Becoming Wiser - Homeschool Blogger

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So, you want to be an Early Riser...

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:13:00 -0500

I would have to say that, all my life, I have struggled to have a regular morning "quiet time." In my school years, I always HAD to get up early, but getting up earlier than absolutely necessary was more than difficult. I did it sometimes, but it was always a short-lived phase. Besides, I was a night owl and I loved having LENGTHY journalling and Bible study sessions at night.

Then I got married and our family began to grow and it became of utmost importance to me to have this time ALONE. Before everyone else woke up was the only available option. I tried for YEARS to make this a comfortable habit. I prayed about it, enlisted accountability partners, and tried a whole host of other methods. Nothing produced lasting results.

But I think I have now developed enough of a habit that I can say it is a lifestyle change. I still go through phases of sleeping in (during our school breaks, etc.), but it's generally not a big deal to get back into my 5:30 wake-up routine. Here are a few tips that I've found helpful:

1) Pray about it. A Lot! It seriously took me about 5 years of earnest attempts to make waking up early feel normal. I tried off and on. I would go up to a month of getting up early. Then something would happen (I'd get sick or something), and I'd "make exceptions" and be sleeping in again for months. Up until last fall, I was NOT consistent.

2) Do NOT make exceptions for ANY REASON unless illness that leaves you flat on your back. I finally decided that I would be consistent NO MATTER WHAT. I allowed myself to go back to bed after half an hour if it really was a huge struggle. In fact, sometimes, on mornings when I'm really tired, I STILL doze off on the couch after I've prayed and done my Bible study. The key is, GET UP AT THE SAME TIME EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I just read an article about this. From what the article said, and I have found this to be true in my own life, when you are starting on this journey of developing an early-rising habit, do not worry too much about when you go to bed. Go to bed when you are tired. BUT, no matter WHEN you go to bed, how much or how few hours of sleep you get, set your alarm for the same time every morning and get up. Within a few days, your body should develop its own routine. I do not sleep the same amount of hours every night. Most people don't. Some days are more exhausting than others.

Have you ever noticed that, even when your children are up really, really late one night, they STILL get up relatively around the usual time the next morning? Our bodies like this balance of consistency and flexiblity.

You might need to play around a bit with the proper wake-up time. Obviously, you need to decide how much time you want to yourself before your family invades your space. But once you've figured on the time based on that information, you might need to experiment a little. For some reason, I had always had my mind set on 6:00AM. I tried and tried to make this my natural wake-up time. After a lot of frustration and some experimentation, I discovered that it's easier for me to get up at 5:30 than it is at 6:00. My brother once told me this has something to do with our sleeping patterns and the cycle of sleep. We sleep on a cycle of deep, deep sleep to lighter sleep that goes over and over throughout the night. I do not know if this is true or not. My brother's not a scientist or anything (though he knows a lot), so don't quote me on this. But I do know that adjusting your wake-up time by even 10 minutes can make a huge difference.

So if you decided to play around with the time, give yourself at least three days before you try a different time.

Once you have a set time, do not even make an exception on the weekends until this becomes normal. (I know. That sounds awful, but it felt SO good for me to accomplish this.)

I actually MISS this early morning time on the weekends now that I'm able to sleep in on Sunday without paying for it during the week. I feel MORE tired during the day (as though I OVER slept).

3) Get everything you need ready the night before. It helps me to get dressed immediately after getting out of bed. The movement gets my blood flowing. I don't necessarily put on what I'll wear that day, but maybe a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. Something easy. So I get the clothes ready the night before.

I also like to have a cup of green tea and a bowl of organic instant oatmeal. I'm not a huge advocate of those little oatmeal packets because of all the sugar, but it really helps me to stay awake and liven up early. I get up, get dressed, boil water for the tea and cereal. While the water's boiling, I go to the bathroom. By the time I get out, the water's boiling. So I pour it, then go sit down in the living room and do my prayer and Bible study while I enjoy my early breakfast. If we have bananas, I eat one of those, too. So, all of this I get ready the night before so I make as little noise as possible for the rest of the family.

4) Stretching can help. I have a short (5min.) stretching routine I HAVE to do two times a day for my back. I have sometimes done it before I sit on the couch. This also wakes me up and gets my blood flowing.

5) I must admit. It is not easy to develop this habit. There are still mornings where I feel like my eyes must be almost swollen shut and my whole body just vibrates in protest when I get out of bed. Just FORCE yourself to at least GET OUT OF BED. The second the alarm rings, just POP up and stand there for a few seconds. Slowly make your way to your clothes. Just force yourself to move. The more you move and just keep going, the less risk of going back to bed.

6) It also helps to have something you really look forward to incorporated into this time. I love checking my email, updating my blog, or looking on the SL forums while I eat my oatmeal. You might enjoy a cappuccino, hot chocolate, or other favorite drink. At the beginning of this practice, treat yourself to something during this time. It's an indulgence that will actually really pay off in the end. For me, spending some time on the couch checking email and surfing the Net requires minimal thought or effort. I take my laptop to the couch and read and surf while my body gets used to the idea of being up.

7) I will also admit that having a laptop has been a huge help. I can still get really cozy and comfortable on the couch while I do this stuff. It's not quite as abrupt as having to sit in an office chair or at the dining room table. (Obviously, this is NOT a requirement and is not possible for everyone. I'm just sharing my experience with you.)

8) I journal when I pray, so I do this on the computer as well. Before I had a laptop, I used to use a notebook, and I confess to falling asleep a few times. Sometimes, writing with a pen just took too much effort that early in the morning.

I also do an online Bible study. The one I'm working on right now has all the Scriptures on it and everything RIGHT THERE, so I'm not having to sit up straight and flip through a bunch of different books, etc.

Now that I'm used to this early morning thing, though, I don't think I'd have as much of a problem reading an actual book, writing, etc. Do what works for you.

9) I cannot stress enough how important it is to pray about this. I literally CRIED to God to help me with this. I often pray, before I go to sleep, that He would help me to wake up or at least to get out of bed. I talk to Him about what I'd like to discuss in the morning, etc. There have actually been times, as I'm mentally preparing myself for getting up the next morning, that I get so excited about it. Sometimes, I even wake up BEFORE the alarm on days when God and I are gonna be going real deep. My relationship with Christ has grown by leaps and bounds because of this time.

10) Another motivator for me is that it has been proven time and time again in this home, that if I DO NOT get up early and start my day off right with this quiet time, Mommy turns into a bear. The day just does NOT go smoothly. Seriously, it NEVER fails. It is GUARANTEED that if I miss this time, I will not have a good day. Guaranteed.

So now, when I'm tempted to stay in bed, I remind myself that I am choosing RIGHT NOW whether I'm going to have a good day or a bad day; whether I'm going to be a good mom or a bad mom.

11) It is also a help when I can have my quite time out on the porch. The fresh air invigorates me and I feel more....alive when I'm so close to nature.

12) As I mentioned earlier, I do not stress about what time I'm in bed. Sometimes, it's 11:30 (but too many nights of that would be too much). Generally, my body is good and ready to sleep by 10:30.

It most certainly helps to have a bedtime routine. For me, after I clean up from supper, I get my morning stuff ready. This kinda helps me to be motivated to get to bed on time, as well. Then I do the kids' bedtime routine. I read to them, etc. Snuggle a bit. Then I do a 15 min. exercise routine. Then I shower or bathe or whatever I need to do to keep my body presentable! Then I have about 1.5 hours of free time. I generally spend it with dh. Sometimes we're both just puttering around. Sometimes we visit. Sometimes we watch a movie. Whatever. It's never something that would hype me up too much before bed. Then, usually around 10 I start getting ready for bed. I ALWAYS read before I try to sleep,no matter WHAT time I'm in bed. I cannot wind down properly without this. Sometimes, I also have a cup of relaxing tea (Sleepytime, Tension Tamer, Chamomile, or Sweet Dreams).

13) Also, I have a schedule for our whole day (school days). This is a huge motivator as well. It never fails that, when I DON'T get up early, the rest of the schedule is completely out of whack for the whole day, even if I try to make up for it somehow by eliminating an activity or something. I get up at 5:30, the rest of the family is up at 7:00. If I don't get up early, breakfast is late, breakfast cleanup runs too late, we don't get all our morning chores done, the house is in shambles and we're all flustered by the time we have to start school at 8:45. I really think that having a schedule to stick to throughout the day is a KEY factor in being motivated to get up early.

I think that's all I can think of for now. Hopefully, some of these tips can be useful to you and you can begin to have success with your early-rising goal!

End of Week 2

Fri, 4 Aug 2006 15:27:00 -0500

A whole week of full school days! Wow. It was so fun. We still haven't added in math. I'm trying to ease in and I'm very glad I decided to it this way. I'm EXHAUSTED by the end of the day, but it's a good exhaustion!

Maya's FINALLY saying her "r"s properly! This is a huge breakthrough! She'll be 5 in November, so I was starting to wonder how long it was going to go on. She just OUT OF THE BLUE started saying them properly from the time she woke up yesterday, and she has continued.

We went on a field trip yesterday. We got pictures done at Wal-Mart, then we met some friends at a park. We hadn't seen them in a LONG time because they moved. So it was fun for all.

Gabrielle is enjoying science. So am I. We made a model of the earth and moon today to scale, to show how far away from us the moon actually is. WOW! It's neat to see it in that perspective.

I am LOVING the Lord's Table weight loss study. I feel so motivated and I feel like I've finally started to breakthrough. I bought a scale yesterday. I haven't ever had one and I've been afraid to weigh myself. So I now know that I want to/ need to lose between 10-15lbs. That's doable! This study is making the journey so rewarding. www.settingcaptivesfree.com

Blessing Time Day 6

Tue, 1 Aug 2006 07:27:00 -0500

I am just so thankful that God inspired me to do this Blessing Time every day. The kids are really getting into it. Yesterday, we collected a whole bag of garbage at the park. The kids were actually disappointed when it was time to go, so we'll go back again today with a new bag. They were so surprised by all the garbage and felt really good that they were cleaning it up for other people to enjoy the park more. I am noticing a SLIGHT change in them - thinking of others a little more. This is wonderfully encouraging to me.

THIS IS WHY WE HOMESCHOOL!!!! Yay Day 3!

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:16:00 -0500

Well, as some of you may know, I have incorporated a half hour of Blessing Time in our day. The first day, we sent a letter to our sponsered child in the Dominican Republic. The second day, we made a list of all the possiblities for future Blessing Times. Today, we had what I hope to be the first of EXCITING blessing adventures!

There is a lady who works at one of the local grocery stores. I don't know her name, so we'll call her D. D is the most pleasant service person I've met in years. Over the course of the last year or so, we've managed to make small talk enough times that she knows the names of my dc, she knows dh had a hernia surgery earlier this year, and we know we live in the same neighborhood, etc. We've casually chatted about vacations, etc.

ANYWAY, she is always so cheerful and goes the extra mile. She seems very grandmotherly. She talks to me like a daughter, in a way, and we don't know each other's names.

Well, I love this lady dearly. She makes me feel like maybe this town isn't so impersonal and un-family oriented. I feel like there's still hope for society after our grocery shopping trips because of HER.

So today we made banana bread and I wrote out a card for her describing the above. The kids all added their own names and stickers. I happen to know where she lives because it's around the corner from our house and I saw her and her dh on the porch last summer.

So, we walked over there this afternoon. We happened to arrive at her house the exact same time she got home from work. She was pleased to see "little visitors" at her door, and when she saw the card and banana bread (the girls gave them to her) she looked at me with that "I'm so surprised and don't know how to react to someone being so nice" look and said, "WHAT are you doing?" to me. I told her "I'm teaching my children to give." She basically chatted with the kids, gave them each a cookie to feed to the bunnies who were on her lawn and opened the card in the meantime. It seemed like she was SO pleased, but really, really unsure about what to make of it all. I LOVED IT! I can't wait to do this kinda thing again. THIS IS WHAT HOMESCHOOLING IS ALL ABOUT!!

I don't care if nothing ever comes of this (that we can see), but I love what my kids are learning and experiencing, and I love knowing that we just made a difference in someone's life today. And it only took HALF AN HOUR!

Day 2

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:58:00 -0500

Well, we're done school for today. It wasn't quite as exciting today, but it was good anyway. Gabrielle had no problem reciting her memory verse. The easel is still a hit and I think I need to have strict individual time slots for its use. Gabrielle is finding LA kinda boring at this point, but it will get more difficult quickly. OH! But she thought today's creative writing assignment was hilarious! She had to describe a piece of dirt in as much detail as possible. Here is what she wrote:

"The piece of dirt is a bit small, like a grape. It�s light like an ant. It is brown. It is easy to break. It can roll. You can pinch it and it breaks. It feels soft. It is cold because it�s been in the rain. It is made of a lot of other smaller dirt pieces. When you break it, it turns into small crumbs. It�s dusty. It doesn�t smell good. It smells like grass. It doesn�t make any sound when you listen to it closely. "

She dictated, and I typed. The last picture is of her smelling the dirt.

Maya enjoyed her stuff a lot more today. We played a game and learned a new Hokey Pokey song.

We made a list of things we could do during Outreach/ Blessing time. We went to the park for outside time.

Anyway, that's the news.

Our First Morning of School

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:58:00 -0500

I thought you'd want to know how our morning went. It went great, of course! The kids LOVED the easel so much that they fought over it. Even though I had scheduled times for them to EACH use it, any SECOND of spare time was spent fighting over that thing!

Alexander surprised me with his interest in everything. He loved the wood pieces we use for Maya's handwriting program. They kept him busy while I taught LA. He also loved the easel and the pre-writing center. He LOVED cutting with his new scissors that actually work. It was his first time being allowed to use real scissors.

Maya wasn't sure about it all. It was hard for her to understand that this is stuff we have to do. She seemed embarrassed at first when I put on the CD that went with her Handwriting program, but near then end she was loving it and has already learned which is her right and which is her left because of it. She colored an AMAZING picture during Bible.

I was actually surprised that Alexander colored during Bible as well. He's usually not all that interested.

Gabrielle did great working on her Bible Study this morning and learned about authority. She's also already got her memory verse down pat. (Are we surprised?) She did her first 15 min. of Spanish with the program that was given to us. I'm not sure how effective it'll be - it's not Rosetta Stone, but it's a start.

They all helped with the dishes for breaky and lunch. Alexander helped me get breaky ready. The girls set the table. Maya helped me make Ceasar dressing for our lunch, and she set the table. This morning, we all did chores......got laundry done, vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms - including the tubs - and swept the floors, beds were made, etc.

Gabrielle's having sinus troubles today so I've asked her to lay down for 45 min. They're all in bed for now. I'm very thankful it's not as hot today.

OH! We also had our 1/2 hour of outside time this morning. I tried to teach a simplified version of baseball to Alexander. I wanted him to hit the ball from the tee and run to a certain spot before I could catch him with the ball. Pretty simple. But he's not interested. He says he's just good at throwing and hitting. Oh well!

We also had our 1/2 hour of Phys. Ed. We walked to the mailbox and played at the park for a bit.

Whew. This morning has been more jam-packed than my DAYS lately!! I think I'll read or something on the deck for a bit this afternoon. I love my life!

Busy Getting Ready for School

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 20:22:00 -0500

Well, it's over 30 degrees Celsius here today and I'm HOT! I'm also tired. I've been trying to get my school stuff in order and found a BUNCH of extras I need to do at the last minute.

We will be easing into school starting on Monday. We will follow our schedule for the morning only (plus the bedtime routine) for the week, then NEXT Monday, July 31st, we will start full days. I thought this would make it easier to get into the routine, stick to it, and really get the kids excited about the year without overwhelming them.

I will try to attach our daily schedule below. Feel free to take a look. And yes, I DO have my phone turned off for most of the day. I find that it helps me to focus on what I'm SUPPOSED to be doing. It helps me to take homeschooling more seriously. I really slacked off last year.

I'm so excited about the year ahead. Here's what we'll be using:

GABRIELLE:

Sonlight CoreK
Sonlight Bible K
Sonlight Science K
Sonlight LA1
Handwriting Without Tears Level 1 (My Printing Book)
RightStart Math Level B
Abeka Art Level 1
Abeka Health Level 1
Music: recorder and Usborne's Very Easy Recorder Songs

MAYA:

Private Preschool Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday afternoon
Rod & Staff Preschool Workbooks
Handwriting Without Tears PreK

ALEXANDER:

So far, he's still napping in the afternoons, so he'll just join us in the morning with Handwriting Without Tears

I've also bought a DVD called Preschool Power which is INCREDIBLY educational and the kids LOVE. They've already learned from it and I've only let them watch it once - in MAY! It's actually 8 half-hour movies on one DVD. I plan to use this, along with Magic School Bus DVDs and any other really good DVDs (hoping to get Leap Frog ones) for a half hour in the afternoons.

Well, I'm off to clean up the paint stuff. I painted our fence today. And then I need to tidy up the house and find a way to cool off!

WeekdaySchedule.pdf

Free Stuff!! The World Is FULL of Kind People - SURPRISE!

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 20:06:00 -0500

Okay, I've decided to give this another shot. I haven't blogged in ages because I've been having password complications. But I'm easing back into my routine and I'm hoping to fit my blog in somewhere. I discovered recently that I had FAR MORE readers than I knew of, and that's encouraging to me.

SO. FREE STUFF. I have been pleasantly surprised, of late, by the generosity of strangers. About a month ago, I lost my cell phone, which was our primary phone. We don't have a land line. I sent out an email to everyone on my email list (whether I correspond with them regularly or not), just in case anyone would try to phone me. I also mentioned that if anyone had a phone from the particular company we use, to let me know. WELL, an OLD friend of mine posted a notice on a bulletin board at the school where she works, and HER CO-WORKER GAVE her a cell phone that's never been used. I mean, a total stranger is sending me this new phone. I was SO blessed.

Then, just this evening, my husband's cousin, whom I may have talked to once or twice AT LEAST 4 or 5 years ago and who lives more than a province away, calls me up to say that she had read on my blog (it must have been a LONG time ago) that I wanted a sewing machine. HER FRIEND was giving her one and she already has one, so she's giving it to me. Isn't that NEAT?!?!?

So anyway, I'm thinking that maybe I should post a list of all the items I want that I'm too cheap to buy for myself and then I'll post a list of the stuff I'm planning to list on eBay eventually and see if maybe we can make a trade. Whaddya say? You up for it?!

What's going on here?

Thu, 4 May 2006 14:50:00 -0500

It has been WEEKS since I have been able to log on here. This is the second time that has happened. I don't know WHY it happens, so it's kinda disouraging and frustrating. It's hard to maintain the continuity required in order to keep blog friends! So...sorry for being so boring, y'all!

Here's an update: Lee had a hernia surgery about a month and a half ago. He's recovered quite well. We all enjoyed having him home, but we're looking forward to getting back into some sort of routine.

I have been OBSESSED with planning our next school year and am excited about it. Just in the last couple of days, though, we have decided to send Maya to preschool. I think it will be GREAT for her. I'm REALLY nervous, but I know it will be a good thing for all of us.

I've been selling stuff on eBay and becoming addicted. In about three weeks, with very little time spent and only about 15 listings, I have made $75 US!!!! It's SO easy. I think I could really get into this. Eventually I'll post a link to my auctions.

Well, I won't waste too much time here right now.