February 3, 2009 by holly cowie.

     Isn’t that how the old song goes…”I’m in the mood for love, simply because your near me. Well, I’m in the mood for love simply because it is February and that is usually when the winter blues are really taking their toll on homeschooling moms. The children get frustrated more easy, the last break was in December, outside looks like ….yuck! And face it, as a mom we face burnout time just about now as we see the end of the school year approaching and testing or portfolios start to nag at us.

Well, the good news is God is always in the mood for love and He can melt away all our winter blues. I went to bed the other night determined to wake up and  have a great day. Of course I awoke with a migraine, slept later than I wanted,and the children were grouchy. But I was not going to let it get the best of me. I simply started just praising the Lord.  I praised Him with my headache, and I praised Him through breakfast with 8 grumpy children, and I praised Him while trying to frantically catch up from sleeping in. By the afternoon I stopped in awe as I realized my headache was now bearable, my children were getting along and all our schoolwork was completed early AND the laundry was done. God loved this homeschooling mom of many enough to give me a peace that passed ALL understanding and I never asked for anything….I just loved Him.

Next time you are at your wits end and the frustrations of the winter blahs are getting you down simply sing out to God “I’m in the mood for YOUR love” .

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June 12, 2008 by holly cowie.

Several months ago Kelly asked for volunteers to help blog and I quickly responded as this was something I really thought I could easily add to my schedule. Well…..my last post was sometime at the fist part of the year. I had 6 students this year with a 7th one that is from another family and I supervise her schooling for legal reasons. Most days you would have a difficult time convincing me I am the mother of 10 children, 9 of which are still at home. The past few months have made up for all those days as I helped graduate another child. Yes, I feel a great accomplishment that God has worked through me to see this daughter through. She was always a good student but never really liked school. But there is a special feeling with this graduation as she is the first child I have taught the whole way through. From kindergarden through 12th my daughter has been taught at home. My oldest daughter did not have that priveleg as she was in public school until the 5th grade.

As I sit here typing my hubby told me that by the time I am finished teaching all the children God has blessed us with I will have taught for exactly 30 years. My response was that I should be able to collect some type of pension!!

The senior year for our daughter was jam packed full. Her gifts lay not in academics but in music. Playing in two orchastras and continuing to take lessons in piano and violin keep our whole family on the move. I was never so thankful that she could drive herself to most of her commitments. The last 3 months before graduation were the most busy. Final concerts were plentiful as well as completion of academics, final lessons, portfilio assessments and preparing for the graduation ceremony itself.

After much ado the graduation day finally arrived. I had most of the food ready to go and several sisters in Christ waiting to help with the last minute items. 40 people responded, I planned for 100 and 85 showed up. Her father (and principal) gave a short talk/devotion about the priviledge of teaching our children at home, how much her devotion to God has meant to our family and how God will lead her in this next season of life. We presented her with her diploma and she surprised us by giving a speech telling everyone how thankful she was to be able to be taught at home and how grateful she was that she was brought up in a home with disapline. She then thanked us for being such great parents albeit not perfect. My husband then took over again, thanked all the people that came for their support, their prayers and their love for our family. I really feel so blessed that God had such a hand in all of this and am humbled again even as I type.

So, why is Holly typing all of this? To show and share with all the moms in the trenches with me that weaver not only works for the present but it works for the long haul. Many times these past few months we had to “alter” our weaving days because of scheduling, but because weaver is set on God’s word first we never really put it aside we just worked it in differently. God continuly put before us subjects that pertained to our busy life. Authority in the home fit so well with our recent graduation as we witnessed our daughter submit to her fathers authority many times and seek his counsel. The resuly of disobedience by the Isrealites hit home often as we spent more time away from our home and our children had to adjsut to many different surroundings or jsut being in the van for long perionds of time. They were reminded many times of the grumblings and complainings of God’s children and what they received from it.

Let us praise God together for the time out we need to take and remember to take time to share His workings in our lives as often as He allows.

Posted in Miscellaneous | Print | No Comments »

January 16, 2008 by holly cowie.

The new year is upon this mom of many and one thing I have found most helpful to start a new year is to do a quick reevualation of my schooling. I like to start with reminding myself of why I homeschool as it seems that after the holidays everyone can easily feel a little burn out.

Next, I like to go over our schedules and see if everything is working the best it can. Do I need to give more time to a particular student or maybe I just need to allow more time for research on those supplement objectives that my older students are working on.

After checking those off my list I look at our schedule in general. Are we able to stay with how it is or do I need to switch some subjects around to ease the load.

I realized that when I make myself (note the key word here is make) do this simple check that the second half of my school year goes much smoother and I don’t feel so overwhelmed with a scheduling problem that really was just a simple fix. This time of checking also allows me to review what we have already accomplished for the year and that is always a boost at a much needed slow time of year. Lastly, when I take time to “pull up any loose strings” my days are less likely to unravel.

Put on the kettle for a nice cup of coffee or tea , grab your school planner, say outloud “check please” and help the rest of your year to weave together.

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November 30, 2007 by holly cowie.

OK, now don’t get your thoughts on the wrong path here, the big house does not refer to prison (although some days my children would argue that).   I’m Holly, joyous mother of 10 children, and veteran homeschooler of 14 years. Six of the past 14 years we have been using Weaver and they have been the best and easiest years of homeschooling.

Presently we are on volume 2, chapter 10 which is one of the white chapters and the last one of that volume. Sometimes these white chapters still intimidate me but after I  look over them several times and write out my lesson plans the “intimidation factor” disappears. In this particular chapter Early American History is the subject for dissection and I chose to use the Time Travelers unit study of New World Explorers to enhance our study. It has been great fun as we dry fruit and meat for our journey, make our flag for our ship and journal in our captain’s log. I plan to post pictures on my homeschooling blog http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/bigfamily4HIM to show our progress. In September our town has a Heritage celebration and I purchased several items including ink wells, ink pens, hard tac and a compass from the reenactors tent store. I find small additions like this really help to liven up our studies.

 Another great find to help with the Bible end of our studies has been the Herein is Love commentary series put out by Shepherd Press. These are commentaries written for children and since 7 of my ten children are age 10 and under this has really helped this busy mom to put the wonderful meatiness of the Weaver Bible study into little people words.

I am really looking forward to encouraging all the weaving moms and just being available for questions. I have been greatly blessed by all those on the Weaver boards and extend the invitation to leave some comments.

Weaving in the big house 4 Him,

Holly

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