When a Blogging Hiatus Happens

Picture of our family with friend Hans at Perrot State Park 
(LaCrosse WI)

So I never intended to take a hiatus from my blog ... it just sort of "happened". Now it's hard to believe it's been almost a YEAR since I've posted anything!! Since I created a Facebook page for the blog, it seems I've migrated over there where I post now on a regular basis. I'd love it if you'd join me there Musings of the Monroe Family on Facebook.

As I ponder over this past year, there are so many good and wonderful things that have been happening. We are so blessed. My son is thriving in our homeschool kindergarten program and I've been fortunate to find a Christ-centered homeschool co-op to land at.  It is a teaching co-op so once a week my son goes for classes like Art, Music, Science and Gym.  The connections I am making with other homeschooling moms are so wonderful.

I have also picked up some work in the past year. I found a job at our local YMCA providing child care for parents using the gym. It's a workplace where I can actually bring my son along and not have to pay for a babysitter so mom can earn a little money.

Picture mommy drew for J when our car "died"

Working at the Y was going along fine until we had to put our Toyota Camry to rest when the engine went kaput. I drew the picture above for my son since he was really down about it. This is the car he's been in since he was little and he dubbed it the "Elvis Car". I realized we were listening to a lot of 50's music when at 2 years old he started to recognize Elvis! He'd say "Play Elvis again mommy!" Then he just started calling the car the Elvis Car. I loved it. So as of last November, we now are in debt with our "new to us" used Honda Accord which inspired me to get back into the field of Medical Transcription since minimum wage doesn't cut it anymore. I've actually started my own business called "Monroe Support Services". I was hired to do transcription as an independent contractor for a place called ExamWorks. With only working 3 hours a day, I can still homeschool J and we have the flexibility with our schedule since I can work whatever hours are best for me. I am so thankful for this job and it's exciting to get back into something I enjoy doing.

Well, this is a little "hello" post to let you all know we are doing well, just a lot busier, and not as much time to blog. I'm not sure when I'll be back, but you will find me posting regularly on Facebook with fun and interesting things that I find along the way.

Blessings to you!

Thanks for visiting :)

Our Nature Journals and the Charlotte Mason Method

I'm so excited about our Nature Journals!! We just got started with these and I hope to make it a regular activity. I have come across nature journaling at various homeschool sites and I've always been intrigued. We love getting outdoors and I find that purposeful exploration is something my son really enjoys and he is learning so much. He made sure I participated too, and I just loved it. We live in a condo complex and so we went exploring around the connected yards and then across the street where there is a lovely pond. We can't wait to do more!

Mommy's Nature Journal Pages:

Things I Collected

Drawings of What I Collected with Details at Bottom

J's Nature Journal Pages:

Things J Collected

Drawings of what J collected

In doing a lot of research over the past couple years on homeschooling and the various curriculum available, I find that I really like many aspects of the Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling. There are a few things that really stand out. The first is the value she placed on the study of nature. She emphasized with her students a daily ritual of spending time outside in their natural surroundings. Taking part in nature walks, creating nature notebooks, these all help children in learning to observe and appreciate the delicate intricacies of the world around them. It is so great to get out in the fresh air and go exploring with my son in our outdoor classroom.

Her emphasis on reading by focusing on good children's literature is another. I've been enjoying discovering the sweet stories of olden days, bypassing what Charlotte refers to as meaningless "twaddle" and seeking instead what she refers to as "living books". A few of our favorites are the Thorton Burgess series of children's nature books, The Brambly Hedge series by Jill Barklem as well as the books of Beatrix Potter.

Another aspect I enjoy which we've brought into our own homeschooling is narration. My son has an incredibly creative side of him that is really blossoming as we've taken off in our homeschool journey. He loves to tell stories. This fits very well with Charlotte Mason's emphasis on narration as a powerful learning tool. We've incorporated narration as we go through different books and J will summarize as we go along retelling the story in his own words.

I have really enjoyed engaging in this type of learning style with my son in addition to the homeschool program we're doing through Hearts of Dakota (Little Hearts for His Glory). I am so thankful to be able to be home with him in this season of our lives!

Thanks for visiting!

My Favorite Season

One of the trees from our recent Arboretum visit

 I love Autumn. 

There are so many simple things I love about fall, and I find that treasuring these little blessings brings peace and joy to my heart. I decided to make a list of some of these things I love about it.

• The crisp, fall air and the beauty of the leaves as they change color.
• All things pumpkin; pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin decorating, visiting a pumpkin patch while my son picks out his pumpkin.
• Finally needing a blanket at night and cuddling underneath its warmth as the air is cool around me.
• The beautiful colors of fall; the deep oranges, reds, browns. So rich and lovely.
• Baking all different kinds of treats; cookies, breads, etc. Using the oven freely.
• Catching glimpses of various migratory birds we rarely get to see.
• The melodious honking sounds as the flocks of Canadian geese fly above on their migratory journey.
• Curling up on the couch with a blanket and reading a good book.

Over the weekend, we celebrated my husband's 50th birthday. I have to say L is one of the most nonchalant people I know. When I asked him how it felt to turn 50 (he is 8 years older than me), he said "It's just another day." I tried to make it special for him. We had a nice visit to Devil's Lake in Baraboo on Thursday and then took a lovely walk in our local Arboretum on Saturday. 

Here are some pictures from our time in the Arboretum:

Homeschooling

Nature ABC's

We are enjoying our homeschool time. What a blessing this is. I am so glad I found Hearts of Dakota with the lessons all put together for me. I just look in my manual and know which page to go to in each different subject (handwriting, fine motor skills, math, history, Devotional/Bible study, science, phonics and reading). My son and I are having a lot of fun with it. 

This quote I found from Mom Heart Online really spoke to my heart as one of the reasons I cherish this opportunity to homeschool.

"To prepare our children to fully live out God’s plan for their lives, as parents we must: intentionally pour into them God’s precepts and truths, fill their hearts with grace and love, expose them to beauty and mercy, and whisper into their lives principles that will guide them when the world gets loud and distracting." 

I feel this is one of the main things we are doing in spending my days with my son while homeschooling. Time is such a precious commodity and it moves so quickly. I know the years will move fast and then my son will be leaving the home to be on his own. Investing in him in this way is what I feel called to do and a response to what God teaches in Deuteronomy about raising children. (Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19). Choosing what my son learns is a huge part of why we homeschool, yet redeeming this time (that would otherwise be lost to public schooling) is deepest in my heart. For such a time as this and our budget allows, I cherish spending each precious day with my son and like in Ephesians 5:16 to make the most of every opportunity.

Investing in our Marriage

This summer my husband (L) and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. What a blessing! It is also challenging and yet such a huge opportunity to grow when we allow the Lord to convict us and surrender (our junk) to Him. One of the things we find so important is spending quality time together. We like to take time each day to reflect together over what's going on in our lives, and how the Lord is at work in us and through us. I like the Greek word "koinonia". This word occurs 20 times in the bible, usually translated as "fellowship" but meaning a type of communion or spiritual intimacy with another believer.

When L's summer schedule doesn't allow very easily for this, we see how important it is for the health of our marriage. When we seem to be drifting apart or not getting along, we know we are in need of this special time. Right now, we are going through a book by John Piper called This Momentary Marriage. John Piper has become somewhat of a mentor in my husband's life; we even traveled over 250 miles this summer to meet him and hear him preach. We are looking forward to how the Lord will be working to strengthen our marriage and continue to help it be a signpost to others. 

These are just a few of the things that have been going on in my life lately. So happy to be able to share it here. 

Thanks for visiting!

Time to Catch Up

Wow, it seems like forever since I've been writing regularly on my blog! I now have about 5 posts all in draft form, but just haven't completed them. It has been a wonderful summer filled with lots of activity, and just this week the weather finally started turning toward fall. Fall is one of my favorite seasons. Just today I enjoyed a Pumpkin Latte and we're looking forward to a lovely fall getaway next weekend in Door County, Wisconsin. I love the changing colors of the leaves, wearing warm sweaters, hiking in the woods on a crisp fall day, and picking pumpkins for fall carving just to mention a few.

I have to share a movie I watched within the last week that really touched my heart, The Encounter. It's a movie where five strangers take refuge in a diner where the proprietor seems oddly all-knowing. They truly have an encounter with Jesus. While some may certainly find the premise and even the acting cheesy, for some reason it didn't hit me that way at all. I'm glad my heart was in the right place to receive it. I heard about the movie on somebody's blog and I agree with this person who shared the following comment:

"I saw this movie just last night on Netflix. My parents recommended it and I must say, it is the best movie I have EVER seen. The way Jesus is presented seems to be parallel with what Scripture details Him to be like, and I was very, very impressed with the character development, setting, plot, and overall quality echoing throughout the whole film. Besides being a source of superb visual entertainment, The Encounter was extremely uplifting and really made me think about my own spiritual relationship with the Lord. I was also very surprised at how well it explained the difficult question of why God allows us to suffer if He loves us, and how suffering helps to lead us to Him. I mean normally that's a very touchy subject, but here it was explained succinctly. What an incredible feature! I'd recommend it to everyone!"

What an incredible movie!

I am also enjoying our year-long reading of the bible with our church using You Version, our study is called "Eat This Book". I have never "listened" to the bible before, and it has been an amazing way to have my quiet time. I just enjoy reading along with the narrator and then stopping every so often just to journal what the Lord is teaching me. Lately, the verse that says "the last shall be first and the first shall be last" (Matthew 20:16) has really convicted me. The way God is using that verse in my heart is amazing. I'm becoming very sensitive to seeing how many times I feel "wronged" or upset when something didn't go the way I wanted, planned or expected. This shows up in so many different places in my life and I'm glad the Lord has brought it to the forefront.

On another note, I have decided to homeschool J for at least the next few years. I am so blessed to have the support of several other moms that have been homeschooling for several years and have really encouraged me in taking this step. I found a curriculum through Hearts of Dakota called "Little Hearts for His Glory". It's a 2-year Kindergarten program and we'll be starting on Monday. It's good that we can ease our way into it, and J can't wait to get started. After doing "Tot School" and home preschool for the past couple years, I feel led to continue in this way. I am truly blessed to be at home with my son in this season of life, and can't think of a better way to invest my time than through this homeschool journey together.

Looking forward to posting again soon!

Thanks for visiting!

Our First Week of Preschool - Robots Unit (Homeschooling)

I am so excited to be starting preschool with J! He responded so well to Tot School (linking up at Carisa's blog 1+1+1=1) that I decided I will continue to teach him at home. I have read so many different curriculum ideas, and feel so blessed to have all this wonderful information and free printables at my fingertips. I can't justify spending hundreds of dollars on preschool when I have all the tools I need, and he is involved in several different social outlets throughout the week. I decided to start off doing unit work instead of doing a letter of the alphabet theme. Lately, J has been enthralled with anything related to robots, so I decided that would be our first unit. I used the Robots Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations and am linking up to her Preschool Corner linky. I also found her planning form to be very helpful. Although we got off to a rocky start (J wanted to sort by COLOR not SIZE, which he already knows how to do) we had a great conversation about the teacher-student relationship. It seemed that something clicked, and then he listened to my instructions and we had so much fun. He kept asking to do preschool with me, so I'm glad we are off to a great start.

Click the button below to see what other moms are doing:

Robot Size Sorting

Our first activity was sorting robots by size. After a little argument (he wanted to sort them by color) he ended up doing this activity a few times in a row. This has expanded to him finding things in our daily life that he is distinguishing by size too.

Robot Coloring and Letter Tracing

The tracing is very new for J, so it took some step by step instructions from me. I would use a pencil and show him how to trace, then he would do it. He followed along very well. Notice the example of coloring within the lines and NOT ;)

I Am a Color Robot - You Tube video

I took a break from our activities to do a Robot learning video I found on You Tube. In this video, the color robot shows pictures of different colored things. The goal is to say the name of the color before they told you what it was. Although it was easy for him, he really liked dancing to the music.

Create Your Own Robot Sticker Activity Book

I found this cute little sticker book on Amazon (Create Your Own Robot Sticker Activity Book), where you have all the robot parts and get to mix and match to make several different robots. This was one of J's favorites. He took this to bed with him too.

Tracing Different Lines

We did this project a couple times. At the top of the page was an oil can and he had to trace the line so the "oil" could get to the robot. He was really excited about the idea that he was "feeding" the robots their oil. He had trouble the more complex the lines were and was frustrated when I would stop to show him the correct way. It ended up being good in that we were able to talk about why he was getting frustrated, and he was learning to make it fun, and that he needs to be patient with himself as he learns new things.

Tracing the Letter R and Robot Coloring

J was very happy with his finished product. I could see his improvement as he moved from one set of R's to the next. He always has fun coloring, but was especially proud of this picture for some reason.

"Toasty" the Robot

As the final project for our Robots unit, J got to help make his own robot. We used an old coffee can for his head, old Jif can for his torso, milk lids for eyes, mouth, buttons, toilet paper rolls for arms and paper towel rolls for legs. J liked him so much, he wanted to sleep with him. He named him "Toasty". Since he's delicate, he sleeps on the chair and we put a little blanket over him at night.

Verse of the Week:
Matthew 22: 37-39 The Greatest Commandment

Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

I found this Robot video on Vimeo with a creative display of the verse.
This video was a nice short version of the verse breaking it down to "I will love God, and love others."

Books We Read:
The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lukas


Me and My Robot by Tracey West


The Robot Book by Heather Brown

I am also linking up at Get Crafty - Red Ted Art's Blog

and Our Country Road - Pinterest Tuesday

and to Play Academy!

And finally, Monday Madness:

"/&g

t;

Next week's theme: Farm Unit

Thanks for visiting!