Happy Tuesday!

     LH and WYH playing Reading Eggs.

I hope your week is starting out good. Thankfully ours is going smooth so far. After our last few it is a welcome relief. We are hoping to get through some extra chapters of Life of Fred Math this week. WH is really coming along in his math skills. We aren’t were the public schools would say we should be, but we want to make sure the boys comprehend before moving on to something new. I love Life of Fred. Even though he may introduce some new things he keeps reviewing things from past lessons. That is proving to help WH retain what he is learning. We just started new science and history lessons. If you are looking for affordable lessons or just some supplemental lessons check out schoolhouseteachers.com.  WH is very excited because he chose to take Animal Science and Who’s Who in WW2 for History.  It is all self paced and you can stop or start a subject when you want to. They also have planners and record keeping tools for you to use. So far I am very happy with all the resources and support. If you can’t afford the monthly fee you can even earn your subscription by helping write lessons, which is not very difficult.

Anyway back to us. WH did great on his first science and history lesson we did. He loves both of those subjects.

LH and WYH practiced writing the letter “A” and learning the sounds it makes. They had a lot of fun finding objects in a picture and counting  how many things they found. I have noticed LH is having a little trouble remembering names of letters and some sight words we have been working on. I guess we will just have to continue to work on it and find some ways to make it fun. If anyone has any suggestions please comment below. I do not want to push him too fast, but I also don’t want him to get to bored or frustrated. WYH is doing well. I do not push him to do much yet. I am mostly just introducing things to him this year. He does amaze me with the things he grasps already. Kids are so smart, we just have to help them find the right way of learning for each individual one of them. I guess I better get myself moving. Have a wonderful day!

Monday’s Encouragement

Joshua 1:9 (NIV)

⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

I think this verse is perfect for many of us. It hits on two issues we face as homeschooling parents. Fear and  discouragement. I have faced both of these square in the face more than once. When we decided to pull WH out of the online school and go full speed ahead into homeschooling God’s way I was terrified. I didn’t feel I had the right stuff in me to do it. I prayed a lot and He did help me overcome my fear. It still creeps in every so often, but thanks to God I am able to get through it.

As for being discouraged, that is an easy one to get into. We don’t feel we are doing good enough or why isn’t he or she getting this, we have gone over it 100 times. There are thousands of things to discourage us in homeschooling and in life. We need to remember that, yep, it does take some kids a hundred times to get something understood and you are good enough to do this. Whatever the issue is that is discouraging you, trust in God and lean on Him for strength. You can do it!

There may be other issues that cause you fear or  discouragement, but no matter the reason if you trust and rely on God to help you, you will make it.  So, be strong, be courageous and know that you are worthy in God’s eyes and  those are the only eyes that matter.

I pray that you all are released from any fear or discouragement that you are feeling. I ask Jesus to fill you with strength, hope and courage. That you will know that with Him you can pull through the difficult times and that He will show you what to do.

I hope you have a wonderful day!  Be strong! Be courageous! 

Fri….I mean Thursday!

I sure hate it when I think it is Friday when I wake up, but then realize it is only Thursday. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE homeschooling and being with my boys, but the weekend means time with my boys and my husband. I always look forward to that. Oh well, we will have fun and wait one more day.

Yesterday was a very good day in school. WH had a Lego challenge to make a new type of rocket.  I always find it interesting to see what his imagination comes up with. I pictured one thing, but he came up with a totally different kind of rocket and it was awesome.

He also did a great job finishing up his book report worksheets. No complaining and fixed all his mistakes with out any trouble at all. I was very proud of him. The miracle to all miracles he even washed the dishes without complaining. Talk about a good day!  Lol. I told you I was going to teach him to do laundry yesterday, but we didn’t get to that. Hopefully we will today…..my laundry really needs to get done. Lol.

LH and WYH did an amazing job on their schooling yesterday too. I never thought they would love doing activity worksheets so much, but they do. I think they each did about 4 or 5 and did a fantastic job.

Although I can not change how We started off with WH in online public school. I am so glad we changed to a child lead learning style. The boys learn as their minds are ready and we don’t usually have any bad school days. We use all things in life to teach and we show them God’s love and beauty in His creations. Have a great day and take some time to enjoy God’s beautiful world. 

Too cute!

As I sit here keeping an eye on WYH taking a bath, he asks to add bubbles. He makes his bubble beard like always and it is a really good one. I asked him if I could take a picture of it. He quickly wipes it off and says, “Too late, it’s deleted!”  Lol. This kid is too much. Only 5 years old and the things he says. He makes us smile all the time with his little sayings. Ok, on to yesterday’s report.

We did get a little school work done.  WH had finished reading his independent book so he started working on his book report worksheets. He doesn’t enjoy doing the worksheets, but I want him to do some kind written recollection of the books he reads. If anyone out there has any suggestions to make it more fun please let me know. He did do a great job on them with no arguing even when asked to make a few corrections. He wanted to do more computer coding online so he did that as well. We all worked on life skills for the rest of the day. WH, WYH and I worked on washing, rinsing, drying and put away dishes. LH practiced using the broom and cleaned up the living room floor. I admit I haven’t taught WH how to do laundry yet. I am picky about how certain things are taken out of the dryer and how all of them are folded. I am going to make myself get over that and teach him today. I’ll let you know how I handled that tomorrow. Lol. I think I will be my biggest obstacle. Lol.

I want to make sure my boys can take care of themselves. To be able to clean and cook to change tires tires on their cars and to know what to do in emergencies. I know they are young, but if we start now it will be second nature to them. We even practice fire, tornado and earthquake drills. I can’t wait until spring comes when we can study the wild plants of Ohio and learn how we can use them for food or medicine and which ones not to mess with.

I love homeschooling with my children. We have fun and we all learn so much. Not just about the lessons, but about each other and ourselves. Have a great day and remember to have fun with and treasure your family.

Ugh!

We didn’t start this week quit as planned. I guess it was my turn to be sick yesterday. The boys were sweet and helped take care of me. My mom made dinner for everyone so I didn’t have to worry about that. I was able to rest most of the day. I am a little tired and worn, but feeling better.

We did get some learning in even though I was sick.  WH really likes these free computer coding lessons that are online. You can make some cool games, art or build whatever you want to. You can even make an app.  He worked on that for an hour or so.  We also watched a few different shows about Martin Luther King jr that were really interesting. That’s about all I have for today not much to write about when you don’t do much. I hope you have a great day and I’ll talk to you tomorrow! 

Monday’s Encouragement

Sometimes we wonder if we are doing the right thing homeschooling our children. Not because of the kids, but because of ourselves. It’s hard to think that you are good enough to do it. I told you in my first post that I am not good at all when it comes to grammar. You can probably tell that just by reading my blog. Lol. I sometimes feel I should not be teaching Language Arts. I should have someone else do it because I’m going to screw my kid up and they will be worse than me. Then I remember that I can do it and this is what God  wants me to do.  If God believes I can do this than who the heck do I think I am to think I can’t. God will not have us do something we can not do. I’m sure all of us have that subject we don’t feel worthy of teaching but with faith in God and in ourselves we can teach it and we can do a good job. I pray you all have  faith in yourselves and allow God to show you that you are worthy. Have a wonderful day! Talk to ya all tomorrow! Feel free to follow me and share my blog with others.

Worksheets

Hello out there, I hope everyone is doing well. I know in our area of the world a lot of illnesses have been going around. I will be glad when all our friends and family are better. I always feel bad when people get sick. Its just not fun.

Last week and this week I decided to try to try something new with LH and WYH.  I don’t have them do a lot of writing yet, but I thought I would try a few fun worksheets with them. I think I printed out 5 for each of them. I didn’t expect them to do all of them in one day. I figured they could work on them throughout the week. I was totally wrong!  They did all of them in one day and wanted more!  Lol. They loved them! They liked tracing the shapes, letters and matching numbers. I was so surprised how much they enjoyed it. I have been very careful with pushing writing with them because WH has hated it since he had to do so much when he was in the online school. It is ok if they don’t necessarily enjoy writing, I just don’t want them to hate it. For the most part I have been having them practice writing on a dry erase board. I always enjoyed writing on those as a child so I thought they would too. I have had them practice writing with a pencil some, but they truly amazed me with how well they did with these new worksheets. They did fantastic! 

I think I underestimate what the boys can do sometimes. I need to just offer new things for them to try and if they succeed great and if they fail that’s ok too. Learn from what you did wrong and try it again when they are ready. I think writing this blog is helping me see things in myself. It is making me realize some of my good qualities and some of my downfalls. It is also giving me a release. I am a homebody. I don’t like to go out a lot and I LOVE being with my husband and boys. At the same time, I need a way to share with others.  Sharing with all of you and connecting with new people from around the world is an amazing feeling. My blog may not reach hundreds, thousands or millions of people, but I just pray it reaches those that it would inspire and encourage. To help homeschooling parents realize that mistakes are ok and we aren’t always going to be perfect and neither are our kids. That the house doesn’t have to be spotless….I promise you, mine is never spotless. I’m just happy if the dishes and laundry get washed and sometimes they don’t. Lol. I hope you have a wonderful day and a relaxing weekend!  See ya next week!