Rose and I have been reading the Promised Land series by Hope Auer. She was home-schooled herself and has done a lot of secular and Biblical research to come up with a wonderful historical fiction book series that follows the family of Jarah. (These books were not published when Hope and Sam were little....it reminds me that new wonderful books are being written all the time. :-)) The first book begins in Egypt while Jarah and her family and friends are slaves of the Egyptians. The author has done good research and has done her best to make the story historically accurate. When I was going through the history of Egypt with Hope and Sam about ten years ago I remember having trouble figuring out how to line up the Egyptian history with the Biblical account - but it seems I am not alone and there is a lot of debate on the subject. (I don't feel so dumb now.) The author points out that the Egyptians didn't like to record things that didn't go their way...a kind of selective memory, I guess....so that helps decipher which pharaoh was in power at the time of the Exodus, but she doesn't claim to be the foremost expert. I like her humility, even though you can tell she has done her homework when you read her books.
It is very interesting to take events that we read in the Bible and see them through the eyes of people that could have existed and experienced things at that time. It definitely makes it more memorable and personal. In fact, I loved using historical fiction with Hope and Sam through many eras of history - and I so look forward to reading these books (and more) with Rosie! So fun! So helpful! (Check out Living History Library and Beautiful Feet website.) It is a Christian worldview company and has many wonderful book recommendations! (We have also enjoyed G.A. Henty books. The Cat of Bubastes is wonderful! It is also set in Ancient Egypt. So are Golden Goblet and Mara, daughter of the Nile, both by McGraw.)
I can't stand it! There are so many great books and so little time!
Until next time!
Blessings!
Heidi
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
A Review of Fall 2017
SO - a lot has happened!
Hope successfully turned her rejection to Praxis into energy and raised over $20,000 for Operation Underground Railroad! It is such a worthy cause to support....saving children from being sold as sexual playthings. (It is so horrible that a person can barely think about it. Check out their website if you want to learn more about how to help. O.U.R. website) She was in the musical Narnia with the Youth Performance Company as the character Mr. Tumnus. It was a lot of work and time, but she thoroughly enjoyed it! She also sought out a way to make income, which resulted in a nanny job. She is "on call", but can refuse any assignments. It has worked out well. If she has time, she goes - if not, she doesn't. She also started an internship with Terry's company, New Vision Engineering, in the marketing department. She is learning a lot and we hear a lot of good things about her from the owner. She continues to listen to educational self-improvement and business-minded audios and read books from the Life System. And - on top of it all, she reapplied to Praxis and was overwhelmingly accepted! She is already learning a lot, but the official start date is January 3rd. She even has her own web page set up already at hopeszymanski.com !
To be true to the title of this blog, I am thankful we home schooled Hope because she has learned to be a very self-directed learner. She isn't afraid to be adventurous, set high goals, and go in a different direction than most people would. At the same time, she is very aware of how she affects others and is continuing to strive to learn more and more about how to serve others. And - above all, she cares about God's people, especially the little innocent ones that Operation Underground Railroad saves and rehabilitates. See the article Life Blog posted here .
Sam had a challenging semester. He had 12 credits of college classes and I would have to say that the biggest lessons he learned were not the actual skills and details of the classes, even though his writing did improve quite a bit. :-) (Mary Mueller would be proud!) He learned about time management and about effort, which will be so valuable to him going forward. There is definitely some regret for not trying a little harder in a couple of classes because he was very close to the next letter grade in both. I don't think much more needed to be said. On one hand, he has regrets, but on the other hand he learned that if he tries a little harder he can do very well.
I am thankful we have been home schooling Sam because we would not have done PSEO otherwise and the experience was very helpful. He will be much more ready for the fall of 2019 when he steps into some college classes as a freshman. (He is also very excited that History of Western Civ is out of the way! LOL!!)
Rose had an interesting semester. She broke her arm in mid-September, which led to a few days off from expected school activities. I realized part way through the semester that she was either bored with math or was not getting the addition of sums as quickly as I'd like. (I am referring to not counting on her fingers, but by seeing the numbers and mentally rearranging parts of numbers to add quickly. I found that Hope and Sam did much better in math after having mastered this.) So - we moved away from the normal math curriculum and played games instead. Cribbage, math dice, and Adding War became more of our normal routine than going through the book. I also make her figure things out on her own when she asks questions about things like how much money she would have left if she bought a pirate costume, for example. Purely hypothetical, for sure. ;-) NOT!
I am thankful we are home schooling Rosie for many reasons. When her arm was broken, the doctors and nurses kept explaining about when she could go back to school and what her restrictions would be. (It was a pretty bad break which required surgery, pins, and a cast.) Being at home allowed us to do what she could when she could - (and we didn't need to take her out of school for her follow-up appointments.) And her ears still worked, so I could still read to her, which is most of what we do anyway. Recently she has been exploring her interest in theater, so besides being in a couple of plays, she actually wrote a play! It is too cute, and actually pretty good. Mom did the typing, but the rest of it is her original work....and she is working on gathering friends to be in her play so she can direct it. (She even studied her director and watched how she put her shows together.)
Rose met a little girl much like herself in one of her plays this semester. They are both very strong-willed, outgoing, adventurous, creative, funny, and precocious - which, for Rosie, sometimes leads to problems. This other little girl's mother told me they were having trouble with her at school, but more of in a way that makes them think she just needs a different environment, so they pulled her out. I am thankful that Rose is at home where we can help her develop in a way that will hopefully keep her amazing qualities intact and let them flourish, while still teaching her how to play nice with others, including us. :-)
Well - I committed to Sam that I would blog every day for 90 days and that I want him to do the same. Praxis founder, Isaac Morehouse, recommends it and has the Praxis participants do it as well. It develops a person. It makes them more creative. It holds a person accountable to something and builds a positive habit, which leads to believing you can build other positive habits. I can't promise every one will be this long. In fact, I promise they won't! I may have to stray from the original concept once in a while, but will try to tie it in somehow. :-)
Until next time!
Heidi
Hope successfully turned her rejection to Praxis into energy and raised over $20,000 for Operation Underground Railroad! It is such a worthy cause to support....saving children from being sold as sexual playthings. (It is so horrible that a person can barely think about it. Check out their website if you want to learn more about how to help. O.U.R. website) She was in the musical Narnia with the Youth Performance Company as the character Mr. Tumnus. It was a lot of work and time, but she thoroughly enjoyed it! She also sought out a way to make income, which resulted in a nanny job. She is "on call", but can refuse any assignments. It has worked out well. If she has time, she goes - if not, she doesn't. She also started an internship with Terry's company, New Vision Engineering, in the marketing department. She is learning a lot and we hear a lot of good things about her from the owner. She continues to listen to educational self-improvement and business-minded audios and read books from the Life System. And - on top of it all, she reapplied to Praxis and was overwhelmingly accepted! She is already learning a lot, but the official start date is January 3rd. She even has her own web page set up already at hopeszymanski.com !
To be true to the title of this blog, I am thankful we home schooled Hope because she has learned to be a very self-directed learner. She isn't afraid to be adventurous, set high goals, and go in a different direction than most people would. At the same time, she is very aware of how she affects others and is continuing to strive to learn more and more about how to serve others. And - above all, she cares about God's people, especially the little innocent ones that Operation Underground Railroad saves and rehabilitates. See the article Life Blog posted here .
Sam had a challenging semester. He had 12 credits of college classes and I would have to say that the biggest lessons he learned were not the actual skills and details of the classes, even though his writing did improve quite a bit. :-) (Mary Mueller would be proud!) He learned about time management and about effort, which will be so valuable to him going forward. There is definitely some regret for not trying a little harder in a couple of classes because he was very close to the next letter grade in both. I don't think much more needed to be said. On one hand, he has regrets, but on the other hand he learned that if he tries a little harder he can do very well.
I am thankful we have been home schooling Sam because we would not have done PSEO otherwise and the experience was very helpful. He will be much more ready for the fall of 2019 when he steps into some college classes as a freshman. (He is also very excited that History of Western Civ is out of the way! LOL!!)
Rose had an interesting semester. She broke her arm in mid-September, which led to a few days off from expected school activities. I realized part way through the semester that she was either bored with math or was not getting the addition of sums as quickly as I'd like. (I am referring to not counting on her fingers, but by seeing the numbers and mentally rearranging parts of numbers to add quickly. I found that Hope and Sam did much better in math after having mastered this.) So - we moved away from the normal math curriculum and played games instead. Cribbage, math dice, and Adding War became more of our normal routine than going through the book. I also make her figure things out on her own when she asks questions about things like how much money she would have left if she bought a pirate costume, for example. Purely hypothetical, for sure. ;-) NOT!
I am thankful we are home schooling Rosie for many reasons. When her arm was broken, the doctors and nurses kept explaining about when she could go back to school and what her restrictions would be. (It was a pretty bad break which required surgery, pins, and a cast.) Being at home allowed us to do what she could when she could - (and we didn't need to take her out of school for her follow-up appointments.) And her ears still worked, so I could still read to her, which is most of what we do anyway. Recently she has been exploring her interest in theater, so besides being in a couple of plays, she actually wrote a play! It is too cute, and actually pretty good. Mom did the typing, but the rest of it is her original work....and she is working on gathering friends to be in her play so she can direct it. (She even studied her director and watched how she put her shows together.)
Rose met a little girl much like herself in one of her plays this semester. They are both very strong-willed, outgoing, adventurous, creative, funny, and precocious - which, for Rosie, sometimes leads to problems. This other little girl's mother told me they were having trouble with her at school, but more of in a way that makes them think she just needs a different environment, so they pulled her out. I am thankful that Rose is at home where we can help her develop in a way that will hopefully keep her amazing qualities intact and let them flourish, while still teaching her how to play nice with others, including us. :-)
Well - I committed to Sam that I would blog every day for 90 days and that I want him to do the same. Praxis founder, Isaac Morehouse, recommends it and has the Praxis participants do it as well. It develops a person. It makes them more creative. It holds a person accountable to something and builds a positive habit, which leads to believing you can build other positive habits. I can't promise every one will be this long. In fact, I promise they won't! I may have to stray from the original concept once in a while, but will try to tie it in somehow. :-)
Until next time!
Heidi
Sunday, September 3, 2017
The Books, The Books, The Books
Well, we are about to start another school year this week. Of course, Hope is on her own journey of raising money for Operation Underground Railroad through Terry's running of the Twin Cities Marathon. It is such a good cause. Children are being stolen from their families and exploited in our own home state......even right under our noses in our own home towns.
Well - after that heavy subject...... we need to lighten it up. Sam is so non-excited about school starting. He has three online college classes and two co-op classes this fall. Should be challenging, yet do-able. I think he will do really well after he gets done moping around.
Rosie - Well, she thinks that school starts whenever she says it does... :-) However, the last couple weeks she has left a trail of various books of all levels, lengths, and sizes all over the house. It is a little messy for sure, but it warms a home school mother's heart to see it. Maybe next week we will work on the cleaning up lesson.
Well - after that heavy subject...... we need to lighten it up. Sam is so non-excited about school starting. He has three online college classes and two co-op classes this fall. Should be challenging, yet do-able. I think he will do really well after he gets done moping around.
Rosie - Well, she thinks that school starts whenever she says it does... :-) However, the last couple weeks she has left a trail of various books of all levels, lengths, and sizes all over the house. It is a little messy for sure, but it warms a home school mother's heart to see it. Maybe next week we will work on the cleaning up lesson.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
A Year Later
So - It appears as if I have not blogged for about a year, almost to the day. So much has happened. Hope completed the AMTC program and performed at the SHINE conference in Orlando this past January. What an amazing experience! She is still in pursuit of acting, modeling, and singing opportunities. An agency in Minneapolis is representing her. (Her profile is here: Hope's page ) She was in two plays by CB Productions, which was by far her most favorite thing ever! (CB Productions) What a great group of kids and such a talented and dedicated director, Carla Barwineck. Hope also graduated high school. The transcript is all filled in, signed, and sealed. We did it. We home schooled her from Kindergarten age through high school and we all survived. Now what?
The original plan was to finish a second year of generals, having completed one year during high school as a PSEO student at University of Northwestern, St. Paul. She was planning on doing this at Dakota County Technical College and was even going to play softball for them. Then a wrench was thrown into the whole thing a little less than a month ago when we learned about Praxis. It is a highly selective training and apprenticeship program in marketing and sales. Hope has been so excited about it and grew more and more sure that she didn't belong in a college classroom. Imagine her disappointment when she heard back today that she was not accepted. Big bummer. However, after thinking it through and looking over the recommended information from Praxis, she has toughened her resolve to start pursuing a self-directed education in her areas of interest and to start building her own business. The world will think this is crazy, but she is dropping her classes at DCTC which she was supposed to start next week and she is excited to start creating a path of her own. She can reapply to Praxis in three months. Somehow, I think she will either find it unnecessary or they will accept her in a heartbeat. You go, girl! We are so proud of you!
So, I wrote the draft above before the emotional roller coaster had slowed down a little. From disbelief to sadness to anger to despondent to searching to the first draft of the plan....to the second....to the third, it has been a beautiful process to watch her turn to us and trusted friends in honest and open emotion... then turn to prayer in the prayer closet.....then turn to us again... then to resolve and optimism and excitement and, of course, hope. How appropriate.
The roller coaster ride is not over by any means. I don't think she wants to go through life riding the antique cars that break down, can't pass, and have to stay on the tracks at a slow speed. I hope she stays on the roller coaster. And I see now, as I look back to beginning with the end in mind, that it really is about who we become, not if we know how to properly diagram a sentence or find an integral.
Above all, the development of her as a person has been the biggest goal. We have our many years of involvement in personal development and out of the box entrepreneurial possibility thinking to thank for so much of who she is. Life has an amazing community of people and leaders that we have almost come to take for granted, but seeing the results in our older children has re-ignited the amazement and appreciation for its impact.
What were the goals when we started?
1) Learn to love to learn.
Check
2) Be a person of character.
Check
3). Work hard, never give up.
Check
4) Know Christ.
Check
We are so excited to see how she impacts the world around her for the better! The salt and the light.
The original plan was to finish a second year of generals, having completed one year during high school as a PSEO student at University of Northwestern, St. Paul. She was planning on doing this at Dakota County Technical College and was even going to play softball for them. Then a wrench was thrown into the whole thing a little less than a month ago when we learned about Praxis. It is a highly selective training and apprenticeship program in marketing and sales. Hope has been so excited about it and grew more and more sure that she didn't belong in a college classroom. Imagine her disappointment when she heard back today that she was not accepted. Big bummer. However, after thinking it through and looking over the recommended information from Praxis, she has toughened her resolve to start pursuing a self-directed education in her areas of interest and to start building her own business. The world will think this is crazy, but she is dropping her classes at DCTC which she was supposed to start next week and she is excited to start creating a path of her own. She can reapply to Praxis in three months. Somehow, I think she will either find it unnecessary or they will accept her in a heartbeat. You go, girl! We are so proud of you!
So, I wrote the draft above before the emotional roller coaster had slowed down a little. From disbelief to sadness to anger to despondent to searching to the first draft of the plan....to the second....to the third, it has been a beautiful process to watch her turn to us and trusted friends in honest and open emotion... then turn to prayer in the prayer closet.....then turn to us again... then to resolve and optimism and excitement and, of course, hope. How appropriate.
The roller coaster ride is not over by any means. I don't think she wants to go through life riding the antique cars that break down, can't pass, and have to stay on the tracks at a slow speed. I hope she stays on the roller coaster. And I see now, as I look back to beginning with the end in mind, that it really is about who we become, not if we know how to properly diagram a sentence or find an integral.
Above all, the development of her as a person has been the biggest goal. We have our many years of involvement in personal development and out of the box entrepreneurial possibility thinking to thank for so much of who she is. Life has an amazing community of people and leaders that we have almost come to take for granted, but seeing the results in our older children has re-ignited the amazement and appreciation for its impact.
What were the goals when we started?
1) Learn to love to learn.
Check
2) Be a person of character.
Check
3). Work hard, never give up.
Check
4) Know Christ.
Check
We are so excited to see how she impacts the world around her for the better! The salt and the light.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Passion to Learn
SO, my 17-year old first child has pointed out to me several times that I have not blogged here in quite a while. I guess I felt like I had made note of everything I wanted to regarding this topic - up until this point. I just read a book by Connor Boyadck entitled Passion-Driven Education. The author proposes some powerful thoughts. The part I identified with the most was the story of Eric Goldson, an 18 year old high school valedictorian who dared to speak her mind while addressing her graduating class. She basically stated that she had learned how to play the system...how to take tests and be obedient and answer how she was supposed to....without really learning anything significant and definitely without loving any of the subjects to a point where she would love to pursue them in depth.
That is me. I did the same thing. I even went on to do it in college. Any desire to explore topics just for the love of learning was completely forsaken and sacrificed on the altar of the almighty grade.
My biggest goal in homeschooling my children has been to raise kids who love to learn and want to keep learning after they get the all-important high school transcript filled in nice and neatly. So far, it seems like the oldest has retained the desire to read for pleasure and to pursue talents and skills outside of the transcript requirements. (Another nice thing - we can make her interests into elective classes and count that time as a class...... very backwards from taking a class to get the credit.) Now that she is looking at her future beyond high school, it was very refreshing to read Connor's book to help drown out the noise of the world and what it says she should do. (I also highly recommend Pails by Chris Brady. Visit this site to find and order the CD or the book: www.lifeleadership.com/leavenodoubt )
So - Those are my thoughts for the day. More to come, I'm sure, as we navigate uncharted waters with the senior as she moves onward and upward .... and the sophomore, as he follows his passion of playing baseball.
One more thought before I sign off..... I love that the freedom home schooling allows gives the kids time to do the important things, as well as explore their interests. They make time to spend with family and to volunteer as well. When I was a teenager I think I put the grade ahead of everything and neglected a lot of the most important things in life.
Have a wonderful 2016-2017 school year!
That is me. I did the same thing. I even went on to do it in college. Any desire to explore topics just for the love of learning was completely forsaken and sacrificed on the altar of the almighty grade.
My biggest goal in homeschooling my children has been to raise kids who love to learn and want to keep learning after they get the all-important high school transcript filled in nice and neatly. So far, it seems like the oldest has retained the desire to read for pleasure and to pursue talents and skills outside of the transcript requirements. (Another nice thing - we can make her interests into elective classes and count that time as a class...... very backwards from taking a class to get the credit.) Now that she is looking at her future beyond high school, it was very refreshing to read Connor's book to help drown out the noise of the world and what it says she should do. (I also highly recommend Pails by Chris Brady. Visit this site to find and order the CD or the book: www.lifeleadership.com/leavenodoubt )
So - Those are my thoughts for the day. More to come, I'm sure, as we navigate uncharted waters with the senior as she moves onward and upward .... and the sophomore, as he follows his passion of playing baseball.
One more thought before I sign off..... I love that the freedom home schooling allows gives the kids time to do the important things, as well as explore their interests. They make time to spend with family and to volunteer as well. When I was a teenager I think I put the grade ahead of everything and neglected a lot of the most important things in life.
Have a wonderful 2016-2017 school year!
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Standardized Testing
For this subject, I am deferring to Oliver DeMille. He does such a good job explaining it with this article: click here.
Sam just received his scores back from the Explore test a couple of weeks ago. I noticed he did awesome in Math and....wait for it..... Reading Comprehension. Wow. The Math score was totally expected, but the Reading Comprehension score blew me away because the English score was really low compared to the other scores. We have been working on grammar and stuff, but I really do ascribe to the theory that a student who does a lot of reading (of good quality literature) will learn how things should be written... how they should sound...how ideas are transferred. The most interesting thing was that in the sections he scored lowest in, the ones that were wrong were all at the end of the section. I sat down with him and we went through these questions to have a "learning moment". It turns out that he knew most of those answers. He just didn't have time during the test, so he guessed.
I try not to place a lot of importance on these tests because, as Oliver describes in the above article, I want them to know how to think and love learning more than I want them to be able to answer multiple choice questions. When has a person's boss ever asked them to answer multiple choice questions as a regular duty? When has a business owner every excelled because they could answer multiple choice questions? What really happens? We get paid to think. And - those who out-pace others in the hunger to learn can usually think better.
Sam just received his scores back from the Explore test a couple of weeks ago. I noticed he did awesome in Math and....wait for it..... Reading Comprehension. Wow. The Math score was totally expected, but the Reading Comprehension score blew me away because the English score was really low compared to the other scores. We have been working on grammar and stuff, but I really do ascribe to the theory that a student who does a lot of reading (of good quality literature) will learn how things should be written... how they should sound...how ideas are transferred. The most interesting thing was that in the sections he scored lowest in, the ones that were wrong were all at the end of the section. I sat down with him and we went through these questions to have a "learning moment". It turns out that he knew most of those answers. He just didn't have time during the test, so he guessed.
I try not to place a lot of importance on these tests because, as Oliver describes in the above article, I want them to know how to think and love learning more than I want them to be able to answer multiple choice questions. When has a person's boss ever asked them to answer multiple choice questions as a regular duty? When has a business owner every excelled because they could answer multiple choice questions? What really happens? We get paid to think. And - those who out-pace others in the hunger to learn can usually think better.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
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