🌸🐝🌸 Happy Spring, Safe Haven Family! 🌸🐝🌸
In last month’s newsletter I promised that I would share a powerful experience that showed me learning is always at work. Even when we’re not actively teaching a skill like reading, our kids’ brains are constantly processing, connecting, and building on prior knowledge. Learning doesn’t pause—it unfolds in the background, shaping understanding and mastery in ways we might not even notice. Here’s that story:
Patrick was my elusive student. No matter how hard I tried, I could never pin him down for homeschooling. He was always outside—riding his bike, running, climbing, and exploring. When I did manage to sit him down, he had no interest in workbooks. The only exception was his Phonics book, Explode the Code. He liked the cover illustration of “Big Tex” and would do a page without too much fuss—when I could catch him. I’m pretty sure he was hiding from me.
Anna, on the other hand, worked steadily through her Phonics book with little resistance. She moved through it at a good pace, and eventually, both she and Patrick finished their Phonics books around the same time.
Expecting them to be ready to read, I introduced the Bob Books. They did okay at first, but when we moved to the next level readers, neither of them could read them. I was stunned. My approach had worked for my first two kids, but not for Patrick and Anna.
Then all of the drama of losing our house and living with others happened. Homeschooling was put on pause for months because of the chaos in our lives. We left Ohio and went to Arizona, then to Kansas City, and finally “settled” there in Kansas City after being without a place of our own for 10 months. We had lots of adventures and new experiences during those months but no time for bookwork or anything like that.
A couple of months later, after I got my bearings, I pulled out the beginning readers again for Patrick and Anna. This time, they could read them with ease. Somehow they had both learned to read during that crazy hectic time in our lives. It was not through direct instruction, that’s for sure. I think their brains developed enough, and the skills necessary to read fell in place during that time.
It was a humbling reminder: learning doesn’t always follow a straight path. Sometimes, kids just need time for things to click.
🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝
🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝
I’m sending this newsletter a few days early so you can catch this flash sale at Crafty Classroom. It only lasts until March 30. They’re giving us:
10% off $50
15% off $75
20% off $100
25% off $200
This is one of my favorite homeschool curriculum providers, so I wanted to make you aware of this before it’s too late!
🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝
Subscribe to Your Homeschool Companion on Substack! My friend Elisabeth, the heart behind Your Homeschool Companion, has been my mentee for years, and now we’re teaming up on TikTok and Substack to encourage and support homeschool moms—especially those who feel unqualified to teach their own children.
Our message is simple: true learning is a lifestyle, not just a part of the day.
We share practical tips, personal stories, and answers to common questions, all to help moms feel confident and empowered in their homeschooling journey.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Substack, too—HERE!
Someday I’ll have a farm.
And these are the kinds of animals I’ll have.
I’m sure you’ll all want to come to visit my mini farm of miniature animals.
I want to have a learning and creative arts center that will be a place for homeschoolers to bring their children for enrichment and to supplement their homeschool curriculum.
In one part of the Learning center, we will have a big open area filled with learning stations. They will include hands-on activities and manipulatives to encourage discovery and experimentation. This area is intended for ages 4-8.
Another part of the center will consist of rooms for classes for art, music, and technical skills. Children ages 5-18 will be able to take these classes.
There will be a section for some classrooms for the older children (ages 6-14) who are homeschooled whose parents want more formal instruction using the Charlotte Mason method.
A separate part of The Learning Center will be a Barn where we will do hippotherapy with several horses.
What is Hippotherapy?
The term hippotherapy refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology professionals use evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in the purposeful manipulation of equine movement as a therapy tool to engage sensory, neuromotor and cognitive systems to promote functional outcomes.
We will also have other small farm animals for a Petting Zoo. We will have some miniature animals like goats, sheep, and horses. We will have chickens and rabbits. The children will have the opportunity to interact with the animals and help feed them and otherwise care for them.
Another area of The Learning Center will be The Greenhouse. We will have a large greenhouse where we will grow vegetables and flowers. The children will learn how to grow plants and will be able to take some produce home with them for their families. BC Greenhouse Builders Limited builds custom greenhouses that are built to last in any climate.
We will sell some of the produce and eggs to the community, too.
We will have a butterfly house too. The Butterfly House will be open to the public. We will use it as an educational facility. We will encourage others to plant butterfly gardens to increase the populations of endangered butterflies.
What dreams do you have?
Start making some plans. If you could do anything you wanted to do – if money were no object – what would you do? Would you be a humanitarian? Would you travel? Would you start a school? Would you feed the poor?
What would you do for your family, for your kids?
🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝
Next month, I’ll share a story with you about the importance of finding out your child’s learning style and preference in books.
🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝🌸🐝
Thank you for sharing this time with me. I pray that it has been a blessing to you.
As always, I would love to hear from you!
Let me know how I can pray and what’s going on in your life. If anything here has helped you in your homeschooling or in your life, please share with me so I can rejoice with you.
I would love to share your stories in this newsletter if you have something that would encourage others in homeschooling, their spiritual life, or just life in general. Hit reply, and tell me what’s on your heart.
Grace and Peace,
Penney Douglas, B. S. in Elem. Ed.
Curriculum I’ve created with a Charlotte Mason twist plus other conventional types of curriculum
E-course I created – The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling
Coaching Course I created – Also called The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling – I take you through the course and do a coaching call with you each month
My shop for homeschool merch, t-shirts, mugs, notebooks, phone covers, and much more!
Changed By Love – My original Blog about Homeschooling, Family, Faith, and Alternative News
My YouTube Channel – Safe Haven Homeschooling Channel – Homeschool Encouragement for Newbies and Burnt-out veterans, Family projects, Relationship Building, and Interviews with Homeschool Experts
|
|
|
Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/penneymaried
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
https://www.angelpenn.com/i-still-do/
