Lecks Learning: January 2011

2011 has just begun and already we are seeing so many victories in the Leck household!! I'll start with my most favorite! Clayton is ready to be baptized!! On February 22 last year Clayton, who had been asking questions for sometime about what a Christian is, sat at the table asking about heaven and while I rambled on he prayed on his own to except the awesome gift of Christ living in his heart!!!! When I stopped talking I asked if he felt ready to ask the Lord to live in his heart and he said,"mom, I already did, just now!" That was a great day, he wasn't ready to be baptized at church yet so we have just waited and now he's ready!!! God is so good!! So the last Sunday of January he will be baptized by his daddy!!! Victory#1!!

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. ~Philippians 1:6

We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. ~Colossians 1:3

Victory #2

One of the greatest challenges for children is learning to read, especially for boys. Anyone can learn to read, the challenge is teaching it in a way that they learn to love and desire reading. I'm so thankful that on my quest, and while I was still deciding if homeschooling was right for our family, I found great seasoned homeschooling families. Somehow I got into contact with women who love to mentor families and moms in this area. Every single one who started homeschooling in the 80's when resources were limited say they wished they had known to wait to push reading especially with their boys. As they went along their journey of teaching their children they discovered that if they forced their child's brain to memorize words then sure they could read, but in order to not become board with the process and the task of reading, they needed more of life's experiences to actually draw a picture in their mind of what they were reading. They encouraged me to read, read, read out loud to them, to then talk about what we had just read and then review the next day to see how much they had absorbed. As Clayton and I went along one thing I did was to let him read out loud to me but once we hit a mind block and he and I both became frustrated, we stopped took a break from all of it and I just read aloud to him and then we reviewed what was read. Once I got back into reviewing the phonics sounds and rules he seemed to have grasped what we had done before and was ready to move back into it. We did this for at least a year. In the last weeks of December 2010 I decided that Clayton would start with the easy readers and read 1 book aloud to me a day, we moved up to the next level pretty quickly and now he is reading easy chapter books!!! The best part is that he LOVES to read!! He really likes to read in his bed, eventually I'll put a stop to this but right now I want him to savor this time, to grow his love for reading. One of the best books to help us accomplish this is a book titled, The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I have been blessed and humbled during this process. I love that I can teach my children, and that they love to be taught by me!!! What a gift!!

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that you labor is not in vain in the Lord. ~1 Corinthians 15:58

This is his current favorite read!!

Now on to our next great feat, CHORES!!! I implement chores as part of our homeschool simply because I'm preparing them for life in the adult world. Home Economics usually doesn't start until Middle school. Why wait so long? I believe if you start teaching life skills early then its ingrained in them. It becomes habit for them to get up, make their bed, get dressed, eat and clean up breakfast. If they are in the habit of doing these things from early childhood, then it won't be hard to do them later, their bodies just do it. Not only just those things but I teach them how to unload dishwashers, do laundry the right way, fold and put away. They are learning how to put things in the right places daily and to vacuum. This sounds like allot and you might be wondering how we find time in there for school subjects, but when we are all working together and we have set times for specific chores then it gets done in far more efficient time then if I'm doing it alone AND trying to teach them their appropriate subjects. Plus what favor am I doing them or myself if I waited until they were older to teach them these habits? Why wait and receive more protest? Children LOVE to help and imitate "big people" things. Sooo... here is our victory with chores ( well victory in progress)

Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established. ~Proverbs 16:3