Now that sentence alone should clue you in to the great difficulties I was up against: 4 BOYS, home-schooled! Add that to the fact that I don’t enjoy teaching, and it was a sort of a pressure-cooker for my heart.

The stress was too much for me personally. I gave it up, and enrolled my children in a Christian school this year. It was a change I had to make to save my own sanity.

Let me stress here that I am not anti-homeschool or anti-any kind of school! I’ve tried just about everything over the years. Each family must choose what works best for them and their children.

Want to know how life has changed for us? Click here to read the rest of this article, over at Monterey Premier.

The post 7 Unexpected Ways Life Changed When We Quit Homeschooling appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Joshua had several different speaking parts in this year’s school program. I was so excited and nervous for him. You would’ve thought I was the one with lines.

Well, if you’re new here you might not realize that I’m sort of a reluctant teacher. It’s not that I don’t possess the joy of teaching. Sometimes it is fun. The thing is that I cannot enjoy having so many things to do. There’s a fourth grader to teach, a third grader to teach, and a toddler running around. I finally threw in the hat and sent Daniel to pre-school, but it’s only three days per week, so sometimes he’s home too.

Then there’s the blog, the meals, I should at least talk to my husband occasionally (sarcasm. It’s just sarcasm), and the laundry, and heaven forbid, social outings or extracurricular activities.

It is not my cup of tea. I was not built to run around like a chicken with my head cut off and try to do so many things at one time. In the words of my adorable 2-year-old nephew in the swimming pool last year, “Don’t like it. Don’t like it. Don’t like it.”

I feel like I have so many things to do that I can’t do any of them well, because that’s exactly how it is.

So yes, this is the HAPPIEST season of all. Why? Because the school year is ending!!! I calculated very carefully. We will reach exactly 180 days on May the 24th.

We are all so ready for summer.

So we have a few pictures of the end-of-year-Classical Conversations program for ya and a little synopsis of what we covered at our humble little school. It was an intense year.

For Joshua, this year was all about learning the parts of speech and how to write essays. Each 4th-6th grade student diagrammed a sentence for the program.

Nonna and Alan. I was thankful we got to have a grandparent with us for the program. Living so far away from everyone, this is a rarity for us.

Caleb did a great job too. His class all recited their science facts together. They recited the parts of the atmosphere, types of leaves and leaf parts, and types of volcanoes.

These two were happy to be audience members. JD loves Daniel with the sort of undying devotion that only a sweet little sibling can give.

Not the best photo of Dan, but look at how HAPPY JD is! He’s ready for Mom to be done teaching and become his personal servant again.

What We Learned About This Year:

161 events and people in a chronological timeline (We love our time line song. Check it out here.)

44 U.S. Presidents– This is Caleb’s favorite memory work. He says them at lightning speed.
24 history sentences to add depth to our timeline
144 locations and geographic features in Africa, Europe, and the Old World

Caleb’s freehand watercolor world painting

24 biology and earth science facts including the classifications of living things and each continent’s highest mountain) Joshua totally rocked the highest mountains on each continent. I still can’t tell you them, but Joshua can.

5 Latin noun cases and noun endings and their singular and plural declensions
English Grammar Facts (including 53 prepositions, 23 helping verbs, and 12 linking verbs)
Multiplication tables up to 15×15, common squares and cubes, as well as basic geometry formulas and unit conversions

Oh! And we read the most interesting history text-book I’ve ever read. I’m pleased as punch to tell you that we finished the entire book. Alan even enjoyed getting in on this one. He would read it to them before bed at night. Home school is flexible like that!:

You may remember how I ran off all the corresponding activity sheets to go with Story of the World last summer. I thought we’d do so many of them. We did like 5, but that’s okay. We were perfectly happy to listen, learn, and memorize.

Joshua even wrote essays on the Trojan War and Greek mythology.

So now we’ve started on volume II. Caleb enjoys listening to the stories in the car, and Joshua enjoys reading them during silent reading time.

Joshua is 80% of the way through Teaching Textbooks Math 4, which was a much better fit for him than the A Beka curriculum, mostly because it took ME out of the equation. Ha!

Caleb is still doing well with his A Beka math. He’s our math stud. Joshua’s our master speller.

It was a hard year. I brought on board a reading tutor, a part-time nanny (just on Fridays), several doctors (for me), and a cleaning lady just to make it sort of work. But it’s almost done! CC is done! AWANA will be done as of next Wednesday (Thank goodness!), and school will totally be finished May 24th. I’m counting the hours.

Meanwhile, I have not had a fever today, so whoo-hoo!!! Now I’m off to feed the children and head to Joshua’s baseball game!

The post A Happy Season for Me: Wrapping Up Homeschool Year 2 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I have found some of the most beautiful rose gardens in California.

We declared last week “Field Trip Week”, and had ourselves a grand ol’ time. We visited the aquarium, a beautiful rose garden, a robotics show, and Santa Lucia Nature Preserve.

The big boys practiced their lines for their upcoming end-of-year parent night, we squeezed in a few math lessons, read a few books, and welcomed Nonna and Aunt Janet to town.

I don’t think it’s possible to walk through a well tended garden of roses and not feel inspired.

The boys saw the perfect rows of hedges, declared it a maze, and started running.

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Now for stop two on our Week of Adventures: Santa Lucia Preserve

This place, located in Carmel Valley, is thickly wooded, and it is, unfortunately, not open to the public. We only got to go because we all tagged along on Daniel’s Preschool Field trip as chaperones, drivers, and siblings.

We were supposed to be relatively quiet, stay on the trail, not touch anything, and always stay behind the guide. They told us these rules before the trip began, and I began to question in my mind if JD and Caleb were going to make it…..but I am happy to report that we were all as good as gold, even me. I was actually quite content to not touch the owl pellets, the mosquito larvae, or the spiky leaves. 

Looking up

They had photos of animals that have been seen in recent years on the bridge on the property. Yep. A black bear.

There were also pictures of bobcats and coyotes. I said, “Oh. We have those in our neighborhood.”

Then I saw a photo of a mountain lion. I added, “Oh, I hope we don’t have those in our neighborhood.”

The nature guide smiled. “You do,” she assured me. Apparently, central California is the mountain lion zone.

JD, counting something on his fingers, hopefully not how many wild predators he’s seen on our street….

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We also had a “family presentation” two weeks ago at our Classical Conversations campus.

Joshua and Caleb created this poster, which I thought was pretty doggone cute. Caleb is especially interested in prehistoric Megalodon sharks.

This week Donna and Aunt Janet are going to Point Lobos.

And now for some good ol’ fashioned fun. Nothing like balloons under shirts.

I’m afraid last week will be a tough act to follow! But here we go…

Wishing you all a happy week! I’ll leave you with my current theme song, via YouTube:

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“Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”  –Lady Bird Johnson

Spring is one of those things you can’t help but notice. That’s the way it is with beauty. It is inspirational. When beauty surrounds you, you can’t help but feel better.

I took this photo on my walk the other day.

It’s funny how on my sick days I often feel too miserable to want to do chores, but I’m rarely feeling bad enough to not want to go out for a walk in the sunshine. It’s positively healing, isn’t it?

Even paths that lead to nowhere look best in spring.

I think that when you are surrounded by small, needy preschool darlings, (And they are darling. They can’t help that they are needy), you need to frequently step away for at least 20 minutes to regain perspective. It’s a battery re-charge that is REQUIRED to go on providing love to others. My favorite place to re-charge is a walk.

Nature is so obvious with its beauty. The Lord’s handiwork surpasses anything man can make. I’ve never been as inspired by concrete as I am by a good cliff or a stately tree. And yet, also, I love what man does with a green space. I’m always inspired by gardens of order and symmetry. Wild nature or well tended gardens, I love it all.

Do you know what else is obviously beautiful? Small children.  I’ve been mommy-ing for 10 years. I’ve rarely been truly depressed in that time because these little devils keep me so busy and challenged and yet so darn happy!

I can remember only one phase of feeling depressed, and it was during my second pregnancy. But we had just moved. Alan had to work long hours, and it was just a bad combination of hormones + circumstances. Plus, I was pregnant, so even though my depression was caused by hormones, I couldn’t take anything for it because I was pregnant.

Thankfully, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and with the pregnancy hormones gone, I was actually happier postpartum than I had felt in years. (I do realize it’s usually the opposite that’s true. I am grateful it didn’t hang on.)

These children bring us so much joy.

learning to blow bubbles under water

Little minds at work. Work, minds, work.

JD and his locked up latch board. He was quite proud of his accomplishments on this board. Don’t you love it when they are excited to accomplish things?

I passed this cat on my walk. I’ve always thought cats were prettier than dogs. Sorry, dog people. I will always be #teamcat.

The day I took this photo I thought my living room was so messy. Now I’m looking at it and thinking we were doing pretty good for four kids. Don’t you think?? I should chill.

P.S. How cute are my new Clarks loafers? And they are oh-so-cozy!!

JD, the ultimate Classical Conversations toddler, playing his tin whistle

I feel like JD is the quintessential Classical Conversations little bro toddler. We have to keep up our CC memory work next year because we’ve come too far to let it go. Next year, the big boys will be going to a Christian school. Daniel will be going to a neighborhood kindergarten, and JD will be home with me, but I still hope to keep up the CC memory work.

Let me tell you what JD walks around the house singing lately:

“us, us, ui, um, uuuuuu”

Yep, those are Latin noun endings, I forget which declension that is, but still, I think it’s hilarious that my two-year-old is walking around singing Latin.

I’m taken with these trees. Lovely in the day time, haunting in the evening.

my little ball player, tracing his w’s

I hope you are all having a great week. Alan and Caleb just got home from baseball practice. It’s Alan’s final stretch in completing his thesis, but you know Alan, that didn’t stop him from signing up to coach both Daniel and Caleb’s baseball teams. He’s also still teaching TNT boys at AWANA on Wednesday nights at church. He could probably use prayers even more than I can!

But we aren’t fooling ourselves. We know that we’re living a beautiful life here in California. And today we are counting our blessings, and thanking you all for always being so supportive.

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—shout for joy before the Lord, the King.”     Psalm 98:4-6

because this old picture just never gets old to me *hehehe*

Okay, one more quote, because this one is just too good to not leave you with:

“Imagine a world without beauty and dare to say that the beauty is vanity.”  –positivethesaurus.com

Beauty isn’t vanity, is it? It serves a purpose, and beauty is no less of a gift than any other.

The post Beauty is no less of a gift than any other. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Caleb carved this shark in the coral reef on foam board. Then he painted it and stamped it onto paper. 

These are the kinds of fun things we get to do in Classical Conversations, our home school tutoring service and curriculum. Look closely at his picture to see if you can find the eel coming out of the coral. (Hint: middle-left, It’s a profile with an eye.)

Classical Conversations is a rigorous way to approach home schooling, but it is also fun. It has definitely raised the educational bar for us.

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If you felt like you were reading the blog of a pitiful, dying woman in January and February, then I have good news for you!

I’m feeling better!

Going gluten free was my first step towards wellness. Now I’m also doing this Purification 21 day cleanse, which I’ll tell you more about soon, and I’m feeling even better. I haven’t lost a single pound, though. Ah, well. Go figure.

Plenty of happy things have been happening lately in school and sports and life in general, and of course you know I’m here to share all that.

First, let’s talk about home school.

I’m well aware that I have not been much of a home school blogger this year, so let me show ya a tad bit of what we’ve been up to lately without upsetting my big boys with over-share, of course…

because sitting down is overrated, apparently

Voluntarily reading the Bible! This kid knows how to make his momma smile!!

With our CC curriculum, the boys learn 5 new geographical locations to map out every week, which we practice everyday.

Last year we mostly traced a dry erase map, but actually drawing out the map locations every day has helped them learn it better. This particular map went along with our history lesson on the advanced (native) civilizations of Mesoamerica.

Dan and JD aren’t in CC yet. They are sorting colors and letters in their egg crates. (Thank you, Amy!)

The boys have an aunt who is crafty and extremely teacher oriented. She makes these off-the-chain busy bags, and THEN she ever so kindly shares them with us!! So exciting! She puts these kits together, complete with instructions and personalized details, and sends them to us in the mail!

Thank you, Amy!!!

We’re memorizing all of the helping verbs as well as all of the prepositions this year in grammar for CC.

See! They do sit and work sometimes!

Super proud mom moment. I took the boys to the park, and Caleb brought along a book to read. It was one of those unusually perfect days, in which the boys played and shared and helped each other out so perfectly (In public!!!) that I got to look like Mom of the year. Thank you, boys.

We’re in earth science for this part of Cycle 1. (I liked life science better, but it all must be covered.)

I got especially excited about this one because he beat the timer.

This is another one of Amy’s incredible busy bags. Um, hello? They even have our pictures on them, and of course, they are laminated.

No, she doesn’t sell them, but if she ever decides to open shop, you can bet I will sell them for her right here.

But you know we are not just academic here. Allow me to share this winter’s big passion:

Yes. This is my basketball necklace.

Basketball!!!

Did you know that Alan coached a team this year, a team that both Joshua and Caleb got to play on? And did you also know that we won almost all of our games?

That’s Joshua with the ball.

Most importantly, both boys had a blast, made new friends, learned a great deal about basketball and how to play it, got tons of exercise, and grew in confidence!! (I was most excited about that last part!)

Joshua, passing to Caleb

Joshua scored so many times, and Caleb made a few baskets as well. They were both energized and highly involved, and it was such a pleasure to watch them play.

Caleb, keeping it high

Coach Dads

Alan is that unusually experienced and exciting coach that every parent or kid would want to have, unless having snack is important to you. Alan’s stance on snack: “If someone wants to organize snacks, that’s fine. I’m not going to, but feel free.” And you know what? No one did, and I don’t think anyone missed snacks.  Fun season!

Of course, now it’s time to move on to baseball, but don’t worry. I already have two baseball charms ready for my necklace and my bracelet.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week, whether we like the election results or not!

“When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” C. S. Lewis

The post Classical Conversations, Basketball, Busy Bags, and Other Mom Stuff appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

First, a few stats from our past year at Stories of Our Boys:

You might have read all 156 blog posts.

You are reading this from 120 different countries.

JenerallyInformed.com was the #1 commenter, followed by McMom. I LOVE my commenters! You add so much to the discussion.

Nonna was my #1 topmommyblogs.com voter and promoter.

Most of you came to my blog via Google or Facebook.

This cute little blog started to make money. Then the home school year took over, and I have been turning away work ever since.

But the greatest thing in the world you give me is when one of you dear friends says, “I like what you said about….” or “I enjoy reading your blog,” or “Your post inspired me to….”

Thank you so much!!!

Biggest observation: The most popular posts are the informational ones. My stories…which are my personal favorite….are much less widely read. Ah, well.

As a blogger, you are who I aim to please. If I were only writing for myself, I’d have a journal, not a blog, so I value your feedback. I’d love to hear what types of posts are your faves.

Now onto this year’s….

Top 10 of 2015

#10 Four Things to Learn From the Duggars That They Didn’t Mean to Teach 

#9. What’s a Jamberry Anyway?

#8. One Simple Lesson That Brought Joy Back to My Life (One of my faves as well!)

#7. Breastfeeding Babies, Strangers, and Airplanes. My, Oh My, Oh My

(So random. I wrote that one in 2013, but it was still my 7th most popular article for 2015.)

#6. How to Build a Family Schedule That Works

This is the only thing I’ve ever written that was a Pinterest hit.

#5. Classical Conversations Cycle 1: Week By Week with Brain Pop Jr.

…because who doesn’t love BrainPop??

#4. Home School Vs. Public School Vs. Private School: Pros and Cons List

I so need to update this post. I wrote this one in 2014, before I ever tried the home school thing.

 #3. Montessori at Home: Brainy Kit Review

#2. How to Make a School Supply Cake

This was published in 2014. According to Google, storiesofourboys.com is the #1 authority in school supply cake building on the internet. Pretty funny when you realize that I almost never “craft”!

#1. Making Over My Morning, Like a Night Owl

…because anything that appears on MoneySavingMom.com is going to get a thousand times more traffic than my norm.

Here’s to the New Year! We’re excited to see what 2016 will bring. I hope it’s a great one for all of you!

The post Stories of Our Boys’ Top 10 Posts of 2015 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Finding joy climbing the mountains of life…..Even JD climbed these rocks, believe it or not. I would have died watching JD do that, but they left me at home, so I didn’t see it.

Tonight I’m hosting my home school moms’ group.

That means that I will be spending all day trying to clean up my house, take care of four children, and cook.

I need to make sure that I don’t fall into the prideful trap of cleaning up my house to try to make myself look good.

It’s not about me.

Let’s not put on a show and act like my house is always this neat, if I even manage to get it neat.

It’s about my guests. They need to feel at ease and cozy. The house should smell good. The surfaces should all be cleaned off, with plenty of places to sit. The bathroom should feel squeaky clean, as though no four-year-old boy has ever peed there before.

….But not so I can pretend like I’m the Queen of Clean.

Who are we kidding here?

Instead I need to focus on this:

I just want to create an inviting atmosphere for women who are getting a night off. Everyone needs a night off. Parents do not get nights off. Those are hard to find. I just want a room full of laughing women, encouraging each other through this life-changing thing that we call parenting.

I always leave moms’ nights feeling inspired and uplifted. That’s what I’m hoping for tonight.

I hope the food is yummy too.

So with that in mind, I will not panic if my hostess day does not go as planned.

-Not even if Daniel tears down the towel rack because he thought that he could swing from it like a monkey.

-Not even if John David proudly carries a Tonka dump truck full of dirt and dumps it onto my carpeted dining room floor.

He loves dirt. No, I mean he LOVES dirt, as in he thinks it’s so great that he gives it to people as gifts.

-Not even if I run out of toilet bowl cleaner. Shampoo works for that too, and it smells better.

-Not even if I have to change recipes because of a cooking mistake.

-Not even if I burn the bread.

-Not even if my vacuum cleaner quits.

-Not even if someone breaks their arm. (Please, boys, do not break your arms today.)

I will not panic. I will not. I will not go into my room and scream into my pillow because if my motives are in the RIGHT place, I will remember that these sort of problems are just hiccups and stories.

I’m reading this incredible book, by Lysa Terkeurst. In fact, if you click on this link to buy the book for yourself, I make a whopping 4 cents a copy. (Haaaaa! Not even kidding.)

She pointed this “not about me thing” out to me, in chapter 7 of her book. I came “Unglued” this week in the exact way she described in chapter 7 because of my wrong motives. I so badly wanted Alan’s parents to think that I was a good parent and a decent housekeeper that I way overdid it on my first born, over a pair of basketball shorts, of all things. I put so much pressure on myself, that I get all worked up over the dumbest things.

Also, I should pause here and THANK my in-laws for 1.) raising Alan, 2.) helping clean my house so I can blog on hostess day, and 3.) catching up on laundry. Let’s face it. When you have four kids, life is really just laundry anyway. Endless amounts of laundry…..Oh! And 4.) Being so wonderful. Thank you!

So back to this week’s meltdowns…..

The details aren’t necessary. Just know that sometimes I lose it, and maybe sometimes you lose it too. Or maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re more of a stuffer, and you stuff your problems or shut people out.

I usually end up doing both exploding and stuffing, but either way, this book, Unglued, has been balm to my spirit this week. I know I often recommend books, but let me assure you that this is one you won’t regret. It’s infinitely better than the Susanna Wesley one I recommended. I’d offer to let you borrow mine, but it takes me forever to finish a book….

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Mostly I’m a good person with good motives, but not always. Not when I want life to be a little more about me or about making sure I look good. That’s when my motives become corrupted. The Bible is pretty blunt in naming the real issue here: evil desires…….Selfishness, Pride, Impatience, Anger, and Bitterness.”   –p. 102-103, chapter 7

“That’s what makes raw emotions so complicated. They come from out of nowhere and run us slap over. Which is why it’s so important to prepare in advance for what will surely happen…”  —p. 60, chapter 5

I feel like I’m learning to check my motives and get a plan in place.

I need to get back to work. Daniel just dug a giant hole, while looking for worms, in my front yard flower bed. The boys also need to be rounded back up and put back to work. That is one great thing about having all these boys. I have four built-in workers! Sure, they sometimes clean the mirrors with carpet cleaner or mop before they sweep, but they are my team, and I am proud of them.

1Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. 2Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary…    Psalm 107:1-2

I hope you all have a great weekend, full of fun, with no melt down moments whatsoever. 🙂 I hope to! Every day is new, with no mistakes in it.

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