Preschool

 I can't believe it's almost here... How? It's nearly August...Granted, we schooled until the third week of June but, where did that time go? I know, I know....times flies, especially when you're having fun... but seriously. 

My Big is getting to start his seventh grade year. Overall, how time has flown. When he came into my life he was an angel-faced 8 year old. How is he an angel-faced junior-higher now? 

My little is just about to turn four, so he's just beginning to get acquainted with letters, and such. Last year he was in a preschool three days a week. He loved it, and is looking forward to returning. 

Last year, I was a mixed-bag of feelings toward him being in a preschool. It made things some much easier with My Big, because we had four and half hours of unadulterated time for our lessons. What I struggled most with was the feeling of abandoning my Little. Feeling like I had pawned him off on someone else. Knowing that wasn't the truth of it, that it was a lie straight from the ol' liar himself- we finished out the school year without a hitch. Of course there were days that he didn't want to go to school- who doesn't have those days? Of course there were days it would have been so much easier to spend it with him curled up on the couch, playing hookie and watching Bluey on a never-ending loop. Who wouldn't want to stay in their jammies watching an iconic blue dog? (Have you seen the meme about how every generation has one to learn from?)

I am grateful for his time in the preschool. It has given me time, and will continue to give me time to prepare for his own homeschool journey. And quite honestly, take a few classes of my own. (Cue twirly eyeballs).

Now if only I could get a handle on a regular housecleaning schedule, then I would be the "do-it-all" mom. But everyone needs to own up to a weakness or three; and one of mine is that I just can't seem to find the time to keep house well. It is certainly a work in progress. And a progress that I have to intentionally be gracious with myself about. 

I remember seeing a sign once that said, "Good moms have sticky floors, but happy kids." And I will say that for the longest time, I totally disagreed with that. I knew moms who had happy kids and clean floors. I thought it was easy. But I wasn't a parent at the time. 

It's so simple to set these expectations for ourselves, especially when we actually have the time to finish projects or remember when the last time the nightstand was dusted. There's only so much that a mom can remember at one particular time. An image some to mind of those plate twirlers, I suppose they're jugglers. You know the ones, they have the spinning plates up on this skinny little pole; and they are running from pole to pole, pushing the plate along on its axis. This can only be kept up for so long. A plate with tip a little too far one way; slow down and you won't make it in time; or the pole just doesn't stay upright for whatever unknown reason or just gravity prevails. We parents, homeschool or not, are these jugglers. We all have these gravity defying plates & poles in the air, and it's just a matter of time before we drop something. And when we do, we pick up the pieces, and try again. Bringing out a new plate, of course.

Anyway, this is not at all the topic I had originally set out to post this time, but it fells good to put this down in black and white, to get it off my chest. Sometimes those struggles, make us feel so alone. 

We are never alone though. 

Many Days

 Many are the days that seem to drag on forever. The days that lessons are a chore that no one wants to accomplish and it's a struggle to get even one done. As with anything else, there are those days. I won't lie. But at the end of those day, when it relief sets in that finally we can say "We made it", I wonder what I've gotten myself into- what I signed myself up for. 

But as I lay in bed before drifting off to sleep, I think that there is nothing else I can imagine spending my time on. 

Well, maybe there are other things I can imagine spending my time on, like: finishing my degree, creating a at-home business like so many other moms have done. But honestly, neither of those things stir my heart like pouring myself into my kids. 

"Pouring." Now there's an interesting choice of verbiage...

I am pouring into my babies. 

But it's widely said that you can't pour from an empty cup. And it's true. 

You can pour all you want to but will be no grace, knowledge, love, wisdom or connection when my cup is empty. 

This is where my faith, my support system, loud music, Dutch Bros coffee and a good book come into play. And who can forget the trip to The Homeschool Store for more books!

And of course there are the days when my kiddos aren't feeling it either. After all, they are human too. They're allowed to have off days. It's part of being a living, breathing, human being. 

Now that's not to say that there aren't times when those little emotions don't trigger my own discomfort, ill-feeling and ruffle my feathers. Some days, it's so easy to forget that they are just as entitled to feel their feelings as I am. Some days it easier said than done. 

But....

I have learned with my kiddos, it's usually hunger/lack of protein, lack of sleep, lack of water, or even just lack of some much-needed Momma-Snuggles. 

It's so easy to get wrapped up in the to-do list of lessons and achievements. It's hard work getting out of that "gotta get done" headspace. But it can be done, with a good song, a moment in The Word, and another cup of coffee. Or, there's always the old momma go-to of hiding in the bathroom or closet for a short spell. 

However you fill your cup, just remember to invest in YOURSELF, with those things that bring YOU joy, Momma. Even if it is what my husband and I call, Bebito Snuggles. Get those baby pheromones. They are the ultimate happy drug.

A Classical Education

Going into 6th grade, I was so excited! 

Science, history, Bible and literature were all going to be connected. I had found a plan we could follow from the beginning of time- literally.  

One of the beautiful things about the Bible and history curriculum was that they were published by the same company- but history was being presented from a neutral standpoint. So many homeschool history curriculums are presented from a Biblical worldview. And while I have no argument with them, they just weren't going to be a good fit for my family. 

While my husband and I believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God; we are both of the opinion that it is not a book of science. Yes, we believe that God SPOKE and it came to pass- but the Bible doesn't explain just what took place in that process of coming to pass. Neither does it utterly specify creation took place in the length of six days, as we know a day. Being that scripture also speaks of a day to our Father, like a thousand years is to us; we believe there leaves some room for interpretation.

We needed the story of creation and the study of history to be separate, so our oldest could draw his own conclusions. Hence the beauty of a classical education. All ideas are presented, and it's up to the student to draw conclusions and outcomes on their own. The ideas presented are neutral in their presentation- but all are presented. 

Our science book, I was just as excited about. It was so thorough and informative. But it wasn't like so many science textbooks I had seen over the years of my own education. It draws on the presentation of wonderful reference materials as Usborne, Kingfisher, and DK. Which if you are familiar with these three publishers- they are rich in information, facts, visuals, relevant and even hands-on, in some cases. His studies would be anything other than boring or just reading page after page of some textbook. It was written by a homeschool mom whose own college education was science; and wanted to present to her own daughter. Experiments, memorization, timelines, and all so happened to fall inline with a lot of the history studies we were doing for sixth grade. 

Ancient history. I had looked through all of the history that he had studied in previous years, and if you recall, I had been able to get a pretty good picture from the local school district's website. Truth be told, there hadn't been to the subject. History, rather social studies, had all been wrapped up in Language Arts curriculum. I won't lie, that was disappointing. It meant that the lessons he'd learned about our wonderful human history had been limited. I learned that the topics covered had also been limited to just our country's history or even current events. Why are our first through fourth graders learning how to relate to their world through the craziness of it? I get that they are running into it on a daily basis, but really? So much of it seemed to be topics that elementary kids did NOT need rolling around in their brains. YET. 

But I digress...

Back to ancient history...

Beautiful. The curriculum was astounding. It created and cultivated a kid that told me, word-for-word: "history is my favorite subject". It made my year. Leave off that I am myself a history lover- just the fact that he went from loving science and math to history. He fell in love with the beauty of OUR story. 

Wonderful. Breathtaking.

(To see links and pictures of the curriculum, click here.)