Roadrunner in our yard!

We caught this guy walking all around our backyard. Took me a bit to figure out what he was, but my first instinct was roadrunner. Come to find out, I was correct!

God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn by Julie Polanco ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

I love a good encouraging homeschool book to read. For the last few weeks I've had the pleasure of reading God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn by Julie Polanco.

There are so many different ways to homeschool. You have your Charlotte Mason method, Classical style, Relaxed/Eclectic, and School at Home just to name a few. At some point or another along our homeschool journey, they have all intrigued me, and we have even tried a few different methods ourselves. The one that has always been a bit controversial, but that I also find super interesting is Unschooling. No, Unschooling is not being lazy and letting your kids do whatever they want to do. To me, if you're doing it right, it's almost the hardest style of learning to go with because as a parent, you have to be very pro-active in your child's learning. Most homeschool parents are pro-active, but this takes it to a whole new level.

This is where God Schooling comes in to play. First, let me tell you a little bit about the author, Julie Polanco. Julie, a wife and mom, has homeschooled her four children from the beginning and graduated their first child in 2016. She is a regular contributor for Old Schoolhouse Magazine and their Homeschooling With Heart blog. She has regular involvement in the homeschool community and teaches science and writing classes in her home and co-ops.

In her book God Schooling, Julie explains what unschooling or natural learning means to her and her family. The book, as the title states, is her views on how God intends for us to learn. It is broken down into two parts which are Dispelling Myths and Practice. When it comes to natural learning, or unschooling, I have found most people to either understand it and believe in it, or think that it's crazy. See when this type of learning is put into practice, there is no set curriculum. Your child learns on his own and learns about the things that he/she finds interesting. As a parent, you do everything possible to provide your child with what they want to learn about. Julie starts off the book by telling us how her children did not like being forced to learn what they were "supposed" to be learning. Through a lot of prayer God led her to Christian Unschooling.

When you get to the second part of the book, the author breaks down each stage of development. She will cover teaching children under the age of 8, teaching children ages 8 to 12, and then on to teenagers. For each section Julie will give you ways to incorporate learning into your child's life. My favorite chapter was Giving Teens the Wings to Fly because I have only teenagers now. I love the examples she gives of the teenagers who invented or did great things at such a young age! My two kids left at home who homeschool are very different learners. Edyn does not like to book learn. In fact I did mostly interest led homeschooling with her. As she became a teenager and I watched her grow more  and more into the young woman she is now, I let her have a little bit of lead on her education. She has never wanted to go to college, and I am not the type of parent who would ever make her, or make her feel like she's less than if she chooses not to go. I always left the option open for her. She would say "Mom, I have no need to learn Biology. I don't care to learn it because it will not help me in any way of what I want to do." See, as she grew and learned, and I gave her a little more authority over her own education, she realized that she wanted more than anything to be a realtor. It makes total sense. It's literally the perfect job for her. I totally think God led her down this path for a reason.

Now with my son who is 13, he has decided that he wants to be either an architect or an engineer. He realizes that he will have to go to college for this, so we will make sure that he is also set on the right path for that. Unlike Edyn, he doesn't mind learning about things he may not use in real life. He is not as much of a people person as Edyn, so he will definitely not be taking the same path as she will.

I love that the book is filled to the brim with scriptures that promote Christ led learning. Julie also gives you some discussion questions at the end of each chapter so you can write down your thoughts.

Now here's how I feel about it. I loved the book and found it to be an easy read. Is unschooling or natural learning for everyone? No. I think that everyone who was called to homeschool will do what's best for their family, or even each individual child. There were so many things that I agreed with, but I have trouble letting go completely. I will definitely let my children continue to have some say so in their education. I do want to emphasize that Julie is not promoting radical unschooling. That is an entirely different movement. I think this book is well worth the money and would be a great read for anyone who is even remotely interested in natural learning.

If you are interested in reading the e-book version of God Schooling, it will be on sale for half price until August 22!

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New book! Girl, Wash Your Face!

Started a new book this week, and will hopefully have time to write a review when I'm done. One chapter in and I'm hooked!!

First Day of School

Monday was our first official back to school day. This year we are using ACE curriculum! So far we love it!

Fun with Mila!

We had a great visit from sweet Mila last week! We went to a new jungle gym and surprised here with Build a Bear!

Smart Kidz Radio by Smart Kidz Media ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

Sometimes it's really hard to find uplifting music for your children that you can confidently let them listen to without worrying they will hear something they shouldn't. For the last few weeks we have been reviewing a brand new program called Smart Kidz Radio by Smart Kidz Media.

This review isn't really for my kids because they are a little too old for this content in my opinion, but I did have my grand babies in mind for it. Finding a children's radio station, that really is catered to safe listening for your children, isn't the easiest thing to do. Even if you find something that has toddler songs, or children's songs, you may still have to worry about what's being said on the commercials. I've even come across some questionable children's songs! As parents or grandparents it would be nice to be able to turn some music on for our children and walk away. This is where the new online kids radio station, Smart Kidz Radio comes in to play. No pun intended. :)

When you go to the website, it's extremely simple to navigate. You can be streaming the music with the click of a button.

The music is your typical kids style music. You get uplifting and upbeat songs that teach along the way. I did feel like a lot of the songs sounded similar, but I guess you will get that effect when they are catered to children.

If you click on the menu icon at the bottom of the screen you are taken to what is my favorite part of the program. This is where you can listen to what they refer to as podcasts, but they are actually really great fairy tales!

After you get to this screen, you click on the icon with the microphone and it will take you to the list of podcasts! I listened to a few of them and they were all great! This would be perfect to put on for your child for quiet time, or even bed time. Some of my favorites were Alice in Wonderland, The Three Little Bears, Hansel and Gretal, and of course Little Red Riding Hood. Most of the stories run between 15 and 20 minutes long. This is perfect for a young child's attention span.

As of right now, the free live streaming is all that's available from your computer. I know that apps are in the works. If you can listen from your phone or tablet, this will take this program to a whole new level. Also, they are going to offer an upgraded on demand option. This will run you a small fee, but nothing extreme. You will be able to pick and choose different types of song and story programming. Here is a great FAQ page that will answer all or most of your questions about the up and coming on demand option.

If you are interested in finding an online radio station completely geared for kids, then I would highly recommend Smart Kidz Radio by Smart Kidz Media. It's definitely something I wish I would have had around when my kids were younger!

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Taking the Mystery out of Geology and Dinosaurs and the Bible by Northwest Treasures ~ A Homeschool Crew Review

I'm finally back to reviews after having some time off. For the last few weeks we have had the opportunity to review an online class called Dinosaurs and the Bible, and also the introductory video, Taking the Mystery Out of Geology by Northwest Treasures.

I have always had a love for dinosaurs probably even more than my kids ever had. I know questions have come up several times about when dinosaurs lived according to the Bible. This series sounded really interesting to me! We are on summer break right now so I thought this would be a nice way to have a little "school" while we recharge. We received these two courses for a 6 month period on Vimeo for this review.

Patrick Nurre

First off, Dinosaurs and the Bible is an online course for grades 5 to adult. The course is taught by geologist, Patrick Nurre, who has had a love for geology since the second grade when he found his first large dinosaur bone in an alley behind his house! He does a fantastic job at explaining and breaking things down for you throughout the videos.

Like I said earlier, you will access these courses through Vimeo. The set up is easy, and you will go straight to the 6 video lineup. Each video is around 20 minutes long give or take a few minutes on each. You can choose to take the course however you want, so we chose a video a day. Either way it doesn't take very long. Following each video you will have the chance to print out some worksheets and a test for your student to do. We did not use the worksheets or test as this was just for fun for us, but they are very well put together. My only complaint is that I had a little trouble finding them. If you click on the title of the video, it will have a pop up window, and the link is in it. Once you know where to look, they are easy to access.

The videos are basically picture based with a voice over, and include colorful and well put together pictures and vocabulary. Mr. Nurre provides you with plenty of information in each one. You will discover new people and their role in how dinosaurs came to be and also plenty of new vocabulary words. Here's a few examples.

The course is broken down into 6 videos, each covering a different topic about Dinosaurs and the Bible.

• Episode 1 - How We Got Our Modern View of Dinosaurs ~ In this first video, Mr. Nurre talks about where the word dinosaur came from, he introduces Charles Darwin and his views on evolution, and other people including the Father of Modern Geology, James Hutton.
• Episode 2 - The Classification of Dinosaurs ~ This video talks about secular scientists and how they classified dinosaurs verses a biblical approach on classifying dinosaurs. 
• Episode 3 - Dinosaurs and the Bible, The Great Dinosaur Rush ~ Here you will learn what the Great Dinosaur Rush was, and who were involved in it. 
• Episode 4 - The Extinction of Dinosaurs ~ Here Mr. Nurre talks about the secular views as to why the dinosaurs are now extinct verses a biblical approach to their extinction. 
• Episode 5 - Dinosaurs and the Ice Age ~ Here you will learn about the Ice Age that happened after the flood in Genesis and what they has to do with the extinction of dinosaurs.
• Episode 6 - Fossils, Age, and Soft Tissue ~ This was one of Gavin's favorite episodes that's talking all about fossils!

In addition to the Dinosaurs and the Bible, we were also given Taking the Mystery out of Geology to review. This was also a 20 minute video that tells you all about geology from a Biblical perspective. I actually had Gav watch this one first before watching about the dinosaurs. 

Gav had a lot of fun with this study. It was perfect for a summertime session for him! I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a Biblical perspective on dinosaurs, or who just loves them in general!

If you have high school kids, you might check out their Northwest Treasures Curriculum Project. It looks super neat!

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