The learning continues

Our goal for this school year was to remain focused enough to be finished with most of our course work by the time the baby arrives.  The girls have been so diligent. We have worked through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and will continue through our studies during Spring Break.  It has taken some real discipline ...but we keep reminding each other that a Summer Break that begins in April is worth the extra effort!!

As we go along, I find myself growing in confidence as a teacher.  I am less reliant upon our workbooks, textbooks and curriculum in general.  Instead, I am finding that the best progress and learning seems to take place without much help from me at all.  I am amazed at their ability to learn things for themselves.  Given living books (history, literature) and brief lessons (math, spelling, grammar) their minds are growing day by day.

All that said, we do have structure.  I cannot live without some of it.  We generally get up, eat breakfast, do chores and begin school around 9am. Each week I provide the girls with an assignment sheet (just a little chart that I created in excel) that shows them what their daily assignments are. It helps all of us to keep track of where we are in our lessons and to stay on task. Plus, the girls love checking things off their lists! I sort of float between all three girls during the morning work.  A math lesson with one, then onto a grammar lesson with another.  This has taken some practice. The girls have had to work at not interrupting each other and keeping busy when I am working with someone else. Lunch is usually around 11:30 and then we wrap up with history and literature (done as a group). On a well-flowing day we finish between 1 and 2pm.

We have been spending more time outdoors. The fresh air is fabulous. It
is wonderful to put the books away and spend some good
quality time enjoying and appreciating the beauty around us. We've even
been taking a picnic once a week or so.  I generally bring along the sketch
books and watercolors and send them off in search of something to
observe and sketch. We've been playing little nature games like:  "Find
a leaf that you think is interesting. While I hide my eyes, you bring
it here and set it on this bench.  Then, when everyone has their leaf,
you will take turns describing your leaf to me with the most detail
possible.  I will then look at the leaves carefully and try to guess
which one belongs to each of you."  Most times they don't even realize
that they are practicing narration! 

I am still happy doing what we are doing. The girls are happy to continue at home too. We all gloat a little when the school bus passes by in the morning (we are still in our pajamas eating a warm breakfast) and in the afternoon (when we have the park entirely to ourselves). There are definitely days
that are more difficult than others.  I am learning not to stress if we
miss a lesson or if we need a week of review.  The scope of learning is
so much bigger than our little block of "school time" each day. By my estimation, the girls are at least one full grade ahead where they are "supposed" to be.  So far, what whatever we are doing is working and we are having fun too.

 

Almost done. Six more weeks.

cleaning up

Cleaning out every closet, organizing every cluttered drawer, rearranging to make room for another little person in our home. The way I see it, I am better able to "nest" at 6 1/2 months pregnant than I will be at 9 1/2 months pregnant.  The belly seems to be growing at an exponential rate and I have a feeling that it is going to get extreme. Mobility may become an issue :)

I remember last year, between January and March, the enthusiasm and inspiration towards our lessons lacked.  In order to avoid that slump this year, I have spent a great deal of time re-organizing our school room.  Surfaces de-cluttered, curriculum re-structured, schedules re-committed.

I even added a wall of color.  The winter gray was getting the best of me. I don't love it...but at least it isn't beige.  Thanks to zero VOC paint, I did that all on my own.  Yep, up and down the ladder dozens of times.

 

I refreshed and rotated some of the art supplies.  Little hands found them and put them to use immediately.

It feels so good to have things clean and simple. Once I wade through all the mess I always think to myself, "why do you allow the chaos to take over? It is so time-saving to have things put away where they can be found." 

We've been doing some revamping in other areas as well:

The budget

Our Diet (watch this instantly on netflix)

How are you starting fresh in 2010?

some self talk

I want to be completely honest.  Homeschooling is a lot of work.  Work isn't really even a good descriptive word.  "Work" implies a bit of drudgery.  It makes me think of something monotonous and unpleasant.  I wouldn't call it any of those things.  I will say that it is time consuming.  Like, really time consuming.

     

One of my friends asked me the other day, "So when you are teaching the girls their lessons do you just sort of ignore the phone and the laundry and stuff?" She was asking because she is doing some pre-school work with her 4 year old son. She was trying to figure out how to balance it all. My answer: yes. There is a portion of my day that is devoted solely to schooling (usually from 9am-2pm), whatever remains after that is when all the other issues of home-managing are addressed (ie. phone calls, emails, dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning...need I go on- you all know what I am talking about).  Some days, that portion of time is but a few hours.  

Where am I going with this?  The truth is, with baby #4 on the way I have already begun to feel a little overwhelmed. I am entirely in touch with reality this time around. Sometimes I think a little ignorance would be blissful. But being that I am feeling a little "seasoned" at this mothering gig- the logical questions I have asked myself are: "What will have to change?"  "Can I really do all of this"  "Could I simultaneously nurse AND make homemade hand-dipped candles for a project in history relating to the medieval times?" "Is there enough of me to go around in this capacity?" "WHY, AGAIN, ARE WE DOING THIS?"

This post (lovely blog!) brought it all back to me.  It helped me so much.  I wanted to share it with all of you that are homeschooling or may be considering it.  It really sort of encapsulates my thoughts of the "why" of homeschooling for us. This one helped too. And while you are there, you might as well read this one as wel.  So freeing. I went back and read my own thoughts when we were first starting out.  And before long other little reasons (our own family's reasons- not saying that homeschooling is right for every family) started cropping up.

Including reason # 493...

Pumpkin cookies and cocoa in our slippers,

sometime between math and spelling.

I'm gonna slip in some other reasons as I recognize them from time to time.  Just to remind myself- we are doing this.  We are doing it day by day.  It is working and I'd like to think that it will continue.

Thanks for indulging me in a little self-talk.

By the way, I have already decided that pumpkin cookies totally count as a vegetable!