Big Picture Recap

From time to time, I like to pull back, and review why we are homeschooling, and what we want to nurture in this whole thing.  I like to have my husband go over stuff with me, so that he can give me a birds eye view of what he sees, calm me down in some of my myopic meanderings, and encourage me on in some of the things we need to work on as a team.

I have re-read our homeschool philosophy, and it still inspires me to keep moving forward, so here we go moving into our third year of education at home.  This year our oldest will be working year 3, our middle will be working year 1 and our youngest will be working his way through pre-k at a local preschool.   One of the things we will be doing this year, is waking the kids with an alarm.  That and they will be given their chore list on small dry erase board, that they can keep in their rooms and check off each morning. It will have this written at the top. ” Have these tasks done and be ready for school at a ___________am.” I have got to ween them off of me constantly reminding them to do their chores.  This puts the responsibility in their hands as part of their work.  On an added note, this is not something I pay them for.  I don’t get paid to do the laundry, we are a family and work as a team.  I understand wanting to teach kids the value of working to earn money and how to manage that wisely, but doing standard family chores is not how our kids are going to get that.  I will write about what we are doing in another post.  This one is already long enough. Geesh.

• brush teeth
• use fluoride
• put away tooth brushes etc.
• wash face and hands
• get dressed in clothes OTHER THEN WHAT YOU WORE YESTERDAY.  Think color, you know mix it up for Pete sake!
• make bed
• straiten room and put away pj’s (strip beds and wash linens on Mondays)
• wipe down counter and mirror in the bathroom. (Chloe)
• Take out bathroom trash (Hudson)
• CAREFULLY open bedroom and bathroom window blinds to let in the morning light. (Jackson)

I am creating a spiral bound copy work book for the older two, that they can do directly in the book.  That way I don’t have to store tons of loose leaf paper, and our oldest will take over reading 50% of his course work and be working towards fully reading it all by  the end of the year.  This is the year that parents traditionally transition their child into reading a portion of their own course work in AO even though it will be a bit of a challenge,  I need to free my time up to focus on our middle.

One of the new things that we have been blessed with this year is a co-op in our local area. Our oldest will be taking a few classes there, and getting a “school vibe” complete with lunch and study hall.  He is very excited. They will continue with their Saints PE co-op and swim team has been added in to the mix too, along with children’s choir and a few other things. With all of this, we will be more then busy in the afternoons.  Which brings me back to point one, setting alarm to start our day.  I have to get all core work in by lunch time, or we won’t get it in.  I hear it all the time.  Homeshooled children are not socially competent.  Don’t they get bored?  Do they interact with kids their age at all? etc. etc.  Let me tell you people, there are so many things for these kids to do, that if I am not careful, I will never get the core work in.

So, here we go again, for another fun, at times frustrating, and grueling yet rewarding, always challenging yet gentle and nurturing, relationship building year of educating our kids at home.  I had a major boost when a dear friend who has three grown kids tell me that if she had to do it over again, she would of homeschooled.

Grace and Peace to all those Mama’s getting it done, whatever way they can.