Pictures - November 10, 2016

Asher getting ready to launch a rocket.

Josie Grace loves spending time doing things with Daddy, especially riding the scooter!

Playing Frida's Fruit Fiesta game to work on fine motor skills and literacy (note Micah's strong man costume).

Pictures - October 24, 2016

One of the purposes of this blog is to keep friends and family updated on this journey of homeschooling (see more on the About page).  So, here are some pictures from what we've been doing over the last couple of weeks!  :)


Classical Conversations

Micah's class made a to-scale model of the solar system this morning.  The soccer ball represents Saturn (see the wire rings around it?), and the tutor is giving Micah (gray sweatshirt) a moon to put by Saturn.

Everyday Learning - Blogging

One of the great things about homeschooling is the ability to take learning opportunities as they come and weave them in to whatever it is that I need to accomplish that day.  This post is part of a series on doing just that - integrating learning in to the everyday.  The two previous posts are on bullet journals for kids and healthy eating.

Real Life
When I was in college, one of my professors asked what seemed to be a very odd question: Why do we teach kids to read and write?  Answers ranged, but he was really trying to get to the simplest answer: to communicate.  When kids learn how to read and write, their ability to communicate grows exponentially.  And now, 15ish years later, I still believe he was right.  I would add, though, that digital literacy has also become integral to modern communication.  Most people text and talk on a smartphone.  The Internet is used for just about everything - research, finding contact information, and checking the weather.  I want my kids to be digitally literate without involving unnecessary screen time.  Writing a blog post (you can read it here) was on my list of things to do anyway, so...why not have Micah help?

Pictures - October 10, 2016

All pictures were selected by Micah for this post.  Here's a quick peek at what we've been up to at the White house!

 Asher clearly enjoyed his roasted marshmallow (pre-clean eating)  :)

Micah loved our backyard campfire

Literacy with a postcard from Alaska! 

More is Caught Than Taught

The responsibility of parenting can be daunting.  Diapers, sleep deprivation, potty training.  Nurturing, meals, laundry, sleep training.  Cleaning the house - oh, the house! - tauntrums, defiance.  Finally mastering one stage right before they move on to the next one.  Keeping them alive.  Character and spiritual development, kindness.

Daunting.

Enter authentic learning.  There are countless opportunities every day for kids to learn.  We just have to know how to grasp them - simply.

In addition to academics, here are some of the things I want my kids to catch:

Authentic Learning

The Importance of Being Little, by Erika Christakis, has greatly influenced my philosophy on teaching my kids, especially while they are young.  Christakis makes the point that all preschoolers and kindergarteners really need is to experience life with someone who loves them.  Doing real life things together, talking about them, and using these teachable moments prepares kids for real life.  We had a great opportunity to put this in to practice today!

The 19th (!) Johnson great-grandchild was born on September 20, so we made cards and visited baby Clark and his parents today.

Pictures - Monday, September 19, 2016

Micah giving his weekly Classical Conversations presentation, this week on 

Charlemagne (see Lego representation)