Transparency and Whiplash

I feel like so many times when I read a homeschooler's blog it is all sunshine and roses with 6 kids in matching jumpers playing violin and dancing over their math problems. Now if your kids all wear matching jumpers and are playing classical violin and beg to do extra math drills then bully for you and I don't want to hear about it...and quite frankly, neither does anyone else. So in the interest of transparency, this is what my week has been like. I think you will understand why I am suffering from whiplash as you read.

Sunday- We reminded the kids we were started school on Monday and gave them back to school gifts. This was well received (obviously). I posted about that with pictures a few posts back...if you are interested check it out.

Monday- School started with much wasted time over copywork (which is basically how we do handwriting practice here). I expected a little belly aching about copywork. I was not surprised by this. But I knew I would persevere and the boys would come to get it done. But besides that all was "sunshine and roses." I discovered how much we are going to like our Science curriculum. Day one-good! Glad we started school!

Tuesday- Copywork was another problem area. But when it gets done their handwriting is great. Lots of whining. I discovered how crappy the social studies book and my plans for it are. I think I am going to have to start over and come up with something else. It is a exciting as watching paint dry. This was not good! Went to a Homeschool Mom's Night Out at a friend's house. There were something like 14 homeschool mom's there (and a couple CUTE babies). Got some great ideas and encouragement. It was the best part of my day! Love you ladies!!

Wednesday- Part of our problem is distraction...so I asked Shane to pick up those tri-fold poster board things that kids use for science fairs to create "cubicles" for the boys. They like them. And after looking at another mom's handwriting curriculum (which was one I almost bought) I decided to change what we do for handwriting. I took those ideas and made the same plan for the boys today. It wasn't hard to duplicate. They did SO much better. It seems like something we can all live with. Science was great and SO MUCH FUN...the mess on the dining room table required us to eat 2 meals in the living room. Decided to get out of the house and go to Effingham and visit the library (LOVE Helen Matthes). It was great. We looked like the perfect homeschool family minus our matching jumpers. :) The boys played nicely. I checked out a BOATLOAD of books to make our study of Native Americans work. And, in the apparent intellectual setting of a library (even in the children's section), I brainstormed new ideas for how to make social studies work this term. We only had to go the bathroom once...Maverick seems to have a "thing" for pubic restrooms and we visit them more often than anyone should ever visit a public restroom. The big boys went to CCC Sport's Camp VBS. I spent the evening cleaning up the house which wasn't really so bad. Griffin and I laughed and played and had a dance!

Today- Apparently, ANY writing is going to be a problem. Woke up this morning with a headache that I have yet to kill. Aiden wasted over and hour complaining about his handwriting. Then he moved to complaining about phonics. Then he complained about math. He huffs and puffs and cries. I can stay calm for about the first 30 minutes and then I get angry...I realized me getting angry doesn't help anything...it just makes the nastiness spread. It is now 3 and he is finally finishing his math...he should finish school by 11 or 11:30 each day. I think maybe someone learned something...but I don't know who and I'm not sure what. And when I spend the whole morning trying to get them to focus I feel like Griffin gets ignored. Oh, and when I went outside to take care of the animals I discovered no one penned up the chickens last night. I thought Shane did when he came home from Sports Camp, he thought I did because I was home all evening. We now have dead chickens in the coop...it is pushing 95 degrees F today...that is NOT a good combination. So, it has been a horrible day and I would like the chance to start over.......

It is good to know I get that chance...tomorrow. I can go to bed at a decent hour tonight and get enough rest so hopefully I don't have a headache. I can start my day with Bible and prayer in the morning (instead of doing it after lunch) and not with email and facebook. I can know that every single homeschool parent has days like these even if they only share the sunshine and roses part.

OK, that was me being transparent (and a little tongue in cheek). I have nothing personal against jumpers, violin, or math problems. :) But I still don't really want to hear about your perfect day today...tell me tomorrow. If we stick with our pattern it should be a better day! :)

Organizationally Challenged!!

I love to plan! I like to have nice, neat organized spaces. I, unfortunately, am not good at keeping them that way. I try, I really do...but it seems like someone is always messing it up. Take my desk for instance. I clean it off and make myself a bunch of great workspace and within the day it is cluttered with papers, writing utensils, paper airplanes, books, legos, etc. It drives me crazy! How do people keep a space neat ALL the time!? Anyway, I try all the time to find ways to make my space neater. It is a work in progress! And if you see a picture that is all neat and tidy...don't feel guilty if your space isn't neat and tidy...know that I most likely cleaned it up just for that picture and it is messy by the time you see the photo. :)

Now for our "school closet." and the new and improved way I've got it organized. (Did I mention I am FOREVER trying to find ways to keep things neat and tidy?!?!)

So this is the school closet. It is actually a pantry that I don't use for food. I keep arts & craft supplies and supplies for our tot trays in there. I also keep tot trays ready to use in there. The hanging buckets store crayons, markers, colored pencils, and glue. I got them at the dollar tree. They are hanging from the wire shelves with "S" hooks from the hardware store (or maybe I got those at IKEA).


Our art supplies were getting out of control and were hard to find in the big bins I was storing them in. So I got an over the door shoe holder thing at Walmart for $10. It is PERFECT! It stores random craft supplies and containers for sorting. I love it!

The bottom shelves are for tot trays and puzzles. We use these only during school time. These are 4 tot trays the boys have for this week of school Those will change each week to practice different skills.

OK, so now you've seen it all organized....I wonder how long it will last!

Start of School!

Well, it is time to start school in the Cessna house. Summer break is over-rated. We lose so much educationally and I feel like I may just lose my mind. We take the break so we can do fun things but it is so hot and miserable outside I feel like we may as well be studying and getting a few weeks "ahead" to take extra breaks in the fall when the weather is nice (or whenever else a week off sounds nice).

This year Aiden will be "in" 1st grade, Maverick "in" Kindergarten and Griffin will be tagging along and doing some pre-school level work. I put "in" in quotation because we really do very little by the grade level. Our history book (The Complete Book of United States History) is a 3-5th grade book and we are just covering the parts that are appropriate and adding fun activities that address the time or subject we learned. We will also be covering some holidays and things like that. Both are already reading aloud and just need to work on flow and speed and comfort. They will still be doing Explode the Code to work out any kinks in our reading. Our Science curriculum (God's Design for Life by AIG) is also a multi-grade book. We are doing the "beginner" sections and will repeat the book when they get older and do the other sections. For math we are using Math U See. Aiden is partially through the Alpha level and Maverick will start the Primer this year. I don't really know how they coincide with public school math grade levels. We will also do doing copywork (for handwriting), Bible devotions and memory, be looking at and doing art, be ready poetry, and lots of read alouds. This is a huge paragragh and looks like we are way overbooked. But we won't do everything everyday and school will take about 2 hours if we don't whine and waste time. :)Here are our primary curriculum books (I only wish I had the bookends I've been looking for)

Griffin gets to do "tot trays" which can be found at www.1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com practicing skills like stringing beads, fill and spill (pouring), cutting, sorting, coloring, etc. They are a lot like "learning centers" in a daycare setting except he stays in one place and the learning comes to him on trays. He will also have "calendar time" each day to learn the days of the week and practice counting. He will be doing his tot trays at the table while the other boys are doing their other things and will hopefully soak a bit of what they are learning up. I will take some pictures and upload our tot trays soon. They really are pretty cool!

I also color coordinated all of their school supplies (which they will get as a back to school gift on Sunday night). Aiden is red, Maverick is blue, and Griffin is green. Their pencils, erasers, binders, scissors, etc are all "their color." They even have paper clips and highlighters in their colors. Makes everything easier to keep straight. And if I find something somewhere I know "whose" it is and who left it out and where it should be. Each child has his own drawer to keep his own supplies in.Each boy gets a binder, a notebook, and a little pencil box full of goodies in his color.

Each boy also gets a drawer with his name on it to keep his things in. And it will give me a place to put the things I find that are not in their correct place.

This is their little pencil box. It is packed full!!

Here are all their school goodies. I am obviously just showing the blue one. All of them have the same things. Pencils, scissors, heart paper clips, other clips, highlighter, pencil sharpener, soccer ball erasers, and a regular eraser.

YES! I love buying school supplies!! :D And I can't wait to get back to school!!!