Back to School!

We started school again last week.  I've always liked the idea of a year round schedule and it allows me to spread our curriculum a bit so that our actual schooldays are much shorter.  We've been in school for a total of 9 days and I've revamped our schedule at least that many times as we figure out what seems to work for us this year now that I am officially schooling two!

My adorable students

I'll be posting our current schedule and pictures of our new schoolroom soon!  Thanks for reading!

Week in Review Feb. 1 - Spring Semester Week #3

Photos from the super fun Geography group we went to!

In My Life This Week

It was a bit of a busy week around here so our housework slipped a bit.  I am an extreme extrovert and have a natural tendency to want to be always on the go.  I have to be really careful to strike a balance between home and extracurriculars.  We got all our schoolwork finished, but we all tend to do better mentally when we have long periods of unstructured time to relax, play, and learn spontaneously.  And that only happens when we stay home most of the week!

In Our Homeschool

Phonics - Digraphs - sh & ch (and tch)
Math - MEP Yr 1 - Lessons 26-30
Grammar - First Language Lessons # 11-15
Handwriting - moving along in her cursive
Literature - started Betsy Tacy
Rafael Language Arts - LLFLO 1 # 18-25
Rafael Math - MEP Reception - Lessons 9-12
Rafael Literature - Katy No-Pocket, Curious George, Curious George Flies a Kite
Geography - China - Mei Mei Loves the Morning, One Year in Beijing
History - Expansion - Aurora Means Dawn
Science - BFSU - A-2 - Solids, Liquid, and Gases Extension Activities
Nature Study - Winter Tree Silhouette Study
Handiworks - Lego Challenge # 2 & 3

Around Town

Monday - Playdate w/ our MOMS Club

Tuesday - Australia Geography Group - so fun!  We learned about Australian animals, history (and the British using it as jail!), art (we did aboriginal dot painting), snacks (we tried fairy toast and vegemite), and so much more!  This is a new offering through one of our co-ops focusing on a different country each month.  I can't wait for the next one!

Wednesday - monthly MOMS Club Meeting

Thursday - field trip to a local indoor play area

Friday - Catholic Co-op 

My Kitchen

My hubby's birthday was this week so I made his two absolute favorites - Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas and Red Velvet Cake Balls!  Yum!

I'm Grateful For

Healthy kids!  We are finally all healthy and have had our allergy meds kick in a little bit so we aren't sneezing and tearing up all the time!

I'm Praying For

All my friend with sick kiddos right now and another friend who is having surgery this week.

Things I'm Working On

I'm trying to make a master document with liturgical feast days and ideas for celebrating them (pulled from Pinterest mostly!), as well as noting if we have their story in any of our various saint books.  I'm hoping this will help me have things ready ahead of time so I'm not trying to scramble at the last minute to do something for a particular Saint.

I'm Linking Up

Week in Review Jan. 25 - Spring Semester Week # 2

Lazy afternoon relaxing together after our school work was done.

In My Life This Week

This was one of those ideal homeschooling weeks.  We got through our work quickly and efficiently and the children seemed to truly enjoy what we were learning.  We had plenty of down time for playing and enjoying each others company, yet still were able to get together with friends a couple of times.  I felt totally blissed out the whole week despite 3 of us being hit with allergies right after getting over our colds!

In Our Homeschool

Still loving our new curriculum and schedule.  I seriously feel so blessed to be able to be my children's primary teacher!
Phonics - sounds of k (c, k, ck) and sounds of s (s and z)
Math - MEP Yr 1 - Lessons 21-25
Grammar - First Language Lessons # 1-10
Handwriting - moving along in her cursive
Literature - finished Winnie the Pooh
Rafael Language Arts - LLFLO 1 # 9-17
Rafael Math - MEP Reception - Lessons 4-8
Rafael Literature - Corduroy, Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny
Geography - China - The Five Chinese Brothers, The Seven Chinese Sisters
History - Expansion - The Floating House, A Packet of Seeds
Science - BFSU - A-2 - Solids, Liquid, and Gases
Nature Study - Nothing official this week.  I really need to step it up and pull some things together for this!
Habit Training - Laying Down the Rails - Obedience #3-4
Handiworks - Lego Challenge # 1

Around Town

Monday - we enjoyed having Philip home for MLK Jr. day and spent the morning running errands and stopping by a delicious new chocolaterie for a little treat.

Tuesday - We had our first co-op science class using BFSU late on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a success and I'm looking forward to teaching this great group of kids!  I also love the classroom we are using at a local community center.  It really makes a difference with a large group of children to be in a classroom setting rather than a home!

Wednesday - I hosted the inagural Pinterest Club meeting for my MOMS Club on Wednesday.  We made some absolutely adorable kids artwork holders and had a great time visiting with friends we haven't seen in a while.

Friday - We went to our local Catholic co-op classes, and afterwards went to a friends house for a Show and Tell themed playdate.

My Kitchen

In trying to save a bit on our grocery bill, I pulled a turkey from the deep freeze and cooked and processed it.  We got a ton of stock and cooked turkey (for future meals such as enchiladas, turkey spaghetti, etc) for the freezer.  Plus I made our absolute favorite soup using the bones!

I'm Grateful For

Having the freedom and ability to homeschool.  It was a truly perfect week!

I'm Praying For

One sister whose birthday was yesterday, another sister who started her first day of a new job today, and my wonderful husband whose birthday is tomorrow!

Things I'm Working On

I really need to get some lessons going on all the "extras" we've been ignoring such as art, nature study, music, and PE.  I'm working on pulling a few things together for this week!

I'm Linking Up

Small Success Thursday: Turkey, Play, Craft

As a homeschooling mama, it is the little moments throughout the week that make up a wonderful life!  Here are some of my small successes this week:

#1: I made a turkey, carved it, froze the meat, made turkey stock with the bones, froze the turkey stock, and cleaned up the mess in less than 24 hours.  Booya!  Turkey owned!

#2.  I played with the kids today.  Like actually sat down and gave them my 100% full attention.  That does not happen often enough and I had an absolute blast.  We had a Twin Club Meeting with all the twin animals and it was wonderful.

#3.  I crafted this week!  Got some friends together and we all made these kids artwork holders.  So fun!  I haven't been able to fit crafting in my life in a long time and it was wonderful to get back to it!

What are your small successes for the week?

I'm linking up!

Week in Review Jan. - Spring Semester Week #1

This was our first "normal" week after about a month of no school and having my hubby home.  Here's what we were up to this week.

In My Life This Week

This was our first "normal" week after about a month of no school and 3 weeks having my hubby home.  We were all sick, but we still managed to get started.

In Our Homeschool

We enjoyed digging in to our new curriculum this week.  The kids were sick with coughs, but fully functional otherwise so we still did most of our work.
Phonics - long vowel/short vowel review
Math - MEP Yr 1 - Lessons 16-20
Handwriting - Started her new cursive book and loved her "fancy" writing
Literature - Winnie the Pooh
Rafael Language Arts - LLFLO 1 #1-8
Rafael Math - MEP Reception - Lessons 1-3
Rafael Literature - Angus Lost, Caps for Sale, Blueberries for Sal
Geography - China - The Story about Ping, The Empress and the Silkworm
History - Expansion - Going West, The True Tale of Johnny Appleseed
Science - BFSU - A-1 - Organizing Things Into Categories
Nature Study - Nothing official this week as we were trying to stay out of the awful wind.  I didn't want their colds to turn into ear or sinus infections!  Some of the illustrations in The Story of Ping made them curious about how floating works and so they grabbed some things from their nature table (pinecones, bark, leaves, rocks, etc.) to see what would float.
Habit Training - Laying Down the Rails - Obedience #1-2

We also did our religion and calendar time, but skipped the rest of our subjects until everyone feels better.

My Kitchen

With a couple of big purchases coming up we are tightening our belts, which means I am trying to cook as much as possible out of the pantry and freezer.  We were fairly poor growing up and my mom had this uncanny ability to pull a couple of things out of the pantry and come up with an amazing meal.  I am finding that I may have inherited a bit of her skill, thank goodness!

I'm Grateful For

My amazing hubby, who had a long, hard, 1st week back at work and still came home and cheerfully took care of the children each night so I could go to bed early to help kick this cold.  I really hit the jackpot with this man!

I'm Praying For

This darn cold to go away!  We've officially emptied our house of several bottles of cough medicine and I have personally worked my way through an entire box of cough drops and two boxes of herbal tea.

Things I'm Working On

I have a few projects in the works right now.  I am teaching science classes using our current curriculum for my co-op so have quite a bit of planning still for the first one next Tuesday!  I am also hosting a Pinterest Club for my MOMS Club on Wednesday so I'm busy putting together a craft for that!

I'm Linking Up

December School

December was a light month in our little homeschool.  We made sure to do math, phonics, and writing every day, but other than that we took advantage of a lighter schedule to focus on our Advent work.  We also did a lot of Christmas related work such as learning about Christmas traditions around the world for geography and history.   It is nice schooling year round - it gives us plenty of opportunity to rest when we are feeling a bit burnt out! I am working on putting together our new curriculum for next semester and will get a post about that put together soon.  Thanks for reading!

On Letting Go

The last several months have been beyond crazy and I feel like I have been thoroughly inducted into the "experienced" homeschool mama club.  I started off this school year at full speed, thinking that we could be in every single co-op in the area and still do a CM education, all while at the same time trying to "keep up with the Joneses" and squeeze in all the traditional public school subjects as well.

Looking back, it's obvious that this wasn't a pace we could keep up with for long.  I have gone through a period of complete burnout - and only halfway through our first semester!  That...is not a good sign.

I've been reading a lot more of Charlotte Mason's volumes and as I immerse myself more in her thinking, the more I realize that it is ok to let go and stick with our schedule without trying to add in a million extra things.  I am also trying to simplify our schedule so that we have more time to truly be at home and allow ourselves time to explore and learn without constantly feeling rushed.  I have to remind myself that a public school has different goals in mind and thus must use different methods - methods that I don't need to replicate in my simple two-student setting.  It is an incredibly freeing thought!

What a beautiful thing homeschooling is, that there is room for adaptation and change and the ability to do what is best for each child and family in that moment!

Thanks for reading.  :)

Signs of Progress

When we made the decision to homeschool, we went full steam ahead, no looking back.  I memorized my responses to questions such as "what are you going to do for socialization?" and made sure that I NEVER seemed unsure of our decision.  But of course, as I'm sure is the case with the vast majority of homeschoolers in their first year, there has always been a tiny nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that maybe I made the wrong decision.  That maybe I will end up screwing up my kids in some unforeseen way.  Especially having chosen a "non-traditional" style and curriculum.

So you can imagine my surprise and happiness (and no small amount of "Ha ha!  I can do it!") when I started seeing signs of progress.  After almost 2 months of homeschooling, I can tell that what I am teaching is sticking and that my kids are getting the kind of education that I wanted them to have.

Rafael asked if he could write his name.  He is 3!  I didn't ask him to, and have certainly never had him do handwriting drills of any sort.  He practices forming letters with playdough and wikkistix though, so I was quite impressed to see it translate to writing. 

Reading to her brother.
Michaela is reading short stories on her own.  We do a simple 10 minute lesson a day, and apparently it is working!  She was skyping with her Grandma on Sunday and everyone was impressed with how well she is doing!

Making Connections
She makes so many connections on a daily basis that I can tell her little brain is working and learning all the time.  We were using equilateral triangles to make other shapes, and she noticed that in making a larger triangle, each row was a series of consecutive odd numbers.  (1 in the top row, 3 next, 5 next, etc.).  I love seeing her figure things out without me interfering in the slightest!

I'm looking forward to where else this year takes us!  Thanks for reading!

Homeschooling Through Sickness

St. Blaise, pray for us that we may not suffer from illnesses of the throat and
pray that all who are suffering be healed by God's love.  Amen.
Source: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=28 

I woke up feeling awful.  I've had a tickle in my throat for several days that I was attributing to allergies, but the way I feel today I'm pretty sure it's a cold.  The kids are also complaining of sore throats, though their energy levels don't seem to be affected like mine is.  (Of course, isn't that the way it always works?!)  Though this is my first experience homeschooling through feeling yucky, I thought I'd share some things that I am trying to do to make sure I can make it through the day and give my littles the attention they need!

Exercise 
I don't know about you, but I always feel better after I exercise, especially when I am sick!  I definitely did NOT feel up to it, but I woke up this morning and went running before Philip went to work.  Being outside first thing in the morning and getting my endorphins flowing definitely got me into a much better frame of mind than if I had slept later and woke up groggy and in a bad mood!

Take Extra Care of Yourself
It's easy to skip meals and snacks when my mind is preoccupied with feeding the kids, doing last minute prep work for lessons, and making sure the house doesn't explode with toys and books while the toddler runs around wreaking havoc.  I am trying to be extra conscientious today about eating well and drinking plenty of fluids.

Take Lots of Breaks
My mind just doesn't work the same when I am sick.  Both my mind and my body need breaks to get back to optimum running level so the kids are getting plenty of extra playtime in between lessons today!

Be Honest with the Kids
With the exception of the baby, my kids are old enough to understand that mommy is feeling bad, they need to give me a little break.  I tell them I am not feeling great and ask them to do their best to stay out of trouble.  Does it always work?  No, but all in all, I think they definitely work a little harder at being good when they see how miserable I am!

Give Yourself (and your Students!) a Break
My kids love school.  They love learning and reading and journaling, and everything else associated with school.  At the same time, it is really hard to concentrate and learn while you don't feel good.  The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!  While I don't want to get behind in lessons, it's not a big deal if we do.  We can catch up on a weekend or on any of the several break weeks that I have planned in to our year.  Homeschooling is so awesome!  When kids go to school and are sick for a day, they just miss out on whatever is learned!  At home, we can make it up whenever we have a free moment!  While we've managed to take care of almost everything today, my goal was the three R's (reading, writing, a'rithmetic) - everything else is bonus in a house full of sickos!

Mandatory Quiet Time
The older two haven't napped in years, but as soon as the baby went down, they were sent to their room for mandatory quiet time.  I need rest, and it wouldn't hurt them either!  I don't care if they actually sleep or not, as long as they stay in their room!

Speaking of which...it's time for me to try to squeeze in a nap!  Any other tips on how to make it through a homeschool day when you and/or your kids are sick?  Thanks for reading!