Well, we are back! 

After a long hiatus from this blog, I am going to start it up again. I won't be updating it very much right now, but I will be on more often anyway.  I have been schooling off and on and wherever we can fit it in!  The best time is usually during naps.  I will take one of the boys in my bedroom, and we'll do school while I nurse our new baby.  Then I put her down and we do any writing or hands-on things, and then we all take a nap!  (The other kids are napping in their own rooms during this time)  And then sometimes if the moment is right, we'll all get around their kid table and make projects, or color, or do playdough, etc., so Miss M can be involved too.

I have been thinking a lot about homeschooling next year, and my husband and I have had several discussions about whether we will homeschool or not. I am so thankful for my husband!  Although he is set in his ways and can be stubborn at times, he does have an open heart and mind.  We have been having great discussions where we are both listening to each other's points of view, and then coming back to the discussion at a later time, once we've thought about it more.  And it sounds like we WILL be homeschooling again this year.

I do need to make some changes though.  Some for me, some for the kids, and some for my husband.  For me, the challenge will be keeping up with my wifely duties, as well as homeschooling.  Not one or the other.  That is something I really need to work on.  Making sure laundry is being done, cooking meals, tidying up the house before he gets home, distributing chores appropriately, etc.

For my husband, he needs to SEE school being done.  He still thinks of homeschooling as sitting around the kitchen table, books everywhere, keeping to a timed schedule, etc.  While we won't be doing that, I do recognize that I need to make him more comfortable with it.  He is very interested in homeschooling and has been supportive about it.  I just need to make sure we are doing it on a regular basis, and hanging up worksheets on the fridge, possibly making file books for the kids on each unit we do, etc.  Something tangible for him to actually see and measure their progress.  Hey, maybe we'll have Daddy administer a weekly test on what we learned the past week! 

For the kids, I just want to make sure I'm being consistent as possible.  Breaks are inevitable.  And welcome!  lol  But we took way too long of a break this time, and they truly love to learn.  I realize that it's my responsibility (with God's help) to nurture that as best I can! 

Well, the reason for the long break was mainly due to pregnancy and the birth of our fourth baby!  We had a baby girl at the end of Februrary (11 days overdue!) and she is just a joy.  I honestly thought that having 4 kids was harder to get used to than 3 though!  That surprised me.  But then again, she is only a month old and we're already back in a great routine, so I think that's awesome.  I love having 2 boys and 2 girls!

Here is a newborn picture of Miss K!

In the fall, we are going to be doing My Father's World Kindergarten.  I think I am going to order two copies of the student workbook, one for Mr. B (who will be 5) and one for Mr. J (who will be 4).  We'll do a more watered-down version for Mr. J, or probably do half of it, and save the other half for next year?  Or maybe I'll just order Mr. B's stuff, and see what it looks like, and then if I think Mr. J would benefit from having some of his own materials (which of course he would), I'll see if it's better to simply replicate some of Mr. B's, or get J his own.  Make sense?  Not to me!  Haha!  We'll see what happens.  But we are for sure going with that curriculum now.  I took a look at some other types, and honestly loved them as well (such as Hands on Homeschooling), but I've had my heart set on MFW ever since I first saw it.  I love their practical, Biblical approach, and the way the unit studies are all set up.  I'm so excited!  I guess we'll probably be ordering it when we get this tax rebate check here in May.  And then I'll have the summer to prepare and get everything ready.

The only other thing I need to do is find some place to set up as a homeschooling area.  Our house is the perfect size for us, but there's not a lot of extra room for homeschooling.  And I think that *I* would actually do better if everything was organized in one spot.  So we'll probably be redoing the upstairs/main floor living room for that.

Thanks for reading this, and stay tuned for more!