Sunshine - 5 month stats

Weight - 22.6 lbs

Height - 31.5 inches

Head - 18.5 inches

June 16th, 2011

The "Modified" Homeschool Mother's Journey...v2...The one where I talk about our 2011-2012 curriculum

If you want to join in on this meme, head over to The Homeschool Chick for The Homeschool Mother's Journey. She's provided some fun questions to answer each week!  And she's even doing a Summer Edition now!! 

In our homeschool this week next year...

I honestly feel sorry for the people that had to counsel me during my curriculum research.  My personality type tends to be more towards the "let's jump on the first train riding by" rather than "let's wait awhile and make sure it's the right train first."  As soon as I was certain homeschooling was for our family, I wanted everything done; the books bought, the schoolroom put together, the lesson plan in order.  It took a lot of prayer and a lot of guidance from some experienced homeschooling mommies to calm me down and rethink the train our family would be boarding.  I definitely rode a few on the way though...the Seton train, the Well-Trained Mind train, the Mother of Divine Grace train, the Catholic Heritage Curricula train, the Mater Amabilis train.

And here is where these trains finally dropped us off..

*This is only for Zep, who will be entering first grade.  Bright Eyes will be in 4K, so he will mostly be just hanging out with us and/or Sunshine.

Language Arts

• Literature (Tales/Fables/Classics/Poetry) - We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan.
• Writing - Writing With Ease Level 1
• Grammar - First Language Lessons Level 1 & Language of God Level A
• Phonics - Little Angel Readers B,C, & D
• Handwriting - Handwriting 1 for Young Catholics
• Read aloud and silent reading - First Grade Faith and Freedom Readers & Scholastic Level 1 & & 2 books.

Math

• Saxon Math 1

History

• Story of the World: Volume 1

Religion

• We'll be following the Mater Amabilis lesson plan for religion.
• Hubby is going to teach the kids an extra amount of catechism in the evening after dinner from The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism. 

Science

• Noeo Science: Biology I

Geography

• Maps, Charts, and Graphs Level A

Art Appreciation

• Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It's A Renoir! Intermediate

Music

• Piano lessons given by the famous pianist, ME!  Yeah right, I'm just hoping I can teach him to read music!!
• 36 Traditional Catholic Hymns and several other classical pieces that we'll listen to before bed each night.

And that's it folks!!!  After months and months of struggling with what to do next year...this is it!  Am I expecting it to go as wonderfully as my mind is dreaming it...absolutely not!!  I'm pretty sure we'll be doing a lot of shifting as the year goes on.  I'm not a teacher, but I love my children.  And maybe, just maybe we'll learn to love to learn together!!!

Small Successes v2

Join Sherry over at Chocolate For Your Brain for this week's Small Successes link-up!!!

When I sat down to review my week, I had a hard time thinking of things to list as successes.  Really, this week has been a big ol' pile of you-know-what for me!  I'm overly emotional and just plain tired!

I think I had this beautiful vision of how this summer was going to go, and so far (week two) it's not living up to that!  So...guess what folks...next week I'm changing that.  We're taking the week off!!  The only thing on my schedule is an orthopedic appointment and our monthly Confraternity of Christian Mother's Mass.  Beyond these and grocery shopping, we will be doing NOTHING!!!  Nothing, that is, except for what is on my very detailed daily schedule.  The schedule that I love.  The schedule that allows me time to play with my kids and sit for an hour in the afternoon and just breath.  I complained so often about the hustle and bustle of the school year and here I've gone and just transferred it to our summer!  So to my friends...if I don't answer the phone or return your email...it's because I've declared next week OUR time!  We'll chat and hang out soon, I promise!  I just need to regroup!

And here are the successes I was able to pry out of my brain...

• We now have 24 meals cooked and frozen in the freezer!!  Can I tell you how freeing it is to just quickly heat up something 10 minutes before hubby is due to arrive home??  It's absolutely amazing!! 
• I vacuumed and mopped the downstairs floor!!  I was feeling pretty good about that until about 50 kids ran through the house full of mud and sand.  Oh well, so is the life of a stay-at-home mom.
• I finished a wonderful book titled Following Mary to Jesus.  I really recommend it to anyone who's looking for an easy read.  I have a strong devotion to Mary.  I often ask her to intercede in prayer for me when I need something especially important.  When I'm sick or can't sleep, I often envision her in the room with me lying her hand on my head to comfort me or placing her beautiful blue shawl over me for warmth.  The book did a wonderful job explaining how through Mary we are able to know her Son even more.  For who knew Jesus better than his own mother??   

If you'd like to toot your horn a bit too, join the link-up over at Chocolate For Your Brain!!

The Homeschool Mother's Journey...v1

I'm becoming slightly addicted to the blogging world of link-ups and memes (pronounced like dreams).  I love that they give me a place to start when it comes to writing.  Although, I'm pretty good at spitting out enough words (notice I didn't say good words) to fill a blog space, I'm horrible when it comes to thinking of fresh ideas. 

I came across The Homeschool Mother's Journey meme on one of the 5 billion homeschool blogs I follow.  And since "real" school has officially ended, I've decided to start calling myself a homeschooling mommy.  It's my school and I can call myself what I want to!  :)   In my defense, we have been doing some schoolwork, so I am technically teaching!

If you want to join in on this meme, head over to The Homeschool Chick for The Homeschool Mother's Journey.  She's provided some fun questions to answer each week!

 

In my life this week…

We're trying to settle into a summer groove.  This week has been a bad example of how weeks to come will go.  Tuesday was truly the only uneventful day we had.  The rest of the week we had some friends come over to play, I was finally able to take Bright Eyes to have his speech evaluated (he passed!), and then we had family in town for an evening.  I'm truly hoping that next week is more of a "normal" week, and we'll be able to get on schedule.

In our homeschool this week…

We're focusing this summer on math and reading...especially on reading.  If you know me even a little, you know that I'm ridiculous when it comes to planning.  The summer schedule is a pretty crazy example of that.  It's color coded and time stamped!  I'm insane, I know!  But so far, so good!  The boys alternated between working with me on their bookwork and doing their lessons on the computer.  And our sweet Sunshine was very sweet to us and slept until 9 each morning allowing us lots of time to finish things!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This question stinks!!  Today, I should be lounging poolside with my best friend enjoying her husband's famous mojitos.  But, I'm too chicken to be too far from the hospital in case Bright Eyes has a relapse, so here I sit...on my couch!  I guess it turned out okay, because Sunshine has come down with some sort of illness and keeps spiking a fever.  That would have been zero fun at the beach.  We did have some special visitors yesterday and today...Gramma, Bop-Bop, and Aunt C!

My favorite thing this week was…

Ultreya!  Without question....have YOU thought about going on a Cursillo weekend?????

What’s working/not working for us…

I'm absolutely loving Saxon math.  The meeting is wonderful!  I was surprised to find that Zep really didn't understand the whole month/year/date thing.  The rest of the lesson is incredibly easy, so I'm really glad we're beginning it early.  Hopefully, by the time we start learning new material it'll be just about time to kick-off the new school year.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Poor Bop-Bop thought he was going out to enjoy some quiet time with his newspaper and coffee!!  Two little boys thought it would be fun to follow suit! 

Small Successes v1

In the past, Faith and Family Live has hosted a link-up each Thursday called Small Successes.  Recently, Sherry, over at Chocolate For Your Brain, has taken on the hosting roll!  I've been stalking several bloggers who regularly take part in this link-up, and have loved the concept and loved reading the things they've shared. 

In the busy world of mommy hood, rarely do we take time to pat ourselves on the back for things that we have been able to accomplish.  These especially include...the little things.  I don't know about you girls, but sometimes the only success I feel in a day is that I've managed to wipe the kitchen counters clean, about 50 times!

I, too often, spend all my time hashing over the things I screwed up each day...and believe me, there's a whole lot of hashing to do on that subject!!  But, I really think it's more important to reflect back on our week and see what good we were able to do.  This can include extra time spent with the kids, fitting an extra decade of the rosary into the day, finishing a great book, or just finally getting to bed at a reasonable hour.  This is what Small Successes is all about.  Simply three things you've succeeded at!

So, excuse me now while I toot my own horn a bit!  :)

•  Last year the boys and I decided to do a wildflower garden just outside our back porch.  We threw down some seeds, covered the area with dirt, and watered it when the thought crossed our minds.  The window beyond the kitchen table soon became my favorite place to sit.  I was able to admire our garden from there.  Every day dozens of butterflies would visit our garden as well as several hummingbirds.  I promised the boys that we'd plant another garden this year.  This week we finally did!  I loaded up the kids and made the trip to Home Depot.  Hopefully, in a couple weeks we'll have an assortment of beautiful flowers growing once again!
• About five years ago, my neighbor introduced me to the concept of once a month cooking.  It intrigued me but never enough for me to try it.  I think with our first year of homeschooling creeping up on us, I'm desperate to make things as simple as possible around here.  So, I borrowed my neighbors book and went to work creating my first once a month cooking shopping list.  I finished purchasing everything today.  This weekend will be a marathon of cooking as I attempt to cook and freeze 27 meals!  I'm praying this works well.  Do you know how wonderful it would be to not have to cook a meal every single evening????
• And lastly, I managed to make it through Zep's graduation ceremony without a COMPLETE breakdown.  There was definitely a breakdown, it just wasn't completely horrible!  I can't believe he's big enough to be in 1st grade now.  Plus I had the added emotion of saying goodbye to teachers (especially the pre-K ones) and knowing that this would be the last time I would share these sort of memories with my best friends.

If you'd like to toot your horn a bit too, join the link-up over at Chocolate For Your Brain!!

A Wednesday Morning Blessing...

I've had a rough couple of days.  My emotions are all over the place.  Thankfully, I was able to call a good friend to just sit with me on Monday.  And then yesterday, I totally lost my cool and went on a rampage.  Thankfully, again, I was able to attend our monthly Ultreya last evening.  The peace that all my wonderful Cursillo sisters and brothers provide me is unmeasurable! 

I wish I could put my feelings into words.  I'm overwhelmed.  I look at my son, and from the surface, he looks fine.  But I know that inside that beautiful little boy is a heart that is damaged.  I'm constantly searching every inch of his body for rashes or signs that the disease has returned.  The poor kid!  I'm sure if I ask to look at his bottom or stick out his tongue one more time he's going to start screaming at me.  Thankfully, we'll be able to see his cardiologist next week to see if the condition of his left coronary artery has changed any.  We're praying that all has returned to normal.  If so, I think we can move on with our lives with just the precaution of a heart healthy diet and a watchful eye of arthritic pain.  It's obviously not the life you want for any of your children, but we'll take whatever we can get.

God gave me a special blessing this morning when I turned on the radio.  I needed to hear this today.  I needed to be reminded that it's okay to be sad and upset.

When listening to the song it also reminded me of a fellow mommy friend of mine who is also going through some tough stuff with her own son who was recently diagnosed with Type I diabetes.  So, YankeeBelle, this is for you too!

Chronicles of a soon-to-be homeschooling mom...v3

Tomorrow Zep will take his walk down the aisle of the church and "officially" graduate from Kindergarten.  I've been anxiously awaiting this day for the last several months.  The day when I'm no longer rushing to school in the morning, rushing home in the evening, and trying somewhere in there to connect with my kids.  And now the day is upon me...and I'm scared &*"#*$&#!!! 

I've watched the Facebooks posts: 

What am I going to do with my kids home ALL summer!
I can't believe my preschooler will be gone all week next year!
We're so excited for the break during the summer!

I'm not much of a status Facebooker; I much prefer to stalk other's status' instead.  If I were to type up a status today it would read something like...

Starting tomorrow what in the world am I going to do with my children until they go to college??  They're really going to be with me EVERY SINGLE DAY??!!!  Will I ever get a break again??

Scared = Me!!  I've heard that the first year is the hardest.  Sticking through that year will be the determining factor on how well this will work for me.  I'm getting rid of all the uniforms, and I've already spent an arm and a leg at IKEA, so we have no choice but to make homeschooling work.  Plus, all those wonderful ladies at the convention pretty much made me feel guilty to ever want to part with my children again!!!  Not to mention the books I've read in support of homeschooling.  I feel like the apostles after first seeing Jesus resurrected..suddenly my eyes were opened!  I know that this is for the long haul.  We previously thought we'd think about high school when we got there.  But even now, I kinda think they'll stay home then as well.  Heck, if we've made it that far...why not continue!!

Besides being scared, I'm excited!!  I can't wait to watch my children learn.  Zep has gotten into this reading kick lately.  All he wants to do is sit in my lap and read to me.  And not to brag or anything (okay, maybe I'm bragging a little), but he's pretty dang good!  It makes my heart sing to hear him read.  I'm excited to become a part of the wonderful Catholic homeschooling group in our area.  I've already met some incredibly faithful women.  I can't wait to learn from them and feed off their Jesus vibes!

So, tomorrow...I'll probably cry.  A lot of the friends I've made at our school will become distant memories.  With four weekend Masses, we're very likely to miss one another.  The dreams that I once had for my children have changed.  Their friends will change, as will mine.  Although scared and excited, I'm ready.  I'm ready for the new adventure..the one that waits beyond the Kindergarten graduation!