Last night was the first night Aaron and I were both able to go to church together on Wed. night. I took the boys last week and they both did great even though it starts at bedtime. Madelyn had a stomach ache, so since mom wasn't going, we dropped her off there and off we went. We finally found our age group and have been attending class with them the last 2 weeks.
I love it!
School is going good. We didn't get as in depth with the Civil War as I would have liked since many of our books didn't get here until we were almost done with it. Now we are talking reconstruction and the westward movement. I already have movies coming with Netflix that deal with this. Netfilx is a great homeschooling resource.
I have come up with a new plan for our homeschooling schedule, which I hope will work better. Normally, I love to get our school done early in the morning. #1 the kids are more alert and not starting to get sleepy. #2, I like to have stuff done, not looming over my head.
However, I can't always have what I want. It is SOOO stressful to try to do 4 things at once. #1 work with a 5th grader, #2 work with a 4th grader, #3 work with a 2nd grader, and #4 keep the boys safe and out of trouble.
The last two days, I didn't even attempt to start school in the morning. We had errands to run, so I just did them as soon as everyone was up and had eaten breakfast. The boys go to bed anywhere between 11:30 and 1pm for their naps, depending on what time they got up. If Ethan gets up late, I just give him one nap instead of 2.
As soon as the boys were in bed, I did all of my reading to the girls. Then we started on their workbooks. Doing it this way, takes about 2-3 hours, give or take some time. I told the girls "no breaks"
Good thing is, school can be done without interruption. Bad thing is, no nap for me.
I am so proud of my girls. They all love to read.
I almost gave up on that happening. It was so hard to teach the girls to read. I think that has been the most frustrating part of homeschooling. So hard. But it has paid off. Madelyn and Natalie stay up reading by flashlight almost every night. Hannah has been starting to read alone too, bringing me the books when she can't figure a word out.
Last Friday, I had to take all 5 kids to our 3 hour coop. Whew! I need a double stroller! There is a room off the gym that is a "cafeteria" type space for eating and for parents to sit if just waiting. We stayed in there the entire time. Seth did good for a 20 month old cooped up in a room for 3 hours. He enjoyed watching the gym classes and was funny because when the high school class was stretching he was copying them. However, it was torture for him whenever they played with balls. He is obsessed with balls and constantly talks about them and wants to hold them no matter what they really are (watermelons, tomatoes, oranges, beaded necklaces etc.) Ethan did well to, but crawled all over the nasty floor.
Next time I have to take all the kids, I am going to take the playpen. I know, one more thing to carry in and it will be a pain to do, but it will keep Ethan off the floor for 3 hours picking up every germ that walks through there and putting it in his mouth. I am hoping that he will be content in the playpen with all the activity going on.
Aaron is off tomorrow, so one of us will stay home with the boys and the other one will go to coop to sit and wait for the girls. Not sure who will do what yet.
Soccer is almost in full swing. We have practice tonight from 4-6:30. The girls are on 3 separate teams this year. Again. Normally, every other year, Madelyn and Natalie are on the same team. However, they changed things up this year and that puts them in a different age group. So it will be busy until the first week in November. But it is fun too.
No comments:
Post a Comment