Are you Prepared to Wait?

As I sat here thinking about what to write as a letter of encouragement I had to admit, I was drawing a blank.  I thought about combining this post with my Five minute Friday post...and I actually might still do that, but my mind is full of the activities of the day.

I woke up this morning to a note left by my lad "I'll be back at 8:10" he was out looking for ant, he came back all delighted he found a  new type of ant (queen and male).   But what kind was it? Soon I heard the request.  "MOM!!!   Can you help me email the ant man?   Maybe he can help me figure it out."    For the rest of the day the kept asking "Mom, have you heard from him yet?   How long do you think it might take?"

He happily helped me care for our critters and then did his math and history for the day, I started working on the cold cellar.

I thought, this will take maybe a couple of hours.. I.... was.... wrong...

You know what we discovered?  A stinky smelly potato bin.. oh my.   Now.. we knew we had something going on there, but we needed the time and motivation to deal with it.  Our move in another six months is good motivation yes?

First we had to clean out all the stuff that a certain loved one had tossed in there over the years, then we removed the potato bin.. the wood was rotting!  Hence the odour... Loved one to the rescue, figuring out how to get it out!  Once it was out I kicked (literally) the guys out of the way, donned a mask and cleaned up the mess under the potato bin.  Boy.. rather icky that!  

Then came the fine work of sorting through and deciding.. am I willing to move this? NO?  Okay, list it for sale after cleaning it. Do I want to keep it?  Okay.. clean it up and organize it. I toss old canned jars of food, and garbage and.. well..  should have taken a picture but didn't.. our lovely big bin couldn't fit ALL THE TRASH!  

Wow.. I have to admit, it feels so good having that big job done.  And it's clean and no spider webs or icky smell. It's lovely.

Which brings me to this point... It took me ALL day to clean it out.  ALL DAY.. I was so very tired, the lad was tired as I had him running up and down the stairs taking things out to the recycling and garbage bins.  He worked hard.   

All day to clean a mess up from before we were married and was just added to over the past 15 years, cause it's the basement right?  Hubby wasn't prepared to deal with getting rid of stuff (cause he's as much a pack rat as I am) so I just left it, I knew sooner or later he'd want to and why put pressure where it simply didn't need to be?

Which makes me ask this momma... are YOU prepared to be patient?  Are you prepared to let time take care of that struggle that staring you in the face?

I could have pressured hubby over the past 15 years.. I could have really.  I could have said let's argue about it, let's make a stink ... but I didn't.  I knew that in time it would be dealt with and then it would all over and done with in one day (a long day mind).  When a fellow is ready to let go so it's not a stressful matter.  

That boy child who is so focused on whatever issue... are you prepared to wait it out.  To enjoy the good, to train the needful and to just wait for the right timing?  To see that boy become a man full of character and wisdom?   That girl who is becoming a woman and doesn't fully see who she is yet... are you willing to wait her out, to give a nudge when needed, a hug and a spot of encouragement saying  "it'll come out okay in the end lovey?"

Are you prepared to NOT be stressed out over something that time will take care of?

I just want to encourage you... to wait.. and then in the waiting.. to be ready, ready to act, to talk, to work, to encourage, to don a mask (if needed) and clean out the ickiness from bad decisions made, to sweep out the old, to make it look new again, to just get the job done even if it's exhausting.  But until then.. to just wait and see and enjoy what you have now.

The good Lord tells us to wait on him.  He knows the right timing for things.  Don't rush it.
Trust him, oh just trust him, believe me.. IT'S WORTH IT!!! It really is. 

Come along won't you on this last day?   You can find us all here, and you can start with this list.
Annette – A Net in Time -Five days to celebrate back to school, curriculum choices, supplies, things to do and encouragement for you. Come join us won’t you?
Ashley  – Gift of Chaos – Join us as we go “back to school” with a First Grader and a Preschooler!
Betty – Let’s Get Real – I am a veteran homeschooling mom.  Our family’s passion is to glorify God in all we do and say and we pray that God will use our lives for His glory.
Chareen – Every Bed of Roses – I’m about to enter into my 20th year of home educating.  I have two graduates and am currently homeschooling our youngest. I’m looking forward to sharing with you in the week ahead.
Christy  – Unexpected Homeschool – Join us on our journey as we homeschool our only child through her high school years while dealing with chronic illnesses.
Crystal – Living Abundantly – Living Abundantly seeks to help Christian women and homeschooling families live abundantly, even when the thief tries to destroy your joy.
Desiree  – Our Homeschool Notebook – I am Mom to 4 kids, and this is our place to share our family and homeschool adventures. This year we will have children in 11th, 6th, 4th, and 1st grades, and we are all excited to get back to school.

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

You can't do it all!

Did you know that you can't do it all?

You can't.

It takes a community to educate a child.

To that end.. we happily use the community to educate our son in the things that we can't.

What do we farm out you ask?

Planners? I think NOT!

You know what happens to me every year around this time?

I feel like a failure.

Want to know why?

The "I've planned out my year".  "I'm using this awesome planner".  "I've got my studies all worked out and planned out".   

And I think to myself... I've tried, I've failed, I'll never pull this year off because I don't plan everything out.   I don't even plan out a month ahead of time.   

Are you like me?  

Technology in the Classroom

I have to admit, I really struggled with this topic.  I think school supplies and I think.. oh yay.. talking about pencils, papers and glue.  BIG YIP! How in the world can I make THAT topic exciting?   Should I talk about how I organize them?  Should I talk about the differences in pencils when it comes to doing art?  Hmm...

I sat and pondered.  Thinking about what school supplies would I prefer to not live without.
Then it hit me.

My cell phone!  My Laptop!  The Tablets!   Seriously...this tech I would not want to be without.

If I combine them with my boy and his questions, and me and my ingenuity... we have a workable solution for our homeschooling needs.

YES we still need paper, printers, pencils, pens, erasers, glue and what not...but in the end.. what we really would have a hard time living without for our schooling purposes is the internet and how it comes through in the cell phone, laptop and tablet.

These three items make our schooling so much easier.

Grade Seven Curriculum Choices

 Today on the Homeschool Review Crew Five Day Blog Hop we are talking about Curriculum.

I thought I would take a moment to talk about the materials the lad and I hope to use this year.

Back to School Blog Hop!

 Hey Hey Hey!

Guess what's coming up next week?

It's the Back to School Blog Hop hosted by the Homeschool Review Crew!  YEAH!!!  It's always lots of fun and busyness and I do hope that you'll join us.


What Will I be talking about?

I dunno, I haven't quite figured that out yet, You'll have to COME back to find out.

Day One: Curriculum. I'll talk about what the lad has in store this year.  Grade Seven!
Day Two: School Supplies?   Hmmm.. might do something different...
Day Three: Record Keeping?  HA!  haven't worried on that yet.
Day Four: Outside the home, will probably talk about farming things out or field trips or something
Day Five: Ah.. a letter of encouragement I'm thinking

BUT you will have to come back just to double check eh?

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Five Things We Enjoy: The Joy of Staying Home

 Ah... it's been fun this week eh?   Exploring the things that we like most about homeschooling.

My son admittedly surprised me with today's topic... He phrased it as "I get to stay home.".

My son is BIG into time management.  He watches the clock, figures out how long it will take to do something, and calculates it seems... down to the nano second.  The fact that sometimes he over-estimates his time is neither here or there.

Living next door to our neighbours, a family with two children that attend public school.  The lad sees them leave and come back and wonders when they have time to do what they want to do.   He only sees them out having fun in the summer or on Saturdays.

He's asked me in the past "What do they do on the way to school?   Do they just walk there and back again?"  

He sees how quickly he can go through his math at home, or do his art, or talk through our history and asks me how long it took when I was at school.   I tell him and he just doesn't understand it.  How can learning history take a whole hour?  How can a math class last a whole hour?   

Then he starts to understand when I tell him that he has LOTS of time to do what he likes to do.   He gets it when he's able to do his math in the car on the way to an event, he understands when we combine science with our study on Canada, and do art as a way to understanding the Pacific Coast First Nations people better.   It makes the school day go faster you know?

He can start his school day first thing in the morning, and work at his own speed, pursuing the things he loves to do,and meeting people he likes .

Knowing that most of his days are spent ordered in a way that works for him helps him to relax when we do get out and about.   Being able to recharge his batteries pursuing the things he loves the most, and yet having the freedom to leave home when needed.  It's very good in the eyes of a boy.   

Friends, family, co-op days, field trips, vacation, learning adventures, pokemon go-ing and so many other things drag him out of the house, but... he can mostly stay home where a boy likes to be.

What about your children?   What do they enjoy most about homeschooling?

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Five Things We Enjoy: No One Makes Me Get Out of Bed Before I Want To (respect)

 Welcome, welcome to day four of  things we enjoy.   The Homeschool Review Crew is having fun this week sharing knowledge, joys, sorrows and encouragement.

Day one: The Joys of Working at our Own Pace.
Day two: Miss Natalie and her support  
Day Three: Studying what interests you

Today my boy wants me to tell you about how much he enjoys that NO ONE makes him get out of bed before he wants to.  :)

Mind you.... we normally don't have to as he's up and busy often before I'm even functional.  :)

Allow me to tell you where this stems from:  When I was young my parents would wake me up simply by staring at me.  I have a huge startle reflex and they used that to good advantage.  I would wake up startled and frightened...not that they were INTENDING to scare me...but shaking me awake would be a good way to get inadvertently whacked.  So staring from a distance worked really well.   I am unfortunately still like this...  really... don't wake me....just don't do it.

Anyways, since I have bad memories of being woken up, I don't wake people up unless I HAVE to.   When the lad was younger occasionally I'd need to get him up, but not often and never without having a good reason. Now that he's older I just say "I need you up at ____ time, and yes, if you aren't up, I'll give you a call or send the cat in to greet you." Admittedly...there is the odd time when the lad stays in bed late on purpose just so I will send the cat in to get him up.  :)  (You can always tell because you'll hear moans from his room, "Oh, I'm so tired, I wonder if mom will send Milo in".  :)

My son LOVES this.  He loves being able to have a lazy morning if he wants to (it rarely happens but...when it does...we are usually ALL being lazy).  If he's tired he's up around 830, but normally 730 and he's off schooling, doing chores, catching a quick game of Clash Royale or more likely watching science videos.

In fact, I am positive that my son learned this fact from some science video. For when the lad and I talked about why this was important enough to put into his five favourite things, he said:  "It is better for people to wake up on their own, to ease into wakefulness, than to be startled awake.  Some people have problems with their heart and breathing if they are woken up.  It shortens your life to be woken up all the time."   

He then added "thanks for not shortening my life mom."
  Being the mom that I am, with a logical child, I use this respect of his need to rest as a training tool.  When he does get up early (and like me once he's up, he up chatting, I can say: "SHUSH be quiet.  When you talk first thing in the morning, you wake everyone up, so SHUSH, I don't wake you up, so you don't wake me up."  It makes sense to this logically minded lad.  It's a way to teach mutual respect.

Respect for each other.
I listen to you, you listen to me. 
You ask for help instead of getting angry, I ask for help instead of getting angry.
You tell me your goals for the day, I tell you my goals for the day and together we work to see those goals met.   
Respecting each others needs and wants, it's one of those important things in our home.   Mutual respect...It helps us to give way when it has to be done eh?

When we know that the mutual respect is there, the communication comes easier, you know?   What is one way you use to teach respect for each other?

It starts, in our house, with respecting a child's need to wake up when he wants to.  (and I end up not shortening his life). :)

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Five things: Study what I want to

Hello!  Welcome to the Homeschool Review Crew's Spring Blog Hop.  We're getting together to provide encouragement, support, ideas, and information.

Day one: The Joys of Working at our Own Pace.
Day two: Miss Natalie and her support  

Today we are talking about the Joys of Studying what you want.  I have to tell you how much the lad love this. 

He has choices.

1. If a curriculum isn't working... we change it.    That doesn't mean that whining pointlessly about a program gets him out of doing the work, but seriously.. if a program or a way of doing things isn't working... It's a reason to talk about it and see what we can do to change it up.  If that means using another program or changing HOW the program is used, why not eh?  Doing schoolwork shouldn't be the cause of stress in the household.

2. If he wants to study something... we do it (this past year his love has been astronomy).

3. If we want to use a subject as a basis of study, we can do that.
  For instance we are using Canada this year.  We aren't working through our Canada History book quickly as we keep getting sidetracked by videos, and art, and research projects.  :)   We delight in doing mapping to for actual Canadian journeys, learning about totems from our own First Nations people, and so much more.  It's good to learn about our own people eh?

4. If he wants to choose what he wants to do for a research project..he can do that.
    He's gotten hooked on Cacti at the moment, and Carnivorous plants (like the venous fly trap).  So he's doing all sorts of research on them.  He's also working hard on a pictorial tutorial of doing minecraft papercraft. 

5.  Time to discover new joys...
Today my lad and I were doing some gardening today.  After supper my lad came and asked "Mom, do you have more gardening that will need to be done?   If you do, can I help please?   I like doing that today."   So I'm thinking later in the week, rather then doing the rest of the gardening myself, that I'll have my boy lend a hand and we'll talk plants and why we grow them.  :)

  It's good you know, to be able to make things work, to watch a boy all excited about the things that he is learning, and giving him the freedom to pursue those passions.   His passion for his cacti and his other research projects pushes him to complete his schoolwork all the faster. 

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Five Things We Enjoy: Miss Natalie

 Welcome to day of the Homeschool School Review Crew Five Day blog hop!  It's so nice to have you come for a visit.

On Day One we talked about The Joy of Working at Your Own Pace.

Today I want to talk to you about one of our favourite people.

Miss Natalie.

Oh... we like Miss Natalie.  I'll actually going running out the doors sometimes in my stocking feet to say hi to her. :)  (She ALWAYS scolds me for doing so).   She usually has a ready smile and a willingness to pass the time of day (until she needs to get going again).

You know what she does for us?

1. She talks happily with my lad.  Listening carefully to him.  She is kind to my boy.. he likes her and willingly talks to her whenever they meet.  She's a grandma and I often read posts on facebook with her spending time with them, and sometimes they tag along and play with bunnies when we're away.  

2.  She brings us books!   Lots and lots of books!!!   Many that my lad likes as well, so Natalie is a favourite around here.   Here's one she brought recently the lad and Dad will be working through together this coming year.

3. She cares for our critters whenever we are away.   Caring for the lad's snake, fish, plants, mice and cats.   Taking care of my bunnies.  Watering our gardens.   Without her we couldn't do our vacation time, do extended field trips or many other things.

4. Peace of mind.  Oh my.. Natalie is an easy lady to talk to, she shows her care in her easy smile and her honesty.   Her care for our mail packages, our critters, and us, causes us treasure her dearly.    

5. Of course you need to understand something, over the past years of Natalie being part of our five day a week life, of her lending a hand here and there, she is not just our mail lady or our vacation/field trip allower, she has become a part of our lives.  She's a dear sweet lady and I am grateful to know her.

We owe this lady a debt of gratitude.

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An InLinkz Link-up

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Five Things we Enjoy: Work at Your Own Pace

Did you know that my son suggested this series to me. I was asking him what homeschooling theme I should write about and he tossed out "Why don't you talk about what I like mom?" I thought that was a great idea so here we are. :)

The VERY FIRST thing he said was "you should tell them how much I like working as fast or as slow as I want to mom".

When I asked the lad why this was important he said "I'm not rushed or slowed down.   I don't have to worry about rushing or slowing anyone else down either." 

This is very important to my 11 year old "I want to keep people happy" young man.  Being able to work at his own speed (with the odd reminder) is extremely important to him.  He can take a break when he wants to and play with a mouse.   He can work extremely hard and be done by 11-12, or be more leisurely and finish at 2.  It's all good in my book.  Applying outside pressure has an adverse effect on him.
I have to admit that I am sometimes flabbergasted at how quickly, a highly focused lad who has plans for the afternoon, can get his schoolwork done.   He's going to sew, work with his cactus, go pokemon going with Dad or just whatever catches his fancy.   

It makes me think of how last year I would ask him (as we daily planned out our day) what goals he had for the day.  It helped keep the air clear of the unknowns and gave him a goal to work toward.  I would help him meet his goals and he would help me meet mine...and together we learn that tomorrow is always another day.

But then we have days when ... it seems like we'll never get done.  Everything is a problem or a distraction or too hard or just wrong.. you know those nit picky things in programs that just drive you nuts. ... and suddenly that molehill has become an insurmountable mountain.   Those days are harder to manage so we learned a new rule.  If we are not done by 2 (if a lad has been working all along) then we are simply done. 

He works off this

He puts X's beside what he's not doing (after consultation with mom) and check marks beside what is finished.   This is just our basic schedule and we change it around a bit depending on the week.. like this Thursday I'm hoping to go to the market.   So we'll "X" out a bunch of things OR I'll simply delete them from the schedule... HE LOVES those empty days.  :)

I've tried to do fancier schedules but he gets aggravated or discouraged when there's too much detail on the list.  He hates using a book.  So a simple print off schedule that he can mark up to his hearts content works for him (and I have it saved to the computer for easy tracking).

So what is it like in your schoolroom?   Do you find that your children work best with a basic schedule and leaving them to it?   Or do they work better using a different format?  Tell me about it if you don't mind.

Easy way to visit using the linky below:
This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Five Day Blog Hop - Things we Enjoy

Hey folks.... you know how we homeschool right?  Homeschooling presents us with all sorts of good things, and I know my thoughts on it, but the other day I asked my 11 year lad what he liked about homeschooling.

This is the list he came up with:
 
 


1. Natalie ... I know..you're wondering about this but you'll have to wait. :)

2. Get to stay Home

3. Work at my own pace.

4. No one makes me get out of bed before I want to.

5. Get to study what I want mostly.




I am not going to tell you all about this today though, I am going to ask you to visit the blog next week and find out why these things are so important to him.  :)

The Homeschool Review Crew is doing a five day blog hop and I hope you will join in the fun.     Running April 17-21.   Come visit, won't you?

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/