Here’s what we were up to in May!

Mother’s Day
My favorite mother’s day card.  A song written by Cade and sung to me by all the boys.  It’s sung to the tune of Happy Birthday Day.

Family Hike

We saw turtles and inch worms and fireflies, oh my!

And speaking of creepy crawly things…
Here are 6! Count them, SIX little boys inspecting a bug they found.  They inspected for at least 15 minutes.

~Ok, enough snakes, snails and puppy dog tails, its time for some sugar and spice!~

Something Nice

Liberty is moving up in the world…

She is venturing out of her family room playpen and into the rest of the house.  No, she’s not climbing stairs yet, though she can get herself up on one.

She also has some adorable curls that I tried to catch on film.  These don’t really do them justice.

And she still LOVES to play with Daddy.

There are many reasons why I want to homeschool.  For my friends and family who are curious and incredulous, I wanted to get those reasons down on paper…at least the internet kind. 

~Disclaimer: I am not judging anyone by sharing these ideas.  Where there are judgments it is a personal judgment about the public school system itself and what is right or wrong for our family.   Not everyone should homeschool.  Raising children is an incredibly hard job and there is so much variety among children, parents, and unique family situations that no one can make the decision about what is right for another’s family. However, because people can get defensive on both sides when this topic is discussed, I just wanted to add my little disclaimer before I begin.~  

Reason 1.
I can tailor my children’s education to them individually.  They can go as fast or as slow as they need.  As deep or as broad as they want.  We (parents AND children) get more choice and more control over what they learn.  We can feed their curiosity (nod to the Weiss family!).  A classroom teacher cannot do that as well.  

Reason 2.
I don’t want them to be gone for the best part of their day. If I send them to school, I get the leftovers after homework, friends and after school extras. I do not want the school system dictating how I spend my time with my child.

Reason 3. 
I can incorporate the gospel into their learning.

Reason 4. 
I am a teacher and I’m good at it.  I want to be the one to teach my children and not give some other person the joy of doing it.  I want to be the one to read them all the wonderful books out there!

Reason 5.  
I want to be the one teaching our values and beliefs rather than the “state” or society.

Reason 6. 
I can give them a Classical Education.  This kind of education is heavily based on the classics of history, literature, math, science, etc.  Their education is basically built around history and they study the corresponding subjects at the same time.  So when learning ancient history they study the science, literature, art, music and math that came from that time period.  It creates a more complete and whole picture of the world. 

Reason 7.  
I think socialization happens better outside of the  classroom, for the most part.  Children do need to have lots of opportunity to work and play with other kids and adults.  But there are plenty of ways to do that while homeschooling, especially now days when co-ops abound and the number of homeschooling families is at an all time high. 

Reason 8.   
Along those same lines, I want my children’s focus to be on God, family and education- not friends.  I want their family relationships to be the most important.  That doesn’t mean that friends aren’t important.  It just means that friends should not be their main focus.

Reason 9.
I want my kids to be leaders, not followers.

Reason 10. 
I want my children to love their country and to revere the men who established it.  I want them to understand the founding principles and be able to defend them and uphold them.  That is not something they teach well enough in the public school system today.

Reason 11.   
I have three little boys and they need to wiggle and move more than a desk and classroom can allow.

Reason 12. 
I want to take them out into the world to explore and experience life in a way they cannot do while sitting in a classroom.

Reason 13. 
I think children today are too scheduled and I want my kids to have the freedom of time to explore and play and just be a kid without adults running every part of their life.  A homeschool day can be much shorter than a regular public school day and will give them more time to play, explore and learn on their own.  I can accomplish in 3-4 hours a day what it takes a public school teacher 7-8 to do.

Reason 14. 
I want to learn with my children and get a better education myself.

The most common question I get when I tell people I want to homeschool is, “But what about those things they can only learn in school?”  To that my answer is, yes, there are some good things they can learn there, but for me, the advantages to homeschooling far out way the advantages to public school.  And the disadvantages of public school far out way the disadvantages of homeschooling. 

So there you go!  We are excited to start this journey together and look forward to sharing it with you on our blog!

(I wrote this post back in February, but am finally posting it)

Most of you know that I tried homeschooling Reagan and Cade when they were younger and it didn’t take. The boys fought constantly, competed over everything, and Reagan was just too much for one person to handle all day long every day. We were all miserable. So we quit to give ourselves time to grow up and mature a bit (them AND me). I’ve always hoped that someday we’d be able to try my dream of homeschooling again.

About 6 months ago I serendipitously or, I believe, providentially stumbled across a new parenting book, Parenting a House United, Teaching Self Government by Nicholeen Peck. This book has revolutionized our home. I know, that sounds canned, but it’s the truth! It taught me how to teach myself and my children the skills we need to govern ourselves and make our home a much happier place. I am happier, and they are happier and more obedient. Every day now I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. No, they aren’t perfect children now, but they are light years above where they used to be-and so am I. It has so changed our home that… drumroll please…we are actually going to try homeschooling again next year! I know, many of you are thinking, “Wow is she crazy! Why would she ever want to DO that!” And more of you are probably saying, “But what about…?” and “What about…?” For the answer to those questions, you’ll have to wait for my next post! For now I want to share my experience from this last week.

We decided to do a test run to see if homeschooling was even possible for our family. So I kept the kids home from school and taught them myself. This is what it looked like from Rock’s point of view via my instant messages to him during the week:
Monday: “FAILURE! We can’t do this!”
Tuesday: “SUCCESS! This is so awesome! We had the perfect day and now I even have time (and energy) to go practice piano!!”
Wednesday: Levi is driving me crazy! and (later) I LOVE this!
Thursday: nothing (I was too busy enjoying the day to IM)
Friday: “Do I have to wait until next year to start homeschooling??? Let’s start next week!”

Overall our experiment was a complete success. The week was hard but it was satisfying. It was busy but it was fulfilling. And a lot of the time it was fun. I felt more joy and more pain in just this one week than I have in a very long time. But isn’t that what life is about? Or at least what it should be about. It is full of ups and downs. That’s part of the journey. If you’re not experiencing enough ups and downs, maybe you aren’t living life to its fullest. Our week together reminded me of a quote by Jenkin Loyd Jones that President Hinkley quoted;

Life is just like an old time rail journey … delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.

I had more beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed this week than I have in a long time, maybe even more than my entire time as a parent. And yes, lots of sidetracks, delays and jolts too. The week was by no means perfect. But I felt more alive because of the ups and downs. There were times when I had all four kids sitting with me while I read them a story and no one was squishing anyone else and everyone kept their elbows to themselves and everyone could see and it was perfect. Or when I was teaching the boys about ancient Rome and they were so excited to learn and didn’t want to stop. In those moments I felt again the particular joy I get from teaching. I have forgotten until this week how much I love it. How much it is who I am. It was like a part of me that had been asleep was awakened. It was exhilarating!

You might ask what we did the whole week especially since it was a random week in the middle of the school year. There are several things I’ve wanted to work on with the kids outside of school and have not really had the time so we worked on those things. We had a morning devotional every day. We memorized our family mission statement, 2 articles of faith and 1 poem. We studied common and proper nouns and oddly enough, Reagan really enjoyed changing common nouns to proper nouns. He changed “We went to the store to buy food.” to “We went to Home Depot to buy String Beans.” and he thought he was hilarious. “Get it, Mom! Aren’t I funny?” It’s time to bring on the Mad Libs I think! We listened to a CD about Beethoven and his music and the boys enjoyed the music so much that the next day, Cade, after reading the name on the CD case, asked if we could listen to Bay-th-oven again. The boys finished memorizing their addition math facts up to 10 by jumping up and down the stairs and in and out of the tiles in the kitchen. We’ve been reading a wonderful history book for children called the Story of the World and were up to Rome, so we studied Roman history more in depth.
We did more, but I’ll stop before you get too bored. Every night they got to report on what they learned to Dad at the dinner table. He got a much better report than he usually gets when he asks what they learned at school. (It helps when mom knows everything they learned!) The boys favorite part of the week was learning about gladiators and attack elephants. (For those who don’t know what attack elephants have to do with Roman history you can ask my boys.) Oh, and they loved not having homework. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that they were doing homework all morning long! But frankly, I loved that part too! We loved being the ones in charge of our time, rather than the school being in charge of our time. Levi of course loved having his big brothers home all day. And Liberty may or may not have loved all the extra attention she got.

One thing I have learned from last week is that I don’t know my children like I want to. They are home for just a very little time each day right now while in public school. They get up and rush out the door to school. Then they come home, do homework, play with friends, eat dinner and go to bed. One of the main reasons I have always wanted to homeschool is because I knew if I sent them to school, the school would get the best part of their day and I would get the leftovers. As I taught them last week I really got to see a different, more in depth side of my children. I got to see how they actually think about more things. What makes them uncomfortable, what makes them excited. I knew all that on one level, of course, but it was deeper, more real this week. I think we sometimes go through the motions and live next to each other rather than with each other. We move our children from point A to point B without really knowing them deeply. Our time is usually under pressure-to get here or do this or that, finish the homework, finish the chores, get to this activity or that one, etc. I feel rushed. I rarely have time to do what I want with my children. None of this is a surprise or a shock to me. I knew when I sent them to school that it would be this way. So this week we took our time. We were more relaxed because we didn’t have to be anywhere. We laughed more. We had fun together. The kids were kinder to each other and more loving. Reagan had a lot more opportunity to help out and he has grown in confidence because of it. We are closer because of this week. What’s truly miraculous is that after being with them for 7 days straight, I am not sick of my children! In fact, I truly enjoyed them! I like their company more now than I did when we started. All of that is the opposite of what happened last time we tried homeschooling. Many of the problems we had before are gone or greatly diminished. We had an awesome week.

Now, I know it will not always be like this. This was only one small week. I know when we do this for real there will be weeks when they fight a lot, days when they don’t want to learn, whole weeks when I want to quit. But I think we are ready to handle the ups and the downs. I’ll take the good with the bad because the vistas, like we had this week, are worth it.

Stay tuned for part II-Why I want to homeschool.

Move over Sarah Palin!

Levi wins hands down for easiest to potty train!  We tried it for a day back in March, but I got serious about it only 3 days ago and he’s been dry AND clean since then!  Woohoo!  Quote from him today after going in all on his own and doing his business; “I’m the BEST pooper in the world!”

Note: I hesitate to actually put that on my public blog, but it was just too great to pass up sharing! 

YES!  Only one in diapers!  Happy Day!

The day after I told the boys about the tsunami in Japan and showed them some video clips from it, Levi asked to watch more video of the “sumani”.

When asking for more dip at lunch Levi asked for more “sketup” (ketchup).

The other day when it was time to read scriptures, Reagan said, “Can we PLEEASE read about a war?” (as if you can go very long without reading about a war in the Book of Mormon!  lol)
A few days before that, Levi asked if we were reading about the ‘Levites’ that day.

Yesterday Levi was sitting in Time out for doing something naughty and after about a minute, I heard his little voice singing ‘Follow the Prophet’.  I don’t know which was funnier, the irony of the song he chose to sing, or the way it sounded. “Fowow the pwophet, fowow the pwophet, fowow the pwophet, don’t go astway.” 

Here’s what we’ve been up to this month.

On March 18th it was 76 degrees here in New Jersey. On March 23rd, less than a week later, it snowed 2 inches. Then for April Fools Day it snowed AGAIN!

Liberty is having lots of fun in her glorified playpen that is our step down family room.

Stuck in the corner

Stuck in the toy box

And she is developing quite the voracious appetite.

And just because I am in love with this little profile with the chic hairdo…

Why do they ever have to lose this adorable roundness…

BUSTED!

Caught in the act! Reading Calvin and Hobbes when they were supposed to be reading their scriptures.

Last week we took a quick trip to New York City.

We parked right in front of the Regis and Kelly film studio and…

The temple!
If you look close you can see Rock’s goatee. He shocked us all by shaving off half his beard to a goatee. Then a few days later he shaved the whole thing off! It’s so shocking that when I roll over at night and see his bare face next to me it scares me! Who’d have thought I’d get so used to the beard. He claims he shaved it to prove to me that I really do like the beard better.
I hate it when he’s right!
He hates to shave, though, so the beard will be back soon enough, I’m sure. I don’t’ think he’ll last a week!

We had a quick lunch in Central Park



Levi and Reagan are near the top on the right. I took this picture mostly for the awesome building in the background. Everywhere you go in Central park you are surrounded by amazing buildings.

And last but not least, we have started the oh so fun process of…

Potty Training! He’s already figured out what good magazines are for!

And that was March!

Apparently I don’t use Liberty’s hair bows enough for the boys.  They took it upon themselves to beautify her today.  And in answer to your question, “Does she REALLY put that big pink one on her in public?” the answer is no.  It looked smaller online when I purchased it.  Someday her head will be big enough for that bow… maybe. At any rate… ya gotta love big brothers!

Liberty loves her big brothers.  And they love her. 

We don’t know why, so don’t ask…

Snuggling in bed on a Saturday morning

I would have to say that her favorite brother hands down, though, is Levi.  When Liberty wakes up from a nap he runs up to her room to say hello and where mom only got a tiny crack of a smile for saving her from the crib, Levi gets a wide, dimple showing grin every time.  He spends much of his time playing with her and making her laugh.  They are such great buddies.

Levi and his “Libety”

Yes, we just finished our first Pinewood Derby here at the Hymas house. Reagan has worked feverishly over the last month to create his masterpiece, while little brothers looked on in abject admiration and anticipation for their turn. We have 9 Pinewood Derbies to look forward to, 1 of which we will be making 2 cars for! Aren’t you jealous!!!

The Car

Or Animal, take your pick. For those less versed in your animal classification, this is a cheetah-the fastest animal alive. (It looked even cooler before the weight was glued onto the bottom, but Mom forgot to take a picture of it BEFORE the race!) Rock let Reagan do almost all the work, from design to paint job. He did a fantastic job if I do say so myself, and everyone at the race from parents to kids kept telling him it was awesome! My favorite quote from another parent was, “That’s the coolest car I’ve ever seen in my life!”

The Competition

The Audience

She was REALLY into the race, can’t you tell?

The Race