Empower Your Homeschool

August 27 2019

First Day of School

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Go Big with Family Travel

It’s that time of year when all the conversation seems to center around school starting. Where we lived previously, the public schools didn’t start until after Labor Day. At our new home, they start by mid-August! Quite the change!

We recently went to a family gathering nearby and everyone wanted to know when our “first day of school” was. Truth was, we had a family backpacking trip planned for when everyone else was starting and I had a split second of guilt as I thought about telling them that. But then I realized: no way, no guilt! This is the beauty of homeschooling! We can do what our family needs, when our family needs it!

So my answer to all my in-laws was that we were starting school on Monday too and it was going to begin with a three day backpacking trip! It was kind of funny to watch them process that. Then my 14-year-old nephew said he wanted to be homeschooled too!

Even after all this time, I still have to take the time to change my mindset from a) worrying about what others think, and b) moving away from thinking about school as the traditional subjects taught in public school. I don’t always have those problems, but sometimes they creep up again.

And even if we hadn’t been starting school right when everyone else around us was, that’s ok. Again, we do what we need to for our family. You do what you need to for your family! And a lot more counts as “school” than what we realize sometimes.

And our first day of school was amazing.

August 14 2019

How to Teach Your Child to Read and Help Them Love It

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool

Reading has always been an important part of my life. Growing up we were surrounded by books and there was always something to read.

I remember combing my father’s hair at night while he read aloud to us. Every once in a while we would have to turn out the lights so we could see the sparks from the static electricity that the comb made going through his hair.

As my siblings and I got a little older, my mother would sometimes have us help work on homemade Christmas presents for our aunts, some sort of cross-stitch project, while she would read aloud to us. Double bonus!

We had books all over the house. One whole wall in my bedroom was covered in books and our upstairs hall and loft were lined with full bookshelves. I spent hours there poring over encyclopedias reading about Ancient Egypt, or Greece, or Rome, or I traveled the world through the pages of our numerous National Geographic magazines. There was also a lot of fiction to read when I just wanted to sit down with a good book.

Where to start

Set the example

As a parent, you first need to look at yourself. Yep. Guess who your children are watching? YOU!

Are you a reader? Do you show your kids that reading is important? My kids see us reading all. The. Time.

Unfortunately, as we read more on electronic devices, they don’t always know that we’re actually reading and not just surfing facebook again. I would suggest trying to find that new novel or gardening book you’re interested in as a hard copy. Make mention often of what you’re reading out loud, “Wow! Did you know tulip bulbs are edible?” Show them you’re learning from and enjoying your reading. “I can’t wait to find out what happens in the next chapter! This left off at a real cliff-hanger!”

And if you’re not a reader, now is a good time to become one. There are books on every topic. You must have SOMETHING you are interested in! Look it up and go for it!

Read to your children

This is SO important and is a wonderful time to gather your sweet children around you. Do it even with your older children.

I usually break up my morning reading time between my older and younger kids. I do a read-aloud at the end of our morning devotional that my little ones go off and play during, and then when we have finished with that I send the older ones off to do school while I read picture books with my 3 and 5 year old.

Sometimes my younger ones will come and hang out with us while I read our chapter books out loud because they hear the gasps of horror, laughing, or squeals of delight from their siblings who are enjoying the book. See what is happening here again? The younger ones are seeing the wonders of books by watching their older siblings. Example!

In the evening we have a family read-aloud for everyone.

Here are some of my kids’ favorite alphabet books. Frankly, they drive me and my husband crazy to read, but that’s partly due to them currently being my 3-year-old’s favorite book series right now. We read them over, and over, and over again! They have the alphabet in the front and the back of each book so we sing it each time we come to it. The books are fun for kids because you do the bulk of the reading, but there are pictures as you go along so the kids can “help.” I use this resource mostly just for letter recognition. We received most of the set from my mother who found them at a thrift store. My sister found her set at a thrift store as well, so I would suggest checking out that resource first.

Turn off/limit TV

Compared to just watching TV, reading is hard! Your mind actually has to focus and work while reading compared to just soaking in whatever comes off the TV screen.

Increased TV exposure for a child, even if the TV is on somewhere nearby, is linked with less ability to recognize their own and other people’s feelings, delayed language, and the increased possibility of having behavioral problems.

On the other hand, the more you read to a child, the more you can increase their vocabulary, language, and reading skills.

So where do my kids go when they get bored? To the books! Even the little ones who aren’t reading quite yet will go get a book and flip through it. Some of the books they’ve had read to them so many times that they are able to “read” it to themselves. Just looking at pictures will get them to bring me a book so they can learn what the story is behind the pictures.

Have books available

They can’t read what they don’t have. Do you have a library card? If not, go get one! It will save you a lot of money and help keep fresh and interesting reading material around your home.

Check out thrift stores for books. You can get great used and new books online.

Maybe swap books with friends periodically.

Have the books where they can access them for themselves.

Learning to Read

Surround yourself with letters and make it fun!

With child number one and two, I had already decided I was going to homeschool while they were really little, so we were always reading and doing letter recognition. I immersed them in letters without always making it a formal learning time.

Letter magnets on the fridge, foam letters in the tub, a homemade alphabet chart on the wall; letters were something fun! We would sing the alphabet song as part of their bedtime routine.

When they were old enough, between 3-5, we would play letter bingo and letter “Go Fish.” Any game that involves letter recognition in a fun, relaxed, pressure-free way.

My friend takes letter magnets to the park and sticks them on the metal park equipment for her kids to do some of their learning there.

The book to use

My most favorite book that I tell everyone about is Phonics Pathways by Dolores G. Hiskes. I LOVE this book! I am on my fourth child with it and I will never use anything else.

Since I was the 2^nd of six children in my family, and am quite a bit older than my younger siblings, I had to help them when they were learning to read. I HATED some of the programs that my mom used and was scared to teach my own children to read from the experience.

Thankfully, this book was recommended in another one of my all-time favorite homeschool books, The Well-Trained Mind, and it has been a game changer! There aren’t colorful flashy pictures in Phonics Pathways, but the letters are big and friendly and the sections are broken up nicely. There are a few games throughout the book that you can copy and laminate, which I highly recommend doing. My kids love them. The older ones still come running to play when I get them out for my younger ones!

Everything is laid out step by step and I don’t know that I’ve ever finished the book completely with any of my children because they are fantastic readers by about 2/3-3/4 of the way through that we just gradually move on to other things.

Other resources

One of the programs that my mother used for my younger siblings that I actually liked was Sing, Spell, Read & Write. This is a bright, fun, musical program. I don’t have a lot of experience with the actual program itself, although I like what I remember, but luckily for me, my mom saved all her materials and passed them on to me when I started teaching my own children. Score! The readers (here and here) and games with this program are FANTASTIC! Again, my 3 and 5-year-old like me to read these books for story time. My 5 year-old is starting to be able to read them on his own now. I can’t guarantee the games are all the same as they were 20 years ago, but this is the program that had the Go-Fish and Alphabet Bingo games that I talked about earlier. I recommend checking it out.

While simple, my kids have also enjoyed reading the Bob books. It gives a real sense of accomplishment when they read their first book by themselves! These book are perfect for that. I have only really used the first set because these books are so simple that I want to move them on to better literature quickly, but they are good for that first time period while the child is gaining confidence in their reading skills.

One last thought. If your child is very reluctant to read, take a step back and just read to them. Then gradually add in a little bit of the lessons as they are ready for them. In Phonics Pathways, I have had my child only do a couple words as their lesson for the day if they really didn’t want to do it for whatever reason. By doing that little bit, they see that we still have school to do, but it isn’t painful. You just don’t want to force your child or you run the risk of them hating to read.

By teaching your children to read you are opening up many different worlds to them. Happy reading!

May 22 2019

Taking a Stand to Protect Our Families

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Happiness at Home, Uplift Your Soul

Almost a month ago in my scripture study with the kids, we were reading Mosiah 20 in the Book of Mormon. This is the chapter where King Noah’s wicked priests steal away some of the daughters of the Lamanites. When the Lamanites discover their daughters missing they assume it is the Nephites (in this case, King Limhi’s people) and prepare for war.

In verses 8-11 it talks about how Limhi discovered their preparations from the top of a tower and was able to gather his people together and prepare to meet the Lamanites.

The Nephites laid in wait in the fields and forests and then “like dragons did they fight.” Even though the Lamanite army was more than double their size, they were able to push them back.

Among the dead they found the Lamanite king, who was wounded, and they bound up his wounds and with his help were able to make peace at that time.

As we read this story together, it struck me how this is applicable to our lives today.

We must be watchful and vigilant in our lives against those things or people who Satan would use to destroy us or our way of living. New laws, regulations, and policies in particular come to mind.

We need to be aware of what is going on so we are not caught by surprise when something happens that may affect our way of life. We need to “lie in wait” in “forests and fields” by taking action ourselves. I know for myself that too often I complain about what is being done, but take no action myself or I feel I am not well-read enough on a particular topic to feel I can really have a say.

The first step is knowing what you believe, what you stand for. You can’t really fight for something if you don’t know what it is you are fighting for.

Educating yourself is the next step. Read up on different issues. This may take some digging as news sources are quite often not very reliable or can be one-sided. You don’t have to be an expert, but being aware is like standing on your watchtower.

The third item is action. What are we going to do about it? It may be as small as when casually talking with others, or maybe it is writing to our representatives or attending political meetings.

I love this quote by Elder Quentin L. Cook, a modern-day apostle: “Many in this world are afraid and angry with one another. While we understand these feelings, we need to be civil in our discourse and respectful in our interactions. This is especially true when we disagree. The Savior taught us to love even our enemies. The vast majority of our members heed this counsel. Yet there are some who feel that venting their personal anger or deeply held opinions is more important than conducting themselves as Jesus Christ lived and taught. I invite each one of us individually to recognize that how we disagree is a real measure of who we are and whether we truly follow the Savior. It is appropriate to disagree, but it is not appropriate to be disagreeable. Violence and vandalism are not the answer to our disagreements. If we show love and respect even in adverse circumstances, we become more like Christ.” (April 2010 General Conference)

I think, “It is appropriate to disagree, but it is not appropriate to be disagreeable” is something that we need to remember and focus on finding ways to express ourselves while still being Christ-like. We can say when something is wrong when appropriate. We just need to do so in the right way.

With God’s grace and power we can still “drive” the enemy from before us. We are fighting for our families and we need to exert ourselves. We need to decide now how we will prepare and what actions we will take.

Recently an issue has come up that I have many concerns with and it could have a huge impact on religious freedom, as well as impacting other areas of our lives. First, I read up on it to understand it more fully, then I wrote to all my representatives, some with specific examples if I felt they needed it, and told them how I felt and asked how they were going to proceed.

Limhi’s people were not saved by sitting back and doing nothing. They were watchful, they prepared, and they took action.

May 14 2019

Here am I

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Happiness at Home

In the beginning, God asked for one who would be our Savior. One who would redeem all mankind so we could return to our Heavenly Father’s presence. Jesus answered with, “Here am I, send me.” (Abraham 3:27)

Several months ago at a ward conference, my stake president (a leader in my church) asked us if we could say, “Here am I,” when the Lord asks us to be willing and ready mothers determined to teach our children in truth and righteousness.

I have thought so much about that. As he spoke, my whole heart said, “Yes!”

It’s not the first time I’ve heard that phrase used in that way. In fact, there are conference talks you can find with a similar theme, but especially as I have been pondering motherhood, and all it entails, it really touched my heart.

Motherhood is not easy. Most of the time it is downright hard. But oh so wonderful.

I learned a long time ago to not worry about how many band-aids were being used, but to see a child in front of me that looks to me as that safe, loving person that can make “owies” better; sometimes with just a hug and a special mother’s kiss.

When we sit down to read books together and I feel my children snuggling up to me, not just sitting by me, it brings such a warmth to my soul.

We had a picnic out on the back lawn together after a family outing the other day and it was so peaceful that I felt like I couldn’t get enough. Everyone was talking and laughing with each other. One child was daring another to see if she could eat her pizza while doing flips on the tramp. Yes she can. And yes, we picked up pizza on the way home for our picnic.

When times are sweet and wonderful like that I store away those memories for when times are not so easy. When a child is refusing to do their kitchen jobs, or taking FOREVER to do their school work, or magically disappearing the moment my back is turned to go build another Lego contraption. When I hear name-calling or a child is disrespectful to me, their father, or another sibling it really makes me sad and mad. Life is hard sometimes. A lot. But don’t give up.

The Lord said he had a spirit to send down. Who could he send it to that could teach, love, and care for that spirit to help it return home to Him? “Here am I,” I said. I have six of these beautiful little spirits in my home, and I will do everything that I possibly can to help them on their return journey to our Father.

Who will teach these children the gospel? Here am I.

Who will teach them to love God and one another? Here am I.

Who will teach them to serve? Here am I.

Who will teach them to pray? Here am I.

Who will teach them the divine roles of men and women and the wonderful role of the family in God’s eternal plan? Here am I.

Who will teach them to have faith, integrity, and how to gain a testimony? Here am I.

Who will teach them how to recognize, feel, and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit? Here am I.

Who will teach them the scriptures and where to turn when they are in need of answers? Here am I.

Who will bathe them, feed them, and clothe them? Here am I.

Am I perfect? No. I most certainly am not. But you know what is really neat about this whole divine plan of our Father’s? I become more perfect and more like Christ the more I strive to mother my children in the way I feel He wants me to.

Christ served, helped, loved, forgave, taught, healed, and fed (spiritually and physically) those around Him. Isn’t that what we as mothers do? How amazing is that?

There was another that also said, “Here am I.” Lucifer offered himself to be our Savior, but he wanted to do it his own way and receive all the glory for himself.

We must stay close to the Lord through constant prayer and scripture study so that we are sure we are raising our children the way the Lord would have us do.

Are we focusing on God’s plan or do we sometimes get too caught up in what the world’s ideas and views are? Too often I think we are focused on what our kids need to be amazing and successful here on Earth at the expense of what they are going to need for eternity.

We will make mistakes. But as we move forward each day using the atonement to cleanse and uplift us, we can indeed do all things through Christ.

Look around at your family. Picture your Heavenly Father asking who will help those dear children return to Him?

I hope you will answer, “Here am I.”

February 12 2019

“Planting” a Garden in Winter and Making Memories

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool, Gardening and Yard Planning, Happiness at Home, Improve Your Habitat, Projects to Beautify Your Home

I love spring. The new life, new growth, and beautiful flowers that spread cheer and beautiful colors everywhere.

Just lots of visual happiness after a long cold winter. Not that I mind winter much since we moved.

We used to live in a very small home in an area where the winters were so cold that I didn’t want to take the kids outside most of the time. One winter, we had several weeks where we thought it felt warm when we got up to zero.

Warm, huh?

Anyway, we now live in home where we aren’t stepping on each other constantly, and even when it’s snowing, my husband will run outside barefoot.

Like last week. He wanted to get the mail, which is clear down at the other end of the street, and didn’t put shoes on. He thought he could go and be back home again before any of the neighbors saw him.

Except that he chose the exact time when kids were getting out of school and everyone was stopping to get their mail.

No wonder our neighbors all think we’re nuts!

Not really. Well, maybe they do but they’re all good at not showing it.

Enough sidetracking.

Several weeks ago I got thinking about my yard again. We moved into a home with an unfinished yard that we got to plan from scratch and I have loved the planning process.

Still doing it. In fact, I think I may want to be a horticulturist when I grow up. Or a landscape architect. Anyway, something with yards and plants.

We finally got the sprinkler system and grass in last fall. Now as soon as spring arrives, I need to do soil prep and then start on the really fun part: all the other plants!

This excites and delights me so much! Like, seriously. I love to pore over plant magazines and have been collecting them over the years as I bide my time.

I’ve got quite a collection now and wanted to share my passion and love with my kids, so I pulled out all the older ones (this year’s I’m keeping because I may actually be ordering soon! Yay!) and rounded up scissors and glue and let the kids have at it!

It was so fun to see them go through page by page and pick their favorite plants. It was interesting to see which plant collections the different children chose.

One child wanted to paste a lot of vegetables. Maybe we did our project too close to lunch and he was hungry. Lol.

Actually, he takes eating very seriously and is always asking what I am planning for the next meal!

Another loved the more ornate, colorful plants.

Still another preferred my native plant catalog. I think he liked to see all the bees and hummingbirds in the pictures.

One of my kids chose to add trees and vary which way was up when he pasted on his pictures so that something would stand out no matter which direction you looked at it.

I loved seeing their different personalities come out in this project and I feel like I got to know them a little more deeply.

And now I have many colorful beautiful gardens hanging on the wall in my kitchen that I look at all through the day. They bring me joy not only because of their beauty, but because of the memories made in creating them, and the promise they hold for spring.

December 5 2018

How To Start Your Homeschool Day with ‘Opening’

Bram Blog, Empower Your Homeschool

One of the strengths of homeschooling is that you don’t have to adhere to a schedule as strictly as in public school. But does lack of a strict schedule make it hard for you to know how to start your homeschool day?

For my kids at least, I know the schedule freedom of homeschool would make the transition to school time difficult every day if we didn’t have a set routine to get us going.

Let’s face it: Without a school bus, building change, rigorous schedule, or even a class bell to signal the start of school, it might be easy for your kids to feel like they’re still just lounging around at home.

Even if class is on the same couch they’re eating cereal on. (Would you eat at the table, please? Thank you!)

In many of the homeschool forums I participate in, the question of “How should I start my homeschool day?” has been coming up frequently.

We’ve been homeschooling for six years now, and while many things have changed, our “Opening,” as I call it, has pretty much stayed the same.

So I thought I’d share my recipe for our successful start to the day.

Really, even if we don’t get much more schoolwork done for the day, if Opening happens, I feel okay.

Now I’m not going to lie, my older kids moan and groan a lot when I initially call them to Opening.But that’s exactly what my siblings and I did growing up, so I’m not too worried. The kids actually get into it after we start.

I hope you can apply this in your family, too. It makes a big difference in ours.

My Homeschool ‘Opening’ Outline

Every morning we cover patriotism, faith, and learning. My Openings usually vary from 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how much time we have available. If we are all enjoying the family read-aloud at the end, I will go even longer.

Patriotism

We Recite the Pledge of Allegiance

Every day of the week, we’ve assigned a different child to hold the flag. That eliminates most arguments about who gets to hold the flag on a given day. My 3-year-old still thinks his turn comes around every day, but we’re working on it and even making progress! It’s fun to see the kids get excited about such a simple act of patriotism.

Faith

We Sing a Song or Two

Singing is a simple way to change moods and lighten the atmosphere. I’ve watched bad attitudes melt away as we sing happy melodies together.

We usually sing a song from the regular or primary children’s hymnbook. Sometimes we add in the Itsy Bitsy Spider; we love singing that with the little ones and watching them do the actions!

We Have Family Prayer

Morning prayers can be difficult when your family fractures to work and school every morning, but with homeschool and Opening, it’s rare we miss a day.

The day just never feels quite right until we’ve had morning prayers. The little ones even are recognizing the importance of prayer.

In fact, just this morning both my 4-year-old and 3-year-old announced to me “We already said our morning prayers” as they paraded out of their shared bedroom.

We Recite an Article of Faith

The Articles of Faith are the underlying principles of our church.

Reciting one daily reinforces faith and augments memorization skills. Double bonus!

Learning

We Do Read-Alouds

I’ve found Opening is the best time to read books that teach morals through example or outright teaching.

We usually read a chapter or section in a book like Bob Schultz’s Created for Work and we just finished the first three books of Ralph Moody’s Little Britches series – some of my favorite books.

At this point I also allow the remaining kids draw or work on a crochet project or something similar that doesn’t require their undivided attention.

Sometimes I’ll tag on history or science here with a read-aloud or actual textbook if there isn’t an activity going on that day, but it varies.

Benefits of Starting Your Homeschool Day with ‘Opening’

I won’t go into great depth on all this format has done for my family, but here’s a few highlights in list form (you like lists, right?)

Opening:

Teaches my children the gospel of Jesus Christ and reinforces how to pray and study scriptures
Brings the Spirit into our home
Helps train my energetic children to learn to sit still when necessary (especially useful at church)
Helps my childrens’ reading comprehension and vocabulary immensely
Instills a love of reading in my children
Gives us a chance to connect with each other
Instills a sense of purpose to our day

So that’s Opening.

It’s our time to discuss and get spiritually and mentally prepared for the start of the day.

On the rare occasions we skip opening, I feel like something is missing and the day never seems to go quite right.

I’ve even heard the kids say, “We didn’t have Opening today!” in a somewhat panicked voice.

They must not dislike it too much! 😉