Homeschooling Schedules

We're at the start of another school year. Jackson is starting 1st grade and Ava will be in K4. It's really Pre-K but the little diva is insisting on being in Kindergarten so we're compromising on that one. I love the fresh start of a new year and all that it brings. 

Jackson isn't extremely excited about school starting back even though he's been doing some school work all summer. It does mean a new routine and schedule to get back to. I am ready to get started with Jackson because this will be the first school year that he will start where he can read! Last year when we started he was just learning his letters and numbers, but this year he can add/subtract and even sit down and read some books to me! 

The main goal of this year for him is to have him reading fluently and writing better. He also loves Science and Art so I'm trying to encourage lots of learning in those areas as well. 

As far as Ava goes, her school books came in the mail a few weeks ago but I've had to hide them to keep her from "working" in them. She is so excited. This is all new territory to me because I've never had one this excited about doing school work before. Also, I've never homeschooled a girl before and I've heard that is VERY different.

While summer is by far my favorite season, I really do like the newness that a new school year entails. It will be nice to get everyone back in a routine. I'm trying my best to catch up on/ get a lot of things done this week to get ready for everyone to start on Monday. I'm also going put Facebook down for awhile to make sure I stay engaged an on task while the kids are doing school work. It's amazing how easy it is to get lost in the virtual lives of other people on there!

Everyone has new daily schedules and I'm really interested to see how well those work out. I know there will be some adjustments to be made, but I know everyone does much better and gets so many more things done on a schedule. The biggest hurdle for me is sticking to it. I can't say I always follow through on things well in my personal life. I guess it's a bit of laziness, but either way I have to be mindful of that.

 I've been getting a lot of planning materials from Confessions of  a Homeschooler. If you homeschool and haven't been to her site you should definitely check out it. I've used her daily schedule of activities and adapted it to fit us. 

I love how she does her color coded scheduling. It speaks to the OCD in me. She also has Daily Learning Notebooks for younger kids that help with calendar awareness, time, weather etc... The things on her site has been a big bonus to what we do every day. 

Next, I want do a big post on all of our curriculum. I feel like we've tried so many different kinds and it can be a challenge to find out what works for your child. I'm really happy with the things we've chosen so far and I can't wait to tell you about it. 

Happy Friday!

Goals

There is something about January that I love. I think it's the fresh start, clean slate idea that a new year brings. I'm not a big fan of resolutions, but it does always encourage me to evaluate and create some goals. I'm a box checker. I love being able to make a list and check something off after I've done it. One of my favorite blogs Biblical Homemaking, frequently lists goals of hers. She is a homeschooling momma of 6, and so I feel like we have a lot of the same goals. Sometimes it's weekly and sometime every few months, but I love how she reevaluates every so often. She has a great format for her goals that include Do, Read, Learn, Be. 

So, for my first (and hopefully more frequent) post of the new year I wanted to lay out some of my goals.

//do//

• wake up by 7am and get things together before the kids get up and around. 
• start our school day with bible time and memory work
• wash, fold and put away 1 load of laundry per day
• plan meals for the week and start prepping by 10am each day
• organize the coat closet and linen closet upstairs
• exercise at least 30 minutes each day- we also start p90x this week

//read//

• our church is reading the Bible through this year, so I want to stay caught up on that
• read another chapter in 'Give them Grace' and answer the question at the end (This is an amazing book by the way)

//learn//

• listen to the sermon 'How to Kill Sin Part 1' by John Piper

//be//

• be more gracious with my kids and a better example of the grace that Christ gives us
• show more patience and love when disciplining 

I'm so excited to have goals written down and be ready to start the week. One of the reasons I'm back on the blog is because of the laptop my brother gave me for Christmas. We have a desktop computer downstairs, but I never wanted to stay down there and blog after everyone went to bed. Now, I can blog from our bedroom at night! It's good to be back--I hope I can make this more of a weekly thing. 

I'm also participating in A Bowl Full of Lemons 14 week organizing challenge. I've already done several areas of our house, but I can't wait to get everything decluttered and cleaned out.

Our Days

Having 4 kids six and under is challenging. Some days challenging is an understatement, others I feel like I actually might have things together. One of those days happened recently. The baby slept, I was able to get out my camera and document some of this...I felt renewed.

We have been having some really nice days in Arkansas lately. It's still warm enough to enjoy being outside but not totally hot. One afternoon we decided to take school outside on a blanket in the back yard. 

Jackson works so much better when he's not being forced to sit down. If he can stand, hop, lay down, basically anything to keep from sitting completely still, he is much better off. 

We had a major victory this week. Jackson read for the first time! At the advice of a friend we ordered a set of Bob books. These are a set of 12 easy readers. They start off with a couple of book containing only 3 letters. We've been working on letter sounds for several weeks and I really wanted to see if he could apply that in a practical way. He did great! He read two of the books. It was slow but he was so proud of himself. I got to watch that light bulb come in inside of him. He gained a lot of confidence in himself too. 

It is the coolest thing to be able to watch your kid, especially one that has struggled, get something.

It gave me a renewed sense of purpose when it comes to homeschooling. It's amazing how God does things like that. I think it was the day before that I had a mini breakdown to Jordan about being a horrible parent/ teacher, our kids aren't going to learn anything kind of deal. Those are hard moments, especially when you know God has called you to do this but you totally feel inadequate. 

I also think it's God's way to get me to depend on him. He brings me to situations where I know I can't continue on without Him. It's pretty cool to sit back and watch how it has unfolded now that I'm on the other side of it.