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.
My son and daughter-in-law interviewed me about my thoughts on homeschooling. I homeschooled my son, Shawn, all the way through high school and beyond. We still read books together up until he got married and left home!
And now he reads books aloud to his wife, Brandi!
Needless to say, he considers his homeschool experience a very successful one.
I also homeschooled his 9 brothers and sisters, so I had lots of homeschool experience!
Shawn and Brandi are experienced podcasters, so they wanted to do an episode with their mom to talk about what homeschooling is like.
Homeschooling with Confidence: The Power of Asking for Help
I used to feel like I had to do everything myself—to show how strong and independent I was. At the time, I had several young children and homeschooled them. My house was a mess, but I never asked for help.
Instead, I doubled down. I tried to prove I could do it all and didn’t need assistance. I took on even more, spending my summers doing homeschool assessments, leaving me frazzled and barely keeping my kids clean and fed. I was struggling to keep all the balls in the air.
Then one day, a lady at my house for a homeschool assessment pointed out that I already had plenty of help right there—my kids! She suggested I let them pitch in by helping clean the house and doing chores. At first, the idea seemed foreign to me, but I decided to give it a try. I started a chore chart, and to my surprise, my life became so much easier.
That experience taught me a valuable lesson: I had to admit I needed help before I could get the help I needed.
If you feel like you have to prove something by doing everything yourself, I want to encourage you to think differently. Imagine how much better your homeschooling journey could be with support from someone who has been there and understands the joys and challenges of homeschooling.
You don’t have to do it all alone. You don’t have to prove anything. With guidance and coaching, you can homeschool with confidence. My experience and expertise can help you feel assured about the choices you’re making for your homeschool. Together, we can navigate the ups and downs, and you’ll discover that you’re doing a great job. Let’s make this journey easier and more joyful—together.
I’d love to be your homeschool life coach and support you on this journey.
Penney Douglas has homeschooled her 10 kids for 25 years. She has a degree in Education and taught in public school. She LOVES learning! And she LOVES kids!
So, this is me. I want to see KIDS LOVE LEARNING. I want to see kids live in a learning environment. I am doing my best to help moms to relax and enjoy their time with their kids. Homeschooling is the perfect opportunity to build a close, tight-knit, loving family. That’s my vision for homeschooling.
You are building a cathedral. Your family and each of your individual children are precious to God, and He has great plans for you. So, really do your best to provide a warm, loving environment for your children in your home. Yes, we have to provide an education, but it does not have to be done the way schools do it. There are so many fun, enjoyable, delightful ways to teach our children. We can find out what they are interested in and want to learn more about and go with that!
Please consider taking this course to learn about learning and come along with us as we make homeschooling delightful, effective, and fearless.
E-course by Penney and Shawn Douglas – The Basics of Learning and Homeschooling
https://changed-by-love.teachable.com…
And check out Penney Douglas’s Author Page on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/author/penneyd…
This document is chock full of good Christmas School ideas:
file:///C:/Users/penne/Documents/Fun%20Ways%20to%20Homeschool%20Through%20the%20Holidays%20-%20December.pdf
Safe Haven Homeschooling Store on TPT – Curriculum for Charlotte Mason Homeschoolers and Everyone else
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/s…
Freebie:
Charlotte Mason Lite
file:///C:/Users/penne/Documents/Charlotte%20Mason%20Lite%20(1).pdf
Safe Haven Homeschooling Blog
https://safehavenhomeschool.com
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
https://changed-by-love.teachable.com…
Safe Haven Homeschool Shop for homeschool merch, t-shirts, mugs, notebooks, phone covers, and much more!
https://safe-haven-homeschool-shop.pr…
https://linktr.ee/penneydouglas – All the places you can find me!
Changed By Love – My original Blog about Homeschooling, Family, Faith, and Alternative News
https://penneydouglas.com
Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/penneymaried
Mother and Child
"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
"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
