Do Homeschooling Teachers Retire?

This has been the weirdest year for me. I can’t say hardest because I have had some real humdingers. But it has been difficult in the fact that so many things changed and not just at one time, but constantly changing…how odd that term?

I would just get use to one schedule, one situation, one adaption, only to have everything altered. Unsettling. That’s what it was.

Let me reveal the heart of the matter. My job is almost done. I went from the insane world of homeschooling four sons at such different levels and learning styles to almost nothing. Jesse, our youngest son just completed 9th grade. I was so successful in his education that I am basically not needed. What a difference 3 years can make. Having struggled for so many years, I finally figured out at the end of 6th grade that he was a functional dyslexic. Functional being the label attached if one was in a public school setting. NOT FUNCTIONAL in a homeschool setting! When mom knows what you are capable of and you cannot get those results….functional would not be the correct word.

Anyways….because we were successful in recovering, adapting, and treating his dyslexia (yes, FFYB products were a HUGE part of this process!), Jesse is quite the independent learner. I gave him exactly the right tools this year….he took off……he thrived…

Where did that leave me? In a pity party. On the edge of a cliff of despair because I didn’t feel needed. Oh, the issues that already came when the grown sons moved on with their lives- now my purpose was pretty near complete.

Who wants to be left with just

maid/waitress/cook duties?

Where was my worth as a teacher?

I cannot express the joy that bloomed in my heart when my mission was redefined and I felt another purpose.

Grandchildren.

It isn’t over….it is just redefined. And might I add that this feels fun?

For those of you on the brink of change into this new era, let me offer some reasons why I am excited about making the transition from full time homeschooling teacher to Noni time. ( I am Noni to the babies).

Experience- we know what works and what doesn’t. We know about learning styles. We now know what matters and what doesn’t. We can spot a learning difficulty and we even know how to overcome it.

Time- there is a bit more of it now. What we couldn’t do with our children because we were just trying to get in the basics for each child are now things we could help our young mother’s with: music, cooking, sewing, nature walks, art, those dreaded science experiments. Can you imagine having a woman at your right hand who would do these much needed developmental activities with your children? I am going to be that woman.

Money- face it, I seem to have no difficulty spending any amount of money on the grandchildren. My homeschool budget is not any smaller. I will be shopping with activities, games, and learning tools for the grandchildren this summer. I can buy those extras that the mommies cannot.

I am going to share some of the blogs that I follow that are giving me great ideas and helps with planning “school day with Noni”.

Counting Coconuts- Oh, how I wish I had this blog when my sons were little! I wish I had this knowledge, insight, and energy when I was this young.

Montessori Print Shop- Fantastically affordable site with brilliant ideas. I knew nothing about this method when my sons were little. I DID use this method quite a bit, just wasn’t aware I was so smart!

Teaching Tiny Tots- I hated teaching art when my sons were little. I think it was just because I was to so worn out and tuckered from getting the basics in that I had no zest for it. I am an artistic person. Kind of. But doing something artsy with a grandchild is SO different. You really don’t care about glitter everywhere or the mess. It has all been transformed into something adorable now. The miracle of grandmotherhood.

Once I settled into this new thought pattern that I didn’t have to be done with this ministry of teaching just because my sons were grown, my heart was filled with joy and anticipation for what I can accomplish.

I wish to BE the support network that I went too many years without. The purpose wasn’t gone. It just had to be redefined. So, I am out of retirement. I have my pile of catalogs and lists of blogs to read and peruse.

Anybody need a Noni? I have time.

~Shannon (mother to 4, Noni to 3)

Project: Simplify Hot Spot #4: Refrigerator and Pantry Results

We are into week 4 of Project: Simplify. Our Hot Spot this week was the refrigerator and pantry. For some reason this week was easier for me than the other three. I'm not sure why because I had so much to tackle. In addition to the frig and pantry, I added the lazy susan.


The dreaded refrigerator! The before picture.


After picture. This was a lot of work. I was only able to pull out certain shelves and some areas were impossible to get to unless the frig is pulled out and the doors can open wider. That wasn't a possibility for me by myself. Perhaps a future area to tackle.



I forgot to take a picture of the lazy susan before I cleared the top shelf so I only have these two pics of the bottom shelf. Unreal the amount of stuff that can be jammed on one of those!

Work in progress.


After picture with room to spare on the bottom shelf!


My little helper. She's crawling now and was into everything! Boy did she have fun!

Before pic of the pantry. This job took me a better part of the week. It wasn't hard, just time consuming.


After picture. Boy did I fill some garbage bags!! There were things in there lost in the back that were REALLY expired! I also started to put some things like rice, beans, and homemade taco seasoning in canning jars. Love the look of those!

My son even got in on the fun and cleaned out a few shelves in our downstairs frig. This was a great week! Looking forward to next week's hot spot but kind of sad it's done. I need some more to keep me going.

Project: Simplify Hot Spot #3: Kid's Clothes and/or Toys Results

Project: Simplify's Hot Spot #3 dealt with the kid's clothes and toys this week. I have three children and thankfully I had done some work in both areas not too long ago. There was no way I was going to be able to get through three kid's rooms in one week had I not done something ahead of time. I decided to focus on the clothes instead of the toys since we'd gone through the toys before Christmas.



I started in the baby's room because her dresser drawers were absolutely stuffed full! Too many baby blankets, sheets, onesies, etc.



The drawers practically sighed a sigh of relief when I got rid of half of those blankets, organized the sheets, and rolled the onesies instead of folding them (no pictures of them but I love this method!). It's hard to believe by looking at these pictures that I removed things from these drawers but believe it or not, I took tons of stuff out. They still look so full but I am able to close them much easier now.


I was able to get rid of the dresses she has outgrown and also make some room on the shelf above.


This was the result of my efforts in that room. Two bags for consignment and one basket full of items to be donated.


Then I headed to my son's room (before and after pictures to follow). He keeps telling me he has too many clothes and I don't need to buy him any more. After this week, I think he is right! This is only some of them spread out from one end of the room to the other. I like to save the clothes that are getting small to use as play clothes. This means that I am dealing with several sizes at a time and creates LOTS of clothes. It was finally time to retire the items that were ridiculously small and organize everything else. My son is also a child that likes to wear shorts around the house in the winter so I am dealing with clothes for warm and cold seasons throughout the entire year instead of storing one set like I do with the girls.


My 4 year old daughter entertaining herself with the "mini claw" game in his room while I cleaned.


So here is what the closet looked like before I started. Curtains falling, clothes sliding out of the shelves, laundry overflowing from the basket, and toys everywhere.



He is my after picture with everything sorted, organized, curtains fixed, and so on.


Two boxes for donation and one bag for consignment. Not bad but I probably could have done better. He wasn't home and I wasn't able to hold things up to see if they were really too small and I was afraid to get rid of clothes he could still wear. I may revisit this room and try to quickly go through some stuff again to see if there is anything else that can go.

What I don't have pictures of is my middle child's room. I didn't want to bore everyone with more dresser and closet pictures. I did the same in her room except I don't get rid of her clothes because they go into storage for when the baby is old enough to wear them. We were able to clear out two boxes worth of dresses and some other stray items to put into the attic.

This project has been tough but so worth it! It's really starting to make a difference. I'm glad it's the weekend and I have time to rest before next's week assignment but at the same time, I am anxious to see what we will be tackling next week.

Heidi

Project: Simplify Hot Spot #2: Paper Clutter Results

If I thought last week's hot spot was tough, I was wrong! Paper clutter (Hot Spot #2) is probably my biggest problem. I do not do a good job of purging things. I always think I will go back and look at magazines or I need to hang on to certain papers in case I need them again. They end up just piling up all over the house. After looking at these pictures, it made me sick to see how bad the piles got! While I did not get to dedicate as much time to this as I would have liked to, I did make a huge dent in it. My 9 month old daughter is now mobile and making it tough to turn my head in the other direction for any length of time. She was also very clingy this week and I just don't work as fast with a baby attached to my hip. So I had to go with the flow and do what I could, when I could, and still feel pretty good about the results.

This is my makeshift office. It's in the living room at the end of the couch. All my business and some school papers tend to gather here. In fact, my little table got so full I had to put a TV tray up in front of the couch for my laptop to fit. It use to be on the little pink table!


Now everything is back in it's place. I'm hoping to keep it there.


Behind the pink table in the corner is a nice basket intended for "current" magazines. As you can see, I haven't purged anything in quite a while. I went with the rule of anything older than three months needs to go!


Much better! My plan is to try to read a little of one magazine each day during lunch and as I get through them, copy any recipes, etc. that I want to keep and then recycle the magazine. Sadly these were kept in a really nice Longaberger basket that now has a broken handle because the basket was too full.


Here's my Take Action box. It was filled to the brim with things that needed to be sorted and put where they belong.



In front of the pink table (told you this area was bad!), is a wire basket I tried to contain things in. It too piled up over time.


Now I can actually see what is in there to use it.


Bills! Insurance EOB's! Car registration forms! It never ends! The basket to the right of the pile of envelops practically falling off the desk is supposed to organize all of these. But somehow there is never time to write things on my calendar before they are sorted. So they get stuck in this pile until I have the time to go through them and separate them into the basket. I'm thinking of going "paperless billing" as was suggested for a way to stop a lot of this mail from coming into the house.
Notice the pile behind the clock as well. I will find a place to put paper no matter what!


Not perfect but a definite improvement from what was there before.


Oh the island!! I didn't even take a picture of the whole thing because it was awful!


This tray was put there to keep the clutter down but it didn't work. I ended up filling it and then there were other separate piles all over the island. Again, getting rid of the unnecessary mail before it comes into the house is key!


We can actually use it again!

There were many suggestion made about how to keep the paper clutter under control now that it has been cleaned. I am going to try my best to do them and keep these areas clear. Now to relax and wait for next week's assignment. It's not too late to join Project: Simplify by Simple Mom.

Heidi

Book Review for SLAVE

I have put off writing this review for as long as I could.

I like to write positive reviews. I like to see the good side of things and find value

in everything I come across.

I am a fan of this man's work. He sharpens my thinking skills.

I don't always agree with him, yet he gets me studying as to WHY I don't agree.

But I do agree and enjoy a lot of his written works.

This one blew me away.

I wasn't prepared for my angst towards this work.

BACK COVER: A Cover Up of Biblical Proportions

The cover up MacArthur is revealing is that everywhere in the Bible the word

"servant" should have been slave.

This cover up is what is keeping most of us from having the correct relationship with Christ.

I would argue that our sin is what keeps us from

standing as near to Christ as we could be.

In order to back up his claims, I was sad to see

the discrediting of Scripture.

While I believed his point to be worthy, there is enough Scripture given that refers to bondage, slavery to SIN, etc...that there was no need to

disparage God's choice of the word

"servant" in many places.

His comparison of slaves to servants is interesting.

His reasoning as to why the word should be slave instead of servant is thought provoking and elicited great conversation between my oldest son and me.

Slaves aren't paid.

MacArthur's first flaw.

I am urged in Scriptures to endure, to keep going, to work for rewards, for crowns,

for His praising words of "well done", for crying out loud- He gave me a mansion!

Slave- it doesn't feel like it.

Maybe the big difference between SLAVE and SERVANT is

the way the Master treats the person.

Maybe.

What WAS good about this book is it led me to studying the Bible.

To "see if these things be".

For that alone, it is a worthy tool to have on the bookshelf.

It is never wrong to be reminded that preachers are mere mortals,

men whose own worldview must be filtered through Scripture and sometimes

even good men get it wrong.

It is up to us to find out what we believe and why we believe it.

And if there is a problem, it is not with the Word of God.

My belief that the word "servant" was not an error, nor a conspiracy

is made stronger now.

Thanks, John.

I believe God has the power to not lose control of what He wanted us to have

as the Word of God.

~Shannon- Fortunately For You Books