Here we are nearly 3 weeks into the new year and I haven’t done a single ABC’s of Homeschooling post! In fact, I haven’t done many posts at all! There’s been several things going on over here. We got back into school after a long break (sorta, more on that in a minute,) we got a baby cockatiel, we’ve been sick — not very fun, and we’ve got some new and exciting things planned for the 2nd half of the year. Let me catch you up on what’s going on at Faith Family Home School right now!

Kicking Off the New Year

One of the things that every homeschooling parent will tell you (if they’ve been doing this for more than, oh, six months) is that it’s hard to get back into the groove after a break! That’s one reason we try to keep breaks short and take more of them, and school more year round.

KNOWING THIS,.. I let us take a really long break around Christmas anyway.

It wasn’t smart…………….but it was fun. =)

If you find yourself in this boat you have to keep paddling anyway, you can’t just throw your hands up in the air and hope for the best. (Believe me! I know!)

The first thing we do is we start off slow. I don’t expect to do a full day’s work on the first day back and so I don’t even try. Shoot, I don’t even try to do a full WEEK’S worth of work the first week! My main goal is retraining ourselves to get up and get started on school instead of lazing in pjs and watching cartoons or whatever.

The second thing I do is remember to be patient and consistent. I remind my children what their expected and acceptable behavior is, what our goals are. Be patient as they try to push those boundaries but hold those boundaries. “We WILL do school, we will do ‘this’ much today, let’s do this, okay?”

Another thing that’s helpful is taking short breaks. Even if it’s just a break to play a racing clean up game or a snack break. Take a minute to swap out the washer and dryer and fold a load of laundry together – SOMETHING. And then get back to the books.

And if the extra long break was unplanned and you’re now “behind” on your schedule, don’t try to double up on everything all at once! The extra stress is likely to cause the kids to bog down and run on slow mode. We usually double up on one or two things at at time until we’re caught up, then double up on something else, and so on. So take a minute, count the lessons, map out a plan and write it down. YOU will feel much better and less stressed out – and you’ll pass that on to your kids.

So now that I’ve said all that, I’ll say that’s how our first week back to school after Christmas STARTED. And then I got sick. =( For a week I felt awful and we didn’t do school. So we had to start our slow process all over again. And that week my daughter was sick, so we stayed slow, and this week was my son’s turn, so we’re still taking it easy. But as long as you keep chugging along, you’ll get there!

Oh, and look! For the new year, a new look for the bulletin board! I don’t know if it’s going to help us get school done but it makes me feel more ready to try. =)

Live Animals

So if being sick and detoxing from holiday laziness overdose wasn’t enough… we should add a baby bird into the mix, right?

Seriously, he was the “ugliest duckling” (and yet oddly cute) when we brought him home and now he’s grown on us and he’s just all sorts of cute.

Last Wednesday we all took a trip to a local pet shop and brought home a two week old baby Cockatiel. We’ve only had him 9 days and already he’s grown so much! Meet “Captain Jack.”

I’m amazed how quickly he’s growing! The kids are daily ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the changes.

Much of our time in between our slow schooling has been taken up with holding, cuddling and feeding this little guy, while reading and learning about pet birds in general and Cockatiels specifically.

We’ve learned what pin feathers are, why they’re also called “blood feathers,” that the real feather is actually INSIDE the pin feather, that birds grow quickly!, and fledge at a much younger age than we thought. Our little Captain Jack could be taking his first flight in only 2 or 3 weeks! Next week we start introducing solid foods!

Having a pet and learning to take care of it may only help us learn more about THAT particular animal, but it’s great fun researching and reading and then observing our pet for what we’ve learned. It’s a great research/scientific/observation process in action. Especially cool is that I learned Princess can volunteer at the pet store a couple of hours a week after she turns 12. Not only will she learn how to help take care of all the other animals as well, but she will learn about helping customers and working and doing a good job. *I.love.that.idea.*  At any rate, Faith Family Home School now has a class pet. =)

Here’s a few of the sites I’ve found helpful and bookmarked for future reference.

• Australian National Cockatiel Society
• The American Cockatiel Society
• Cockatiel.com
• Fledgling Cockatiels
• Weaning Baby Cockatiels
• How to Wean a Baby Cockatiel

I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of our little Captain Jack in future weeks. ; )

Music and More

We’ve got a couple of exciting things coming up for the second semester of this school year. The first one is that Big Daddy, Drama Queen and I have signed up to take some informal guitar lessons at church starting this Sunday. Big Daddy and I already play a little… Drama Queen is BeSiDe HeRsElF! She has an interest in music and has been wanting to learn to play guitar. You should see her tiny hands! But we’re going to see if she can get the hang of learning to play on a full size guitar. 8 year olds have learned to play before..we’ll see how this goes. =) She has quite the singing voice, too, and I’m excited to take the first step in encouraging an interest of hers.

This is especially exciting because I just did the same thing with her older sister, coming up with a really good idea for her in her area of interest. Princess has an interest in fashion design. And after she drew a design the other day I got a really good idea. A really.. reallly.. good idea. *waggles eyebrows*

Princess has now been given the task of designing 6-12 more outfits and then picking one to make. She’ll have to make or combine patterns, go shopping for materials on a budget, and sew the outfit for herself to wear. She loves this idea. And so do I! Also, we’re going to be subscribing to a couple of magazines we’ve carefully selected for girls 8-12 so she can observe the fashion trends in the magazines. And we’ve (well mostly she’s) been finding tutorials on youtube for drawing figures so she can practice drawing clothes on people standing in different positions. She’s already drawn a few more and she’s really taking off on this project with gusto!!

What I love most about both of these, the music and the fashion designs both, is the ability to help our children pursue their interests so fully. It’s A PART OF school. Maybe their interests will change. Maybe not. Either way they’ve gained a new skill. ; )

So that’s the wrap up on what we’ve been doing in school in the Oliver house the past few weeks. Phew! Wasn’t that a lot?? I wonder if this is any indication of how 2012 is going to go?? ; )

Don’t forget to hop over to Dawn @ The Momma Knows to catch up on everybody else’s M posts. You can find all of my ABC posts here. Also, please forgive the camera phone pics — I know they’re not the best!

I really need to get back into the habit of using the 3 in 30 challenge to focus on specific tasks and get things done around here. Habits, projects, you name it. I decided I was going to do this again and even though I haven’t gotten around to write a post about it before now, I’ve already been working on some habits for this month.

What I’m saying is.. I intended to write this post at the first of the year and get right down to business working on my goals.

And then I got sick. Actually I got sick even before the new year began. New Year’s Eve eve found me holding my head in the fetal position while dosing up on allergy meds and decongestants. Apparently cedar pollen is going crazy here and my sinuses were screaming in opposition. I didn’t need weather.com to ME there was something in the air…

But despite the assault on my senses, I managed to pick out three goals for January and actually start working on them a little.

The first one is a “gimme.” Kind of a cheater, I think. But it’s a legitimate goal.

1.) Bring back all the habits that have gone before…

There were several habits we worked on and added into our routine during the year last year that for one reason or another fell by the wayside. I like to blame the holidays. Okay sure, some of them may have disappeared before then, but can I pretend it was just the holidays? Blaming aside, they need to come back. WE need them to come back. So this month I’m gathering the good, harnessing the helpful, rallying the routine. My first goal/habit this month is getting up by 7:30, getting in some quiet morning time and bible study, and starting our bedtime routine at 7:30 to get the kids in bed by 8:30 for a story.

2.)  A new format for an old habit…

Morning family devotions is something we’ve been working on for a while. Last year we tried devotionals individually at the same time. This year we’re using The Jesus Calling Devotional for Kids and the Gospel Story Bible (along with some journals) and doing it together. Right now our morning routine is shot, ruined by too much holiday time and too much tv. My goal for this month is to cut off our morning tv time, and develop a daily morning family devotional time.

3.) A little self maintenance PLEASE?

Okay, I’ve NEVER really been very good at washing my face every night before I go to bed or using moisturizer each day (let alone anything with sunblock in it.) I’ll do great at keeping my nails trimmed for a while and then realize they’re terrible. One of my goals for 2012 is to take better care of myself and that starts with the small stuff, right? This month I’m starting small. Yes, I’m also trying to drink more water and make some diet changes but that’s outside of this goal. This goal is all about self-maintenance. One thing I decided to do to make that easier was put everything in one place. DUH, RIGHT? So this week I reorganized the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, removed some less used items to under the sink and made sure all of my regular items are together.  Hopefully keeping these things all together in one place will help a little bit — when I’m in the cabinet for my deodorant, which I DON’T forget, I’ll see the moisturizer and remember it. Sounds good in theory right? So the first part of this goal was to set up the medicine cabinet – Done. The 2nd part is to USE it and develop a better daily (or weekly for nails, etc.) habit of taking care of myself, starting with the small things. Little things matter, too.

So those are my 3 goals for this month. And even though I’m only just now getting the post up I have been trying to work on them already. Can you believe we’re already a 3rd of the way through January?! Yep! So I’ll check back in at the end of the month and let you know how it went! What about you — working on any goals this month? Or new year’s resolutions or something?

Check out the 3 in 30 Challenge here.

Ah, yes, it’s that time again. Time for resolutions. Or in my case, a self-evaluation and a new list of habits and goals to work on. And when I say “list” of course I mean “LIST.” Or “really-long-and-incredibly-ambitious-list.” Because as I mentioned last year I’m pretty good at making lists. And the way I see it, when you’re good at something you should stick with it, right? ; )

I can’t believe a whole year has passed already since I made the last big list. I ran out of time for some of them but overall I did pretty well, I think. I’m going to leave the 2011 List page up for another week or so and then I’m going to take it down and replace it with the 2012 List. If you’re curious, hop on over there real quick and check out the kinds of things I did (and didn’t do) in 2011. Some of my favorites were:

• Establishing a morning routine. I learned that the secret to getting up early is to JUST DO IT. Just make yourself get out of bed. Even if you end up falling asleep in your chair 15 minutes later that’s the way to start. I also learned that the way to become a morning person and enjoy the morning is to get up A REALLY LONG TIME before the kids do so that you’re all the way awake, coffeed up, and prayed up when they start getting up and needing things from you. ; )
• Developing a bed time/story time routine. OH MY GOODNESS, Y’ALL. It’s amazing how beneficial a good bedtime routine can be. For a long while this year we had the Best. Bedtime Routine. Ever. We got out of the habit for reasons not worth mentioning but we’re getting back into it now, because through doing that we learned how helpful and good it is for our family.
• Finding a good church for us and going to church with James.
• Painting.
• Canning.
• Reading more books. (On my Kindle, too! Woohoo!)

Sometimes I find it helpful to sit down and make a list of things that are important to me, or the kind of person I want to be, or the things I think God wants me to do with my life. I find it helpful to focus for just a minute. In 2012, among other things, I just want to work on being a better person, a better wife and mother, a better imitation of Christ. I don’t want to just take things for granted, accept second best, or waste what I’ve been given. I want to be what GOD desires of me. This is my prayer:

My word for 2012 is “Transformation.” Inside and out. Last year it was “Well-functioning.” We worked on a lot of daily habits in pursuit of a well functioning home and we discovered and practiced a lot of things that really work well for us. This year we need to keep that up and JUST DO IT when it needs to be done, even if we don’t want to. This year we need to take off laziness and put on diligence. We need to shed complaining and put on contentment. We will discard leaving things for someone else and take initiative. It won’t be easy. But if we keep practicing the habits we’ve been working on and seek God for wisdom and strength we can transform our bad habits into good ones. The same is true for taking care of myself better – I have lots of bad habits to shed and plenty of good ones to take on instead.

So then, my verse for 2012 is Romans 12: 1-2:

 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Do you pick words for the new year? What’s yours? (Or if you DID.. what would you pick?)

Also, you can read my “resolution”, er “To Do in 2012″ post, here.

This is linked with Meghan’s New Year’s post at The Tuckers Take Tennessee. Check it out! You can read what others are using for THEIR 2012 word.

Christmas has come and gone and now 2011 is about to go, too! We had a really good visit with some family members from out of state and our local family members as well.  And I spent all of this past week recovering from all the noise and whatnot that comes with large family gatherings. ; )

And now as I stay up late with my girls waiting for 2012 to arrive, I look back over 2011. We could so easily dwell on the rough patches and the setbacks but the truth is that we are blessed and we must not forget that! Thinking back through the year, several “highlights” come to mind:

• I finally learned how to be a morning person! –Yes, I’ve really struggled the past two months, but I have not completely relapsed. I’m not abandoning it though, I’ve been working on backing my schedule up and getting up earlier again. It’s harder in the winter! Who wants to get up when it’s dark and cold out?! = p
• My parents moved back and I am SO thankful!
• Princess got braces (I’m not sure SHE’D call that a highlight.) But her teeth were SO crooked (cross bite, overbite, deep bite) and in 8 months they’ve already corrected all 3 of those and now the rest of the work that needs to be done is turning, torquing and fine tuning her mouth shape and teeth alignment. I’m so impressed!
• We found a church that we all like as a family and it’s starting to feel like ‘home’ church.
• As I already mentioned, we got to see out of state family for Christmas (it’s been 2 years since we saw them last.)
• Princess made a new friend (and so did we, with the mom.)
• We got chickens! (And then the incredible 110 degree summer temps killed them. That, and the neighbors dogs. =\) Our last lonely chicken is going to winter at a neighbor friend’s house and in the spring I hope we can have a better coop set up and we can get more. = )
• Drama Queen had the privilege and fun of attending puppy training classes with my mom and her new dog (who they adopted a 8 months.) It was a great experience for her and she continues to prove to be a great and consistent dog trainer. It’s good for her, too, focusing and calming down while she’s working with the dogs. She works with them every time we go over to my mom’s — and now she’s teaching them NEW commands, AND she’s teaching the dog that’s afraid of the doggy door how to go through it! She’s so patient and consistent.
• Princess turned 11, Drama Queen turned 8 and Little Prince turned 6! (And I turned 30-something. I’ve seriously lost count. I’d have to do the math in my head…)
• We started painting! Not much, I’d like to paint more next year. But I let go of my mess-fear as much as I could and let the kids pull out the paint quite frequently and we started painting. (Yeah, we painted sometimes before that, but always water colors and not very often. But now we have a great big bucket full of paint bottles, brushes, palettes, watercolor paper and even a few canvas boards.)
• My mom and I really got into canning after she moved back. We’ve canned and canned and canned!
• I got a kindle for Mother’s Day. Should that go on a list of highlights? Yeah, sure, why not… = )
• I started and went to a first annual homeschooler blogger field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. (Even though the only people who came were IRL friends.) ; )
• I was able to attend the Apologia Live Retreat in Austin, Texas with an IRL homeschool bloggy friend and we had such a good time!
• Little Prince learned how to ride a bike!
• My mother in law sadly moved away but then moved back — that’s a mixed blessing for them but it’s nice for our kids to have both grandmothers nearby. = )

Image Credit:  Some rights reserved by bayasaa

One day! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I’m nailing down the last details for our family celebration – what about you? I’m taking a quick break from my to do list to wrap up my mini-series — arguing my response to four common arguments I hear for doing Santa, and why they aren’t selling points for me. We’ve already talked about how “it’s fun,” how “Santa is based on Saint Nicholas” and how “it’s tradition!” When all else fails, the last argument that people resort to is this:

Argument #4:”But the kids are missing out…”

I think this is really the one that bugs most Santa-doers, though. They feel like I would feel if you told me that you never celebrated your kids’ birthdays, at all, no card, no song, no cake, no gift, no nothing. I would feel like your kids were missing out on a piece of childhood. And I believe that’s what is at the heart of most arguments for Santa.

But what are my kids missing out on REALLY? (Besides being lied to and having to sit on a strange man’s lap?) Nothing that really matters in the long run, and not much of anything that matters in the short run either.

Are they missing out on presents? No. Stockings? No. Cookies, traditions, movies? No, no, no. FUN? Definitely not! We have all of those things. And more. This year we not only decorated our own tree but my mom’s, the trees at the church, our neighbor/landlord’s tree and we offered to do my mother-in-law’s tree as well. We’ve made cookies, hot chocolate mix, gifts, paper ornaments and tomorrow we’re making cider. We’ve watched movies, read books, done crafts and we’ve done our Advent candle readings and sang hymns after. We did several service-oriented things as well. On Christmas Eve we’ll be opening all of our family gifts (because out of state family is leaving on Christmas Day,) and we’ll spend the whole day with our family, eating, fellowshiping, playing games and having fun. Christmas morning we’ll have stockings, open our 3 gifts (that symbolize the gold, frankincense and myrrh,) attend a church service and spend the last of the time with our family before they get back on the road. We have had a full month and we have a full weekend ahead.

“Ah,” you may argue, “but what about your KIDS? YOU may not think anything is missing but what about your kids?”

Well let me tell you…I asked them. It is true that if we have a scenario where a Santa is involved and other kids are getting presents, they don’t want to stand out as the only ones not doing it, and they like getting presents early. They actually told me that it wasn’t that they didn’t get to do Santa that bothered them, but they didn’t want to stick out.

I GET THAT. I do. Which is why I try really hard not to put them in that kind of situation. On the other hand, what they’re feeling and they’re just too young to know it, is how to go against the flow, be your own person and do your own thing. All kids their age don’t want to be the weird one. But here at my home, they’re not alone. Even out in public, I’m standing with them. But here at home that isn’t a factor at all. Do they miss not having Santa in our celebrations? No. They don’t. Do they like the way we do Christmas? Yes, they do. Do they like watching Santa movies? Yes they do. Do they like doing our 3 wisemen gifts instead of Santa presents? Also yes.

OUR truth is… we are happy without Santa. And we don’t need/want it. That’s hard for some to understand, it’s not the truth for everyone, but it’s the truth for us.

And so there you have it. Four realistic, sensible rebuttles to four common arguments for Santa. I bet at least one person thought I was going to go all radical Jesus fanatic on them. It’s undeniable that my faith plays a large role in how we do celebrate.. and that I don’t see Santa as furthering that purpose. But it’s not only that. But it IS a large part of it, yes.

Come Christmas morning, I want there to be only one star of the show. And no, it won’t be perfect. But there will be at least one quiet reflective moment. It won’t make us perfect, or holier, or more spiritual, or anything. But it will bring us together in thanks and prayer, it will make memories. Then there will be lots of normal holiday noise and kids running around. Because it’s our house, and it’s often loud and the kids run around.

I hope that whatever your traditions are, that you are able to spend time with family and friends and that you have very blessed day with them. Thank you so much for your positive feedback. Until sometime after Christmas when I get back around to my blog again… God bless!!