Swamped

A homeschool blog that I follow, Latter-day Homeschooling, has a post that asks homeschooling moms to share their schedules. It's always nice to hear different ideas on how different families organize their days. I always need it because it's inspirational. And I'm planning on linking this to the site. Not because I think my schedule is amazing. It's not. I'm not even following it. It's because our lives are swamped right now, yet we're doing what we need to do. And I'm sure we're not the only family out there who is swamped. So...this is for those moms who are swamped and might feel guilty about how organized others are when life just isn't allowing you to be organized yet.

It's okay! That's where I am, too!

I have a 6yo, a 4yo, and a 2yo, so I feel blessed that our schooling doesn't have to be rigorous right now while life is swamped. We can just stick to the basics and encourage learning in anything the kids are interested in and that's fine! It always amazes me how often the kids choose to do something academic when they are not pushed to do it.

We started our school year in the middle of August because public school starts then, too. I've decided to do 6 week sessions with 6 weeks on and 1 week off. We just do "school work" Mon-Thurs with a break on Friday. I started the first 6 weeks following a routine schedule (I'm not ready to go by the clock...I enjoy my freedom too much!)...breakfast, KidSchool/devotional, family work, lunch, quiet time/reading, project time, dinner. On school days, they are not allowed to watch TV and I occasionally allow them to play an "educational" computer game. If they get bored, I encourage them to do a learning activity or work.

But life happens. My husband's work schedule has been very erratic lately (he just started a business last January and has his practice open for patients on different days to keep operating costs down). He's great at doing educational things with the kids, but he's not the best at following a routine schedule. So, my routine schedule has mostly gone out the window. :) (It hasn't helped that we've had unexpected company, sickness, new demanding church callings, and always working to boost business.)

That's okay. The kids are still learning. Mainly, I have felt the need to teach them more about family work. So that has been one of our foci (plural for focus, right?). Mon and Thurs are laundry days, Wed is clean-the-house day, Tues is errands (generally). Fri is daily basics, and oddly, they often want to do an art project or play an educational game on Fridays! If only we didn't have so much housework to do! (Maybe I need to re-think the amount of work we do every day...to free up time for school?)

Amazingly, my 6yo has made a significant jump in his reading skills just in the last week (yea for having him read his own verse during family scripture study!). We still make regular visits to the library, which always results in bringing many books home. The kids have adjusted well to no TV on school days, and it does really create that boredom vacuum where they choose to do something educational (and to me, a 6yo following a complicated Lego instruction booklet for a couple of hours each day for a week to complete a Lego design is educational...it stretched his concentration, problem solving skills, matching, patterns, etc) . The 6yo started 4H and is really excited about that. The 4yo and 6yo begin soccer tomorrow. We participate in a weekly Adventure group where we attend a museum, go to a park, or a lake with other homeschool families.

And just feeding the natural curiosity of a child helps them learn. I answer their questions, and let them play (I try hard not to interrupt it...if I need to, I wait until the play-harmony is gone, then I step in). The other day, they watched The Restoration video and then went outside, rearranged some rocks in our backyard, and searched for the Golden Plates. At the very least, my busy-ness allows them ample opportunities to play. And when I listen to their play, I can hear them grow in their understanding of the world around them. And, oddly, I'm at peace with how their education is going right now.

Gettin Organized

With the start of a new school year comes the itch to not only figure out some curriculum, but also to GET ORGANIZED! Ahhh. It always feels so good to organize a little. But it didn't turn out as I planned. This was my plan: toys in the closet, school toys in the armoire (so I could put a child lock on it and theoretically only allow the children access to those items at certain times of the day. It's The Closet idea taken from TJed families, best explained on this blog.).

My 4yo did not like the idea of me moving his toys out of the armoire. So, after tears, settling down, and sincere "please," I changed it around. School toys, science projects, learning games, puppets, art supplies, Legos are now in their closet and the toys are back where they once were. And none of it looks as good now as it did then. :) At least the kids pick up after themselves!

As I was working on that, I decided to act on an idea I've had for months...to get another book shelf in our Living Room and use some of the shelves for homeschooling supplies. During some of my several back-to-school shopping runs to Target (I just love their $1 Spot at school time for inexpensive workbooks, games, and books), I luckily ran into some darling storage things that were actually in my price range (aka, almost free. j/k but under $5)!

before

after

I just love how it turned out! The left bookshelf houses a lot of our family albums, pictures, and scrapbooks. The middle bookshelf is full of fiction and non-fiction. The right bookshelf is mainly dedicated to piano books on the bottom, curriculum and school journals in the middle, markers and colored pencils up high, and the baskets hold art supplies (paint, playdough, etc) that just need to stay out of the reach of my toddler.

For once, we have bookshelves with a little bit of room for decoration! (Not to mention the 3 boxes of books out in the garage that could maybe use a place for display in the home.) But I hope to be buying more books this year, so some of that decoration space will get filled up with books. And that's fine!