The Homeschool Mother's Journal

  
I saw this on another blog and thought it would be fun to participate (click the picture to join in), so here goes!

In my life this week...  

 I've been struggling with some personal and family issues that are hitting me hard. At times they make it hard to concentrate on the things I need to focus on, but still I truck on. Sometimes I let them get the best of me, and I start to think/feel negatively, but I'm lucky to have a great husband, children, and friends who remind me that everything is going to be okay. 

My health is also starting to act up again, and I think it's time for another visit to the Dr.'s.

In our homeschool this week...

We've been pacing ourselves to get through our work. We don't want to finish too soon for a couple of reasons. The first being that we have state requirements to meet, in which my children need to attend 175 days of school, which we won't finish until mid June (if we continue to take weekends off). The second being that I haven't yet purchased all of our books for the next school year, and I only want to give the kids a weeks break for summer before starting back up.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

The only places we've went this week is to gymnastics, and ballet. We did run a few errands, to pay for a capoeira class (for the boys) that will start in May, and to the dance store to buy new tap shoes. We have some field trips planned for this coming week, so that we can send our flat travelers home with some awesome pictures.

My favorite thing this week was...

Reading together. These are the little things that I took for granted when my kids went to public school. The book choices weren't ours, there was no enjoyment, and it was forced. Things are so much more enjoyable, exciting, and we actually look forward to it now.

What's working/not working for us...

Language Arts. My Babe just keeps questioning things that our Abeka books say, and it's no longer a fit for us. I want him to be more concerned with what the concepts are, and instead he's worried about what he's correcting. We are now leaning towards a more secular learning approach, which I think will be a better fit for our family. But I still wouldn't mind tossing some religious learning in (on the kids terms).

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I still wonder how other families who are homeschooling multiple children juggle the financial aspect of it all. I know most are one income families (like us), but it takes us a while to purchase all of our books for the year. I've been laminating and/or putting sheets in page protectors, and having the children do their work using dry erase markers, so that I can re-use materials for the other children. My husband is concerned about me using this method, because we don't have samples of all of the work the boys do. Everything they do on paper I save, and I take a lot of pictures, but not of everything. Any suggestions on this would be amazing!

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

My 3 year olds handwriting practice. She practices writing her name daily, and I'm very proud of the progress she's made since September (when all she did was scribble). She's still not getting the hang of the lower case a at the end, so it looks like she wrote Olivio instead of Olivia lol, but she'll get it :)

 I can't wait to see what everyone else is up to!