Homeschooling today: My Privilege!

I just had a wonderful day homeschooling my children and wanted to share.

Hannah is reading and writing and spelling... at 5. It truly amazes me. And the thing that really blows my mind... I have taught her to do all this!!! Me... Jennifer who couldn't stand school and could never see herself teaching her kids... ME!

I was doing school with Hannah today and it just hit me. I was calling out words and she was spelling them out, and it hit me that I was apart of her being able to do that. (Why now, I don't know) WOW. I wouldn't get this privilege if I sent her to a school where someone else would teach her. And I say privilege. I am very privileged to be able to have my children home and have the ability to teach them. This is something I do not take lightly.
I feel the need to stress that I don't think school's are evil. There are wonderful teachers in the schools. Many of my friends are teachers. I am just plain privileged!
Having this realization today has caused a deeper understanding of why a parent, if they are able, should teach their child. It is our responsibility to teach our children.
That is not to say that if your child is in school, you are an irresponsible parent. There are some cases where public/private school is the option. But I'm speaking of those that are able. Those that can. I think my conviction is on parents of young kids. The early years are so critical to build bonds with your children and teach your values. Not being able to afford the expensive private schooling and knowing that public schooling can't teach my children the values I want them to learn, homeschooling is a privilege I have.
Knowing it is a privilege also stems from a radio broadcast I heard from James Dobson.
This show was about the importance a father's role in homeschooling is, but the last 5 minutes is the part that got me. It was about a Treaty that has not yet been ratified that can drastically change the way we parent our children and the way we home school. This paragraph below is what Michael Farris had to say. You can listen to it here. (I listened to the conversation and wrote out what was said. It is not the entire conversation as one, but only the sentences that pertained to the topic I am writing about. All that to say, they are his words, not mine.)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is a UN Treaty that every country in the world except the United States and Somalia has ratified and our nation signed it when Bill Clinton was in office. If this bill becomes unratified and it becomes the controlling law in our nation it will radically change every aspect of the child and parent relationship according to the law. The education rules will change, the government will have to decide whether the parents educational choices are, in the governments opinion, in the best interest of the child. Because the UN controls the government. We lose family sovereignty, we lose national sovereignty, which is in essence self government, because when a nation's voters lose control of what the law is and what the rules are, we've lost everything. And that is what will happen with the UN Convention and the Rights of the Child. Right now the parents get to decide what is best for their child, but if the UN Convention and the Rights of the Child is adopted then the government gets to decide what is in the best interest of a child. So how does this effect the home schooled child? It's clear from the decisions of the committee on the Rights of the Child that parents making the decisions to opt their children out of the public school will receive special scrutiny. You will not be able to home school your child unless the UN thinks it's a good idea.

Here are some web sites that are about his issue to further your (and mine!) education.
UNICEF - Convention on the Rights of the Child
Convention on the Rights of the Child - Preamble
HSLDA - Search for UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Oh Lord I pray! this does not come to be and this extremely joyful experience is not taken away from me or Joshua. Joshua has been teaching the kids music. I need to get more pictures of our schooling days. Here is just a taste.

Today

A day in the life...

I put braids in Hannah's hair. She like it, but told me Gail (a family friend that watches the kids) does it better.... yeah... I told Hannah if she let me practice more with her then I'd get better. Aside from that comment, we had a fun day together. Hannah helped me make lunch. Such a big girl. Won't be long till she is making lunch.


Hannah liked her hair so much she wanted a picture. She asked Joshua to take one of her and the other girls got in on it. My princess in dresses!


It was quite for awhile. No Abrianna talks. I asked the kids where she was and they didn't know. We all start calling for her. Loudly. I'm glad we didn't wake her. I found her in the school room with her pillow and blanket all nicely snuggled, asleep. I guess we had a fun day. :)

Christmas: The Christmas Story, told by our children.

Joshua & I made our relatives a special Christmas CD with hand-picked Christmas music. We thought it might be cute to have our young kids tell the Biblical Christmas story edited into the front of a song. It is cute!

This link (Click to open this Track in a new window.) is an MP3 of that song. Enjoy! [ Music by Michael W. Smith 2007 ]



You can probably save this track to your computer by right clicking the link and choosing either "Save As", "Save target as", or similar.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Go to a Ball?

Hannah asked Joshua today, "Daddy, will you take me to a ball?" while handing him a picture she drew of her and dad dancing. How could a dad say no?
I told Joshua that there are church's and cities that put on 'Daddy Daughter' dances in February. I think they should go! We'll see.

I have 3 princesses... wow!

Christmas: Tree Up! (Joshua's post)

Christmas: Tree Up!

We went inside and warmed up.
Joshua got the tree out of the box and the girls went silly. "Our tree!"



Decorating went ok... no broken ornaments... yet. :) They all enjoyed putting the ones they made last year on the tree. That is why I love putting ornaments on the tree. The memories you relive that could otherwise be forgotten.





Don't you love how most of the ornaments are on the bottom. :) (I'll fix that later tonight.)




"Snow" falling, Tree decorating, Josh Grobans Christmas album playing... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Thanksgiving

I didn't find my camera until later in the day so there are not many pictures of our fun day... I guess no one wants to see our food anyway. :)

Yesterday the kids and I made thanksgiving crafts. We had a great time!
Here is our Thanksgiving Tree. I asked all the kids what they were thankful for and we wrote them on leaves. Caleb and Hannah found the stick and Caleb filled the pot with rocks. Some of the things our kids are thankful for: Hannah - playing outside and our family, Caleb - Swinging, Sarah - friends, Abrianna - milk.


I traced every little hand and we made a turkey. Hannah drew the face.


We made place setting for our guests. All the kids went on a 'pine cone hunt.' And they twisted the pipe cleaners and put them in place. Then they brought them to me and we put on the face with hot glue. The kids loved making these and I think our family like having them too. Everyone took home their pine cone turkey.


After our family left and I was trying to get the kids to rest, Caleb asks, "Can we get the tree now?" We were not planning on this. I think it's funny Caleb asked for the tree. Joshua was on board so he got ready to get the tree out of the garage. Joshua says, "It's snowing outside." I thought, I don't think so, it's Texas! It doesn't snow this early in Texas. I looked outside and it was snowing!!! This picture doesn't do our "Texas Snow" justice. (The white streaks you see is the snow) There were big flakes!

The kids were so excited. Just look at those big smiles.

We got dressed in warmer clothes and went out side to get our tree. By the time we were ready to go outside the snow had stopped and ice was coming down. Of course nothing was sticking to the ground. The kids liked it just the same. Hannah was spinning as the ice fell on her face. Care free kid days... now those were the days!


Joshua saw the ice coming down on his equipment and says, "Jennifer, quick, lets get the trailer in the garage." We pushed it in by hand. That was fun. (said with sarcasm)

Movie Night

Painting Dad's Trailer

A new trailer and new equipment for a new business. Joshua has a lawn business, the Backyard Barber. He bought the trailer from his brother and wanted to paint it. Then decided he wanted to make it a family paining session. The kids had fun.

Paradise Pond

Our church has a wonderful play area for kids that is open to the public some weekdays.

Paradise Pond!

Here are some shot of our kids having a good time.

The Crispin 5 - Coming to a Town Near You!

Dad had some extra mics with him today. The kids had a little fun.

It's just cute.

Chocolate Play Dough...

We are fans of Larry Boy, you know... the supper hero. On his latest adventure, The Bad Apple, there is chocolate! Yes I said Chocolate! On the DVD's extras there is a recipe for chocolate play dough... Um yeah... we tried it, and we won't try it again. :) It was fun for a day but I do not recommend this unless you want to clean a big mess. The kids loved it as you can see here.





If you feel adventurous, here is the mix:

• 10 oz Chocolate
• 1/2 cup Corn syrup

• Melt chocolate
• add in the corn syrup
• poor onto wax paper
• put in fridge for about 1 hour
• take out and play!

** You can eat it while you play!**

Family Adventure 'Hike'

Family Fun Night!!! We went to a park near by and had our dinner then looked at the ducks.

Then off we went for the 'hike.'
Then some fun at the park. After all the hiking a good run on the park is in order. :)


This hike was for Awana. Hannah needed to go on a hike and find certain items and memorize a verse. We had fun on the hike and fun watching ducks and playing on a park... one stop shop!!!