"Homeschooling" Part 1

After a lot of prayer and consideration, we decided that because of all of the changes our family has been through this past year (5 addresses within 16 mos) the best thing for our family this year would be for me to "homeschool" Jonathan. I put "homeschool" in quotation marks because I'm using that term very loosely. Even though he's probably ready for kindergarten curriculum (he can write all his letters, is spelling out small words, etc) we decided to stay with the pre-school curriculum and just go over everything again this year.

We're using abcjesuslovesme curriculum and LOVE it!!! Each week, we focus on a different character trait. So far, we've done obedience, patience, and this week is giving.

Because Jonathan has always done really well academically, I'm trying to make character development the main focus this year. The picture says "I Will Obey" and we glued O's on it.

We read the Jesus Story Book Bible and the Beginner's Bible during breakfast, then clean up, say our memory verses (he earns gum for saying them so he's super motivated--he'll ask me during the day if he can ay a Bible verse and earn gum...I always say yes!) and do chores. We use the Managers of Their Chores products and LOVE it!! He clips a pack with little pictures in it and so he can move from one chore to the other without me having to prompt him on what to do. It's what the Duggars use and recommend, so I figured if it was good enough for the Duggars, it's good enough for us!!!

We do a different letter every week, and abcjesuslovesme is kind of weird because it divides the letters up according to straight line letters (T, H, L, I, E etc), slanted letters (X, V, W, Y, M, N), etc., so we don't go in order of the alphabet. We've done all the straight line letters and are working on the slanted letters now. Each week, we read Jane Moncure's My "letter" book. We kind of piggy back everything off of these books--crafts, activities, other books, etc. I actually found these books at the library, so PRAISE GOD!! We didn't have to spend the money buying them! Here are some letter activities that have gone along with our letter books:

Lion Snack (bread cut with cookie cutter, peanut butter, carrot sticks, raisins)

My little lions! They REALLY got into this project because it included glue.

Letter 'H' pancakes the next week.

We haven't decided what we're going to do next year--homeschool vs. public school-so we honestly don't want Jonathan to get too far ahead. If we do send him to public school next year then we don't want him to be really bored. And, honestly, just going with preschool curriculum has taken a lot of pressure/weight off of me because like I said, he could probably go to kindergarten today and be fine. I'm really just trying to make this year fun and fill time and develop fine motor skills (and focus on character growth).

This week is the letter 'X', and we're doing an "intensive" study on the xylophone. I bought one at a garage sale for $1 and it has been a HIT! We looked on youtube for clips of xylophones, then I brought out the xylophone that I bought. We've decided to do a concert for Daddy on Friday, so Jonathan has been diligently practicing his songs (mostly during room time when I'm trying to nap :>).

I made up this "music sheet" so he can practice on his own without my prompting. The colors on the chart coordinate to the colors on the xylophone so he knows how many times to tap the colored bar, too.
Another fun activity was taking a white piece of paper and drawing white x's on it (with a crayon). Then you paint over it and the x's appear! It showed up better in real life, the picture isn't as good, but Jonathan loved it.
So, overall, I really enjoy homeschooling. It's just A LOT of work!! I put in about 5-10 hrs a week PREPARING, plus the actual time spent doing the work with him. I've found that I can't really leave him alone to do his "actual work" (as opposed to craft time)...I've got to read directions to him, make sure he's forming his letters correctly, etc, etc. Jonathan is doing great, though, and loves worksheets (he's so my son) and never complains about doing work. He calls me "teacher" and we pretend there are other boys and girls in the class.

The biggest obstacle to homeschooling has actually been this little guy:
We've had a really rough time of it, and honestly, the last couple of days have been worse. I'm not really sure what to do with him while Jonathan and I are working. Most of my friends who homeschool say their little ones color while the older ones work on handwriting, the little ones will play with beads or stack blocks while the older ones work on math, etc, etc. Well, Caleb does none of that. The few pictures I've managed to snap were a couple of weeks ago, and they were of the 2 min that Caleb lasted doing what we were doing. He doesn't color, he doesn't paint, he doesn't draw on paper, he doesn't stack blocks, he doesn't sit and look at books (at least not when I need him to). This week I've kind of been at my wit's end. I've started putting him in "room time" which I did with Jonathan, but even that hasn't worked too well. Caleb screamed bloody murder today the whole time, so it still made it difficult to do work with Jonathan. When I did finally get Caleb out, his whole face was red and puffy and snotty and his eyes were red and puffy from crying. I partly felt bad and partly was too frustrated to care (just keepin' it real!). So, please pray for the Caleb situation that I would have wisdom in how to handle him and patience for when he cries for hours on end. After awhile, Jonathan started walking around with his hands over his ears, which was partly humorous if hadn't been so sad/frustrating. It'll all work out, though, I know, and I'm trying to tweak the schedule and get things a little bit more under control before baby #3 (still no name!) comes.

Some of the problem this morning, looking back on it, might have been that he was just hungry. It might be the Maryland air, but they have been eating us out of house and home! They ask for food every 1 or 2 hours. I've been trying to do a better job of making whole-grain, protein-rich filling meals that will keep them full longer, and for the most part, I'm trying to stick to pretty tight meal and snack times. I'm trying to train their little tummies to eat every 3 hrs rather than snack every 1-2 hrs. Also, we've gotten into a BAD habit of giving the boys not-so-nutritous food, so I'm pretty staunchly digging in my heals and only offering certain foods. During snack time, Caleb kept refusing the options I was giving him, leading to further crying, but eventually he ate it. So, hopefully tomorrow will be better. I've gotten a lot of ideas from my favorite blog Passionate Homemaking. I've been trying to use whole grains and soak them overnight, but there's a lot to keep up with right now! I try to give myself lots and lots of grace and only do what I can do but that's hard for a super Type-A personality with high expectations (which I'm trying to lower, but I really want to try to keep up with healthy food to keep the boys healthy so that they will feel better/act better, etc, etc).

ANYWAY, on a personal level, God is blessing me with some great friends. One of the staff's wife, Ann (farthest on the left), has been AMAZING in befriending me, having us over, inviting me to a play group, etc.

Fun picture of the kids watching "Fireman Dan". Now whenever we hear a firetruck in the distance Jonathan says, "It's Fireman Dan!" :>
Jonathan is doing great and we've managed to meet a TON of kids his age. He has lots of friends that "join" us throughout the day as we do school. :>


Riva Church continues to be an amazing blessing. Michael is finishing up two weeks of work tomorrow and LOVING it. He's added a lot of creative elements (videos, skits, stage layout, backdrop ideas, sensory elements, etc) in addition to planning and leading the worship service. We've had an older (grandmotherly) type of lady offer to watch the boys if I go into labor before my mom comes. We went over to her house last week to get the boys acquainted with her and she has TONS of great toys and an unfinished basement where the boys can ride scooters, tricycles, etc. Another lady who homeschools is going to come over tomorrow with her girls and watch the boys while I run some errands then try to get our filing cabinet in order (yuck!). What a blessing!
Materially, God is blessing us a ton, too. We've gotten really into freecycle.org and have scored 3 bookshelves, an awesome baby bookshelf type thing that's in GREAT shape, some newborn cloth diapers, some preschool computer games (it was $70 on my Amazon wish list that I can now spend on something different) and some random magazines (I'm a magazine junky). Yeah, God!

Sorry this post is so long. I'll try to post more sooner but time is just flying by! The next post, honestly, will probably be of the baby officially due in 2 weeks! Till then, cheers!