We're Back......sort of....

We started almost 2 weeks ago but I have been lax in taking the obligatory beginning of the year photo or even posting about our return to our home classroom complete with new books, papers, pencils and all the normal "school" flair.  My original intent was that we would school through the summer so there would be no actual "First Day of School," rather "a constant progression of learning with frequent breaks" was more my plan. But I should have learned by now in my many years of revolving around on planet Earth -- Paula doesn't always get her way.

I digress and shift back a couple of month. It started on Saturday morning April 19th when I received a frantic early morning text then a phone call from my mother. My brother was in ICU after emergency brain surgery and was clinging to life on a ventilator. She had suffered through the wee hours of the morning without calling because she didn't want to bother me. OY VEY!!! Anyway, the world shifted upside down and we can began a very hectic ride on a very unpleasant roller coaster.

Suffice it to say, I basically moved to the hospital located 45 minutes away to wait with my mother around the clock until we got some direction from the doctors. During that time we prayed and waited. All the while, schooling stopped for us and my kiddo was shipped off to wonderful families that were willing to take him into their homes while hubby and I held vigil with my family. Two weeks passed on with this ordeal and my brother was deemed to have no brain activity. He never regained consciousness and we had to honor his advanced directive and remove him from life support. SIGH!!!  As very blessed side note, he was an organ donor and his gift saved the lives of three people.

The following weeks were spent planning a funeral, dealing with grieving, caring for his minor children and establishing some sense of normalcy in our lives. As a result of his death, his minor children were placed into the custody of my mother. In order to help her out, we took my nephew with us for a month. Not that we were in the mood or frame of mind to school, but it was very hard to attempt to school with my nephew here. He attends public school and in his mind, he was on vacation and also in a period of mourning.  Rightfully so! Plus, none of us had the emotional energy to "buckle down." So, we enjoyed ourselves and tried to make him as happy as possible with the passing of his dad.

A couple of weeks later, hubby came down with something and to this day he is seeing doctor after doctor to try and figure it out. So, here we are!! April came in like a LION and kept roaring all through the summer and it still purring pretty loudly in August.

I must say that we have been doing a pretty good job of getting some school work done and my star pupil has stepped up this year. Hard to believe he is in the 5th grade. It is amazing how independent he can be when I get out of the way!!

I tested him all the first week using Hewitt Homeschooling PASS testing to give me a benchmark. The second week (last week), we started our curriculum but I haven't added everything in just yet. We are taking BIG baby steps (how's that for an oxymoron?) and biting off big pieces but not shoveling in the whole thing.

Here's the line up for us this year:

• My Father's World - Rome to Reformation
• Math U See
• IEW - Writing
• Winston Grammar (which he enjoys  -- really, he loves to do this program)
• Phonetic Zoo
• Rosetta Stone (Spanish)
• Handwriting without Tears (general cursive review)
• SKrafty - Minecraft Classes
• STEM classes weekly with our homeschool group 
• Cross Country Team
• Stroke School in preparation for the swim team

I am sure I am forgetting something and you know what? -- That's okay!! I've had a lot on my plate and it's completely understandable. I am giving myself permission to just roll with it this year and take it literally one day at a time! I know God is Good - all the time -- All the time -- God is Good!! 

Hope everyone has a blessed school year!! 

Taking it a day at a time,

Paula

We survived our first day!

We made it! We did it!! Self-back-pats all around!!! The official first day of our 4th grade homeschool year is behind us!! My kiddo and I made it through unscathed but slightly scared!! I didn't realize how much work we have to cover this year!!

A couple of weeks ago, I made the lesson plans for the first couple of weeks and boy did I overbook us. I must admit, it could be part attitude and timing that makes me feel shell-shocked today! We just returned late Saturday night from a Caribbean vacation where we completely unplugged. In my effort to get ahead, I did not factor in my sluggish attitude when I enthusiastically scheduled our first weeks of schooling. Ironically, it was more my attitude than my kiddo. He said several times throughout the day, how much he was liking it. Not sure if that was a caffeine-deprived hallucination that I was suffering or if he really liked it.

As I reflect back on our day, I must give him credit that he kept a great attitude,  he really did seem to be enjoying most of what we did and he adapted well to the our new curriculum choices for the year. The lesson I learned today is this -- don't allow yourself to come back from vacation and be out of French Vanilla Cappuccino K-cups!! It's made for a rough day for me! The kiddo on the other hand is giving today a "thumbs up."

Planning for a better day tomorrow with caffeine and all! (And no I didn't write that in my planner - but maybe I should!!!)  Dinner is in the crock pot, the laundry from 8 days of paradise is washing and drying and I think it's time I made a run to the store to pick up that much needed caffeine for tomorrow's lessons. At least, that's how this momma is going to make it through homeschool tomorrow!!

Almost ready

I find myself getting really excited with the new school year. I have friends that have already started back this year. I love seeing the pictures and reading Facebook posts about their adventures. We are starting a little late as we have a weeklong vacation approaching and we didn't want to conflict with our flow. So, we decided to start the end of the month once we return from a week of relaxing and family bonding.

I sat down a couple of nights ago  and finally planned out the first couple weeks of learning. I only planned that far for a couple of reasons. First, I typically only plan a couple of weeks out so as not put pressure on myself and allow a little wiggle room. Second, I am a little compulsive and abhor eraser marks in my planner - lol. So, by planning shorter periods of time, I have less erasing and less of a chance of me having to rewrite the entire thing. Seriously, I NEED HELP - lol! Finally, we are using new curriculum this year and to be honest, not sure how they will work time-wise. This will allow me a couple of weeks to determine how our daily flow will go and when and where I need to tweak our workload.

I feel much better now that I have my planning done. The last of our curriculum arrived in the mail today.  I have stocked up on school supplies while they are cheap - whether we need them or not!! My planner is ready to go, along with all calendar dates marked with our classes and confirmed field trips.
So, freeing for me.

This year we are using the following curriculum. It is subject to change just as it did last year, but that's the freedom of doing what we do! LOVE IT!

• My Father's World - Creation to the Greeks (Bible, History, Geography, light Science)
• Math U See - Math (new to us this year)
• IEW -  Writing (new to us this year)
• Fix It Grammar - Grammar (new to us this year)
• Phonetic Zoo - Spelling (new to us this year)
• STEM class (one day per week) - Science
• Awana - (additional Bible)
• Home Art Studio - Art
• Rosetta Stone- Spanish (this we will start a little later once we get the flow of IEW & MUS in our schedule) 
• Handwriting without Tears - Cursive -- going to work through this pretty quick and then incorporate the techniques with our writing and project assignments
• Computer Programming and Robotics Class (1x per week each) - one of kiddo's favorites!!

Looks like a lot but, most of it works well together or so far that's the way it appears.  Looking forward to putting all this to use and see if my planning skills are on target. If not, then that's okay!! Flexibility is the key to how this momma homeschools. 

Help! My homeschool room is hidden!

Summer is in full swing here at our house!! We are in the process of transforming hubby's old office in our new homeschool room. Well, "in the process" may be a bit of a stretch because as I type, the room has become the Bermuda triangle of stuff we don't know what to do with for the entire house. Ironically, the room in which hubby now inhabits as his home office once was the delegated land for storing items we weren't ready to part with at the time.

Thus my dilemma, as I am not sure where to start. The analogy about eating an elephant one bite at a time definitely applies here.  I would like to say that I hold hubby responsible as he has old office items in there but in reality, it the general household collection. These so-called bites are totally up to me and the boy to start working on and not poor ol' hubs!

I tarry and type blog posts or work on other items as I really don't want to even start dealing with that room. But as with all things, it can't be ignored forever and it surely isn't going away on its own.  The shocker is that when I started filing the room with junk several months ago, I felt I had plenty of time to get this cleared and organized before the start of our new school year. Well, the school year is breathing down my neck along with my incomplete lesson plans. The positive way to look at is is that I  now have a junk room with a classroom hidden down deep. Just need to start digging!

Sounds like the kiddo and I need to pull up our sleeves and get in there and start to cleaning and de-cluttering. Once that is over, then the organizing and requisite trips to IKEA can ensue.

I just pray we don't get sucked into the triangle never to be seen again! LOL  On the bright side, I am sure there is a lesson in there somewhere! At least that's how this momma homeschools!  (Wish me luck!)

Give Me a Break - getting started again!

Here I am, heading into my 3rd year on this homeschool adventure!! Each year as the school year seems to wind down and we get to the end of the pages in curriculum, I make a vow to myself and to my kiddo that we are not going to stop schooling. I have these grandiose plans to school year round with a lighter workload in the summer months. I have figments of fun math activities to solidify facts and the completion of science projects delegated to the back burner dancing in my head!! But, as soon as the summer months hit, we fill it will VBS, summer camps, vacations, play dates and family visits!!

I must say that the shock of my broken vow didn't hit me until I went to my local super center the other day and to my dismay, the school supplies are appearing on the shelf. To the average child, this is a major no-no but to me, it is just a glaring reminder of how I haven't been able to keep myself on task to keep my kiddo on task.  After a little talk with myself and a nice piece of chocolate, I realize that the beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility of it all!

So, now that I that I feel better and understand that he and I can pick up right where we left off or start some place completely different. There is no right or wrong way to get started or better yet start again!

I came up with 5 steps to get me back into the groove and get this homeschool party started, quickly! Well, not too quickly because now that I look at our calendar all those plans I had need to wait until Mid-August.


Step 1: Look over all of your curriculum to make sure you have the topics you want covered. For instance, I have My Father's World, Math U See etc... Do a cursory look to make sure you have the items that will be needed such as books, manipulatives. If not, this is a perfect time to check with your local homeschool group, friends, stores and online to purchase or look at borrowing the items that will be needed. I have found waiting too close to the actual start of the school year causes a back log and often times out of stock situation.

Step 2: Don't plan too far ahead with those lesson plans. Getting started in your school year is stressful enough with sitting down to plan out 32-36 weeks of work at any given time. It's a good idea to know what you want to accomplish and/or topics you want to cover, but to be regimented to have every day and week accounted for at the beginning of your school year is just a pretty heady course! Even for those curriculums that have it spelled out daily for you, include some latitude to make room for change, supplements or even diversions!

Step 3: When it's time for the lesson plans, make a basic plan for your week without specific work at this time. Include all the subjects you want to cover, as well as outside obligations. For instance, I know that on Monday and Thursday, my kiddo has classes outside the home. I go ahead and plug those into my schedule so that when I do sit down to do my lesson plans, I can account for those out of pocket times.  I then move to write down the subjects we are planning to cover. I give a cursory look over the year and try to decide what we will realistically cover in a day with the given time I have allotted daily for "school."

Step 4: Make time in the year for field trips and enrichment activities to compliment your studies plus also to allow you and your child to grow in your learning and experiences, even it is not directly related to your studies. For instance, helping sort food at the church food pantry, singing Christmas carols at a local retirement home, or attending a Valentine's party hosted by your homeschool group can all be valuable in the growth and education of your child and family.

Step 5: Cut yourself some slack! Sticking to a rigid agenda will do more harm than good in my book. At least this has been my experience. Try to give yourself some "wiggle room" to be able to adjust your plans if needed. I still have a paper agenda that I keep and write in pencil just so I am not so "locked in" with pen. My OCD would require that anything written in pen and crossed out to be completely redone!! But I digress!! I have other friends that use online/electronic planners and then there is a whole set that don't use anything and make it up as they go along.

Getting started is always the hardest for me! My kiddo follows my lead and if I am enjoying this homeschool adventure, then so will he! (Well, for the most part!!) My attitude is just as important as his. After all, he isn't just paying attention when we are "doing school." This momma's always teaching and my kiddo's watching, even when I don't realize it!