What Do You Do...When You Reach The End of Your Journey? {Homeschooling: Keeping It Real Series}

When you begin your homeschooling journey, you rarely think about the end. I mean, most homeschooling families have more than one child, so they are looking at YEARS before the journey is over. And so you just focus on the ups and downs in front of you. The endless planning. The endless record keeping. Piles of curriculum. Overflowing bookshelves. Field trips. Never really thinking about the fact that one day you will be at the end of your journey. Every now and then though we might secretly wonder "What does it look like over there on the other side?"  Today's installment of the Homeschooling: Keeping It Real Series will let us do just that. Carol of Home Sweet Life is sharing what her view is like--with one daughter graduating from high school, and the other only 2 years away--13 years since the time she began her journey...

The view from where I sit today looks so very different from the view 12 years ago. Back then I had two little girls, just starting out. Ok, who am I kidding, I had one who was super excited to be finishing Kindergarten, and one who couldn’t care less if she ever started school. Emily was almost six, Arlene was almost four, Emily wanted desperately to unlock the key to reading… and Arlene, she only wanted to be read to, cuddled on my lap,… and to avoid finger paint at all costs!

Today I have  Senior who will graduate High School in December, and a Sophomore who sometimes struggles with her more advanced Algebra problems. Today I’m thinking about how I need to actually type up Emily’s transcript soon, and what we should be purchasing for Arlene to work on in the Fall.

How did this humongous transformation take place? 

One day at a time.

Avoiding the Comparison Trap {Homeschooling: Keeping It Real Series}

I am happy to share with you the next post in my continuing Homeschooling: Keeping it Real Series for 2016. This series continues to focus on all the behind the scenes rawness that homeschooling families face. These are things that are challenges. Issues that can wear a homeschool parent down. But the purpose of the series is to show you, that you are NOT alone! There are hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS of families going through the same ups and downs. So please, continue to look at this series as a way for me, and others to encourage YOU in your homeschooling journey! My post today comes from my dear friend (and fellow farm mama) Paige who blogs at Freedom Trail Mama. Paige shares a confession today that I am sure EVERY homeschooling parent faces at one point in their adventure...but it's one that many of us continue to get caught up in over and over again.

When my husband and I started looking into homeschooling, it was way back when we just had one precious baby who was only 6 months old. We started out pretty ignorant about homeschooling, but the more we read about it, the more we were convinced that it would give us the best chance at the most excellent education for our children. And for the next 5 years we remained convinced of this fact.

When we started our homeschooling journey, we had 4 little girls, age 5 and under. And let me tell you, by then I was not the fresh, young, 25 yr old mother of one baby who slept through the night by age 4 months….no sir. Now I was 30, had been pregnant or breastfeeding almost constantly for 6 years, and couldn’t recall the last time I’d had a great night’s sleep. Or a shower, some days. In addition, my house was a mess. Like, all the time.

Homeschooling When Your Child is Deaf {Homeschooling: Keeping It Real Series}

I am pleased to share with you a beautiful post written by my friend Sara who blogs at Adventures at the Hawk's Nest. She has graciously and eagerly written a post for my Homeschooling: Keeping It Real Series in which she shares about an unexpected adventure and challenge she and her husband faced, after adopting their beautiful son two years ago. Without further ado, I turn the microphone over to Sara to let her share her story...

Our son arrived home on December 10, 2014. We knew, long before then, that we wanted to home school any children we might have. But we hadn’t anticipated the extra challenges that could be waiting for us now.
Ethan was 19 months old and had lived most of his life, up to that point, in a foster home in Kunming, China. 
Our son was also deaf.

10 Things I've learned and Loved Being a Beginner: Our Homeschool Story~ Guest Post {Homeschooling: Keeping It Real}

Today's installment of my Homeschooling: Keeping it Real series features a guest post from my friend Charlotte who blogs over at Sewing Little Seeds. 

We are new at homeschooling, so new that we can’t even really give advice on programs, schools, classes, co-ops, local homeschool events, discounts, curriculum, learning styles, or anything like that. BUT…I can tell you that we LOVE it! I can tell you that my children are happy and flourishing and that those shameful “behaviors” that the school system couldn’t stop complaining about long enough to actually try to help anyone…well, they are pretty much gone. The decision changed our lives. There is no stress, no crying about school, no mysterious illnesses to get out of school, no teacher’s notes, no medication, few behavioral issues, and something wonderful instead. HAPPINESS. So, today, I am going to share with you “Ten Things I've Learned and Loved Being a Beginner: Our Homeschool Story.”

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

1. Biting the Bullet 

The most challenging thing thus far has been actually coming to the crossroads in our children's education and then making the decision to do it--to pull them from public school. This is probably the largest part of my story, as I fought the notion to homeschool for nearly 6 years before I had the faith to do it! Then I had to overcome the fear of messing up my kids. We were trying our best to provide for our children’s educations, while one of them began to struggle with behaviors at school and was labeled ADHD. It led to a subsequent diagnosis and a medication trial we would quickly regret. 

Things at the time seemed great at home. Sure there were bad days and times where she didn’t listen well, but nothing that in my eyes constituted labeling her a problem child; however, I received a different story from her teachers. I received notes describing worries for her maturity and her ability to keep up with school work, as well as complaints that she couldn’t sit still for very long and that she got distracted easily. Not a big deal really in just one child, unless you have 25 or so other children to deal with as you try to teach something. I began to suspect the teacher was simply too overwhelmed to work with an outside-the-box, more active child. She just couldn’t (wouldn't?) adjust the classroom or plans to help my daughter learn at her best, so we decided after much discussion and prayer that after winter break, she and her little brother wouldn’t return to school. Once decided, we moved with swift action to complete registration with an umbrella school and then the journey began…you can read more about the early days on my blog.

2) The Insanity of Choosing The Curriculum 

If you have ever considered homeschooling, then I am sure you have seen the plethora of curriculum options out there and probably thought to yourself that it seemed overwhelming. 

You are right. It is. 

I waded through the idea of purchasing a full curriculum. I heavily considered A Beka as I chatted with representatives, calculated the cost, tried to tell myself it would provide the accountability I needed as a parent, and that it would snuff out my fear of messing up my kids. However, something about bringing the classroom into the home (which is what the online academy does) seemed counter productive, especially considering that the goal for our family was to tailor school to fit my kids and not tailor my kids to fit school. So, I tossed the idea of a full blown created-for-me curriculum out the window. As I researched homeschooling styles, I began to feel like I had no idea what I was doing and that’s simply because, well, I didn’t. I began to read articles and blogs about how others approached homeschooling and it led to something quite unexpected and beyond wonderful.

3) The Importance and Joy of De-schooling 

In my exploration of different articles and blogs, I read an article about de-schooling. De-schooling is something that is done immediately after pulling your children from public school. It is the idea of doing nothing in regards to formal education, while you enjoy life---basically observing and enjoying your children. This allowed me to get a feel for their personalities, their best time of day for learning, and see their natural tendencies towards activities as I looked for and recognized clues to discover their individual learning styles. THIS experience led to a sudden revelation.  

4) Allowing them to direct things. It's liberating!

My 6yr old little girl loves to read. Her best time of day is split; she an early morning learner and an early evening learner. We started with Bible study in the morning, followed by a break, then I used this website called Easy Peasy Homeschool for ideas. She began asking for a Math book.

5) Tailoring the Subjects to Suit Them

Now that I can see their interests, I can tailor our subjects to fit THEM. Science projects, Bible study, making up a reading program so my daughter can read her favorite books. She is a reader, like me, and absorbs things well this way. So, when she requested an actual Math book (a subject her teacher had been particularly concerned about), I began looking for ideas. A friend recommended this Math curriculum called Life of Fred.

6) Discovering the Goodness that is Life of Fred Math 

As I mentioned previously, my daughter learns best by reading and she is an advanced reader. When she asked for an actual math book, I started looking around and Life of Fred math series was recommended to me. I got on their website and sampled the first chapter. Color me impressed! I set out to try it. So, one night I sat her down with a copy of the first chapter and she breezed through it. It is tailored for her learning style. It is quite an enjoyable story line and math concepts are part of the story. I got a chance to order the first several books and WE LOVE IT. We also got the early readers for her little brother who is Pre-K age. He is already reading! So, Life of Fred? Yes, it really is THAT good. (shameless plug for endorsement lol)

7) Discovering My Daughter is an Advanced Reader

She was reading first grade level at school and blowing through the tiny books she brought home. I had bought a few early chapter books awhile back, so one day I introduced her to the hilarity that is Junie B. Jones and Judy Moody (which are roughly at level 2-3). She was so good at reading and comprehension that we quickly moved to the Magic Tree House books and the Boxcar Children. She blew me away reading fluidly and her comprehension level astounded me, as I quizzed her weekly. She remember fine details of the story that even you and I might not recall. 

8.) Feeling a Sense of Purpose

The day my friend sent me the link to the movie Indoctrination, gave me a feeling that God had given me a sense of purpose and solidified our decision to homeschool. As many would say, I did have a brief period of feeling I had bitten off more than I could chew and that perhaps, I had made a poor hasty decision. That is, until the day my friend sent me the link to watch Indoctrination for free. Being the curious person that I am, I watched it. I took notes and sent numerous messages to my husband. Although I didn’t really need further confirmation that it was the right decision, it certainly helped solidify some underlying feelings I’d had about school. I felt a little more certain and empowered to face the beast of fear deep down inside me and that day through this movie, my personal Bible study, and talk time with God….that sneaky fear-mongering devil was defeated. 

9) Refusing to get caught up in bringing the classroom home

A challenge that a lot of homeschoolers face is being caught up in making your homeschool, just a home version of the public school classroom. I am refusing to get caught up in bringing the classroom home, but rather making learning an experience and an enjoyable one at that. I cannot express enough that the key for homeschool to work for us was in de-schooling (like debriefing--giving your child a chance to release from the public school setting) and letting God take the fear of messing up my kids away from me. It has been the greatest blessing to realize that my child wasn’t struggling with school work, but, rather the stress of conforming to fit inside the little box you are required to fit in to be accepted and successful in public school.  Obviously, she didn’t fit inside their little box...in fact, she blew the edges off! She loves learning and her little brother is just trucking along behind her. 

10) Discovering local homeschool resources

One day, we visited the local Hands of Science Center with a homeschooling friend. We had planned to spend the morning letting them explore and then having lunch and letting them play somewhere. When we stepped up to the counter, a lady excitedly exclaimed, “Oh! Are you guys homeschoolers?” To which we happily replied, “yes, we are!” She then gave us several schedules for age appropriate activities for our children and a schedule for a homeschool program. There was one that afternoon and she invited us to come. The program was called Arcs and Sparks and featured experiments about electricity. We were all enamored and excited. We renewed our membership so we could attend the activities; it was a worthy investment.

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In summary, homeschool has resulted in improving my personal outlook on life, and reaffirmed (through God) that I am making good decisions for my family. I love seeing them enjoy school, get excited over books coming in the mail, learning without a major struggle or fighting to make them complete something, and finally, we have enjoyed a increased closeness in our family as this decision affects so many aspects in our lives! We are so thankful for God leading us to this decision. We are homeschoolers and this is our homeschool story!

Meet Charlotte

My name is Charlotte. My husband, David and I, have three fearfully and wonderfully children ages 4,6, and 14. We live in Manchester, TN.  I currently homeschool our two youngest ones and our oldest is finishing this year at school and will join us next year. I am also a full time night shift nurse. Homeschooling can definitely be successful while holding a job. It has really been the adventure of a lifetime. I casually blog about our homeschooling journey at sewinglittleseeds.blogspot.com. I pray our story about the journey that led us to homeschooling is an encouragement and a blessing to anyone who reads it.

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I hope that you enjoyed this post sharing the behind the scenes about things that a new homeschooling parent has learned during her early days of her new adventure. This is my third installment of Homeschooling: Keeping It Real series. I hope that you are enjoying this look behind the scenes at what it's like to be a homeschooler, and will continue to check back in for the rest of the series as we continue to give you honest and real peaks at our lives!

Fresh From the Kitchen: Kickin' Up the Heat with Green-Chile Corn

Summer time means that your garden starts producing tasty things for you to start incorporating into your daily meals! Things like corn, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon...and much much more! We always harvest corn and peppers so I'm always seeking out ways to use our harvest. This recipe for Green-Chile Corn is definitely a way to use up some of that corn--and maybe even some home canned chiles! If you like Tex-Mex, you have got to try this recipe from today's guest blogger Lori of At Home: where life happens!

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

I am spoiled by having a fantastic grocery store that has fresh foods year round. And if they don't have it fresh, they probably have it frozen. We are spoiled for that year round freshness. However, there is almost nothing to beat fresh-from-the-garden corn. I love it!

I'll share a tid-bit with you, though. I like it even more when you add good, fresh New Mexico green chile. I am a NM girl, through and through. And there is a difference in taste to me when it comes to green chile. I want mine from Hatch or 505, if possible. If not, somewhere in NM.

Now, take those two amazing flavors and mix them together and you have my absolute, all-time favorite dish. Toss in a little cheese and it will be perfect. I have been known to eat that as my entire meal. And, I'll be completely satisfied. But, if that doesn't sound like a meal to you, try it as a side dish. It is just as good and complements any grilled main dish or roasted meat, such as chicken or fish, well.

Don't trust me, though. Try it for yourself!

Green-Chili Corn

Ingredients for 4 1/2 C servings:

*2 C fresh or frozen corn kernels

*1/4 C green chile **see note below**

*1/2 C grated cheddar cheese

Just mix these ingredients together, heat, and serve. You can add or reduce each ingredient to your liking. This is the combination that seems to please the most people, but the amount of heat in the green chile is known to vary widely.

**I prefer my green chile canned in a jar. It will be green chile, some lime, and maybe a little salt. That is all it needs. There are several brands from NM but I know that 505 will ship in the US and theirs is really good. You can get Hatch brand chile in a can in lots of places. There is also frozen green chile but that is a lot harder to find.

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I am Lori and you can visit me: At Home: where life happens. I enjoy writing and share about the education of our three girls at home, product reviews, and life in general. We laugh, love, and have fun while striving to serve God. Please stop by to see what we are up to.

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Oh my. Doesn't that just make you want to give it a try? I think it must be fabulous and I'm planning on trying it this summer as a side with some of our grilling meals! Speaking of grilling, now would be a great time for you to also check out my post with 5 Tasty Marinade and Rub Recipes! Or you could wash it down with a glass of Summer Fun Lemonade!

Fresh from the Kitchen: Lemonade (A Kid Made, Kid Approved Recipe)

Summer means hot weather. Hot weather means cool and refreshing drinks. Cool and refreshing drinks to me mean...FRESH MADE LEMONADE!! I adore lemonade during the summer, don't you? I am tickled to share a guest post today from a JUNIOR blogger, Miss L! Miss L's mom blogs over at At Home: where life happens, (one of my frequent blogs to read) and I was happy to have her daughter guest post with her favorite homemade summer yum, lemonade recipe today!

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links. 

Lemonade is a fun, easy drink to make, and a lot of the ingredients are either easy to find at the store, or you already have at home. It's easy to make, and I usually only take about five minutes to make it. It's really tasty, too. I prefer no ice in mine, but to some people it's better with. Either way, lemonade is great!

To make your lemonade:

1. Gather your ingredients. You will need a two cup measuring cup, a pitcher, water, sugar, a spoon, and lemon juice.

2. I usually put all the liquid stuff in first, but you can do it either way. Put in two cups of water and about half a cup of lemon juice.

3. Put in the sugar. I do about one cup but this part really depends on how sweet or sour you like your lemonade.

4. Mix it up real good, until you can't feel the spoon grinding the sugar.

5. Pour into glasses and enjoy! This recipe makes about four servings of lemonade. At this stage, you can add a little extra lemon juice if you want to. This makes it a little bit more sour.

I hope you enjoyed!

This recipe and how-to was written by the middle of the three giggly girls from their mom's blog At Home: where life happens. She is 9 years old and loves to dance, read, and be creative in a lot of different ways. You might find her writing poetry, creating doll sized items for her "girls", skating, scootering, or playing with her sisters. At any rate, lemonade is her favorite drink and she hopes you like it as much as she does.

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Doesn't that look so refreshing? Her recipe is so simple, I bet your own children will enjoy making it! My boys love tossing in berries and smashing them in their glasses for an extra treat. We also pour our lemonade into our Popsicle holders for a frozen treat. However you make it, it will be a great summer treat!

Fresh from the Garden: 5 Reasons to Love Gardening

As soon as the snows take over my farm, I start longing for spring. I feed that spring fever by ordering seed catalogs. I love to garden and ordering seed catalogs helps me get through the cold days and look forward to spring. There are many reasons that people like to garden…but I've narrowed it down to the five main ones that cause me to eagerly await it every year.

Click here to read my guest post over at Jebbica's World!

Fresh from the Kitchen: 5 Tasty Marinade and Rub Recipes

I'm tickled to share with you a guest post from Jessica who blogs at Jebbica's World! She is going to help kick off a great BBQ season with a collection of her favorite homemade rubs and marinades!

Summer is fast-approaching, and that means that it’s...grilling season! Here are some great rubs and marinades that are perfect for your grilled meats and vegetables!

1. Bakers’ House Seasoning

This is super simple to throw together and tastes great on everything! This is my sister’s recipe and is named after her family.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup salt

• ¼ cup ground black pepper

• 1/8 cup garlic powder

• 1/8 cup onion powder

2. JJ’s Steak Marinade

We’ve tried a lot of fancy steak marinades over the years, but we always end up going back to this one, because it really adds to a medium-cooked steak without overpowering it. Let’s face it—we want the steak to be the star!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup red wine

  (we use whatever we have, which is usually a Cabernet or Malbec…and it’s totally okay to use one that’s maybe been open and sitting in the fridge a few days that might not taste so great by itself!)

• ¼ cup lemon juice

• ¼ balsamic vinegar

• ¼ cup olive oil

• ¼ cup spicy mustard

• 1 tbsp minced garlic (or 1 clove minced)

• 1 tsp horseradish

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 1 tsp cracked black pepper

Directions: 

Mix ingredients together and pour into a heavy-duty plastic food bag (gallon freezer bags work well). Place steak in bag and seal. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, flipping bag a time or two in between. Keep the marinade to baste the steak when you’re grilling!

3. JJ’s Grilled Veggie Skewer Marinade

Try this with meat, or without!

Ingredients:

• ½ cup olive oil

• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

• ¼ cup lemon juice

• 2 tbsp spicy mustard

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp minced garlic

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp cracked black pepper

4. “Jude’s Butt Rub”

Great for just about any kind of meat or BBQ! This is my sister’s recipe and is named after my little nephew, Jude.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup kosher salt

• ¼ cup brown sugar

• 1/8 cup paprika

• 2 tbsp chili powder

• 2 tbsp onion powder

• 2 tbsp garlic powder

• 1 tbsp ground black pepper

• 1 tbsp ground cumin

• 1 tsp ground ginger

5. JJ’s Wasabi Rub

This is somewhere in between a marinade and a dry rub. It creates a kind of paste that you can baste onto burgers, chops, seafood, and more! It seems like it would be spicy, but in the end it creates this kind of tangy crust that really lends itself well to grilled meats.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup brown sugar

• ¼ cup wasabi paste

• ½ cup balsamic vinegar

• ¼ cup horseradish

• ¼ cup spicy mustard

• 1/8 cup Old Bay seasoning

• 2 tsp Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

• 1 tsp cracked black pepper

Directions:

Mix everything together and rub into the outside of the meat of your choice. 

Will turn black-ish when grilled!

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Want to print these off for later? 

   Printable 5 Tasty Marinade and Rub Recipes

What are your favorite go-to rubs and marinades for the grilling season? 
Which of these sounds the most tasty to you?

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Meet my guest blogger:

Jessica Bowman is a grilling fanatic…at least when it comes to the eating part! She makes grilling a regular part of her healthy weight loss journey in the warmer months and integrates many grilled foods into her healthy lifestyle. So far, she has lost over 50 of 75 lbs! 

Follow her journey and check out other helpful healthy tips at Jebbica’s World and make sure you come find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+ to keep up with her adventures!

Strengthening the Sibling Bonds through Homeschooling~Guest Post by EHM

Today I have another guest post treat to share with you! Here is a great post about the benefits of homeschooling in relation to the bonds between siblings...brought to you by Enchanted Homeschooling Mom!

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If you are like me you sometimes get the comments around your activities or at the park that since your children are homeschooled they are not getting enough social interaction and that they will become anti-social or something along those lines. I know that I try to ignore those comments because I know better. I also know that family is important too. To me, homeschooling has actually brought my family closer together, especially Beck and Elizabeth.

It may be true that as homeschoolers my children do not have all the friends that brick and mortar school children will, but there are other ways that I compensate to afford them the opportunity to make friends. These range from park days, to sports, our co-op round-ups, and to other activities that those same children are all doing. And then there is the one thing that everyone else neglects: they have each other. Beck and Elizabeth are not only classmates and siblings, but they are also the best of friends.

Every child deserves to have as many friends as they want and should be able to choose them. That is a good philosophy, but we all know that children have a knack for finding and developing friendship with almost any other child they meet. I know that Beck wears his heart on his sleeve most of the time. This is even true when he is at the park because he loves to just play and have fun. I do worry that someday he will get hurt, but each and every time he plays with someone else at the park he has fun. They play this or that, or even just run around playing some game. The bottom-line is he is interacting with the other children. I see no evidence that he is isolated from other children and is antisocial. It is even better too because I see a lot of other children out there that will not share their toys or even playground equipment. Beck just rolls with it and finds something else to play with or on. I am proud of him in those moments because he has the skills to see what is happening and just move on.

Elizabeth on the other hand is not as open with others and tends to be shy in nature, but when her best friend, her brother, is around you will find them both playing with others. They also look for other children to play with them. They do not care about the typical boundaries either. They love to play with and try to make friends with children older and younger then themselves, but they do have some conditions, they must be having fun. This is always inspiring to see that when they are together they love to play with others too, and they always seem to find a way to share. So I guess having your brother or sister as a best friend makes it easier to make other friends then, since children feel they can be more open with each other in small groups? This might not be the case with every sibling pair, but with Beck and Elizabeth it is usually the norm.

Another big thing is that since Beck and Elizabeth are siblings they do not get to go home to separate places, besides being fortunate to have their own rooms for those rare occasions that they want to play or color or do an art project by themselves. They have learned to respect each other enough to see when the other needs a little space. Sometimes they need to be reminded that they are brother and sister and should not just do what one wants, but as their sibling bond strengthens with each day; they are becoming each other’s best friend more and more and learning to read each other. As brother and sister they are already close, so when school time starts they do tend to help each other out too. This helps me when they are helping each other out too because I find I am not being run ragged at those times. Since their sibling bond is so strong they are also each other’s sounding board. There have been times when my husband or I have noticed that they have gone unexpectedly silent so we go check on them. Sometimes they are getting trouble, but more than likely we will find them sitting on one of their beds reading a story to each other, or building a Lego construct together or playing a video game together. And sometimes when we go looking to see why it has gotten so quiet we will find them simply playing nicely and quietly together, having a blast and only annoyed because dad came into the room and stepped on or knocked something over on accident. I am just glad their sibling bond is so strong that they will also protect each other.

Now do not get me wrong and think that everything is peachy-keen all the time. There are most definitely times where one or the other just needs to play by themselves or read their own book or just simply does not want to do what the other wants to. This used to be video games for Beck, but now Elizabeth likes the occasional video game too. Conversely Elizabeth loves to play with her dolls, princesses in particular, so Beck is always finding ways for his Star Wars Clone Troopers to guard the party or have his ninja turtles crash the party and fight off the bad guys. Let’s just say that when your children are best friends and play together a lot there will most definitely be days that are better than others. But as in any friendship, it will have its ups and downs. It has been my experience that as Beck and Elizabeth grow closer they are also learning how to interact and respect each other and that translates into how they act around other people out there.

So, no matter the ages, I have found that in my family and other homeschooling families that I know personally, the children all have a stronger bond with their siblings then some of the other families we are friends with. I do not know the true reasons why, but I do know that in our family Beck and Elizabeth are the best of friends and I would not want it any other way.

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Jill of Enchanted Homeschooling Mom is the homeschooling mother of 2 awesome children (Beck and Elizabeth), a loving wife, who brings readers along on her family’s homeschooling journey in their rural setting. She enjoys blogging about everything related to her homeschooling experience, from the daily happenings of Beck and Elizabeth, to the adventures in nature around them, to her family’s 4 rescue dogs, to just about anything that makes their homeschooling journey magical. Jill also takes the time to create printables for her homeschool classroom that she provides at her EHM Member’s Only Website. She has a wide variety of printables, curriculums, unit studies, and holiday related items that everyone is sure to find educational, useful, fun, and appropriate. You can follow with Jill’s magical homeschooling journey at enchantedhomeschooling.org, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Benefits of Pets: Life with Moore Babies (Guest Post)

Happy Sunday! I am tickled to share with you a post from a blogging friend, Ashley of the blog Life with Moore Babies! Enjoy as she shares her thoughts on pets and family!

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Animals have always been an important part of my life. Like most kids, I loved all furry creatures, and I was very curious about all animals. I remember begging my parents for a kitten when the neighbor down the street had some; somehow I convinced them and got my first inside kitten. My little kitty, Marbles, got me through a lot including my parents divorce, my mom's remarriage, and the death of my grandmother. I always leaned on him when it came to anything difficult in my life even if it was normal teenage drama. Since then I have always had kitties around, and now as a veterinarian, I can truly see what a difference all pets make in people's lives.

We all know that many animals are able to help disabled people and some even save their owners in emergency situations, but pets improve our lives in numerous other, less obvious, ways. These include improved physical health, better mental health, and character development for kids.

Some of the physical benefits of owning a pet are obvious. If you have a dog you likely walk it and get the benefit of extra exercise. But both dogs and cats are associated with decreased blood pressure, decreased cholesterol, and a decreased risk of heart attack. Indoor animals in particular are also linked to a lower risk of asthma and allergies in children.

Pets also lead to improved mental health. This doesn't just apply to dogs and cats although we definitely see it with them, it applies to birds, fish, horses, and any other companion animal. The simple act of caring for an animal can help those who suffer from depression, anxiety, or Alzheimer's. Pets are non judgmental which makes them easier to talk to then other people. This can be very helpful for anyone of any age! For children in particular, having pets is associated with decreased stress levels and increased self esteem when pets are part of their life.  I think I benefited from this one the most as a child; my kitty was always the "person" I went to with everything!

For kids having a pet can help encourage responsibility as they help you in the daily care of the animal. Having a pet around also means you have to teach kids to handle the pet properly which helps them to learn to be more empathetic. They can see that the animal needs specific things to survive and also that it likes to be handled in a gentle manner.  The skills they learn from dealing with animals will extend into how they treat other people.

Once the child is school age it can be helpful for them to read (or perform) to the pet. That same non-judgmental characteristic that makes people confide in their pets also allows children to openly practice a new skill in front of them, increasing their confidence.

Although I do not think this is a good reason to get a pet, they can teach kids about life and death. Since animals are only with us a short time it is likely that kids will experience the loss of a pet before the loss of a relative. It gives you a chance to get them more comfortable with the idea that life here ends at some point.

I know I am extremely grateful for all of my pets, past, present, and even future! I am also thrilled knowing my kids can grow up loving animals in our home too!  Pets are only with us a short while, so hug your pet today. Please consider adopting one if you don't already have one (after making sure you can commit to it of course):  they will be a great addition to your family!

Want to read more on the benefits of having animals around? Visit HelpGuide.org, WebMD, or Animal Planet.

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A classic strong-willed child, Ashley, fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian in 2005; only to realize a new dream had formed, having a family with her husband (another strong-willed child). After much heartache, they were blessed with two daughters and a son, who are all proving to be just as spirited as their parents! Though she is still working part-time, she fills her days off with fun activities and lots of learning with her three kids. And this is where the blog comes in. Life with Moore Babies is where she documents the activities they do and the places they go in hopes that someone might be inspired to do some “fun learning” with their kids.You can find Ashley on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Google +.

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I hope that you enjoyed Ashley's post! I look forward to sharing another guest post later this week!