Repartee: Independence Day
July 3, 2009 by Angela
Welcome to this week’s version of Repartee! Freedom is the subject in honor of the 4th of July. I imagine grills nationwide will be smoking all kinds of great stuff tomorrow–I can just smell them now! Isn’t it wonderful when families get a chance to spend quality time together? My husband has both today *and* Monday off so we are super lucky this year.
Here are my questions for you this week:
Leave a comment by Thursday and have a great week!
End of the Year Reflections
May 15, 2009 by Angela
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme.
Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your thoughts on the following: End of the Year Reflection: Biggest Triumphs and Biggest Challenges
Okay, so the title of this meme is self-explanatory.
You may have noticed that I left the title for next week’s meme out today. There is a reason.(Can you tell I am excited?) You won’t want to miss the way we are changing this feature…and I wish I could give details, but you will have to wait until next week! I look forward to letting you in on it personally!
Blogs that Responded:
More Than Just a Beautiful Mess
Confessions of an Organized Homeschool Mom
A Mother’s Love
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme.
Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your thoughts on the following: A Mother’s Love
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ”Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
-Proverbs 31:28-29
Tell us about A Mother’s Love. In honor of Mother’s Day I encourage you to honor:
- The mother who gave birth to you.
- The mother who adopted you.
- A step-mother.
- A mother-in-law.
- Your grandmother.
- A wonderful role model in your life that stood in when you needed a mother.
- Your mother in Heaven if she is no longer with us.
What have these incredibly important women in your life contributed that you hope your children will see in you?
Have a very blessed Mother’s Day.
Blogs that Responded:
What’s in Your Garden?
May 1, 2009 by Angela
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme.
Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your thoughts on the following: What’s in Your Garden?
Remember last week when I mentioned how wonderful the weather had been? Well, before the rain came we had a chance to build flower beds and carefully pick the greenery that we would enjoy this summer. Having only lived in the Midwest a little over a year I have been enjoying planting things that the southern heat refuses to nurture.
If you have ever visited my website you know that I love poppies. (Actually, I love anything and everything that is red!) These do not grow in areas that have extreme heat. I was elated to find out they grew wonderfully here! I planted several of those, lavender, peonies, snapdragons, dahlias, freesia, hydrangeas and wisteria. (Oh, and calla lillies!) I am so looking forward to all of their blooms!!
What is in your garden?
Blogs that Responded:
Indoor Gardening: Tips and Tricks
March 20, 2009 by Angela
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme.
Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your thoughts on the following: Indoor Gardening: Best tips and tricks for starting those Spring blooms.
I need the families with the green thumbs to step forward, please. You see, this mama has a black thumb. As hard as I try I still need my husband’s assistance to have a beautiful potted plant flower bed. I know that there are many out there just like me who could use the wisdom of those who know the secrets to beginning those blooms. Do you use a terrarium? Do you put your bulbs in the fridge? (Why do people do that, by the way?) Do you use egg cartons to start? Special soil? What do you suggest for a home that doesn’t have much in the way of sunlight? How does your garden grow?
Blogs that Responded:
Sharing the Resources: Homeschool Printables
March 7, 2009 by Angela
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme.
Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your thoughts on the following: Sharing the Resources: What are your favorite printables and why?
Oh yes, I am late this week. Call it ‘Mommy Brain’, (you can still get that when your baby is almost 6, right?) but yesterday flew right by me. Actually, I know exactly what it was. It was the “8 Ways to a More Organized Homeschool Carnival“. I am organizationally challenged and I love hearing about how others keep up on the clutter!
So, let me make it up to you by giving you a list of my favorite printable sites, m’kay?
Blogs that Responded:
Real Life Subjects
February 26, 2009 by Angela
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme.
Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your thoughts on the following: Real Life Subjects: What Your Family Does Ordinarily That Teaches Your Child an Abundance of Lessons
As homeschooling families we have an opportunity to reach parts of our children’s lives that are missed during public school hours. What are some of the ‘life lessons’ that come naturally within the walls of your home?
In our house some of the most important lessons revolve in how we demonstrate our love for others. One of the major lessons being servanthood. If the kids leave learning nothing else we hope that they gain insight on respect for their elders, and on a broader scale, our community. My husband and I choose to be ‘living examples’ for them. This includes being kind and respectful to our neighbors, to the teenager running the drive-thru window, and to people that have frustrated us. This last one is most important in my mind as I have seen teachers being ripped apart by parents in front of their kids, cashiers being degraded by adults who know the person has no power to change their situation, volunteer coaches who have lost the love for the game because of the unfair demands placed on them each week. I have witnessed these kids standing next to their parents. They absorb it all. My husband and I never wanted to be those parents. How could we teach them properly without demonstrating the actions ourselves? How could we teach them the love of Jesus and not participate? I believe that by taking the extra effort to make sure that our kids see us give up a chair for an elderly person who joins a group, bring a meal to a sick mother, and any other number of things that demonstrate servanthood that they will grow up with servant’s hearts.
What does your family do that teaches many lessons? I immediately thought of servanthood, but there are so many things that homeschooling gives us the freedom to teach. What are your lessons?
Blogs that Responded:
Unit Study: Black History Month
February 20, 2009 by Angela
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme.
Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Please share with us your thoughts on the following: Unit Study: Black History Month
Share the wonderful lessons you have shared with your children this month or in the past over Black History Month. Did you do any activities? Watch any amazing documentaries? Have you visited any historical sites? Know of some wonderful online sites? Post them here so that others may benefit from your experience!
Blogs that Responded:
Homeschooling the Chaotic Family
Homeschooling through a teenager’s eyes
January 30, 2009 by Guest
Hello everyone. The Heart of the Matter “meme” a few weeks ago was about seeing homeschooling through the eyes of the child who’s actually being homeschooled. Because of that fact, this post is not being written by Momtofivekids, but instead by her oldest son Andrew.
I’m seventeen years old and a senior in high school. This year, I will be graduating from a lifetime of homeschooling that started in kindergarten. I’ve never been a full-time student anywhere but my own house, and I’m proud of it. I also looked up “meme” in the dictionary and can’t find it, but my mom insists that it’s a real word.
So what is it that I love so much about taking classes in the livingroom?
I think I just answered my own question. 
One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the freedom to do it in the comfort of the home. It is my belief that formal, schoolhouse-based education was started with the false premise that learning must be done from a desk. The reason for this and many other scholastic institutions is that, in my opinion, public school systems have set themselves up for failure. If you start with the presupposition that schooling should be conducted in a large group of children under the guidance of one adult, then of course you’ll have to put each child in a confining desk and force them to all conform to the same standard of excellence, whether or not all of them are ready for that yet, and of course you’ll have to enforce strict rules about getting up from their seat, doing assignments, and talking. Otherwise, you’ll never keep them under control, much less teach them anything.
On the flipside, the opportunity for the individual to take instruction from the people who know their strengths and weaknesses best in the safety and ease of their home provides the optimal learning environment, one that is tailored to the needs of the individual. If everyone teaches their own child, there’s no need for an institution that can’t hope to meet the needs of all of its students. Now, I know that assuming that everyone could teach their own child is a faulty assumption. Obviously, there are situations in which one or both parents work, as well as other extenuating circumstances, that make homeschooling impossible. If you have the ability, though… do it!
So obviously, being able to lounge around on the couch is a plus. In addition to that, being educated as an individual means that more learning happens in less time. Studies have been done on it, not that I can find them online by the time I finish typing this. Oh well, you’re all homeschooling moms so you know I’m right. One of the things I’ve really been encouraged by as a homeschooler is the times that I have taken a class at a private or public school. For example, I am currently taking a class at a private school, and while it is, in my opinion, the model private school and the closest thing to homeschooling I’ve ever seen, it’s still nearly impossible for the teacher to connect with each student, though he tries very hard. It’s also difficult to make an entire lesson fit within the one hour that he has to teach it.
That leads me to another point for homeschooling and against public or private schools: Homeschooling allows the student to learn at their own pace. This is a fact I alluded to earlier, when I mentioned the standard that is placed before the entire class as a unit. In reality, everyone learns at a different pace. However, the structure of a public or private school necessitates that each student be given the same amount of time to learn a lesson or complete an assignment, and if they fail, they are obviously being lazy. If they succeed, sign them up for honors classes! As a homeschooler, not only am I allowed to take more time on each physics lesson, I also have the ability to breeze through my British Literature course and finish it early since there’s no reason for me to stay behind if I’m ready for the next level.
If you really want to get on my nerves, bring up the “fact” that homeschoolers don’t get enough socialization. I and hundreds of people I know have busted that myth. In fact, when I was interviewed about a homeschool prom I was attending, I proposed an alternate hypothesis to the reporter: in a lot of cases, I think that homeschooling provides an incentive to become involved in your community and in society because you don’t have the daily interaction with peers automatically as a result of going to school. Also, it gives me the freedom to choose what kinds of people I become friends with.
Even though I’m eleven years older than the narrator of the sample “meme” (a word that I refuse to take out of quotation) was when he wrote about homeschooling, I find that I agree with him a heck of a lot. I too enjoyed learning about the Mongols and their vampire-like dietary preferences. When I sit still, I also feel like I’ll go crazy. And I’ve felt like just flopping on the floor while sitting in a desk in my private school ethics class (I didn’t). Homeschooling is the way it should be, and I’m doing my best to prove it.
Heart of the Matter Weekly Meme
December 26, 2008 by Angela
Welcome to the Heart of the Matter Online Meme. Every Friday we will feature a different topic for our meme. Mr. Linky is set up below so please share with us your thoughts on the following: Goals for 2009.
Just a few more days of 2008 left! What are your goals for 2009?
Don’t forget Mr. Linky so we can learn more about you!
