Goals

Last week was not a great one when it comes to schooling.  Too many things got sandwiched in our schedule and threw our momentum off.  Lucy didn't nap well.  Lili didn't want to do school with us, and didn't seem to like the fact that Izzy needed my attention for some learning time.  The house was quite unkept.  Dinners haphazard.  I scratched my cornea and spent a good day and a half teary eyed, in pain, and half blind.  But, despite 'failures' there were a lot of successes.  We had fun, we spent time together, I modeled baby care taking, I baked with my children (this is hard for me to do! I like to control my kitchen!), we spent time outside, and Izzy finally learned to ride a bike (she has had a very real, yet irrational fear of bikes all her life and lacked coordination- so we thought- to pedal.  All the sudden she just hopped on and now its hard to get her off!)

I'm hoping to have some of the same successes as we live life together as a family this week, but perhaps with a little more intentionality in a few areas.  I'm also making a few curriculum adjustments.  So, I'm writing down a few goals.  I'm told it makes it more real that way!

1)  Read more.  Silent reading time, me reading aloud, whatever it takes.  We need to have more reading time.

2)  Less phonics.  I know there are different camps out there of phonics vs sight reading.  We have tried some in depth phonics work and its not going well and I'm not finding it helpful to the overall experience.  So, we are skipping those portions and most assessments in our CLE reading.

3) More comprehension building activities.  Izzy reads well, above grade level.  However, she often sees the trees and not the forest when it comes to comprehension.  We are going to do frequent small 2-4 paragraph reads with a few quick comprehension questions to build this skill.

4) Intentional time with Lili and Lucy while Izzy works independently.  They need it.  Izzy needs to learn to be more independent in her learning.  It will do wonders for everyone.

5)  Have Izzy plan some 'spirit week' fun days for the coming month to keep it fun and exciting around here (one thing she misses about public school)

6)  Intentional evening time.  I don't want to stop being mom and teacher after dinner just because I'm tired.  I want to be intentional of how we can be spending that time together instead of always shuffling them to play areas by themselves while I crash on the couch.


Here's to a wonderful, blessed, God-honoring, intentional week!

Weekly Wrap Up: Getting into a Groove

We have (almost) completed our third week of homeschooling.  This week's theme was finding our groove.  It was about trying to establish a 'new normal' in our routine, fitting in our fall activities, and focusing on intentional influencing of the hearts and minds of our girls.  Here are a few things we experienced this week:

Our first writing lessons with WriteShop Primary!  This was the curriculum I was most excited about, partly because I was not pleased with the writing pedagogy in public school.  We have done the first 3 lessons (out of 8) and Izzy has done very well.  Her attitude towards writing has already improved.  It requires a lot of hands on from me through guided writing, but I see a boost in her confidence so it is worth it!

Math was focused on reviewing time and learning money.  New common core standards do not introduce money until 3rd grade so this was new for her beyond earning quarters for chores.  We worked on adding money together.  A time and money workbook was a great find from goodwill and dollar store play money were awesome tools to keep learning fun.  We have a few more 'catch up' things to learn (fractions and standard measurement) before we start CLE Math 200.  Common core put her behind the  grade for most curriculums.

Reading was a bust. Really struggling to like our CLE reading.  The stories are ok, and I do appreciate the life lessons. However, the phonic studies are over the top in depth and the story review questions lack application.  Having to fill a lot of my own, which is requiring more time on my part (hard with a 3 year old and 9 month old underfoot).  I have a progeny press book I will be pulling out when we finish this light unit (want to give the CLE a fair shot at the start).  Any other good reading curriculums out there that focus heavily on comprehension?

In Bible explored Noah's ark and Abraham this week making button rainbows as our craft.  We are learning what it means to trust God (memory verse Proverbs 3:4).  Loving all the online resources for color pages and activity sheets for various bible story.  Just google the story and there's a plethora for all ages.

In art last week we did primary color paintings, and today we learned about secondary colors using food coloring and water.  I'm enjoying the easy lessons in How to Teach Art to Children.  Simple, quick, age appropriate, and I can pick activities that suit my kids best for now.

Lucy has done her own learning by figuring out the art of emptying a drawer and climbing the stairs.  At 8.5 months, I'll consider her gifted and talented for now :)

With a great week under our belt- we are off on a surprise 'field trip' to enjoy open gym at our local gymnastics company- For the Kidz.  Meeting some homeschool cousins and jumping around for 2 hours sounds like a recipe for fun!

My favorite school item of the week- The Whiteboard!  Picked up this large beauty at ReStore for Habitat for Humanity for $35.  It has been priceless for math review, guided writing, and letter practice for Liliana.

Lamenting

Today is the first day of school for most in Michigan. The past week I have found myself dealing with small waves of mourning and questioning our decision to homeschool.

I saw parents and students flock 'our' elementary school eager for meeting teachers and touring the new improvements to the building.

I saw families out and about over the weekend, making memories and celebrating the end of summer- as if once the clock struck 8 am this morning all of those fond times will soon be a distant memory.

I hear the eagerness (and relief) in many mom's voices over the thought of some well deserved peace and quiet while their kids were away.

I see the neighborhood children gathering at the end of the driveway with their shiny new shoes and sparkling backpacks, with a little sleep in their eyes, board the bus that will take them to their next 'year' of life.

I have been witness to so much transition and cannot help but lament what we are missing, even though I know its trivial in comparison to what we are gaining. I am sad to miss out on those first day butterflies. It is weird to see empty lunch boxes on the top shelf of my cupboard. I have a strange emptiness not being there for those traditional rites of passage. Playground adventures. New Friends. Donuts with Dad. Muffins with Mom. Fundraisers (ok, maybe not that one!).

With the lament comes fear of judgement. Now my neighbors will know something is different. There is one less little girl at the bus stop. The children are outside playing at 10 am. What if they judge us?

I think in the end it is mourning the known. It is a desire to stay in the zone of what is expected. It is a wish for the safety net of 'what everyone else does'.

Change is not easy (especially when it means 'sacrificing' 6 hours of peace and quiet) and it can require time to go through the grieving process. But, thankfully, I have peace knowing that what is on the other side could be even better than what we are missing out on.

Our First Week

I participated in the Hip Homeschool Hop!

We did it!  We successfully completed our first week of homeschooling!  While it was a lighter load academically (we are slowly adding subjects), it was still full of SUCCESS and LEARNING CURVES.

SUCCESSES:

• We had fun learning together!
• Everyone had a great attitude for most of the time!
• We learned something!
• We got better at it!
• Izzy was able to communicate without getting emotional or shutting down her need for quiet space in order to complete the math assignment I gave her!
• Our home is still organized and peaceful!
• Our new chore system is working wonders! (I'll do a post about that someday soon)
• Intentionality in everything we say and do has increased!

LEARNING CURVES (aka challenges we need to work through):

• Utilizing baby's nap for the most hands-on teaching that needs to happen
• Keeping 3 year old occupied and happy through the times I need to focus on big sister's learning.
• Strategic breaks
• Lunch- seriously have lack of desire to make lunches.  Strongly dislike having to 'plan' this extra meal.  How do I make this easier?

Here is a little picture tour of our first week!

Two digit adding and regrouping

Handwriting with Scripture

Letter A

Silent Reading

Reading Comprehension

Days 1-3 of Creation Mobile

First Day of Homeschool- EVER!

I desired to ease into our first year of homeschooling and provide a couple weeks of review/catch up to get Izzy to needed skill level for curriculum so we started school today! (By law, public schools in Michigan don't start until after Labor Day).  We are only adding a couple subjects at a time so no one is overwhelmed.  Our first day included:
Pictures!

Izzy is 7 years old starting 2nd grade!

Liliana is 3 and doing PreK work!

Baby was napping :) But here was a pic from her first day of 'school'...because she's part of the family and adorable after all!

Lucy is 8 months and SO BIG!

We prayed, read aloud, went over new chore chart, and did Calendar time.
Then we filled out first day of school fun sheets (From the Life in Bloom chic and savvy homeschool planner- free download!!!).

Lili's loves the color green and mac & cheese.

Izzy loves pizza and playing uno.

While Izzy worked on some basic addition facts to get the cobwebs out, Lili worked on coloring the letter A, learned about the color red, and identified/drew circles.

Izzy and I then reviewed place value for math using legos as manipulatives.  Then she independently did the first two days worth of handwriting lessons in A Reason For Handwriting.

Our subjects for our first week are calendar, handwriting, and math.  We were done in less than an hour.  I'm pleased with our first day and the excitement the girls had.  Liliana was sad her first day was 'done'.  Perhaps if the next couple of days go well I will bravely add more subjects at a faster pace.

My heart is happy and full!

Joining in on the student photo blog hop at ihomeschool!