Why We Homeschool

It would probably be good for me to talk about "Why We Homeschool" once a year. Because its always good to remind ourselves why we do what we do. These pictures were taken a couple of years ago. When Timothy and Joanna are done with school work they have some of the best times together. Even the other children enjoy taking a few minutes in between subjects to have fun together. They are only little once. One day the older ones may be off at college and won't have this time with their younger siblings. Very thankful they get to enjoy this time now!

Our first and biggest reason is because that is what God has called us to. Bryan and I made the decision to homeschool after much prayer and seeking the Lord. It sure wasn't the popular thing to do. Matter of fact we have been the "odd" family in all of our places we have served in the ministry because we homeschool. When people first began to find out that we felt lead to homeschool their first question was usually "How long will you homeschool?". To be honest when we started homeschooling our oldest we thought we would homeschool until each child was in the 3rd or 4th grade. That oldest child is a Sophomore this year and not once has God released us from homeschooling. God has reminded us often that we are doing exactly what He wants us to do.

Another reason we homeschool is for the spiritual foundation we desire for our children to have. There are days that we struggle and it is a joy and blessing to be able to stop and pray with that child or children that is struggling. We can plant scripture in every part of their day. The curriculum we have chosen to use is biblically based and the children are even learning scripture while completing school assignments.

(Elijah, Joanna, and Sarah)

There are many more reasons why we homeschool but I will only share one more. We homeschool for the relationships it gives. How awesome it is to see our children be able to build a relationship with each other and when there is an opportunity they get to build relationship with grandparents. If for some reason we need to take off and be with family we have that flexibility.

(Isaac spending time with my dad while he was in the hospital)

Grand Tetons

Our last sight seeing stop on our trip was at the Grand Tetons! It is just south of Yellowstone. Our big "fun" for the trip was renting a boat and spending a couple of hours on Jackson Lake.

Doesn't this look like a postcard? We were actually there and took this picture! Gorgeous!!

I love this bunch and we have some of the best times together!

Bryan and I along for the ride!

We enjoyed visiting the Grand Tetons just as much as we did Yellowstone.

Old Faithful at Yellowstone

 Watching Old Faithful was great...and even better was watching it as a family! There are benches around it for all those watching to sit on. When we first arrived there was just a handful of people walking around but the closer it got to time for Old Faithful to erupt you couldn't find a place to sit.

 A few more pictures of our time at Yellowstone. Seeing the views, animals, geysers, hot springs, and all God's beautiful creation makes you know that there IS a God!

 On our last morning at Yellowstone we packed up and headed out through the southern end of the National Park. We planned one more stop before heading home (I will post those pictures next).

 This is one of those trips that I will never forget and I am very thankful that God provided an opportunity for Bryan and I to take the children on this trip.

 We had a great time as a family making lots of memories!

Thank you Lord for allowing us this opportunity to see some of your amazing creation! Seeing and experiencing your creation makes us truly worship the Creator!

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

 These are a few pictures of our stop at "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone". Again, God's creation is amazing! Here is a closer look at the falls.

 Now this picture is same falls just further away.

 The children and I stopped for a picture with the falls in the background. The sun was brightly shining that day.

Beautiful! This trip was one of those..."I can't believe I am really here" kind of trips. Everything was like a postcard picture.

Day 4 at Yellowstone

 On day 4 we were entering in on the western side of Yellowstone and there was more to see. Yellowstone has lots of ground to cover so be prepared to spend at least 5 days.

 Here is a herd of Buffalo walking down the road. They are everywhere!

 Yellowstone Lake...Beautiful!

 Isaac had to see how the fishing was at Yellowstone. Because he was under 16 he could get a license for free. It was too cold to do too much fishing. He did catch this one.

 While Isaac fished Elijah and Joanna decided to play in the snow/ice. Here is Elijah whittling away at a block of snow.

 Joanna trying to climb this block of snow.

 Bryan and I at one of the geysers. This one actually made noise as the smoke rolled out, sounded like a dragon breathing.

Another one of the beautiful views!

Yellowstone Day 3 (Part 2)

We finally arrived at our campsite at Grizzly RV Park on the west side of Yellowstone and it was rainy. The lady at checkin told me that the temperatures would reach below freezing the nights we would be staying there so she asked us to unhook our water before we went to bed at night. Since the kids wouldn't be able to play outside we decided that I would take them into town and shop while Bryan prepared supper. (I thought that was a great idea!) :)

 We really enjoy going into souvenir shops and visiting unique little shops to have a look around. The children and I had a great time together! One of the small shops we stopped in was a bookstore and bakery. Sarah was loving all of that! She even shared that maybe one day she would open something like this. LOL! Love that girl! As you can see my children head right to the books, choose one they like, and began to read and enjoy every minute of it! Made this momma smile! Isaac was in the sportsman book section checking out some fishing books.

We arrived back at camp to a delicious meal! When we went to the bath house this was posted on the wall! Now I was a little nervous! We did not see any bears at the campground...phew! The weather did get a little better and the children were able to enjoy the nice playground that was there. This campground was really nice and clean.

Day 3 at Yellowstone

I will make two post out of Day 3, so hang in there with me. We started the day off by packing up things and heading to the west side of Yellowstone National Park. I will talk more about the new campsite in my next post about Day 3. As we traveled toward the west side we made a few stops on the way.

Here are a couple of more mountain pictures. These mountains are so much more than the mountains we are use to seeing around here.

Just Beautiful!

Then we were able to capture this picture of two grizzlies playing. This appeared to be a mother and her cub.

There were lots more hot springs to see.

Never seen anything like this. God's amazing creation!

The children and I stop for Bryan to take a picture. Having lots of fun and making lots of memories!

Here is a small geyser.

Not made by human hands, made only by the hand of a CREATOR...our GREAT GOD!

Day 2 (part 2) of Yellowstone

Also on Day 2 we saw a black bear! You can tell when there is an animal close by because there will be tons of traffic pulled over trying to get a glimpse of whatever has been sighted. 

 Here is that black bear. He was cute from a distance and we didn't desire to get any closer. :)

 Here is a bridge that we rode across in the Park.

 Proof that we had arrived at Yellowstone! Love every journey with this crew!

Here is the playground at the campground we were at (Yellowstone RV).

What Is In The Pond?

Isaac went to the pond and came back with something to show us. He called us outside and dipped his hand in the bucket, he pulled out a handful of frog eggs! Talk about science in the backyard!

All the children thought the frog eggs were neat and now know first hand what they look like. The boys love finding frogs and now they know what those frogs look like in the egg stage.

100th Day of School

Yesterday we celebrated our 100th day of school! We did some educational fun activities. Thought I would share a few of those. We started the morning out with our normal Bible time. The first picture below is Elijah building with 100 blocks.

This was the first thing he wanted to do...I was not surprised (remember he is my builder).

Here is his finished project. A city.

The kids were to draw pictures using the numbers 1-0-0. This is Timothy's drawings.

There was a 100 piece puzzle for them to put together. This was Isaac's favorite.

They were to use 100 marshmallows to build something. Above is Isaac's church he built.

Here is Timothy and Joanna building with the marshmallows. A few marshmallows got eaten too. :)

Building something with 100 pattern blocks.

We also read 100 verses, did 100 exercises, tell about "If I had 100 _______, I would ___________., how many mathmatical ways we can make the number 100, and we did a few other activities. It was a fun day and nice to have a "different" school day. :)