Joyful Noise 2011

As you may or may not know, our family is part of Joyful Noise Homeschool Band. Joyful Noise is a band for home schooled kids. They have classes for Concert Band, Orchestra, Jazz, Guitar, Chorus, Recorder, and Marching Band. There is 4 levels in each class, beginner, intermediate, advanced, and elite. Beginner is for students who can't read music very well and who have had little to no experience with their instrument. Intermediate is for students who have played before and advanced is for students that has played for several years. Elite is for students who have played at least three years and want something harder. Elite students have to go through an audition to make it into the class. We started in fall of 2009, and have come quite far since then, in my opinion.

My brother, Pinecone #3, is no longer playing with us and is taking guitar lessons at home with my dad.

My sister has amazingly moved up to Advanced Band with her flute (go sis!) and currently has no opinion on it. Considering that most kids stay in Intermediate for a few years and that she moved up after only two years on her flute, I'd say she has got "skeel". She is currently learning the "Revenge of the Dust Bunnies", "The Invinceable Eagle", "The Royal March", "Midway March", "Majesta", "The Flight of Valor", and a bunch of songs in the Standard Book of Excellence, Book 3.

I chose to stay in Intermediate this year. I was not prepared for Chamber and I really want time to practice vibrato and shifting. I got 2nd chair in 1st violin, which is awesome for me. This year we have 2 cellos, a base, two violas, and 14 violins. This year, Mrs. Madjet has upped the difficulty and we are starting earlier on our concert books. She is requiring that those of us who are 2nd year Intermediate students use the shifting and our 4th fingers. As of now, I am working on "Turkish March: Ruins of Athens" and a few hyms. My friends Keila and Breanna are going to help me to convince my teachers to play some of the music from our camp in our concert. I am required to practice 150 minutes a week. My teacher wants me to move up next year, no matter what.

My little sister Pinecone 4, is playing in the Beginning Recorder this year. She practices all the time and wants to play the violin next year (which would be exciting for me and her because I would have someone to play with and she could get free lessons off me).

Compared to last year, I have way more friends at band. This year I know most of the Chamber class, the entire Intermediate class, half the Advanced Guitar class, most of the Elite band, Marching Band, and Color Guard, and a few of the Advanced and Beginner Band people. This year should be excitingly filled with people I know. Last year, the only people I knew were in my class and my two good friends.

Aravis's Favorite Books

When I was younger, I used to like books and read them all the time. High school makes it harder to have time to read for fun and I don't find it as interesting as I used to. However, there are quite a few that I really enjoy and consider my favorites.

• Pride and Prejudice - This is one of the best books ever. My mom told me that a lot of people don't like Jane Austen but I think her books are really good. This is my favorite book by her.
• Anne of Green Gables series
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Cyrano De Bergerac by Edward Rostand
• City of Ember by Jeanne DePrau
• People of Sparks by Jeanne DePrau
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orzy
• The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series - This series is about Greek myths and is definitely high on my list of favorites. The newest series, Heroes of Olympus, is possibly better than the Percy Jackson series.
• The Chronicles of Narnia - This is an epic series. It is from the third book in the series that I got my name, Aravis. C.S. Lewis does a great job describing and putting an exact picture in your head of what is going on.
• The Harry Potter series - This series is awesome. It's got action, drama, fantasy, mystery, and an awesome plot. J.K. Rowling has got an amazing imagination.
• Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
• Inkheart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke
• 39 Clues series
• The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
• An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

Homeschool Journey Thoughts - part 5

Have you ever watched the predictable but funny movie, 'The Replacements' directed by Howard Deutch? With the exception of a rather risque (definitely not for children's eyes) scene involving the cheerleaders it really is a cute movie. The storyline involves a group of men, who are each given a second chance to finish the NFL football season when the original team goes on strike.

This is how I am feeling lately about the early elementary school years! I feel like I have been given a second chance to 'do' them again, but this time better than I did with my older girls!! Both King Peter and Lucy are in their early elementary years and like the two older girls they will more than likely be schooled closely together. The big difference between schooling them and the older girls is ME! Time and experience over the past seven years have empowered me to not have to go on blind trust of others experiences. Now I am convicted and confidently practice the 'better late than early' philosophy. I find myself gravitating to more gentle approaches of education and I can more confidently take and adapt and apply them to fit my family's needs.

As I reflect back I can't claim I am from the first generations of homeschoolers that speak of simpler times when there were hardly any of the resources available to us today, but instead I was very fortunate to have been influenced by several of these wonderful parents. There were many reminders to just let my children be children and not to push academics until they were ready. I was lead to use gentler methods of introducing academics from curriculum resources like Five in a Row, CHC and Ruth Beechick's 3R's.


At the time I had a big learning curve on not only who I was as a mother, homemaker and teacher, but on how to make that all work together for my family! In those beginning years my biggest trap was that I feared *academic gaps*. My homeschooling journey began shortly after the time when curriculum providers (for institutional/public school settings) bombarded found homeschooling as their new market to target. Unfortunately, I fell under a couple of those gimmicks and spent money unnecessarily on different curriculum all for making sure I was covering those academic gaps! Oh well I chalk those times up to expensive learning experiences.

In hindsight I can now see that both my older girls had gentle beginnings but in my opinion today -- not gentle enough!! What's helped me? Well, it all began after I received Elizabeth's Foss's book into my home. I was formerly introduced to Charlotte Mason's methods and educational philosophies that have changed my homeschooling journey for the better dramatically!! By this time both my older girls were in third/fourth grade so they were past those early elementary years, and my oldest son was not quite ready to start school. I joined the CCM yahoo group and those wonderful ladies really helped me to grow as a teacher, a wife, and a mother. I also started my own CM homeschool support group which enabled me to learn more about this wonderful method of education alongside other like minded homeschoolers.

Along with my CM support group I've used several wonderful Internet resources to continue my learning. A couple of my favorites are forums like 4Reallearning, Five in a Row, and Waldorf at Home. I personally find these formats better for sharing information than the yahoo groups, but that is another posting. Another more recent trend for sharing information and resources that have been invaluable are *blogs*. This latter format has truly been a God sent for someone like me that is a strong visual learner. The ability to see how and what other homeschoolers are using and doing in their homes has been an invaluable tool. I love being inspired and creating new and improved approaches to our educational system so they meet the growing needs of my family!

Now back to my elementary years experience.... When my oldest son was old enough to begin Kindergarten, he had absolutely no interest in learning to read or write or draw, he just wanted to do math. This did not concern me too much for I knew this was not uncommon in boys. Instead he has been exposed to lots of good living books and plenty of time to *play* and re-enact.

Now, on top of King Peter's slow maturity I have quite the opposite learner coming up behind him. Lucy is very anxious to read and is practically teaching herself. She is an intellectually precocious and competitive child. I definitely don't mean that in a negative or judgmental way!!! It's just that she lacks other inner qualities (i.e. patience) that I feel are equally important in order for her to mature into a well-rounded person, that academics just don't address. These character forming qualities need to be addressed now in her early years, so that good habits maybe established before academics are implemented.

I realized it was time to further my knowledge of early childhood education. It had been so many years since I *taught* at this level and what had worked for my older girls was not going to work for the next two in our family. The *routine* I had found for my older students that had been working well for them was very out of sync for my younger students. The daily routines were too long and didn't hold attention spans. The chores were too complex and I wasn't doing a good job following up with the 'elementary kids' especially while trying to keep up with their two younger siblings. There wasn't a balanced rhythm to our days. We were surviving off organized chaos.

Homeschool Journey Thoughts - part 4

We are half way through our second quarter here at Knotty Pines Academy, and things have become very very busy for us. This posting has been waiting in my draft box for almost three weeks, and I have promised a couple homeschool friends that I would post about our improved lesson plans!

In Catherine Levison's book 'More Charlotte Mason Education' she has a chapter on 'segment planning' where she suggested different ways of using a planning book. I found myself resonating with one particular suggestion where she mentions not dating your entries.

Over the years I have learned that our family does not function under structured schedules that have deadlines set in stone, like many curricula require. These deadlines were too stifling. I have also learned that as I have more age levels entering into our homeschooling I needed a better accountability system to keep me on track with what everyone was doing. I have always been intrigued with how Valerie Bendt structured her school year around their unit studies in five week segments, but that wouldn't work for our family because we don't school year round with just unit studies. Our ages range from upper elementary to preschool right now and subjects like math vary greatly in ability. I needed lesson plans that allowed us to have the freedom of planning rabbit trails as they arouse in certain subjects or flex for life's unexpected interruptions, but also provide a steady routine to get subjects completed.

Soooo last year I set up our school year on a 'Year at a Glance - 40 Week Plan'. I assigned each student a general check-off list with certain books that needed to be read or subject matters that needed to be completed. I did not date these entries which enabled me the flexibility I desired. Our 40 week plan also allowed me greater flexibility in how long we wanted to spend on certain subjects. I can split my Language arts between Bravewriter and Language of God using 4 or 5 week segments. Our learning center rabbit trails (unit studies) are divided into 4 or 5 week increments, we can cover at least 3 science subjects in 10 week increments with ten weeks of nature studies interspersed. We can divide our history and geography studies into alternating 4 or 5 week unit studies that allow for a variety throughout the year. I can place certain subjects on a two year rotation schedule. For example we will be studying 'The Ancients' in history and 'The Continents' in geography for two years instead of one. We can study at least three artists per year with interspersed specific art instructions. The 40 week plan was set up to meet our 180 days mandated by our State's educational laws while balancing our year with vacations and holidays around the other twelve weeks. Our 40 week plan allowed me to put certain subjects on the back burner to make room for planned or unplanned rabbit trails like you will see in my 'second quarter plans' posting.

I have really really liked this new system. It has allowed me to slow down and plan in bite size pieces while providing the necessary routines and I'm kept accountable. Along with our new and improved learning rooms this new 40 week lesson planning system has worked out perfectly for us here at Knotty Pines Academy.

Advent 2007 - School plans

A commonly asked question I hear every year from homeschool friends is 'What do you do for school during the holiday season?' Typically here at Knotty Pines Trails, we take a break from our regularly scheduled school subjects and go on an Advent and Christmas season "rabbit trail" or unit study.

In past years we have done variations of this integrated literature unit for Advent and Christmas with Tomie de Paola which has now been updated, and Jan Brett's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas unit study both of which Elizabeth Foss has brilliantly put together. We have thoroughly enjoyed them both and look forward to using them in future years.

However, this year we will be taking a different literature approach for the Advent and Christmas season with 'The Little Pinecones'. My dear friend Cay Gibson has just come out with a new book Christmas Mosaic, An Illustrated Book Study for Advent and Christmas. After starting our Liturgical Craft Club this year, using her book list and ideas from Catholic Mosaic, I could not resist this new treasure trove. I am really excited for this year our Christmas budget is very tight and many of these books I have been able to find at our local library and I promised the kids we would fill the season with many fond memories - cooking, crafts and reading etc! We are all very excited and thank you Cay for this wonderful treasure we will enjoy it for many years to come.

Starting the week after Thanksgiving we like to take a break from some of our regularly scheduled school subjects to follow rabbit trails (mini unit studies) that are more focused on the season.

In the afternoons the whole family has been enjoying wonderful books from Christmas Mosaic and participating in some great craft and cooking projects of which I will post more on later. I am building a wonderful Christmas list of books for next year.

This year the children are participating in a couple different unit studies. Typically we do these together as a family but this year it worked out that each student desired to pick their own unit study.

Aravis is working on a St. Nicholas study that I adapted for our family using a variety of resources from several very creative and resourceful ladies at the 4Real Learning forums.

Jill is working on a mini unit study for the fabulous Advent trilogy Jotham's Journey. This idea was one of those unexpected rabbit trails graciously offered by Catholic Mom's Journey. When she is finished with this mini unit study she will be doing a Twelve Days of Christmas lapbook. We love Jan Brett's books so when this opportunity unexpectedly arose we decided to take advantage of all the wonderful ideas.

King Peter and Lucy have been working on Jesse Tree books while reading aloud from a wonderful book called The Jesse Tree. King Peter is using the prayers relating to that day's Jesse Tree reading for copywork then coloring an illustration of the symbol that will then be bound together into a book. Lucy's Jesse Tree book is a bit more simplified. We are creating felt symbols each day, using many from Serendipity and several of our own, then gluing them onto a page where that day's Jesse Tree bible verse is already written. These will then be bound into a book. I will try to work on getting updated pictures into our albums this week.

Homeschool Journey Thoughts - part 3

In my second posting sometime ago I mentioned several resources I discovered regarding Charlotte Mason's methods and philosophies. Today I want to mention other resources that we have been integrated into our homeschool over the years.

In addition to reading For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Macaulay and Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home by Elizabeth Foss, another favorite general home education book that started me down my path to developing my own lifestyle of learning was The Simplicity of Homeschooling: Discover the Freedom of Learning Through Living by Vicki Goodchild.

At some point during those first years I was introduced to MODG. I have really enjoyed utilizing Mrs. Berquist's book 'Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum' and using her syllabus to teach certain topics. Even though she follows a classical education model I found her utilization of living books, to compliment her history textbooks, very attractive. I have also enjoyed and found her listings of books helpful in giving a more accurate perspective of historical events.

Mrs. Berquist has also written a wonderful book of poetry for memorization and dictation/copy-work called The Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical Curriculum.
It was also through Mrs. Berquist that I learned about Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl. These two wonderful treasures are perfect for teaching third or fourth graders language arts in a simple and gentle manner. Both compatible to Charlotte Mason's methods. They are a wonderful sequel to Ruth Beechick's Strong Start Series on the Three Rs (reading, writing & arithmetic). I am a firm believer that drilling children on these subjects at such a young age is a complete and utter waste of time and energy! Language arts topics, in my experience, should be directed in a more natural manner, until the child becomes able to write their own narrations and creative stories effortlessly (around 5th or 6th grade), but that is a whole other posting.

I learned about implementing unit studies from a home school veteran, Valerie Bendt. My favorite of all her publications is 'Creating Books with Children'! Implementing these "rabbit trails" (unit studies) have also became regulars in our home school journey. Actually, one of the very first unit study type programs we used with our beginner readers was called Five in a Row. This literature based program is fabulous and has become a favorite in our home.

My resource list wouldn't be complete without mentioning Maria Montessori. Her respect for children and emphasis on observing the child has led me to become a more observant and gentler parent. I love how her activities offer the individual child a path from the concrete to the abstract through the use of hands on materials. I use some Montessori methods with all of my children. I have also enjoyed using Montessori materials to teach the truths of our faith (catechism). One of my favorite programs is The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. This program has been a real complimented to our current curricula the Baltimore Catechism and the Faith and Life Series. Of course we also round out our subject of 'religion' with daily prayers and readings from the Mass, singing hymns, reading many biographies on the saints, participating in the sacraments regularly, and actively living and participating in the liturgical events of the church calendar. A couple books I have found very useful are:

• Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years
• Teaching Montessori in the Home: The School Years
• Teach Me to Do It Myself: Montessori Activities for You and Your Child
• I Can Do It! I Can Do It!.

An excellent online website we use regularly for printed Montessori materials that I highly recommend is Montessori for Everyone.

Before I finish this posting I want to briefly mention one last resource that I use on a regular basis. They are a curriculum supplier called Catholic Heritage Curriculum, who take a very hands on approach to teaching their subjects, because their philosophy is based on both the Montessori and the Classical methods. This hands on approach to learning is a good fit for my family. I absolutely love their Catholic Speller and Language of God Series for summer review, and we use a lot of thier materials to enhance and live our liturgical year. Their approach is very simple and gentle.

These past couple postings in 'Our Homeschool Journey' series show some of the academic resources that over the years have grown into indispensable treasures in our home. Of course, this whole process of finding our style for educating did not happen overnight. It has taken many years to evolve before finally beginning to fall into place. Another factor one has to keep in mind is that life has unpredictable timing so my schedules vary slightly from one season to the next just like my academic resources.

In my next posting I will attempt to show different schedules and grading systems that I have implemented over the years and how I blended my two worlds into one.

What we like to do with color...

If you will notice we are now in 'Ordinary Days' in our liturgical calendar and the vestment colors have gone from white to green. This unspoken use of visual colors that our Church's liturgical calendar wisely uses has opened up many unspoken secrets within our own family. Today I want to briefly touch on this silent secret of using colors!!

I have read in many cases where people use 'colors' to help children with learning disabilities. It is a visual aide that helps the child learn through another sensory input. Well, I think this same modality can be used across the board with all types of persons, children, adolescents, and even adults. It has been over the past three or four years that I have slowly integrated the use of colored visual aides into our home that sends a message without me ever having to say a word.

Here are some examples....

At Knotty Pines Academy the children wear knit shirts that are color coordinated to the Church's liturgical seasons and saints. On school days, this has eliminated the morning dressing battles, and there are no longer delays in starting morning prayers. Plus the children from preschool on up always know what season or saint we are celebrating. On days that we honor martyred Saints they will wear red shirts, and on a days we honor Mary they wear blue shirts, etc. This has turned out to be another wonderful way we can all live our faith.

With our weekly school schedule we have color coded the blocks of times we allow for certain studies throughout the day. This sends a silent message to all the kids so they know where they need to be again without my having to say anything. Each child has their own color codes school supplies and instruction cards in the learning centers. This has enabled the non-readers with more independence and teacher to properly direct after school clean-ups ;-)

Our chore board meal times are color coded according to the day of week. This has served several good purposes. First the non-readers in the family know exactly what day is *theirs* to set up the altar in preparation for prayer times etc. We also have certain chores assigned to certain days and the colors help the children remember without my having to say anything.

We have color coded the children's bathroom towels and certain toiletries. Each child has their own colored toothbrushes, hair brushes and towels. This helps me keep track of who is leaving what where and who did what and who didn't so that I might instruct directly.

What secrets has color coding brought into my home? It has brought order, accountability, unity, sanity and peace.

Remedies for Winter Burn-out

Over the years I have come to the realization that January and February are major "burn out" months for the kids and myself in our homeschooling. We absolutely love celebrating the Advent and Christmas seasons and in doing so they provide a nice break from the regular academic routines begun in early Fall. This can also be the time of year when I realize that I have set our academic year with too many expectations, too many obligations outside the family, too many subjects to cover. Unfortunately my well deserved month off in the summer, intended to re-energize me, came back to bite me. Recognizing these short comings can make getting back into a routine rather difficult for both teacher and students, hence leading to that inevitable burn-out. This year there is an added twist as I am having to work hard to overcome my first trimester blues. I just don't bounce back as quickly as I use too.

With these past experiences and knowledge, about three years ago, I started a habit of purposely revisiting an old friend, reaffirming my purpose, educational ideas and philosophies for homeschooling, before starting our academic year. For the past two years, every January I have revisited Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home by E. Foss.

Oh boy, how I needed this boost this year! Elizabeth Foss's book is exactly what the doctor ordered!! Revisiting Charlotte Mason's methods and philosophies have not only re-motivated me, but made me realize just how far off track I had steered this year in our homeschooling. At the beginning of the year I needed the help of *some* curriculum for certain academics but being an overachiever I went way overboard and fell into the false security trap. I allowed curriculum to take over the majority of our academics and that is when harmony went out and chaos came in the door.

One of my favorite mottoes by Charlotte Mason is "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life". While revisiting the meaning behind this motto I have come to realize just how compromised I had allowed our home and schooling to become.

Our atmosphere was not one of living ideas but had become a daily drudgery of dead boring digested facts. I had not properly provided an environment that allowed the children to exercise "masterly inactivity", that is to continue learning even when I was not able to actively teach. Their fires were not being ignited but instead they had become buckets to fill. It has been refreshing to re-think about our atmosphere and how I might better it for the children's sake.

Our discipline had become crowded with many bad habits. Elizabeth Foss's book allowed me to recognize that many of the problems that have creeped into our daily lives really stemmed from my lack of self-discipline. Another favorite motto by Charlotte Mason is "I am, I can, I ought, I will", the core to training and forming a child's will. Like our atmosphere it has been refreshing to revisit the meaning behind this motto and think of how I might re-instill good habits.

In getting back on track with our home atmosphere and discipline I look forward to recreating a lifestyle of learning in our home that is more harmonious and reignites the children's passion for learning. I am so grateful for homeschooling and having the flexibility to keep what is working and change what is not working. We never stop learning whether that is about ourselves or this big world we live in. I am so grateful that God allowed Charlotte Mason to cross my path and used Elizabeth Foss to gently show me what His will is for Adamson Academy, so that we may start the New Year out on the right track!!

Our Homeschool Journey part 2

In my first 'Homeschool Journey' posting I discussed how I created a schedule/system that has helped in me in balancing our home life with our schooling. I also mentioned which home school educators inspired me to further explore other academic options. In the next couple posts I would like to discuss some philosophies and resources that we have adopted over the years.

During those first years of homeschooling, there is such a learning curve. What I ended up doing was about every other year or so I would choose one philosophy to read and immerse myself in for a while. Then I would glean ideas, write them down and implement them a little at a time into our homeschool routine. Over these past years I have had to learn to be gentle and patient with myself as I've worked through each learning curve. These educational philosophies were developed for age segregated groups in institutional settings. After time and with experience I have learned how to take what worked for my family and leave the rest.

This is why I could never be a purist in any one method or philosophy. One of the first books that I ever read that really opened up my eyes to other approaches was called For the Children's Sake. It was here that I first learned about Charlotte Mason. Then I read my all time favorite homeschool book called Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home. It was here that I learned how easily Charlotte Mason's methods could be adapted to other educational styles. Miss Mason's methods are simple, natural and gentle on the surface but underneath they are so intellectually powerful. Some of my favorite Charlotte Mason books that I visit often for inspiration are:

1. A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning


2. A Charlotte Mason Education


3. More Charlotte Mason Education


4. Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series


5. Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning

After being introduced to Charlotte Mason I became intrigued in seeing how other home educators had adapted her methods and philosophies into their educational systems and I became eager to develop my own style of education. Here are just a handful of those educators that utilize Charlotte Mason's methods in their educational system that I think are worthy of mentioning because they have all helped in paving the path to my own style of home education. Elizabeth Foss is one I mentioned in my first posting, but others were Karen Andreola, Valerie Bendt, Penny Gardner, Catherine Levision, Julie Bogart, Sally and Clay Clarkson and Marilyn Howshall.

One of CM's methods that I have adapted over the years that are a regular part of our studies are nature walks. From Spring through Fall we typically allow nature study to lead our 'science' studies but during the winter months we tend to do more hands on science experiments and gear our sciences to specific thematic studies. Some of my all time favorite nature study books are:

• Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning


• Wild Days: Creating Discovery Journals


• Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You


• Handbook of Nature Study

Another CM method we enjoy as a family is art and music appreciation. Resources we have used for our art appreciation studies have included:

• Penny Gardner's collection


• Mater Amabilis


• Sister Wendy's Complete Collection


• Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists books


• Discovering Great Artists by Maryann Kohl. This is one of our favorite.

For music appreciation there is a wide variation of resources we use from radio to library check outs but our favorite right now that we own are the Masters of Classical Music series.

In my next posting I will discuss other resources that I have implemented in our homeschool journey.

My Homeschool Journey Thoughts - part 1

One of the most commonly asked questions by home schoolers after learning that I educate all my children at home is --- "how do you do it? I struggle with just two and you have four!" There are many answers to this question, but that would have to wait for another posting in the meantime one answer that I would like to talk about today would be *organization*.

Part of discovering ones comfort level with home schooling is learning not only what works for each student, but what works for the primary teacher. Each family's situation is totally different so what works for one family may not work for another, but in my experience one skill that is essential to having a successful lifestyle of learning is 'organization'. Now with that being said, one family's system of organization may differ from another's, but the success comes from having a consistent routine or rhythm in place.

In this first posting I will talk about my journey and what resources came to greatly influence 'how I do it..' In follow up postings to this series I will provide other resources that I have come to utilize. I will also post some visuals aids to show some of these organizational tools and along with copies of different schedules that my family has used over the years to bring balance to both our academics and our home life. Please keep in mind much of the lingo I use in these forms will make more sense if you're familiar with the resources I will be mentioning later in this post.

Since I am the primary teacher, and I have to keep up with all the other household functions, I needed to find a system that worked for both my children and me. During my learning curve I quickly came to the realization that trying to bring the institutional school system into our home was not working. Those first couple of years were a real struggle as I kept trying different ways to implement systems like time specific schedules, textbooks, redundant workbooks, and standardized tests that were created for institutionalized school settings not homes. The harder I tried, the more I failed, and my family felt the brunt of it all.

Then I learned of a wonderful educator who lived over 150 years ago in Britain. Her name was Charlotte Mason. I quickly found myself resonating with her philosophies and methods of educating children both from a teachers perspective and from a mother's. However, CM had established PNEU schools and her methods were set up to be taught primarily in classrooms, so once again I found myself struggling with how to make her methods fit into my daily home life.

Over the years as I came across experienced home educators that had learned how to implement CM's methods in their home schools, I noticed right away that their schedules were not necessarily time oriented in strict 30-45 minute slots but rather task oriented in blocks of time throughout the day. This really struck a chord with me because there were many home schoolers out their thriving on a time oriented system much like the schools used, but I did not feel like that was a system I could successfully implement in my home. Actually, many friends suggested I try the MOTH program. I looked into it and gleaned some good ideas from it, but all in all it just was not a fit for my family.

Elizabeth Foss, was one those experienced home educators. She is now a wonderful mentor and wrote a fabulous book called Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home. Her book spoke to my very heart and soul. Elizabeth's book really helped to give me another perspective on how I could home school successfully and for the first time I felt a light at the end of this tunnel.

It was through her book that I learned of a Catholic CM group. Here I could go for support on implementing CM's methods in my school and still teach 'religion' in a way which differed from Charlotte Mason's. I also learned of another home educator and author who wrote a book titled Educating the Wholehearted Child. Sally Clarkston helped me to see a clearer picture of how to implement CM's methods into my own home in a style/system that would work for me and my family!! I loved what Elizabeth had accomplished in a large family, and this book enabled me to see how to take her practical methods of running a home and school and apply them to my own family in an organized manner that was not time slot oriented.

I think my final burst of confidence, to break away from using a system that had been ingrained in me for 16+ years and to fully implement my desired lifestyle of learning, came after reading two very powerful books by Marilyn Howshall called ‘Come Home’ from Homeschool and Develop a Lifestyle Routine. Since then I have never looked back. Praise God!!!

In the next couple postings I will address academic resources.

Welcome...

...to our family blog. We are a Catholic homeschooling family having the time of our lives on this ever changing journey of living and learning!! In gratitude to the Most Holy Trinity we wanted to create a place to share with distant family and friends, so that they may have glimpses into those trails that we are blessed with daily.

Many have asked where we came up with the name Knotty Pines Trails? It really came to fruition about five years ago when we began to come up with plans for our future hobby farm. Our family absolutely loves anything outdoors including nature walks, fishing, gardening, hiking or camping. Some of our fondest memories have been exploring new trails here in Georgia where there are tons of forests, woods, protected parks and yes even back yards with a lot of acreage. This is when we came up with a couple good names for our future farm and Knotty Pines Trails was voted as the best name for our family. The name has now filtered into all areas of our lives.

Dear visitors as you will come to realize our choice to homeschool has grown over the past decade into a lifestyle of learning that is intertwined with our daily living. This choice completes *our* family and in no way is judgmental against other methods of educating children. We welcome all readers and comments. Our prayer is that we might inspire others along their journeys!

My husband, Dave and I are the proud parents and educators of our six beautiful children. The name of our homeschool is Knotty Pines Academy Homeschool. Initially, our teaching methods were heavily influenced by a wonderful educator called Charlotte Mason, but over the years we have come to know, be inspired and adapt several other educational methods like child-centered rabbit trails (unit studies), some classical ideas, Montessori materials can be found sprinkled throughout the elementary years to reinforce learning skills, and we use quite a bit of creative art elements that add amazing beauty and richness to our all lesson blocks.

We aim to create a loving and nurturing environment that will guide our children to their fullest potential as self-confident, creative and caring individuals who embrace learning, think for themselves and positively influence the world around them. We strive to seek "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is lovely and whatever is gracious..." because all beauty and truth originate in God the Creator.

We also strive daily with "... all our hearts, minds, souls and strength to know, love and serve the Lord our God" (Deut. 6:5), His one true Church (Matt. 16:18, Acts 15), in union with the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13). This total devotion in combination with all our humanity forms who and what we are so please remember our opinions and thoughts are just that – our own and our intent is never to offend anyone.