, not in a nut shell, is a bit about our homeschool at the moment.
I did not intend on writing a book, but if you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed learning a little about our homeschool. I will post pictures soon of our different field trips and hands-on projects.