I feel like we are off to a pretty good start this school year and we are settling into a routine.
The hardest part for me about home schooling and the part I like the LEAST is the juggling act of wearing both the hat of mom and the hat of teacher. The kids don’t understand that my making them do a subject they don’t like doesn’t make me a mean mom, it makes me their teacher.
And so a new year begins… this morning was our first day back at the tutorial. I can’t believe it marks our 6th year of homeschooling. What a blessing this community had been to our family. Here we are starting 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grades!
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
I feel like the month of August is much like the 9th month of pregnancy. I go into crazy nesting mode as I gear up for another school year. There is the ordering of curriculum… then the purchasing of school supplies… then the organizing of the binders… and cracking open that homeschool cabinet which ALWAYS turns into the junk closet over the summer. Ya know, the “Company is coming and I need a place to hide all these papers and misc junk from the kitchen counters,” place….
Gah! It seems MORE than a month has gone by since I last updated the ol’ blog. What a time it was too. The whirlwind of the end of the school year. Last week we had our last day at the tutorial followed by their year end assembly. Wahoo!!! All those snow days we kept our nose to the grind stone are paying off now baby! I was so proud as I watched them get up front and recite all of the things they had memorized.
This year in History we are studying American History from the explorers to the war on 1812. I love history. It is my favorite part of home schooling. And I am so grateful that we live within driving distance of so many great historical sites. I really wanted to take the kids to Philadelphia for a day trip over spring break. Scott graciously rearranged his work schedule so that he could join us.
This week I took my girls on a field trip with their classmates from our tutorial. We visited a Science Center run by the local school system. The kids learned how to observe the world around them and record those observations. They studied bugs and wild life found in our area as well as learned about camouflage and even played a game to reinforce the concept.
They got to use almost all of their senses.
When we switched out history curriculum this year so that the whole family studies the same period of history (with varying level of work catered to their age level), one of the reasons I was MOST excited was that our field trips would be applicable to all. When our tutorial gave off for Presidents Day, I was eager to take advantage of the day free of book work to go on a field trip.
My own paraphrase of a very busy 30 minute period of time here at the circus on our first day back at school at home, based on the “If you give a….” book series. There is no embellishment here. This is how it really went down at the circus house this morning.
If you give a mom a minute, she’ll sneak a peak at facebook.
And when she sneaks a peak at facebook, she’ll see one of her friends posted a crock pot recipe.
I haven’t had time to really update the blog lately. In fact, I have found my days to be quite full now that we are in full swing with our school and extra curricular activities. Bursting at the seams full. But, I have whipped the camera out a few times, so I decided today to download them and at least try to preserve some memories of everyday life around here.
Because our homeschool tutorial meets on a Mon-Thurs schedule and the board doesn’t like to start the year on a partial week, we are THE LAST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD (or so it feels like) to start back to school. But, today we finally had our turn for the morning poses on the front step.
Another school year is upon us. We had an EPIC summer. One for the record books… and I while I didn’t tackle every project on my summer to do list, we are starting the year off a little more organized than last year.