Hospitals, Headaches and Holidays....

It’s been a while since my last entry, please accept my sincere apologies the past month or so have been quite intense.  I was almost completely thrown off track by some of the events of the past month but thankfully I am slowly getting myself back together :-)

Just to give you the heads up, on Monday 19^th November I took Ashton, my youngest son to the doctor because he was experiencing a high temperature over that weekend which remained consistent.  The doctor couldn’t find the source of the problem so he sent us to the hospital for some routine blood tests.  My son ended up staying in hospital for EIGHT DAYS! 

 

 

At first the doctors were not sure what the cause of the problem was, which was emotionally stressful, my head hurt trying to work out what was going on.  By day three they concluded that he had an infection in his blood which was possibly the source of the problem so they decided to treat with antibiotics for five days.   Throughout this experience Ashton was his usual lively self but our concerns remained.  By God’s grace we left the hospital the following Monday and he has been fine ever since.

During this time the other boys were volleyed between home, my parents and my sister (thank God for great family support).  The following few weeks were pretty ‘unsettling’ for me as I kept worrying about Ashton questioning why this happened.  The time spent in hospital really got me thinking about what's important, especially being in a ward with some really sick children, it put a lot of things in perspective.  I was so grateful for home schooling that week because the boys were still able to get on with work whilst being with family so that Len was free to travel to and from the hospital when needed.

Now we are approaching holiday season, Christmas and the New Year!  I don’t quite know how I feel about the New Year.  Somewhat excited, somewhat apprehensive I guess. Excited that 2012 is over and something new is on the horizon, apprehensive because I know I have to take Allen Eagles to another level and it is something that often plays on my mind. Questions like ‘I AM REALLY DOING THE RIGHT THING?’.  Having said that, I won’t quit, at least not until I have given it my best shot!!

With everything else that is happening I am now in full swing preparing for my annual event DARE TO DREAM (more info to follow).  I am a tad behind on the promotional stuff but not too worried at this stage because previous years have shown that most people don’t think too much about the New Year plans until after the Christmas festivities :-)

Merry Christmas from all of us!!

I hope you and your family have an amazing, restful and drama-free holiday season.  I pray that God will give you the desires of your heart this Christmas and most of all I pray that 2013 will be the beginning of the BEST years of your life!!

Live on purpose.  Laugh with pleasure. Love with passion. 

Until we speak again,

 

Much love Karen. x

I AM...Hungry?

We almost had a week off school last week (Half term), I say ‘almost’ because the boys still had to do at least an hour of work each day (except Monday and Tuesday) it was also a good opportunity for me to get some well-earned rest.  I didn’t do a blog entry last week but I just have to share this story with you from the previous week at Allen Eagles.

On Monday mornings we do a lesson called Personal Development.  This is where I share principles with the boys designed to empower them and develop their character.  On this particular Monday (22^nd October) the subject matter was ‘The power of words’.  I shared with the boys that the words ‘I AM…’ are two of the most powerful words in the dictionary particularly when used together as a declaration.  I then gave them examples of people who use the words frivolously to describe themselves in negative ways not realising the impact that their words will ultimately have on their lives.  For example, I am stupid, I am fat, I am always late, I am not good with money, I am not good with people etc.

We then proceeded to play a game which illustrated the lesson.  Each boy stood in a corner of the room and I stood in the middle with a soft toy.  I would shout out for example ‘Anton, I am…’ and then throw the toy at Anton, he in return would shout out an adjective and throw the toy back to me.  They could only use positive words.  We did this a few times with the boys shouting out words like, ‘fantastic, awesome, handsome’ but it all fell apart when I threw the toy to my eldest son and shouted ‘Amario, I am…’ and he responded with passion ‘HUNGRY’.  It was time for lunch J
 

I think the most enjoyable thing about home schooling so far is being able to watch my boys develop on so many levels, their sense of humour, the questions they ask, the comments they make, it really is priceless.  Sometimes I look at the boys and think, ‘they are going to be teenagers in a minute’. It is quite scary.  Some days I wonder if I am doing enough, other days I am concerned that we have done too much.  Every day is blessing for which I am very grateful.  Almost every week someone asks me about home schooling because they too have considered doing likewise, my husband and I have been called ‘trailblazers’ (I don’t know about that J ).  What I do know is that it’s a privilege to be in a position to inspire others to do the thing that is in their heart to do.  Daring people to dream is what I live for.

I hope you have a great week.  You deserve it.

Speak soon

Karen. x

If you enjoyed this blog please forward to a friend and feel free to leave a comment.  Just click on the comment link :-)

 

The WAR and the ROSES!

Pursuing a dream is not easy.  In many ways it like fighting a war, you know it’s going to be a fight, you know you will come up against enemies (whether in the form of people or circumstances), you know there is a possibility of there being casualties along the way but ultimately you know you want to win.  

I know this first hand because I do my best to live my dreams in all areas of my life.

 

It sounds good, it feels good (in the beginning anyway) but once you get into the swing of things you will inevitably encounter many challenges and seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  Home schooling is no exception.  The good thing is I was never fooled into thinking it would be easy so I’m not discouraged J

Last week I engaged in emotional warfare.  The boys have been great, very excited and really engaged but the challenge has been ME. I desperately needed to get some personal stuff done but somehow could not muster up the motivation, the laundry pile in the bathroom was looking more like a second hand charity shop in the process of sorting the  countless donations that had recently come in and  I longed  for the constant calling of my name to cease.!! (I told the boys  that I changed my name and unless they could  guess what my new name was  they are not allowed to call me, that made things worse because they just spent the next half an hour trying to guess which was almost driving me craaaazy).  I did prepare myself for these times (in theory) but what I failed to do was put it into practice.  I had not taken ‘time out’ that I promised myself and with the intense weekend that we had (my husband hosted a monthly personal development boot camp) by Tuesday I was ready to scream really, really loudly!!

 

 

That’s when Len popped out the road to get some milk and came back with a beautiful bunch of roses.  He continually ensures me that he appreciates what I am doing and this was just a reminder  that I was doing a great job J It was as if someone slowly took the top of a pressure cooker. Ahhhhhhhh (EXHALE SLOWLY)!!  The boys soon followed his lead by letting me know how much they loved me and how glad they were that I took the time out to home school them.  By the end of the week they presented me with a handmade card, painted a love heart and did a video clip of Alex singing ‘Just the way you are’.

 

So, fighting wars are not so bad after all.  Especially if you have the sweet smell of victory as an incentive.  I’m sure you are fighting your own wars in many different ways, my encouragement to you is don’t give up, your dreams are always worth fighting for.

Have a great week ahead.

 

Karen. xx

 

 

 

 

Nouns and Nerds...

The past week and weekend has been quite hectic for the Allen family (in a great way I hasten to add :-) As well as being a wife and mother I am also blessed to be an author, a conference host and an inspirational speaker. Two of my favourite things to do include, spending time with my family and speaking to groups of women using my gift to inspire and empower them to live the life of their dreams.

 

 

On Friday of last week it was my privilege to be invited to speak for a woman's inspirational evening in Tooting.  To be honest with you although I was excited about the opportunity I didn't raise my expectations too high as most of my energy had been consumed by Allen Eagles.  Due to my schedule I've had to use early mornings and late nights to prepare so in many ways didn't feel as 'ready' as I would usually.  We arrived at the venue about 7.10pm to get ready for a 7.30pm start not expecting more than about 20-30 women (based on past experience) and to my surprise there were already at least 80 women seated anticipating what was about to take place.  By the time it was my turn to take the stage over 150 women were in attendance!! My keynote for the evening was entitled 'What will you do with your DASH'.  The essence of the talk was me asking the audience what impact their lives will have made when it is their turn to transition from this world to the next. It was one of the most memorable evenings of my speaking journey thus far.

 

 

On Saturday I attended one of the most refreshing spiritual retreats for women hosted by a good friend of mine Rev Jacqueline Peart and again I was one of the main speakers.  It was such an amazing experience, I met some outstanding women and had the opportunity to really relax and be blessed.  One of the things I love most about speaking is being able to talk to people afterwards who often say things like 'I wish I could do what you do' or 'I wish I was confident like you are'. I get to assure them, that the person they see before them did not start of with such confidence and eloquence ;-) I then explain that it has been a long, hard and often very painful journey to get to where I am today. It is on these occasions that I get the opportunity to reassure at least one person that if I can do it, anyone can :-)

 

 

As for the 'Eagles' they are all doing well.

 

 

My sister had all four boys while we were away which was a blessing, she is truly a gift from God.  Baby Ashton was not too well over the weekend, we think he may have picked up a stomach bug but he is much better now :-)  

 

I posted on Facebook earlier last week that almost every day the boys give me something to laugh really hard about (notice I said 'almost' :-). Last Monday we were covering English Grammar with the younger two and I asked Anton to describe what a noun was, to which he replied '... A noun is a person, place or a thing', I then asked him to give me an example, he said 'Alex is a noun'.
  

 

 

This is Anton, he called Alex a 'noun'.

 

Alex, who wasn't paying much attention turned round and out of nowhere called Anton a 'NERD'. I said to him 'Alex, don't call your brother a nerd, say sorry'. His response in defence was 'But mum Anton called me a NOUN'!!!  You just gotta love 'em.

 

 

This is Alex he called Anton a 'nerd'.

 

Today I was writing a post on Facebook and my oldest son Amario was sitting next to me.  I wrote 'God had blessed me with an AMAZING husband and some outstanding sons'.  Amario (who I didn't realise was looking over my shoulder) said 'Mum aint you gonna put 'outstanding' in capitals'.  I laughed so hard!!

 

 

 

 

This is Amario, he is the one who 'got jokes'.

 

I hope you have a fab week.

 

Speak soon.

 

Karen. x

2 weeks down...a lifetime to go!

Today (Friday 21st September) has been two weeks since we officially began home schooling and it has been a whirlwind!

I am still 'finding my feet' but to be honest it has been much better than I initially anticipated. I thought I would be much more stressed and extremely frustrated, but thankfully, I'm good :-)) The boys are slowly but surely getting used to the change and are saying positive things about their experience for the most part, (I do have one child who says as often as he can 'Im bored mum', I would take offence but thankfully it goes over my head as this is his standard chant whenever he is not getting his own way).

Alex (aka) 'Little Fire' - The bored one!!

As for me, truth be told, I have been EXHAUSTED getting into the swing of things!! My alarm goes off at 5.45am and I am usually out of the bed by 6am (I say usually because some days I just look at my phone as though it is a demon from hell, I snooze and go back to sleep for at least an extra half an hour).  On my 'good days' I get up, have some 'me time' talk to God and then prepare for the day ahead.  The boys are usually up between 7.00 and 7.30 and then Eagles start Physical Education at 8.30am with Coach Len (aka Dad).

Our day usually runs for approximately 4 - 5 hours including an hour lunch and two short breaks (my 2 year old does what I call 'freelance learning' nothing too structured at this stage and my 5 year old who we call 'little fire' has many more short breaks than the older two simply because his attention span is like ZERO) so we only do focused study for about 3.5 hours in total which seems to work well for us.  It is still a challenge figuring out the best way to spread my attention between the boys, I'm working on that. 

Every Monday and Friday we do a 30 minute personal development lesson which is usually quite fun, today for example, we did a ball game to illustrate the power of FOCUS.  Wednesday is Money Matters or Financial Education, Len (my husband) does that lesson, he teaches them songs, motto's and all sorts :-)) 

 

The boys reciting financial Wisdom from Daddy Len

'Profits are better than wages, the more I learn is the more I earn'.

'The marketplace pays for value, the better my skill is the better my value'

 

We also do a spelling bee on Friday's which the boys seem to really look forward to.  Within the next two weeks we have planned a visit to the Science and Natural History Museum with the hope of getting some inspiration for our upcoming Science and History projects!!

It's all go in the Allen Household, always is.  I will be updating you on our progress, if you believe in the power of prayer, please mention our names :-))

Speak soon.

Karen. xx

P.S. Since starting Allen Eagles I have been interviewed by a major Christian Magazine for their November edition and another mainstream magazine is also interested in our story which is both exciting and scary!!

21 Reasons we decided to Home School

 

Since my last blog I have been asked by a number of people WHY we have decided to home school.  Consequently I thought it might be helpful if I documented 21 of the reasons (among others) so that even I can be reminded when times get tough :-)

 

I must preface my reasons by stating that I am a HUGE fan of teachers but not a big fan of the education system on the whole.  Some of the most influential people in my life are teachers and I think they do a phenomenal job for which they are by no means rewarded according to their worth.

 

The reasons listed below are personal and are by no means aimed at anyone I know.  Thankfully most of the teachers I know are fantastic!

 

 

 21 Reasons we decided to Home School...

 

 

We believe that our children are unique and as such do not need to necessarily be educated conventionally.

We believe that we are best suited to nurture and groom the unique character of each child.

We believe that it is important for our children to have a spiritual foundation underpinning their education.

 

We believe that we are the best people to identify and develop the many gifts that God has given each child.

 

We believe that the education system in the UK is designed to teach most children to be average and to accept mediocrity as standard.

 


 

 

We believe that the education system (generally speaking) is not flexible enough, nor is it designed to bring out the best in boys (especially black boys).

We believe that there are core subjects such as communication skills, financial education, discipline, respect and people skills that are not a priority on the school curriculum but should be.

We believe that home schooling will enable us to greatly influence our children’s philosophies until they are able to shape their own.

We want our children to experience the true joy of learning and we want them to grow up with a passionate to learn new things.

We want our children to know that education is an equaliser and that once they are educated in any given area ANYTHING is possible.

We believe that we should be the primary influence in our children’s life especially during their most impressionable years and home schooling will allow us to do this on an even greater scale.

We believe that it is important for our children to understand the importance of service and sacrifice and this should be an integral part of their learning.

 

We believe that many people who are educated at school are in danger of not realising 'who they really are' until years after they have left school (if they ever do) and this should not be the case.

We believe that education should be linked to a child’s purpose and that children should be taught and often reminded that they were created for a purpose and that it is important for them to find out what that purpose is and then go on to fulfil it.

We believe that our children need to be frequently exposed to people and places that will serve to inspire and influence them in a positive way and we feel that the education system should be more flexible and creative in including such experiences in the curriculum.

We want our children to have the best education which will include all the values that are important to us.

We believe that educating a child should be much more vast and well-rounded than simply sitting in a classroom for most of the day for instance, history should be taught through frequent trips to museums as well as real life stories from the older generation and geography should be experienced through travel as well as text books and an atlas.

We want our children to be challenged to always strive for excellence without excuse.

We want our children to know without a doubt that WHATEVER they put their hearts and minds to they can achieve with determination and dedication.

We want our children to understand the importance of things that the education system place little value on for example, the importance of failure, the importance of focusing on you’re strengths, the importance of standing up for what you believe in and the importance of following your dream.

We believe that home schooling is the best decision for our family at this time.


If you have any further questions, feel free to send me a message.

Until next time,

Karen. x


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It's official...I am MAD!

For years people have said it, I even pioneered a campaign based on it (R U MAD Youth Campaign), but now it's confirmed...I am MAD!

MAD is an acronym I use for the term Making A Difference, however with my latest endeavour I think it is befitting to use the word literally!

I am proud to say that I am a married mother of five, four of whom are all under the age of 10.  For many, many years I've had a desire to do something that most people consider to be somewhat psychotic.  The reason why it has taken me this long to take the 'plunge' is because even I have questioned the rationale of doing something which could initially change my character (possibly not in a positive way :-0 ) and ultimately change my life!!

At the beginning of this year 2012 the desire intensified.  I had a number of incidents take place which confirmed strongly the need for me to pursue this path and in July the decision was solidified.

I am officially a HOME SCHOOLING MUM!

Yes, you heard right my husband and I made the brave and somewhat crazy decision to take our boys out of the traditional education system to home school our boys.  It was not an easy decision and it did not occur overnight.  It was a result of much prayer, research, counselling and well-rounded advice from friends and family. Once I had answered all the questions and settled the concerns that had prevented me from making this decision sooner, I stopped wrestling with the inevitable and found peace.

We spent the best part of this year (2012) talking with the boys about our decision and the reasons why we feel this is the best thing for our family at this time, at first they were apprehensive as expected (the thought of not seeing their friends was unbearable at first) but soon they too could see the benefits (after I bribed them all and promised that we would keep in contact with their closest friends from school).

So the journey has begun.  Well it officially begins on Monday 10th September, this week (beginning 3rd Sept) we have been doing what my eldest son calls 'transition week' (3 hours of work daily to get us into the home schooling groove).  Many have questioned my reasoning, others think I am MAD, but most people truly respect the decision we have made to home school and I really appreciate that.  I was asked by a number of people if I would write a blog/journal about my experiences, at first I was hesitant (where would I find the time!!) then I thought it might just be cathartic for me, so here it is! 

'Keeping it REAL with Karen' will be about life in my world and will include my home schooling journey as well as other exciting adventures along the way.  My plan is to blog frequently but at least once a week where I will share with you the ups, the downs, the ins and the outs.  I will give you a glimpse into my thoughts that got me to where I am today and why we decided that home schooling was the best thing for us, as well as introduce you to each of my children and what we call our 'creative curriculum'.

As I write this post the boys have just taken a 15 minute break, the sun is shining, I am sitting on the trampoline and the boys are playing in the garden, today is a good day, so far so good, let's hope that we have started the way we plan to continue......let's hope!!

Karen. x


Please feel free to share what you have read and do leave a comment below. (I need all the encouragement I can get)!!