About Valerie…

My niece and her sons

Hello! My name is Valerie. I am a mother of two, free spirit, and lifetime lover of Nature. This is an introduction to our story and how we began homeschooling!

Halfway through his kindergarten year, Maverik asked me to homeschool him. considering that I had always wished to be homeschooled myself, I was happy to oblige.

There was a part of me that was scared that I wouldn’t know how to homeschool or where to start, I am grateful for the friends that I had at the time that led me down the path towards learning My own strength and potential.

We decided to name our school the Greenhouse School of Adventure because we strive for a sustainable lifestyle and a future based on permaculture and living in harmony with nature.

It has been a strange Adventure indeed learning how to homeschool. and while I love the idea of unschooling I do believe that children need structure and routine especially when struggling with a very active unfocused mind. Yoga and mindfulness definitely come in handy in this respect as well.

I have spent many years collecting resources in the event that I would have children that wanted to homeschool, and I am very glad that I held on to a lot of old things that I found at secondhand stores, garage sales, or inherited from family members. I even have some things from my own elementary and high school experiences that I saved just in case!

Now that Maverik’s younger brother, Thorin, is old enough to participate as well, we incorporate modern education styles and things such as workbooks and worksheets with lots of field work and studies out in nature, observing our surroundings, and focusing on the things that the children are passionate about.

We like to laminate a lot of our worksheets so that they can be reused multiple times. This allows me to save activities and resources from Maverik’s education to use for Thorin as he advances. We also make use of flashcards that we find secondhand or are given to us as older friends and family members outgrow them. And one of the best things about being part of a co-op is other families can use them as well!

I love the fact that I am able to be Hands-On with my children every single day, and watch them learn and grow, but also be aware of the things that they struggle with and need extra time to focus on longer than their peers. I also think it’s pretty amazing that I can let them lead me through certain activities, and they teach ME about the things that they have taught themselves about, purely out of sheer passion and enjoyment for subjects that they find fascinating!

It is not always easy to homeschool two very intelligent, rambunctious boys at two different ages/grade levels at the same time! We make it work by using teamwork, showing compassion for each other, practicing mindfulness and open communication. This allows us to help each other and learn good communication skills that come in very useful during co-op activities.

This past year has presented a lot of challenges due to the novel coronavirus pandemic; we have not been able to participate in our co-ops with other homeschool families as much as we would have liked. We used to spend at least three days a week at the library and local places like Minnetrista, both indoors and outside in the gardens, and the different parks around town. We try to utilize all the green space at those parks as much as possible since we live in the city.

Things have been a little different this year, but we are all definitely very thankful that we already had a successful homeschool routine before the pandemic hit. We have been able to continue our education without much interference or delay. We still spend time in nature, we just do it in less crowded places. We use our state parks pass a lot, and we also go places like McVey Memorial Forest in Randolph County where there’s less traffic and not as many visitors during the weekdays.

I have to say that we are very blessed to live at a time where we have such easy access to technology. Being able to video chat with family and friends has made social distancing a lot easier on all of us. But we definitely look forward to having our yoga and art tea party sessions again, and meeting with our co-op once a week (or more!) when we can finally be around each other without worry of risking our health and the lives of our loved ones.

No matter what happens in the future to our society and surroundings, we plan to continue how to live in harmony with nature, create permaculture food forests, build our own greenhouses, and learn to produce our own food year-round. It has been a struggle so far working with soil conditions that are not ideal, and weather that doesn’t always cooperate with our plans! But that’s part of the learning process, and we truly believe in this house that a mistake is only a mistake when it is repeated without learning a lesson. Every endeavor that we take that appears to be “unsuccessful” is simply a lesson for us to learn from and grow in our understanding of how to do things in a more successful and sustainable way!

Jewelrie and Soaps

Valerie is also a local Artisan who makes jewelry and soaps.

https://www.facebook.com/4evervigilantvalkyrie/?ref=page_internal

One example of the jewelry and soap that I make. Let me know if you’re interested in buying one of these pieces, or commissioning a custom piece! (I can do some custom soaps also.) Just click on the link above to contact me.

The Greenhouse School of Adventure

Home Schooling Activities: While teaching the other necessary curriculum, teaching my sons how to live a “Green”life through turning our yard into a permaculture oasis and we hope to build a greenhouse in the future.

Fall Decorating From the Garden

Yoga/Art Tea Party Sessions

She is learning and teaching yoga/mindfulness. Learning and teaching her sons sustainable living, appreciating nature and practicing permaculture is her passion!

Summer Sessions