Love my eraser!

Today, I am thankful for my eraser.  That may sound crazy but for a list-making, compulsive Type-A, rule-follower like me, this is HUGE!  One of the many lessons I learned over the past three years on this homeschool ride, is to use pencil when making my lessons plans. YEP! You read that right -- it's a wonderful piece of advice that has saved me hours of "itchy teeth" (my description for something that really bothers me).  ANYWAY...... Today was a day that I had penciled in quite a few activities and nothing went according to plan.

To start, my kiddo had cross country practice at 7am and it lasted until 830am. After we arrived at home, we had breakfast  and then it was off to the dentist for his 6 month check up.  Our Principal (aka Dad) had a couple of doctor appointments today but had time to go with us to lunch. So, we took him up on his invite and trudged across town to our local Mellow Mushroom to eat at 1974 prices. TODAY only!! Woo hoo! I love a good bargain.

Once we finally got home, all of us were too tired to start school. Kiddo did make it to the school room and completed his required 30 minutes of vision therapy exercises. During that time, I just moved all the activities I had planned to Friday and conveniently erased it from today!!!

That's what I love about this freedom I have allowed for myself.  FLEXIBILITY, FAMILY, FUN and FREEDOM and of course there is learning through life lessons in there too!

Tomorrow is another day and Kiddo will go to his morning STEM classes. I am sure this will not be the last time I get to use my little pink friend during our school year.

I'm not saying this is the right way to do things, but this is how this momma homeschools!

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

This and that

Kiddo has been doing a great job of getting his work done lately. I "borrowed" a friend's daily checklist (with her permission) and tweaked it to show Kiddo what he has to get done each day. He is in charge of marking off what has been completed and it is up to him to check with me to see if there is anything to do in each of the categories.

It's been nice to have him take some ownership and I think it motivates him to mark things off and see his list shrinking. Ooppss! I may have passed that list making gene down to him!!

We are scaling down as we will be integrating school when we go over the river and through the woods to grandma's house for Thanksgiving. We are making a couple of overnight stops there and back to historic areas of the country. Kiddo is excited because he will get to visit forts and complete work to earn Jr Ranger Badges at the national parks! He is so excited, I may have to develop patches for Math,  Writing, etc.

That's the beauty of homeschooling in that everywhere and everything is a school room. In some cases, like our upcoming trip, it's easier and more defined as an educational experience. But, remember a trip to the grocery store can be just as informative or taking them to shop when they have to spend their own money is an even better "life lesson."

Tweaking (not to be confused with twerking - that's a whole different subject and I am not even sure what it is) and Flexibility are my two favorite words this year. That along with writing in my agenda with pencil has been, oh so FREEING!!!  It's the little things that make this momma happy and it's why I homeschool!