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!