Author Archives: Honey

About Honey

Honey is a homeschooling mama of five amazing children. She and her husband Jonah run Sunflower Schoolhouse together. She provides the content and he provides the technical support. Please see the About for more information.

Romance and the Homeschool Mom

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I was at the Heart of the Matter Homeschool Conference online last month. It was so refreshing to sit and listen to all these inspiring speakers. I learned so much. I wanted to share so much of it with you, but I didn't take notes. Good thing is though, there are mp3's coming out that I can download (for free because I went to the conference, but you can buy them) and listen to and refresh my memory.

One of the sessions which stuck out for me was by Heidi St. John. It was really good.  Heidi has a Facebook page as well. She has written a book called, The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide To Romance. I really want to get that book. It sounded really good when she talked about it.

One of the things she mentioned was this site - Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage. So, of course I stopped over there to visit and watch a few video clips. The man is really funny. He also tackles some very difficult topics (like the one that I stumbled on today, when I went to check the link).

I also found a great blog recently. It is called, Love Actually: Creative Ideas For Romance on a Budget.  I thought this might be a great resource for all of my readers here. This blog has some very creative ideas and a large variety of them. I suggest you check it out.

You might like this download that I made last year.

Creative Date Idea Box (31)

How do you make time for romance? Please share your creative ideas with me.

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Off To A Rocky Start, But Stronger Now

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Today my guest post is from Mama Homer.

My husband and I adopted our son shortly before he turned seven years old. In Russia, school doesn’t start until age seven, so he had never had any traditional schooling of any kind.

When our son arrived, he did not know one word of English. He also had moderate anxiety issues to the point that if I suggested school time, he would completely shut down, run away, or scream and fight me from the start. In addition, he didn’t trust me as a caregiver.

At first we did a lot of reading together, snuggled on the couch. Picture books helped him figure out what the story was about, even if he couldn’t understand the words I was saying. We worked on picture flash cards to improve his English, but I didn’t find that it helped much with real world application.

When I started to him on pre-school age work, I was reminded very quickly that even American preschoolers have the benefit of 4 years of parental guidance ahead of them. Almost everything I started him with I had to back track, then back track again, then back track until the most very basic elements.

The toughest were math and reading. For math, he obviously needed to learn the English names of the numbers, but as we went on, I realized that he didn’t really understand the concept of numbers, or what it meant to put them together. I remember a lightbulb moment for him when I showed him how bread+meat=sandwich just like 1+2=3.

Reading has been another journey. He learned the alphabet and sounds well enough, but when I’d show him lists of words - cat, bat, rat, sat, mat - at least half of those words he had no idea what they meant - so if he got a sound wrong and said ‘gat’, there was no way for him to know that it wasn’t correct. Pictures didn’t help either when figuring out individual words. We moved directly to easy reader books and he finally started moving forward.

Our son has been with us now for almost three years. We use primarily Charlotte Mason Philosophy and try to make learning as natural as possible (helps with school anxiety too). He’s made amazing strides and I’m so proud of the progress he’s made. It’s true he’s ‘behind’ compared to his peers still, but I truly believe that if he were in public school from the beginning, he would have been placed in ESL classes for longer than he would have needed. I also know that our relationship, while getting off to a rocky start, is stronger now than it would have been if we hadn’t fought through all of this together.

Note: If you are the homeschooling parent of a special needs child, I would love to have you tell your story here. Please use the contact form to drop me a note.

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October Is National Sensory Awareness Month

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Did you know that October is National Sensory Awareness Month? I didn't. Check these sites out to read more.

Our oldest child has ADHD, Autism, and sensory issues. When I first became aware of sensory issues, it was a whole new world to me. A steep learning curve. I read everything I could get my hands on and went to workshops to educate myself.

Here are some resources that you might find useful:

Do you have a child that has sensory issues?

http://spdfoundation.net/celebration2010/index.html

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God’s Wonderful Creation

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I am really excited to have Cheryl Pickett as my guest poster today. You can find out more about her in her bio below.

Kids and animals, more often than not, they go together like peanut butter and jelly. What's great about that is God gives us lots of opportunity to use this connection to help build our children's faith along with teaching them about His wonderful creation. Here are just a few examples of how include science, fun and faith with a kid's natural love of animals:

(photo credit: Jan Willem Geertsma)

1. Sea Star

Believe it or not, a summer trip to the ocean or aquarium offers an opportunity to talk about Christmas and the Christ child! Most adults grew up calling this creature a "starfish" but it's not really a fish at all so scientists are really encouraging the use of its proper name. If your child gets to see (and hopefully touch) a sea star, a simple connection is to ask them what story in the Bible talks about a star and see where the conversation goes.

(photo credit: marshmallow)

2. Brown Bear

Brown bears are smart builders. When it's time to build a den, they choose their site very carefully. They look for places that are solid, often near a rock or large log if they can find it. Another big goal is to make sure the ground is not sloped so water and snow don't flow in as easily.

Building a house on a firm foundation…sound familiar? Bears have the right idea because Matthew 7:24-25 instructs us to build our faith on a firm foundation too.

Have some family fun time with this idea and make a further connection by going out to the sandbox. Build a "house" on the sand then use the garden hose to show how easy it is to wash it all away. Do the same on a harder surface to show the difference. They'll learn a little about water power too!

(Photo by Cheryl Empey)

3. American Alligator

When you think of an alligator, what comes to mind? Do you think of a cuddly animal that you could snuggle up to? Probably not, unless one of your favorite stuffed animals happens to be an alligator.

Most people think of alligators as tough and dangerous. This makes sense because they aren't soft or snuggly at all. Their skin is thick and covered with bony plates and scales that protect them similar to the armor that knights or soldiers wear. Alligators also have powerful jaws and the most forceful bite of any animal on earth. All of these traits help them to survive and defend themselves.

The faith connection this time is that as Christians, God gives us our own armor and strength through the words of the Bible so that we can defend our faith when we need to.

As a reminder of this lesson, kids can easily draw their own gators: Place a piece of green or white printer paper (or construction paper) on a flat surface horizontally. Put your left hand on the paper so that the fingers are together pointing right. Now, slide the thumb down a little for the gator's lower jaw. Trace around the hand and wrist. Draw in eyes and a few teeth, color it green if you used white paper and you've got your very own Grinin' Gator!

Psalm 104: 24 (NIV) How many are your works O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Cheryl Pickett is the author of Creation Inspirations: A New View of the World Around You. Find out more about the book and how to connect kids to faith via nature at her website www.creationinspirations.com.

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10 Week Challenge – Decluttering, Beautifying, Creating

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About The 10 Week Challenge

My sister Sara (from Fabulous Womanhood) and I were chatting about decluttering and wanting to go through our entire homes and get rid of all the excess.

We discussed how we wanted to declutter every room, beautify each space, and create gifts for Christmas with the supplies we find.

~ Declutter ~ Beautify ~ Create ~

During this discussion, we came up with the 10 Week Challenge which will take us right up to the beginning of December and have our homes completely ready for Christmas (we hope).

A little bit about me, Honey (aka @Sunflowermommie). We are a homeschooling family of seven. We have acquired lots of stuff. People know we are a homeschooling family so they are always giving us things that they think we might be able to use. We have too much stuff. It's time to purge. I thought that I would bring you all along for the ride. Are you ready?

Turning Over A New Leaf

To Declutter

  • to get rid of excess stuff we don't need or don't use
  • to organize the stuff that we do have
  • to sell, to give away, or to throw away the excess

To Beautify

  • to rearrange the house and make it more functional
  • to decorate the house and make it more beautiful
  • using mostly things we already own

To Create

  • beautiful things for my home
  • Christmas gifts from materials and supplies we find along the way

My Personal Goals For The 10 Weeks

  • declutter my entire house
  • get rid of as much stuff as possible
  • know what is in every nook and cranny
  • beautify each space in my home as I go
  • find things to use in the creation of Christmas gifts

About The Weekly Challenges

Each week we are going to be completing a challenge and presenting it to you to complete it with us. We hope you will join us and we can all encourage each other.

Week 1
Front Hall Closet and Extra Closets

  • go through your front hall closet and any hall closets.
  • get rid of as much clutter as possible
  • organize what's left
  • make your closets look more beautiful
  • is there anything stashed in there that could be used to make a Christmas gift for someone? (pull it out and put it aside)
  • share your ideas for frugal decorating and organizing
  • tell us what you are getting rid of
  • write a blog post and come back and link it up next week
  • include before and after pictures of your hall closets if you can

My Personal Goals For Week 1

  • front hall closet (this is our coat and shoe closet)
  • hall closet on main floor (games and junk)
  • hall closet on upper floor (linens and books)

An Introductory Challenge For Today

  • write a blog post about the 10 Week Challenge inviting your readers to join you
  • put the button in the post (you can put it in the sidebar too if you like)
  • after you write your post come back and link up here

Use THIS LINKY (the one below) to link up for today's challenge. Come back next MONDAY and link up and share about your experiences with WEEK 1.

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