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 Learning is natural.
Schooling is not. First time homeschoolers always encounter so many different methods and opinions on this new venture that they are beginning, that it’s easy to get caught up in the curriculum game. Which curriculum is best? Which will make my kids the smartest? Which will pour the most literature/math/science into them so that they can pass the (fill the name) exam? Which books are on that book list again?
Back up a minute. You are teaching children, not testers. You are in your home, not an overpriced classical Christian academy. Take a deep breath. Children are naturally curious about the world around them. They naturally enjoy being read to. They naturally like to move and have fun. Notice a theme here? Not to state the obvious, but kids will learn anything that they are naturally interested in.
Why make this harder than it has to be?
Curriculum is well and good, but it is a tool. Use it as such to reach the goals that you have for your kids, but don’t live by it. If you and your kids are slaves to your curriculum, how long do you think you will enjoy homeschooling?
Life itself is a great teacher. Gardening, grocery shopping, filling out job applications for the first time, learning to budget money, finishing reading a huge novel, or finally making that volcano erupt after six tries… these are experiences that will stick with them!
YOU are a great teacher. Every smile, every story read, every glue-sticked project, timeline figure memorized, or random bird fact explored has meaning. Your time with them is precious, and even when it’s hard you’ll still wish you had that time back years later. Don’t waste it.
You can do this. Your KIDS can do this. It’s not hard. It really is very natural. Enjoy your time as a homeschooling mom, because it won’t last forever. Enjoy the trips to the library, backyard soccer, games of Tag and Duck Duck Goose, collecting leaves, and reading Narnia aloud until your voice is hoarse.
Learning is natural. Schooling is not. Encourage interests, praise strengths, build up weaknesses, love, learn, and pray. Mothering is as natural as learning.
“I wanted to show you these shoe laces I’ve been using. I think that D1 would really benefit from having a pair of these, with his fine motor struggles.” His occupational therapist pointed to her shoelaces, called Yankz!, and explained how they work.
“You just lace them in, cinch them down, and go. He could just slide his feet into his shoes and eliminate a whole bunch of steps in getting ready for the day.”
Seriously?! Eliminate steps? Just slide his feet in? Save time?!?!
Having kids with fine motor difficulties, shoe tying has been a bit of a blessing and a bit of a curse. It has been a blessing because they finally learned HOW and were ABLE to get them tight enough that they stayed tied. Mostly. It’s also been a curse because now I depend on them to get ready to leave. And it takes time. Lots. of. time.
Motor planning that comes naturally to you and I does NOT come naturally to a child with developmental dyspraxia. Motor planning is the whole issue. When you give them a task that has a lots of steps, it’s hard enough. Give him a task that has lots of fine motor steps, and you’ve got…. enough time to make lunch for four people, and EAT, while you wait for him to put on his shoes and get them tied. Yes, really. What I need is a way to save time. Enter Yankz!
I asked for, and received, some Yankz! to try out. I discovered that they were MUCH more generous than I ever hoped for, when this arrived in the mail:
We immediately set to choosing and, er, installing them. It is rather a bit of a process, lacing in these elastic strings with the plastic pulley hook thingy, but we followed the directions on the inside of the package, and went to it. Even the boys set to work on their own. D1, our budding pre-adolescent 11 year old, chose royal blue laces, the same color as the trim on his Cons. D2 chose light blue, which didn’t exactly match his shoes, but he’s a 9-year old boy. They don’t care about things matching. He just likes blue.
As for me, I was super excited to see REFLECTIVE Yankz! Laces, with reflectors on them! You may think I’ve lost it, but you don’t go running at 6am, when it’s still dark out. The only thing that would be cooler is if they lit up. With our newly laced Yankz!, we went about our business.
Our experience:
Yankz! have definitely improved our time-out-the-door. I can tell the boys that it’s time to leave, and they can have their shoes on their feet in moments. Record time! D1 has really appreciated them because he knows how long it takes him to go through the process of putting on his shoes. He likes that he can easily tighten or loosen them, depending on how his feet are feeling, with just a tug or two. His occupational therapist was right. These are perfect for him!
Our other son, 9-year old D2, also likes his Yankz!, but his experience hasn’t been quite as good. This boy is the human equivalent of the Tasmanian Devil. He CAN tear apart a steel anvil, on accident, and not even slow down to view the destruction. Things disintegrate in his presence. So did his Yankz! It is probably also due to the fact that he has these really heavy, wide skater shoes and Yankz! were definitely NOT made for skater shoes.
For me, Yankz! are fantastic. My running shoes are happy. I am happy. I am reflective!!  And my shoes never, ever come untied any more.
And now I have goodies to share with you! Enter to win a family pack of FOUR pairs of Yankz! for one lucky winner! How does 3 Pairs of Yankz! and 1 pair of Yankz! Reflectives sound?!
You have two chances to win:
First- mandatory entry, leave a comment telling me why you need them! And second, follow me @MommaKnows on Twitter and come back here and let me know that you did! One winner will be drawn Saturday morning and announced here, on Twitter, and on my Facebook page.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links which, if you click over and make a purchase, help to support the costs of keeping this site running. Thank you!
 Reading through the books of the Law again, this third time around, was tough. It was tough, but the Lord always has a plan when we turn the pages of his Word. He always speaks, if we just take the time to listen. As in years past, finally coming through the Law, seeing Joshua come forward as God’s prophet was a relief. Joshua was a man’s man but more than that, he was God’s man. He didn’t waver but was steadfast in his faith and it showed in his leadership.
As Joshua was giving his final instructions to the Israelites before he was going to pass away, he wanted to enforce what they had already done, in promising faith in God. The Word says he set up a stone, but I imagine it was a big rock, more like what we might consider to be a small boulder, that could be easily seen.
“See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard everything the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” Joshua 24:27
Do you have something visible, something concrete that declares your faith in such a way that it would be a witness against you when you turn the wrong way?
The Israelites may have made a lot of promises that they didn’t keep, but they did do one thing right. They believed in setting up stones of memorial, reminders of what God had done for them so that everyone would see and know.
What stone have you set up as your witness and reminder of what the Lord has done in YOUR life?
 We have eggs! It began with one, and another one, and now all three of our girls are starting to get into regular production. Every morning we keep an eye out for the chickens in their yard. Once they come out, they’ve usually finished their business… well, the Leghorn girls have.
Then we have Helga. Yes, ONE of our chickens has a name. Helga is the lovely Americauna featured in the photo above. Helga operates on her own timetable. She often prefers to eat breakfast and do some scratching outdoors before getting down to the business of laying. It’s not unusual to retrieve her egg around lunchtime.
Also, her eggs are… oddly colored. What would you call it? They aren’t blue, green, gray, or brown, but rather a strange mix of green and gray, sort of. She is starting to lay earlier in the day now, but she still has her own way of doing things.
Most days we make the trek out across the frosty grass and come back in with 3 eggs, which is pretty nice! We have gotten some double-yoked eggs too, which was a total surprise but makes for nice omlettes. I don’t know how cost-effective it is to keep chickens for eggs, considering the cost of the organic feed we buy, but you can’t beat FRESH eggs or knowing exactly what’s in them, so we’ll take it.
E does the scales for most of the granaries in Eastern Washington, and that has some benefits too, helping to supplement our chicken feed budget. The chickens are pretty happy with fresh, whole kernel wheat. They get wheat for scratch/treats and we get eggs. It’s a win!
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