Homeschool Fun

Has it really been a year since I've last posted in this blog? Seems almost impossible how quickly time is passing. The boys are another year older and hopefully wiser. I know that every year I'm learning something new. This journey is a constant, ever evolving cycle of hills, mountains, plateaus and slopes. Right now I feel like I'm climbing Everest and gasping for air. It's almost like being in a bubble floating in the ocean and getting tossed around by the waves. My health hasn't been the best this past year but things are looking up and every day I'm finding a silver lining among the clouds. It's not always easy but I will get there. The boys are enjoying this year of schooling. We have gotten into a good routine and unlike last year I have them doing a lot of writing. I was more relaxed last year and they got somewhat lazy since they were on the computer a lot. This year I feel things are balanced more. They do computer lab on Monday's and Fridays. The rest of the week we work on devotions, workbooks, math, reading comprehension and art. We have covered a lot in just a month and a 1/2 of school and already have a full binder of work to show for it. We don't need an evaluator yet so I do not need to keep all their work, I just choose to do so and at the end of the year I choose the best to keep in a folder where I return to process review material for the summer months. We do our testing at the end of each quarter on what we learned that 3-4 months. It's a great way to gauge where we are and where we're going. I'm anxious to see how the rest of the school year goes and I promise to update more than 1x this year :)

It's a beautiful day

I think I could get used to this early morning blogging routine. The dark silence of this hour is thought provoking and peaceful. I typically will get up with John for work and make him lunch after which I wait for a text telling me that he got there safely before I lay back down for a couple more hours of sleep. The boys will generally start stirring around 9 am or so but last night they got to bed late because of our meeting. Most likely they will sleep in till 10 or after so I may even get to sleep in a little while if I'm lucky. It's supposed to be a beautiful day so I'd like to take a walk, maybe go to the park with them. I charged my camera battery so I will be spending a lot of time this weekend trying to get some nice pictures of them. Sunday will hopefully be a nice family day spent with each other at the pumpkin farm. I am excited to share pumpkin carving with them again this year if I can get them to reach down in and scoop out the gross goo and seeds. Last year neither one of them seem too interested in touching any of it so hopefully they will be more enthusiastic this year. Heather and I ended up carving almost all of the pumpkins for the boys because they bailed on us at the last minute. They turned out nice none the less and we had a good time.

Our school routine has been kind of sporadic over these past few weeks because of the move. We have been doing a lot of online learning. I paid for a subscription for More Starfall last year so that they could spend some time learning math and reading on the computer. After that I found another program that I love that is so much nicer. It tracks their progress and makes learning more individualized. It's called Reading eggs. They have a math section called Math Seeds and they boys really like the material. Ian's reading is coming a long wonderfully. He's progressing in his word formation and pronunciation. He likes to read and will ask questions if he's unsure of a word. Aevan also is reading a lot though his is more by memorization at this point. I'm proud of their progress. I know that Ian is above average in most area's and Aevan, although he hasn't been evaluated is also further ahead than most kindergarten students. I'm guessing he's at the 1st or 2nd grade level in most categories as well. Ian is mostly in the end of 2nd or 3rd grade. By the end of this school year I'm anticipating that they will both be testing even further ahead of their age group.

On average most home schooled children learn quickly and adapt more rapidly to changes in learning routines. It's nice to sometimes do things differently or think outside the box. When it's nice outside I enjoy just taking the day to spend at the park reading or allowing the boys time to play with other kids and socialize. They attend Awana's on Wednesday's and enjoy it though we missed the last couple of weeks due to Aevan misplacing his shoes after the move and then Ian having a fever this week and pink eye. He's doing much better now that he's had antibiotic but I'm praying that we don't fight flu all winter like last year. The boys are hardly (if ever) sick but I will say, last year was nightmarish when it comes to the flu. Ian had the stomach bug and was vomiting a lot from it. Aevan even got sick with the vomiting and he never did prior to last year. In fact last year was the 1st time ever since he was a baby that he got physically sick with the exception of needing breathing treatments a couple of times during the winter. I'm anticipating this year won't be as bad because this house is better, it's not nearly as dusty because there aren't so many allergens without carpet.

Well I'm off to nap before I run out of time. I need to get more beauty sleep. Enjoy your day!

I have been sitting here trying to blog while the boys are eating cereal and it's nearly impossible. In between questions about electric wires and Ian sharing with me about blood sugar and why it's important to have snacks when it's low, I keep staring out the window looking at this beautiful fall day God has created. One thing that amazes me is that school is never over. The boys continue to ask questions through out the day, some of which amaze me. Sometimes I have the answers, other times I find myself becoming the student. 

I used to worry that I wouldn't be knowledgeable enough to home school, that somehow I would mess up. I worried that my children would miss out on valuable teaching material that other kids in brick and mortar schools were learning. Although my kids are younger and have only been home schooled for going on 2 years now the validation that I needed came to me by a rather odd source. I had considered putting the kids in the public school close to us this year (not by choice but more necessity) to help bring additional income into the home, I was preparing to return to work force. John was not on board at all with the decision and wanted me to continue educating them from home. I got him to agree with me at least speaking with the school and when I did, the school psychologist evaluated Ian per the principles request because of ~WAIT FOR IT~ lack of socialization of the 1st year. I nearly spit my drink across the room in his face when he spoke the words. I mean really? There is still such a stigma in relation to homeschooling even in this modern society. Just because my child is taught from home doesn't mean we live like hermits and that they never get to interact with other children. It infuriates me when people make assumptions but the shrink quickly put any of that insecurity to rest within minutes after the evaluation. Ian had tested in 2nd or 3rd grade level on nearly every category. He was on target or above average in every area, in fact the school psychologist even questioned why I decided to stop homeschooling when it was working so wonderfully. When I went on to explain that we needed to have an additional income coming into the home he was sympathetic but encouraging. He said that I was doing amazing with it and that the boys seemed well adjusted and educated. The kicker came after the compliments when he told me that in fact, him and his wife had decided to pull their 4 children and home school them for the 1st time this year. That's when the light bulb went off and I had the ah ha moment.

You see, we are destined as parents and teachers to make mistakes. We will have doubts and fears but that's normal. If you are anything like me you will strive for perfection and push yourself to do better every time. The important thing is that you remember above all else to show constant love, consideration and appreciation for the effort your child makes. Push positive reinforcement, don't give up and always, always know that you are not alone in the journey. There are others that have your back. Find groups that will support you. A place where you can ask questions and get valuable insight. Even when you're the one in charge, it helps to have others who understand and support you along the way. :)

New Beginnings

Welcome to my newest blog "Chasing Rainbows". Primarily this blog has been created to share with you some occasional sweetness, sometimes craziness but always interesting days I spend while homeschooling/unschooling my 2 boys ages 5 and 6. I always knew (well mostly) that I would teach them myself. I never truly imagined the challenges I would face and the uncertainty that each day would create but I stand by my decision and am happy that I am (well trying to) find balance with this hectic and busy life I call my own. Ian and Aevan have completely different learning styles. That in itself can be challenging but the awesome thing with being a homeschooler is, you learn what style works best for your individual child and that happens rather quickly. It didn't take much time for me to see that what works for Ian wouldn't work for Aevan and to my dismay I had to adjust things accordingly almost from day 1. Initially I thought I would find a curriculum based category for each child and stick with it the entire school year. After about 2 or 3 years of looking through (and I mean through TON'S and TON'S of reviews and curriculum studies) I finally came to the conclusion that I needed to find a way to teach that didn't necessarily require a commitment to any specific company or educational material. After all I chose to school my children from home so that I could keep things simple and non-specific. Why would I teach from what I was presumably running away from?

I think that everyone chooses this journey for a different reason. If you're a newbie like myself, you are still learning what you want out of this experience for your child/children. Everyone is different and the teaching techniques will require adjustment but honestly, we're all still learning... even us mom's. So sit back, relax and enjoy this season of your life. Will it be insanely crazy at times? Will your kids drive you bonkers and make you scratch your head (thinking, why, why did I choose this?) Yes, I assure you, it will happen. Hopefully you will have the great days too where you will see the sparkle in your child's eyes when he/she learns something new. When you create a magical world of learning at home and your child learns to read because "you" taught them how. Those milestones are incredible and just knowing you were able to be an instrumental tool in that process and journey is enough reward in itself. Thanks for being here and reading my blog. Please subscribe and share!