Just us...

So it seems my days of day care are almost done.  It's scary and exciting at the same time.  I'm really excited for the first time in 2 years to spend the bulk of my time with my OWN kids.  Really really excited.  But scared for the $ side of things.  I'll just have to see what the future holds there.  I still feel this is what we should be doing, home schooling, and keep going with it. 
     I just finished my NOI(or Notice of Intent for those who don't home school).  I had to find my diploma which caused a panic for a few days, since I hadn't looked at the thing since I pack it up when Aaron and I got married.  EKKK!  8 years ago!!!  But it was found, in the box I remembered packing it up in, in the attic.  Which is amazing since we've moved so many times and reused so many boxes. I had the bulk of the paper work filled out months ago, and just have to mail it off now.  I was waiting for a new bill to go through that says in Virginia they can only ask for the subjects, no longer for more information than that.  I really think this and the test they want at the end of the year should be enough. 
     We've been doing days here and there with home school.  Every time I think it's going to be easier, but it isn't always.  Everyone has their days.  Today so far we've done our core subjects.  We're going to do history and science after the little ones get up from naps.  That way everyone can get SOME school today.  :)  Then we'll be reading a few books for reading time since only one can read to himself.  (Nathanael is on his way as well.  Simple sentences now.  Very exciting!!!)

 This is our art part of our history lesson the other day.  We were making the Nile River out of play dough and the boys decided to make boats too.

    
These two were the field trip we too to the Chantilly Air and Space Museum.  Yes this is the second time, this time we went with home schooling friends.  The kids had fun but were done a lot faster this time.  I think everyone was tired!

    We're loving it and Aaron is making sure we go all the extra outings if he's home for them.  We will be able to go to a lot of the morning ones for the rest of the summer.  We're very excited about that.  Tomorrow we're going to the park and I'm wanting to take them to a few other things this week.  Hopefully we'll be able to take them to the DE state fair!  That would be great to teach them about SO many different things.  Doesn't hurt they have a great Aunt who's going to have a bunch of animals there as well.  Here's a picture of them out front of her place.  (My camera died right after this so I didn't get any of them with the animals.  So sad!)  Of course Evie is leaning ON the horse's butt!  LOL. 

To be continued....

Loving this!

     We did everything again today!  Evie is getting a little jealous of the boys' books.  LOL.  She wants to have separate books for each subject just like them.  The boys however are doing really well.  In general, I don't know if this works for everyone, we are having less melt downs and less fighting!  I don't know if it's because their little minds are busy thinking or what but they are amazing me.  We did all their school work in about 2 hours and we'll still be reading more and if it doesn't rain we'll go to the park.  We were able to do all their work, go to Costco for cereal and crackers, and go to the Library.  The kids all signed up for the summer reading program at the library and we got their first audio book for the car, Nate the Great.  Lately we've been listening to a lot of Laurie Berkner Band(Nathanael's favorite), so a change will be nice.
      They also helped me clean up after our cats after school.  Sometimes I think teaching kids to help, isn't helpful!  :p  But it is teaching them about responsibility.  One other really interesting thing I've noticed with them is that they haven't wanted to watch almost ANY tv at all!  Yesterday they didn't want to watch it at all, and today they only want to watch the shows they got at the library.  LOL.  I love that they'd rather play and use their imaginations.  It's already after 4pm and it hasn't been on yet today.  Today was one of the only days I can think of that the kids were really good for me when we were out, and honestly, even with a few disappearances at the library they were still really good.  Two of them sat down and did puzzles for a little while after they found books to take home.  I've seen changes in attitudes, willingness to help, and overall positiveness(is that a word?!).  I wasn't excepting to see things like this just from having their minds filled with learning.  I just expected them to learn and that be the only change in our days.  That we would be doing school at home.  I didn't expect THEM to change.  Most specifically Nathanael.  He's...ADHD on the crazy climbing, impulsive side.  Never would I have thought that doing school with him for a few hours a day would help him choose better choices.  To listen when I say hold hands, instead of running into the street.  To sit still for a few minutes, to decide to do as I asked instead of time out.  I think this was needed for them, and me.  I love watching them learn.  I love reviewing what we talked about over a snack and them thinking we're just hanging out.  They love the attention and the positive reinforcement and talk about how well they did on their work for the day.  When I started thinking about doing this with them, I never in a million years would have thought it would have been good for anything other than their education.  It's amazing for our FAMILY!  It's amazing for our RELATIONSHIPS! 
     I know God has the best plan for us if we listen to what he has to say.  I'm so grateful for this next year in my life with my kids.  Being able to teach them as they teach me.  To relearn through their eyes and be able to be the mom I was always meant to be.  Yes, I may still get too loud, but those times are getting less and less.  We're having more and more fun.  Everyone is happier and everyone is having better days.  I'm not saying I'm not tired!  I think I went up to bed at 8pm late night and read for an hour.  But is that really so bad?!  Who needs to sit and stare at a tv when you can read and enjoy your comfortable bed?  It was great.  This is what I thought being a mom would feel like, and I think I'm finally there.  For me, and for them, this is where we need to be. 

We did it! 3 days and a park playdate.

I'm still trying to figure this whole home school thing out.  I wanted to do school again today, ALL of it, and we had to be at the park around 11am to meet with some homeschooling families(mom's and kids).  Mostly, I just wanted to see if we could do it in crunch time AND still be able to go to the park.  I knew if we went, we wouldn't do a whole lot once we came home.  Well, WE DID IT!  The kids did great.  We did scriptures with journaling right after breakfast.  Connor did reading(4 books), writing, grammar, math, and history.  Nathanael did writing, reading(with phonics), math, and history with Connor.  Evie read, with me of course, the ENTIRE set of BOB books that teach reading and the ABC's.  We all did history together, so she got that too.  Then we went to the park and meet some friends.  One of them has 3 kids the exact age as our kids!  The boys had so many friends to play with and the two ladies I hadn't previously met were so NORMAL.  It was great.  Everyone had a great time.  We were only there for about an hour when everyone started heading home for lunch.  So we did too.  Then while the kids were eating lunch we did science.  :)  Talk about learning made around YOUR schedule.  It was amazing.  The only thing we didn't do was a "good" art class, they all drew for part of journaling, and I wanted to do Spanish today too.  We didn't get to that.  But I think we did amazing and got a ton done in the amount of time we did it in.  I talked to the other mom's and they said my timing was about right and that's about what they do too.  How can it be so easy when kids are at school for 8 hours?!  My goodness.  I love this 2 or 3 hours a day and done.  We even broke it up so that we could do science after we got back.  The boys loved learning about tornadoes and had tons of questions and are still talking about it.  We're doing a science unit about weather.  This is part of it and then we'll do 72 hour kits as a project.  (Nice.)  We'll probably do some little science experiments too.  This is so much easier than I ever though possible.  A few days ago we got the LAST books we need for they year.  In the living room we set up one entire shelf just for homeschooling and it's a perfect fit.  I have all their books on there.  The only ones that don't really fit are Evie's over sized preschool ones.  He he.  But everything else fits.  I think I'm going to do more math per day than I've been doing once the "school year" starts.  Doing summer school for them is just the best way to start I think.  Next week we're going to Delaware.  Obviously we'll be taking a break for that week.  One week from the whole summer isn't a huge break but I'm sure they'll enjoy it.  I still have a lot of time in the day to get everything else cleaned up and the laundry done and everything.  I use to wonder how mom's with multiple kids could home school.  When you do some of the subjects together it makes it a lot easier.  Evie loved watching the science lesson I had for the boys.  Even though she's not even 3 yet, she's getting extra lessons kids her age wouldn't get for a few more years.  Okay I'm not going to lie, I'm exhausted after today.  But it's 3pm and Evie's down for a nap and the boys have a friend over.  I'm going to relax for a bit since I just finished folding the last load of laundry!  Ahhh......

Starting early!

Well, I had planned on starting early, just not until the end of the month.  My boys were having melt downs.  Even with friends over they seem to need some "down time".  Connor mostly.  I'm having him leave the room and do some school work.  He did math so fast we did a whole chapter(which is one days work at school), he's reading right now, and did his grammar lesson for the day.  We all did journaling and pictures after breakfast to get our minds going and get our scriptures in.  It helped them actually listen to the scriptures and think about what they were going to draw(and for Connor, write about).  We read in Helaman and they drew pictures of throwing swords into holes(for burying their weapons) and it was really cute.  Even Evie drew a hole for her's.  LOL.  I love watching them learn and this is so much fun!  I thought it would be a lot harder than it was.  But once I had all their work and we spread it out through out the day, it was honestly VERY easy.  Connor is pretty quick once he starts.  Nathanael, he takes a while.  Whatever it is.  He realized I wasn't going to let him not finish today and just did it!  I was really surprised.  He went through his reading lesson(phonics type stuff) and did math REALLY fast and did his writing with out tears to get practice with his writing in.  Yes I could have done that with out this specific book, but it helped me and he likes it!  It is a kindergarten book so I don't feel bad even if he does K in public school next year, he'll be where he needs to be.  He was just too young to go in this fall.  I'm hoping to have him at more of a 1st grade level by the end of next summer.   I'd like to keep him home for more home school as well, so long as he is reading by then.  I think I'll just have to start a little earlier to get EVERYONE's schooling in before Aaron gets home.  Which shouldn't be too hard since their school didn't take too long, I just haven't gotten to Evie's yet.  Her's will be after Daddy gets home.  Still not bad.  I can't go anywhere anyways and I was planning on Monday being an "off" day in the summer.  I'm just really excited that we started, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and right now everyone is happy and Connor is happily reading a book(the third one) to his friend Caitlyn.  :)

OH!  On a side note.  We've been going EVERYWHERE, on mini-field trips all over the place.  We went to the Rust Sanctuary and went hiking, park days, pool time.  The kids loved it.  Nathanael had a birthday!   He's 5 now!

God knows what He's doing, even if we don't.

Many times lately I've been SO baby hungry.  Seems like EVERYONE is pregnant, just had a baby or is trying.  Every time with out fail I get this feeling.  It says," Not yet, but soon".  I can't tell you how long this has been going on.  Over a year now probably.  Now that I know part of the reason is because of starting up homeschooling with the boys.  I feel that God knew it would be just one too much, too much for me to change our way of EVERYTHING with a little one around or being pregnant.  For now, it will stay my 3 until I get an okay from Him.  It's still hard to wait but now I know the reason why and it makes it a lot easier.  Not to mention I know God felt what I was feeling, He is my Father.  I know I didn't make it easy wishing and being upset by the fact I had to wait, when He had so much bigger plans for me AND my kids.  It wasn't a no never, it was just wait.  It will come soon enough.  In reality I was a little kid throwing a fit in the store for one piece of candy when I had a surprise birthday party at home waiting for me.  He knows what He's doing.  Some times we just need to listen.  Even if it's not what we want to hear because he has something bigger and exactly what we need right around the corner.

Telling the family.

Then there comes the time to tell the parents you are pulling their grandchildren from public school.  My parents are pretty much anti-home school.  Mostly due to the fact that almost everyone we have know haven't been the best example of home schooling.  Of course, I'm sure that is not the norm for home schooling!  The best response I got was if you can do it, it could be great.  Umm..yeah.  Thanks.  The response I was really surprised by, my wonderful SILs and my MIL.  All three are EXCITED and helpful about it all.  I was really shocked that they were 100% behind me and I didn't even have to explain it to them at all.  First and for most, this is for my kids, they need this and

   Sunday went really well!  The kids wanted to read, read, read.  Then they wanted to do a sedimentary rock class as well.  Way to sneak some science in there, right?!  LOL.  I have about half their curriculum as well.  Which I'm really excited about.  Who knew you could buy most of it used for pretty cheap, and that Amazon carries some of it?!  Very exciting.  I love that my kids want to learn like they do and that they LOVE books and reading.  One of them was really upset that they didn't get to do a science experiment day before yesterday.  We had to squeeze that in yesterday and someone else went to bed crying because they wanted a math game.  Yes I know they were stalling and we will play it today.  :D  All in all, they WANT to learn.  They LOVE it.  I'm really proud of my little smarties.  He he.we will do whatever we need for them to get the best education and a safe place to learn. 

Practice home school day!

Today was the first day "practice" teaching my whole lessons to the little two.  It was great!  They loved it.  We got up and drove C to school, then came home to play with play dough for art time.  Then we went on and did our addition math game with the froggies.  A hit again for BOTH of them!  We had to do it a few times of course.  Then we did patterns with legos.  Which after a bit ended up being the huge TOWER of pattern legos.  It was taller than N!  Then it was lunch time already.  The most exciting part of the day for me was when N started adding with carrots and then subtracting with them too.  I love that I've taught him something already and he's working on it by himself and it's a game and FUN.  I don't remember school being a ton of fun, even thought I did/do love to learn.  Yesterday was a huge break through with reading that book.  It's really taught me how to work with N.  He was able to do his reading lesson, so much so that I snuck two in and he didn't end notice.  :D  Off to Costco after that for eggs and milk, not such a great time but they were selling BOB books.  (BOB books are a good resource to help your children learn to read.)  I was ecstatic.  LOL.  So we came home and read about 5 or 6 of them and now it's nap time.  I know I'm taking longer to get things done than a normal home schooling Mom and I'm sure it's because I don't really know how to condense the lessons yet or make them faster.  But they love it how it's going and I'm sure that we'll be reading more books tonight as well.  They just LOVE books.  Honestly if that would be all I could teach them, I'd be happy with just that.  I'm so grateful for this opportunity to teach my kids in such a fun and exciting way.  I'll be praying God gives me the strength to keep it interesting for them and teach them everything they need to learn.  Who knew you could have your kid learn addition with hopping up and down?!  We did that a little bit today too.  So long as everything seems like a game, N will do it and want to do more.  Thank goodness for the library and people who are in similar situations to mine and that they can WRITE!  LOL.  I KNOW I can't.  But this is a journal of our journey, and it's something I know I'll look back on later and be grateful that I did it.  I'm pooped!  Time to go read more books and learn better how to teach my children. 

Today started off EARLY, and by early I mean before 6am.  So I got everyone up and showered, we drove C to school.  He LOVES when we drive him.  It makes his day just that much easier not having to worry about one more thing. 
   After that.....the day went down hill...FAST!  I had some errands to run and only 2 kids.  Piece of cake right?!   HA HA.  Joke was on me.  Apparently it was run away from Mom day, in the parking lot or the store.  Thankfully it was a fast trip.  4 stores in about an hour. 

   Unfortunately N decided that he wasn't done being insane for the day and I really thought I'd blow a gasket.  Then...E decided to cut her hair while I was disciplining N.  That was about all I could take and once I started crying so did everyone else.  Then the best thing that happened all day happened.  It's a magical thing I call NAP TIME!  :D
    With everyone napping safely, I went to my room.  I'm sure everyone has those days.  Thankfully they are few and far between for me.  I know God has a lot more to do in people's daily lives than anyone ever thinks.  Because a few days ago I found a book on line and asked for it at the library.  It was waiting for me in my room.  It has EXACTLY what I needed to hear in it at that right moment to help me with my crazy boy and know how to deal with him.  (I never believed in ADHD until I had two boys with it.  The second one is a lot worse than the first and again God knows what he's doing, sending me one and having me decide to home school right before the second went in! ) The book was called how to get your child off the refrigerator and into learning I think.  Amazing for someone like me!  She  said how some kids don't realise WHERE they are, what they are doing, and that you have to find the right "key" to help them learn. 
     After he got up from his nap Daddy took him to the gym.  I thought about what she said while I did some pre-K with E and the new hair cut.  She is amazing, very patient and lets me cuddle with her and just read to her.  Girls are amazing.  I decided N would play a math game that I found today and he LOVED it.  He was adding with out it feeling like a lesson and asked if we could play it first thing the next morning too!  It's amazing.  The day may have started horribly but it ended with me understanding where to go with teaching N and how to make the days work better for us.  I'm sure I'll have more of those days, but hopefully with out the melt down before the answers come in.

This is a journey.

   I remember going to school and how much I LOVED learning, but then again how mean other kids were to me.  Those two things are so intertwined in my head, I can't remember my favorite teachers with out those kids on the playground popping up in my head.  Now, here I am with a kid who is almost 7 and going through the same thing.
   But it's not quiet the same thing.  He has ADHD and is SO SWEET. He has this amazing personality that just makes you love him.  Which is why I don't understand.  School is already sometimes hard for him and then pile the bullying on top.  Even with the best teacher and some great friends, I have no clue how he gets up in the morning wanting to go!  I think the straw was last week, he came home with gum in his hair from a kid who is always picking on him AND the school told me they'd tell me in July if he'd get ANY extra help in school.  Mind you, we've been trying all year to get them to help with him as school since I can't be in there with him.  SO....
     Now we're on to the next thing, and why we're onto this road, the less traveled.  We will be going into home school.  Is it an easy answer for us.  No, not by a long shot.  It came with prayer and trusting that God gave me a wonderfully amazing and loving little boy, who I want to STAY that way.  I don't want him to be me, I want him to be BETTER.  Stay who he is and not have to build up walls to keep himself safe.  He will be able to stay true to who he is and be able to get the education he deserves.  That is what I want for him.
    At first I was excited thinking of all the things we could do.  Field trips once a month, Spanish at home, cooking lessons, waking up a bit later.  ;)  All these things really appealed to me.  We actually already started the Spanish and he's asking for more "extra" work everyday, even thought school hasn't ended yet.  Then I kept looking and got overwhelmed.  There's so much to do!  Paper to file and send off, and tests at the end of the year, figuring out where to buy or get a curriculum for EACH subject.  There are tons of places to look.  Some is better than others and some costs a lot more than I thought possible.  It was a lot.  Over the last week I've read more on home schooling than I ever knew existed.  I'm just grateful that there is this much information out there to help people.  Now we're a little more settled at least for him, then onto finding my almost 5 year old's for kindergarten.  Thankfully I have the almost 3 year old's already.  :D  Everyone wants what's best for their children, and this is what's best for mine. 
     Hopefully it will make all the difference. 

Our road...

My whole life I knew I wanted kids, that I wanted to do the best for them and that I'd love them.  This is my road with my kids and more of a journal than anything.  It's mostly a reminder for me, for when they are older of our road that we have traveled on together.