Walk in the Woods

My Daddy has gone a walkin' in the woods
A black dog by his side
With mountains in his sight
and snow a glistening in the sun light,
My daddy has gone a walkin in the woods
coffee cup in hand
only his thoughts and God for company
and the four paws of not a man

How I yearn to go a walkin
down that snowy rode
Step-in in his foot prints
and listening to the snow

Oh thoughts of Sunday morning
and adulthood that keeps me here
Years from my childhood
and the ones who held me dear

I wish to go a walkin'
By my daddy's side
Just my thoughts and God
In the great outside

The Seed

My legacy is but a seed
that bares fruit
in a season,
I will never see.

Liberty Grils and Winter Garden

We had our first taste of Liberty Girls this past week. It is a group (kind of like Girl Scouts meets book club) that meets once a month. They read a book each month. This year they are reading the American Girls Collection "Josefina 1824". A story of a girls life in rule New Mexico in 1824. This past month we read book 4, about Josefina' birthday and her apprenticeship as a healer.
As actives to go along with the book discussion, the girls made first aide kits, danced, ate Mexican wedding cookies, and learned first aid protocol.
We feel very blesses to be apart of the group.

We also are very excited about the winter garden. It was planted in Nov. and covered with green house plastic. We are enjoying fresh salad out of it now in February!

Hermes' lyre and the abode of Poseidon

We started reading the Tales of the Greek Heroes this week, thinking that the tales would fascinate our middle son to sit still through a picture-less story.

We all had fun reading through the introduction and researching the different gods on Wikipedia. We then developed a reference book with pictures of well-known sculptures depicting these "immortals." That helps our middle boy with his need for pictures, though after an hour of this, he was not ready to sit still for the stories of Hermes and Apollo's lost cattle.

After you-tubing a video of a lyre, we were able to envision what Hermes was playing (a lyre it is essentially a small, predecessor the the more common instrument-the harp). We even found a video of a woman playing "Stairway to Heaven" on a harp, which kept us all in aye for a while.

Having a 19 month old in the home, we laughed at the possibility of him, like baby Hermes, playing a lyre and speaking so maturely to his older brother Apollo; "Hey bro, I didn't take your cattle and why are you being so rude to me, your younger brother!?" We were further astounded to read that Hermes grew to a boy within just a few days.

We also learned about Poseidon, which was the god of the sea and also earthquakes; which has been a fun, though crude, discussion in our house lately as our daughter has had very audible flatulence. It was determined that Poseidon does not live in the sea, but rather in the gut of her intestines! She objected and so it is still up for debate.

Everyone is excited to hear the story of Medusa, as is depicted on the cover of our book.

Marthon

I ran and finshed my Marathon in Oct.
It was fun!
26.2 miles in 5.55, it was a mere 98 degrees at the finish line when I crossed.

New Year, New experiences at the SC

So the blog has been very badly neglected. No surprise there; as this blog does not require food, water or bathing, like all the other beings I manage in my life.

The SasserCollinses have had lots of changes this past 8 months. For one, Jeremy finished school, and has taken a job with a consulting firm. He works remotely most of the time. We feel very blessed that he was able to get a job in the current times, when so many are out of work.

I finished training for my marathon, and ran it on Oct. 2 in St. George, Utah. In 5 hours 55 minutes (and 22 seconds), in 95 degree heat, and I still look forward to running another. :)

Our other major transition is more recent. So often we have questioned: How do we inspire our kids to greatness? How do we instill our value system and love of learning? How do we raise leaders who question, and think critically about the issues of the day? Especially now when they are so impressionable? But being in public school, their day-to-day major influences (classmates, teachers, etc) are from outside of the home. We've seen our daughter come home frustrated about school, learning and not wanting to talk about her experiences.

I really want our children to love learning, for the sake of learning--not struggle with it and just "get by." I want my child to help direct their own education rather than fit some one else' standards (especially someone in Washington!). I really want our children to remember each and everyday, because they wrote about the fun things they did rather than come home and hope we don't ask them about it. So...We have chosen to opt-out of the public education system and become a home-schooling family. This has been a long time coming, and an idea that we have revisited over and over in our lives as parents.

So here we are, armed with great books, number games, a "happy phonics" program that gets the kids hoping, slithering, and climbing to learn and we are blessed by a huge home-schooling group here locally. We are exploring the world and learning together, I think the way our children would want it; and it has already shown it's rewards in a stronger relationship, and excitement about what we will learn next!

This is the conference we are looking to attend with a couple families in the area. And here's a video about TJED...

An Education to Match our Mission (excerpt from "What is TJEd?") from Thomas Jefferson Education on Vimeo.