Evonne R.

This has all totally changed. The girls attended a one-room SDA school (Ringgold) last year to experience "real school" before Elisa went to academy. Their high grades (and national test scores) proved that we were being too hard on ourselves by assuming they weren't "smart!"

Do you have a business or interest you delve in on the side? I'm a Creative Memories consultant and help people organize their pictures, and I'll also continue as an EcoQuest International distributor (air and water purifiers) as long as I have three with asthma living in this house! I spend minimal time on my home businesses due to my commitment to simplify our lives.

Your favorite color: Blue, Bill's is red, and "our" color is yellow. I recently discovered those colors to be my favorite in decorating (a surprise to me) so I now have wood floors, yellow walls, denium sofas, etc. and LOVE it!

How would you describe your homeschool style? I've tried various methods over the past eight years, but I prefer traditional and the kids are thriving on our schedule. If I had my way, we'd home school ALL YEAR by traveling the USA and Canada. We have been able to travel a lot during the summer (7,000 miles last summer, 4,000 this summer), and the kids learn a terrific amount. We've seen many interesting places in all 50 states, and we've met some fascinating people! All four of my kids love history!

Schedules - I've tried to get on a schedule for years and failed, but now that I feel CONVICTED about the importance of a schedule, things are going really great! The kids absolutely LOVE the schedule--it's posted. In order to pull it off, we've eliminated nearly every appointment this year (except music) with the idea that we can take a break this year and add more appointments next year. At one point, we had 18 appointments per week (four kids). Someone pointed out that it wouldn't hurt kids to have at least one or two things to learn when they get older. I was surprised that the total fussing time about canceling most of the 18 appointments was less than 15 minutes!! Maybe I'd lived in "fear" of my kids. Actually in the long run they've thanked me for it, and we've had more time to do things we've always wanted to do. Right now we're working on fitting our curriculum into four days a week with one day to play (science experiments, scrapbooking, and anything educational that the kids want to do). They're excited about it, and they're working really hard on their subjects! We just returned from a backpacking trip with two other families (9 kids, ages 7-15) who met us in the mountains of Wyoming. Many homes in Wyoming are so remote that I know the occupants don't head to Wal-Mart or other stores in town each week. If they can go to town only when it's extremely important, so can I. Of course it helps that my husband brings home the items on my food list. I want to encourage any of you who really want a schedule to SIMPLIFY by getting rid of the appointments. It won't kill a child to miss out on that special activity, etc. for a year. The less time you spend on the road, the more fun you'll have with the kids!