Counting Our Blessings...

Dear Friends, 

I wouldn't normally forward you a letter that I had already sent to a friend privately but I hope she will excuse me as I thought it the best way to share my heart and our circumstances with you...

Crazy days! Our recent days have been dominated by a weekend in the hospital for our youngest daughter (and I - Cori). She was experiencing chest pains (and still is a bit) but was otherwise healthy and happy which made it much more bearable. We realized on Friday morning that her complaints were consistently about pain in her chest. Before that we'd thought that we were responding to the usual bout of two year old nicks and scrapes. So, (on Friday morning) I called her paediatric cardiologist and asked for advice. He advised seeing our family doctor who wasn't available. We knew that, regardless of where we went, saying to any doctor, apart from him, that our two year old with a heart condition was having chest pain would get us sent to the ER. So we went to the ER and were soon admitted. They decided to do 48 hours of monitoring. Really they didn't have the right equipment needed to monitor her specific condition or someone with expertise on her needs. So it was a lot of calling Sick Kids in Toronto for advice and such. In short, our little girl's heart rate is irregular and low which they said was not critical right now but is consistent with someone with her condition.

They released us today and we were home early after noon with the plan to get to see her paediatric cardiologist tomorrow (please pray this will happen) so that he can properly monitor her and can compare her condition now to his previous notes on her. He is a good Christian man but rather tight lipped with information and obviously very busy so hard to get a hold of. (We are really hoping and praying that he will monitor her now rather than in six weeks when he is supposed to see her next.)

So, again we covet your prayers for our girl.

Otherwise, we are in good spirits, not wanting to compare ourselves but having seen so many kids recently in much worse shape. I've been inspired by a family who's daughter has been a the brink of death since before Christmas and the way that they praise God daily in their Facebook updates.

Our children are God's and not our own and as such he doesn't owe us another day with them but trusts us with their upbringing. Amazing, eh? In addition to that it was just so nice to have time to just spoil my girlie and to cuddle her lots and to play only with her, not something we do often. As well, we have just been so blessed by friends and family and neighbours who took the kids, shoveled the drive, fed us, walked the dog, delivered the newspapers, brought tea for us and activity pages for the princess when she wasn't allowed to move. Amazed by God's provision in only 48 hours.

So anyway, we request your prayers for the days ahead and will keep you posted. Pray that we will be able to ride this storm with strength (physical, emotional and spiritual) and faith.

"You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light." Psalm 18:28

Many blessings,

Cori and the rest of the Dean Clan

Why We Deliver Newspapers

Okay, by now you know that I am one of those life is learning and learning is life types of people but I still do firmly believe in the need for structured learning.  Our school day does require a lot of routine – though I do shudder at strict scheduling.  I guess I am still trying to find the happy medium after all these years.  Underneath all of the second guessing and the “planning for success” though, my hubby and I have confidence in our underlying goal as parents for our kids education: it is our desire to raise our children up to be all that God made them to be, vibrant well-educated women who have a passion for God and a love for people and who use their unique gifts and talents to both pursue that passion and love but also to provide for the needs of their own families now and in the future.

So how does that translate into the nitty gritty of the day to day?  Well, of course we want for our kids to learn to read and write and do their ‘rithmetic.  We want them to be versed in sciences and history and geography but we also want more.  We want them to have strong characters, to be able to work hard and to work smart.  We want them to graduate from this homeschool not only with academic skill but with life skills.

Hence the newspaper route, a rather routine part of our week but a key learning time, too.

First, the things that we dislike about it.  The biggest downer is the sheer volume of junk mail!  It is indicative of a society that bases values on what you can get rather than what you have to give, that makes success equal to having more toys.  It is also so wasteful and a horrible travesty in term of the environmental bludgeoning that each newspapers delivers.

Secondly, I live with a house full of readers and players and creators – but not terribly athletic folks.  We love to be outdoors, but for some young souls that doesn’t mean being out doors with a cart full of newspapers.  The work is hard and it isn’t all that much fun.

In comparison to these though there are many great reasons that we have embraced that have helped both parents and children to overcome the negatives of the newspaper route.

We, like many homeschoolers, live on a rather restrictive one-income budget, so we told the kids when they were all very young that when they started to wanting expensive toys that they’d better get themselves a job.  For our oldest that came at nine years of age.  She wanted a video game player and so she got a job delivering newspapers and earned the money she needed for the toys she wanted.

Having a paper route has been a great way to get physical exercise that aspiring cooks, mad scientists and generally non-athletic types have needed.  My kids are getting paid to be physically active rather than me having to pay for them to do so.

It gives a much needed breath of fresh air even on those rainy days when we would have hidden inside.  We only deliver two days a week but it’s nice to know that there are those required days to get out in the most dull weeks when it is easier to just get cooped up.

The kids have spending money that they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to have when mommy and daddy are trying to stay within a missionary budget.

No only that, they have learned first hand about giving, saving and spending, key principles that aren’t as easy to internalize when the money you are giving away has been given to you to give.  They have learned to tenderheartedly share from their own resources and to plan for the future as well.

They have learned work ethic.  We’d rather that our children learn, while they are young, that they need to submit to the authority of a boss than to struggle with the idea later in their adult years when their income is no longer discretionary.  Not only that but they are learning that, even on the days that you don’t want to do it, you still need to get the job done on time.  They are learning stick-to-it-iveness.  They are learning the value of a job well done. 

They are also learning valuable character qualities as they strive to “do all things without arguing or complaining”.  They are learning to work together on tasks and to get along and to help out, to love and to be gentle and to be kind as they work side by side.  They are learning, albeit slowly, to sing a happy song even when their heart feels grumpy.

They are learning to smile and to look adults in the eye rather than to avert their eyes and turn up their iPods as so many young people are apt to do while out and about.

They are also learning to be safe and smart.  As they get older, each of my children earns the ability and privilege to do more in their little business, going from being the youngest, two year old, who gets to take newspapers from our dining area to the front porch and under Mom’s supervision to the front door of each of our next door neighbours, to the oldest who is able to go door to door out of Mom’s sight, walking on the road without supervision.  They are learning how to stay safe when they meet up with people they don’t know.

I guess the minor part of their learning would be the opportunity to think logically about optimizing the walk on their route, the calculating and planning that they do as they earn and save for special purchases, the reading that they do while they should be stuffing fliers. 

Newspapers are much more than a chance to make a buck or two in our house – though that doesn’t hurt either.  Newspapers are a key part of our educational journey.

I hope that you enjoy the ever so routine moments in your days this week Friends!

Peace,

Cori    

Dates

Hello Friends,

A few upcoming dates in my little world...  Will you join me for a few of them here or there?  I'm excited that "conference season" is just around the corner as I will be able to see some of my virtual friends in real life.  If I don't see you in a seminar, be sure to some and see me in the vendor hall and say hi. 

February 16 – Charlotte Mason Meeting in Bradford, Ontario. 7:30-9:30.  Please let me know if you plan to come!)
March 22 – Charlotte Mason Meeting
March 31 – KWCEA Conference, Kitchener.  See you at Rockway Menonite Collegiate, 110 Doon Road, 8:30am to 5pm.
   Workshops that you might join me for?  (See the descriptions below)
            Goal Setting And Planning Your Next School Year
           Homeschooling for “Newbies”
            Single Income Living In A Double Income Culture
April 14^th – RVHEA Conference, Ottawa.  Will you be at this one?  It's at Kanata Baptist Church, 465 Hazeldean Road, Kanata, 8am to 5pm.
   Workshops that you might join me for?
         Enhancing Your Math Teaching
         Charlotte Mason in Real Life
         In Search of the Secret: The Practical Road to Contentment
April 27 & 28 – OCHEC Conference, Hamilton.  Please come and say hello if you are around in Hamilton.  Hamilton Convention Centre, 1 Summers Lane, Hamilton.  
   Workshops that you might join me for?
          Working Together
          In Search of the Secret: The Practical Road to Contentment
May 3 – Charlotte Mason Meeting
May 7 – Speaking at New Tech Homeschool Group.  This is a local homeschool group meeting on a Monday evening.
           Charlotte Mason in Real Life
May 26 – Parent’s Guide Conference, Barrie.  I will be spending my day in the vendor's hall; if this one is closer to your front door then please come visit for a bit.  Barrie Free Methodist Church, 284 Cundles Road East, 8:30 am -3:30 pm.
June 7 – Charlotte Mason Meeting
June 8 – TEACH New and Used Curriculum Sale, Brantford, Mohawk College Campus, 6-9:30.  There aren't any seminars at this one but if you are looking for bang for your buck - this is an awesome used books sale.  (I've always shopped for used books here and then been able pick any other books that I needed in the vendor's hall.)
July – Newby Meeting **Stay tuned for updates**
August - New and Used Curriculum Sale, Ajax
August – Newby Meeting **Stay tuned for updates**
(Interested in a Newby Meeting in your area.  Drop me a note, I'd love to visit for an evening with new homeschoolers in your area!)
So, now you know where to find me in the next few months...  I will look forward to seeing many of your soon.

Peace,

Cori

***

2012 Homeschool Workshops 

In Search of the Secret: The Practical Road to Contentment. – Do you ever wonder what is it that you are searching for, what would make you truly happy?Living in a homeschooling family is a countercultural lifestyle just as being content is a countercultural value nowadays.In this seminar, we will search out the secret of the true meaning of contentment and how it is that we can practically work towards this ever elusive paradise in a home that is lived in 24/7 and on a limited income.Looking at our goals and expectations, our priorities, our stuff, our money, our relationships, we will set out on a journey that will prepare us to not only endure the trials of everyday life as a home educating family but to thrive and to be truly content.

Working Together – Working together as a family is an essential learning goal of every homeschool both for growing students and for the sanity of the mom who wants to conquer the laundry mountain.In this workshop we first look at the biblical basis for teaching our children to work together then discuss the basics of working together in order to develop self care skills, hospitality skills and a servant’s heart.Because Working Together is framed around acquiring practical life skills this seminar also includes how to set up a routine that will get the whole family involved in the essentials of running a Christian household. *** Note: I have an exciting new publication, Working Together: Teamwork Starts at Home Base that corresponds to this seminar.***

Goal setting and planning for your next school year – Preparing for the next school year can be a daunting task.  Where do you start?  How do you decide what to study and when to study it?  Are you planning too much? Or too little?  How do you know if you are making SMART goals?  Do your long term goals for educating your children match your short and medium term goals? This workshop will walk you through how to plan for each of your children for an entire school year from writing a vision and goals to finishing with a workable schedule.

Single Income Living in a Double Income Culture – Choosing to homeschool makes your family countercultural for many reasons. Living by a different economy is one of those reasons. As homeschoolers, we have to learn to live more on less. This seminar looks at how it is that we can not only survive on less but thrive on one income. We will look at ways to save money in our homeschools and how to invest what we do spend wisely. Cori will also share about ways that their family has turned their home educating efforts into opportunities to earn money for the kids and for small business income that has helped the family’s bottom line by paying for homeschool costs.

Homeschooling for “Newbies” – Just starting out or considering taking a homeschooling adventure?  This workshop will address some of the top questions that new homeschoolers ask: Do I need to contact my local school board?  What resources and supports are available to me?  How do I choose curriculum?  What should a typical school day look like?  What about socialization!?!   – With lots of time built in for questions and answers you will have the chance to get specific answers to specific questions.

Enhancing Your Math Teaching.  In this seminar we will look at ways to enrich the basics that you are studying in your math curriculum so that your family can move beyond the theoretical study of a pure science into the realm of everyday life through practical application.  Enhancing teaching through the use of games, literature, activities and manipulatives as well as through unit studies, and various subjects, such as science and art, are just starters to helping your family enjoy their math studies.

Charlotte Mason in Real Life – Every family homeschools for different reasons and from a different perspective.  Likewise, we all have different styles.  This workshop looks at ways to integrate beneficial aspects of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy without necessarily becoming a dedicated “Charlotte Mason” family.  This workshop starts out with an overview of the Charlotte Mason Philosophy and goes on to explore simple ways of incorporating beneficial principles like “living books”, narration and developing relationships with subjects into any homeschool no matter which way you approach home education.

Mother Culture: Language Arts

Practice makes perfect, they say, and while many of the things that we learn in life don’t need to build on previous learning there are some subjects that are more skill based and where learning builds on learning.  You couldn’t ask a child to learn to multiply fractions who didn’t already know a thing or two about adding and then multiplying and fractions and so on.  Piano students and athletes know only too well that you can’t expect to excel without a lot of consistent practice.  Language Arts also falls under this disciplined study banner.  (When labeling the subject “Language Arts” we are really encompassing several sub-categories of learning like phonics, grammar, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary and handwriting.)

In Educating the WholeHearted Child, the Clarksons, like most, advocate a happy medium in approach between the traditional “phonics” and “whole language” approach.  They do this, as expected by encouraging lots of reading time with our children and while still using a phonics based programme to learn to read.  They do however stress that you should focus on phonics principles rather than on memorizing many phonics rules.

Don’t schedule reading success!  (While extended family, neighbours, and church acquaintances may define educational success by how well your kiddos are reading don’t fall into that trap yourself.)  What freedom this word of advice gave me when my oldest was learning to read.  She, like me, is a bit of a perfectionist and was often reluctant to read without knowing exactly what to expect, she wanted to know all of the rules before she would read just for fun.  It wasn’t until she finished grade three that that special time came along. My second daughter on the other hand wasn’t terribly concerned with rules and just started reading and writing at about age four.  She quickly beginning reading well above where we expected she would having had a reluctant first reader but was not terribly concerned with the specifics.  (She used to write long letters using an “a” everywhere that a vowel seemed appropriate before she knew all of her vowels.  Very entertaining: “I lav u mom.  U r mi bast frand.”)

In language arts, as with most learning areas, the Clarkson’s stress that you don’t need age-graded curricula.  They advocate for a simple phonics based learned to read programme and they say that most spelling, vocabulary, grammar and so on can be learned through quality literature and Bible reading.

They used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons because it was simple and straight forward but stressed that it wasn’t the only or best curriculum.

In our little gathering, other mama’s praised Teach Your Child to Read Well as being very similar.

I found the Clarkson’s ideas to closely echo those of Ruth Beechick and have used her very simple little book, The Three R’s, as the starting point for reading for all of my girlies.  After that, we really like Learning Language Arts Through Literature for a few reasons.  The first is that I don’t want to have to be a grammar and vocabulary and composition and …  expert.  LLATL ties together all of the important disciplines and helps us to make sure we are covering all the bases all while getting into some of the amazing literature that we have been raving about.  With very few exceptions, my kids love the chosen books.  It’s not hard to use great literature to learn from.  Learning Language Arts is actually based on Ruth Beechick’s principles and as such is a systematized version of what the Clarkson’s advocate.  The drawbacks: as with so many resources, it is a very American curriculum and so I always feel the need to refocus on Canadian history and geography every so often.  It is also pretty grammar heavy and I don’t think that we need to get bogged down in the fine print of grammar rules too young.  (I solve this by treating the grammar segments lightly, knowing that there is a lot of review and so we will be able to better assimilate ideas again later.)

I don’t know that anyone mentioned any other comprehensive curricula so here are a few of the other favourite resources that folks mentioned (since most of us aren’t able to throw out the idea of curricula completely as the Clarkson’s would like us to do.)

*** Please lend us your comments on the resources below or add your favourite resources to them so that we can all shop a little more wisely.***

Spelling:

All About Spelling

Spelling Wisdom
Spelling Workout
Spelling Power (Okay, this is the one we use.  It really isn’t Charlotte Mason style because it is just lists of “related” words but they are arranged by frequency so I’ve always figured that we have reached the same end as other curricula but in a very comprehensive and systematic way.)

Composition:

Writing Jungle by Brave Writer

Write Shop
Writing with Ease by Susan Wise Bauer
Story Starters by Karen Andreola (My oldest daughter is enjoying this one for a change here and there.  It is what it says, many story starters that the student is encouraged to finish creatively.)
The Daily Journal Series by Cyndy Regeling and CoriDean (These booklets each contain a year’s worth – or more – of journal or creative writing prompts that help to get the creative juices flowing.  Gotta love the Canadian content – yes, I’m biased.)

Handwriting and Vocabulary:

Draw, Write, Now (This is a yummy set of learn to draw books that incorporates handwriting practice, learning about various topics.  My kids have always picked them up as fun time drawing books with the added learning and handwriting just a bonus for teacher-mamma,)
There are also a lot of copywork books out there.  I like to start my girlies with My Character Printing Workbook and My Keepsake Book both by Andrea McLellan at Ontario’s Joy Center of Learning as they integrate character training with handwriting lessons.  After they complete these, I like to get my kids a nice notebook to record their best handwriting in by way of nice poems, quotes and scriptures.

Grammar:

English for the Thoughtful Child by Mary F. Hyde and Cyndy Shearer.  A more primary look at grammar.  Cathy Duffy calls is a good introductory course for children (in grades 1 or 2?) who can write and print but need to learn to write complete sentences.  She recommends following this with Simply Grammar.

Simply Grammar written by Charlotte Mason and rewritten and published by Karen Andreola.  This was Charlotte Mason’s own grammar curriculum which she later decided was best left to older grades (4-8) rather than younger. 

Vocabulary:

Really, we all agreed that the best vocabulary builders were lots and lots of good books!

How’s that for a starter on the Language Arts and some of the resources that we have out there for our students?  I look forward to hearing your input, comments, and other resources suggestions… 

Wishing you a wonderful day as you enjoy the world of reading and literature with your own tribe today!

Cori