Homeschool Preschool

Before Ellie, I thought homeschooling was stupid. No offense. I just was immature, ignorant, and didn't understand it. I didn't see all the insane academic and social benefits. I didn't realize that home-schoolers are actually the ones who on average test higher and also have a higher acceptance rate and are more frequently chosen to attend major universities. Those are facts. I just thought it was a dumb idea.

Now, I don't personally care what kind of school any person attends. I went to public school and I did well  academically, socially, and morally. If you want to do public school, do you. If you want to do private school, do you. Home school; do you. Etc. I do not care one bit what others do with their kids. To each their own!

My sister has 4 children whom she home schools. God bless her. I have more friends who home school than public school, actually, and they have enlightened me to what this educational experience is really all about. Everybody has differing reasons for choosing to home school. Mine vary, personally, but overall are for the sake of having as much control as possible of the influences and atmosphere that surrounds my young daughter's ever growing super sponge brain. I don't want to raise and earthly daughter, I want to raise a Godly daughter. (This is not at all to say public school can't do that, don't take offense or read me wrong). What it means is, while Ellie is at home with a most vulnerable and influential young mind, I want to surround her with the best influences possible rather than throwing her into a too deep water of differences in our beliefs. Some won't like that, some won't understand. I used to say things like....."Well your kid is going to be living in the world and exposed to bad crap all the time so they need to learn how to deal with it. They need to learn how to say no. They need to not have culture shock and realize most of the world is probably sadly not in love with Jesus." I would say things like this because I didn't understand these home school moms. I thought they were weird and ignorant themselves. Until I had Ellie. In fact, I didn't get it until she was nearly a year old. I believe God really just opened my eyes in my maternal heart to show me His plan. And to once again clarify.....public school is not bad, I have nothing whatsoever against it. So pleaseeeee don't be taking offense to this. It is that God showed me something new and different and He showed me what He wants me to do with Ellie and so I obey that. I also want to start with home school because I don't want to be without Ellie for even as much as two half days a week, putting her in someone else's care when I know I can teach her at home the exact same things....without doing worksheets or being made to sit down for too long a time. I've seen preschoolers made to sit for so long and that is not beneficial to learning at such a young age. Play is the best form of education. Playing, discovery, exploration, observation, experimentation. Once again, I hate for people to think I am making some confrontational point....I am not....I don't care what you do with your kids, nor am I judging. I trust every mama makes the best choice for their child and their family! Every family is different and every child is different.  I also know that not every preschool is like that. I'm sure your child's preschool is awesome or you wouldn't have enrolled them there! Just explaining my personal choice. For Ellie. It is also a beneficial financial choice as a bonus point. I have also been given the blessing and privilege to stay home with Ellie. Therefore, it really just makes sense to keep her with me for preschool to home school. Honestly we already do it on a daily basis....there really won't be much difference. 

Currently, Ellie and I, through play, work on shapes, colors, counting, animals and sounds, objects and their functions and/or sounds, read books and discuss them on repeat, play music, listen to music, dance and practice rhythm, do bible study, work on fine motor skills, allow Ellie to dress herself, practice putting lids on containers, sorting and organizing, playing outside all day long if it is sunny, teaching her that "Ellie" is her name, and the list goes on. Also, I have her enrolled in many extra curricular classes for academic and social engagement and also to let her test the waters of what activities she will love and want to be involved in. She attends ballet class, she is part of hike it baby which constantly teaches her about nature and friendship and nurturing, she does kindermusik which is basically my favorite because I believe it really is an all encompassing program teaching literally everything, but also engaging the brain, growing the mind, and encouraging friendships. She goes to the little gym where again she learns independence, friendships, physical skills, embracing her fears, overcoming obstacles, and learning academic and life skills.......all these things through play. I plan to continue these activities and add more sports in as she reaches the appropriate age. We also go on lots of little field trips to have many experiences. I will drive that baby up to 3 hours away for an adventure in one day. It is so good to expose our little ones to new experiences, creating new pathways in their brains. Then repeating an experience as to really make that pathway a permanent road in the brain. (This is why you see baby goats like 5 times in one month or 10 santas at Christmas!) LOL!! Y'all lovingly pick at me and I don't mind it! :)

So, I essentially plan to keep doing exactly what we are doing, yet I will make sure to have a bit of a "lesson plan" in mind for her. Such as, completing a STEM or STEAM activity, discussing it, and letting her do as much with it as she can or wants to do. Nothing will be forced. She is a toddler. Learning has to be fun, playful, creative, and patient. I like her learning to be "toddler led", not forced. If she is not having fun or is getting frustrated it is time to move on. We can re-approach when she is ready. I will be more intentional about spending time hitting the basics with her 10-15 minutes a day....even if she is running circles around me...she is still listening....don't think because your tot is babbling and running around that they don't hear you or comprehend. I cannot tell you how many times Ellie will ask to read a book and sit in my lap. 2 minutes later she is up and playing with blocks....I will keep reading and making voices and sounds and expressions. When I stop, she notices. Sometimes she copies me when I make a sound and it doesn't even seem like she acknowledges I am in the same room. Then, some days later, she will have a new sentence or a couple new words for me in her vocabulary and her brain and I am blown away! She is still listening. Keep reading. Keep investing. Play is their school. Keep in mind: this is exhausting for a mama....especially a Type A personality like me. I have learned by the very grace of God somehow, to just breathe and let it be. It is exhausting to feel  like the toddler is not understanding a thing you say or do....but remember, they usually do....so keep up your bright, bubbly, playful, loving, patient work. You will see the results and you will be blown away...as they are usually out of the blue!

Now, while I currently plan to home school Ellie for preschool, I am leaning heavily with Eric towards Christian private school for kindergarten-12th grade. I've been researching this for the past year as well as different home school options...just in case. In fact I plan to take a tour of a private christian school this week...just for my research purposes. I will do tours again as enrollment comes in a few years. I do not currently plan to home school past preschool but I am not saying no to the idea, either. There are so many wonderful options for home-schoolers where we live. If it is not obvious....I would have Ellie as part of a co-op. There is so much research to do; it is overwhelming. We have so many options it is shocking. But I love options. I am making excel spreadsheets and plan to make pie charts of comparisons. I know I am ridiculously nerdy. But, it is my actual job, role, career, mission in life to do the very best I can raising a daughter in accordance with God's will....raising her to be kingdom and Christ focused and not distracted otherwise. (Not to say that she won't still mess up...because she will; I guarantee it; we are all un-holy little sinners! I just pray every night that her mess ups won't damage her life or another's and that she can easily learn from her mistakes). Only the Holy Spirit Himself can open Ellie's eyes to Him, as well as her heart, but Eric and I are commanded by God to guide her, lead her, and direct her lovingly with Him as our purpose.

I have still so much research and planning ahead of me. I will take it all step by step and I will see where God leads Eric and I to lead Ellie. Home school is daunting to me past preschool level because I struggle at a 3rd grade math level. Fractions. Oh boy. We will just have to see if we go with private or Home in the future. God will show us. But for now, I am SO excited to teach Ellie her pre-schooling through a world of play and imagination!! My sister is sending me the twin's curriculum soon and I can't wait to pick through it and set up my little agenda for the fall!!

A Productive Week

I don't know if a home is ever finished being made into a home. A family and their needs and desires are ever changing. It is the house that holds all these new memories, feels the labor of hard work, sees the growth and changes of a family, and feels the wear of time, that becomes a home.

Eric had Clemson spring break this past week and this allowed us to teamwork together to nail down several projects.

We are always dreaming and planning up ways to serve Ellie and please our happy home desires in our new forever home. Productive ways to benefit our busy and active lives. Beautiful ways to bring respite to busy and tired bodies. We had a week of productivity.

Before we ever put the old house up for sale, before I ever got officially pregnant, Eric and I have possessed hundreds of books for the desired and dreamed of baby that would be Ellie. My sister, grandmother, mama, and friends have all given books for that little girl. But we never had a single place to store them, before. Even after having Ellie, we never had bookshelves for these books. Then we decided to finally sell the house as we had always dreamed of, and we decided to wait to purchase shelving. The books lived in open cardboard moving boxes for a year. Then, we finally had the money to purchase proper shelving for our princess's playroom for her many books and toys. Books actually are her favorite toy, truth be told. When the bookshelves arrived to the house, I wasted no time carrying them piece by piece up the stairs to the playroom. Ellie helped me to assemble the shelves. Eric bolted them to the wall for safety. We went from books all over the floor to an organized playroom for Ellie. She loves them and so do I!!

The next thing we have been really mostly excited about is beginning to tame our new yard. The yard is a big living space for us. It is as important as the home interior to us as we spend most of our time home outside, playing. After construction, the ground has to heal. It has to recover, grow, and constantly be groomed. The very edge of our shoreline is trashed with logs, briars, brush, and overgrowth. I have been working, swimming, chopping, sawing, pulling so so hard many days to create a big pile of wooded mess. Eric and I got to finally see a week of sunshine and were able to burn the pile. Due to having soaked in the lake for goodness knows how long, and then two months of rain, the logs are still wet inside. They were taken down and broken down a lot, but will still need another round of burning. That is fine though, because we still have so much to tear down out there. Then the grass. We imagined for the first year here we would have nothing but red clay. However; the grass actually grew in quite nicely before the start of fall in 2018. While more grass needs to grow, we actually have a better grassy yard than we anticipated. The sod up front is greening up with the warmer weather. I cut the grass. This wouldn't seem like such a huge accomplishment on any other given day, yet, with 2 months of rain and no mower working at the time, the grass grew so tall it no longer stood straight. A lot of it was nearly my knee height. Not to mention this ground is still healing from construction...meaning we still have rock, some debris, unwanted soil, even some nails! Yikes! It is a more daunting task than normal at this time. Once the grass was tamed, Eric and I worked together to plant 50 cypresses along the property to give us even more privacy on this quiet spot of land. They are also just insanely gorgeous. We began mulching the front yard around the big trees. Soon we will plant some flowering bushes in these spots to accent the yard. We have designed plans together for the backyard and will start on that next.  We want a garden back there, a pebble "patio" for the Adirondack Michigan chairs and fire pit,  more trees, and a playground for Ellie.

Eric is constantly working in the garage as time allows to build hanging shelving. The bike rack is next. He didn't quite get to this.

There really is something deeply beautiful about seeing the fruit of your labor. Labor put forth as a team with your spouse is all the more special. Our home is a reflection of us and our dreams and our joy. So thankful for the time we had together to accomplish this. I can't wait to knock out more of our dreamy projects soon!!

Possum Kingdom Kreamery

On Friday, Ellie and I skipped The Little Gym for a fun outing with Hike it Baby Greenville to Possum Kingdom Kreamery in Belton, SC. Only 25 minutes from the house, we discovered a special new place.

I knew we would be going to see goats but I had no idea that from the moment we pulled into the drive we would see so many wonderful animals! We got 5 feet into the drive before we stopped the car entirely to bid the horses a good morning. They were in arms length, though we did not get out of the car.

Possum Kingdom Kreamery is a Grade A Raw Milk Dairy & Creamery. They are also an animal sanctuary to rescued monkeys and deer. On the farm, tours can be taken with groups for $5 a person (free for itty bitty kids). The tour was incredible. This family is a dedicated, educated, hard-working, loving crew. Their animals are blessed to be in their care.

The day began by circling around with our friends and paying for our visit. Then, Tanya gave a wonderful tour. She was patient with the children, and excellent at telling us about the different animals. She educated us, and intrigued us with her compassion. We saw goats, a baby goat, dogs, a llama, a pony, a donkey, ducks, a turkey, guineas, chickens, monkeys (rescued), two deer (more on this next), and 2 very large pigs that sweet little Ellie felt the need to get snout level with and analyze their eating.

As for the deer, Tanya shared with us that these deer had been placed with them in their care. The deer are un-releasable to the wild. Both are less than a year old and male. Male and female cannot be placed together because breeding is also legal....as is keeping a deer as a pet- which was the precious case for one of the deer. The deer had been domesticated and once tried to be released to live in the wild yet, he was too tame and wouldn't leave the yards of neighbors, seeking food from humans. He could not survive in nature. So, he was placed with a friend in the loving care and capable hands of Possum Kingdom Kreamery.

After our wonderfully fun tour on the farm, we came into the store to have tastings of the goat milk and goat cheese, Ellie much enjoyed the goat milk and I the goat cheese. Have mercy it was delicious. We tried a garlic &basil flavor as well as a chipotle flavor! Both were excellent. I bought a tub of each. They had a pic-nic table area set up outside where we all sat with the kids and enjoyed some lunch we brought. The kids played on the grounds with respect to the animals near by, and then we all packed up and headed home, hearts and bellies full. We will be back for sure.

Information:

Possum Kingdom Kreamery
520 Acker Road
Belton, SC 29627
Phone: 864-423-4048
Email: info@PKKreamery.com

Website: https://www.pkkreamery.com/home

 

Lake Lure and Asheville Weekend // Half-Marathon weekend

It has been 2.5 years since Eric and I have been on a vacation alone together. We are always blessed to get plenty of date time thanks to my parents, but we were very excited to have our first weekend away in so much time!

We were so blessed to be able to stay in my best friend's family cabin in Lake Lure. They have always been more than generous and loving to me and I am so thankful for their love and the time they allowed for us to stay in this beautiful cabin!

Friday afternoon was amazing because Eric was blessed with a gift from God of a cancelled lab at Clemson and so he was free by 10:30 meaning he could go with me to take Ellie to the Little Gym. I am so thankful he got to watch this girl go, go, go! A special time for us as a family. After that, we dropped Ellie off with my parents and hit the road. 90's playlist on high. Jamming, dancing, singing we left the rain and were met with sunshine and mountains. On Saturday, I would be running the Asheville 1/2 Marathon so we went to packet pick up as our first stop. We then got settled in at the cabin and got dinner on the lake. We stayed up too late talking and connecting and dreaming and reminiscing. It was precious.

Saturday- 4 a.m.   Rise and Shine....Race Day! So. Sleepy. 3 hours of sleep (for staying up so late and rising so early). Put my race gear on, brewed Eric some coffee and to the Biltmore House we went. The race was on the grounds of Biltmore. This particular race itself was one I wanted to do non competitively. Meaning, I wouldn't try to compete with time, I would enjoy scenerey, walk when I wanted, and take pictures during the race. The challenge itself was running such a strong hilly 13.1 miles. This race was the coldest I have ever ran. It was 40 degrees but with such insanely strong winds, it was really about 20. I ran in 3 layers of coats and a head wrap. Still my shoulders were buried up in my neck and my toes numb. But the race was gorgeous. It was a beautiful day. There are always stories from my races I share with my family. Even in 5k races you see interesting things. Imagine in 13.1 what one sees. It is the entertainment of people that helps your mental endurance. For instance, in the midst of the 3rd mile, 5 men went off intermittently into the beautiful evergreen and pine forest of Biltmore to pee. Right in front of everyone. I mean.....when you gotta go you gotta go....but dang. I just laughed and wished it were that easy as a woman! Meanwhile, if they had only waited 2 more miles, there were potties in abundance from there on. Trust me, worse things have happened in these races. It was just not the scenery I pictured I would see on this race. Hahaha!
Then there was this girl. I called her "sports bra", because she was wearing merely a sports bra. And smiling like on a pageant stage. Good for her but her skin was so pink it looked wind burnt. And this cold southern belle was ok with looking like a fat bundled bear. But she was clearly happy so, whatever! I ran with her for a little while. Next, I hit the 10th mile and could see Antler Hill Village; where we began and where we would end. I knew we weren't finished but what a tease. It's about mile 10 where you are just done. Over it. Hit mile 11 and I see Eric and a large spectator crowd watching and cheering us on to finish the last 2 miles. Seeing Eric always puts a pep in my step, even in every day life! He then told me an all too familiar tale of a girl after I had finished who passed by the 11th mile mark where he and the rest were watching. She was in tears and crying. Her first long distance race. He said she started walking and was quitting but the crowd refused to let her. They cheered her on and pushed her to finish. That is why I love this sport. The camaraderie is so awesome. I remember when I ran my first and only full marathon, I began crying around mile 18 and my best friend would wipe my tears and feed me carbs and drinks and push me on. Eric would find us and push us on to the end. Without a strong support system, running would never be as fun or exciting. Anyway, I finished the race, still frozen but wet with sweat. Ew and COLD! I got my medal and my beer glass at finish. We got a photo then headed for the cabin for a shower and then out we went to hit the local breweries.

First stop was Sierra Nevada. Amazing!! Truly one of the best spots I have been to. Huge huge crowd which is apparently their norm, yet they handled their large capacity so smoothly it was effortless. We sat at the bar and ordered a cheese dip and pretzel, wood fired oven pizza for Eric and a burger for me, loaded duck fries for Eric and I to share. We got a couple of beers and took in the environment and talked and laughed together. We learned tours are free but need to be booked online ahead of time, however; you can do a self guided tour. So we did. We went upstairs where a live band was playing, got one more round and walked around and reading and watching. Very beautiful place, very organized, fun, and cool. Such a great environment. You could really spend a day there. It was a good family spot; yet Eric and I agreed it was made more for people like us who want an escape. Had the weather been warmer, there was a very beautiful outdoor spot to hang out too. We will be back for sure.

Next, we went to the Highlands Brewing Company. We got our drinks and enjoyed the environment. This brewery reminded me more of the 13 Stripes Brewery in Taylors. Fun, open, laid back, family style. They had entertainment of an Irish dancing group. They did performances and ended with teaching us a dance. I was not going to miss the chance to dance. Knowing Eric would enjoy more to watch, I grabbed 3  young 20 something girls at our table and told them to join me. They smiled and were excited for the chance! We all danced and it made my Irish blood happy!

From there, Eric and I went to downtown Asheville to eat and also try Wicked Weed Brewery. We actually ate there. We first stopped at Curate but it was true Spanish cuisine which apparently none of which suits me. Basically all pork. I don't like pork unless it is bacon. I tried so hard to find something on the menu (I am not this girl...I can always find something on a menu.) There was nothing worth waiting for in my opinion but again, I don't like this type of food and I knew it...I have been to Spain. Eric is a laid back dude and we were just happy to be together. So we figured we would get food at Wicked Weed. I got lobster mac and he did a burger. Food and drink were excellent.

Then back to the cabin we went to finally sleep (having been up since 4 a.m.--slept 3 hours---and ran 13.1 miles) I was exhausted.

Sunday, we slept in, took our time getting up, just enjoying the fact we could lay there as long as we wanted. We got dressed, packed up and cleaned up, then left to get breakfast and head home. We stopped at the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge before stopping for breakfast. I had seen it on TripAdvisor and it looked like a cute little pit stop. It certainly was. I would recommend it. It is about 15 minutes out of your day into a whimsical little world over the Broad River. We stopped for breakfast in Chimney Rock at Medina's. I got chocolate chip pancakes and a croissant. Eric had some spicy bowl of runny eggs and hash....not my style. I am sweet and he is savory. He raved over that and I over my pancakes. We will be back. Small Town goodness. The best kind.

After that, it was home we ventured to our baby girl and Blondie! We were met with hugs and kisses, squeals and barks! This trip was amazing. It felt like we were newlywed again, when we were carefree and had no more responsibilities than getting our paychecks. Eric working full time and being in Chemical engineering at Clemson while having a baby and managing our home has been a new phase of the every day life as a couple. It has been challenging but has been strengthening and good. Still, I look so forward to 2 years from now when Eric tosses his cap to the air, and we can resume this semi-normal life of ours! A life where we can see each other more than 3 days a week. I have gained a new appreciation for those who's spouses travel for work or are overseas in the military. I go 4 days with not at all or barely seeing Eric and it brings me to tears at least once a month missing being able to share things with him. I can't imagine more than that. So this trip for us was simply a grand blessing to be us again. To be care free best friends exploring the world on our own time. Eric is truly my very best friend and my favorite person in the world. We will definitely make it a priority to take this sort of time for ourselves more in the future.