A Very rough week

Sigh:: This week has been tough. I have now home~schooled for 6 weeks. I am quite impressed with this actually.  I haven't decided to quit or anything, I just feel stumped on how to make my life work.  My kids are beautiful, sweet, loving little humans.  But they are also loud, frustrating, argumentative, loud, disruptive, busy, and troublesome, oh and did I mention loud?  I love them to pieces individually but as a group they wear my patience so thin and really make me question my decisions.  I am convinced that other moms have been given a greater level of tolerance than I have.  I so want to be the sweet loving mom who does crafts with her kids, has a clean home, and also home~schools her children who gratefully soak up every ounce of instruction.  This is not me, nor is it real life.  Homeschooling my daughter has gone really well in and of itself. She loves the one on one time with me and does *almost* everything I ask of her without too much complaining.  My middle son goes to a Special Education Preschool four days a week for almost three hours a day. I thought that the time he was gone would be perfect for school but I didn't account for my adorable 2 year old fully embracing screaming tantrums at this age.  He makes it so hard.  I can't read to her because he screams if I am not giving him attention. I have tried distracting him with play doh, kinetic sand, coloring pages, Legos, trains, toys, books, you name it.  He will not have it.  So that leaves us the time during his 1 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon to get as much work done as possible.  I don't know what to do.  Am I doing what is best for Peanut, Sport, or Fish? I'm not sure.  My house is a mess, I can't keep up with my responsibilities, and I find myself losing my patience too often.  Anyone have any advice? ::Sigh

Crazy Home Schoolers

Schooling in your pajamas, schooling in dress up clothes, schooling at the kitchen table, schooling in the back yard, schooling with untraditional curriculum, schooling with your mom as your teacher.  These are just some of the things I love about school at home.  I love getting notes from my daughter during the middle of the day telling me how much she loves me.  I love cuddling on the couch and reading books to each other.  I just love having her home and getting to be such a big part of her education experience.  Yep, we are officially crazy home schoolers and loving every moment!

Art Lessons

My kids love doing art than pretty much anything else.  My daughter can be found cutting, coloring, glueing, creating almost all day long.  She never has been very into dolls and toys, all she ever wants are art supplies.  So of course this is her favorite homeschool subject and I try to do it as much as I can.

A BIG change in curriculum

So after two weeks of working with our original curriculum I made the decision that it wasn't working for us.  It started with the Math. My daughter was in tears every day hating everything about this program.  I know there are so many options so it wasn't worth the fight, time to try something new.  Once I decided to change our Math curriculum I took a closer look at our other curriculum.  I found that although I love a LOT about Sonlight, the curriculum just wasn't working for us.  The history didn't have enough Christianity in it and although I understand the idea of teaching world history at a young age, I really wanted to teach American history this year.  So we are starting from scratch and this is what we are using now:

Math: MathUSee
Bible: Jesus Calling devotional, Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory
Grammar: Bob Jones University English 2
Spelling: All About Spelling
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise
Science: Abeka grade 2
History: Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory
Reading/Poetry: Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory
Art: Heart of Dakota's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears

We have been using this new curriculum for one week and not one tear has been shed. In fact the two subjects Peanut loves the most now are Math and Spelling! Amazing what the right curriculum does for your kiddo! I feel blessed to be able to tailor it to her needs!