The Chapman Life

Getting Ready For Graduation

This is our final week of school and Friday is graduation!  I am so excited about the boys getting their awards for all the hard work this year.  I can't wait to celebrate with them and our family all the days and effort we have given to a year of home education.  

It has been much more difficult than I would have ever imagined.  We have all learned a lot about our family and the inner workings that I'm not sure we would have gotten without home school this year.  I have learned a lot about each of the boys individually as well as how we work together in this house.  I know more about what makes each one of them tick and what can tick me off the easiest LOL.  

We have had "happy thoughts" most of our school days and yes on many we have had "teachable moments". I have loved seeing the gifts (super powers if you're Jonah) that God has given each of the boys.  Judah is very independent, he loves to laugh and get laughs out of others.  Jonah has a precious, sensitive spirit.  He is passionate, artistic, and imaginative.  Jacob is always out to excel.  He is academically strong and views most everything through a lens of logic and reality.  Much more is to be discovered in each of the boys in the many years ahead as well as our little Chloe.  

I am very proud of our family for this year.  It has been challenging, rewarding, and most of all revealing.  I am proud of each of the boys for their accomplishments and determination and quite honestly, I'm pretty pleased with myself for sticking with things, making them as fun and dynamic as I knew how at the time, and remaining sane through kindergarten...even with Judah constantly turning off the modem and standing on our school table.

Thank you to my wonderful husband for allowing me to pursue a long time dream with our family and giving me all the support and understanding that it has taken to complete this adventure for now.  I look very forward to always living, loving, and learning as a family no matter what days lie ahead.

The Committee Said YES!

We found ourselves once again this year asking God what He wanted us to do as far as school for Jacob for next year.  We decided to continue to pray about it and also visit some schools to see if we felt like any of them were right for our family for next year.  This past year with home education has been amazing!  It has been very intense at times as well as extremely rewarding.  We are trying to follow God's voice and find His plan for our family.  It is sometimes difficult to walk the journey that God has you on, sometimes hard to hear his voice.  Shannon and I try our best just like any other parent to do what is best for our children, this decision has been one of the most difficult for us to know the correct answer to.  

We finally have an answer.  One of the schools we visited was where we felt God leading us for next year and when we took Jacob back, he loved it.  We decided to enroll him and found out that there was a waiting list.  We questioned what we thought we had heard and felt from God, but decided to put his name on the list and see if God would open the door for Him to go next year.

This past week, we called to check and they told us that they had a spot for him.  We went to do our interview with the administration, Jacob had to take a 45 minute admission test, and then a committee voted.  We just heard back and Jacob passed the test with flying colors and the committee said YES.

Our family is very excited about this new part to our journey and Jacob is so happy too!  I'm still not sure what the future holds and I'm not against home education in the future, but for 1st grade, Jacob will be headed to a big school.

Our Big Adventure!

Well, Dr. Seuss books are full of adventure and in honor of our current unit of study we took a big adventure of our own today.  I told the boys today we were taking a trip, a big adventure...we all got ready this morning and packed a big cooler full of food for our lunch.  I told them we were heading whatever way "Tom" told us to go.  The boys had no idea, but I had punched in an address into Shannon's TomTom ahead of time.  

We loaded in the car and followed "Tom's" voice wherever he told us to turn.  We saw some familiar things along the way, but it was still a huge surprise to them when we arrived at the Chattanooga Zoo!  They were so excited and couldn't believe that "Tom" took us there for our big adventure.

We did it all-twice (you understand if you've been a visitor to our humble zoo before) but to their credit they have added quite a bit since last summer and it was a very nice day our for our adventure!  The new carousel was a big hit with Jonah and Jacob loved to see the Snow Leopards, Judah's favorite was the petting zoo and as for me-just a day out with my boys-nothing gets better than that!

We talked about all the animals and how some of them needed more friends in the enclosures, but we also talked about what an adventure was and what risk is.  It was awesome to hear their perspective on risk taking and it gave me so many moments to encourage them to seek adventure and risk throughout their life.  Our big idea today:  God wants all of us to be ready for an adventure!  He is looking for children who don't shy away from risk as adults to fulfill His mission.

It is always so amazing to me to gain God's perspective on things when I am spending time with my kids.  If we could all continue to have the heart of a child and pursue the risks and adventures that await us, I imagine that His mission wouldn't be as difficult and far-fetched to accomplish as it sometimes seems!

And now we wait...

Well, we had an amazing visit taking Jacob to his potential new school.  It was exciting as there was a tornado drill planned for while we were on tour and Jacob was so polite and beamed with excitement.  We got to the end and I asked my last few questions about the application/acceptance process and we find out that they are already full for first grade.

Needless to say, Jacob's (and my) heart sank.  We decided to pay the fee and put our name on the waiting list and we have a good spot... we are the only one on there as of yesterday.  So, now we wait... we will wait on God to show His plan to us... will Jacob go to a "big school" or will he continue to home school for another year?  Like many of life's questions and decisions, only waiting provides the answers we need.

It's never an easy process--no matter how old you are.

Tomorrow is a big day!

Shannon and I are pursuing a door we feel like God may have opened.  We haven't ever really thought that home school is what we are supposed to do for all the years of education for our family.  In saying that, we find ourselves in the same place as last year at this time, we are once again praying and asking God what His plan for our family and education is for next year.  

We decided to visit a few schools and pray about sending Jacob to first grade at a "big school" next year.  We wanted to approach all of the schools as open options as well as still homeschooling as an option for next year.  

Long story short, after visiting and praying about all of this, we have a strong desire and peace for one of the schools we saw.  Tomorrow, we will begin the process to see if this really is a door God has opened or if He has other plans for our next year of schooling.

I am taking Jacob for a tour of the school to see what he thinks and if he likes it as much as we did.  We are also turning in all of the paperwork required to pursue this option tomorrow.

Please pray for us as a family.  Pray that God will either open this door completely and everything will fall into place easier than we thought OR that God will shut this door entirely and allow us the grace and understanding to accept His wisdom.

Most of all, I want God's will, but this is also very tough and confusing for an almost six year old to grasp as we wait on God to reveal His plan for Jacob's education.  Please join with Shannon and I in prayer that Jacob will have even more of a peace for wherever he attends school next year, whether that is in a "big school" or in our humble and pretty incredible schoolroom at home.

Oh, The Places We Will Go

We are starting our next unit on Dr. Seuss books tomorrow.  The boys are so excited!  Our bulletin board this month is a compilation of art from the boys.  I let them paint their impression of the big dog party in "Go Dog, Go".  They did a great job looking at the picture in the book and then painting different elements that represent the things that stood out to them.  Jacob was much more into the details of each of the pieces he painted while Jonah is just a big picture kind of guy and was focused on using all the colors he could find.

I am really excited about this unit.  It's going to be a lot of fun and a lot of reading which we all love!  At the end of the unit, Shannon and I are taking them to the play, Go Dogs, Go at the Chattanooga Theater downtown.  They are going to have a great time with this one!  I got a Cat In The Hat game from Target the other day that will be lots of fun for us to play as a family throughout the unit.

So, tonight...a good long visit for me to the school room to finish converting it from the Land of Dinosaurs to Dr. Seuss!  It should be very interesting to say the least.  

Whew!

We got through it!  I didn't think we were going to make it today.  It could most possibly be the worst day Jacob and I have ever had in school together.  This week has been crazy, we've been cooped up with sick little ones who have whined and cried and needed my every moment of attention.  Jacob has really been a huge trooper as he has had to be the one off to the side really taking care of himself for the most part while I tended to his little brothers.

Yesterday and today, we did school downstairs at the kitchen table and it has been composed mostly of what had to be done to keep on schedule and not our normal fun-filled unit that are usually done in our school room.  We have had several days out of the routine that they are used to and it was just work today, not fun and the adventure of learning we are used to.

So, needless to say it wasn't really his fault, but he hated today and so did I.  We argued, we fought, we were unkind, and I don't ever want to repeat another school day like this one.  

I told Shannon at dinner tonight that Jacob and I had both said our "sorries" to each other and promised not to do school that way ever again.  I also told him that I think home school moms could possibly have closet lives.  I know they are usually depicted as denim wearing, soft voiced, moms that keep having children live under their watchful eye, but if they have many days like we had today--there has to be a secret life they live as well...I would anyway if this was our norm.  :)

Life is a journey of lessons learned and today I learned how appreciated (silently of course) it is that I pour so much time and planning into making each day of school fun and interactive.  Sometimes I wonder if it is even noticed and worth what I do every day to make the next even better...and now I know and will push even more to have the most incredible school year ever!

Someone Please Call Mission Control!

Who's in charge of this ship anyhow?  What a week!  We have visited Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto... somebody please take me back to planet Earth.  It has been so much fun, at times completely out of control and unplanned, and my little astronauts have learned a ton. Jacob thinks this is something he may want to do full time when he grows up and Jonah just wants to live on Uranus because it's green in all the books we're reading.  To some degree, I've always thought Jonah lived on another planet, I'm just glad we got to all visit him in his world.

It's been a difficult unit only because I really didn't know a lot about the solar system, but it has been great and all of us have learned a lot.  Next week we head to the moon to continue studying the different phases and and how we can make our own craters in moon sand.  It's looking like it will be a messy week, but usually those are the best ones!  We will spend much more time in our rocket ship we made this week and I'm sure we will have plenty of missions to complete.

I plan on resting while on Earth this weekend and getting as much ground time as possible.  Who knows where we will fly next week, but it is all a part of the journey... for the kids and for me.  I am learning so much more about being a mother while being a teacher this year.  I have never thought God wanted us to do this forever, but I am enjoying the moments that homeschool is a part of with our family.

Off To Israel Tomorrow!

We're headed to one of my most cherished place of memories tomorrow. Our last stop in our Christmas Around The World unit is Israel to visit all the wonderful places Mary and Joseph journeyed to when Jesus was born. I am really excited about this week of study. I went to Israel while I was in college for a study tour. It was a very special time in my life and I have so many incredible memories from my trip. I can't wait to show the boys all my pictures and to open up their world to another place they don't even knowexists as of tonight.

We are learning many things this week, but I think I am most excited about showing them the actual pictures I took of places we will read about in the Christmas story.

I know it brought the Bible to life for me to see all of the things I had only read about and I'm excited to share that with them as well. I want them to know and understand that our faith is real. I want to show them places that we've read about in bedtime stories and they've learned about at Sunday school. I want them to have a realization that church is not just something we do each week, but these things really happened and these places really exist.

I know the boys won't fully grasp everything we study this week, but my objective with this unit has been to open their eyes to the world around them and to bring a curiosity to their minds so that they would want to know more. I know that the last two weeks have accomplished that and I am so excited to see their faces this week more than ever. It is so amazing it is to see your child connect with God's story no matter how that happens. It can and has in so many different ways already.

So, tomorrow I will take them yet again to a new place and time, to experience and begin to realize how amazing Jesus' birth really was.

On Dasher, On Dancer...

We had our final day at the North Pole today in school. I cranked the air down in the school room, turned on the fan, and we all got dressed in our winter duds to visit one last time before heading home. We've had a great week spending time learning about holiday traditions for our own country. We made Christmas cookies with friends, learned how to wrap a present, took a virtual tour of Santa's workshop, played Santa, Santa Where's your present (a Christmas version of Doggie, doggie, where's your bone), did our usual math, science, and language arts, and took a test...Whew, it's been a great week, FULL of excitement and fun times to celebrate the season. Tomorrow we are closing things out with pictures on Santa's lap and a fun day with Daddy. Next week we're off to Israel to learn about Hanukkah and the traditions that Jewish people have during this time of year. We will visit the story of Christmas and what this season is really all about before taking a break and spending good times with our family and friends. This unit has been one of the most fun we've had and will be dear to my heart and the kids at Christmas time for many years to come.