Blessings From Home

Homeschooling More than One Child

I know there are many of you homeschooling moms out there who are homeschooling more than one child, in fact I know a few of you homeschooling several children in several grade levels all at once. My question for you my friends is, how do you do it?

I find myself so overwhelmed teaching just one. I don't have enough hours in the day as it is it seems. And with my Maddy (age 6 in May) getting so excited over the prospect of mommy being her teacher after she finishes this school year and the overwhelming duty of teaching Nick(7) already, not to mention, my active little Emily (3 in April), I'm just wondering how I'm going to do it?

Now don't get me wrong, I want to do it! I can't wait to homeschool all 3 of my children. I'm just a little intimidated is all. With my oldest 2 being so close in age and so young, they'll both require a lot of my time in a one on one manner. I've looked into unit studies and although there are a lot of things I liked about them, I'm really liking the stability of my workbook curriculum. I wouldn't mind adding a little extra "fun" and different things to the mix, but to start off with, we need our stability. I'll have one child, Nick, going into 2nd grade curriculum, who is a very strong reader, and Maddy going into a first grade curriculum, who is just learning to read, and she is also my child who is smart, but likes to do things the hard way, and like I said, there's also my active almost 3 year old, who wants to be part of it all too.  So if you wonderful friends wouldn't mind sharing with me, how is it you homeschool so many children all at once?

Homeschool Schedule

Since I have quit babysitting, I have been thinking on our homeschool schedule. I was wondering when and how long you do school with your kids? Everybody is so different. We started off the year doing school first thing in the morning. And have moved onto doing it in the afternoons over the last few months. And while both are okay, I'm wondering if I shouldn't break up our time a little bit more. I always think we should sit there and get it all done at once, but it seems that we're both kinda cranky by the time we get through all that. So I'm thinking of breaking it up to a little before lunch and a little after lunch, or at least breaking up our time with a 15 minute break after so long. What do you all think? How do you do it?

What Curriculum?

I have been sitting here trying to figure out what I should continue to use for my son's curriculum. Now what I've been using is a mixture of Old fashioned education and whatever I can pull off the internet for free and so far, here's what I do and don't like about it.

Likes:

1. It's FREE! That ofcourse is the best part.

2. It's readily available on the web or to be printed out.

3. It's Bible-based and instills Godly values in every aspect.

4. It teaches Godly values instead of worldly values

5. And did I mention...it's FREE!

Dislikes:

1. Although the curriculum itself is free, It is taking an enormous amount of paper and ink to print out all of the curriculum. But even with that, it's still a lot cheaper than going out and buying all that we would need.

2. I'm not too fond of the math and science used. The math is CIMT and it's a good program, but is a little hard to explain at times and it uses metric measurement and pounds instead of dollars. And the science is just kind of boring.

3. Right now, we have no extra curricular. There are some things I would like to add, such as music and art that I haven't found a free online program I like.

So with all that said, my plan for now is to go and check out the Christian bookstore in the city and see what they have and price what I find. And maybe come do a search for things I like online for a cheaper price. I would like to go ahead and purchase the McGuffey Second Eclectic Reader, and possibly the spelling book. I am also going to look for some more hands on type things to work with.

The main thing is I don't want to spend a lot of money, I can't. So I will just continue to use what I have already found and add to it as I have the money for. One thing I will be saving for is a new printer. Preferably a laser printer. They run around 200 dollars for the cheaper ones, so it may take a while. So I guess that's my plan for now. Thanks for letting me work through this. Sometimes it's easier to make sense of it after you get it all written down.

Blessings,

Sara

Our First Day of School

Well, today was our first day of homeschool and how did we do?

Well, let's see....

~We were both excited to get started

~We started off with prayer and then Bible Study-I'm using Preperation for Christ- Year 1 Curriculum. We also did a daily devotion that we get through email from Keys for Kids. And then we sang a favorite hymn that I found here~ Hymns. All of that took us a little more than 30 minutes.

~I did some time talking about calender and had a handwriting sheet where he could practice writing his full name, the month, date, his birthday, address, and phone number.

~Then we moved onto math, which I learned was entirely too easy for him, so I will either be doubling up on what I've already got printed out or we may just go ahead and move up several lessons and see how he does with that. The math I used was from CIMT. The math took us about 30 minutes too.

~Then we did Language arts, where we reviewed Word Mastery, pg 65...we did McGuffey's reader, lesson 1, both of which can be found at Old Fashioned Education.  I introduced spelling words which I found here Spelling Lists. And we did a grammer sheet from here...SF Reading. And he did copywork using our memory verse for the week. 2 Timothy 3:16

~Then we did Literature. For literature I'm using the curriculum through Old Fashioned Education. We read a story out of Aesop's Fables, and we started reading a chapter out of Grimm's Fairytale Adventures.

~And lastly we did social studies, where we started a new book called High Roads to Geography. Another great find at OFE.

Then we took our lunch break. And after lunch I let him do a little craft project and he made a lantern out of construction paper. An oldie, but a goodie, and amazingly something he has yet to have done in PS.

Now what did I learn?  Well, I don't want to overdo it with too much, but I think I didn't have enough, and some of the stuff I did have was way too easy for him and I think bored him a little. So I think we will double up on the rest of the worksheets for math until we get to a point where things become a little more challenging for him. I really enjoyed our Bible study time just the way it was. Not too much, but not too little. The language arts was kind of boring to him as well, but he really needs the review. So we will continue on it as well. As far as the literature goes, the Aesop's fables are no more than a paragraph and the chapters of Grimm's fairy tales were no more than 5 pages long, so I think we'll read a chapter at a time, instead of the few pages we did today.

As for the rest of our day, he will spend about 30 minutes to an hour reading a chapter book out of the selection I gave him. And the rest of the time will be spent doing chores, or do we call those life skills? lol. His room is a disaster and we both have plenty of chores to catch up on. I'm not going to stress too much on the rest of the week, because more than anything I want to work on making this a daily habit and getting used to the new routine. I'll share more of our week as we go along. Thanks for coming along for the journey with us.

Blessings,

Sara

Feeling a bit nervous

Now don't get me wrong, I feel truly blessed to be allowed this time to homeschool my son, and pray daily that everything will work out fine and our enthusiasm will not be short lived. But I have to admit, I feel a little nervous about this. I can't really pinpoint the reason why. I spent hours today and yesterday getting everything ready to start tomorrow...part of that was because our curriculum is completely free online, which means a lot of printing, but it's what we have to do right now...but the other part was me sitting here fretting over the minute details. Details that I know aren't that important, but the perfectionist in me can't help but worry if I'm getting everything right.

We're starting kind of on easy stuff for both of our benefit so that we can get used to everything, and my husband has asked that we HS year around so that he can stay on top of things and that we can stay on a schooling routine. My son's 7 and is in 2nd grade, but we're starting with 1st grade math, and with the curriculum I've chosen, for now anyways, there is a lot of reading. I know I will probably relax a bunch after our first day tomorrow, and even more as the week progresses, but for now, I'm just worried I won't do something right or I'll forget something. I know that all sounds silly, because who is the best person to teach your child, but his own mother. I guess it's just hard getting used to something when you've never been around it , but prayerfully, HSing will become the norm before too long. Thanks for listening to my rambling.

Blessings,

Sara

I had a bad day....

I'm so upset. I had such a bad day. It started off with a woman from a message board I've been on for a long time telling me I was too overprotective and that I need to let my son do things on his own and I was holding him back and not letting him experience life. Then I took my son to the doctor this afternoon and left in tears. The doctor told me that his nausea could have something to do with too much acid, and the anxiety problem only makes it worse. I told her that my husband and I have decided to take him out of school and homeschool him. She said that it was an absolutely horrible idea and that if I did that I would only be hurting him and just making his anxiety worse because I wasn't forcing him to deal with the issues at hand. She gave me a prescription acid reducer and sent me on my way.

Then when I got home, my mom and dad were waiting at my house to be there in case I didn't make it home in time to meet my daughter's bus, and they asked what the doctor said, I told them what she said and how bad it confused and upset me, and next thing I hear is my mom bribing my son, telling him that for every day that he goes to school without crying this next week, she would buy him a prize.

Then after my husband got home and I told him all that happened to me today, he said that we would send him to school tomorrow and make him deal with it if that's what the dr says. I was heartbroken and so was my son. I feel so helpless, I just want to sit here and cry and cry. None of these people who are against me homeschooling will be here with me in the morning when I have to drag him to school.

All this, and my car died on me five times today, once in an intersection. I was paying a bill and had to pay a dollar fee to pay it at this certain place and all I had was small change, dimes, nickels, and pennys, and as I walked up in line to pay the bill, I dropped all the change and it went everywhere. And now I have a migraine brewing. I don't like to be so negative, it just drags me down further...so on a positive note, I had enough money to pay all my bills on time this week and get groceries. Something that doesn't always happen.

Thank you all for your prayers and sweet words of encouragement. You are all such a blessing to me. I'm just not sure what to do anymore. I'm so confused. I though I was being a better mom for wanting to protect my children and not wanting to put them through so much stress, but it turns out, I'm a horrible person.

Blessings,
Sara

Change is on the Horizon

After the discussion with my husband last night about our son and school and what we should do, I wasn't sure what would happen. Would my son be okay and finish out the year, would he continue to get so upset nearly every day that he makes himself sick? I lied in bed thinking and worrying, and praying over this to the point I nearly got sick from it (so that's where he gets it).

Then this morning, I got up and woke my kids for breakfast, helped them get ready for school, my daughter got on the bus, then when it was time for me to walk my son over to school, I got up and said, ok let's go, time for school. Well, he burst into tears before we even made it out the door. I got frustrated and told him he had to go and he got worse and worse, and finally I started crying too and told him he could stay home and we would figure this out.

I got on the phone with my mother and she suggested I take him to the doctor, that maybe he needed some sort of anxiety meds. I told her that I would take him to the dr, but I would not have my 7 year old son on prescription downers just so he can cope with going to PS. But I do want to make sure he hasn't worried himself to the point of ulcers. After talking with her, I called my mother in law, mostly just to tell her what was going on, because she and I never agree on anything and she thinks I'm weird about the things that I do...making my own laundry soap, cloth diapering, etc...well after sharing the story with her, she said that if he's that upset then he shouldn't have to go to PS,  You mean she agrees with me! She didn't know much about homeschool and worried about socialization, etc and I told her between the many siblings and cousins he has, to cubscouts, to tball, to church, that he would have plenty of socialization. She asked me if I could handle this, and I said, well ofcourse...I've raised him this far, haven't I?

Then it was time for my husband to come home for lunch. How would he handle it? I told him what happened this morning and that I had even talked to his mother and she and I actually agreed on something! He was as shocked as I was. He started asking questions about what we would have to do? Would DHS always be knocking at our door? Would we have somebody checking on how well we're doing with HSing? Will we have to buy an expensive curriculum? And I was able to answer most of his questions and assured him I would have more info when he returned home this evening. 

But before my husband went back to work,  I had to go over to my son's school to pick up his homework. I wanted to make sure he got it done just in case he had to go back even temporarily, and also because I don't have anything prepared for him anyways. I walked in, they sent me to his classroom, and his teacher was so rude to me...The conversation went something like this.

me: Hi, I'm here to pick up Nicholas' homework.

teacher: So, what, is it stomach problems or what? (in a very rude tone)

me: Yeah, we're really not sure what's going on yet, but he's got a dr's appt tomorrow morning

teacher: So, he's not going to be here tomorrow either? (Again, note the rude tone)

me: No, my husband and I really want to make sure that he's ok and we don't feel comfortable leaving him at school sobbing and so upset like he has been. We need to figure out what's best for him.

teacher: oh, okay, fine. here's his work.

About this time I walk past what I assume is my son's desk, as the first and last name were his, except for the first name was spelled wrong, and the teacher had apparently written it.

me: Is this Nicholas' desk?

teacher: yes

me: I wasn't sure since his first name is spelled wrong. (she spelled it nicolas and yes, that is a note of sarcasm in my voice)

teacher: (without looking at the desk) well that's the name I have on the roster

me: well that's not the way I spelled it when I enrolled him.

teacher: ( now looking at the desk and the roster) oh, I guess I forgot the H

End of conversation. I got home and told my husband about it and said maybe that was God showing me a sign in neon lights. He agreed and said, what do we need to do to homeschool?

So guess what that means? I finally get to homeschool my children!!! One thing we will do, is let our daughter who really is happy in school right now and who's teacher is a dear friend of mine, finish out the year and after that, she will be home with us too! I am so elated! Now, I'm frantically trying to figure out what I have to do next. Thanks to all of you who are always so encouraging to me. I told my son, he gets to be homeschooled and he was so happy! Now I guess the homeschooling journey begins.

Final Homeschool Decision For Now

We had a great summer with our trial run of homeschool. The kids and I learned so much, not only from learning from books, but also from each other.  I think that we can honestly handle homeschooling on a daily basis, however, I left the final decision to my husband....he was impressed with what the kids had learned but he asked that we wait one more year to really think about it. Although I didn't like the decision, I will accept it. I discussed with him that I didn't like the direction our son has been heading and that he is at an age of high influence, and that if we saw that PS was doing him more harm than good, that we should consider withdrawing him immediately.  He agreed wholeheartedly. My son has not become a terror by any means, but I've seen a subtle change in him, his attitude is different, the way he acts is different. Some of it, I know, is he is getting older, and not needing to depend on me as much, but the change I see is not one I like. He tends to be more hateful and rude to his sister which really upsets me. I think he is spending too much time with my oldest niece who is not a great influence, but I'm not sure what to do about that since I babysit them all the time. I guess I just need to be with them all the time, no more letting them run up to his room to do what they will. I plan on taking an active role in the kid's schooling. No, I'm not going to be homeroom mom, or PTO mom, but I am going to be a part of what they are learning. Something I have not totally done in the past. I'm going to do more than ask, what did you do today, or do you have homework? In addition we will have a daily family Bible time, either in the morning during breakfast or before bed. So for now, I am going to continue to pray on this decision, and God's will for our lives. I know that if it is meant for us to homeschool, God will lead us there. Thanks for following along in our journey so far.

Blessings,

Sara

Taking the First Step

I've been diligently working on taking the first step towards homeschooling my children and now that the public school year is over, I can finally begin. One set back has been that my printer has gone caput, and I don't have the money right now to purchase a new one. This poses a problem because I have decided to use almost all free public domain books off of the internet, so for now, I am going to go to my public library to see what the cost per page is there...not sure what else to do for now. I am going to start this week with getting into the habit of sitting down to "school" about the same time, which for now will be about 9am. At that time we will start by doing our devotionals, reading our bible stories, and possibly doing a hymn. Next week I may try and add something new, but we're taking this slow for now.

My husband has really began to jump on board here lately. He's never really been against HSing, just unsure of it. This is new territory for both of us. I didn't even know what HSing was until I was in high school. He's really been seeing what I had been talking about for so long about some of the other children that our kids go to school with, and he's even seen how it effects our children directly. Like our son trying to imitate his "friend's" actions. He definately got cut off at the pass!

As far as my fear of what others will think, I've decided that I'm going to just have to learn to let what others say and think roll off of my back. They're not living our lives, so if dh and I want to HS, then by all means we'll do it. One thing that has helped me to practice this is as of recently I started trying to wear only dresses and when I buy anything for my daughters or myself, I will only buy dresses. I've gotten several comments from friends and family members, and I just told them this was a choice that I made. I'm not hurting them by doing it, so why do they care. All I know is that I see, and so does my dh, how much the world is changing around us. It's so scary, and although I know I can't completely shield my children from the bad things in the world, I know that I would like the chance to try. I can't tell you all how much prayer has helped me in this. It's like God said, ok, here's your backbone, now use it. Thanks again to all of you for all of your encouragement. You have been such a blessing.

How did you introduce homeschooling to your kids and family?

With all this talk of homeschooling on my mind, I thought I would ask you all first...how did you tell your family about your decision to homeschool and second what were some of the ways you introduced homeschooling to your children? Did you just say, ok kids tomorrow, I'm going to start teaching you or did you just sort of ease into it? Also what were some things you did to prepare for homeschooling? I know curriculum is up there at the top but after that what did you all do? Did you make a schedule? Did you set up a special area in your home to homeschool? Thanks for any advice!

Homeschooling Decisions...Part 2

First of all thanks to all of you that left me such uplifting and encouraging comments about my homeschooling decisions. For those that don't understand why I can let my children go to public school when I have seen first hand some of the things that have gone on their, please understand that this is all new to me. Although I have prayed on this, and feel that God has led me to learn more about homeschooling and even try it out with my own children, I am not completely ready to jump in headfirst...yet. We have made so many changes in our lives over the past year that it is scary for me to think about throwing out another hurdle for us to jump. That's why I made the decision to start off by homeschooling "part-time". And you know, by summer's end, we may be ready to jump that hurdle and commit full time to homeschooling and I pray that we will do it with a happy heart and without worry about what everyone else thinks.

Something else I would like to add is that in all honesty...what scared me about public school the most wasn't the teachers, it was the students. I worked with 4 and 5 year olds. The things I saw some of them do and say put a lot of fear into my heart as to what these children would become as they got older. Now I'm not saying that all the children were that way, but so many of them have no respect not only for the adults in their lifes, but for their peers. That's what scared me the most. One incident that happened to one of my children personally was my son got bitten by a fellow first grader...And don't think I didn't march right up there and make one heck of commotion. But like I have said, I am just not ready to jump in...yet. Just give me time and lots of prayer and I believe we will get their soon.

Homeschooling Decisions

If you have been reading my blog, you probably know how much I would love to be homeschooling my children. What's stopping me? Well a few things...

1-what will everyone think? I know, a lame excuse, what should matter is what my dh and I think, but still it's a roadblock I am facing.

2-the fact that I just dropped out of college where I was going to be a special needs teacher. A long story to explain my change of heart, but after working in the PS system for about 4 months, my eyes were opened. Another what will they think issue. 

3-my kids are happy. Right now, anyways, they are thoroughly happy in public school. And there are no behavior problems reflecting things they might have learned in PS from teachers and/or students.

So my decision about homeschooling is that I have chosen to homeschool them "part time". Meaning...They will be homeschooled during the summer, on breaks, and supplemented daily with things I think that they need such as bible study, creation science, and life skills until such time that I see a problem with my kids being in PS or that they become unhappy with PS, or even if they think learning with mom is more fun at which time I will happily withdraw them from PS. Until that happens, I will be working through my personal issues of worrying about what everyone thinks and remembering that all that matters is that I have prayed on this and I know that God will lead me as I go and that my dh is right by my side and accepts my decisions as his own.