Our First week of Homeschool EVER :)

We have this great school room yet I find that we are doing most of our work at the kitchen table.  My two younger boys were home all day with us the first two days of the week so that was a bit of a juggling act.  I found that teaching Peanut was pretty easy actually. She is a good listener and a good student. But my two rambunctious boys made it hard for her to even hear me at times. I tried entertaining them with things in the house but nothing was working so outside they went. Peanut and I could sit at the kitchen table and work yet I could see them out the window.  The second half of the week Sport was in preschool in the morning so we were able to get the bulk of our work done while he's gone.  Fish is much better behaved by himself and I was able to keep him pretty entertained.  We pick up Sport around 11 and come back and have lunch and the Fish goes down for a nap.  With the two older kiddos I do the read alouds.  So far this has worked really well! Peanut and Sport are loving our read aloud time each day and I am too!

The night before Sport was going to start preschool, my husband went in to check on the boys and found them covered in a green marker that Sport had snuck into bed with him.  He kindly drew all over Fish's face and arms as well.  Ugh, boys...a never ending adventure.

Today was our first day with an emotional meltdown...during Math (what else?)!  The lesson went well but as soon as I pulled that worksheet out the tears flowed freely and the negative self talk came out.  No one has ever told my daughter that she is bad at math or that she will "never ever get it" so where do these thoughts come from?  Why do we constantly belittle ourselves?  It is so innate in us, it is something we have to fight against.  We took and break and prayed and when she came back to it she finished the sheet with no problem.

We learned a lot this week and I a am excited for where we go from here!

First Day of School Pictures 2014-2015

I love back to school pictures and I decided that although we aren't going the private school route anymore it would still be fun to honor that first special day.  It is always amazing to look back at the end of the year and see how much your kids have grown and changed.  

I got Peanut a back to school gift, it was a special water bottle that she could keep at her desk during the day while she is working.  She wasn't sure about it at first (I think she was hoping for a toy) but after our first day she was taking that bottle with her everywhere she went and told me that she loved it.

My sweet little boy, Sport, is 4 years old and is enrolled in a Special Education preschool through the city. He attended this class last year and it really helped him so much! I would love to be able to homeschool all of my kids but for now, we know that this is best for him. He jumps out of bed with SO much JOY to go to school and his teachers are very loving and kind and there are only four kids in his class right now so he is getting all of the attention he needs.  We will take it a year at a time to decide what is best for him.

A Small Change in curriculum

So yesterday my daughter was begging me to start school so I decided we would try out our Science curriculum, which was Apologia Botany.  She enjoyed coloring the pages but then we got into the reading and notebooking and I realized that this curriculum is way above her level of understanding.  Every other sentence she would tell me she was confused and when I asked her the follow up questions at the end she couldn't answer one correctly.  We spent an hour and a half on one lesson! It was way too much for her (and me!).

I knew that with homeschooling there would be trial and error so I am fine with switching curriculum.  I did some Science resources research yesterday and settled on A Beka as our new choice.  I read a lot of great reviews about it and the cost was on the lower side so this mama is hopeful!

The Sonlight Science looks great but it was too expensive and looks like a lot more work than I want to put into Science my first year of homeschooling.  Maybe next year I will be up for it! :)