One week down, 35 to go!

On the first day (as has been her custom since she was a Kindergartener) Mahayla dressed up.

Caleb chose the opposite attire for his first day back. 

And Eli....Well, I think this sums up what we can expect from him this year.

School is just about up and running again and schedules are getting back on track.  I sure love the freedom that summer brings, but I'm always ready to get back on schedule.  School schedules, chore schedules, weekly engagement schedules.  Somehow, life is just calmer when it's scheduled (around here anyway.)

Here's a rough sketch of this year's daily schedule and school routines.

• Breakfast
• Praise, Prayer, Bible
• Chores
• School Work
• Lunch
• Free time for big kids while mom gets little man down for nap
• While little man naps - read alouds and/or game time
• Free time for big kids to explore nature, handicrafts, projects, play, cooking....

School time is shaping up to look something like this:

Mahayla

Mon                       Tues                           Wed                          Thur                            Fri

Bible w/all             Bible study                  Bible study                Bible study                  Bible w/all

Saxon                   Saxon                         Problem solving        Saxon                          Problem solving

Spelling                 Nature Study              Spelling                     Spelling                       Spelling test

Journal                  Artist Tea                    Writing                      Blog                             Foreign lang

Grammar Lap       Club meeting                Grammar                  Grammar                    

Typing

30 min reading     30 min reading            30 min reading         30 min reading            30 min reading

Piano                    Piano                          Piano                         Piano                          Piano

History                                                    History                      Chemistry                   History

Caleb

Bible w/all              Bible study              Bible study                 Bible study                 Bible w/all

Math                      Math                         Math                           Math                           Math

Phonics/Read        Read Alone              Phonics/Read            Phonics/Read             Read Aloud

Spelling                  Nature Study            Spelling                     Spelling                       Spelling Test

Journal                   Artist Tea                Cursive copywork     Cursive copywork      Foreign lang

Grammar                Club meeting            Grammar                   Grammar

Piano                                                       Typing                       Piano

History                                                     History                      Chemistry                     History

You can see many of our curriculum choices here.  We will do the following subjects together as a family:

• Some Bible
• Nature Study
• Artist Tea
• History
• Chemistry

Our small county homeschool group already meets for Creation Club and 4-H.  Since both groups already meet on Tuesdays, we decided to add two more clubs to round out the month.  We'll have a club four Tuesday afternoons a month.  The other clubs will vary between art, chemistry, a book of the month club and play dates thrown in for good measure. 

Oh, and I got the wonderful idea to dedicate a morning to nature and art (integrating other subjects) from my beautiful friend, Melissa.  Our Tuesdays should turn out to be wonderfully rich and exciting. 

I know many of you homeschool year 'round and as much as I think the idea is wonderful, I enjoy my nice, long summer break too much.  (Not to mention canning and freezing season makes doing school almost impossible in the summer.)  Anywho - we have only TWO WEEKS left!  Can you just feel my excitement??  I'm literally jumping up and down in my computer chair right now!

I'll be doing some posts soon about wrapping up the school year, thinking ahead to next year and some of our summer plans.  But for now, I'm just basking in the wonderfulness of the words - ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT!

I can't decide if homeschooling is harder with a baby or a toddler.  I'm leaning toward toddler.   I don't think I can count the number of papers he has either run off with or scribbled upon.  I'm also not sure how many pencils have no erasers due to him biting them off.  I think he still has pen and marker on his tummy from somehow finding those tools and trying to turn himself into living art (more than once).  Needless to say, the baby chasers (older children and myself) are all ready for a break from school. 

We're finishing off the year with a Renaissance Artist unit.  In history, we last studied the Middle Ages and next year takes us into early American history, so a bit of Renaissance history with a slant towards art will be just the thing to make the history connection and end the year with some really fun projects.  Lord willing, I'll keep you posted on the artists we choose to study and the projects we do.

And finally, post #4 of 4 from our Question Box topic week at co-op.

How do you schedule a Charlotte Mason-style day?

Short answer:  Any way you want!  LOL

Longer answer:  If we're talking a true CM day, it will be characterized by the following:

-short bookwork lessons (10-30 minutes depending on the age of the child and the subject)

-daily lessons in Bible, copywork, math, language arts, foreign language 

-weekly or more lessons in science, history

-bookwork finished in the morning hours

-afternoons spent outdoors with free play or nature study, handicrafts, reading, etc.

-time scheduled throughout the week for nature study, artist/composer study  

I'm not a CM "purist", but our day usually goes something like this:

Chores - aka Life Skills

Bible

Bookwork - which isn't necessarily workbooks.  This includes everything from math to language to unit study.

Lunch

Family Reading  - sometimes quiet time reading

Art/Nature/Handicrafts - sometimes guided, sometimes free

FREE Time

Here are some sample schedules from Simply Charlotte Mason.

Here's another sample from Deborah Taylor-Hough.

I realize this post is fairly vague.  Since I don't do CM education to a "T", I don't want to mislead anyone.  Also, my opinion as you've heard my say 1,000 times, is that your homeschool should be your homeschool.  Incorporate what you want to incorporate in a way that really works for your family.  A Charlotte Mason-style education is a wonderful path to take with your children, though, I can't deny that!

At co-op each month, I've been asking the ladies to fill out notecards with ideas for certain topics.  Last month the topic was "Romancing Our Husbands Frugally".  Because of some 'mature' content, I didn't post the list of ideas here on my blog, but if you're interested, you can go here to see the list.

This month's topic was "Learning in the Car".  Below is the list of ideas they came up with.  So many of us spend a lot of time traveling to appointments, lessons, co-ops, field trips and more, that time sitting in the car can take away from school time if we aren't careful.  With all these ideas, though, you never have to feel guilty again if 'school time' finds you traveling to and fro!  (Sorry, I copied this document from my computer and pasted it into my blog.  For some reason, that never works very well here at homeschoolblogger.)

Making Time in the Car Educational

Bible Memory Work

*Recite Bible verses

*Recite the books of the Bible

Skills

*Math drills – any number of mental math drills

*Spelling drills

*Sign reading

*Vocabulary words

*Drills of important dates to remember

*Drills of important people or events and their significance

*Narration

*Poetry recitation

*Buy skill workbooks from the dollar store

*Buy fun books of mazes, crosswords, word finds, etc.

*Run off a blank US map and ask kids to color in each state when they see a license plate from that state.

Games

*Play ABC I Spy – either with objects or words on signs

*Name things you see outside that were mentioned in the Bible

*Buy little travel games and keep in a plastic tote

*“Bugs and Cruisers” – Assign point values to certain types of cars and have the kids keep a point tally as you drive.  Example:  VW Bugs and PT Cruisers are each worth 1 point.  Hummers might be worth 10 points.  Jeeps might be worth 5 points.  You get to make up the rules and values according to your child’s abilities.

*Play color or shape I Spy

*Storytelling

*Storytelling where one person stops a story at the climax and another person continues the story

*Grammar guess – mom says a sentence and asks child to repeat a part of speech.  Example:  Mom says, “Name the prepositional phrase, ‘Look for the ball under the bush.’ ”  The child then repeats the prepositional phrase. 

*Hum or whistle tunes and see who is the first to guess correctly.

*Play 20 questions.

*Play an oral ABC scattergories.  Think of a topic and the first person names something that fits in the topic starting with “a”, the next person thinks of a “b” word, and so on.

*Play word memory.  The first person says a word that fits in a certain topic.  The next person says that word and adds another word.  The third person says the first two words and adds another word.  You keep going until someone messes up.  Example:  Topic=animals, first persons says ‘dog’, second person says ‘dog, cat’, third person says ‘dog, cat, frog’

Educational CD Ideas

*Adventures in Odyssey

*Jonathan Park Adventures

*Foreign languages

*Bible verse CD’s

*Bible song CD’s

*Any “living” book on CD

*CD of music or stories that go along with a unit you’re studying

*Story of the World CD’s

*Any historical fiction book on CD

*Lyrical Life Science CD’s

Other Ideas

*Keep a lap desk or clip board in your car, along with a supply of pencils, crayons, etc. and bring the school books along on a trip!

*On a familiar drive, ask your child to create a travel brochure of the sights you see.

*Stop at a rest stop or hotel in an unfamiliar area and pick up a few brochures.  Let your child be the “tour guide” of attractions in the area as you drive.  You never know when an unexpected field trip might turn up.

*Listen to a preacher on the radio and discuss the sermon.

*Turn up the music and practice singing harmonies.

*Buy travel books like Smileage.

 For more ideas, you might enjoy this book. 

We finally did it.  School started today.  I've been wanting to start each Monday for the last three or four weeks, but too much kept getting in the way.  So, today began a new year and it went pretty well.  Eli is going to be a challenge, but I imagine he'll get used to our school time and we'll get used to his interruptions.  

Mahayla has been waiting since the CHEK convention in July to wear this.  We're headed out to Walmart now, just so she can say wearing the shirt was worth it!  Visit the Homeschool Boutique to find your own fun shirts.  I bought this one for myself. 

Welcome to my blog!  I’m Cindy, a mom of three (10, 7 and 7 months) and I suppose this will be our 6^th year of “officially” homeschooling.  We live in Kentucky, which is *thankfully* a very homeschool friendly state.  I’m a “city girl” living on a 270 acre cattle farm.  My “country boy” husband of 13 years is slowly, but surely, turning my heart towards a love for the country life.  All my children love every minute of the farm life, which lends itself to many valuable and rich learning lessons.    

A typical day in our homeschool is quite relaxed.  We get up somewhere around 7:00 and get the first bit of our chores done – making beds, gathering dirty laundry, getting dressed. Breakfast is next with Bible time either during or following breakfast.  I print out a chore chart at the beginning of the week for my two oldest, so they complete each day’s chores next.  These only take 10-30 minutes to finish.  Usually, we’re in the ballpark of 9:00 when lessons get started for the day.

This year, my oldest will be doing math and language arts by herself for the most part.  I’ll be checking work each day and helping her when she gets stuck, but I want her to do as much on her own as possible.  While she works, I’ll be doing reading and math with my son.  He still needs much reading instruction and likes to “have me around” during math. 

If the work so far has been especially frustrating, we’ll take a free-time break.  But, usually, we go right into whatever unit study we’re working on for science or history.  We work on unit studies together, with minor adjustments made here and there.  For instance, I might give the 7 year old an easier map than the 10 year old.  We are very much an eclectic sort of family.  Some unit studies are mostly hands-on projects, some are mostly notebooking, some are lapbooks.  It really depends on whatever works best with the particular unit. 

After lunch, we usually read together from a chapter book, have some quiet alone time (usually for reading) and the rest of the afternoon is free for playing, crafting, cooking, nature walks, computer games, errands – you name it. 

I mentioned that we are very eclectic homeschoolers, but I do hold to much of the Charlotte Mason philosophy and a very loose version of classical education.  Good literature, short lessons, nature study, free time and handicrafts from Charlotte Mason can be found in our house.  And four-year science/history cycles and some Latin from classical studies are used. 

I posted recently about our curriculum for the year here.  You also might be interested in our nature journals and Keepers At Home (handicrafts) group. 

For the past two years, we have been blessed to have an upstairs “bonus” space that we use for school.  I posted pictures here, but we’re in the process of reorganizing in a big way.  I’ll post new pictures when the project is finished.  The kids are allowed to do their work wherever they like for the most part.  The school table and the kitchen table are the most used places, but they can also be found on their beds, in a beanbag or lying on their bellies on the floor.  We love to work on the back porch or trampoline, too!

While homeschooling isn’t all roses, we try to love every minute of it and thank God (and my husband) for the blessing of being home together.  It’s been a wonderful lifestyle that I pray God will allow us to continue until our last wee one walks through his graduation ceremony 18 years from now.  That seems like a long time, but I know it will surely be here before I know it!

I hope you’ll take some time to go through some of my blog archives.  May you be blessed in your homeschool year!

For links to other Homeschool Open Houses, please visit Tiany's Blog.

A friend of mine sent me an email the other day with a few questions.  I thought they were very important questions that deserved very real answers.  Here's a portion of the email.....

......I just want to know where you find all of your time! Seriously, how do you have time to read other people's blogs, plan so wonderfully, organize, teach, be a wife, enjoy your kids, go on field trips, keep up your blog, etc., etc., etc. Not to meddle in your personal life but all these things I notice when I visit your blog. You're akin to Super Woman!

I must admit, I feel inadequate for my position right now. I fear I am going to ruin my child and that she will be uneducated because of me. Looking at your blog is very helpful and gives me ideas, but I wonder how do I have time to do any more when I barely get through as it is? How do you do it? Surely if you can do what you do with three kids, I can do it with one?

What are your days like when you are doing school? How much time do you spend each day?.....

The following is the majority of what I wrote in response.

Ha, a super woman - I wish!  I'm just as overwhelmed as the next person - really!!  In fact, I just got finished sending one of my best friends an email last week asking her to pray for me.  I'm completely overwhelmed right now and feel like I'm just treading water some days. 

She reminded me that this season of my life won't last forever and that I need to treasure each moment rather than worrying about all the things that aren't getting done.  I go to bed most nights with the dishes still piled in the sink.  There are usually at least three loads of laundry piled up on the couch ready to be folded.  I have yet to have time to organize all last year's schoolwork and get it put away.......

I am able to be on the computer a lot right now because I'm still nursing like crazy.  Eli is a ferocious little eater!  After I spend one nursing reading to the older kids, I usually spend the others on the computer since the older ones have gone out to play or are working with their dad.  As Eli slows down on his nursing and gets more active, I bet my computer and blog time will become almost null and void! 

As for field trips and other activities.  We run too much!  :)  Once school starts back up, I  tend to slow down to almost a snail's pace.  I can't do school and run here and there. 

And for schoolwork - I'm sure I've told you before that I don't do everything.  I would drive myself and my children crazy if I expected every page of every piece of curriculum to be completed.  They would hate school and so would I!  I just do what I feel like the Lord is leading us to do.  I trust Him that I won't ruin my kids.  I trust Him that they will have the tools necessary to figure something out if I've left a gap.  I trust Him that He's preparing each one for the work that He has planned for them.  I still have a lot of work to do in trusting God, but trusting Him with their education is an easy one for me. 

I tend to see life as education.  When we cook, work with the cattle, go on a field trip, read a chapter book together, do chores, take walks, go visiting, plan a party together, shop for groceries........I feel like I'm teaching them about real life.  They must be prepared academically, but all that will work itself out if I've offered constant opportunity to learn in each of the subjects.  I don't stress over making sure every page of every workbook is done.  All that stuff is usually repeated at some point anyway.  If I've prepared them to know where to go to find an answer when they've got a question, they will be fine. 

Our school days usually run from late July through April.  We do Bible study together and then chores.  Afterward, each child usually does their math and language arts - Mahayla on her own, Caleb with me.  Then we get together for unit study type lessons - history, geography, science, projects.  It's usually lunchtime by this point, so we take a nice long break.  Many afternoons we'll take some time to read from a chapter book together and maybe do something like art, foreign language, or computer games on their own.  The rest of the afternoon is completely free for them.  They aren't allowed to watch tv until right before bed, so they'll usually do things like piano practice, playing outside, Mahayla might knit or crochet, they might cook something together, board games, a science experiment on their own.  I'll often gather a few items of interest and put them out downstairs as "motivation sparks" to do instead of whining that "there's nothing to do."

Now, this is how it used to work!  :)  Throwing Eli into the mix this year is going to make it interesting!!  You may watch me spiral out of control as the year progresses!! :)

Don't worry about feeling inadequate.  We all do, at least sometimes.  I'm praying for you!

I asked my friend's permission before putting any of this on my blog.  Like me, she hoped that someone else might benefit from seeing that we all have struggles.  No matter who seems to have it all together, there's usually more to the story.  

Do your children ever feel like their school work is pointless?

Show pride in your children’s work by displaying it. Make them feel like their work is worth every bit of the effort they put into it. We want them to feel a sense of pride about what they do, right? We want them to take the time to do their best work, right? My children used to actually say, "What does it matter, nobody but you sees it?"

So I started making a bigger deal of some of their work. When a piece sticks out to me as being extra well-done, or I know they’ve put a ton of effort into something, I’ll put it up in our "gallery". It’s just a space we have in a stairwell that I reserve for their things only. I change it out frequently and make a big deal of it when company happens to pass by.

Here’s a fairly recent picture of our gallery.

Another thing I started doing was making notebooks and lapbooks more beautiful. In other words, we have a lovely place to store the work, making it seem more special to them. I’m also going to suggest that our co-op have some sort of "Bring Your Best Work" showcase next year. And ask our local library to allow our group to display projects for a week or two. Both of these should give the kids a extra boost of "somebody cares".

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to bribe my children into doing their work well. Nor am I trying to make them feel that they have to have kuddos for everything they do. I’m just trying to make sure that their work is applauded once in awhile. I believe their efforts deserve that. I hope you find exciting ways to encourage your children! I’d love to hear your ideas!!

Related Tags: school work, homeschooling, encouragement

On a recent blog, I posted some of the things I do to keep my kids busy and learning during our summer break. One of the things was creating a 100 Things To Do If Bored List. I just recently came up with this summer’s list and thought it might be useful as a Tip Of The Day.  Feel free to copy it and change it to suit your family! (It may be a little more or less than 100. I stopped counting in the 80's.)

100 Things To Do If I’m Bored

read                                                 
ride a bike                     
take a nature walk                                    
do an experiment       
play an instrument                                   
draw
play a board game                                   
clean your room            
wash windows                                          
do a craft   
play a card game                                      
organize a book shelf
make a recipe                                           
do a devotional            
call a friend                                               
write a letter               
play dress up                                           
do a puzzle
make a mask                                            
listen to music              
weed the flowers                                     
water the flowers     
make up a story                                      
act out a story
make up asong                                       
listen to a book on tape
exercise                                                   
bird watch                      
do leaf rubbings                                     
graph the number of bugs you see in an hour
collect seeds                                         
actually play with your toys
do origami                                              
create a Bible lesson to teach to a younger child
play a computer game                          
organize the refrigerator
read a magazine                                   
dig in the garden
look up a word you don’t know in the dictionary and try to use it throughout the day
collect rocks                                            
paint rocks                     
write a Christmas wish list                  
make bubbles        
jump rope                                               
play in water
mop a bathroom                                   
organize a drawer in your room
paint a picture                                         
dance                              
watch the clouds go by                        
pray                           
make a prayer journal                         
teach your dogs a trick
experiment with new hairstyles         
make some beaded jewelry
sew                                                         
knit                                   
crochet                                                   
take a treat to a neighbor                                
wash the car                                          
build something from wood scraps              
plant seeds                                            
practice a play to put on for your parents      
skip                                                         
do jumping jacks    
wash dishes                                         
play hide and go seek
build with legos                                     
play cowboys and indians
pull out your spy journals                   
sort shells
play with pattern blocks                      
set up a picture studio
make play dough                                 
make a healthy snack    
plan a party                                           
write a grocery list for Mom              
memorize a poem and tell it to someone
play school                                           
design an outfit      
set up a store for your family to shop
help an elderly neighbor with a job around their house
make an instrument                           
take a nap           
take a long bubble bath                     
vacuum the van         
make clay boats to sail                       
make your own 100 things to do list                
do a crossword puzzle                       
write and illustrate a story             
study an artist and try one of his or her pieces
make silly faces in the mirror           
swing          
jump on the trampoline                     
make puppets        
organize pictures                                
go through toys and choose some to give away
go through clothes and bag up the ones that are too small
make cards for you family or friends            
try a new recipe                                   
write down some of your hopes and dreams

 Related Tags: bored, lists, summer, children

I've come across a blog that I really like and learn a lot from.  Higher Up and Further In  has become one of my favorites!

Here's a great blog she wrote called Ten Habits of a Happy Homeschool.  I hope you'll take just a few minutes to read it.

Thank you Lindsey for the link.

I call it summer break because we put aside the normal daily work load, but the summer is far from a break from learning.  We have so much fun, though, that I have been able to disguise the learning part so far!

Mom is "off duty" for the most part, but I always have a stash of planned out activities.  I try to give them something planned by me everyday - an art project, a science experiment, a trip to the library, maybe even a math page to keep the skills up.   For the rest of the day, I try to provide them with lots of neat ideas to keep themselves busy.  I don't demand that they do the extra things.  If they want to hang out in the kiddie pool the rest of the day, that's fine by me.  But most days, I hear the words, "I'm Bored!" too many times.  So here's a list of some of the things I have available to them:

Art - a stash of idea books, some old Abeka Art books I found at a curriculum sale, and lots of materials

watercolors, tissue paper, glue, markers, colored pencils, foam shapes, foam sheets, pipe cleaners, clay, play dough, chalk, pastels, oil pastels, tempera paints, lots of paper types, fun scissors, scrapbooking materials, old magazines, crayons, rulers, googly eyes, pom pom balls, sponges, rubber stamps............

Crafts - I keep on hand (for Mahayla mostly), books on knitting, crocheting and sewing with all the materials for these, lots of beads, and the occaisional cheapo craft set from the dollar store or WalMart.

Science experiment books - I've run across many of these at yard sales.  My kids love to try experiments on their own!

Science craft books - these are fun.  They include projects like making bird feeders, windchimes, water microscopes............I found most of these at yard sales, too.

Nature study - We have a bag packed and ready for them to take off on their own nature walks/hunts.  We live on a farm, so they have a tad bit of freedom in this area.  In the bag we keep things like a hand-held microscope, baggies for collections, colored pencils and drawing paper, magnifying glass, Fandex field guides, sunscreen...................

Library trips - We do what I call "free reading" during the summer.  Books that have nothing to do with some sort of unit we're studying or checklist we need to check off.  The kids both pile up their stacks to take home and we just sit around and read, read, read all summer.  The trampoline is a great place for reading, by the way.

Field Trips - I like to just get up and go a lot during the summer.  We are blessed with many educational day trip destinations in Central KY!

I try to keep up with daily Bible reading to them.   Like I mentioned before, I still throw in the occaisional math worksheet.  The kids like to buy and work through the fun dollar store workbooks, so I'll pull those out some days.  Rainy days are good for computer games.  I don't let them have too much "free time" on the computer during the school year, so I don't feel bad allowing more in the summer.

I also make and print out a 100 Things To Do If I'm Bored list.  I've found several on the internet that I paste into a Word Document, then tweak to fit our family.  Do an internet search.  The lists have great ideas!

One thing my children have come up with that yours might enjoy - they've created spy journals.  The spy journals are just steno pads.  They have the most fun creating secret codes, spying on Dad or Papaw and writing down what they've seen, meeting in secret hideouts to discuss a mission......Hey, it's creative thinking and writing practice!!  I love it!

Summer is not a time to slack from chores!  They continue to have assigned chores daily.  I love summer break!!  Twelve days to go!

Send 'em to "public school"!!!

This morning my kiddos had to be up and dressed, with chores finished, and sitting at the kitchen table by 8:00am.  School was in session from 8:00-3:00!  They were given one 1/2 hour lunch/recess and two bathroom/water breaks.  The had to sit at the table in hardback chairs the entire time, and even raise their hands to speak!

About twice a year, I have to bring the "public school" into my home.  Why?  Because my sweet children have no idea how blessed they are to be homeschoolers.  After day upon day of whining and complaining about the work they have to do, I finally decided that they simply must be reminded about how thankful they should be.  So, I loaded them up with twice the workload (the worksheets, worksheets, oh the worksheets!!) and designed a very structured, very long day.  Poor things were exhausted by 3:00 - will they never learn?

But, I am so looking forward to tomorrow!  A slight reminder of our public school day will bring sweet smiles to their faces and joyful work from their hearts!  For awhile anyway.......Then "public school" will find itself back in my home for a visit yet again.

Try it!  It's a bit of extra work for you, but WELL worth the effort!!

TonyaP from the Five In A Row Boards has her own website called Home With the Kids.  It has some really good homeschooling ideas and links on it.  I wanted to share it with you!    www.hwtk.net/

I came across a WONDERFUL site the other day that pulled my thoughts back in the direction that I feel God is leading us in our family and homeschool.  It seems I start every school year with such good intentions, and then somehow my original vision gets crowded out by the "have to dos".  What are the "have to dos"??  Here are some examples:

-Have I filled in the little box on my lesson plans for every subject today?

-We need to be finished with the botany unit by Christmas because we MUST cover zoology this year, too.

-Will my daughter really be prepared for 5th grade math next year if we skip over a 4th grade Saxon lesson here and there?

You get the idea. 

Overall, I believe myself to be a very relaxed homeschooler.  I don't mind skipping redundant lessons in a workbook.  I don't mind chucking a workbook for a more real-life approach.  I don't mind changing plans at a moment's notice for a field trip or a friend in need.  But, it never fails, every year about this time I find myself having to stop and get myself back on the right track.  I don't know how I slowly become a slave to the workbooks and my lesson plans as the fall semester goes on, but I sure do!

Let's just say that the articles on this site have helped me to regain my focus.  You will be blessed!

http://www.homeschooloasis.com/lol_main_pg.htm

Homeschooling....I sure feel like I've been at it a long time, but some days it seems as if I have no idea what I'm doing.  It's on those days that I realize that we're in a rut.  The last couple of weeks have been a rut for us.  Of course, it could have something to do with school starting the first of July this year (trying to get in as many days as possible before the baby arrives around Christmas.)  It could also be that I'm allowing far too many "good" interuptions into our days.  Co-op, field trips, Keepers At Home group.....all those things are great, but I'm wondering if somehow our "rut" is God trying to tell us to slow down, to be at home more, to enjoy our days and each other more.

Whatever the answer to our rut, I know God will put us back on track soon.  He always has, and there have been many ruts in the road on our journey so far.  The hardest part about a rut is that Satan loves to find you in one.  For me, that's the time when he sends the nay-sayers my way.  You know, the people who would love to talk you out of homeschooling, who play the 20 question game with you about "why in the world you've chosen to homeschool??", the ones who say "Of course you're in a rut, you're with your children 24/7!!"

But, again, God has always been good!  He has given me faithful homeschooling friends and a strong husband who are able to remind me WHY we do what we do and how important it is to keep moving westward in our journey.  It's not always easy homeschooling, it's not always easy even being a Christian in this world of ours - but I know that God has called us to do what others might see as silly or futile.  And what God calls me to, I know He will be faithful to pull me through.

I love being home with my children.  I just have to be reminded sometimes about how much I love it!