Homeschool

Today was our first official day of homeschooling. I think everything went very smoothly, and I am excited to keep going! Here's our schoolroom:

We sit on the couch with lap desks when they are working with me, and they sit at the table for their individual work.  At least, that's the plan so far.  I can't wait to see how everything evolves and develops as we get going. 

One of the best things I've done so far is give myself a break. This is preschool and kindergarten; the most important thing is to give them a little structure and direction and foster a love of learning within a Biblical framework.  I have so many big ideas, and I want to incorporate so many elements, that I was just overwhelmed. Then I realized we can just start slowly, just a few activities a day, keep it light and fun, and we will slowly build momentum as we figure out what works best for our family. Once I took the pressure off, I started to get more enthusiastic as I dug into the planning. 

Texas is one of the best states for homeschooling. I don't even have to notify anybody, and if any authority asks, I just have to provide a letter stating that I am homeschooling and teaching my kids reading, writing, math, and good citizenship.  So I have complete freedom in how I structure and plan our lessons. For William, we have purchased a set of Abeka kindergarten curriculum. It gives me a good framework to work in, and I plan to modify and supplement to fit William's needs as we go. It includes some social studies and science type things that I will include Joy in as well. For Joy's letters and numbers, I plan to use the range of free preschool resources available on line.  I am starting very slowly with her, working on her attention span and cooperation as I figure out where she's out at and what we need to focus on. We will probably be doing a letter of the week type thing. For Elijah, I will let him listen and be involved as he wants to be, and plan a few simple activities now and then for him. I also filled a couple small drawstring bags with small toys and household items that are safe for him to explore, so if he gets restless and cranky, I can hand him a bag and let him investigate, swapping out new items every week or so.  I haven't had a chance to test that yet, so I'll let you know if it works well or not.

I have plotted out our calendar for the year, more of a year round type schedule with several long weekends, extra long Christmas break, and a week off every couple of months.  We will finish July 31 and have the month of August off before starting again in September. I've plotted the Abeka stuff in a planner for the whole year, and I will "fill in" the rest as we go, keeping a week or two ahead. 

I'm really glad we decided to start our circle time a week before our actual academics.  The first morning was a bit of a disaster. But we've improved on it a little everyday, and the kids are starting to enjoy it. I think their favorite part is checking the weather. We also do the good morning song, date, days of the week, and work on a memory verse.  We've also added some catechism questions from the new kids program at church. I'm trying to find more ways of getting them up and active to work off some of that morning energy. We do hand motions with almost everything we are memorizing.  Here is our bulletin board: 

My favorite find is that weather chart. I stumbled across the free template online, it was really easy to put together, and the kids love it. I love how it is teaching them to be more descriptive and use comparative terms.

We have our calendar separate. We haven't given it a permanent home yet. 

For our first day, Elijah left after circle time to go to the grocery store with Daddy, so I was able to focus on William and Joy. That was good to be able to establish how our routine will go. We kept it simple, light, and short. I worked with Joy and some alphabet flash cards while William completed a coloring sheet and practiced writing letters A to D. Then William and I did some letters and reading while Joy worked on tracing patterns. Our big project for the day was our first day of school posters. 

We finished with the Alphabet Monster Game.  This was actually in the lesson plans for tomorrow, but the kids saw the monster and were so excited to feed him, and we will probably do it again tomorrow. We have a magnet board with the alphabet magnets.  I named what the monster wanted to eat; William and Joy had to identify the letter it started with, find that letter on the board, and put it in the monsters mouth. I can't claim original idea, although I did slightly modify it, but it was a huge hit with William and Joy.

That was it for the first day.  As we progress, we will expand the morning with more individual work, mostly letters, numbers, math, and reading. I will spend extra time with William during nap time as needed, and art projects will happen in the afternoon, along with some science and social studies. Except on Wednesdays, we have story time at the library in the morning, so we will do our morning stuff in the afternoon. And we can be as flexible as we want to be with field trips or other activities going on in our lives.  I have determined there are no local homeschooling groups in Kyle, so I will have to start searching in surrounding cities to find the closest one.

As I was going through the Abeka curriculum, I was marveling at how much William will learn by the end of the school year, and I am so very excited that I get to be a part of it! Instead of seeing his progress on papers coming home from school, I will be there for every "Ah ha!" moment! And for Joy and Elijah, too.  I won't miss a moment, and I will know exactly what my kids are learning. Most importantly, I can work every moment on shaping and building their character to be God fearing men and woman.

Being Home

I think I can say with confidence now that I love being a stay at home mom. I have found a gentle rhythm in our daily routines, and it gives me immense satisfaction to cook and clean and care for my family. There is still not enough time in a day to get everything done, but I'm able to get enough done, and I'm learning to be satisfied with that.

I love all the time I have to spend in the kitchen. I'm working hard on our grocery budget right now with lots of meal planning. I'm also slowly working towards more healthy eating with more fruits and veggies and more food made from scratch. I'm even making sandwich bread, and it is delicious! I had a freezer cooking session a few nights ago (it was quite an emotional saga), and now my freezer is full of meals for the next few weeks. Of course, I also love to bake, so there have been plenty of goodies coming out of the kitchen, too. Moderation, right?

My biggest challenge (as I predicted) are the mornings.  I know that if I could get up before the kids, even by just 10 or 20 minutes, and have some time to myself to get going before the kids start tugging at me, then my day would almost surely start 100% better. But it's really hard to believe that when the alarm goes off in the morning, and I try to squeeze in every last minute of sleep until the kids drag me out of bed. It would help if I went to bed earlier, but there is always something to do after the kids go to bed: catch up on cleaning, auditing charts (I do about 10 a day), or homeschool planning. It would also help if I didn't let Elijah come to bed with us around 5 every morning (but it's really hard to get him back to sleep on his own at that time, and he is so warm and cozy!). I'm working hard to conquer this before we "officially" start school next week.

I won't talk about the homeschooling yet. That will be its own post sometime next week. For now, I'll just tell you that things are starting to come together, and I'm looking forward to our first day of school!

For my quiet time, I've been reading a chapter of Proverbs every morning. This morning, I finally landed on Proverbs 31.  I know it's cliché, but I truly want to be that Proverbs 31 woman. This is a woman of strength and passion; she works hard for her family.  Verse 27 is on my daily planner: "She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." And then there's verse 15: "She gets up while it is still dark"...yeah, that is one part I definitely need to work on.  But what struck me most in reading this passage today is the way the husband sees this wife.  He is proud of her; she does nothing but uplift and bring him honor.  He relies on her; he praises her.  God designed woman to be man's helper, and this Proverbs 31 woman has mastered that, and her husband is happy because of that and appreciates her.  She contributes to her family through physical work, financial profit, and wise counsel.  She does not fear for the future of her family because she works hard to provide for them, but also because she fears the Lord. There is the crux of what I'm striving for: a woman who clearly displays her trust in the Lord as she works everyday and is the main support for her husband.

I think it's time to pause in my quiet times, and dwell on these passages for a few days.  There is so much to pull from here, and so much to think on.  As life falls into place, and we are really getting settled here in Texas, this is our great chance to re-define the flow of our family.  I know I play an important role in that in how I treat my husband and my kids, and how I order my day. Even with less on my plate, life is still rolling by so fast, it's easy to lose track of the center of everything.

I love being home everyday, and I desperately need God to be the center of our home.

Lord, be with me in the mundane day to day.  Be my center, and keep my eyes focused on You.