What our days look like so far

I cant believe we are starting our 5th week of kindergarten!  It seriously feels like I was just planning our 1st week a few days ago.  I'm not sure where time goes.  Any who, a lot has changed since my last homeschool blog which can be found HERE. After the first week, I realized the curriculum we picked at first was not for us.  Marleigh was slightly bored because we did a lot of what it wanted in preschool last year so she felt like we were just repeating the year all over again.  We ended up switching to Oak Meadow curriculum which can be found HERE. I will forever sing the praises of this curriculum!  It is the perfect fit for our family.  Its challenging enough for Marleigh to keep her excited each day for what we will be learning and is easy for me to keep up with & plan.  However, the days are not planned out to a T in the curriculum so I did struggle with this for the first couple of weeks.  I feel like Im finally finding my groove with it and I love the flexibility it offers us.  We follow it pretty closely, but also add in our own ideas too.  We are finally finding our daily rhythm, but Im sure as time goes on we will change and adjust more and more to our new adventure.

Right now our days look like this:
We start school around 9am once everyone is dressed and ready (some times we skip the getting dressed part).  We gather around for circle time which I love because Maddox can get involved with this too.  We start with lighting our circle time candle, say our morning verse, do finger plays and sing songs, discuss what we are doing that day, say our closing verse and the kids love to blow out the candle.  We then start with our morning main lesson.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we do language arts.  Tuesdays & Thursdays are Math.  This lasts anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes depending on what we are doing for the day.  After this they have an hour for creative play which is where they can mimic me doing house hold chores or they can play creatively on their own or we go on a field trip. We set up shelves up stairs that are organized with things for them to do on their own such as crafts, puzzles, games, etc...There's absolutely no TV allowed to fill in this space.


We then gather again for lunch.  After lunch we have an afternoon hour of school.  On Mondays and Thursdays are science.  Tuesdays are arts, crafts & baking day.  Wed is music & play date day.  Friday is health & hiking day. 



After this they are free to go do more creative play and then Marleigh helps prep for dinner.  Her job is to set the table, help cook, and she helps clean up.  After dinner and baths Maddox plays quietly in his room and I give Marleigh some kind of handwork to do to wind down for bed like finger knitting, embroidery, bees wax molding, etc...We then start our bed time routine and end with a story and start all over again the next day!

Its a lot of work, but I have enjoyed it so much!  Its been so great for me as Im now getting further away from the social media scene and Im really putting all of my focus in to my children.  They are happier because they have more of my attention and Im happy because they are so great!  When they have all of my attention on our school days their behavior is so wonderful.  Im not just saying that.  When you are there, body, mind, and heart, your kids will sense it and they will not act out for attention.  I especially love during the creative play hours and Marleigh chooses to help me around the house instead of playing.  We bond during that time and I then see her treating her brother in the way I treat her.  Maddox is picking up on our rhythm and loves to help clean.  Even tonight before bed he wouldn't go to sleep until we picked up all of his toys.  Its amazing how when we, as moms, turn these chores into a positive thing how it can change the outlook on it for our children.  And I like to think they will grow up into have great work aspects and will be able to maintain a clean and healthy home when they are on their own.
 

When we run errands I try to keep some sort of school structure.  For example, this past week we were working on the letter C & the number 2.  So while at the store Marleigh had to see how many she could find on the products.  If we need to grocery shop I make her a list too with pictures + words that I draw and she matches it to what she finds on the shelf.  This takes patience, but can be very beneficial.  I want her to learn real life lessons in the real world so this is a great first step that she can handle.  When we are out doing things like this she  is also out interacting with people of all ages and walks of life.  I hate that stereotypical comment about homeschool children being socially awkward.  When in life, besides in a classroom, are you stuck in a room with people all of the exact same age?  My bet is never.  At least not for me.



So there's a bit of a rundown on our schedule right now. Ill be blogging more of what our days look like soon!
xo

Comfort in a Cup

I seem to remember the most random parts + pieces of conversations & life.

For example,  the first time I saw my daughter I just remember blurting out, "Is her head always going to be shaped like that?"

 Or even the first time I saw my son I recall the first thing out of my mouth being, "He looks pissed."  Granted I was high on drugs from the emergency c section, but lets face it,  Im not the most romantic gal on the block.   My brain is totally random, Im not very clever with words, and I struggle often with the right thing to say.  And I cant remember shit. 

Maybe that's just motherhood?  Or maybe its just me...or ADD?  Im not sure, but its how my brain works.

Another example would be about 7 years ago in high school when I first met my best friend.  I don't remember much of our first conversations, but I do remember her telling me about her mom giving her hot jello to soothe her sore throat when she was a kid.

So you guessed it, as soon as one of my kids complain of a sore throat all I can think about is hot jello.

And that was no exception this morning with my little Marleigh woke of full of complaints instead of her usual chipper self.

The key I have found to this trick though is adding a heaping scoop of natural, local, the GOOD stuff, kind of honey.  Honey has so many healing powers and its just the ticket for a sore throat (as long as the sore throat is caused by a cold and not a virus).  Our lovely neighbors just happen to be bee farmers so its like a never, ending supply of the freshest stuff we can get just a hop, skip, and away.

When I get a sore throat I down apple cider vinegar, honey, lemon and hot water.  Theres no way my kids will drink that so the ticket for them would be....yep, you guessed it,  hot jello.

So as you can imagine she downed the drink and is now running around happy as a clam.  Her throat magically feels better and she is good to go.  I will make her gargle salt water for safe measures in just a bit, but for now this works.  And it works wonders if you have picky kids that wouldn't dare swallow a spoonful of honey. 

A Place to Breathe

After much debate I finally decided to start up this little blog.  A space to breathe away from my photography blog and facebook.  A place where I can share more of a personal peek into our lives for our family far away and as a virtual scrapbook to document our story.   This is a space for my main role in life: mom & wife and its where I will share how we do things for school, our progress on becoming self sufficient, recipes, and well, just a place to put my thoughts. 

I hope you will check in often and follow our story :)