Heartbreaking seasons can certainly bring growth and growth brings light into darkened spaces.
My heart is lighter now and my perspective stronger. This year I will believe in myself and say goodbye to doubt, fear and comparison. This years goal is staying focused on my vision for our education, trusting in the process and staying grounded when storms come. Academics are as important as ever, but relationships will come first. I want to create a safe place for my kids to take risks, fail, and have space to figure out the solution. I want time to savor the beauty of good books, poetry, art, music, nature and big juicy conversations. Keeping up will no longer be apart of my mindset as I form an atmosphere of love, joy and curiosity. This is our journey and I am the captain of our ship standing firm in my calling and trusting in the one who called. So, we set sail into a new year full of hope and possibilities...
These first three weeks have been the best consecutive three weeks of our homeschooling. I'm striving not to focus on the to do list but instead on the to be list, so these past weeks haven't been good because we are being productive in the typical sense. We have been focused on getting back into a routine, slowly adding lessons as we slide back in. The kids started their Tuesday coop at Timothy Ministries about four weeks ago. At home, Religion and read alouds (The Hobbit) have been most consistent. We love our saints book ,57 Saints, and are enjoying reading about the early church of acts in The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children by Marigold Hunt. The Hobbit is the highlight of our days. It is so fun delving into this literary delight while sipping on speriment tea and Nutella hot chocolate with. We are planning a Hobbit party for when we finish where we'll have honey cakes and tea and the kids want to dress up like the characters. Joseph has spent a good bit of time working on Timothy homework (History, STEM, and speech). For math we've been playing games (I haven't bought our math books yet). We've watched nature videos (National Parks: Great Smokie Mountains, Monster Fish) for science and How the States Got There Shape for geography. With Mother Theresa's recent canonization, we spent a couple days talking about her and the canonization process, reading her book "Loving Jesus", and watched a video on her. Emma and Joseph have gotten hooked by the duolingo app. Emma is learning Italian and Joseph German. It's fun to listen to how excited they are to learn another language and the plans they have to learn many more. Bennett wants to learn Spanish. Emma, Ben and William alternate days that they read aloud to me and days they read on their own. This is much better than what I was doing last year, trying to have each of them read aloud to me every day. My relaxing a bit seems to have a positive affect on Bennett's affections for reading. He picked out some readers that interested him and even picked one he would work up to and dissed a few that weren't challenging enough. Emma has been enjoying picture books. She says chapter books are too overwhelming for read alouds. She's really enjoys the picture books though. William is progressing steadily and we read until he gets tired. His efforts to try and his attitude when he fails is encouraging.
These three also practice their recorders 10 min. every day...or at least that's what we're shooting for.William and Maria have been working through activities they get from their monthly box from Ivykids subscription (LOVE this box full of fun and easy activities and a book that ties them all together...great purchase!). My Mom and Dad surprised us one morning by taking them all to Tellus for a Lunch and Learn on gems. We also had a fun meet up with old and new friends at Swift Cantrell Park to scope out a new coop we will take part in on Fridays. Maria, Dianna, Andrew and I had our first day back at Ms. Joy's (NLA) this Tuesday. Maria had a wonderful time doing science, art, playing on the playground, sharing and making new friends. She can't wait to go back! We also started back to church choir this week. William and Maria joined the Angel choir and Emma is continuing with the Pueri choir. There has been a lot of creativity and imaginings going on in the kids spare time as well...Plays, talent shows, kids club meetings, minecraft, writing books, watercolor painting, playdoh, weaving pot holders, plans for a pot holder business, sewing, cooking, playing outside and enjoying the lake at red top one weekend and labor day. My biggest challenge is taking care of myself and keeping the littles (especially Dianna) content while doing lessons with the olders. I am utilizing my olders by taking turns on Dianna duty, but when we're doing our family lessons it can be a real struggle.
