Rounding the first bend...

We have been busy with school and are 2 days away from completing the first quarter, 9 weeks down and we are finding our stride, but let me start at the beginning. ( mainly because I have some good pictures to share, and who doesn't love a good picture)

So we started school in the end of August and of course I had to start their first day of school with a little bit "Griswald Love" (I have been accused from time to time of becoming one with my inner Clark W.Griswald from National Lampoons Vacation). So I had breakfast ready and waiting and then at each of their desks I had this waiting for them with their appropriate grades. 

 Here are their school pictures.

So this was our beginning. 

We got lucky and had a good reminder of why we homeschool when 2 weeks into our school year Daddy got to take two weeks off and we were able to have some fun with being able to be flexible with our schedule.  We got to go to the beach one day, and go on walks, get haircuts, go to the drive in and run cross country.... it is always fun to hang with Dad.

So our first 9 weeks has been a good start, we'll take a week off for planning and to finish making our Halloween Costumes (future post to come I'm sure), and jump back in for another 9 weeks in November. I am still more thankful than ever than  I choose to homeschool the gears.

Just move the tapes....

When my oldest was my littlest child, about 12-18 months old and into everything as they do at that age I had some VCR tapes....do you remember what those were, did I just date you...or myself?  Well I would keep them on the floor in a nice line on a little shelf and she would always want to play with them. She'd pick them up, the tape would fall out of it's case, and it would make such a mess... and I would get so frustrated and I would no sooner get them all put back and guess where she'd go.... well one day I had a light bulb moment....."MOVE THE TAPES"! I think to date this was my most profound mothering moment!! So I moved the tapes and she stopped playing with them, and I stopped being frustrated.
This story came to mind a few weeks ago as I was asking for the 34, 953,434th time for the shoes to get picked up, and could you help me find the remote, and did you bring down your laundry, does the dog have water, can you unload the dishwasher, ..... Now mind you my children have daily chores, each has one that they are responsible for and of course they work together with me to keep it picked up throughout the day, but on this particular day I knew I was gonna go to be praying my motherhood prayer at bedtime, and if goes like this " Dear Lord, please help me to be a better mother tomorrow than I was today...because today I stunk! Amen"
I'm sure I can safely say that most Mother's don't like to be "that" mom, we want to be the fun mom, the snuggle, cuddle, crafty, good cookin..mom. I do too...but I want to do it in a clean house:)
Ok so in my moments of the Esterline "ask-o-thon" I was visited by the light bulb of years past! So I put my kids on vacation! VACATION???!!!???
That 's right I told my kids that they were on vacation for 2 weeks! This meant no chores, wear what you want, heck don't get dressed at all if you want. Do what you want, read what you want, watch what you want! (All within the boundaries that we have already established of course) The idea was for them to have control for 2 weeks. The only thing was bedtime was still in place and our household/family rules. So of course my sweet husband thought I had gone off my rocker...and I wasn't sure that he wasn't' right, but my thought was we all needed to hit the reset button and this was it!
We are a military family and my husband has been deployed more times that I need to recount however one humanistic thing I realized is that when you are the only one that has to do all of it, it is so much easier than when you do it all and there is someone there to help and doesn't'. So I took on all the chores, and cleaning the house, and folding the laundry and putting it away, and emptying the dishwasher, and taking care of the dog, and finding remotes, and putting away shoes, and...and...and...
AND...
2 things happened. The first is I found my Joy again. I didn't mind doing all the things that I had done before because I wasn't' doing them in frustration. Secondly my kids started to do their chores without being asked...even when I would say "You don't have to do that, you're on vacation" they would reply "Its ok mom, I want to".
Sometimes we just need to hit the reset button, it opened my kids eyes to how they could bless me and be part of our team, and it gave me back my joy!



Planning for school.

We are in the throes of the rainiest summer I can remember, which has severely limited our outside time. So when we don't have days like this.....

then we do alot of this.....

and I do a lot

of this.....

Check out www.sandlappersewing.blogspot.com to see the spoils of this rainy summer!

So I have been busy getting busy to get ready to plan our next school year. :) I have 90% of our year planned, or at least curriculum picked out. The only one that is still up in the air is Willow for first grade. We used My Father's World last year for Kindergarten and although it was a good curriculum I felt like it was missing something for us. So I'm currently researching piecing together her 1st grade. The rest of the kids are set. Hannahlee is doing a literature curriculum from BJU that I think will be challenging, 

and she is also going to be attacking General Science along with Pre Algebra. It will prove to be a challenging year for her mainly due to the fact that a lot of her subjects will require her to do a lot of independent study work, but I know that she will secretly love it!

 Megan and Briar will be doing Astronomy together for science. Megan has progressed to Math 5 which is AWESOME since it proves to me that letting her redo the fundamentals with Briar this year in Math 3 was a good choice. Briar is gonna go on the Math 4. 

I am also choosing to do Shurley  English with Hannahlee, Megan,and Briar together, as well as our American History which I love, I will have to see if we want to switch gears the next year as we will be in Germany then and we may want to do some world history, so we can have some really phenomenal field trips! 

Now for the 3 older kids, I also have them do daily spelling with Christian Liberty Press, vocabulary with Vocabu-Lit ( which is wonderful because it pulls the weekly vocabulary words from excerpts of literature), and this year we are going to add a Word Study curriculum with MCP, and IWE (Institute for Excellence in Writing) for our writing course.  

I have two extracurricular activities I want to try and work into our routined schedule is German asa foreign   language, which should be fun since my goal is for it to be a family class not to mention in about 9 months very necessary :) the other one I would like to add is a Typing curriculum, and even though my kids are pretty good at typing  from practice, I think it would be a good skill to hone. 

I am excited about this school year and all the fun things we will learn. The next step is to try and write up lessons plans. I would love to ideally have all year rough drafted, but I will measure it successful to do the first 9 weeks. 

Stay tuned and I will share what I have decided for Willow for 1st grade.

June is done....

So June is done, here I sit on July 2nd and I wonder who hit fast forward on summer? We did manage to tackle one of our To-Do list items before June got out the door. We went to the South Carolina State Farmers market and grabbed some cantaloupe, watermelon, zucchini, yellow squash,  cucumbers and some WONDERFUL South Carolina peaches. Little known fact South Carolina peaches are MUCH better than Georgia peaches.  We also grabbed some fresh tomatoes seeing as how I was only able to coax my tomato plant into giving me one...

                               

July is here now! The free lunches at the school have started and it's always fun to walk up and let the kids eat. Thatcher gets to eat this year and he walked in like a boss.

       

We have Willow's 6th birthday, 4th of July, and a whole week of leave for Curtis, so I'm sure that we will knock a few more adventures off of our list. So stay tuned;)

While were in the Good Ole Days....

Upon watching the season finale of The Office, Andy made a great quote that has resinated with me more and more as the days go by:

  

                                              

As we prepare to leave South Carolina, a place that has grown to feel like home, this quote makes me think that we need to enjoy the Good Old Days, because although we will move on to another adventure next Spring we haven't left yet. So the gears and I have sat down and made a list of the things we want to do, places we want to see, and places we want to eat before we leave the South. It ought to be quite the ride so stay tuned for some GREAT old days!!

And Done.....

So we are officially DONE our first year of Homeschooling, and it was an amazing year. I would like to share with you some "random things" that I learned, realized, accepted!

1. Homeschooling has been more beneficial to MY family than my Kids.....our family time has become more pure and unadulterated.
2.We manage our Time, our time does not manage us!
3.My kids are Smart!!
4. Having shoes on in school really does make your mind work better!!
5. Chores are important to the sanity of the teacher....enlist the kids to do chores before school starts and your house stays put together!
6.School work outside is the BEST!!
7.Being a good Organizer makes you much more fun!
8. Kids like for things to be organized.
9. Don't get hung up on Grade Levels, although it is important, learning happens at all grade levels for all students.
10. For a successful school year you must master the balance between all school all the time and Free days.

It really has been an enjoying ride, and I look forward to next year and all that it brings.

Geared to Maintain

Geared to Maintain

Week January 14, 2013

• In my life this week… I was down for a day with a bug, and since I rarely get ill this threw my family for a loop, but I was very impressed with how well they adjusted fire and completed mission.
• In our homeschool this week… we have been busy wrapping up our 2^nd quarter. Since all my kids have known prior to homeschooling is public school I decided to stick with quarters and grade cards pretty closely and  have tried this year to keep run parallel with that system, although we are being more lenient on our time schedule the structure is much the same. It has really worked well for the kids as it not only gives them a good grasp on how they are progressing, it helps provide "mile markers" for our year.
• Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…taking the time to create a quarterly lesson plan for all our subjects have been such a blessing.  Yes I will admit it was a daunting task before I began, but has made each week run so smoothly, and once I started it maintaining it has been relatively easy.
• Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…We got to start back to PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) this week here on Fort Jackson after the Christmas Break. The kids love going to see their friends in the homeschool room, and I enjoy being able to fellowship with some amazing Christian women. I choose a applicable bible study that uses Proverbs 31 to increase your organization of your home. I think that this will be a great tool to help me turn this “project” of streamlining my life that I have been working on the last few months and into a “lifestyle” change.
• My favorite thing this week was…This sign that I found on our white board from my little gears while I was sick! I am blessed!

                          

• My kiddos favorite thing this week was…Wednesday when I took the gears to the Fort Jackson Main Post Library and had them complete a scavenger hunt that I created for them! It was so fun, even my little Willow got to play. I just Goggled library scavenger hunts for kids and found one on the ALA (American Library Association) website, I did tweak it a bit to fit our learning needs but Great fun and especially for a cold or wet school day!
• Things I’m working on…are being Faithful with sticking with our routine.  It has been such a gift to finally see everything fall into place. I am also working on trying to regulate my blogging as I really enjoy it because it gives my brain a little breathing room after I download my thoughts!
• I’m cooking…Red beans and Rice with Turkey sausage in the Slow cooker, which has fast become my Favorite kitchen appliance (no pun intended). That makes me feel old just saying that, but the truth is the time that my slow cooker saves me allows me the extra time to be Young and do fun things! I even have created a Pinterest board with some great slow cooker meals for those schooldays you can check it out here, and follow me as I am always on the hunt for yummy healthy meals for my Crock pot.
• I’m grateful for… Hands down my family! They really pulled it together this week when I went down. My sweet husband was amazing at taking care of me and our gears, and my oldest for really pulling everyone together. We are geared to Maintain!

Time4Learning Review!

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

Here's to a NEW year! ( and 1/2)

And 1/2;) I found this draft that I must have saved from the 1st of the year, and just wanted to share it because it had some good stuff. 

Happy 2013! This year has started out to be an outstanding year! I truly believe that homeschooling is  an art of refinement. This year started out with gusto as we had a clear set plan for our school work, organization has  been one of the working parts of this new refinement movement.  Toward the end of 2012 I begin to put together a home management binder, where I could have a hard copy of the plan. Meal plan, daily schedule, cleaning schedule, it is amazing how much can be accomplished just by having somewhere to look when you get sidetracked, something to help you stay the course.  It has made all the difference.
 The other change we made is to the kids electronics. Not only the usage, but the availiablity as well. We have established a charging station where all electronics are signed in and out on a clipboard. This one thing has amazed me on how much the usage has decreased since the start of this, as time has gone by the kids have begun to realize how much other stuff there is to do.

As an update,

we are 6 months in and we still do the home management notebook and the electronic sign in, and it has been two of the most enlightening  things that I have done for my family, and I would encourage any family who hasn't thought to limit the electronic in their home to try it. It has really had the desired effect on my kids! Happy Home-ing ;)

Better late than never...Flavor of the Week

 

Gear Stew ~Flavor of the Week

 Week of Jan 7-11th.

• In my life this week… I have been busy keeping things in our newly formed routine as I love how it is shaping school, home, health, and relationships this year.
• In our homeschool this week…I discovered the joys of homeschooling as I was able to scratch the fractions unit for my 7th grader, and start over which has made all the difference in her understanding of fractions.
• Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… Friday was Free Friday at the Zoo, so we went with another Homeschooling family. It was a real treat to be out of the classroom, but still in a excellent learning environment.
• My favorite thing this week was…Having ALL my laundry done (we are a family of 7 this is an exceptional feat in itself).
• My kiddos favorite thing this week was… Being Blessed with beautiful weather in South Carolina, we went on a ABC photo scavenger hunt!

 

• Things I’m working on… I am typically a dreamer and I get caught up in finding a million things I want to do, learn, read, watch....so this year my goal is to live intentionally. So think of a big RED umbrella, that is my relationship with God, and then under it are Husband, Kids, Esterline Center of Excellence (school), Health, Home, and since I still want to devote some time to refine me, there is Blogging, and Photography.  If it doesn't fit into these categories then I need to save it for another time, but God above ALL!
• I’m cooking… A lot of slow cooker meals, and have been on a quest for healthy, low fat, clean crock pot meals.
• I’m grateful for… I have been falling in love with my family all over again! I really have underestimated how much I would love homeschooling.
• I’m praying for… The motivation to keep on this path, as everything seems to run so much smoother when there is some order.
• I rewarded my kids this week by…Movie night with Mom and Dad!
• Something I am ogling or have my eye on…I have been looking at Turbo Jam, I think I may want to invest in it as there are ton of good review out there.