Why did I ever want to be a teacher?

SO when people ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", little child me wanted to be:

 1. A Ballerina 

2. A nurse and

3. A Teacher!

How did my teaching journey ever begin?

It's so weird when people ask me when did I become a teacher, because I feel like I've kinda always been one.  I remember in second grade my teacher having me help and teach other classmates who were struggling.  I remember teaching my younger brothers things ALL the time.  But, officially, when I was 14, I started helping the neighbor's daughter with piano.  Did I know how to teach?  Nope.  But I did know I loved helping others learn and seeing how they would light up every time they "got it" finally!

As a teenager I ended up growing a music studio of almost 20 students!  I loved what I did!  I didn't know official learning theories, and I definitely didn't know music theory and proper things like I do now, but I did know I loved my students and would do anything to watch them learn.

I took a break in my early 20's to work on my nursing degree, and also worked as an Army Medic.  Over two years (not including my teen years working as a CNA) I focused on helping others and work towards a nursing degree.  Before I could finish my degree, other health issues arose in our family, and I had to step down from that.  That did, however, open up the doors to become a Music Major!  I was very fortunate to work with some great musicians and teachers and I become much more proficient in music than I already was!  Over those two years of getting my associate degree, every teacher said the same thing.  They said I made a great teacher, even though I wasn't the best performer.  Instead of continuing on with Music Performance, I wanted to do Music Education.  Sadly I didn't have the resources or time to finish at a local college due to the needs of my husband and four children, I wasn't able to be on campus. 

Over these years, I had started homeschooling.  At first it was just to keep my toddler and I busy for an hour a day with "learning time", but as we continued to have children and as I continued to teach them, I learned SO much with hands on experience.  I continued to teach music both at home and at a local studio, and I also continued to homeschool our kids and, at times, other families too.  I spent a year in a private school where I learned that so much of the experience I had with homeschooling made me a very good "real life" teacher  in a classroom setting!  My love for teaching just continued!  I worked in Sunday Schools, music studios, and with other kids as much as I could.  Each experience and student taught me new learning styles, new teaching styles, new accommodations, and I spent several years getting some fantastic experiences.  

I felt SO fortunate to find an amazing online college!  I was excited, but I could only do Elementary Education.  I figured, if anything else, it'd make me a better "home-school teacher" for my own kids!  Over the next two years I finished a four year degree (oftentimes doing double semesters in one), and discovered that a majority of my homeschooling years transferred into what I was learning in school.  As I continued to progress, I discovered that my love for learning and teaching others just continued to grow even more!

People ask me ALL THE TIME.... "why get a degree if you just home-school?"  "why do all this work for just your kids?"  

Why?  Why?  Why?

Why, I tell you, is because I truly LOVE teaching.  I love the relationships I have with my students, and I love knowing that a small part of their future and their lives was impacted in some way with my love of learning.  

I remember at ten years old watching Mr. Hollands Opus the movie, and I remember realizing that I wanted a legacy like his.  No one may ever remember my name, and I may oftentimes be looked down on, but at the end of his life he had affected HUNDREDS of students!

If I do nothing else with my life, I pray that I show kids the love of learning something new. Whether it be music, math, science, or adventures, I want them to see that there is something in life they can succeed at!  My goal is always to find that in each child, and nourish it so they can feel confident and loved as they continue in their lives.

This last year, several students that I had ten years ago, came back and told me thank you.  Thank you for loving them, and showing them music, and showing them the beginning of a journey.  Some continued music and are now in college, some did other things, but none of them ever forgot their teacher. 

I look back and think of the incredible teachers I had over my life.  Although most of them may never know it, they had profound influences on me and my life now.  They developed that love of learning and that desire to teach others!  Thank you to all my teachers I have ever had.  Thank you to all the parents that allow me to work with your kids.  At the end of the day, when the days get hard, I'm thankful that God has led me down a path that I love and can be successful with. 

Teach them freedom before its too late!

This year Fourth of July was particularly hard for me.  In a time when we are supposed to be celebrating our freedoms I'm watching the world around us shut down and isolate.  Every where we go people are covered in masks, and there is a sense of panic and fear no matter where we go.  I look back on normal fourth of July's for us and think of the balloon glows, the fireworks, the family time, and the festivities!  Why do we do all this celebration??  To remind us that a long time ago people who wanted to be FREE from government tyranny and oppression stood up and FOUGHT for their freedoms and instated a government that would support and enable those freedoms, not take them away. 

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” - Ronald Reagan 

I look ahead to where my children might be when they finally become adults, and unless we teach them now and we continue to fight for their freedoms, there won't be much for them in the future.

Always teach our children WHY we have a free country!  Fourth of July is not just America's birthday, but it's a celebration of when a small group of people stood up and fought against England (one of the most powerful countries at the time) and created their own independence from the rule of that country.  We have a flag that represents the unity and power of the 50 United States.  It shows the bloodshed given from generations of soldiers who fought to defend our freedoms and help us keep the freedoms we enjoy today.

When I was a child we always would say how free we are.  We are free to have a church and our Bible.  We are free to choose to home school or not.  We are free to choose vaccinations or not.  We are free to choose HOW we worship and pray.  We are free to choose what jobs we want.  In America, we are free to choose pretty much anything.

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would look around me and see churches afraid to worship, governments shutting down businesses and citizens in the name of security.  I never thought I would have to explain to my children that it's now illegal to meet in groups and we must wear masks and have a constant state of fear around us.  

Our boys come from a lineage of American soldiers.  Freedom is not just an arbitrary thing that someone fought for.  Freedom is the reason their father is permanently disabled and sick.  Freedom is the reason their grandparents fought and served.  Freedom is the reason we have everything we do today.

If we don't continue to teach our children the importance of freedom and to stand up against tyranny, then their generation will never know freedom.  It is quickly disappearing if we don't do something to stand up against it!!

TRUE freedom is found in God, Bible, and serving.  We founded this country on religious freedom and Independence!  Teach our children to serve others, love others, and fight for those around us.  Don't just inwardly cower and hide, but stand up for not only our country and liberty, but for our GOD GIVEN right to freedom!

Let this be a wake up call as you watch everything around you shutter, shut down, and people quietly letting it happen.  We are not losing our freedoms in a war, but with the people quietly allowing it all to happen without saying a thing against it.  BE the difference, RAISE the difference, and don't let the next generation have nothing left of their freedoms. 

It's a small world some days.. thankful for our community.

Hey world!  

Lately it's been feeling like a small word a little bit.  I've lost close friends (yet again) due to things that were outside of my control.  Every time a long time friend steps away it hits me hard.  I feel like we have lost so much in our lives, so each person who walks away hurts even more.

I'm not mad at anyone. I know it's probably even my fault a lot of the time.  I am a LOT of emotions, and our life is a LOT of up and downs and crises.  We try our best to keep it stable for our kids, but we are not the traditional family.  Our "normal" is so far outside of most peoples normal that they don't even know how to handle it.  Our family has become so desensitized so things that we also don't even see it a lot of times.  

Things that are "normal" to us that we are learning are hard on others:

My husband is home full time

We have a LOT of health crises

My kids have a morbid sense of humor

We all have a lot of big emotions we do our best to process

We travel a lot

We seem to have an "easy" life financially, even though we don't

Things that people don't see:

Yes, we struggle a LOT with our mental health, but we are constantly working to show grace and love and grow as a family.  You don't see the days we cry and snuggle and try to process how hard things are and happen.

Yes, my husband is home full time.  You don't see his PTSD, his episodes, his struggles.  You also don't see how much he loves his boys and is there for them a LOT at home, even if he's not in public. You don't see that through his struggles he's raising three incredible young men.

Yes, we seem to have an easy life financially.  You don't see the damage and sacrifice that my husband made for that

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You don't see the hours we invest into music business, college, and things to make sure our kids are well provided for. 

Yes, we love our life.  We love our kids.  But we also know that it's not easy for others to be a part of all the time.

DO know this.  

We will LOVE you unconditionally. 

We will SUPPORT and be there for you as much as we can!

We will be there to ENCOURAGE you with homeschooling, children, marriage, and any way we can.

We will be there for BIBLE studies, and prayer through the hardships.

We may not always be what you need, and you may need to walk away and that's okay.  But, for those who are here for whatever season we are in, we welcome you and love you!

It's a small and crazy world, but at times knowing we have a community of friends that is constantly changing and evolving is encouraging for me.

The hard days I'm thankful for those friends I can call and they will show up when we hurt!  For those that used to be there and had to walk away, I'm still thankful for you too!  Even if our paths have changed, know that we love you always, you are in our prayers often, and if life brings us back together, we will be there for you openly always!

Board game adventures!!

Hello!

During quarantine, I realized something about our family.  That is that we play a LOT of board games, and I mean a LOT!

It started off with toddlers and we did Candyland, Chutes and ladders, and several other fun "easy" games.  As the kids got older we found lots of "junior" versions of games so they could play more adult games, without the intensity.  And now our boys are 5, 7, and 9 and we have developed family favorites, ones we add for education, and ones we play only a couple times a year (including our many many versions of Monopoly.)

This post is in NO way a "buy this" but just some fun recommendations that we have really enjoyed over time. 

1) Cooperative Games

We like using these in order to reduce the intense competitive side of our boys on occasion.  These types of games encourage kindness, cooperation, and working as a team.  We like to do these when we need to decompress and just work on being friends that day.

Wildcraft is our FAVOTRITE for this!  It's a game that introduces lots of herbs, nature, and it's a fun blend of chutes and ladders and candyland, and lots of learning takes place as well!

  

There are lots of other games that go under this list as well, but this tends to be our main one.  We have even used our "My Feelings Game."  We use this game to just get us talking openly about all variety of feelings.  This was recommended to us after our daughter passed away, and with boys we were struggling to have them talk openly about some of their emotions.  This game has been a healthy way for us to open up and learn about healthy ways to handle how we are feeling!

2) Educational Games

SOO many games can fall under this!  The main one we do for these are :

Apples to Apples (disney version) to work on Grammar and word definitions. 

Racko is fun to work on number order and greatest to least

HedBanz we use to work on verbal skills and speaking creatively

Monopoly (ANY version of this seeing as we have at least 5) has taught our kids Money Management, Couting, and lots of other valuable skills!

Trekking the National Parks:  This one we LOVE because we can map out Parks, learn geography, and help us plan our new vacations and fun. 

Also, you'd be surprised what can count as "educational" but there are tons more.  These are just our personal favorites. 

3) Two player games

Now this category we don't use quite as often because there are more than two of us, but our older two enjoy these when they need a break, or just when they want some one on one with mom and dad. 

 Chess or Checkers: Depending on the age this is a great way to work on strategy and bonding with one on one.  It teaches spatial skills, and thinking ahead.

Stratego: Although this game was updated since the version I had as a kid, our kids love this Capture the Flag board game!  They work on strategy, battle, and use a lot of adventure with this one.

Guess Who:  This one has been helping us working on expression and using questions to arrive at an answer.  The kids have enjoyed this one a LOT. It's a fun, quick, and easy going game. 

4) Junior games

Now because we have the ages of 5-9, our 5 year old can't quite keep the attention span of the older ones.  Even our 7 year old was borderline in this area with his ASD.  We tried Risk and never could finish it and would end with frustration.  However, we did find Risk Jr and that has become a hit!  It's a pirate-version where you can launch the dice at people, but it's a much shorter map. 

Ticket to Rider, First Journey:  We have never played the adult version yet, but the kid version is very smooth, fun, and has been teaching us map skills.  It' went along great with American history and we can't wait to grow into the older version.  You have to take trains across America and try to get tickets to the most places.

We also have a lot of games we love just for fun such as: 

Floor is Lava, perfect for running inside on rainy days,

Jumanji, which is base on the original movie and a fun adventure

Catan, which the boys enjoy with their dad and making new civilizations,

and of course Hit the Trail, which is a  dice/card game that lets you "hike" and see who wins!

All in all, we LOVE board games, and it's a great way to slow down at the end of the day, or to kick off the day before everyone is rowdy.  I hope you share and tell me which ones your family enjoys!  We are always looking for new recommendations :)

 

Kicking off Summer!

Hello all!

We survived!

We went through the ups and downs and sideways emotions of lockdown, shelter in place, and having limited friend and exposure. 

Overall, we deeply needed the slow down.  We got to enjoy "being a kid" moments SO much more, and bonded as a family.  Although that was incredible, I am SO thankful that we can slowly start seeing people again and getting back to a slightly more normal life.

To kick off summer, and celebrate the lifting of lock down, I was able to go to North Dakota and spend a few days bonding with some childhood friends.  It had been years since I had been back to my hometown, and the visit, although short, was so refreshing.

The boys got to go to Mississippi and enjoy time away from our house finally!  They spend a week boating, fishing, playing, and getting some great time with their Pawpaw and Granny.  I'm so thankful we had the chance to reset, visit, and get some great away from the house.

This summer we won't get the same adventures we normally do, but we are relearning a new pace of life. I'm learning to slow down and not over commit too much.  The kids are learning to be okay with less crazy and learning a slower pace as well.  We have the tendency to be SO big on adventures and fun, that we lose the ability to just enjoy a slower pace of life.

My whole life has been "go, go, go" and although I love that, I've also gotten to the point through my trauma and grief that I just can't.  It's healthy to slow down.  It's desperately needed to be content with less.  

I'm trying to teach my kids that it's okay to have days we sit at home and play and relax and just enjoy the family.  But it's also great that we do have a couple friends and we can do adventures a few times a year.

Learning a healthy balance is not always easy, but through the chaos of the world around us, it's important to teach our children peace and grace and kindness.  

I'm incredibly thankful that even though I don't have a lot of "in person" local friends left, I DO have an incredible support of women that do Bible studies, encouragement, and pray for each other.  We don't need the most busy life, we need the most grace filled life. 

Learning to slow down is my biggest struggle, but as we learn the balance of not spiraling into depression, and not getting so busy we avoid emotions, we are developing a happy medium.  

Remember to love and encourage those around you who may need it.  Remember to take care of yourself.  Above all, remember to love and raise our kids to do the same!

Have an amazing kick off to a summer.  It may not be a "normal" summer for many of us, but make it the best you can!

Homeschooling preschool and beyond

I have had several children, and have helped homeschool even more!  Over the years we have done preschool with toddlers many many times.  Our favorite thing about it is that you can turn almost anything into school and fun!!  Preschoolers learn by cooking, playing, play dough mushing, scooter racing, chalk fun, etc


Now that all my kids are past the toddler phase I often forget those days of never ending go go and keeping a toddler busy.  Lately I’ve been reminded with my friends child just how fun it can be!!  It helped remind me to go do some of this even with my older kids.  Home making food.  Lazy slower pace. Lots of book reading.  So much I needed to be reminded of again

As our boys have gotten older we have been more focused on papers and more book work.  I was glad to be reminded again to embrace the fun at home.

Here’s a glance of our years of fun with toddlers over the last five years

Corona schooling is NOT homeschooling...

But as a veteran homeschooler I feel like so many need encouragement.  If you need it. Here it is:





At first homeschooling feels hard.  It’s an adjustment, learning you and your children’s learning styles, learning new dynamics, and much more happens that first year

The bonus of homeschooling is we can be there for each other!  Yes, even we have had some hard adjustments (because yes, we are used to lots of friends and field trips and fun)  but here’s a few positive things that may help from my many years of homeschool experience!

First of all realize that you can take days off.  Earlier this week when the weather was perfect and gorgeous, we skipped school that day to just play outside all day.  Some days we just all need a mental health day and need snuggles and movies.  Homeschooling means you can have some flex with your schedule

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Next know that homeschooling can be done in just a couple hours a day.  We spend 1-3 hours a day on our school.  This is vastly different from what you may be used to with them gone 8 hours a day, but a lot of that is routine and classroom management.  It’s ok to realize that you don’t have to be a public school at home.  Just be what you and your children need for your home.




Also remember that there is support!  There are lots of moms who will hug you and remind you that’s it’s ok to have a bad day, it’s okay when they cry about math, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed.  But we will also be here to remind you that you did amazing with that project last week, you got lots of hugs and smiles when they finally did get it, and you are their mom who is doing amazing and hard things!!

Lastly remember to never compare.   Some people do videos, some do Montessori, some do Charlotte mason, some do unschooling, etc.    It’s not about who is doing it the best or the prettiest.  It’s about YOU doing what YOU and your kids need.  You will eventually find your rhythm.  Your kids will eventually adjust.

Remember to not sweat the small stuff and focus on love, Grace, and character over academics.  In the long run making your kids feel loved and secure will go much further than drilling the alphabet and crying over fractions.  Academics will follow once you have the security and love


You are amazing mama and your kids love you always!

Yes, it feels hard.  It feels hard even for us doing this a while, but we have each others backs and we will get through this all together!!