Do you homeschool? Let's Talk

We don't look like a "homeschool family" and I don't really blog about homeschooling, because well, it's a struggle for me.  We don't have one of those large families with 7 or 8 kids (or more), although some would consider having 4 children a large family.  I don't wear a denim jumper, although I did try it, and they are comfortable, but honestly, I felt kind of funny dressing like that.  I will also tell you I don't sew or can, or bake bread, and grind my own wheat.  I don't make soap (oh wait, I do make my own laundry soap now, does that count?), and well, let's face it, I just don't have it all together. 

Really, isn't that what people think when they look at homeschool families?  We're considered "weird" and heaven forbid, our children might not be "socialized" in a public school setting.  I mean going to church, and playing hockey and being involved in other things isn't enough, is it?  My children are more socialized than I was, and I went to public school all of my life. 

Well, there are many families who homeschool who are all of the above (large families, Mom has it all together, etc...) but that isn't me.  I have admired those Moms, and wish I could do those things, and boy do I wish I could get it together.  There are times that comparing myself to other homeschool Moms, and what I think are "perfect families" has caused me to give up.

I've homeschooled each of my children at one time or another.  Currently, I have one in public school, one doing online classes, and I am homeschooling my youngest.

I struggle with what curriculum to use, and even overbuying curriculum because, well, this may be better than that, or someone said this is a really great program, blah, blah, blah. 

So let's talk.  What do you use for curriculum?  Do you use strictly one program that you've used for years because it works?  Are you a Charlotte Mason Mom, or do you love unit studies?  Traditional textbooks/workbooks?  It can be so overwhelming, and although sometimes I want to try something fun like a unit study, or a literature based program, there are other times when I just want to hand them a workbook and say here, do pages ... to ...

Have you been there?

My goal, hopefully this coming week is to take a couple of days and stay at a campground with all of my homeschool "stuff" and do some major planning for the upcoming year. 

I plan to take all of the books we currently have and see what will work for this year and what I need to add to it.

I have 2 subjects that we can do on the computer that we did not use last year.  (switched on schoolhouse).  I need to install those, and figure out how they work and if we want to use them this year.

With what I have, I need to divide how many lessons there are into how many days/weeks of school we will have so that we can get it all done.

I need to plan our schedule, to include days off, field trips, etc...  At the same time, while working around my daughter's public school calendar so that they have the same days off, Christmas break, etc....  Hmm... I wonder if that's even available yet?

Then there's the daily schedule, and how to fit it all in. 

Oh, I'm getting excited!  I love planning!

UNTIL

I have to implement it. 

There are so many things demanding our attention.  Keeping the laundry done, and the house clean, getting meals on the table, and grocery shopping and other errands.  What about Bible study, and what about ME?  It's easy to get caught up in trying to do it all, and be superwoman.  A friend of mine, one of those homeschool Moms with a large family who I admire.  One who seems to have it all together, said, "you have to look at it as a job". 

So, I hope that all of the decluttering I've been working on will help me this year to stay more focused.  I've decluttered my schedule down to the bare minimum, I've decluttered a lot of "stuff" including paper clutter from our home, although I'm still working on that.  It's all an ongoing process, and something that we have to keep on top of.  I've even decluttered some "toxic" people from my life.

We can do this!  I'm ready!  Well, almost. 

I'd love to hear from you, how do you plan?  Do you take time away from home to plan?  Do you plan for the whole year at a time, or weekly, monthly?

How do you stay on top of it through the year once your plan is in place?

I'd love to hear all of your ideas, and please share this post with your homeschool friends.  Let's support and encourage one another in what can be an overwhelming task. 

Blessings!   


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The Crazy Lady!

I'm on the rampage today.  Maybe this is not a good time for me to write, but I'm not here to pretend my life is perfect. I'm here to be real. I wouldn't want anyone to look at our family and think that we have it together (not that anyone would) or that I'm in any way a Stepford Wife. Haha

Maybe the little thing my daughter posted on my facebook this morning is true.  "I'm in a bad mood, so I think I'll go yell at the kids so they're in a bad mood too."  (unknown source)

However, here's my version of it.  If the kids didn't drive me crazy, I wouldn't be in a bad mood and yell at them.  haha

Just kidding.  Well, kind of.  I know that I choose how I react or respond to life's little ups and downs, but let me tell you, nothing brings out the crazy lady in me faster than my laundry room/basement area.

I mean I really dislike dishes and paper clutter, but the laundry monster makes me see red.  Oh no, it isn't the task of the laundry, such as washing, drying and folding that drives me insane.  Perhaps I should make my sweet innocent little children help you say? 

Believe me, I do!  Therein lies the problem.  How is it you can teach your children to do laundry and think that it will lighten your load when in reality, it can, at times, make things worse? 

How?  Maybe you don't have this problem, which is why I'm asking for your ideas.  ;)  My laundry room is out of control...  I will admit, on a bad day, it has brought me to tears (on more than one occasion). 

My hero is the Proverbs 31 woman who seems to be able to do it all, and her children arise and call her blessed while her husband praises her at the city gate. 

My reality is that when I go down to that dreary basement to do laundry, I find that the washer already has a load of clothes in it.  No problem, I'll just throw them in the dryer.  Until... I open that, and it's full of someones dry clothes.  Ugh.  Where are the teens who do their own laundry?  Not one of them is home. 

So, in the midst of dryer sheets strewn across the floor, because someone was too lazy to pick them up, I take the clothes out of the dryer and throw them in a basket.  Yep, you read that right.  I'm a little irritated, and I'm not folding them.  It seems to me that said teens think they have to start laundry at night without a thought of when they will finish it, and the fact that someone else may need to use the washer or dryer the next day.

I should give them grace, right?  I do, and I have folded the stuff forgotten in the dryer many times.  Just not today.  It's been one of those weeks. 

It didn't help when I walked through a certain someone's bedroom, and they (I won't mention any names) have 6 towels strewn across the floor.  Used, and probably damp.  Six of them!  Hmm.. no wonder we never have enough towels.  Perhaps they could hang them up to dry, use them more than once, put them in the hamper.

Mount Washmore... never ending.  I seem to be the only one who knows how to sort the pile that comes down through the laundry shoot.  I guess it's easier to just pull what you need out of the pile, or wait until Mom sorts it for you, and then wash it.

(this is where I would insert photo if it wasn't such a mess)  I'm real, but not quite ready to share that yet.   

Whoever said that you will miss all of that laundry when your children move out must not have had this issue. 

Maybe the answer is to just do all of the laundry myself, but that doesn't sound so great to me.  Maybe if there weren't 6 of us, with extras like work clothes, etc... 

Perhaps, it is these little daily irritants that are making me into who God wants me to be.   "In nature a pearl forms when some type of irritant enters the mussel or oyster. The irritant may be a food particle, a piece of shell, bacteria or even a piece of sand. The protective process begins. Nacre is secreted in layers around the irritant. The result is a pearl" (Joan Reinbold, ehow.com)

I think that God has a lot of refining to do yet in me but I hope that someday, all the rough edges will be gone, and the result will be a beautiful, shiny pearl, a true wife of noble character (Proverbs 31).

Meanwhile, I'd love to know your household irritants, or your advice on how to resolve this issue.  I hope that I didn't scare you away, this was meant to be a little sarcastic, but fun... however true)

Blessings      

Multimedia Mess

Do you ever feel like you're drowning in clutter?  I sure do!  Sometimes, it feels like no matter how much "stuff" I get rid of, it's never enough.

Paperwork is my #1 enemy, but after that, it's probably movies and books.  We have a huge entertainment center, a small tv, and too many movies.  To me, it's visual cluttter. 

It would be nice if the tv actually fit in the spot it's in, but we don't plan to buy a new tv anytime soon (although my family would love that).  For now, it is what it is... ugly cords hanging down and all.   

The Wii is next to the tv, along with a few games, and the remotes/charger.  The blue box on the right is more Wii stuff. 
Below, on the floor (not in the picture) is the X-Box. 

The rest of the shelves are DVD's, VCR tapes, cd's, board games, and a few nic-nacs.  I've sorted movies and decluttered some, but most or all of these are keepers. I'm thinking that I could go and buy some of those cute baskets like Pottery Barn has...

Or I could buy one like this

However, I don't want to spend a ton of money when what we have is fully functional. 

I found these ideas on Pinterest. 

 

I kind of like the bottom one.  I could box up all the cases and do this, but I'm not so sure it would stay like that.  Meaning the kids probably wouldn't put the movies away in this... but maybe.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear your ideas!  What are your organizational challenges?  Leave your comment below, or on my facebook page. 

Blessings! 



 

Country Girl on Main Street

For all of my married life, I've lived on Main Street.  Early in our marriage, we lived in a house my Mother in law owned in a small town with a bar, a post office, and a general store.  We lived on Main Street.  My husband had to drive about 60 miles to work each day.  When I was pregnant with my daughter, we only had one car, and I drove him to work sometimes so that I could use the car to go to Doctor appointments.  In one year, we put 100,000 miles on a brand new car. 

I started selling Real Estate, and we decided that we should move closer to his work, and my office.  So, we bought our first house in a small town about 30 miles closer to hubby's place of work, in the town where I sold Real Estate.  We fell in love with a cute little house on Main Street.

However, growing up, I lived in the country.

They say "you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl".  I'm starting to believe that's true.  Oh, I was happy with my cute little house on Main Street for a while, but for the last several years, when we go to the county fair, I get that longing to live in the country.  I adore the cute little bunnies, and the cows and horses and pigs. 

I love the smell of hay, and the fresh air in the country.

  To me, these were flowers... not weeds.

A little creek like this is where I began writing

It isn't just the Fair that causes such discontentment though.  Usually when we go to the lake, any lake, but especially Lake Michigan, I wish I lived there. Camping and reading books about the Amish make me long for a more simple life as well.  Visiting my cousin in OK, staying at her farm house, and then the ranch really stirred the dream. 

Why such discontent, why the longing in my soul?  I wish that I was a more content person.  But this is who I am.  I'm a dreamer, and to me, nature is beauty.  It refreshes me!  I treasure the memories that I have, and want to recreate them.  I often want things to be different, slower paced, have less clutter in my life, more meaningful family time, and for my kids to have the experiences that I had growing up in the country.   

I think that things would be different, my children would be different, and I would be different.  Better somehow.  Call me an Idealist!  I am.  :)

There are benefits to living in town.  Convenience for one!  That's why we've stayed where we are.  We live in a great community, with a great church, and it's been a great place to raise our children.  Will we stay here forever?  Who knows?  We have dreams of moving to Ludington, or just somewhere out in the country.  If we do, then will it feel like home when our children come and visit?  (there's that memories thing again)

For now, I'll be content in the season I am in, where God has put me.  When discontentment rears its ugly head, and it will, I'll try to remember that. 

1 Timothy 6:6  "But godliness with contentment is great gain." 

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures I've taken recently on my drive in the countryside of my little town. 

Blessings!