Week 25
This past summer I was blessed beyond measure with the opportunity to participate in an online Homeschool Convention. There are conventions held in lots of places across the nation, but the reality for me is that I can never go. So it was a real blessing to get to listen to so many inspirational homeschool curriculum creators, and mentors, and faith builders. One of the sessions I chose to listen to was with Dave Stotts. If you are not familiar with Drive Thru History, I encourage you to look it up and give it a try. It has always been one of my favorite curriculum choices and now that the children are older it has become one of their favorites. One of the things I took away from this session with Mr. Stotts was the acronym KEYS. I am using this information to help my family through this season where we seem completely overwhelmed.
K- Know your season
E- Evaluate and adapt
Y- Yes to Your best way
S- Surrender your life to the Lord
I know we are in the season of busy lives, with children trying to stretch their wings and find their passions. We have done some seriously hard evaluating and adapting since January 1. I am trying my best to encourage the children, and myself, to be ok with what is our best. I am also prayerfully seeking the Lord's help to surrender everything to His timing and to what His calling is for me personally.
Since Jan. 1, we have successfully made all but one of the changes I mentioned in our New Year's post. We have been getting dirty and working hard outside with Nature Study time. I have gotten the STEM class moved to our WMA and been working with a great guy there on building some interesting classes. We have started back with P.E. Logan has started back in therapy. We have had a read aloud almost every night, we are almost finished with The Magician's Nephew the first book in "The Chronicles of Narnia." We have also had several read aloud times during our school day. So, the only thing left to add is our Science Lab days. Hopefully soon we can add that in to our schedule.
This week, we still did not get much book work done. However, I've been homeschooling long enough that I really no longer panic about this. It happens. The children also continue to learn and to grow. We can always make it up by going a few extra days in the summer when it is too hot to do anything else. I don't like it, but I'm able to adjust. The "teacher" part of me still likes to finish complete curriculum packages by May...but the "mom" part of me realizes these moments will never come back, so I cherish getting to spend time with them while they are here.
Monday- Home Ec. Morning...we did a little bit of everything this morning from changing sheets on beds, to catching up with laundry and chores. We also had a little Agri crisis when I went outside to throw some scraps out and found two huge hawks having a mid morning snack of our chickens. We got them ran off, one really did not want to leave, and we got the chickens all back to the safety of their pen. We had a late brunch, then headed down to school. We got in Math, Language, and Science. Lillian added Mars to her solar system. All the children are enjoying having computer time again in school without having to share computers. Logan worked on some research for his Literature class. Savannah did some science experiments with crazy machines. Lillian worked on Spelling. Monday night was music, we had to leave early because we had an early morning coming up.
Tuesday we went to Little Rock. We needed to pick up some medical supplies from the hospital and Logan also had his appointment to pick up his new prosthetic leg. The leg fits so much better! We also talked with our long time prosthetic/brace guy about a brace possibly for Logan's scoliosis. We are still working on deciding what is best with this question. Papa went with us, we all enjoy it so much when he can go with us. Tuesday evening a friend came over to get a bunny. We have one more that needs to find a new home.
Wednesday we had our Nature Study time. We planted 54 white oak trees on Papa's farm. It was hard work, but it was good work. We were thankful for the tractor to help with the digging! We felt good, we enjoyed it, it was fun! Savannah loves streams, so on her break time she went to the stream. We also got to see an owl, pretty close! After lunch we headed to therapy. During therapy time each child took an extracurricular survey, to help us make some choices. After Logan was called back, Lillian did a little on her dyslexia work and Savannah worked on her book report of Fanny Crosby. We did not go to youth or kids club. We did get something put together to help keep our instruments out of the floor.
Thursday we had a full day of classroom work and just enjoying getting to stay home! In the morning we went over the survey results from Wednesday. We decided that Kid's Club and Youth were not one of our favorite things. They all enjoy it, they have a great time, but it makes Wednesday really long and they really have not made any new friends. They admit that they feel a little lonely and awkward there, so we will attend a few more this year, but it is not something we will continue or stress about if we miss it. They all also expressed interest in learning some new things, Logan wants to concentrate more on robotics, trap, and archery. Savannah wants to concentrate on archery, sewing, coding, and a self defense class. Lillian wants to concentrate more on art, horseback riding, and she is interested in taking Karate. After the results were talked about, we dived into our subjects. We worked on language, science, penmanship, history. We then had lunch, then back to school for PE, Math, and computer work. I also worked on setting up an account and getting the children signed up in a online coding class. Thursday evening we just enjoyed being at home.
Friday we ran and dropped off our books at the library. We went to therapy. After that, we came home and had lunch then headed to the farm. We were going to work cows, but decided to wait because of rain in the forecast. So we had riding lessons instead. Penny I think is going to work out good. She reminds me so much of the first horse I rode growing up. Afterwards the kids stayed with Meme and Papa for the night. Shane was exposed to quite a bit of Flu this week, the school he works at was shut down until next Wednesday because they have so many cases of it. So he went and got tested for the flu, since he was coughing like mad, but he came back negative. Thank goodness! This flu is getting pretty scary!
Today is Saturday. We are about to go pick up the kids. I was given instructions by them to wait until after lunch to pick them up this time. We usually pick them up after breakfast when they spend the night. This afternoon I am going to do some planning for next week and just rest, its a rainy day. I think it will be a good day to just get some chores done and rest.
God bless.
K- Know your season
E- Evaluate and adapt
Y- Yes to Your best way
S- Surrender your life to the Lord
I know we are in the season of busy lives, with children trying to stretch their wings and find their passions. We have done some seriously hard evaluating and adapting since January 1. I am trying my best to encourage the children, and myself, to be ok with what is our best. I am also prayerfully seeking the Lord's help to surrender everything to His timing and to what His calling is for me personally.
Since Jan. 1, we have successfully made all but one of the changes I mentioned in our New Year's post. We have been getting dirty and working hard outside with Nature Study time. I have gotten the STEM class moved to our WMA and been working with a great guy there on building some interesting classes. We have started back with P.E. Logan has started back in therapy. We have had a read aloud almost every night, we are almost finished with The Magician's Nephew the first book in "The Chronicles of Narnia." We have also had several read aloud times during our school day. So, the only thing left to add is our Science Lab days. Hopefully soon we can add that in to our schedule.
This week, we still did not get much book work done. However, I've been homeschooling long enough that I really no longer panic about this. It happens. The children also continue to learn and to grow. We can always make it up by going a few extra days in the summer when it is too hot to do anything else. I don't like it, but I'm able to adjust. The "teacher" part of me still likes to finish complete curriculum packages by May...but the "mom" part of me realizes these moments will never come back, so I cherish getting to spend time with them while they are here.
Monday- Home Ec. Morning...we did a little bit of everything this morning from changing sheets on beds, to catching up with laundry and chores. We also had a little Agri crisis when I went outside to throw some scraps out and found two huge hawks having a mid morning snack of our chickens. We got them ran off, one really did not want to leave, and we got the chickens all back to the safety of their pen. We had a late brunch, then headed down to school. We got in Math, Language, and Science. Lillian added Mars to her solar system. All the children are enjoying having computer time again in school without having to share computers. Logan worked on some research for his Literature class. Savannah did some science experiments with crazy machines. Lillian worked on Spelling. Monday night was music, we had to leave early because we had an early morning coming up.
Tuesday we went to Little Rock. We needed to pick up some medical supplies from the hospital and Logan also had his appointment to pick up his new prosthetic leg. The leg fits so much better! We also talked with our long time prosthetic/brace guy about a brace possibly for Logan's scoliosis. We are still working on deciding what is best with this question. Papa went with us, we all enjoy it so much when he can go with us. Tuesday evening a friend came over to get a bunny. We have one more that needs to find a new home.
Wednesday we had our Nature Study time. We planted 54 white oak trees on Papa's farm. It was hard work, but it was good work. We were thankful for the tractor to help with the digging! We felt good, we enjoyed it, it was fun! Savannah loves streams, so on her break time she went to the stream. We also got to see an owl, pretty close! After lunch we headed to therapy. During therapy time each child took an extracurricular survey, to help us make some choices. After Logan was called back, Lillian did a little on her dyslexia work and Savannah worked on her book report of Fanny Crosby. We did not go to youth or kids club. We did get something put together to help keep our instruments out of the floor.
Thursday we had a full day of classroom work and just enjoying getting to stay home! In the morning we went over the survey results from Wednesday. We decided that Kid's Club and Youth were not one of our favorite things. They all enjoy it, they have a great time, but it makes Wednesday really long and they really have not made any new friends. They admit that they feel a little lonely and awkward there, so we will attend a few more this year, but it is not something we will continue or stress about if we miss it. They all also expressed interest in learning some new things, Logan wants to concentrate more on robotics, trap, and archery. Savannah wants to concentrate on archery, sewing, coding, and a self defense class. Lillian wants to concentrate more on art, horseback riding, and she is interested in taking Karate. After the results were talked about, we dived into our subjects. We worked on language, science, penmanship, history. We then had lunch, then back to school for PE, Math, and computer work. I also worked on setting up an account and getting the children signed up in a online coding class. Thursday evening we just enjoyed being at home.
Friday we ran and dropped off our books at the library. We went to therapy. After that, we came home and had lunch then headed to the farm. We were going to work cows, but decided to wait because of rain in the forecast. So we had riding lessons instead. Penny I think is going to work out good. She reminds me so much of the first horse I rode growing up. Afterwards the kids stayed with Meme and Papa for the night. Shane was exposed to quite a bit of Flu this week, the school he works at was shut down until next Wednesday because they have so many cases of it. So he went and got tested for the flu, since he was coughing like mad, but he came back negative. Thank goodness! This flu is getting pretty scary!
Today is Saturday. We are about to go pick up the kids. I was given instructions by them to wait until after lunch to pick them up this time. We usually pick them up after breakfast when they spend the night. This afternoon I am going to do some planning for next week and just rest, its a rainy day. I think it will be a good day to just get some chores done and rest.
God bless.
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