Yes, I admit that I have fallen WAY behind on my blog. Homeschooling may come naturally to my children and me, but apparently organization of schedules does not. After taking care of my family and the house, fall cleaning (I don't do spring cleaning), and picking up a second student for homeschooling, I don't have much time left for myself, let alone to blog about the day. Now that we are 9 weeks in, I'm pretty sure that we have some sort of a routine going, and I can finally really start in on my blog.
My son has been doing extremely well in his schooling, and didn't take much to get started. He picks up on everything naturally, which is a huge relief. I was concerned that I would have to fight with him on doing his school work or actually remembering things, but he soaks it all in and begs for more. He's even learning things on his own... Things that I haven't even gotten around to teaching him yet, like counting to 13 (we've mastered 1 to 10, and I was planning on teaching him one number at a time from there). He flies through his work every day, and sometimes so much that I have to ask him to slow down and take his time.
All in all he is a wonderful student, and apparently a great influence on his younger sisters, seeing as I just started our 4 year old in Kindergarten right along with him. When I would write numbers, letters, shapes, or use colors on the white board and ask him what they were, she would answer for him quite a few times. She was writing her name and various letters and numbers on the kids' Magna-Doodle, and drawing shapes as well. Whenever I would get her clothes out for the day, she would tell me what color the clothes were. I decided that since she was learning everything that my son was, I'd start her in schooling as well. She is taking to it just like my son, and our school days are flying by.
My 2 year old has been influenced by the older ones as well. She can count from 1 to 3, knows a few letters and colors, and can hand me a crayon showing what all of our favorite colors are (mine, my son's, my oldest daughter's, and her own). Homeschooling seems to be very beneficial for the whole family, not just the parent and the student at the time.
I do have some new issues to work on. My baby (9 months old) has already started to crawl, stand, and cruise along the furniture. Since she has started doing that, she can get to the kids' worksheets when we pile them on the computer table after completion, and she also stands at my side and whines until I pick her up (seemingly just so she can rip apart my teaching supplies, LOL). I need to figure out how to occupy her during school time so she can be happy and the older kids can focus on their work. All it takes to keep my 2 year old occupied is a coloring book, but all I'd expect from the baby would be bitten crayons or colorful walls. I'll get it all in time I'm sure.
My hopes of getting a second desk to avoid having to use the dining room table were ruined, but we are chugging right along anyways. My son's plastic desk got broken by the kids standing on it while I was out of the room, and I couldn't get a hold of the school district to see if they had any old desks for sale, so I moved the dining room table to the middle of the room, and we will be using that until I can get some desks.
As for time of my own... I still don't have any white spaces on my imaginary daily planner. I just can't seem to find a spare minute between cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, teaching, and other random things. If I think that I may have 15 minutes to relax, one of the kids spills something and I have to get out the steam cleaner, the kids start wrestling and someone gets hurt, or something else random happens. I know it will come in time, but I'm a bit impatient to find the time that I used to have. I know in my heart that it is all worth it, though. The look of delight on the kids' faces when they finally grasp a difficult concept is all the thanks that I will ever need for all of the extra that I am doing right now.
Time to go get something to eat... I have a habit of forgetting to feed myself (not a bad thing since I need to diet anyways, LOL). I hope everyone has a wonderful day.
"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." ~ Ben Sweetland
Babies can be a challenge. In my case, my two-year old is a big challenge for me. Today she scribbled on the door, threw playdough and ceramic dishes everywhere, and generally was incredibly distracting and demanding. As a result, I did not finish with my son's homeschooling until 9:30 PM! Ah well, tomorrow is a new day and hopefully things will go more smoothly.
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