Classic Hilton's

Our days in this season of life follow a very relaxed structure. Each day has such very different demands. While I would prefer to go with the flow, whatever that may be, my kids prefer a more defined plan. They like to know what to expect at any given moment. So our daily rhythm falls somewhere between these two extremes.  My day starts between 6:30 and 7:00 AM with coffee and my Bible. I love connecting through Hello Mornings because of its grace based approach to starting my day in submission to the Lord. Through accountability, community, and Bible study I get that flexible structure I need - a big theme in my life right now! My "early riser" (the four year old) will often join me on the couch while I read. My husband makes breakfast while I enjoy a second cup of coffee and supervise morning chores. By 9 AM he is out the door to work (except when he's not...because that would be too easy.) At this point I give my kids a warning that we will start our school day at 9...

The 2016-2017 Academic Year officially commenced on July 1st, 2016.  I am now the proud (and terrified!) mother teacher of a 5th grader, kindergartner, and pre-k-er.   We planned to start school on Monday July 11th, but an unexpected tour around Lancaster county turned out to be very educational, so we counted it as a field trip and Monday became day 2 of our school year.  We are now in our second week of our summer term, and things are going swimmingly.   We are keeping a light, flexible schedule, leaving plenty of time for impromptu play dates and lots of time outside. We start with "Morning" time, which usually takes place after lunch when it's too hot to be outside.  We read aloud (we finished Roverandom ,and a really bad adaptation of  Peter Pan , and we are currently working through  Cricket in Times Square ) and color for about 10-15 minutes.  Then Brooklyn works on her math while Grayson and I do Calendar time. Madi sort of flits aroun...

Wow.  Just wow.  It is very nearly the end of the school year.  I'm sitting here, counting up our April attendance and realizing that we only need to log seven more days to meet the state requirement. Seven. One week.  Our very first year to educate our children at home is coming to a close.  I'm a little floored. Of course we have more that I want to accomplish than can be done in seven days so we will go on a little bit longer, but still, it's nice to have the ducks in a row.   I can't say enough about how good  God is.  This year will go down in my memory as an unqualified success!  We have learned so much, not only academically, but about our family culture, balancing flexibility with boundaries, and how to serve the Lord in the nitty-gritty day to day stuff of life.  I think the hardest part is yet to come. State requirements dictate that we must create a portfolio, submit to an independent evaluation, and turn in documentatio...

This homeschooling journey has been as much a learning experience for me as it has been for my children. One thing I have learned is the importance of understanding  my  strengths as a mom and teacher.  If our curriculum is made up of hands on projects requiring lots of intensive prep and clean-up...we ARE going to fail. It's a given, because, no thank you! Likewise, if it's nothing but pulling the next worksheet out of a book we won't do so well there either. The best homeschools thrive when everyone's style, including mom's, is taken into consideration.    In Teaching from Rest  (highly recommended!), Sarah Mackenzie uses the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 as a great example of this ( John 6:1-12 ). She encourages moms to come to the table with what they have. Jesus can take our little basket of fish and bread and use it to feed a multitude! We just have to bring our basket. Truth be told, I panicked when I read that the first time.  What is in...

First, let me clarify. I genuinely enjoy homeschooling. The planning and organization can, yes, be a tad overwhelming. Nevertheless, they fall in the sweet spot of my wheelhouse.  I look ahead. It's what I do. In March 2014, I was already planning our whole 2015-2016 academic year.  It is January now, we are about half way through the year and my brain can't help but skip ahead to July and August when my little school will house a 5th grader, KINDERGARTNER, and a 4 year old. It's what I do.  Before you write me off as crazy, I would like to point out that I don't hash out every detail. The farther away I am from an event, the broader my brush strokes. At the start of the year I catch the flavor, figure out our direction. In March-April-May I start making decisions and buying curriculum. By the time our academic year starts in July I have a pretty good birds eye view of what we're going to cover.  Since this is our second year of preschool (and next year will be ou...

As a child January always felt bleak - cold and barren compared to the warmth and bustle of the Christmas season. Now as an adult, a mom, and a teacher it feels like the perfect fresh start. Phase One of the restoration promised with the redemption of Advent. Perfect time to take stock, evaluate growth, and set goals. Personally I am working through a bit of a "who am I?" crisis of the soul, but that is not the topic of this blog.  I started this academic year with much excitement, lots of very detailed plans, and (I think) pretty realistic expectations. As I examine our Fall and Holiday terms, I find myself over the moon pleased with how things have gone. I think maybe the Lord (who has very much been the leader of this little endeavor!) allowed things to progress smoothly. Maybe he knew I would need validation or maybe he's giving me some good memories to hold on to when things get difficult down the road. Or maybe it's true that peace is a natural byproduct of or...

October 24, 2015 We have officially completed our Fall Term* of the 2015-2016 Academic Year! (Loud cheers and confetti!) *Explanation: During my planning at the beginning of the year I broke the academic year (July 1-June30) into six terms. They are all approximately six weeks with breaks falling when we need them to and around holidays, etc. I use this as a very flexible guide to keep me on track, mostly for those days when I just don't "feel" like doing school. I know we have some wiggle room available, and the idea of doing school in June (yuck!) is usually enough motivation to persevere.  To date we have logged 73 of our required 180 days. I saw a discussion recently on what "counts" as a school day, especially when such a big part of our educational goals has to do with character and life skills. Do I count the hour my nine year old learned how to do laundry as school? What about the random discussion we had about Bhutan after church? Geography? Check...

I see lots of posts and blogs and hear from other moms about how overwhelming homeschooling is. I have had moments, sure, but my over all experience has been so good. I even posted an update recently about how smooth things are going and wondering what am I doing wrong? It's too easy! But the truth has caught up to me at last. As it turns out, I am very much an overwhelmed homeschool mom, just not about the homeschool part.  Let me 'splain. I genuinely enjoy planning, preping, teaching, and even grading. Once I dug into planning and figured out how it was going to work (thank you - Amongst Lovely Things spiral notebooks !) I just loved it. I know it will get harder and more frustrating, but whatever. Right now it's my happy place. What overwhelms me - what has always overwhelmed me - is keeping up with the rest of the house. Dishes...laundry...clutter... shopping...cooking...again...again! ARGH! While I have made huge strides in my housekeeping skills over the last ten ye...

Things are going so well on the homeschool front, I can't help but think...am I doing something wrong? Not enough? Too much? I actually spent about 45 minutes today agonizing over a spelling program that is working fine but doesn't feel as cool as this other one I was considering. Ultimately I remembered that the program she is doing is perfectly respectable and not adding any stress to our work day so let's go ahead and keep it and maybe next year go in the different direction if I still want to. But seriously...45 minutes!  Is there not enough real drama in life to keep me busy that I must over analyze the program we have just started working through? Sheesh! We have been in school for about 65 days. We started co-op and Discovery Clubs at church. Brooklyn is in ballet, and most recently started rehearsals for a Christmas show and one of the local venues. We have a good routine going and have exercised our flexibility options without everything flying off the rails. A...

Whew.  That's just about all I have in me at this moment. Just a tired yet contented sigh. We are about halfway through our second full day of school. To date we have logged about 45 days. Field trips, camps, workshops, and historical readings throughout the summer mean that we are in great shape at the start of our year. Tuesday marked, not so much our first day of school, but our first day diving into our full time fall term schedule. The one where we make formal education the priority of our day, including pre-school two days a week.  We made the decision to homeschool back in March. That's when I started dreaming and planning. Over the last five months I have planned and prepared and freaked out and planned more. Then I had a reality check and planned less, raised hope, lowered expectations and then raised and lowered them again. Some necessary refurbishment of our home threw the house into chaos the last two weeks of August, and naturally it took longer than anticipat...

I am excited. September 15th is coming. God has been preparing my heart and my head for this day for a long time. September 15th will be the official first day of school for the Hilton Home Academy. I've been practically homeschooling for three years now (via university model schools and cyber school), but for the first time we are official, registered with the district as homeschoolers and I am 100% in charge of how and when and why and what we will study. Whew! It takes me forever to process any given situation, which is why I didn't start homeschooling right out of the gate. But as I look back over our educational journey, I see how each administration worked for our family at that particular time and place and how they have contributed to shaping my hopes and dreams for our family.  There are a few resources that have played a significant role in my Plan-making. A Well Trained Mind  by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer - INVALUABLE! This book walks you through the class...