Garmish and Nördlingen {and photographs for sale}

My husband's parents came to visit us for several weeks and we hit the road on another trip to one of our favorite places- Garmisch-Partenkirchen. On our way we visited the medieval town of Nördlingen which sits near the impact point of a meteorite that hit the earth 15 million years ago. The boys climbed the treacherously old steps to the top of the cathedral for a bird's eye view of the town.

Organizing a homeschool schedule

Once you know what you want to study and you have a growing number of books filling up your table (or kindle/amazon queue) you have to figure out what to do with them. For me, it's easiest to digest all these books when I break them up by term. I divide the year into seasons then choose which books to study during each season. The fun literature books I usually save for our bedtime and leisure reading. The others I try to rotate once or twice a week. Before I had my fourth child I was pretty good about planning out what we would do each day, now I just keep a box full of the books we use next to me on the couch and I grab whatever I'm feeling in the mood for. I make sure we work from at least three books a day, anything after that is a bonus.

Here is a breakdown of our reading schedule for next year (for details on each book, see our 2013-2014 curriculum)

Did you know?

Alexander Graham Bell

Thomas Edison

Albert Einstein

Benjamin Franklin

Patrick Henry

Eli Whitney

Orville & Wilbur Wright

John Adams

Thomas Jefferson

George Wythe

Alexander Hamilton

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

Theodore Roosevelt

Louisa May Alcott

Robert Frost

C.S. Lewis

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Leonardo da Vinci

Claude Monet

Isaac Newton

Johann Sebastian Bach

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Winston Churchill

What do these well-known people all have in common? Besides creative genius or exceptional leadership...  

Each received a large part, if not all, of their education at home. That's right folks, these people were homeschooled! Through reading, discovering and exploring. There are many, many more people who have left their mark in the world and were educated in their own home. (There is a great list of famous homeschoolers at http://www.famoushomeschoolers.net )

Whenever you feel challenged or discouraged, just take a peek at these names and realize the potential those little people in your home have if you only give them the tools to unleash it! Many of these incredibly intelligent people were poor public school students and felt like failures, yet thrived when allowed to pursue knowledge in their own way and time. 

Food in Germany

I just have to say that after living in Europe, I feel really sorry for Americans (and for the food I will have to go home to). European food is so much tastier and healthier.

Joshua's German School

Joshua heading off to his "private German school"...

Nature Study, the Charlotte Mason way

We don't take school off during the summer, but our primary focus is on literature and nature study. We do math as much as they want to, I don't put pressure on them to complete things. One of our favorite discoveries here is a nature park on the military base. It has a dozen or so of these signs with great information about local species of plants, animals, birds, etc. and has them in both German and English.

First sewing lessons

My in-laws are in town for the next few weeks. We are so excited to see them. We're headed for a two week trip to Garmisch, Austria and Switzerland. I have a few scheduled posts while I'm gone and I'll share some pictures of our trip on facebook from time to time.

The other day Ethan's button came off his shorts and provided us with the perfect opportunity to learn to sew on a button! It took a few tries for his needle to find the button hole, but he was so proud of himself when he finally got it.

Week in review: gardening and a virtual tour of China

It is so fun to see things growing in our garden! The boys had fun designing cute little signs for our vegetable garden. Our lettuce, spinach and kale are looking just beautiful and our peas, carrots, tomatoes and peppers are looking awesome too. 

The Hague Netherlands LDS Temple Pictures

When we were in Holland I had the opportunity to photograph the Den Haag-Tempel in Zoetermeer. It is such a beautiful area, cows and sheep were grazing all along the roadside and there were farm fields everywhere (not to mention tulips). The Netherlands is such a beautiful country.

As always, images are available to download free for personal use http://freeldstemplepictures.com. Commercial licenses are also available for purchase.

Nature Study- fun with ants

We have a little park a couple blocks behind our house that the boys love to play at. We went the other day and saw hundreds of huge ants crawling everywhere. We decided to do an experiment to see what ants really like to eat and if natural repellent really works.

It's what God gave you time for...

I love the saying "I was a perfect mother...until I had my first child". Looking from the outside in it seems like such a simple task, wipe a few noses, bake a few cookies, read a few stories. If only it were that simple. The world as a whole does not value motherhood on a full time basis. The world says sure it's nice to have one or two children, but why should women waste their skills staying home doing nothing?

Mother's don't just read stories, they plant seeds of character and imagination. Mother's don't just sing lullabies, they instill memories of love and a sense of belonging into the heart of a child. Mother's don't just pray, they build a foundation of faith so the child knows what path to follow. Mother's don't just teach, they inspire the love of learning and the desire to make a difference in the world. Mother's don't just have babies, they raise future leaders of nations.

Beautiful messes

I appreciated the recent article from Upside Down Homeschooling on Embracing the Imperfect. Lest any mom's think homeschooling is easy, it isn't. 90% of the time it is a struggle to stay on task, keep focused and stay positive. I love a clean house as much as anyone (perhaps even more than most) but one only has so many hours in the day and every minute spent cleaning is a minute spent away from my children. My one and only new years' resolution was to relax and not stress about the messes. I did terrible the first few months- walking into a room with stuff on the floor was like nails on a chalkboard. Then I had a baby. I had no choice, I could either scream, hire a housekeeper, or just not care. I do still care, but I am learning to not let it stress me out or feel like a failure because of it. This is what our school room/office looks like right now:

And this is what we have to show for it...

Belgium: Brussels, Waterloo and Bastogne

Our next stop was Brussels, Belgium. We went inside the engineering marvel The Atomium. This unusual structure contains the fastest elevator in Europe, traveling at a rate of 5 meters per second. The highest ball has large glass windows you can look out and see the city. Not quite as fabulous as the Sears Tower (I refuse to call it Willis) but still pretty cool.

The Netherlands: Keukenhof Gardens & Kinderdijk

The main reason for our trip of course was to see the beautiful tulips, and we were not disappointed! The Keukenhof Gardens have the most magnificent flower display on earth. They get over 800,000 visitors during the eight weeks they are open. My sister and I visited several years ago but I didn't have kids then so I didn't realize all the fun things they had for kids here. The boys said it was almost as fun as Disney World!

The Netherlands: Amsterdam

Part one of our trip to the Netherlands and Belgium! First stop- Amsterdam. It took us about 7 hours to get there since we had to stop several times to feed baby. The boys did great as always and Olivia is a model traveler, I think she only cried once and it was because she needed a diaper change. Here is the beautiful side of Amsterdam...