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	<title>WIRL Project &#187; Misty Hovis</title>
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	<description>What It&#039;s Really Like.</description>
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		<title>An Open Letter From A Homeschooling Mother</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/an-open-letter-from-a-homeschooling-mother/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/an-open-letter-from-a-homeschooling-mother/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2015 09:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Misty Hovis]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homeschooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[proud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[student]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teacher]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5994</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I don’t have a degree in teaching, but I’m a teacher. If you would have asked me back in high school what I would be doing in 10 years I would have said being the CEO of my own business and enjoying my life to the fullest. I NEVER would have said homeschooling my 5 children, let alone saying I would have 5 children in the first place. Honestly the thought of homeschooling seemed weird and just silly back then. My whole misconception of homeschooling was children that are unsocial, uneducated, mistreated, and sheltered from the world around them… to name a few. I believe a lot of people who are against homeschooling have these SAME misconceptions. It wasn’t until our first child was about 2 years old that the thought of homeschooling came up. I didn’t want to do it, and was completely looking forward to “my free time” when he and any other children we had would be sent off to public school. Little did I know that homeschooling was the plan that God had in mind for us. Everywhere we turned homeschooling was brought up, I couldn’t get away from the idea and for some reason it seemed so interesting to me. My husband and I decided to pray about it and we did for 2 whole years! I did a ton of research and even went over the pros and cons many times. Finally the decision had been made, we were going to homeschool. Telling our family and friends wasn’t as easy as you would think, some were very supportive and others thought we were NUTS! One of my favorite comments from a family member who we were showing our classroom to was, “Oh, this will make a nice playroom at least.” At first I took that very personal and was pretty upset about it. Then I thought about it for awhile and realized… YES, it will make a nice playroom. Learning will be fun, enjoyable, and creative! A lot of people don’t realize that a child at a young age learns the MOST through play. Here are some interesting facts to keep in mind as well: When a child reads information they will only retain about 10% of it, 90% of it is lost. If they are presented the information orally they will retain 20% of it, 80% of it is lost. If a child sees what they are learning about they will retain 30% of it, 70% of it is lost. When a child sees and hears he/she will remember 50% of the material. When a child is asked to talk about a subject or read out loud they will retain 70% of the lesson. If a child is on the other hand actively involved in a project and doing hands on activities, they will retain 90% of it. Just my personal opinion, but it seems to me that it is much easier for a mother of 5 children to do more hands on activities and educate her children in a more effective way than a teacher in a classroom of 20-30+ children. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate public school teachers very much and think they have a super hard and important job. However, the way the system is set up does not allow a teacher to educate public schooled children very effectively. The system is more worried about crossing their T&#8217;s and dotting their I&#8217;s than allowing a teacher to use her God given talents to teach the children in her class. Test scores have proven this time and time again. Once we had made our decision, we had to deal with many questions including those worried about our children’s social skills and sheltering them from the outside world. We in no way intended to shelter our children and anyone that has ever spoken to one of our children can attest to the fact that they are far from being unsocial! (LOL) We are involved in many activities outside the home, take part in different groups, have participated in Co-Ops and sporting teams. Another question that has been brought up is “Why not leave it up to the professionals, you don’t even have a teaching degree?” Who is to say I’m NOT a professional… just because I didn’t spend thousands of dollars in college fees, years of my life in a classroom to get a piece of paper that says I have a certain degree shouldn’t deem me unworthy of teaching my children. I am a strong believer that actions speak louder than words. My children and their academic scores have proven that I must be doing something right. For example, when I first thought of homeschooling, I was beyond worried about teaching my children to read. It has never been a strong area for me. However, I learned right alongside my oldest, poured knowledge into him and I was so excited last year when he got his standardized test scores back for 2nd grade. He tested higher in reading than 98% of his peers and was reading at an 8th grade reading level! There are so many benefits to homeschooling. I get the chance to see my children learning new things first hand, I don’t have to just hear about it. We can learn together… take field trips and do hands on activities that are fun and exciting. I have the opportunity to see what areas my children are struggling in and what areas they are excelling in as well. This gives us a chance to help them one-on-one to improve on certain skills and give them room to grow and advance in areas of interest. For example, my oldest son, Logan, LOVES birds! He honestly could tell you the name and important facts about pretty much any bird you show him. He amazes me with the knowledge and interest he has in this area. I am able to provide resources and encourage his love for birds and this gets him excited about reading and learning even more. There also are so many wonderful materials, curriculums and resources offered to homeschooling families. Trust me I have done plenty of research to find what works well for us. I remember our first year homeschooling, I had someone ask me “Did you ever take calculus in school, if you didn’t how are you going to teach your child something you never learned?” My response was this… First off my son is in Pre-K and just learning his numbers, I think we will be ok. When he is older and will be taking more advanced classes, if I can’t help him we have some amazing friends that would be willing to help in this journey with us. Plus there are so many programs out there that we would be able to learn together. As far as teaching different grades at the same time, there is this awesome thing called unit studies! A great example I always like to share is this: let’s say we are learning about the eye. We would learn together all of the material about the eye up to a 3rd grade level (my oldest), maybe even higher if he is interested in knowing more now. Then our work would be as followed, 3rd grader might write a report about the eye, 1st grader might write a paragraph about the eye, Kindergartener might label the parts of an eye with a word bank and a Pre-K might color a picture of an eye. There also are many curriculums that allow for some independent learning for older grades which allows more time to focus on the basic skills needed in the younger grades, such as Phonics. I will be the first to say homeschooling is NOT for everyone though. There is a lot of work, planning, time, and energy involved in it. As well as, a true commitment you have to make to be a homeschooling family. It’s not always easy, but for us, it is worth it. There is no right or wrong… each person / family is entitled to their own thoughts, feelings, and opinions about public school vs. homeschooling. However these feelings should never judge the choice of another family if they feel called to do something different than yours. Again, 10 years ago I would have said I would be a CEO of my own business and living my life to the fullest. I am thankful to say, I am a CEO of my own business, by being an Independent Director with Thirty-One Gifts, and completely love every aspect of my life… funny enough, I even love being a homeschooling mother of 5! Sincerely, Proud Homeschooling Mother, Misty Hovis &#160; &#160;]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wirlproject.com/an-open-letter-from-a-homeschooling-mother/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What it is REALLY Like to Have a Child with Down Syndrome</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/what-it-is-really-like-to-have-a-child-with-down-syndrome/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/what-it-is-really-like-to-have-a-child-with-down-syndrome/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Apr 2015 09:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Misty Hovis]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health/Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daughter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Down Syndrome]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sunshine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[What It's Really Like]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WIRL]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5214</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; It&#8217;s hard to believe that 4 years ago I knew pretty much nothing about Down Syndrome and the thought of having a child with Down Syndrome never even crossed my mind. That is until our 12 week sonogram with our 4th child. At this appointment it was determined that we had a 1 in 10 chance of our little girl having Down Syndrome (DS). Saying I was scared is a complete understatement! I cried, I bawled&#8230; I felt like I couldn&#8217;t breathe! WHY Lord&#8230; Why my baby, how could this be? They wanted us to do advanced testing, but we declined and decided we would find out for sure when she was born. Deep down inside I knew she would have it though and throughout my pregnancy, I truly feel God presented different signs for us to know. For example&#8230; at every sonogram Katelyn would stick out her tongue. Sounds silly but a lot of babies with DS do this. Another thing that still brings tears to my eyes was the time Matt and I were walking through a homeschooling conference, I was about 20 weeks pregnant and a little girl with Down Syndrome, who was about 2 years old, grabbed the bag Matt was holding. She smiled, what I like to call a million dollar smile, and at that moment Matt and I both looked at each other and at the SAME time said&#8230; &#8220;That would be completely OK!&#8221; I prayed for our little girl during the rest of my pregnancy and asked for a peace that could only come from the Lord. My prayers weren&#8217;t, &#8220;Please don&#8217;t let my baby have DS&#8221;, but rather&#8230; &#8220;Please keep her healthy, continue to have her develop the way you want her to be and let her be able to breastfeed.&#8221; At 37 weeks along we welcomed our baby girl into the world. Katelyn came out sucking her thumb, determined to amaze the world, and had a purpose for being here. After having Katelyn I remember people asking us, &#8220;So how much Down Syndrome does she have or how bad is it?&#8221; There is so much misconception and misunderstanding about DS. Honestly most of the information you will find about it just explains some of the health problems and struggles that can be related to DS. Few articles actually share the benefits and blessing of being a parent of a child with Downs. That is one reason why over 90% of these babies are aborted each year. This breaks my heart because I know first hand what it&#8217;s like to have a child with DS and I am here to tell you the positive aspects of it. First of all&#8230; Katelyn is JUST like any other child. She is stubborn, loves to push her mama&#8217;s buttons and thinks things always have to go her way. She also enjoys learning, dancing, singing, playing and as I&#8217;m typing this she is sitting on my lap giving me kisses and trying to take over the computer. LOL There is never a dull moment with Katelyn. Sometimes it takes her a little longer to master a new skill and other times she catches on before her peers. So, to put it simple having a child with Down Syndrome is the same as having a so called &#8220;normal&#8221; child. No matter what, each child will learn things at a different rate and pace weather they have DS or not. The only difference I have noticed raising Katelyn, compared to her brothers, is that she does have more doctor appointments. This is because of the statistics with different conditions that can go along with DS so we do monitor her more closely. Thankfully though Katelyn is overall very healthy. She was born with 2 small holes in her heart, which I am happy to say one of which has already closed on it&#8217;s own and most likely the second one will do the same over time. Before finding out we were expecting Katelyn, Matt and I prayed that God would bless us with another child if it was His will. We didn&#8217;t ask for a &#8220;perfect child&#8221; or a blond hair/blue eyed girl or boy, we simply just asked for a child. The perfect child for us and that is what He gave us in Katelyn. So if you asked me what I think of having a child with Down Syndrome, to put it plainly&#8230; I wouldn&#8217;t trade it for anything. She is my &#8220;Pure Joy&#8221; and my sweet little sunshine.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.wirlproject.com/what-it-is-really-like-to-have-a-child-with-down-syndrome/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Using Every Ounce of Talent I&#8217;ve Been Given</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/using-every-ounce-of-talent-ive-been-given/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/using-every-ounce-of-talent-ive-been-given/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2015 09:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Misty Hovis]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[God's Help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homeschooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stay At Home Mom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Talent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thirty-One]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=4707</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; Quiet&#8230; I sit here alone enjoying this moment. Ahh another day goes by, five sweet little blessings tucked into their beds, but this mother still has much to do before I lay down to rest. Time to prepare, time to pray, and time to reflect. A while ago, I came across a quote that read: This quote really touched my heart and opened my eyes to a lot of things. Being a wife, stay-at-home homeschooling mother and Director with Thirty-One Gifts I wear many hats. From the moment I get up, I am nonstop being pulled in one direction or another. It&#8217;s not always easy and I will let you in on a little secret, some days I feel like the biggest failure and not worthy to be in the roles I hold. Then, I realize I am exactly where I am suppose to be, blessed with exactly the children I am suppose to have, and doing exactly what God has called me to do. He alone has instilled talents and gifts in each of us&#8230; what we chose to do with them is up to us. I chose to use every bit of them for His honor and glory. To reach deep within myself and give my all, in all I do, so at the end of my life I can look back and say I used every bit of talent He blessed me with. I hear often words from strangers and even friends, &#8220;Boy, do you have your hands full!&#8221; Or &#8220;Wow, you must be super woman!&#8221;. I am far from being super woman, or mom for that matter, I struggle just like the rest. My hands are full, but not in the way most would think. My hands are full when I have a child close by to hug, a little hand to hold, and a child in my arms dancing and singing around the kitchen, just to name a few. This is my life&#8217;s greatest joy and accomplishment. Even though the moments of silence are refreshing, I look forward to tomorrow when I can continue to use my talents with God&#8217;s help until every ounce of it is used up. Loving my journey!]]></description>
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