Homeschooling so far

Several of you have asked me how homeschooling is going. I haven't had the time to blog in a while, so I thought, I'd kill two birds with one stone here. Homeschooling is going wonderful. I truly feel God made me for this. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! We have so much fun, most of the time. :-) I've almost adjusted to working around Kindergarten and a 2nd grader and a 2 year old who thinks she's in school as well. Lots of coloring, reading in between, copy work for Madeline, and clay time, but it all gets done. Several of you have asked me, "What's a typical day like for you doing school?" Well, I'll answer that as well! I wake up between 6-7, six on good days, six thirty or seven on not so good days. HA! I shower or straighten, depending on the day, then I get all the breakfast items needed out. Some mornings, when I'm trying to do more than one thing at a time (surely not, right?), I have Madeline fix hers and Ethan's cereal or waffle, whatever the case may be. Yes, she can fix her own and her brother's cereal or waffle. I am training both children to make their beds, help Mollie make hers, get dressed, brush hair and teeth, and fix their own breakfast. I believe in independent children who can do most things for themselves, and breakfast is no different. After breakfast, they have to clean up their mess and be at the table by eight to start school. I leave Mollie Jo asleep if she hasn't woken up because I believe in the adage, let sleeping babies lie!! So she sleeps most mornings till 9 or 10! Hallelujah! At 8, we start school with the pledge of allegiance, the calendar, days of the week song, and prayer. Then I have Madeline do handwriting and copy work to improve sentence structure or I give her a themed based craft to what we're learning or a worksheet/seasonal color sheet. Then I dive in with Ethan. First, he has bible/numbers/creation. It's all lumped into one for the rest of this week anyway. Then we move to alphabet recognition, flash cards, and correct annunciation of the letter sound. He walks around the house and looks for his number of the day and letters we're working on. He also does his cuisenaire rods. They are a bucket full of colorful rods of different sizes. He has to fit the rods into his letter on the page in his book and count how many he uses and what colors he uses and build his letter correctly, then he makes pictures that start with the letter of the day. This teaches letters, numbers, colors, following directions, and cognitive reasoning, plus hand eye coordination. I LOVE THOSE THINGS! We always color, cut, and glue, everyday. FYI: We've been through almost 6 glue sticks in less than three weeks. Anytime I get Ethan working on something, I flop over to Madeline. Her regimen has more writing and "work" than Ethan's obviously. After her "writing" skills are out of the way, I praise her for how well she's done, then gently show her how she can improve. We move on to her history, spelling, math (which she loves most, not my kid!), science, then music, and art. Anytime I have to flop back to Ethan, I assign Madeline to read aloud in her chapter books, do a worksheet, or get her doing math games (which again, she loves). I flop back and forth till Mollie wakes up, then I feed her and give her worksheets with the colors, letters, and numbers on it. We count as high as she can (up to 20 now!), sing the ABC's, and play and talk, then by that time, she's bored and moves on. After our "lessons" we move to book basket where we read for about twenty or thirty minutes, Madeline silently, me aloud to Ethan and Mollie Jo, then we're done. We take breaks in there for "potty", snacks, and to stretch, then we're typically done by lunch, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. Afterwards, we eat lunch, clean our rooms, and do various chores. Somedays we go to the Cafe for lunch. Most days we eat at home though. On Tuesdays or Thursdays we go to the library in Fulton and take back our books and swap out for new ones and go to the park right beside the library. They have a phenominal park there and the kids LOVE it!
Some of you have asked, if I'm about to go crazy yet. The answer is NO WAY!! I really do enjoy and love my job! I do have bad days and have had a bad day or two so far. There are days when Madeline just doesn't feel like writing and has attitude or Ethan doesn't want to pay attention or sit still (well the sit still part is most days actually, I'm used to that) and I want to pull all my hair and their hair out! I have had to get up, walk away, breathe, then come back, kiss their faces and start again. But, I still love it. We all have days like that, do we not? Every teacher has days where they have explained something 102 times and the kids stare at them like a deer in headlights and you want to scream, "OH COME ON, GET IT ALREADY!!!" But we press on, because we love them and love what we do, right?? Absolutely. I have had a blast setting up lesson plans and projects the night before till midnight, then gone to bed just to get up in six hours and replay it again. Will there be days I want to stay in bed and roll over and ignore the clock till like 8 or heaven forbid 9? Well don't we all?! Regardless, I press on and thank God each day that I can look my angelic babies in their faces and tell them without fear of getting in trouble or retribution about how much Jesus loves them and why, and all the glorious Bible stories and lessons I learned growing up. I feel like I'm getting the blessing in teaching them and seeing their ah-hah moments when Ethan finally gets the letter Q without me having to give him a hint or Madeline recites her Memory verse without help. It's like being there when they learn to finally take that first step or being there when they first roll over. It's a blessing not every mother gets to share, so I fully recognize the blessing I have everyday and thank my God for His rich abundance! Happy Wednesday/Thursday friends. Come often, I promise to try harder to blog more often. I'm still trying to adjust to my new schedule, so stick with me. In whatever you do, give the Author of all creation, Father God the glory!!

Some days I miss nothing!

Do you ever wish you could take a step back and breathe? I miss doing nothing some days. Not every day mind you, but So, other than school and some cleaning, tomorrow is my official NOTHING day. I'm calling it my own personal in house staycation! So if you're looking for me, I'M AT HOME WITH MY BABIES FOR SOME NOTHING TIME!

On a side note, our first day of homeschool was great. I think this is going to be a great year! Have a happy Tuesday friends. Sorry it's been a while.

At the Library

Every week for a while now, I have taken the kids to the library. We leave with a huge bag full of books every week. It's so exciting for me, to see my babies want to get so many books that we have to make a list for the next week of the books they want. I love showing Madeline all the books I read as a child that she can read or work up to reading. There is something magical about a library. To those who aren't readers, they think of the library as a torture chamber perhaps, but to me, the library is where dreams and imaginations are. The library holds all books on all topics. It's all there. If I want to read about pirates sailing the tragic seas, I can. If I want to read about a jilted love affair from the World War II era, I can. If I want (want being the key word) to read all about the art of farming, it's there too! That's not the only reason I love the library. I love the quietness of the library. I bring three normally loud children to the library every week, but they know once they walk in the doors that they must whisper, and even Mollie Jo remembers. She always tells the sweet librarians in a sweet whispered voice, that "we mus whisprr in the libary". The librarians are always so kind to my children. We never leave without a bathroom visit of course, a trip or three to the water fountain, and stickers on every surface of their little arms. My children love being able to look and take their time picking out their three books each week. They have to sit and look at a hundred books a piece before choosing, and Mollie Jo has to have me read at least ten books before she can choose three. I never go when I can't dedicate an hour, usually more to the library. It is NEVER a quick trip and I wouldn't want it to be. In order for children to love reading and become good at it, parents must make it a priority and show their children how important reading is. It's true with anything we want to show our children, but reading is my niche and I want my children to love it like I do. There's something timeless and classic about the library. Don't get me wrong, I love my technology and I would LOVE an iPad to put all my books and music on, but you can not beat a good book. There's something special about the smell of a library. The smell of old volumes stacked on metal shelves. That acrid paper smell mixed with age and dust. It's delicious to me. I love the sound of turning pages and quiet whispers in the library. Now I hear computers typing and copy machines whirling. When I go with my children, we retreat to a back corner and ooh and ahh over our book choices. I usually just get to peruse the newest books by the check-out counter. But, that's alright. My time is better spent nurturing the love of reading in my children. I can always re-read my books for the thousandth time. Yes, they are that good! I get just as excited about going to the library as the kids. There's just something about being, At the Library! Happy Thursday folks! Come often! Sorry I haven't written much this week. It's just one of those weeks.