We went on a really nice little field trip on Tuesday.  It was organized by one of the moms in one of my homeschool support groups.  We went to Trailside Nature Center to learn about amphibians.  I brought all three of my children on this trip, which proved to be a big challenge. 

First we looked at a little slide show about amphibians. Challenge # 1.  My youngest, 21 month old Paulie, was not all that interested in the slide show.  He did not want to sit quietly on my lap either.  So, of course I had to bring him outside, all the while worrying about whether or not my 4 & 5 year olds were going to behave themselves now that they were unsupervised.  But they were perfect little angels (big relief!). 

After the slide show we hiked down to the pond with our nets to try and find some amphibians. Here is challenge # 2.  Paulie wants to walk around on his own of course, and of course I have to follow directly behind him for fear he will either go into the pond or off into the woods.  At the same time I'm having to keep an eye on James and Ryan who at this point are wading out into the pond with their nets.  This scenario is sheer torture for a nervous mom like myself.  After finding many cool little creatures (frogs, snails, baby dragonflies and damselflies, frog eggs) we hiked over to a stream in search of more amphibians. 

Challenge # 3:  Paulie wants to walk the trail by himself.  I know I don't have to tell you how slow a 21 month old trying to walk a rocky, bumpy, nature trail can be.  So now we are far behind the group and my other two are no longer in my line of vision.  Again, sheer torture for an overly nervous mom. 

We finally get to the stream.  A nice, shallow stream, this was going to be so much more relaxing. Or so I thought.  Challenge # 4.  Since all the kids were in the stream, of course Paulie wanted to go in too.  Me, wanting him to have fun too, held his hand and let him walk in the stream.  But of course he did not want to hold my hand and struggled with me the whole time.  Then it was time to go and of course he did not want to go.  He wanted to stay in the water.  Now comes my sweet little Paulie's first real temper tantrum.  So as we are making the long trek back, I'm carrying a sqirming screaming not quite yet two year old under one arm.  He was so upset, I was so upset.  When we finally got back to the nature center he was his happy self again and I was exhausted.  I got them all into the car and changed them out of their wet clothes and shoes.  My older boys had a ball and learned a ton but I was so glad it was over! 

So goes so many of our outings.  It can be a challenge doing things for the older ones when you have a younger one.  But I just try to suck it up and deal with it.  Because if I didn't go places because it would be challenging or difficult, we'd never leave the house.  And we'd miss out on some really good opportunities.  I'm all for staying home.  That is where I'd always rather be.  But when these opportunities come up I am glad I don't follow my initial gut feeling and pass them up, because they always wind up being good for the boys and I always magange to survive, even if its just barely.

I have to give a great big thank you to mom26kidz (Thanks Donna!) for introducing me to a great new resource.  I had read about Time4Learning.com on Donna's blog and went to check it out.  I really liked what I saw and signed up my 6 year old son James. 

Right now I "do school" with my 6 year old kindergartner, James and my 4 year old pre-schooler, Ryan.  They have very different personalities and learning styles.  When we first started to officially homeschool this past fall, James was very unenthusiastic. I had blogged about this back in September, how he found the school work boring and really did not embrace the change in his schedule.  He thankfully did get over those negative feelings and eventually liked doing his lessons, though he did find some things tedious.  He is not really a workbook type of kid.  He enjoys a lot of our phonics curriculum (Phonics Museum) and a lot of our math (Math-U-See), but when it comes time for the worksheets, he gets tired of it pretty quickly.  My son Ryan, on the other hand, would sit and do workbook pages all day long if he could.  James is very proficient on the computer and enjoys doing things on the computer, so when I heard about Time4Learning I had to go check it out immediately.

It turns out to be the perfect addition to our homeschool.  He has lessons in language arts, math and science that he does on the computer.  He alternates, working on one subject each day.  So one day he'll do language arts on the computer and we'll do his Math-U-See lesson and any other work I have planned for the day (reading, bible, storytime, etc.).  Then the next day when he does math on the computer, we'll do his Phonics Museum lesson.  I really am impressed with the content of the lessons as well.  At first I wasn't sure if it would be any more than a semi-educational game.  But I filled out a short questionnaire about his current skill level and they designed his lessons around that.  At first I wasn't sure if it would be challenging enough for him, but it really does blend the right amount of review and challenging material.  He gets a lot of practice with skills he has recently acquired, as well as working on new concepts. And any time I feel the lessons aren't at the right level, I can let them know and they'll adjust it accordingly.  Even though this is web based, they have a number to call where you get immediate assistance.  And the person who can help you is actually the person who answers the telephone.  No automated menus to go through. 

What I also like about it, is he can do it independently.  So I can work with my younger son while James does his lesson on the computer.  I used to bounce back and forth between the two, whereas now my younger son has more of my focus. 

The computer is right near our table so I see and hear what James is doing.  But another great thing is afterwards I can sign on and get reports of how much time he spent doing the lessons, exactly what he did and any quizzes he took.  It is really a nice supplement to what we were already doing.  He no longer has to wait for me to be ready to start his work and he is always very eager to do it.   And I know that even if we're having a not so good day, and the lessons get pushed aside for whatever reason, he'll always at least log on the computer to spend 30 minutes on his lessons.  It takes away some of the guilt when we have one of those days. 

So, as you can see, I am very excited about this.  I know this type of learning isn't for every family or every child, but in our situation, it really is a great asset.  So thank you again, Donna!

My youngest son is 21 months old and how fast that time has gone.  But even though it is wonderful having a small little baby and part of me misses that stage, I must say the age he is at right now is just the best.  He is so cute and so funny that I think I literally laugh all day long.  From his mannerisms to the things he says, he really is totally hysterical.  Now, I am aware that as his mother I am obligated to think everything he does and says is funny and cute but I really think I am being totally objective in my assessment.  If I had even half the ability of so many of my blogging friends I would post some pictures and/or video of my three precious boys, but considering that in order to post the one and only picture on my blog I had to shrink it down to practically nothing, I don't think that will be happening any time soon.  So for now my friends, you'll just have to take my word on this one. 

I've finally learned my lesson about blogging.

I typed up this nice long blog today, hit add new entry and got "This page cannot be displayed".  I tried to get back to the add new entry screen, hoping what I had written would magically still be there, but of course it was not.  So from now on, I'll be typing my blogs into Word and pasting them. 

I don't have time now to re-write my whole blog.  I have to take my 4 year old to the doctor.  I think he has pink eye.  Argh!  We've been sick since the weekend and just when I thought everyone was over it all......bam!  Something else to deal with!  And I'm sure it will make its way around to everyone in the house, me being the first victim.  I've gotten pink eye everytime one of my kids has had it.  Can't say my kids don't like to share .

Have a great day!

Donna

Saturday night is game night at our house.  I must admit that I am not always as consistent with this as I would like to be.  We often skip a week or two if I am feeling overwhelmed with other household chores (or lack of sleep), but I always feel so much better when I just ignore those things and we actually sit down together and just have fun. 

We always play at least three games.  We each pick a game (my two oldest sons and myself) and we play all three.  The reason I pick a game is so that we don't wind up playing the same two games every week.  You know how kids get when they hook on a favorite.  This is also why I am part of the movie night rotation as well.  Movie night is on Friday.  My middle son always picks one of the same two movies whenever it is his turn, so my having a turn to pick at least spaces it out more.  But back to games.....tonight we played Candyland, Sorry and Hi Ho Cherry-O.  

Game night can be a wonderfully pleasant experience, that is if my older son wins every game.  However, I insist on playing by the rules (he is famous for trying to pull the sneaky do-overs, though when I call him on it he always fesses up) and when he doesn't win, he is quite the sore loser, which makes for an unpleasant time for everyone.  This is probably my fault, since before his brother was old enough to play and it was just the two of us, I used to let him win.  But once my other son was old enough to play, I no longer let him win.  We played strictly by the rules, as we should.  So its no surprise that my middle son never gets upset if he doesn't win.  He is used to winning sometimes and losing sometimes. Tonight my middle son won Candyland and Sorry and I won Hi Ho Cherry-O.   This made for one unhappy 5 year old, though I must say he has gotten much better at controlling his emotions.  He used to get mad and then refuse to play any other games.  Tonight he was upset and made a temporary vow not to play anymore but then pretty much got over it rather quickly (I should say quickly compared to how he usually reacts). I did add a quick game of Go Fish afterwards because I knew he'd win that (he always does). I don't know if that is right or wrong, but I couldn't help wanting to cheer him up. 

Is there anyone else out there that has had to deal with this problem?  And if so, any advice?  Or even if you haven't had this problem in your family, perhaps you still have some advice for me. (But try not to be too harsh!)  

It is 3 am and unfortunately I am awake.  The baby woke up (yet again) and it took me forever to get him to relax.  Once he was finally quiet I had to run out of there because seeing me will cause him to cry for me to pick him back up.  So I am stuck downstairs, dead tired I might add, until he falls back asleep (which I hope is VERY soon).  I really should be counting my blessings that he has settled down at all, but I have to be up early!  Okay, enough of my whining. 

It is pretty chilly down here.  Outside snow blankets the ground.  So this time of the year makes listening to our crickets very very strange.  We have 3 tarantulas (2 itty bitty ones that we had gotten from a breeder and one adult one my husband got from a pet store).  So we also have crickets.  My husband knows I hate the ones who chirp (the ones we buy at petsmart do not chirp) so he made sure he went and bought them anyway.  I don't like the chirping ones for two reasons.   

#1--they are a constant reminder that there a little creatures in this house whose sole purpose here is to be eaten.  That bothers me.  I'm one of those freaky animal people.  I'm a vegetarian.  I don't even kill bugs.  Should a bug, no matter what kind, makes its way into our house I catch it and bring it outside.  Even if it is a fly and it takes me 20 minutes to catch him.  I know, I am weird.  The only bugs I don't mind killing are fleas, well, because you really don't have any other choice.  Oh, and mosquitoes, since I am a hyperchondriac and don't want to get West Nile Virus after all the hoopla they've been pushing the past 6 or so years.  More than enough to make me paranoid.  Every summer I have this internal struggle over whether its worse for my kids to wear mosquito repellent or risk getting bit by a virus carrying mosquito.  I know, I'm getting weirder by the minute.  But I digress.  

#2-it is just plain weird to be hearing mosquitoes in the dead of winter.  It really plays a trick on your senses!  I'm freezing, yet I have the strange urge to go outside and catch lightening bugs.  I'm torn between drinking hot chocolate or lemonade.  It being 3 am makes the whole thing all the more disorienting. 

Its time for me to creep upstairs to check on little Paulie, without getting caught if he is still awake.  Wish me luck!

Finally some real snow around here!  I don't know if the rest of the metropolitan area is as enthusiastic about it as I am, but for me its been a long time coming.  Between yesterday and today we've gotten almost two feet of snow.  I grew up in upstate New York and very snowy winters were the norm for me.  I have so many great memories revolving around cold snowy winters:  ice skating on the lake, sledding down the mountains  (which seemed huge to me back then), playing in snow so deep my boots would get stuck.   The past few years here we haven't had too much snow, certainly no really good storms so I was very excited this morning watching my boys have the time of their lives.  What made it even better was that it happened on the weekend.  I didn't have to worry about my husband traveling to work.  He was out bright and early with the boys shoveling and playing, then he took them sledding.  They wouldn't have had nearly as much fun had it been a weekday with their Dad at work.  I can only take them out when the baby is sleeping and we have to stay right in front of the house.  And I never last as long as my husband does.  I don't have much of anything in the line of snow gear.  My lack of snow pants, snow boots and waterproof gloves are really a problem when it comes to any substantial amount of snow.  I've never invested in them because we don't get snow like this often.  This was the second largest snowstorm in history for our area.  But it turned out to be a wonderful day.  My oldest son said it was the best day he ever had, and then proceeded to say he'd had a lot of best days lately.  That made me really happy.  Like all moms, I wish my children a lifetime of best days.  Or at least enough to overshadow the bad ones.  I hope the same for all of you!

God Bless!

I am so excited, I can't even begin to tell you!  My 5 year old son James is a reader! 

We started doing phonics when he was 4, using Frontline Phonics.  But he never got into that.  He wasn't into the phonics songs and coloring pages.  So this year, when he began Kindergarten, we switched to Phonics Museum, which he really likes.  Along with that I started teaching phonograms on my own.  We started with -at words.  For quite a while he was able to sound out all the letters in the words but he was having a hard time blending them all together.  The sounds just weren't translating into words for him.  My then 3 year old son Ryan picked this up easier than James did, and if you read my blog a couple of months ago, I was worried that Ryan would read before James.  But eventually it did click for him and he could read the -at words and we moved on to -an words.  Then one day I got tired of waiting for the point in the curriculum where it said to read the books.  So far we were just reviewing letter sounds, most of which he already knew but I have this problem with skipping pages (I know, I need to do something about that). So I got out  a reader and sat down with him to see what he could do.  And lo and behold, he did GREAT!  He read most of the book with only minimal help from me.    It was the most exciting moment of my life!   Well, maybe not THE most exciting but it is definitely up there.  My biggest fear upon embarking on our homeschooling journey was teaching reading.  It seemed to me to be the most difficult thing  you could teach a child.  I felt if I could just teach him to read, then I could teach him anything.  And the amazing part is, we didn't even need those expensive phonics curriculums.  All we needed really was a white board with dry erase markers and actual books.  We still work on the phonics curriculum to reinforce all the letter sounds and to teach other phonics rules, but the biggest part of our reading curriculum is just sitting down and having him read to me everyday.  He is still slow, so meaning does get lost on him sometimes, but he is progressing so nicely and I am just so excited for him.  Moments like this are why I wanted to homeschool.  I can't imagine missing out on this big milestone.  I feel so privileged to have been able to help him on this journey and to have witnessed it firsthand. 

So, one down two to go!  Ryan is progressing nicely and will probably be reading by the end of this school year.  And little Paulie (19 months old) is off to a great start.  He can recognize his own name!  He LOVES to color.  So much so that in one weekend he managed to color our front door twice as well as our tabletop.  Neither of my other two were this artistically inclined so I wasn't prepared for this!  He even holds the crayon/marker/pen the proper way, without me ever showing him how.  Hopefully he keeps this habit :)  But anyway, whenever he was at our whiteboard easel coloring, I would come over and write out his name, spelling it as I went, and then saying Paul after I was done.  I really never expected him to actually learn it, I was just exposing him to it.  Then the other day we were at my parents' house and he was coloring with his brand new color wonder markers (can you guess why I bought those?) and I was doodling along with him.  I wrote out his name without saying a word, I was just kind of doing it absentmindedly and when I finished, he looked at it and said "Paul".  I was totally shocked.  Just goes to show that they are listening, even when you don't think they are!  

I really need to get my blogging act together.  I tend to let too much time pass before I sit myself down to blog.  I don't have one of those blogs with loads of great, inspiring words of wisdom and thus don't feel obligated to blog that often! But I would like to blog more often, however mundane our daily lives may be.  It does feel good to get all of my thoughts out of my head and into the blogosphere.

I am feeling really good this week, having started out the new year full force.  I really wasn't happy with our "attendance" thus far this year.  We are generally pretty structured homeschoolers (at least in my brain I am) but for most of our first term we behaved as unschoolers.  We did school when we could, but most of the time very little structured learning took place. This being our first year homeschooling, we really needed to ease into it and the relaxed pace allowed me to let go of many of my fears, anxieties and unrealistic expectations.  At the time I didn't think it was benefitting us at all.  Every day I would beat myself up about not sticking to my plan (and wasting all those hours of planning) but looking back it couldn't be more obvious that my boys were learning all the time, in spite of my lack of discipline and focus.  And I can feel the de-stressing effect it has had on me.  Now I'm feeling good and ready to return to our original homeschool plan which I am happy to say  we have stuck to every day this week.  (Now I know its only been 4 days, but a real accomplishment for us nonetheless).

I've also been more focused and disciplined with establishing a routine for all the other parts of our day.  I have established a morning routine, which includes my prayer time, computer time, pet care and housework.  I've set realistic bedtimes for my two older boys so that they wake up at a more reasonable hour, so that we may begin school at a predetermined hour.  I've been planning our meals so we have no more of the rush to figure out what we are going to eat every night.  I have a bedtime routine so that I don't wake up in the morning with the previous days tasks staring me in the face. I haven't stuck to the schedule completely.  My 1 1/2 year old still wakes up at night so sometimes I don't get up as early as I need to to get it all done (on these days I forgo my exercise, such a sacrifice! lol!) So I have yet to have a full day of completely sticking to my schedule.  But just striving to do so has had a tremendous impact on how our household runs.  I am not a scheduled type person by nature.  I usually schedule great things in my head, and make wonderful to do lists.  But my nature is to wake up whenever I'm no longer sleepy, stay in my pajamas for as long as I feel like it, get to my housework after I've played around on the computer and played and hung out with the kids (In other words, I'm lazy :)-)  As you can imagine, this doesn't make for a smoothly run home and in the long run makes me anxious and stressed, rather than relaxed and rested.  Having and sticking to a schedule really does me, and my family, a world of good and has honestly transformed our lives.

Now if I could only tackle the clutter, life would be perfect!

We've had a really great week of homeschooling this past week.  All was going smoothly.  We took yesterday off and I didn't even feel guilty about it.  The boys all have colds so I let them sleep as late as they needed to.  I had a lot of things to get done for our homeschool group and around the house.  My oldest son had Taekwondo in the afternoon.  So instead of cramming homeschooling in between all that stuff, I decided to give us the day off.  I quickly learned that trying to get it all in when it is obviously not possible to do so just stresses everyone out, most of all me.  So I figured today we'd get an early start and get everything done. 

But of course there is a problem.  My neighbors next door moved out a few months ago.  The person they sold the house to is not living there.  He is renovating the house and then selling it.  He is here today power washing the house.  I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the sound a power washer makes, but it is LOUD.  It sounds just like a jack hammer.  Needless to say, the atmosphere is not conducive to learning.  So so much for my plans for a productive day. 

And since I'm on the topic of obstacles, I thought I'd discuss the biggest obstacle I'm facing right now.  It is a self made obastacle but I am having difficulty figuring out just how to deal with it.  I've been quite overwhelmed lately with too many outside of the home obligations, mainly the children's extra curricular activities.  When you pair those up with errands, doctor appointments, dental appointments, haircuts, etc. I feel that I am not home as much as I need to be.  I am a firm believer that in order to homeschool, you need to be home.  I am not an unschooler, though I envy their lifestyle.  I wish I could be that relaxed but I know I never will be.  I've come a long way in easing up on my rigidity, but I don't think I'll ever ease up enough to call us unschoolers.   

Here is a list of the activities we currently participate in:

1. Library story hour--a six week program that runs twice a year

2. Soccer--a 7 week program that runs three times a year

3. Bowling--weekly, all year long

4. Taekwondo--a 10 week program that runs three times a year

5. Gymnastics--weekly, all year long

This does not include the occasional field trip either.  There are some months where we will only be doing 1 or 2 things, but then others where we wind up doing everything. 

I've been trying to think of what to do away with.  I decided gymnastics will be the first to go.  My oldest son already stopped going due to a conflict with his teacher.  My 4 year old will not mind if I take him out, since his older brother doesn't go anymore.  Plus this is the most expensive, time consuming activity we are engaged in.  So that leaves me with the first 4 things.  Library story hour is the one thing that is fun for my youngest son (16 months) and we have to go to the library anyway, so we're keeping that.  Soccer is a lot of fun because we get together with our homeschool group and all the kids hang out and play together during (for those not doing soccer) and afterwards.  So this is something my kids really enjoy.  Bowling is something new, that I put together. I belong to a co-op and every member has to participate in some way, so I put together a homeschool bowling league.  I know, I did it too myself and deserve no pity.  But I think this will be a great indoor winter activity that will run when soccer is out.  Taekwondo is my oldest son's absolute favorite, so that is definitely not out. 

So I think I've gotten us down to the bare minimum.  Or maybe I'm just rationalizing.  I did turn down a lot of things. Tuesdays our group gets together at a community center for various activities.  Tuesdays and Wednesdays they go ice skating.  There was a neat t-ball league on Saturdays that I turned down.  I don't go to the play dates for the various groups I belong to. I have said no to many field trips.  I'm trying to say no to the good and even some of the great things so that I can say yes to the best things. 

My challenge now is to find a way to make all this work.  To balance these activities with our lessons and try to fit in the housework, errands, etc.  Unfortunately it is usually my house that suffers the most when we have a crazy week. Perhaps I will find a balance or perhaps I will be forced to drop something else.  Or perhaps I will just go crazy in the whole process. 

Anyone who has had similar experiences or can offer any advice,  I welcome and would greatly appreciate your comments!

My primary goal this year for my 5 year old "kindergartener" is for him to learn to read.  He knows almost all of his letter sounds, though he still confuses 2 or 3.  He is not really eager to learn to read, or to do schoolwork at all for that matter.  He usually tries to get out of doing it and likes to take breaks after every "subject".  He does seem to enjoy much of what we do while he is doing it, but he would really rather be playing and doing his own thing. 

My 3, almost 4, year old preschooler LOVES to do schoolwork.  He would sit there all day and do schoolwork with me if he could.  He has learned all his letter sounds perfectly in an extremely short period of time. 

The place where they both would get stuck is in blending.  They sound out all the individual letters but have difficulty making that leap to putting all the individual sounds together fluidly to make a word.  For example, the word cat.  They'll say the c sound, then the a sound and then the t sound, but saying those sounds together smoothly and realizing the word that those letters spell is what they are currently working on. Recently my 3 year old has made great progress in this area and sounded out his first 2 words all by himself.  It was very exciting and I think he will continue to make steady progress and be reading in no time.

My problem is this:  If my 3 year old learns to read before my 5 year old, will my 5 year old feel bad because his younger brother is reading and he is not?  I don't want him to feel that way, but is there really any way I can avoid it? I can't hold my younger son back to spare his brother's feelings. That wouldn't be fair.  I praise them both for all the progress they are making and I always tell them how proud I am of them.  So maybe this is a problem I am imagining in my own head.   I do tend to worry about things long before there is anything to worry about.  And quite often I worry for nothing.  If anyone reading this has ever been in this situation, your advice would be greatly appreciated! 

I have finally gotten to a place where I feel at peace with our homeschooling schedule.  Initially I tried waking my boys up at a certain time, having them start right away with their chores, then breakfast and then we'd start school.  We'd go from lesson to lesson with breaks only for snacks and lunch.  I was trying too hard to live out the ideal situation, which so often does not mimic real life.  And sometimes when we try to make these ideal situations happen, we find ourselves just getting through the material rather than really absorbing it.  For example, rushing through a reading selection without proper refection and discussion, just to be able to check another thing off of the list.  This method was not working for us, as you can probably imagine.  My son was bored, I was frustrated. At the end of the day, we had a lot of checkmarks, but not a lot of satisfaction. Not much real learning was taking place. 

I have a big conflict going on inside my head.  I desire structure yet at the same time I know we thrive with a lot more flexibility than absolute structure allows.  So I've found the middle ground.  Instead of scheduling each subject at a certain time, I have a list of what subjects we will cover on what days.  Also, instead of planning out exactly what and how much we will cover in each subject each day, I write down what we've covered afterwards. For example instead of saying we'll cover our Phonics Lesson Number 1 on Monday and Number 2 on Tuesday, I've made a chart with all the lessons on it and I cross them off as we do them.  So if we spend more than one day on Lesson 1, thats okay.  If we miss a day of school for whatever reason (like when our dog got sprayed by a skunk!) thats okay too. I don't feel like we're behind.  The other way of scheduling left no room for life.  Thats when I realized that this is my homeschool, not a government run school.  We can get the work done in as many or as few days as we want or need. 

So now I no longer wake the boys up unless we have somewhere to be.  I let them get the sleep they need.  I let them gradually wake up instead of rushing them to get started on their day right away. And I've noticed they enjoy school a lot more and are getting so much more out of it.  And I am much more relaxed and no longer feeling frantic all day long.  I have just enough structure to know exactly what I want to accomplish, but now I've given us a lot more room to choose how and when to go about accomplishing it all.  Its so amazing to me how different each family is.  How there are many families that absolutely thrive on a strict schedule, and many who thrive on no schedule at all.  And then there are families like ours who need a little of both.  That is the amazing thing about homeschooling.  You can do whatever works for your own family.

Another change I've made is having more individual "preschool" time with my two younger "students".  At first I thought my oldest two could do all their work together, since they are only 20 months apart.  But I found myself being more attentive to my 5 year old, since he was the one who was actually school aged and supposed to be doing "real" school.  My almost 4 year old was oftentimes getting lost in the shuffle. Now I have one-on-one time with each child, which does take more time than combining everything, but in the long run is better for everyone, myself included.  I enjoy spending this one-on-one time with each child, and they feel as though they are getting the time they deserve.

All in all, I am feeling much more satisfied at the end of the day.  We get done what we can, and don't stress over what we don't get done.  Most days we are indeed getting it all done, but now I feel a much deeper sense of peace and satisfaction as I make my checkmarks.  I am finally reaping the benefits of our lifestyle and am so grateful to have the privilege of being my sons' teacher.  My three sons whom I love so much are teaching me more than I could possibly ever teach them. I am now fully feeling the true joy that is homeschooling. 

My 5 year old son has only homeschooled for 6 full days.  We went to visit my parents today and when my mother asked him how he liked school he said "I don't really like it, it's boring.  But don't tell Mommy because it will hurt her feelings". When my mother told me this I didn't know whether to cry out of happiness that my son is such a caring and empathetic little person that he wants to protect my feelings or cry out of frustration that the very thing I wanted to avoid is happening.  My goal is for my son to love learning and enjoy being homeschooled. It is absolutely crushing that he finds it boring.  I know I should not take it so personally.  He is just adjusting to a new schedule. He used to schedule his day however he wished, now he needs to sit down and do the work I have planned for him to do when he would much rather be doing his own thing.   I need to find a way to make the work more appealing to him.  I know eventually even homeschooled children may dread doing their work, but this should not be happening in Kindergarten!

So, now my goal is to try to figure out how to tailor the material we are learning to his interests.  He likes using the computer so perhaps we will do more of his reading and math lessons there.  We are Charlotte Mason type homeschoolers, so her idea of living books is working so far so I should be glad about that at least. I need to eliminate the things he doesn't enjoy, like the phonics songs and coloring pages.  It is difficult because my 3 year old enjoys these activities and I felt doing it all together would save me time.  But apparently I am going  to have to do Kindergarten and Preschool somewhat separate in order to accommodate both of my son's interests and learning styles.

Tomorrow is a new day and we'll be doing school outside before we go on our Nature Walk.  My son will enjoy this, though I am sure he'll ask me more than once if we're almost finished with our lessons so that he can go exploring.  I am thankful that we are beginning homeschooling with Kindergarten rather than an upper grade.  At least I am starting with a "grade" that doesn't require so much work and can be done in a fairly short period of time.  Hopefully he will adjust to our new life and schedule before we need to move on to the real academics. I am looking forward to the day when he no longer feels learning is boring and a chore, but something he looks forward to each day.  I think once I get a real hold on his learning style this will occur naturally.  I'd appreciate your prayers!

We've been homeschooling for a week and a day now and already I feel I have to change our style and schedule.   Guess this really is a learn as you go adventure for all of us. 

I originally set things up with all "subjects" done everyday, but in very short increments.  After a week and a day of doing it this way, I now see that I need to re-evaluate things.  Doing every subject every day is just not going to work.  It puts too much pressure on getting everything on the list done rather than us enjoying learning.  Also, sometimes we are really enjoying what we are doing and don't want to stop to move on to something else.  So I figure instead of a "lesson plan" for every subject every day, I think we're better off having a plan for what we want to acomplish that week.  Then we can spend the whole day reading and talking about Native Americans if we want to, or playing educational games or reading good literature, without feeling we are behind.

Also, I originally set up a strict starting time and ending time.  I did this because I think the structure of a schedule is good for us, however some days keeping to the schedule does more harm than good.  Like when the baby is awake with bad gas until 4 am (getting up at 6:00 am so that I could be ready to begin school at 9:00 was not fun that day!).  Or when we deperately need to get to the supermarket during "school" hours.  I think having a general schedule is good, but I need to be more flexible to allow for occassional interruptions in the schedule.  I like the idea of the weekly lesson plans for this reason as well.  If we have to start later one day, or take a few hours in the afternoon for errands, we can "make it up" on another day that week.  Structure is good and necessary, but being too rigid and not leaving any room for flexibility will be very damaging I think. 

I guess this is all part of the package when you are just starting out. You can't really tell what will work for your family without actually trying the different approaches out first.  A plan may look very good on paper, but may not be a good fit once put into practice.  And its okay if it doesn't work and its okay to change things around to find the right approach.  The goal is to help our children enjoy learning, so that they may learn all their lives, not have a perfectly planned and executed school year. 

So........this weekend I will be doing a lot of erasing and re-writing in my lesson plan book (good thing I used pencil), which is now a book that no longer works so well with my new method! And on Monday we will try out the new plan and see how it goes.  Maybe this is the right fit for us, or maybe next Friday I'll be telling you about yet another change.  Change does not come easy for me, but as long as I keep my mind on the real goal (children who are enthusiastic about learning) I will welcome it as needed.  I guess I am going to grow a lot as a person during this whole adventure as well!

It's official!  We are now "official" homeschoolers.  I have classified our family as such for what seems like forever, but yesterday was our first "official" day of school with a school aged child.  James began Kindergarten and the day could not have been more wonderful.  I put myself on a schedule and the day went so smoothly and everything got done, with time to spare.  The structure of a schedule really is best for our family. I guess ordinarily I am not the most disciplined of persons so I need the schedule to guide me along.  I know every day will not be such a smooth ride, but I am definitely encouraged and take it as a sign that we are doing the right thing by homeschooling. 

Looking forward to many more wonderful adventures! 

I am just about finished organizing our first term of our first year of homeschooling. A lot of our homeschooling will be based on the Charlotte Mason method, so we are breaking up the year into three terms.  I have an outline for the whole year, but I've only figured out the specifics for the first term.  Hopefully I won't be overwhelmed when it comes to preparing for the second and third term.  Being that this is my first year doing this, I imagine I'll learn a lot about the best ways to schedule and prepare for the upcoming year. 

My son James will be starting "Kindergarten". Our focus this year will be on reading, writing and math, but we have many other interesting topics we'll be covering as well. Our goal for this year is just to enjoy learning, not to necessarily master any specific skills.  I want my son's first "official" homeschooling year to be a good experience, not an overwhelmingly rigid and stressful one. I did purchase some curriculum, but most things I put together on my own using various books and internet resources.  The phonics curriculum we'll be using is Frontline Phonics.  This is not the phonics program I really wanted to use, but I had purchased this years ago on a whim, before I really did much research on curriculum, and I feel I have to try it, after investing the money in it.  If it works, great,  if not, we'll try something different next year.  I also purchased the Math-U-See Primer for math. This I actually researched so am very comfortable with my choice and hopefully my son will enjoy it.  We will also be using Muzzy for Spanish, another product I purchased on a whim some time ago.  I've heard some bad things about it, but we'll see how it works for us.  At least I've learned a valuable lesson: don't buy on a whim, research your options as thoroughly as possible!   

My son Ryan will be 4 in a couple of months.  He loves to "do school" and will probably sit in on a lot of our learning time.  I have also put together some "preschool" stuff for him.  He has had a fascination with dinosaurs since he was 2 years old.  Even at that tender age he knew the names and complicated pronunciations of dozens of dinosaurs.  He has learned so much since that time, all from reading (well, from ME reading) book after book after book on dinosaurs.  I learned a lot as well.  I knew next to nothing about dinsoaurs before, now I' m an old pro!  I have a lot of exciting dinosaur projects lined up for him this coming school year. James says he hates dinosaurs so probably will not be joining in.  He feels dinosaurs are Ryan's thing and feels intimidated by the amount of information his little brother knows on the subject.  I suppose he feels that since he is older he should know more about everything.  This bothers me as a mother, though perhaps to some degree it is normal.  Both my sons are smart and good at different things. I don't like to see them comparing themselves to the other. I would never want either of them to feel "inferior" to anyone, especially not eachother. I try to encourage them to be proud of eachother and support eachother in their interests.  It worries me that my son feels this way at such a young age. 

Paul will be 14 months old at the beginning of our school year.  I hope I will be good at managing our time to provide all three of my sons with the attention they need.  So many families homeschool with so many more children than I have, and they manage somehow.  This thought encourages me and gives me hope that everyone will flourish in our homeschooling environment.

17 days until our first day!

Hi everyone,

We are all literally sick to our stomachs here.  A virus has invaded our home and it has been absolutely miserable. James (5) and Ryan (3) started it off during the weekend.  Then when I thought all was quiet, I got sick this morning.  Then despite my prayers, little Paulie (13 months) got sick this evening.  The only one who has escaped the illness so far is my husband (lucky duck!). Hopefully he will continue to be lucky.

Praying for an end to the misery!

Our first day of "official" homeschooling is quickly approaching. My children and I have been learning together since the day they were born, and yet the arrival of our first "official" day of school will be met with some degree of anxiety.  I am both extremely excited and a bit nervous to begin this journey, though there is no doubt in my mind that this is the right path for us to take. 

I am a SAHM to three beautiful little boys: James.,  who is 5 1/2, will be starting Kindergarten this year.  Ryan, who is 3, will be coming along for the ride, as he loves to "do school".  P.J., who is 13 months, will probably do his best to disrupt the whole process, God bless him!  This is going to be so much fun!  I feel so blessed to have this opportunity and hope I am up for the task. I am pretty confident that this first year will be difficult (sticking to our schedule, dealing with interruptions from a toddler and a preschooler, dealing with the many obstacles we will most likely face) but I am also confident that this year will be wonderful as well and my children (and I) will learn a lot.