Mom's Night

I went to a Mom's Night last night to talk with other moms about holiday traditions they carry on in their homes. I got some great ideas, and I learned that homeschoolers really like to think outside the box! Some families skip Halloween because of what it means these days, some make Thanksgiving a whole week of celebrations! I loved the idea to involve your neighbors as much as you can and to incorporate serivce with every holiday. Every major Holiday can also be related to Christ. My number one passion is to bring Christ to the center of our lives. For Halloween this year we will be learning about our ancestors and remembering our loved ones and great Saints who have passed. Behind the name... Halloween, or the Hallow E'en as they call it in Ireland , means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows', also called 'All Hallowmas', or 'All Saints', or 'All Souls' Day, observed on November 1. In old English the word 'Hallow' meant 'sanctify'. Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherians used to observe All Hallows Day to honor all Saints in heaven, known or unknown. They used to consider it with all solemnity as one of the most significant observances of the Church year. And Catholics, all and sundry, was obliged to attend Mass. The Romans observed the holiday of Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Participants made sacrifices in honor of the dead, offered up prayers for them, and made oblations to them. The festival was celebrated on February 21, the end of the Roman year. In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints' Day to replace the pagan festival of the dead. It was observed on May 13. Later, Gregory III changed the date to November 1. The Greek Orthodox Church observes it on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Despite this connection with the Roman Church, the American version of Halloween Day celebration owes its origin to the ancient (pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called "Samhain", celebrated by the Celts in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Samhain is pronounced "sow-in", with "sow" rhyming with cow. In Ireland the festival was known as Samhein, or La Samon, the Feast of the Sun. In Scotland, the celebration was known as Hallowe'en. In Welsh it's Nos Galen-gaeof (that is, the Night of the Winter Calends. According to the Irish English dictionary published by the Irish Texts Society: "Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troops (esp. the Fiann) were quartered. Faeries were imagined as particularly active at this season. From it the half year is reckoned, also called Feile Moingfinne (Snow Goddess).(1) The Scottish Gaelis Dictionary defines it as "Hallowtide. The Feast of All Soula. Sam + Fuin = end of summer."(2) Contrary to the information published by many organizations, there is no archaeological or literary evidence to indicate that Samhain was a deity. The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such. Thus most of the customs connected with the Day are remnants of the ancient religious beliefs and rituals, first of the Druids and then transcended amongst the Roman Christians who conquered them.
So now, knowing the history of Halloween, our family will be changing our celebration of the day. I don't want my kids to be "left out" or feel like they are missing out either. So I have come to the compromise of combining a lesson of ancient history, modern tradition, and relating it all to Christ! We'll see how it goes this year, and maybe I'll need a little tweaking for next year.

Gilbert's Constitution Fair

The City of Gilbert had an amazing fair on Saturday night. It was all about the Constitution, Early American History and Pride for our great nation. It was so well done. There were lots of games and crafts for the kids that all had to do with American History. The kids even got to write letters to soldiers who are currently deployed. There were huge replica's of the White House, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Monument, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and a few others. Then there was a great concert, words from our Governor, Jan Brewer, and a great fireworks show. I love America! We had to show our pride with spray painted hair.

We were so glad to have Clark's Dad and Step-Mom with us for the weekend. We all had so much fun and we miss them terribly already.

A Good Day

Some days are good and some days are not so good.

Today was a GOOD day. I feel so productive. We finished schooling at about 11:30 (she "got it" quicker than I thought she would) and I cleaned both bathrooms top to bottom and the kitchen looks great! It is so much easier when we all do it together. We spent a good amount of time in the backyard squirting each other with the hose and making a waterslide that went into the little blowup pool. I love to make playtime learning time. Sometimes I leave them alone on purpose just to see how they get along without me as I secretly listen in, and they always amaze me. I am so glad that they love eachother now, we'll see how it is when they are teenagers...

I am working on implementing the strategies from the Fly Lady. The kids have been pretty good about helping me, too. I love to relate everything to the Gospel and our Saviors life and Plan. I mean everything. Every aspect of nature can be related back to Jesus Christ and I love the challenge of figuring out what it is and how I can relate it to me and learn from it. I love that our hands get dirty so we can wash our hands before we eat, and I can relate it to keeping our spirits clean to take the sacrament. I love that we fall down and get scratched up, because I can relate it to trials. I love that I can get frustrated and fall to my knees to ask for help and show my kids vulnerability, then get up and make it right. I love that we are poor and can teach our kids how little we really need and can still thrive. I love windy days to teach them to stand strong against adversity. I love to clean up the house and relate it to going to the temple. I love the family structure, how we are all at such different stages in development and relate it to acceptance and unconditional love. I'm not sure if this all makes sense in writing but I know it all makes sense in my head. Life is all about learning and doing better once you know better.

I am so grateful that I have the ability and challenge to homeschool my family and the determination and energy to do it right. It will be fun for me to look back at this blog in 10 years and see what we have become!

Morning Routine

Growing up I always pictured my future family having a wonderful, uplifting morning routine. With Audree in school I could hardly ever wake up early enough to fit it in without rushing and having to skip over things I knew I should be explaining to the kids. So I would go through long periods of giving up before I would have to rededicate myself. I am not a morning person and it takes me a good while to really wake up in the mornings. (Now as I am writing this, I feel like I was so lazy.) But now we have all the time we need to talk about important things. We all wake up about 7am. We doddle around and play and get dressed for morning devotional at 8am. When Clark is here, if he's not already at school, he will lead us in song, prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, scripture, daily virtue, and stretches. Right now we are learning "My Country, 'Tis of Thee". We are using Draw Near Unto Me for our daily Scripture and spiritual thought, but we will be studying the Old Testament this year, so I hope to find the book that goes with that year. Every morning I pick a story from The Book of Virtues and that is the virtue I ask the kids to work on that day. I love stretching time! We all sit down in a big circle and stretch every muscle we can think of for 20 seconds each. And that is our morning routine. I'm sure it will evolve as I get better ideas and as the kids get older, but it works right now and starts our day off right! We start learning school stuff around 9.

New Schedule!

I am so excited! Our Four Year Plan arrived yesterday and I have been writing down a new schedule from it. The Eberts lay out the year so perfectly that I can divide units into months and take the index of a reference book and divide it into weeks and then days for everyday learning in each subject. But I am not sure if that will work best. I don't know if I want to devote one single day to one subject or do a little from each subject in one day or maybe combine those ideas and only do two subjects in one day. There is so much freedom! I love it. This whole process is bringing me to a better relationship with my Father in Heaven because I NEED Him to help me know if what I am doing everyday is what I should be doing. The kids will get to see me make mistakes and fix them too. They will see me just drop to me knees, if that's what I need. They will see me get a little frustrated and then work it out. That is real life. I hope I don't get too eager to make mistakes, just so they can see that it's ok and it can be fixed. Life will be our school.