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On my mind today and seemingly everyday these days is this... How do I cultivate a loving, enjoyable for the both of us, kind of relationship between my daughter and I? Growing up, my mother and I fought tooth and nail over everything. We made each other miserable! Just miserable. I don't want a repeat of my childhood! And yet, it seems to be happening before my very eyes! It is so discouraging. My sweet little girl hit four (now just over a month before turning five) and that is when the trouble started. Seems like she is a teenager in a little persons body. I'd like to know HOW to keep from losing my temper and my mind when she begins to complain and whine over every livin' thing! NOW- I know what you're thinking! "She must have reinforced this behavior in the past!" Nope. Andrea complains about food.... she goes to bed hungry. She complains about her clothes... they go to goodwill. You get the picture. I do not give in, though sometimes I feel like giving up! AHHH! I am trying to incorporate more alone fun time with her... we'll see if this improves her mood in the longterm. I know Grayson coming along has been a challenge for her. I am trying to let go of schedules that bind me and exasperate her. I am trying to be as flexible as I know how to be. I'd like to hope that this will pass! My mother and I were best friends once I grew up for those of you who wonder if that will ever happen for you. Truly she became the most dear and wonderful friend I have ever had. I lost her 2 and 1/2 years ago. My biggest regret is that we didn't enjoy one another when we were younger. So many opportunities lost. Any suggestions mothers and daughters?
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Well, the beauty of homeschooling is taking a day off when necessary. I am finally learning that it is not the end of the world if we are 'behind' and are we REALLY ever behind in homeschool? We have all the time in the world to catch up! So, I'll not be a slave to my own schedule. Sure, I would hope that as the kids get older a basic schedule will be easier to keep, but for now (while my son endlessly teeths and my daughter is learning self-control) I'll be satisfied to just know she is learning. And she most certainly is. She's far ahead of where I was at her age and I am thrilled. THRILLED! Yesterday we skipped school and went up on the BlueRidge Parkway for a picnic. Afterwards we took a hike and enjoyed the beautiful fall leaves and the fresh air (which I don't think we get enough of). Wouldn't you know that upon finding ourselves deep in the forest, she sees a tree stump. She goes running toward it shouting, "Mom! Look! The rings on the stump tell us how old the tree is!!!" And so, I was happy to know that she remembered our last science lesson. We stopped and had a review as we counted the rings. She remarked about God's beautiful creation as we went along. It was a good day. A much needed break. This morning Grayson woke us up screaming at 5AM... ugh! And he has been crying a good portion of the morning. SO! Being the super mega flexible gal that I am, I am content to begin when he goes down for his afternoon nap. Many of you have reminded me that it doesn't matter what time I start as long as she understands the concept I am teaching her. I do feel more freedom knowing that in the end (at least for now) following the schedule perfectly just doesn't matter. Yes, I have had some really frustrating days since we've started, that's true (mostly because I set a standard for myself that I just can't keep right now). But I still know I'm called to homeschool and I am ever more thankful for the opportunity and content to keep pluggin' along. No matter how frustrated I become the pros totally outweigh the cons. I think things have also been more challenging since my husband has been spending the past month or two studying for HIS engineering exam. There's not a lot of time available for him to give me a break or discuss what's happening during school hours. That will soon change as he takes his test this coming Sat. I'm also excited to have a weekend away soon (Halloween weekend). I think homeschooling moms need to really make 'taking a break' a priority. Otherwise I think we'll go mad. At least I know I will! I sincerely hope your day will be a good one. :-) Time to clean up my baby boy...
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The very moment I fell asleep last night my baby boy began to scream... he screamed until after 1AM. He has screamed a good majority of today (my guess is teething). I'm tired. My daughter and I began school (with his screaming in the background as we have many days this week!) and from the start she was out to test me in every way. I'll confess... I lost my patience. I guess I didn't lose it, I just cast it aside. I really just lost it. We finally began again when she began to further challenge me during math. I shut the book, slammed it down and sent her to her room. And now here we are. I went outside to take a breather and look at the beautiful fall leaves... which I feel like I've just about completely missed. We didn't get to go to the Pumpkin Patch because of her misbehavior. That was a disappointment to me. So, ladies with multiple children... when you are up a good part of the night, do you simply say," No- I know today will be a difficult day of school because we are all tired, so let's do something else and pick it up tomorrow." Or do you say, "Let's do our best because we don't want to get behind..." And when do you know it's time to stop when things begin to go amiss? I confess, today, I thought how nice it would be to send her to Faith Christian School... Up until she turned 4, Andrea was a dream... now she fights within herself to obey (just like all of us really). I want to be calm, cool and collected... I don't want her to learn these negative things from me! But sometimes I just can't seem to get her attention! I know some would say that she didn't need to begin school so soon. But once Grayson came, not having some sort of structured time with her was even more disasterous. To be sure, when she obedient, she does extremely well and is very smart. Though she may think otherwise, I think she does wonderfully in all of her schoolwork, especially for her age. I do tell her this often. And don't get me wrong... when she is attentive and obedient, school is finished in an hour and a half. or less. It's not as if I'm putting her nose to the grindstone! I knew there would be days like this... I expected there would be more of them than not. I think at the heart of it, it's probably all me anyway. I have been so tired and frazzled that I've not had focused time with God. You know how you get when that doesn't happen. I'm just in a rut! I terribly miss my mother... I know she'd be right over helping out and maybe even taking a day to teach so I could have a break... I trust God, but today, today I feel I've been shafted. Andrea needed her grandma and I needed her too. I'm only 34 and I feel the stress is making me an old woman. AND I only have 2!! Again, I see so many of you on here with multiple children and I feel ever so bad for even sharing! Surely if you can handle 3 or more, I can manage 2! You may wonder where my husband is in all this... well, he's had a busy month working overtime and fulfilling church responsibilities. He's tired too. When he comes home he just wants to relax. He's also spending a great deal of time studying for his engineering exam. Thank God that will be over next Sat.! We're trying to let go of some things so we can spend more time together as a family. I'm excited to be able to date him tomorrow evening. That will be a breath of fresh air! Anyway... tomorrow is a new day and I will try again. I won't give up. I'm just weary.
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Well… I do believe I am burned out. This past week my daughter had been sick with a high fever and headache. You know how it is… constant care, no sleep and getting behind in school. On top of that, Grayson cut two teeth and I am assuming he is cutting more as he has been quite high maintenance lately. Most of you know it is difficult to teach another child while one is screaming at the top of their lungs. (You moms with several children!? HOW do you do it?) I have learned some valuable things this past week though… don’t lesson plan so far ahead that when you don’t complete everything on time, you completely stress out trying to catch up. Bad, bad, bad. Will not do that again! And I realize that I probably should have gone with the four day kindergarten and allowed the fifth day to be a catch up and/or review day. I obviously have some tweaking to do! I was so over eager! Those of you who have been doing this for awhile are probably chuckling, “I could have told her that!” With that said, we are both learning a great deal and I do still really like Sonlight. I’m just learning that I am not a failure if I don’t do everything they suggest. Which they say that at the beginning, but you get into a mindset that if you spent all this money for curriculum you should be doing everything! Foolishness! I am having trouble getting first time obedience from Andrea which is making school a bit challenging. I find that she is getting under my skin quite easily. Discipline just completely destroys our schedule! She seems to melt down over the silliest things. Today it was over my asking her to copy three sentences. You would have thought I’d asked her to write a novel. She just flipped out. When I finally won the battle she wrote them in no time at all and quite well to top! So why the meltdown!? It was only 9AM! We had devotional/prayer time to begin our day… and still just downhill from there (I have got to learn to stop praying for patience!) I think my problem is that I really need a break and some sleep. My husband is studying to take an engineering exam so he has not been able to really assist with the kids as usual. He will take his test on the 25th and not a day too soon! Thank God, after that I get to go away for the weekend to a women’s conference! Yahoo! Anyway… I know I’m called to do this and of course, some days ARE great, but today I thought Faith Christian School might be a good choice (were it not for the cost!) O’ me. Of course, we can’t afford it , I don’t want to go back to work and I DO want to watch my child learn… I really do. Well, I hope your homeschool day has been wonderful! ;-) Exhausted and Grouchy, Sherry |
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Well... running a bit late again this morning. Andrea has been on the potty for o' say 15 min. I've been listening to Focus on the Family which features Dr. David Jeremiah. His cancer battle is reminding me of the long hard journey my mother traveled with cancer. I miss her so very much and I constantly think how homeschooling would be so much better were she here. She was so excited for me to homeschool... very supportive and thankful I had been called to do so. She would have been such an asset to our learning. Yesterday we began nearly two hours late because I had been up all night. Grayson is teething so he is quite a handful.. Makes schooling a wee bit challenging. I confess I allowed her to watch Nick Jr. until I could pry myself out of the bed. Many breaks were needed yesterday because I had a tendancy toward falling asleep while teaching! We finished up our reading assignment last night around 7:30PM! But we finished! That's all that counts right? I am enjoying school so far. Sure, some days are a bit hairy, but many days were hairy before homeschooling. I believe any real challenge is simply because I have 4 year old (very close to 5) in my house! I'd rather be homeschooling and 'have a plan' than to continue meandering through our day without goal or vision. Did I mention, we are loving Sonlight!? What a great choice. She is learning... I'm learning too! :) I'm proud to say that she is reading at a 1st, nearly 2nd grade level. That is sooo exciting! I had much trouble reading when I was a child so I'm thrilled that she has taken to it so well. She really is doing quite well in all subjects. Her only challenge is to gain self- control over herself! We're working on it! Alright.... time to begin! Hope you all have a wonderful day knowing you are answering the call of our Lord to teach and train your children! I'm so thankful for the freedom and opportunity to do this! Even on the bad days!
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I shall not be a slave to my own schedule! I had hoped that each day we'd zoom right through all subjects and be finished by noon. That has happened on occassion. But more than not, we have finished early afternoon. Many breaks are needed by mom and Andrea. I tell myself that it doesn't matter what time we finish, as long as we finish. Today we tweaked the morning routine a bit and I was thrilled to still be in the bed at 7:30AM! WooHoo! Andrea woke up earlier, but waved at her daddy from her window (instead of going outside on the deck.) Daddy can see her, wave back and toot the horn. They both got what they needed (warm fuzzies) and she fell back asleep! PTL! So, I was able to get up, feed Grayson and get ready before she awoke. O' how nice. How very nice. While I got breakfast ready, she watched a Usborne Spanish movie. O' sure there was still a wee bit of grumbling and complaining (about having to wait), but overall, much smoother morning!!! :) Today was a better day... I hope yours was too.
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Ah... the house is quiet other than the banging of a rattle my baby boy is pretty excited about. Andrea will be getting up from nap soon. We'll finish language and grammar then. And we'll continue to look for that blasted magnifying glass. I'm excited to get to know some of you and to learn from you. This is our third week of homeschooling and I am happy to connect with other homeschooling moms. I have been super pumped about school. I have found Sonlight to be such a fun way to learn. Any other Sonlight users? Well, my husband read my first blog and he suggested I edit! I was flipping out... :-) I know I'm not alone though! Some days are just a challenge from start to finish, but others remind you of why you do what you do. The other day as we began our day, Andrea got on her knees to pray. She said, "Lord, forgive me for disobeying you and my mother. Give me strength to behave better. Amen." Ah... those are memories I like to file away. I should have pulled it up when I got so frustrated that she lost the magnifying glass. We get upset over silly things when we lack adequate rest... and coffee. God forgive me... I'm an imperfect homeschooling mom.
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It's one of those days... one of those days when you know you are called to homeschool and yet! You know how it goes... it begins early when instead of waiting for you to begin the day, your little one decides she will begin it for you. Nagging, whining and complaining. "I'm hungry! I want my breakfast", "I want to come down and play with my brother!", "Can I come down NOW?". On and on it goes. In the past month or so, Andrea, has been waking up at 6:30 to see her father off. Now, this is sweet of course and his heart swells to hear her hollaring from the deck as he leaves, "I love you, Daddy! Have a nice day!" But for me? I get terrorized as soon as she walks back through the door! We have gone over it a million times..."When you come back inside, go back to your room and get back into bed OR read a book quietly until mommy says it is time to begin our day." And yet, somehow it goes through one ear and out the other. Daddy even reminds her on the deck to be obedient... and sometimes she goes back upstairs, but! BUT she is soon down the stairs asking for this or that OR questioning from the top of the staircase... See, she used to sleep until 8AM. This, of course, was ideal. We are uncertain as to why this changed. I like to get up when my husband leaves, feed the baby (almost 6 months), get a shower etc. and come out and make a cup of coffee or tea and spend a wee bit of time with God... a dream really. This worked like a charm the first few days and mommy was very patient throughout our school day. Now- I can barely get out of the shower before... well, you get the picture. We've learned A LOT today, but I was falling asleep during our bible reading... at 9:30AM!! I needed the coffee. I asked her to play quietly for just ten minutes so I could just close my eyes. Well! As soon I fell asleep, she was putting a sticker on my face... scared me to death... And now... ugh. She has lost the magnifying glass that I gave her to use to look at the parts of a flower... she had it all of five minutes and now it's gone. She walks through the house expecting the thing to grow legs and walk up to her. Ugh! She hates to look for things. So, after lunch, having not finished our grammar lesson- I'm sending her to nap... But overall, kindergarten has gone very well. We LOVE Sonlight! It's crazy expensive, but well worth it to me. Most days I think God has me here to teach ME... sure, my children will get an amazing education, but mommy is learning and growing too (hopefully) in ways she wouldn't otherwise. I thank God for the opportunity.
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