Free Standardized Testing Opportunities for Homeschoolers

 

   Whether I like it or not, I live in a world of high stakes testing. I’m thankful to live in a state that does not require my homschooled kids to sit for yearly state mandated assessments. My goals and objectives are different; my scope and sequence is different, thus, my assessments should (hopefully) be different. I have the freedom to teach what I want, when I want, how I want... and I revel in it. However, I do want to prepare my child for the eventuality of standardized testing, and I don’t want to wait until they are 16 to do it. But I am also totally unwilling to pay for one. I see those Stanford Achievement and ITBS tests advertised for homeschoolers, and they can be pricey, especially if you have multiple kids ($50 a pop the last I checked).

    Fortunately, there is a way I can replicate this experience for free. Most states (Texas included) post PDFs of their tests from previous years. What’s more, they provide answer keys, rationales for their answers choices, and.... (drum roll, please) raw conversion charts that allow you to figure out your student’s percentile, scaled score, and whether or not they “meet” expectations. Admittedly, I put little weight on whether or not they met the state’s expectations since there are always thing on the test I haven’t taught as well as things I have taught that won’t be tested.

    For me, it’s more about giving my students the experience or the practice of becoming comfortable with this type of an assessment. Usually they feel a mixture of anxiety and excitement. They’re frustrated when they come across something they’re unfamiliar with and have to make a wild guess, and they’re thrilled when they find a workaround that lets them arrive at the correct answer when they thought they couldn’t. This past administration, one of my kids discovered a test taking strategy. They didn’t know how find the answer but they sure as heck knew how to reverse engineer that bad boy and figure out which three answers were wrong. This is exactly the kind of result I’m after. Familiarity with the process to make it less intimidating when it actually matters.

    This is my 5th year doing this, and the data I get is always fascinating. The same kid who scored in the 43rd percentile in math 5 years ago is now in the 80th percentile. The first time test taker who is nowhere near done with her math curriculum (slow and steady wins the race, y’all)... she “mastered expectations” and got in the 84th percentile. Turns out she is a great standardized test taker. Unlike her math whiz of a brother who can do complicated calculations in his head but barely eeked by with a “meets expectations” and a score in the 51st percentile. He is a pretty bad standardized test taker. And that’s okay. He did better this go round then last when he was in the 40s). Each year I expect he’ll make gains just by sheer force of exposure. It changes nothing about my kid’s day to day, but it does give data, and that data is valuable. And in this case, also free.

STAAR Released Tests, Answer Keys, and Rationales

STAAR Raw Score Conversion Tables

You can find "released tests" from most states. I've given my kids ones from New York and Massachusetts just because I can. You can, too! 

Classical Conversations: History

I get asked often by fellow parents about how we homeschool our kids, but I really struggle in those moments with painting a clear picture of  what our days/weeks look like. I get so excited to talk about home education, that my words come out as a tangled, jumbled mess. This is a shame because I adore homeschooling and would love for more people to consider it as an option. Homeschooling is so varied, and there are so many different ways to make it work for your family. Our little people are part of a Classical Christian homeschool community called Classical Conversations (CC). We went through Cycle 1 with CC last year, and it was a huge blessing for our family. Now we're starting our second year moving on to Cycle 2.

{Cycle 2 of CC studies World History: Pre-Reformation to Modern. We begin with Charlemagne in the Medieval period and move all the way through to Nelson Mandela's presidency in South Africa. It covers a lot of territory!}

History can be taught hundreds of different ways, but this is what history will look like for us this year.

Our history curriculum:

• Memorize the weekly history sentence from our CC Foundations Guide (e.g. Week 1: "In 800 AD, during the medieval period, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor of Europe"). This is easily accomplished by simply reciting the sentence for a few minutes each day or just listening to a musical version of the history sentence on a CD in our car (I burn a CD of each week's memory work and play it in the van while we run errands during the week).

• Notice when/where this person/event occurs in our CC Timeline (161 events that my kids memorized for the first time last year and will continue to revisit/recite each subsequent year). This is their favorite memory work song and mine, as well. I sing it while doing the dishes. In this case, when I sing our CC Timeline, I notice that "Charlemagne crowned Emperor of Europe" is sandwiched right in between "Japan's Heian Period" and "Alfred the Great of England." Both me and my kids are able to get a much better sense of exactly when in history Charlemagne's reign took place.
  

If we do nothing else, I consider this a whopping success for the week. I have never had a clear picture of world history as a student myself. I had a 4.0+ GPA in high school, graduated as valedictorian of my university, and I could not have told you when or where most of world history took place. Were Leonardo da Vinci and Plato contemporaries? While the Crusades were going on, was that when Christopher Columbus sailed to the Caribbean? Maybe. Sure. I had no clue (The answer to both is, of course, no). Without any real idea of how major world-shifting events related to one another, it was really hard to understand the "why" behind them.

Giving my kids this foundation of basic history/timeline facts ensures that as they mature, they will be able to think critically about historical events because they'll be able to integrate new learning into this internalized framework. At 4, 5, and 8 (the ages of my children), simply spending a few minutes a day memorizing our history sentence is me giving my children an education I never could have imagined for myself.
----------------------------------------------------

Since I love learning about history myself, we often choose to do more than these two things when time allows. I don't feel like we have to, but I love when we get the chance to:

• Read-aloud a related chapter from an excellent history book. Not a textbook compiled by a committee, but a single history book written by a person who loves and cherishes history. For us, last year, this meant The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child by Susan Wise Bauer. I cracked open the book, located the chapter that related to our history sentence for that week, and spent 15 minutes or so reading aloud around the dining room table. After I finished reading a part or all of the chapter, I would pause to ask if one of my children could narrate or "tell back" what I had read in their own words. This was a favorite part of my kids day. It sparked their imagination as they began to picture what it would have been like to live in the Heian Period of Japan or the Golden Age of Greece. It was fun to see it transform their play time, too.* Suddenly their lego constructions were Egyptian pyramids and drawings included their attempts at Sumerian cuneiform writing. This year, we are using a 1951 copy of A Child's History of the World by V.M. Hillyer. For this week, we're reading chapter 45, "A Light in the Dark Ages" that will introduce us to "Charles the Great," aka Charlemagne, grandson of "Charles the Hammer." The chapter is six and a half pages long, so I can read it all in one sitting, break it up into snippets throughout the week, or read and reread it all week long if that's what suits my children and me. 
  
• Locate on a map or globe what place (or places) this historical person or event took place. This takes about 60 seconds maximum, but it's always so exciting when we find out that it matches up with something we've already memorized from our geography grammar in CC or if I know it's something we'll be memorizing in the future. In this case, we read from our history book that "Charlemagne at first was king of France alone, but he was not satisfied to be king of that country only, and so he soon conquered the countries on each side of him, parts of Spain and Germany" (Hillyer, 257). Yay! Last year during Cycle 1 of CC we memorized the geographical locations of the Roman Empire: Spain/Gaul, France, Germania/Germany, Alexandria, and Carthage was week 6! Now we get to spin the globe around and find France, Spain, and Germany on the map. It's like a treasure hunt and review all in one, yet it really only takes one minute of our time. 
  
• Check out related books from the library and place them in a book basket near couches, beds, or any place your child is likely to pick up a book and thumb through it. This isn't just for readers. Only my 8 year old can read, but my 4 and 5 year old love this as much as he does. Right now we have about a dozen books sprinkled throughout the house that pertain to the medieval era. Instead of spending time researching appropriate books, consider using a trusted book list already created by other CC moms to match your history sentence that week. I used this CC Cycle 2 Book List from Brandy Ferrell and simply spent 15 minutes on my library's online catalog typing in the titles she recommended for K-3rd grade, and placing what was available on hold. I got an e-mail when they were ready for me to pickup, and all I had to do was show up. They had already been brought to the front and were waiting for me so there was no need to waste time combing the shelves. I really wanted my kids to be exposed to two of the library books in particular, The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla and A Medieval Feast by Aliki, so instead of putting them in the basket for my kids to discover, I integrated them into our read-aloud times reading a chapter of Bulla's book each morning at the breakfast table or before bedtime and calling all the kids over to the couch to spend 10 minutes reading Aliki's gorgeous picture book. Reading-aloud is already something we do, so I'm not adding more to our schedule, I'm just curating it more carefully to add depth and color to what we are learning in CC each week. 
  
• Printing activities/resources from CC Connected (a $6 a month subscription if you are a member of a CC Community) can be a great option if you are a family who enjoys learning through notebooking. I have downloaded notebooking files created by other CC parents who have clearly put in hours and hours of their time and talent offering pages customized for each week's learning in every subject, including history. I have them saved in a CC Notebooking folder on my laptop. However, I don't print these all out. They are sitting, waiting, if one of my children asks for something more to do related to their history memory work or perhaps if the library didn't have books available on that week's topic.
  

Does that sound like a lot? I hope not. If you've gotten this far, you've probably spent more time reading this than I've spent teaching formally on history this week. And yet, I truly feel confident that I am giving my kids something beautiful and worthwhile. Little by little, week after week, I am laying a strong foundation on which (I pray) we'll build a lifelong love of history.

K'Nex catapault meets Duplo knights

Making Homeschooling Work for Us: Skills Work

After posting about our Morning Time routine here and here, a few people asked if that was all the school work we did for the day. My short answer is, no... but sometimes.

I can truly say that if Morning Time is all that I am able to accomplish on any given day, I still feel like a world class educator because I am confident that my children are learning far more than any of my students were when I taught in a "highly recognized" public school classroom. [more on that at a later date]

So, what do we do in addition to Morning Time? We do skills work. I'm pretty sure the teachers of yesteryear simply called this the 3 'R's: Reading, wRiting, and 'Rithmetic. I love that my children are feasting on things that are true, good, and beautiful every morning. This is truly the foundation of their education. Reading them short stories by Kipling and poetry by Dickinson will likely develop in them a desire to read beautiful words and a reason to write them, but, let's be honest; it doesn't actually teach them to decode text or to form letters correctly. Those are skills that must be worked on; thus, skills work. This is less important to me than Morning Time, which may sound bizarre, but hear me out. What good is being able to read if all you pick up is trash and what good is learning the mechanics of writing if you have nothing of substance to say? If you're wondering, that's a reality. I have taught hundreds of 13-16 year olds and the majority of them haven't read a book on their own initiative (or under compulsion, for that matter) since early elementary school, and they struggle to form a complete, coherent sentence on a meaningful topic (thank you, text messaging). This is to be expected when you are 5; this is grievous when you are 15.

This means that while Morning Time happens 5 days a week, my goal is to fit in at least 3 days a week for skills work. For us, the best time is after lunch when one or both of my younger daughters are down for their afternoon nap. It requires 30 minutes for my 5 year old and 45-60 minutes for my 7 year old.

It takes very little time because the student/teacher ratio is 1:1. When I am teaching my 5 year old to correctly form the letter "D", I am not having to watch a classroom full of 20 students at their desks to catch if any of them are reversing the letter, forming it from the bottom up rather than the top down, mistakenly writing a lower case "d" for the uppercase "D", or forming a curved line to make an "O" rather than a straight line to make a "D." All that I have to do is sit next to my one little buddy and say, "One long line going down like this, and big curve around like this." Done. No errors or bad habits to correct later. No roaming the classroom looking for those who might need my help or who might be fossilizing an error that will take weeks to correct and retrain. I'm just done. I watch him complete a row of picture perfect "D"s, and then we move on. He doesn't write the letter 35 times. I don't need busy work while the other kids are getting my help. He writes it 7 times, and he writes it as perfectly as he can (which is infinitely better than writing it 70 times incorrectly or sloppily).

Skillswork looks like this:

5 year old:
Handwriting - 5 minutes
Phonics/Reading - 10 minutes
Read-Aloud/Narration - 10 minutes
Speech - 5 minutes (this is particular to this child because he struggles with certain later developing speech sounds)

7 year old:
Handwriting - 10 minutes
Language Arts/Grammar- 5 minutes
Math - 15 minutes
Reading Practice - 15 minutes

Handwriting: Both boys use "Handwriting Without Tears," my absolute favorite curriculum for handwriting. It's super affordable, and it does a great job of helping teachers by showing them how to prevent errors before they are made. It is not the most beautiful form of handwriting; its focus is on readability not on beauty. With each of my two boys, this has been the 'write' curriculum choice because of this focus (I know, I'm so punny).

Math: We don't do formal math at age 5. It's more than enough to memorize our math facts through our Morning Time and to experience real-life math during our normal routines (cooking, shopping, etc). For our 7 year old, we use Math-U-See. It's a pricier curriculum that we don't mind spending the money on (or the time to find used) because we really appreciate its use of block manipulatives that carries through all the elementary years. This appeals to our son who adores building blocks (he can make forts out of the blocks when he is done).

Language Arts/Grammar: This is something we waited to start until age 7. We use a book that's adapted from a 100 year old gem! It's something our great grandparents might have used! It's a simple, gentle introduction to the elements of grammar and composition.

Phonics/Reading:  Right now, with our 5 year old, we are using "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" a well-loved book that's over 3 decades old (check out the 1000+ five star reviews on Amazon). We used this same book with our 7 year old when he was 5, but it wasn't the best fit for him. We switched to a similar curriculum "The Reading Lesson" that had a less-cluttered format, waited over 6 months to resume phonics instruction, and he thrived. Again, because the student/teacher ratio is 1:1, I have the freedom to purchase or design a curriculum that is perfectly suited for my individual child. I can even put that subject on hold while he matures (in this case, while his vision problems were addressed and corrected). This is not a freedom that a teacher overseeing reading instruction for 25 students has.

Speech: I'm not a speech pathologist, but I did take my 5 year old to our school district to find out if their speech pathologist thought that he needed to be evaluated for speech services. After observing him, she said that we could proceed with the full evaluation, but he very likely wouldn't qualify because all of the sounds that he struggles to make are the last to develop (they sometimes don't solidify until 6 or 7).  My husband, however, asked me to spend a few minutes each day working with him on those particular phonemes. We do! It's great fun. We sing songs and play speech games that are easily looked up on YouTube and suggested by qualified speech pathologists.

Ideally, Morning Time and Skills Work are complimentary. The goal of phonics instruction isn't that they can decode words. It isn't even that they will be able to pick up a technical manual and follow a set of instructions in sequential order. The goal of our phonics work is that they will be able to engage in the great conversation that has been taking place throughout history. I'm not teaching them to read so they'll pick up The Cat in the Hat; I'm teaching them to read so they'll pick up Augustine. I'm not teaching them to write because I want them to be able to sign their name on Christmas cards; I'm teaching them to write because I want them to be able to clearly articulate the reason for the hope that is within them. It just so happens that The Cat in the Hat and Christmas cards may be what get us there.

Making Homeschooling Work For Us: Short and Sweet

In my last blog post I wrote that Morning Time lasts 30-50 minutes and covers not only Bible and read-aloud time, but also an array of subjects including Geography, History, Math, Science, Latin, and more. It wasn't a typo. Morning Time is always less than an hour. My 1 year old would not make it if it was longer, so we like to keep it short and sweet.

 We start with the Bible and read-aloud because it's something they can actively listen to while they are eating, and it requires the largest chunk of time. However, by the time we begin reviewing our various subjects, we are zooming through.

 If you watched the video above, you saw us review Science AND Math in 1 minute and 24 seconds. We did this for 5 days, and they now know more about the parts of the earth than their mother does.

If you check out the video above, you'll see my kids review their new geography for the week. The video is less than two minutes and it includes my explanations of what we're doing, so really... Geography takes about a minute. You may not think that one minute a day could possibly produce real learning, but I promise it does.

My 5 year old can't read the words Cyprus and Crete, but he can look at map and point out the Mediterranean Sea and show you where those islands are located. He can even tell you a little bit about the ancient civilizations that lived there. My 3 year old has a picture book that has lines like this "If I were a mountaineer, I would take you to the peak/ Of Everest and Fuji, a new summit every week"... and she lights up when I read those familiar words because she actually knows where Mt. Fuji is on the map!

 This week you can see that we learned where Timbuktu is. The next time we watch Disney's "The Aristocats" and Egar tries to lock the cats into a trunk bound for Timbuktu, this will actually mean something to them. They will know that he is sending them to West Africa, to a city along the Niger River, a place far, far away from their home.

Because my kids are interacting with a map or a globe every day, even for just a minute, they are making connections between countries, rivers, mountains, and peoples. They are creating "hooks" on which to add more knowledge. They are also beginning to internalize the reality that there is a great big world that stretches beyond the borders of these here United States.

Making Homeschooling Work For Us - Morning Time

Monday through Friday we have Morning Time, a 30-50 minute gathering of all the kids learning together. We anchor it to breakfast because (a) everyone is already in one place and (b) it ensures that we make it happen every day of the school week. Prioritizing Morning Time means that I do not prioritize breakfast. In order to have the energy and good humor to make Morning Time what I want it to be, breakfast has to be simple and easy. For us, that means that I cook up oatmeal every morning to which I add brown sugar and peanut butter. I find that this sustains them more than cereal and also packs a bit of protein. If I were to whip up a sausage and egg breakfast with toast and orange juice, Morning Time would rarely happen.

 Once the oatmeal has been scooped out in bowls, I call the kids to the table. I shoot for this to start at 8am. Before we eat, Owen Ray leads us in a hymn and Chandler prays for us. This is reversed at lunchtime so that they each have a turn to lead the hymn and lead the prayer.

Morning Time includes:
1. Hymn
2. Prayer
3. Bible
4. Catechism
5. My Book House (read-aloud/narration)
6. Geography
7. Timeline
8. History
9. Science
10. Math
11. English
12. Latin

Next comes Bible and Catechism. I read them a story from the Bible and ask Owen Ray and Chandler to narrate it back to me. It works well to have my older one narrate and then have the younger one fill in any details that he can recall that big brother may have omitted. To make sure my 3 year old feels included, I ask her a question and then have her repeat the answer back to me. She does this every morning, so she repeats without hesitation. It moves very quickly. At the end, each child gets a chocolate chip. Yes, chocolate chips for breakfast. If you're wondering, it tastes excellent mixed into their peanut butter oatmeal. Next up we review catechism questions from past weeks and then practice our new question with lots of repetition. Even though learning about God is reverent business, I also want it to be tied to joy and laughter. I freely dispense the chocolate chips, and I am willing to practice the catechism in silly voices of their choosing because it means that learning about God and hiding truths in our heart is guarded from being thought of as drudgery.

Up next is "My Book House" a 12 volume series of short stories and poetry that we are slowly working our way through. Right now we're in volume 3. I read through a short story or a few poems and then have the kids narrated back to me for... more chocolate chips.

 









We quickly move from narration to our week's grammar. This includes geography, timeline, history, math, English, science, and Latin. If the kids are still eating, we'll do this at the table. If they are done eating we will dance and sing our new grammar around the house with toy instruments. We use the Classical Conversations curriculum which outlines what the kids will be learning for that week. In our case, we are on week 13 which means that we are learning about the function of a helping verb, liquid equivalents, parts of the earth, etc. As much as possible, we use music or movement to help us learn and memorize this new material. This makes such a difference in the kid's ability to recall information they learned 3 months ago.

Once our morning time is done (it takes between 30-50 minutes) then I dismiss the kids. They can build with their Lincoln Logs, play doll house, or dig holes in the backyard. I can start with some of my chores like laundry, dishes, etc. Morning Time does several things for me. It starts my mornings off on the right foot. This morning, I got to start my day hearing the voices of my 7, 5, and 3 year old all joined in song and praising God because "in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the vale." By 10am each day, I already know that my kids and I have been fed. We've feasted on beautiful truths and beautiful words. I can now go through the rest of my day confident that even if this is the only formal "teaching" I do all day, my kids are being educated in the best sense possible. If we have a doctor's appointment or something unexpected pops up and we never get to sit down and do our afternoon work in skills subjects like handwriting, phonics, and math, I'm okay with that. In just this small time period, we are creating a shared family culture of hymns, stories, and memories.

What We're Reading for Halloween

  
 "Eek!" Mouse squeaked. What could it be?

I love the cadence and rhythm of those words because I've heard them out of the mouth of my preschooler for a couple of years now, and I never tire of reading them myself. They are from Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson. This book should not appeal to me. It's part of the "Mouse's First..." Series, a collection of books that seems to seize every holiday and every season as yet another opportunity to sell a book, to turn a profit - Mouse's First Christmas, Mouse's First Spring, and so on. Yet, I adore this one. The illustrations by Buket Erdogan are insanely beautiful to me. They are simply acrylic on canvas, but they are vibrant, saturated colors, and I love the way the eerie blue almost glows from behind each page. Plus... the language. I really do think the sentences are well-crafted and pleasing to the ear. I know this because all of my kids have repeated the reassuring rhymes over and over and over again for years now... and I will still happily read this book to them anytime they ask. That says a lot. Perfect, perfect, perfect for the wee little ones in your life!

And Then Comes Halloween by Tom Brenner is undoubtedly a poem written by a grown-up in remembrance of Halloweens past. It's beautiful; it's rife with literary devices, and the watercolor and collage art work is lovely to look at. Your kids will like it... and you'll get to let them feast on alliteration and personification like this: "When autumn spiders weave silver webs from pillar to post, and the wind whispers winter and the bones of trees begin to show..."

The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin has been a favorite of ours for years, and we read it as a family tradition before we carve our pumpkin. It's weird.  I mean really. It's really weird but charming. Margaret Wise Brown (of Goodnight Moon fame) is just some kind of a genius because she writes these books that hardly make sense to me but that my children are just captivated by. My kids love the idea of this fierce yellow pumpkin who longs to be ferocious enough to scare all the field mice away. And it truly is fun for adults to read. If you're an insane person, you might just giggle at the grocery store produce section thinking of Brown's words: "He grew so fat and full of himself that he began to think he was a very fierce vegetable, as fierce as the sun that warmed his fat round sides."

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything  by Linda Williams is my brand-new favorite. It was published nearly 30 years ago, but I just discovered it! A little old lady finds herself out on a walk later than she expected and is followed home by a host of characters (who make delightful sound effects). Fortunately for us, she is not afraid of anything, so we aren't either. Instead, we just get to join in on the fun. The story demands everyone's participation and the ending resolves itself beautifully. Depending on the age of your audience you could read this with a bit of suspense and spookiness or simply giggle and laugh the whole way through. I highly recommend it.

The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis is on this list because my children demand it. But please know that I object. I find the rhyme to be clunky and the rhythm totally elusive. However, I do actually read to delight my children... and this book delights them. They love the idea of this giant pumpkin rolling down the hill causing one disaster after another. I suppose there is some sense of justice in it all since it is finally tamed (maimed?) into pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie by Granny Baxter.

On My Love of Corduroy

In our home, everyone loves Corduroy. Published in 1968, he is just a few years shy of his 50th birthday. He's an original, not to be confused with the plethora of modern Corduroy books available "based on the character created by Don Freeman." Well... it isn't likely that you would actually confuse them. Here's a hint: Corduroy doesn't wear a bunny suit and isn't likely to pose for the cover of a "Home Alone" movie anytime soon. But I digress.

I am no artist, but do you see those water colors! It's striking yet subtle all at the same time. Freeman, himself a white male, is noted for choosing to portray a black heroine who, during the course of the book, is helped and waited upon by a white sales clerk. This hardly seems like a social justice statement, but this was also 1968. It was only 6 years prior, in 1962, that Ezra Jack Keats shook up the picture book world with the success of The Snowy Day, and that book didn't even touch upon the social interactions of different races. It merely featured a loveable black hero adventuring outdoors on a wintry day.

The action that takes place in this story is absolutely unremarkable. A toy bear in a department store discovers his button is missing after a little girl's mother remarks on it.

“Oh, Mommy!” she said. “Look! There’s the very bear I’ve always wanted.”

“Not today, dear.” Her mother sighed. “I’ve spent too much already. Besides, he doesn’t look new. He’s lost the button on one of his shoulder straps.”

Corduroy searches for the his button after the store has closed for the night. Unable to recover the lost item, he resigns himself to once again sit on the shelf alongside his fellow toys. In the morning, the little girl returns and buys the toy bear. When she brings him back to her apartment, she reassures Corduroy:

“I like you the way you are,” she said, “but you will be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened.”

“You must be a friend,” said Corduroy. “I’ve always wanted a friend.” 

“Me too!” said Lisa, and gave him a big hug.

 I am thankful for Corduroy because it can endure dozens and dozens of readings. At one point, this was Elinor's "read me every hour of the day" book. The text isn't just particularly charming. Freeman was, after all, an artist not a wordsmith, and Corduroy benefited from some careful editing following its initial rejection by publishers.  But the soul of the story came straight from Freeman and the sparse text is pleasing and polished.  In a lecture delivered to those interested in making picture books, Freeman noted "Simplicity is the essence of children’s book stories, not simple mindedness," and I think he accomplished this in Corduroy. The book may be simple, but beautiful themes abound - themes of friendship, of redemption, of restoration. If you're going to read a book over and over and over and over again, let it be a book that speaks those realities into the heart of your 2 year old.

On My Love of Moongame

The moon is probably referenced more often in children's picture books than astronomy textbooks. Off the top of my head I can think of at least a half dozen lines from books sitting right here on one of our bookshelves.

"Chicka chicka boom boom; look there's a full moon" - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
"While the moon sailed high in the dark night sky" - The Big Red Barn
"Moon in my bed and dreams in my head. That's what I'll wear tonight" - Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?
"Harold needed a moon for a walk in the moonlight." Harold and the Purple Crayon
"In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf." - The Very Hungry Caterpillar
"I love you right up to the moon and back." - Guess How Much I Love You
"Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon." - Goodnight Moon

 While I love these "moon" books, and most of them are probably well known to you, not one of them has earned a spot on the coveted bookshelf above Elinor's bed. That honor goes to Moongame by Frank Asch. First published in 1984, the year of my birth, this is a book I fondly remember from my own childhood.  Moongame is actually one in a series of books about a naive little bear who wants so badly to interact with the moon. Other (more popular) books in the series include Happy Birthday, Moon, Moon Bear, and Mooncake. But for some reason, we love Moongame most of all.

The plot is simple enough. Bear decides to play a game of hide-and-seek with the moon, and the action of the story is moved forward as Bear tries to uncover moon's hiding spot. He searches behind rocks and in house windows, not realizing that a passing cloud has merely covered the moon for the time being. Both Asch's text and illustrations are simple and charming. The color palette he uses is actually quite beautiful. It's a book that just feels gentle and cozy which makes it a great bedtime read. It's also a book that ages well with your child. As a toddler, they identify and empathize with Bear, hoping he'll find moon at long last. As a preschooler, they are in on the joke and can giggle as Bear mistakes a big wedge of cheese or a large yellow balloon for the moon.

On My Love of Molly Lou Melon

Molly Lou Melon had a voice that sounded like a bullfrog being squeezed by a boa constrictor. She didn’t mind. Her grandma had told her, “Sing out clear and strong and the world will cry tears of joy.” …

So she did.

If reading that little excerpt hasn’t already stirred up in you a desire to own this book, I am sure something is very wrong with you.  My 2 year old daughter has seven precious picture books near her bed. They sit atop little wooden spice racks and every day I read her at least one of them (sometimes all of them).  Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon is her particular favorite, and I am so glad it is.  You see, picture books are a minefield. They are not as forgiving as chapter books.  Your child is going to request his or her favorite picture book over and over again, and most books simply can’t stand up to multiple readings.  One poor word choice on page 7 that you didn’t give a second thought to on the first read through is enough to make you want to track down every known copy to fuel an enormous bonfire on the 135^th reading. 

“Molly Lou Melon” is a gem.  Every word is perfectly chosen.  There are no wasted sentences.  And the story is so rich.  Molly Lou Melon is a little girl who, as we’ve already seen, lacks a beautiful singing voice (among other shortcomings) … but she doesn’t mind.  I love that. She just doesn’t mind, and all the anxieties and insecurities you might expect from a little girl who is impossibly short, clumsy, and buck-toothed to boot are simply not to be found because Molly is patterning her life after her grandma’s sage advice – to confidently be herself. 

And Ronald Durkin.  Can’t you just tell by that name that he’s arrogant and ill-mannered? My husband has actually described someone as a “real Ronald Durkin” and I cringed knowing exactly what he meant.  Well Ronald Durkin does his level best to make sure that Molly Lou Melon is put in her place, but to no avail.  In fact, by the book’s end, both my daughter and I rejoice as good triumphs over evil, and more than that, grace abounds for dear old Ronald. 

If the text of the story wasn’t enough, the art is perfect (which I didn’t realize until about the 35^th read through). Like Molly herself, the watercolor and pencil illustrations are a bit eccentric, but in a loveable way. One full page spread in particular shows Molly Lou Melon in all her glory, (but not to her advantage) as she shows off her buck-toothed smile. But that’s kind of the point. Molly is winsome and charming because she’s Molly, not because she has a perfect smile.  There is something new to see or appreciate each time I turn a page, a veritable feast for the eyes. 

You should own Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon.  It may not be the Jesus Storybook Bible, but it has got its share of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Making Samaritan Work for Us

The biggest downside to forgoing traditional insurance and using a Christian health sharing ministry like Samaritan Ministries is that you have to take responsibility for your own preventative health care.  The rationale behind this is simple. Preventative medicine is not a surprise. It's something that you can plan and budget for. You know, for instance, that your yearly well-woman exam is going to occur... well... each year. You can choose when and how much you'll pay for a flu vaccine or a tetanus booster. Those are not unexpected expenditures.  They don't catch you by surprise the way a broken arm or a viral infection do. When we had Blue Cross Blue Shield, preventative medicine was covered 100%. This meant that I could show up for my yearly exam and pay nothing! It was free, free, free! It was, however, the only thing that was free.  If I showed up to my doctor's office with a sore throat and they did a strep test I would be out $277.  So, the once yearly free visit didn't justify the $1,145 monthly premium for all of us to be covered coupled with the craptastic $4,800 family deductible we had to reach before real benefits even kicked in.

Not having traditional insurance has changed the way I "shop" for medical services. It's made me a more responsible consumer. I declined the Tdap vaccine (whooping cough booster) they give to moms of newborns at the hospital because it was $125, and wasn't part of the birth package I'd paid for since it's "preventative medicine." I made a few phone calls because I really did want to get the booster. Turns out CVS Minute Clinic gives it for $92. At Walgreens it's $64, and Kroger will administer it for $50 even. That's the same price as our county pubic health centers! And... you don't have to wait in line for a few hours.  Sometimes a few phone calls will save you $75 (or 3 hours of your day). 

Likewise, we have switched pediatricians in order to see one who is part of the "Texas Vaccines for Children" program which gives all uninsured and underinsured patients access to free or dirt-cheap immunizations.  This does mean longer wait times in their office, and it does mean adding a few miles to our drive, but those inconveniences are so small when you consider the hundreds and hundreds of dollars charged by most other offices for all those baby immunizations. 

Piper's Birth Story

In which I relay all the facts of her birth, so I can remember them :).
On Monday, I started timing my contractions at 5:50 PM.  They were 30 second and not very painful at all.  By 7 PM they were 60 seconds, but I was still able to walk and talk through them.  I called my mom and my sister to ask them if they would drive over to our house.  I was pretty sure we were going to have this baby soon, and they were driving from the other side of the metroplex, so I went with a "better safe than sorry" attitude.  At 8PM, I had a cluster of contractions three minutes apart, and decided to call the doctor.  Because I still wasn't in much pain, he told me that it was entirely up to me as to whether I wanted to head to the hospital.  He said it was counter intuitive, but to try to "stop" labor (i.e. drink water, stop walking, go to sleep).  If it was the real thing, my body would let me know soon enough. From 9:30 - 11:00 I tried to sleep.  I slept intermittently since my contractions were stretching out to ten minutes apart, but they were increasingly painful.

Suddenly, my body turned a corner, and every 4 minutes I was having intense contractions about 45 second in length.  Trey and I headed to the hospital and signed in at 11:38 PM.  I was in a lot of pain and it took a little while for the nurse to come in to check to see how dilated I was.  With our last birth, I had checked into the hospital totally unsure as to whether I was in labor or not, and I was between a 6 and a 7, just about to head into transition.  Now, I knew that I was in intense labor and I was anxious to find out what the nurse had to say. "3 and a half"  Seriously?  Were they going to send me home?  I wouldn't go. I would sit in the car. I was in too much pain to be at a 3. Fortunately, when she checked a half hour later I was at a 5, so my body was progressing quickly.  The nurse asked me to lay on my left side because the baby's heart rate was decreasing and so was mine.  I started feeling very dizzy and woozy, and they put an oxygen mask on me.  I asked for pain medicine since an epidural was out of the question, but I was sure I was going to pass out.  The nurse realized that I was getting more and more light-headed and she had me switch to laying on my right side.  Good gracious.  That made a world of difference. I mistakenly thought she had already given me Fentanyl and that the pain medication had actually made me clear headed.

After laboring on the bed for a bit, I told the nurse that I needed to pee. To my delight, she told me she wanted me up and walking around anyway.  She unplugged the contraction monitor and let me make my way to the bathroom.  I felt a bit conflicted because I didn't know how to pee.  What if I pushed out the baby?  I know, that's a crazy thought.  Instead, I just sat on the toilet trying to figure out how to pee without accidentally birthing my daughter in the bathroom.  I started having contractions one on top of the other and I could not stand up.  Suddenly, I realized that my body was actually trying to push. I was hesitant to tell Trey, totally mortified.  "Something is wrong," I told him, willing him to read my mind.  Finally, I just blurted out "My body is trying to push, Trey."

Trey called out for help and our friend Emily ran to the nurses station.  The nurse came to help me get back to the bed but I couldn't move.  I insisted that my body was trying to push the baby.  Miraculously, I was pushed up onto the bed and immediately delivered the baby.  No doctor in sight.  Everyone was a bit in shock.  All I could think was "I did this wrong. I did this wrong." I felt so apologetic.  When you have a baby the doctor is supposed to be there. He's supposed to tell you that you're doing great, that you just have a few more pushes to go, and that soon you'll meet your sweet bundle of joy.  You're not supposed to find yourself on the toilet in a panic with no nurse or doctor nearby.

In all the rush, it never occurred to me to wonder whether we'd had a boy or a girl.  We'd waited 9 months for this surprise, and somehow, all I could think about was "Good gracious Father in Heaven, did I just give birth on accident?"  I can't remember who first announced that it was a girl, but I didn't believe them.  In the latter months of my pregnancy, I started to feel more and more like we were having a boy.  It was a bit of a shock to have a girl, but such a good one.  Elinor would have a sister, and I would have two sweet little girls. It's still hard for me to comprehend.  Right after Piper's birth, my OB did make his entry.  He had never before missed a birth from 50 feet away. It was a first for him.  He said he was happy to hear the first cry, and that was enough.  Miraculously, by the grace of God, we did not have the baby in the bathroom.  And that I consider a Herculean feat!

PSA (Public Service Announcement or Personal Self-Awareness)

It's not Father's Day yet, so I'm writing a post that's aimed at being preventative rather than responsive.  Let's strike a bargain, okay?  Tomorrow, just tomorrow, let's be okay with people praising their fathers, grandfathers, uncles, or any other person who filled this role as a praiseworthy role model in the absence of a traditional father.  Let's not tell them in the midst of their happy remembrances and grateful, thankful hearts, that they are doing this wrong.  Let's not rebuke and correct them and suggest that the "appropriate" way to celebrate this holiday is to remember the pain of so many others who didn't have a father in their lives.  Because what we are telling them is that you shouldn't be thinking about your father or that wonderful person who stepped in to be that "father, you should be thinking about me -- my lack of a father, my pain at his absence, me, me, me.  That pain and those conversations should take place.  You should absolutely be able to pour out your vulnerability and your brokenness and your hurt -- and those conversations can and should be taking place throughout the calendar year.  But let's just hold back enough to resist the urge to shame people for being happy on this day -- because their happiness is actually a good thing, and it doesn't encroach or deny your legitimate sadness at your lack of a good (or present) father.  We would never respond to a husband's post thanking his wife for 10 years of wedded bliss by reminding him that on his wedding anniversary he really ought to be thinking of the 50% of marriages that end in divorce.  I have friends who are broken-hearted in the midst of their infertility, but they never post on those newborn hospital pics "Just remember, we'll never have this joy."  Because they understand, they are self-aware enough, to realize "this isn't actually about me."  So, please, please, please, let's pursue having those conversations about how an absent father or an abusive father hurt us, but let's not do so by shaming others who are simply doing a good thing by giving honor to whom honor is due. They aren't doing it to hurt me or you.  Actually, they aren't doing it for us at all.  Because... it's not about us.  Although we really, really want it to be.  So let's just let it be about someone else.  It's good for us to acknowledge that we're not the center of the universe 100% of the time, truly it is.

 

How to Have a Baby for Free (at a hospital or at home)

On August 1, 2012 our beautiful daughter, Elinor, made her grand debut.  It was my first natural delivery (without pitocin and without an epidural), and we were able to head home within 24 hours.  I had Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance coverage, and I had a perfectly healthy little baby girl.  Time has flown by so quickly.  In less than two months we'll be celebrating her 2nd birthday, and at the same time we'll be celebrating sending off our very last payment for her hospital delivery bill.  Can I get an "Amen"?

Ironically, our yet-to-be-born 4th child, will have their bill paid off  before Elinor will using the exact same doctor and the exact same hospital -- even though neither the baby nor I will have health insurance.  How? This month (June), we'll be receiving 22 checks, each written for $315 addressed to me along with a note of encouragement or prayer.  We'll cash those checks, and we'll make one lump sum payment to cover the entire cost of my delivery.  If complications arise (a C-section is necessary or the baby needs extra care) that too will be paid for by strangers.  Kind of cool, right?

Amazing, right?

 You may be rather puzzled about how one might be able to pull off the con of the century (as I clearly have).  Allow me to take you back in time, dear one, and you shall see.

One of the biggest concerns we had when I transitioned from a full-time working mom to a stay-at-home mom was medical insurance.  We could not afford for me to be on Trey's BCBS insurance, so we opted to purchase private insurance, which in almost all cases, comes without maternity coverage. I've got a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 1 year old, and I'm 24 weeks pregnant.  At this point, I consider my OB/GYN's office to be my home away from home, so having health insurance that covered everything but maternity care was ridiculous.  What was also ridiculous was receiving letter after letter from BCBS stating that they would be raising my rates as a result of the need to comply with new legislation.  I called BCBS and complained directly -- as any lady would.  Surely paying $188 a month and visiting the doctor exactly one time in the last 12 months balanced out.  Why was I being told I would need to change my monthly payment to $218, $233, and now $257?  When were these increases going to stop?  The answer? Never.

We needed a new plan. Either Trey was going to need to enroll in online midwife classes, or we were going to have to rethink our current insurance situation.  We opted for the latter.  Enter Samaritan Ministries!!!!!! You may recall the story of the Good Samaritan, the one in which a Samaritan did not pass by a hurt and injured man, but instead opted to care for his needs paying out of his own pocket for this stranger to be restored to health.  It's a beautiful Bible story, but also one that seems woefully out of date.  Who does things like that anymore?  It seems rather in the realm of fairy-tale doesn't it?  (I just accidentally typed farty-tale and corrected it. You're welcome).  Anyhow, lo and behold, there are perfect strangers who will pay your medical bills for you, and you get the privilege of partnering with them to pay for other strangers, as well.  Samaritan ministries describes itself as "a Biblical, non-insurance approach to health care needs."  It's not health-insurance.  It's radically different from health insurance.  When you go to the doctor, you check the box as a "self-pay" patient.  However, despite your appalling lack of insurance coverage, you're actually exempt from the requirements of the Affordable Care Act if you participate in Samaritan (or one of the other 2 ministries that have been exempted under the same guidelines). 
Here's how it works:

1. I sign-up to partner with Samaritan Ministries. 
2. I receive a letter each month instructing me who I should mail my "share" to (in my case, it's a $165 check) along with a brief description of how I can be praying for that person.
3. I pop that check in the mailbox, along with a kind note of encouragement or prayer.

What about if I have a "need"?

1.  I collect my itemized medical bills, and submit them to Samaritan Ministries
2. They contact me to confirm that they were received and also to get my permission to negotiate on my behalf for a reduction in my bill.
3. They publish my need by sending a letter to other members directing them to mail me their "shares"
4. I cash the checks and pay my bill.  If anything is left over, I return it to Samaritan.  If additional costs arise, I resubmit those extra bills.

I'm responsible not only for mailing out my "share" each month, but I'm also responsible for any preventative care I may choose to receive.  I schedule my well-woman exam every November.  It's not a surprise medical event.  It comes year after year, every year -- and so my family must budget and pay for that.  Likewise, my children attend well-child exams.  I must arrange with the doctor to let them know I'm self-pay and check the box that says that I want the "under-insured" $10 vaccines. In my experience, my doctors have been elated not to deal with insurance companies.  They charge me $50 for what would otherwise be a $125 visit. 

Another major difference is Samaritan's belief that your family along with your local community of faith should be able to handle needs that are less than $300.  This means that if my child gets pink eye and the visit is $125, I must foot the bill.  We need to have a few hundred dollars set aside for things such as this.  We may not need to use it, but if we do, we'll be glad it's there.  This also means that if an "incident" is more than $300, I am still responsible for the first $300. BUT WAIT!!! This is waived if you (or Samaritan) are able to negotiate a lower bill with the doctor or provider.  This means that if my ER visit comes out to $1200, but they are willing to take $900 in cash to have it all paid off at once, I no longer have to pay that first $300.  It's waived!  In my experience, negotiating a lower bill with the promise of paying it in full is easy to accomplish because insurance companies are often only paying a fraction of what the hospitals and doctors are billing them, so they don't expect you to pay those inflated prices either.

If you are interested in joining Samaritan please visit their website first.  Read the fine print about the $100,000 limit, about the pre-existing condition limitations, lifestyle commitments, etc. Ask lots and lots of questions.  You will want to know whether this fits your family's specific needs.  In our case, it has been a perfect fit that meets our needs so much better than an insurance company.  Imagine calling your "health insurance" rep on the phone and having them pray over the health of your unborn baby. Gold, I tell you, gold.

Also, please keep in mind that Samaritan isn't the only option.  Please consider Medi-Share and Christian HealthCare Ministries. While their goals are similar, they are all slightly different in ways that may mean one is a much better fit that the others. In our local church, I know people who are members of all three of these ministries.  Ask around so you can get first hand accounts of member's experiences.  If you do choose to enroll in one of these three, consider putting their name or member ID down when you fill out your initial paperwork. Your friend may get a month "free" for referring you (though this is not always the case). If you're not sure where to start in comparing these three, here's the first article I ever read on the topic: http://christianmedplans.com/which-plan/

Any other Samaritan folks out there?  Christian HealthCare or Medi-Share?  How has your experience been?