Here are my angels on their first day.
Dakota on the first day of Preschool. This was our 3rd attempt at a picture.
Brianna on her first day of 6th grade.
Cailin on her first day of her 8th grade gap year. She has a goofy smile because of her uncle standing behind me.
Here they are my 2013-2014 class!
You know I still can’t believe how fast time flies. When we started our homeschool journey Cailin was going into 3rd and Brianna was in 1st and little man was just a hope and dream!
This is my life and the cause of my anxiety. The question of the last 3 months has been how in the heck am I going to homeschool 3 kids at 3 different levels without someone getting left behind or forgotten.
I have a preschooler who needs my attention to learn the basis of learning for the rest of his life. No pressure there!
I have a middle schooler who is severe special needs and is actually on a 3rd grade level.
I have a high schooler who doesn’t need as much guidance but still needs something to make it fun and engaging. Working out of a textbook day in and day out is not going to fly around here.
We are a hands on learning family. So needless to say this next year is going to be a major success or the death of me. Regardless it should make some great blog post.
Christmas Collage! Scroll over pictures for captions.
10 years ago I would have never thought I would be a homeschooling mom.
But now 6 years into this journey, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Let me paint you a picture of my former life.
I was a normal suburban mom. I got the kids up in the morning, fed them breakfast and off to school we went. Some days I would stay and volunteer all morning. Other days I did grocery shopping or leisurely shopping. I made lunch dates. Then I would go back and pick my kids up and go home to homework, dinner and bath time. And always couldn’t wait until bedtime. OH MY bedtime couldn’t come fast enough. One year I was even a PTA board member. Voted as volunteer of the year in our school! Homeschooling never even crossed my mind. I loved being away from my kids.
So how in the world did I become a homeschooling mom?
We moved out to the country. And people weren’t as nice as they were in our old neighborhood. I wasn’t embraced by the school, teachers or PTA and neither were my kids. We came in the middle of the year and that made us different. Why I am not sure? Tons of people move schools in the middle of a school year. Out here it made us outcast. I had a daughter who was brilliant and they couldn’t see it. And a daughter that would freeze and have a panic attack at the mention of a test and they didn’t care.
Down here in Florida we have an annual test called the FCAT. Like a standardize test, but Florida thought it would be fun to say if you don’t pass this test in 3rd or 12th grade, you don’t pass or get a diploma. So the teachers were under pressure and they put their students under pressure. This wasn’t a good situation for someone with a test anxiety. So I talked to the teachers. The results were deal with it because the State of Florida says this is the way it is. Let me tell you, I tried to walk away from this teacher without an argument. But she followed me out into the hallway and confronted me. After a huge argument which got me labeled as the Bitch mom. I walked away and decided no one was going to tell me to deal with it. This was the day we decided to homeschool.
At first it started with just my oldest two children. But half-way through the year, my youngest joined. Over the years, my kids have chosen home or school. I think we finally got it right with my oldest in a regular public school and my 3 youngest homeschooling. It fits everyone’s personalities and makes everyone happy.
It isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. And there are days when I am like what was I thinking!?! But to see my test anxiety child, who hated reading and took 3 hours to write spelling sentences, pick up a book on her own and fall in love with the characters and stories was amazing. To see her read a 700 page book with joy, unbelievable. And now I am experiencing it with my special needs child. Who always felt safer to stick with the easy reader books, branch out and found, not 1 but 2 series that has her excited for our library trips. There were tears, fights, judgement and criticism. Still is.
But I have seen so much and learned so much through homeschooling and my kids.
I realized I love them more everyday! And being with them to watch them grow is a blessing.
Our yard has finally dried up and is somewhat back to normal. And it happened just in time. We have had some BEAUTIFUL weather lately. The kids and I had to take advantage of it. With all the rain and mud, cabin fever was beginning to set in. Not a pretty site with 4 kids and 3 dogs.
So as soon as we could we took our learning outside.
And then the wind started blowing and what does a kid always want to do on a windy day……
Fly kites!
I was lucky to have found some clearance kites at the end of summer at Walmart. And the kids were itching to get them out and in the sky.
Lil man did fantastic!
One fun thing did come from all that rain and standing water in our yard. TADPOLES!!
I have never seen tadpoles before. Yes I know I am deprived. But ya know I was a city girl!
So when the kids told me they saw a ton of tadpoles, I had to see for myself.
And then we had to catch some.
Luckily,I had a tank leftover from our pet turtle that we released in our pond last summer.
We kept them for a week or so and then released them.
Our second week of school was a lot more productive. We learned the letter B and color green. We mostly did coloring pages which Lil man is happy doing but he especially loves hands on stuff. His 3 favorite activities were the letter B has a Boo-Boo, Stamp the B’s and Big Brown Bear.
Letter B has a Boo-Boo~ We took the letter B and then Dakota covered it in band-aids. He loved digging threw the container and finding the different kinds of band-aids.
Stamp the B’s~ I got the printable from the blog 1plus1plusequals1 and we used a bingo marker from the Dollar store to stamp the B’s.
Big Brown Bear~ I found an adorable bear picture for him to color while reading Brown, Brown Bear What Do You See. And then we glued googly eyes.
I have learned that anything involving paint, glue, a glue stick or stamper is right up my son’s alley.
When we started back to school this year, I was excited to find I have a very eager 3 year old wanting to participate too. This is both a blessing and a pain in my butt. But I have 4 kids so adding to my craziness is not hard. Last year he would sporadically do school. But now he wants more structure and more learning. He wants paint, glue, pencils and books. He even had to have his own backpack. And he specifically asked for his ABC’s.
Letter A~
For the most part we are sticking to the letters and just recognizing them. But I also throw in some shapes and colors once in a while because he knows those. And we have a monthly number we learn.
This was letter A. We colored alligators and practice tracing lines.
We painted a red apple.
And we traced his hand and arm to make a tree. Then glued red pom-poms for apples.
This was a slow week for us.
Wait until you see letter B.
Growing a Large Family 