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moving to Colorado and putting our homeschool on hold for a few weeks…

Written by Joy
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moving to Colorado and putting our homeschool on hold for a few weeks…

If you haven’t heard yet, our family is moving.  Moving across country.  1500 miles away from were we are at now.  We will be moving to Golden, CO and this will be happening in two (very short) weeks.

My life right now is boxes and a lot of them.

When we first found out my husband had the job, the first thing I packed up was our school books.  I knew there wouldn’t be any dedicated time for book learning until after the move would be complete.  There is so much to learn that can’t come from a  book.  You just have to experience it.  My kids will be going through a lot emotionally,  and I know that what we would have covered from the books, would not be retained in their minds.

kids playing with play-dough during their sleepover.

All my kids can think about at this time is spending as much time as they can with the friends they will be leaving behind. Besides all of the purging of things that we do not need nor want, I am playing chauffeur to my children and letting them be kids and have a short summer with their friends.

Sarah and a friend from church.

I have had people ask why we decided to move if we were happy where we are at now.  Well, sometimes God opens a door and you just have to go through it.  You have to go where God needs you to go.  I think you can sometimes get too comfortable in a place.

Jeremiah 29:11

11  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

God knows where we need to be when we need to be there.  We just have to be able to listen and obey when He calls us to move on.  God will also take care of His children when we listen.  He knew that we were open to relocating, if necessary.  God provided the job and now it is time for us to obey and move on.

Is it going to be hard?  Yes!  Have I  already shed tears about leaving so many friends and our church family?  You betcha!!  God never promised us a life of ease.

James 1:2-4

2  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

While I don’t really feel like this is a trial as in a bad thing happening, I do know that I have to have faith in God and know that if we listen and obey, He will take care of us no matter where we are at.  He will provide us with a new church to help and serve in.  He will provide us with like-minded folks to fellowship with.  Yes, He will even find my children friends to help ease the the hurt of missing old friends.

So while our homeschool is on hold for a few more weeks, I am hoping to be posting about our journey west to Golden, CO.  I am hoping to be able to write and tell about our fears of moving and even our excitement of a new journey that God has in store for us.

Once we are settled, I will then be changing the name of my blog to “A Journey of Joy”.  No, not all journey’s are full of joy, but it will be my journey and I will be writing about our life and our life of homeschooling and us doing our best to have joy in all we do.

Please keep us in your prayers on our new journey.

2012, family, homeschooling, , ,

trips to National or State parks…

Written by Joy
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trips to National or State parks…



I am truly enjoying sharing fun ideas from our Summer Bucket List.  I have also been enjoying seeing what others have been doing as well.  I hope that we have been able to give you some ideas and inspiration to start a bucket list or even add on to your bucket list you already have made!

Something else our family loves doing together is going to state or national parks.  We are blessed to live in a state that has several in our area.  Our family is just minutes from The Great Smoky National Park and The Blue Ridge Parkway.

One of our favorite places to go is the Mountain Farm Museum in Cherokee, at the Oconoluftee Visitor Center.  A couple of times a year, they have this wonderful Mountain Farm Life festival.  They have volunteers dress in period clothing and they give examples of how folks lived in the late 1800’s.  You will see women standing over open flames with a huge kettle on top making lye soap.  You will also see women making apple butter, too!

There are always men and women showing the the guests how to make brooms from corn talks and tassels.

They have the house open so you can see the simple life that people had.  The kitchen is usually warm with women baking cornbread and beans in the fireplace.  They also bake cookies as treats for everyone who comes by.

One of my kids’ favorite areas to visit is the games area.  A gentleman brings his toys that he has collected and made over the years for every to give a try.  It is so hard to get the kids to look at other things when they see this area!

I love seeing the area set up at the Apple barn.  They have a tent set up where they are making molasses the old way.  The mule is walking around in circles at the grinder, pressing the juice from the cane.  They then take it to an area that has a huge shallow pan where they pour the juice from the cane.  Under it is a fire that keeps the juice boiling to burn the water off.  What is left is the syrup from the sugar cane.

Next to the molasses tent is the apple press.  They take the apples and slice them up in a big bucket.  They then have this press that they use to mash all of the juice out.  What you get is fresh apple cider!  It is so delicious!

We were able to attend the Mountain Life festival this past September, but missed it this past Spring.  I am hoping to at least get one more trip to this beautiful area before we move in a few weeks.

Do you have any National or State parks in your area?  There is usually a small entrance fee to the parks, but it is well worth the money.  I know I always enjoy a trip back in time to these beautiful places!

Be sure to stop by the others who are participating in the Summer Bucket List series to see what fun they have been up to!

Honey @ Sunflower Schoolhouse

Tonya @ The Traveling Praters

Jeniffer & Melissa @ Sisters ‘N Cloth

Lisa @ Creativlei

Nancy @ Proverbs 31 Jewels

Jennifer @ Teaching Boys

Kelli @ Adventurez In Child’rearing

2012, family, homeschooling, , , , , , ,

Birds of Prey program at our library

Written by Joy
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Birds of Prey program at our library



As we continue on with our activities from our Summer Bucket List, I have to mention about our awesome library that we have. When we move, our library will be one thing that we will miss a lot. Our library, just celebrated its first anniversary at its new building. Along with the new building has come more books and also more programs being offered for the kids by the library. We missed the programs on the Wolves and Snakes, and it was by chance that we happened to stop by and noticed the Birds of Prey program about to begin. The kids were so excited when they found out that they didn’t miss this show! Even better that their grandparents could be there with them!

The local Nature Center had my kids’ attention from the start.   They had several different owls, a Red Tail Hawk, a Harris Hawk and a Bald Eagle named Freedom.  I love how they explained to the kids why these animals were called birds of prey and how they ended up in captivity and why they can never be out back out into the wild.

The bald eagle’s name is Freedom.  He talked about how the bald eagles used to be considered endangered species many years ago.  There are now over 10,000 pairs of bald eagles in the U.S.  Freedom is a bald eagle that is visiting the Nature Center from Dollywood.

My oldest daughter has been to this Nature Center several times and has fallen in love with the birds that they take care of.  I am very thankful that we were able to be at the program, so that I could get a picture of her holding the Harris Hawk.

We are blessed to have a library that is able to have programs that are so fun and educational.  Does your library have  any programs during the summertime?

Be sure to stop by the others who are participating in the Summer Bucket List series to see what fun they have been up to!

Honey @ Sunflower Schoolhouse

Tonya @ The Traveling Praters

Jeniffer & Melissa @ Sisters ‘N Cloth

Lisa @ Creativlei

Nancy @ Proverbs 31 Jewels

Jennifer @ Teaching Boys

Kelli @ Adventurez In Child’rearing

2012, family, homeschooling, , , , ,

why I am still homeschooling..

Written by Joy
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This week, I have been asked several times why we have chosen to homeschool.    Well, we didn’t start out homeschooling the kids from the beginning.  Our oldest went to public school until the 4th grade.  There were a few issues and our only option at that time was to homeschool him.  However, after several years of homeschooling him and our oldest daughter, we quickly came to realize that this is what God had intended for us to do all along. Since then, we have added two more children to our family and homeschooling journey.

Some of my favorite verses about teaching your children come from Deuteronomy.  You see, homeschooling is not all about reading, writing and arithmetic.  Yes, those academic courses will help my children get a job in the future.  My goal though is to teach my kids to love God with all their heart, soul and might.  As Christians, we are to glorify God through it all, no matter what.  This is our job as parents and what is my most important goal ever in teaching our children.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We are beginning our 10th year of homeschooling and I will have a 9th, 3rd and 2nd grader.  We graduated one from high school last year, who is now attending a local community college.  As of right now, we will continue homeschooling until God tells us to do differently.  While it wasn’t our intention to begin with, we are very intentional with our homeschool now.

2012, homeschooling, , , , ,

my son and his favorite books…

Written by Joy
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All children are not alike.  My 4 are proof of that.  My two oldest kids learned to read by the ages of 3 and 4. My youngest two are just now learning to read small words at the ages of 6 and 7.  My 7 year old boy though has struggled with his speech ever since he started talking. There are just certain letter sounds that he has struggled with.  While he has proved tremendously over the past few years, we still work daily on pronouncing words while reading books.

Since my youngest son was struggling with reading, going to the library was not fun for him.  He hated to pick out books.  He hated for me to pick out books.  Even if I told him I would read the books to him, he still did not like reading at all.  This is where this momma started praying.  I mean, I love reading.  Our whole family loves reading.  Books are a favorite downtime for our family.  To have a child that did not like books or to read, it really sadden me a lot.  I knew it was because he struggled to read.

We continued our Hooked on Phonics, as well as Bob Jones Phonics and English.  I also continue on praying.  I hated seeing my son get frustrated and upset not being able to read and figure words out.  Then one day as we visited the library, like I do every time before we leave, I told the kids to go choose some books to check out.  Low and behold, my son picked out some books all on his own.  I couldn’t believe it.

The books are written and illustrated by Jim Arnosky.  The books are all about nature and animals.  Mr. Arnosky will go out and actually film animals to take home and study. He has written over 80 books and has won many awards for the books.  I have to be honest, I have never heard of Mr. Arnosky until my son just went and picked up 3 of his books.  They were Little Lions, Raccoon On His Own and Rattlesnake Dance.

When we got home from the library that day, he immediately wanted to read all three of the books.  We sat down and I read the books to him.  I was so proud of him and told him so.  We read those books and he looked through those books over the next two weeks that we had them.  When we got to the library, my son wanted to read the books one last time.  I said okay and we sat down on one of the love-seats.  To my surprise, he wanted to read the books to me!!

I was so thrilled and happy!  I literally was sitting there with tears in my eyes.  I was so proud of my boy.  He did need help on a few of the larger words, but for the most part, he read slowly, the whole book.  When he finished, you ought to have seen the look on his face.  It was priceless.  He was so happy!  His confidence level skyrocketed after that day.

Now, he will happily go into the library and choose a variety of books when I tell them it is time to go.  However, it never fails, he will come home with a couple of Jim Arnosky books.  I have to say, I can’t blame him one bit.   They hold a special meaning in my heart as well.

So mom, if you have a son who is a struggling reader.  Don’t give up on him.   Before you know it, your son will be reading.  Just keep reading to him and letting him choose books that interest him.  It may not be the readers that come with your special curriculum.  It may be a random book just pulled off a shelf at the library.

Do you remember the very first book that your child(ren) read to you?

 

2012, homeschooling, ,