Fire Prevention - A week late

Here are some quick pictures of our kids painting their fire truck.  We had so much fun with this.  And L had fun painting herself!

 

Please don't judge, we still need to add the wheels! Ooops!

Ever had one of THOSE days?.....

Ever feel like this picture in the middle of a school day?  Well you know how at the beginning of this week I was talking about how great things were going and things were going since we "switched it up"?  I should have known this would happen not long after writing that post.  Friday was a completely different day.

The morning started off wonderful.  We started our school day in the Word and learning more about our character trait for the week.  This week's character trait was selflessness, and so in order to practice selflessness, we made some cookies to give to the kids great grandfather who just lost his wife in April.  Things were going so good, I was so excited for our day.  

Then came lunchtime.

Mommy became frazzled, just as the cartoon pictures.  I was overwhelmed with the mess of the kitchen and making everyone's lunch and the baby just wouldn't stop crying, I guess she wanted to eat or something.  So then mommy became very very tired.  I should have known then to take a break. But I didn't, I kept on because I just wanted to be done.  Which from past history, I know is the worst mindset to have as a homeschool parent so I have no clue why I didn't recognize it.

So after lunch, and all the cleanup, we continued on with our schoolwork.  Baby was finally asleep so this should be easier, right?  No, not so much...it just got worse because mommy was tired and mommy should have taken a break!  I noticed myself becoming more and more agitated with the kids and my anger growing with every act of disobedience. 

Finally when I found my self yelling at my son to stop doing something I had just told him not to do, I knew then it was time to stop school work for awhile.

So you know what I did?  I went to my bedroom and laid face down and cried.  I felt like the absolute worse mom in the world and an even worse homeschool mom.  I laid there and just rested for about 15 minutes or so, almost falling asleep, while I heard my 3 blessings in the kitchen playing an alphabet bingo game and addition puzzle together.

Then I thought of something.  I am sure I can't be the only homeschool parent who has let their oldest child teach the children for awhile while mommy regains her strength (and her sanity in my case).  Really, what is it hurting?  He is learning a lot of patience in working with his siblings (our oldest is almost 8) while the other 2 (6 years and 5) are learning things probably far more advanced then I would be teaching them. 

So tell me homeschool parents....have you ever come to this?  Letting your oldest child/children teach the younger for an afternoon?  I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  

And remember, I am being REAL with you, so please no judging.  Not all our days will be this way :)

Switching it up....

We had a wonderful school day today

 And no, not because we actually did some crafts and used our scissors

 

 

 

And not because we made tepees (although that was extra fun)

 

 And no not because we took lots of pictures today of our tepees.

 

 

 

Today was wonderful because :

 

1. I started my day in the word. Even when my almost 2 year old woke me up at 5am this morning, I still took the time at 7am to sit down and be with Him before we really started our day.

AND.. 

2. We totally flipped our schedule!!  I know probably a lot of you newbie homeschoolers (that includes myself) are probably yelling NO don't do that! But really, I say why not?

     We started out the school year doing "circle time" or together time first and then in the afternoon, while baby was napping we would do our individual time with mommy, one on one, one at a time.  Well that worked okay for the first couple weeks but then I noticed the together time around the table was becoming very stressful with the baby there.  Before we knew it she was standing on the table, center of attention!  So my thinking was it had to be the schedule, so I flipped it.

     We then made together time while the baby was sleeping and individual time in the morning.  And again this had worked okay for the last few weeks but last week and some the week before I was noticing that it was really stressing me out and I was becoming frustrated and almost angry with the kids.  Libby, the baby, would be running around grabbing all sorts of different toys, taking whatever food she could reach, and come up the stairs from our basement with pen marker all over her body, all while I was trying to have that individual important time with that one child that I never ended up getting.

     So here we are back to square one.  I changed our schedule back!  We get up in the mornings, have breakfast, clean up our breakfasts, do our few daily chores (making beds, brushing teeth, getting dressed etc.) and then we come back together for "circle time".  And I also have made a change to our circle time. I completely took out one thing we were doing for calender, which was more of independent lots of writing work, and we now just do it all together on the board.  I believe this has truly helped my sanity as well!  Then we will have lunch, clean up, and I will put Libby down for a nap.  Once she is down for her nap we do our reading assignments, and then they each get 30 minutes individually with mommy to work on their math, language arts, handwriting and spelling.   

 

     Now will everyday go as smoothly and great as today?  No, I can promise you it will not!  But I now know I have a structure that is working for the time being and hey if a few months down the road it isn't working anymore you know what I will do?  SWITCH IT UP AGAIN!  

 

     Don't be afraid to change things homeschool mommas, that is the beauty of homeschooling, we have that freedom.  It won't damage us or our kids to switch things up, it just keeps things alive.  And who knows maybe it will also help our kids be able to accept change easier, just maybe.

     

    Lastly I just wanted to leave a couple more pics of M and Libby since there weren't many in the first few of them both.  Oh what fun they had today! 

 

 

The Goods and the Bads

So we have really had a flip-flop of days here!  We started the week off horribly yesterday , everyone tired, lots of work to do and no one wanting to do it. Everyone was talking to ME at one time, including the baby screaming and by 11am mommy was absolutely exhausted!  As many of you probably know, once mommy gets exhausted then things seem to keep getting worse. Is that the same for you?  Mommy started yelling much more than she should and we almost lost the joy in it all.  But we pushed through and finally finished our day at 3:30 (with breaks all throughout the day).  I was an emotional wreck by the end of the night and not worth being around. Honestly though, we did have fun (played bird-watching card game, made a lapbook etc) but we could have had much more joy.
Now move forward to today, a complete 180!  I started my day in the word AND I took the time to pray for the day.  Even with my 1 year old and 7 year old beside me, I still made sure I took the time out to pray. My prayer was simple, "Lord thank you for another day and please use the Holy Spirit in me to get me through this day joyfully."  And so far today has been very joyful.  We have enjoyed learning.  We went outside and read our History and we enjoyed God's creation.  We are now (at 1:15pm) finished with our "normal" school work and have the rest of the day to enjoy each other. 
So what I am really saying here is some encouragement homeschoolers.  You may have the worst homeschool day ever and go to bed feeling guilty about how you behaved that day and feeling like a failure BUT remember there is still tomorrow!  His grace is made new every day and I am so thankful for that. Thankful for this new day to start over. Did I still get angry at one point today, well yes I did, that is real!  But all in all we were happy and joyful and enjoyed learning. 
Keep pressing on homeschool moms and dads, each day is NEW.  And dont forget to start your day in prayer.

What works for you when you are having a rough HS day?  Do you take time out to regroup? If so what do you do in that time?  Or are you like me and behave the wrong way and try and just get the day/school over with?  I really wish now that I had taken some time out to regroup.