Trying week

This week has not been the best. Owen and I are still struggling to find our groove. There are many times I feel totally inadequate and helpless in working with him. I always feared how homeschooling him would go because of our personalities. I guess it's because in many ways we are alike and that make us clash. There was a few times this week I had contemplated putting him in the car and taking him back to school. However this is so much more about the big picture, and the way I want to raise our children. I know a large part of this is about developing my children's character and it is very apparent this is where I need to start, I just wish I knew how. I have been praying a lot, hoping God will guide me in this.  Owen is such a wonderful kid, so sweet, smart and creative. I just wish I knew the best way to make him understand he is totally capable. I spend a good bit of our day arguing and trying to get him to just settle down and do his work. I get that the little ones are a distraction, but I am trying to find good activities to keep them occupied during the times I need to help him. Wednesday was awful, I spent most of the day in tears. Owen was angry, and while we are usually done by lunch time it took us until 3 to complete our work. I really wanted to just call it a day, but I worry if I do this he will push me continuously until we never accomplish anything. Thursday was much better, I spent the night reading parenting books and am actively trying to work on some issues. Today my DH decided to take Owen to work with him. I made up his binder with his work and sent him off with some relief. Wyatt and Pixie and I took the morning to shop for some craft supplies and then spent the rest of today crafting (more on this in a minute). When my DH called he said Owen did great, which I am glad, but I have to admit I was a little aggravated. I want this to work so badly, it hurt my feeling a bit.

This week I have been researching things to keep the kids entertained. I found tons of info online about busy bags, boxes, etc. So today Wyatt and Pixie and I went to AC Moore, and Dollar Tree to pick up some supplies to make some. Today we made some felt projects and I think they turned out awesome! I found a link on pinterest Here to make a felt pizza complete with little recipe cards. This is our finished project:

 

Since I have a wealth of craft material to use to make these kind of things it was pretty easy. It was fun finding what metal dies to use to make some of the shapes. Wyatt had fun making my request and can't wait to show his sister it when she wakes up. I also made some felt ice cream cones, and cupcakes, but I am still working on some of the embellishments. I am hoping some of these things keep them entertained so I can work with Owen. My other motive with these projects is for Pixie and church. Since she refuses to stay in grow zone at church and now doesn't want to sit in the service I need to find somehow to keep her quiet. Last week the coffee shop was filled up, so we sat in the lobby.  She started getting crazy and running around the sofa until she fell right into the wall. She was fine, but my bag of tricks was limited and it was not the best day there. We are not sure how to proceed with her, as we want to continue to go especially for the boys.

It's real now

Today I formally withdrew Owen from school. I had filed all the necessary paperwork on July 2nd and had attempted to withdraw him right away at the school. Since it is summer they operate on a skeleton crew and when I went there no one quite knew what to do.  I got busy, and just put it off, but school officially starts Monday so I had to get it done. In the back of my mind I felt somewhat safe thinking that if we can't do this he can just start school like normal. It's not what I wanted but it was there in my mind. I had my whole speech worked out in my head, justifying our decision. Not that I needed to I was just expecting some kind of questioning of our choice. I almost felt let down that I got nothing!

 It has been challenging working with Owen, I never understood the unschooling terms until I started working with him. Now I absolutely see why it is necessary and why I need to be more patient with him. When he was younger he was so confident and eager to learn. Somewhere that has been lost and I need to help him find it again.  I know this is the right path I just have to trust in God that he will help me with him.

The next few weeks we are studying North America, right now we are working with the state. It's been so long since I studied geography it has been interesting for me too. We are moving along with our math in MUS and Life of Fred. I have noticed Owen getting much quicker with his adding and subtracting which is great to see. We added in some grammar, using Easy Grammar, which Owen swears is not easy! We are also doing vocabulary working with compound words last week and prefixes and suffixes this week. AAS is going well, It is funny I dislike this so far, but Owen really seems to enjoy it. It is super easy right now, but the skills he is learning now will carry through the levels. He is getting super quick with alphabetizing, which took him forever before.

Wyatt and Pixie have enjoyed playing with these Lauri Tall-Stacker Uppercase.


These are great, Wyatt loves picking out letters and learning how to spell his name. Pixie enjoys putting the pegs in the letters. I will probably get the lowercase letters next since they are so durable and the kids enjoy them.

Wyatt and I also had some quiet time today to play a new game Richard Scary Busytown. We don't have much time with just us and I was surprised how good he did. He learned the directions very quickly and was even reminding me when I was not doing it right. He amazes me how smart he is and how quick he is to pick things up. We played twice and he can't wait to play again tomorrow when Pixie takes a nap. Well tomorrow is another day, hoping for some sunshine as it's been very wet here recently.

Week in review

As I type this all the kiddo's are still asleep. The dishwasher is running and I am sipping my coffee. It is peaceful! In a matter of minutes all sorts of noise and chaos will ensue and that is a guarantee. Lately I am struggling with finding my balance and I am sure that is not uncommon. My life is a little chaotic without throwing homeschool into the mix. My DH and I run a landscape business, which at first sounded like a wonderful idea! Almost 12 years into it I can say it consumes most of our lives. We are so blessed to have work, and have work so hard to be successful. Both he and I struggle with finding a way to balance work and still have a normal at home life. We both have to do lists a mile long, the only way I can keep sane is the kids come first. Everything else has to take a back seat for now.

We have had good and bad moments this week. The littles still prove to be the most challenging and love to drive Owen crazy while he is suppose to be working. The other challenge is keeping him on task. Which I have to laugh every time I say it now. All last year we received notes that "Owen will not stay on task". It annoyed me to no end because I had no idea what to do about it. Now with two little crazy kids vying for his attention I find myself constantly saying "Owen your not staying on task" Ugh, I so didn't want to hear myself saying that!

This week we continued working through our curriculum, still trying to decide about the spelling program. I want to go ahead and switch to something more challenging but know that even if it seems remedial it will help in the end. I think I am just board with it, Owen seems fine working through it. We were surprised by Wyatt this week, while working with compound words, he was able to help Owen quite a bit thinking of new examples. Monday I did a project with Wyatt making a toy train my Mom sent him. I was so impressed by his concentration and attention to the details. He did a great job, I spent most of my time cleaning paint off of Pixie.

One major accomplishments this week, I think Wyatt is pretty much potty trained : )! We have been trying unsuccessfully for years, only to decide to lay back on him and follow his lead. We have joked that Pixie was going to get there before Wyatt as she is very interested in the whole potty thing. If I don't see her she is usually sitting on top of the potty fully clothed saying "pee, pee". She screams bloody murder when I remove her. As tiny as she is I have no idea how she has not fallen in yet. Wyatt spent a few days with my mother in law who helped tremendously, I am so grateful for that. We are so proud of Wyatt, and I acknowledge that these battles will probably continue as he grows because he has always been in his own time. God has a plan for him I am sure!

We survived!

Our first week has gone fairly well. I realize I need to pray for more patience as three kids competing for my attention can get a little crazy! This week we introduced My Father's world (MFW), Math-u-see (MUS) and All about spelling (AAS). As the weeks go on I plan on incorporating writing, and a new vocabulary curriculum that looked promising, called Foundations by dynamic literacy. Owen is also continuing on with his life of fred math books also. We started the series earlier this summer and he really loves these. He is now on the third book and I love that he is enjoying reading as well as working with math. Since a good bit of this series is review for him I am also having him do MUS.

I was impressed that he by Friday he was able to tell me his bible verse by memory. He has enjoyed reviewing maps and locating new places on them. Most of the work right now has been oral, but the bit of writing has been met with a resistance. I don't know if that is a boy thing or it's just him. I have chosen to not push the issue right now and see what I can get him to do.

The hardest thing for me right now is trying to figure out where he is at with his math and spelling. Both programs I chose to step back a level or start from the beginning to make sure he has a good foundation. The math seems very easy for him, so we are moving fairly quickly trying to get to where he will be challenged. The spelling seems to remedial for him but I can already see why it works very well for kids. I think it will take us a little while to get a good feeling for what we should be focused on.

Pixie has been very interested in what we are doing. She loves the phonograms CD and my little parrot sounds just like the guy on the program. She also love the MUS DVD, and as soon as he comes on she pushes her stool over to sit next to Owen and watch. Wyatt isn't near as interested in that stuff as he is in pestering Owen while he is trying to work. This weekend I need to start making some busy boxes and activities to keep him and Pixie occupied.  The best thing is hearing Owen tell other people how much he likes it so far.  I am sure this will not always be the case, but it's nice to hear right now!

2012-2013 Curriculum (4th Grade)

I had no idea of all the choices there were out there until I went to the convention in May. The minute I stepped foot into the vendor fair, I knew I was in trouble! I am a collector, I like stuff, and there was so much stuff there! I had done quite a bit of research prior to going, but all the booths just seemed to be calling me saying " you need me".  I waited to make my big purchases until the last day, after I had asked anyone I could what they recommended. I put so much pressure on myself wanted to make the right choice first off. I finally decided to enjoy the process and just do the best I could to find something we would enjoy. Since this is our first year and also having pulled our oldest out of Public School I want it to be fun. There is so much deschooling I will need to do with him. My main goal is to foster a love for learning and it was important to find things that would help with that.

I struggled between Sonlight and My Father's world, ECC, and ultimately picked MFW. I love sonlights rich literature base, but with I knew I didn't have a strong reader. As much as I would have liked to teach that curriculum I decided MFW was a better fit for us right now.  I wanted a curriculum that was bible based and helped guide me through the process. We are excited to begin Exploring Countries and Cultures. Last night as I was getting ready for this week, both my DH and I were amazed at how much we are going to learn. It is exciting!


For math I had thought I would pick Teaching Textbooks, but I fell in love with MUS. Owen has been struggling with math this past year. I am not very strong in math so I was concerned about teaching it well enough to help him. Teaching textbooks looked perfect because it was self paced through a computer program. After sitting and working with it at the vendor fair, I realized he would need more help than that.  I had quite a few people recommend MUS so I sat through a demonstration and loved the hands on approach. I think it will be just what Owen needs to help him make sense of everything he is learning.  We are going to start with Beta and see how he does. I am hoping taking a step back and getting a better foundation for adding and subtracting will help him later on.



Spelling has always been difficult for Owen. I think it is because he never really learned phonics. He was taught in school to read with sight worlds. We are going to start with All About Spelling Level 1. I am hoping learning the phonograms for each letter will give him a better understanding on how to spell. I think we will be able to move fairly quickly through the early levels. I am excited for him to gain confidence in his spelling since he has always struggled.





In a month or so I hope to add in some writing using The Institute for Excellence in Writing. He is a very reluctant writer and right now it takes a lot of effort to get him to write anything. I want to take it slow with him and not overwhelm him. The concept behind this program seems very promising and will helpfully teach him the tools to be a good writer one day.



We are also using A reason for Handwriting level C. I am still deciding on a grammar/English curriculum. I am embarred to say I have 3 I have purchased, but am still debating which we will use. I picked Shurley English first and while I like some of it I am not sure Owen will do well with it. I also found a used set of Language lessons through literature. I love this idea of reading a few books through the year and working with them. I just need to get him to want to read. Then I picked up Easy Grammar and this one seems more like what I could do with him right now.

For my two little one's Wyatt (4) and Pixie (21 months) will be my biggest challenge. At least keeping the entertained while For the I am going to use Before Five in a row. They both love stories, so I think this will be fun and help them both feel included. I have been collecting learning toys and games to use with the littles while I will be working with Owen.  Prior to attending the homeschool conference I wanted to do a full Pre-K curriculum for Wyatt. After listening to a few different speakers I changed my mind. They explained a lot about how children's brains develop and it made me realize how important it is to let kids be kids. Let them play, learn fine and gross motor skills, pretend, etc. There is plenty of time to learn to read and to write.

This week we start school, I pray that I can have patience with all three of my children. I just want to do a good job and make it fun. I know it is going to be a process of trial and error to find our groove, I just need to keep reminding myself!