Progress Report

I was talking recently with a dear neighbor and she told me she'd been praying for me - that despite how sunshiny and rosy my life as a homeschooling mama looks online she knew better.  I felt so convicted.  Do I really only post the happy moments?  I guess part of me doesn't want to post how long it takes us to get through one chapter of our read-aloud because I have to stop and discipline a child, it wouldn't encourage other moms to know that I have to clean up more than a handful of messes before I even start my day, right?  Other moms don't want to read about the potty training woes of a busy mom.  In my head the pictures need to look perfect, the day needs to appear to have gone 100% according to plan or somehow in my own list of expectations I have failed.

So here we go.  Me being real. THIS IS HARD. I mean really hard.  I love having my kids home, I love knowing exactly what they are learning.  I love the freedom homeschooling has given us to do some really fun things.  BUT THIS IS HARD.  I miss the freedom I had when my kids were in someone else's care all day, I miss my clean house, I miss being able to just go run errands without having to find 6 pair of shoes and settle arguments over who gets to sit where in the car. I miss adult conversation. And dont even get me started on how hard it was to get back at it after coming home from vacation.

Deciding to pull our kids out of school was a hard call to make but ultimately we knew it was the right one.  I honestly thought we'd get on a schedule the first week of school and we'd cruise right through the school year (just a little prideful here).  WRONG.  Our days are never the same.  I've had to learn to let go, which if you know me at all has been really, really hard.  Homeschooling does not look like public school, there isn't really a schedule.  I'm teaching 5 kids (and occupying a toddler) at all different grade levels and trying to keep the peace, there is one of me and 5 of them and they all need me all the time.  So we've figured out a flow.  I threw out the idea that we would get this "perfect".  The truth is, I don't think there is a perfect "schedule" for us.  The days that we relax and go with the flow are the days we grow the most.

We've finished up 9 weeks of school so I feel like this is our progress report time!  Here's some things I've learned from having my kids home:
*two of my children need specific direction (Like WAY specific)
*one of my kiddos gets frustrated easily when they make a mistake and hates to erase
*I know which of my children can do crazy mental math and which ones really struggle with math
*I've gotten to see that light bulb moment when a new concept clicks
*there is no point in trying to do school after lunch - it won't happen
*my kids have an amazing ability to memorize

It's been amazing to see all of my beautiful darlings absorb so much in such a short amount of time.  We are truly having a wonderful time homeschooling, some days are great and some days I retreat to my room as soon as daddy walks in the door.  Some days we soar through all of our subjects and other days it's all I can do to get them to finish one page of math - and you know what?  That's okay.  That's the beauty of having them home, it's okay to do a lighter day every once in a while. Just like it's okay that a couple of my kids can finish an entire weeks worth of math in one sitting.  They all have good days and bad and I've had to let go of my expectations and just go with it. We're all happier that way.

So what have we been up to?  Lots and LOTS of fun (with tears in between, trust me), so consider this the highlight reel!

 Art class projects

 Math facts with dominos

 Reading - lots of reading

 Even the 3 year old is learning along with us!

 Field trips

 Lots if baking - fraction practice

 Taking advantage of sunshine and everyone else being in school

 Learning about the Arctic thanks youtube!

 Practicing our flag knowledge

 Spur of the moment field trip

 I said lots... LOTS of baking!

 Halloween candy math

Trying a different country's recipe every Friday!

All these pictures make it look great right? Like I said - highlight real. what you cant see is the sink of dirty dishes and baskets of laundry. You cant hear the two who fight the most squabbling over who gets a bar stool spot for lunch.

But what I see is that God is working. In the moments where I just cant anymore, He can. The times where I'm frustrated and short with my kids He draws me to Himself and there I find new mercies. My kids are learning and growing and hiding His word in their heart and as hard as this journey is, I wouldn't trade it. Not for a second.

So far... SO good!

We are winding down our 3rd week of school. And so far 4 out of 5 kids are loving it. It's been a big change for all of us, and we dont all handle change well.

As mom and teacher, I'm finding the hardest thing for me is helping everyone at once. My goal is to have a good flow and schedule by christmas break!

So what have we been up to? Lots of fun learning!

 The kids do all their book work in the morning and then they take turns working on typing in the afternoon! L was so excited that she got to learn typing like the older kids!

 Our first field trip - the zoo!

We've collected 3 stamps in our passports so far - United States, Canada and Mexico. Finishing up North America and next week we'll be flying south to South America! The kids are LOVING this geography curriculum!

Our co-op classes started this week as well. All 4 girls are participating in gymnastics, A is too but he didnt want a picture :)  they have already made friends!

Art is our other co-op class. All 5 kids are in a class together and they are having so much fun. Their teacher is an artist from Italy and they have loved getting started on some fun projects!

A big part of bringing our kids home was teaching them a solid foundation of character traits. Each week we are studying a character quality. We learn the definition, a verse to go along and we do some role playing. At the end of the week we string the words onto a key ring. at the end if the year the ring will be full of all the character traits theyve learned.

Each say is a bit different, and each day has it's own struggles but overall our first few weeks have been more good than bad. I'm loving having them home and they are thrilled with being done with school before lunch time!

Getting started

Well we survived our first 2 days of homeschooling. Not without its bumps along the way. We are definitely learning as we go and I'm sure it'll take several weeks if not months to get into a good groove.

On day one my kids were up at 6:30 asking to get started and they were pleasantly surprised how quickly we were able to finish our work.

 All set up and ready to go!

 Even little E had his own this spot for school

 Ready to go

 First day if 5th, 4th, 3rd, 1st ans K!

 These girls are loving working on their math together

 Working hard and trying to get the hang of this new routine

 Independent reading time wherever they wanted - the highlight of the day!

Looking forward to seeing where this takes us. One kiddo is having a hard time adjusting to being home but I'm praying God will use this time at home to transform their heart.

Schooling with a toddler

Summer is keeping us CRAZY busy. Between 4H, beach days, pool days, meet ups with friends... we are savoring every moment of summer. But we are also anxious to start school in a couple weeks! I always love getting into a good routine.

The thing I'm probably most nervous about this year is keeping my 3 year old busy while we school. So let me share some of the things I've got in my arsenal for him!

 This particular Water wow is letters but I have several others stashed away to pull out all year long!

 Usborne's busy books keep littles entertained for a long time!

 Every page has a track for the vehicle to drive on

 Lots of sensory bag options. Dollar store shampoo and shaving cream, ziplock bags and "treasures" to put inside. He hates to get messy but loves to squish things!

 Sorting bears. Colors patterns etc

 Usborne's dry erase activity cards

 Lacing cards and shoelaces

 I made these letters when my oldest was in preschool. They are cotton with batting in the middle. Fun to practice letter recognition and spelling!

 Lots of coloring book options

 More dry erase letter fun!

This is the preschool Masterbooks phonics curriculum. I actually got this by mistake but after looking through it we may start this later in the year- it's a letter a week so nothing too strenuous! We'll see how ambitious I am.

We're in the final countdown-just 18 days until we start! In the meantime we're soaking in all the summertime memories we can!

School Curriculum Pt. 2

I told you last time I'd highlight our other curriculum in a separate post. Here it is! While we are using mostly MasterBooks, I am using other books for a few things. So here's a quick run down. 

First off - Bible. The older 4 have these books. Theyll do them every morning before we start school. I feel like it's good to get them in the habit of digging in to Gods Word every day.

It's not super lengthy, a few verses each day. This will take them through the Bible in a year. On Sunday there's a page for sermon notes!

Next up is our Morning Basket! This is a hot topic right now in homeschool lingo. Basically its things we'll do together as a family before doing our core subject. This will be mostly read-alouds.

 The Long Story Short - a 10 minute devotional.

 The Ology - this was recommended by a homeschooling friend (who happens to be a pastors wife), it is THE BEST book on explaining those hard to explain doctrines to young hearts!

 Memory verses and catechism

 Shakespeare and Fairy Tales

 Poetry

 Art Treasury - this book is so fun. Each week we'll look at a different artist and a famous work by them and then we'll work to recreate the same piece of art.

 Character First - I mentioned earlier that character is at the top of our priority list when it comes to raising our kiddos. These cards have a short definition of a character quality and then a practical way to show it on the back. We'll attempt to do one a week.

This is our Morning Basket "schedule". Obviously we wont be doing ALL of these things every day. The first few items (devotional, memory work, character cards and our read-aloud book) we will do each day. The rest are on a LOOP schedule. So Monday is The Olpogy, Tuesday is Poetry, Wednesday is Shakespeare, Thursday is fairytales and Friday is Art.

Our morning time will hopefully be a great way to segue right into our core subjects!

We're getting close! One month from today we start! 

*coming up next- keeping a little one  busy while we school and this years' line up for read aloud!