It Never Goes As Planned...

We had our first day of school this past week! I was prepared... or so I thought. I had everything ready in the workboxes, supplies ready to go, I pre-made breakfast, I set out all the clothes the night before, all
I wanted to do in the morning was take some first day photos and START!
Well.... that didn't happen. Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans. My husband had an interview at 9 am, so he thought it would be no big deal to take my van since he was coming right home afterwards. Off he went as I got everyone dressed and ready for the day.

  My First Grader!

 My Kindergartner!

My Goofball!

The girls wanted to do their pictures outside so I was unaware my phone was ringing... and ringing... and ringing.... When we finally come in I see the multiple missed calls from my husband.
"I'm stranded on the side of the road..." What?! Well, in order to go get him I have to completely unload all the tools from his work truck, load all the kids and because we live where we do it starts to rain. I find the van and my poor husband along side the road in his suit... in the rain... under the hood of the van. The company was nice enough to push back the interview an hour so we went to my dads house which was in the same town and got some tools, went back to the van and got it to start, it literally makes it to my dads driveway before it dies again. (Turns out the new alternator we put in last month was bad...) So off he goes to his interview in my dads car.
I return home and now it is nap time for my younger babes (yeah!) but, alas, we have no milk. I don't know about your house but in mine no milk means no sleep. So, I reload the kids, which is quite a feat in itself with four in car seats, and go to the grocery. Of course since I'm here I should get dinner and other odds and ends... and we can't forget the cookie from the bakery...
Back at home, we get the food put away and I think 'OK... let's get this show on the road!' but wait!
It's lunchtime! "We can't learn on an empty stomach" they exclaim! So... lunch... dishes... feed baby... put toddler down for nap... and.... wait for it....

We start our first day at school!

It may have lasted until dinner instead of lunch, but it happened. We survived our first day... and I got some cute pics to remember the parts I choose to hold on to (wink, wink).

Our Curriculum 2013-2014...

When attempting to decide on a curriculum I spent an insane amount of time researching, reading reviews, asking questions on forums, talking to local homeschool moms, and basically stressing out. Finally our local homeschool convention came to town and having hands-on experience meant all the difference to me. I finally felt completely at peace with my curriculum decision!

After months (and months... and months...) of agonizing over what curriculum to use, we are using My Fathers World this year for First Grade and Kindergarten. I purchased the deluxe version of both grades as well as the Kindergarten literature. I wanted to make this year as easy (for me) as possible which is why I decided to get the deluxe versions.

When I finally completed my purchase I am pretty sure I did a happy dance... After I received the shipping link from UPS, I did another happy dance... and then proceeded to stalk my package for the next 4 days. On arrival day we saw the UPS truck enter the neighborhood and the girls had thrown the door open and were literally flagging the driver into the driveway.

In came two heavy boxes, and it was awesome! We were all so excited...

SO... Here is what we received for Kindergarten (the MFW website can break it down a lot better):

Here is the Kindergarten curriculum (I am SO glad we got this... it adds a lot to the week):

Here is the First Grade curriculum:

So far we love it! The first two weeks are kind of slow but we are excited to see how it goes when the curriculum picks up more and more activities are added :)

TTFN!

Attempt to Organize...

My attempt to contain the crazy!

My (amazing!) husband built me shelving units to host a ridiculous amount of bins from Ikea. One side is our homeschool supplies, the other are toys and "busy" items for the babies while we are learning.

We live in a small home (hopefully we can move... very soon...), so we took over the 'dining area' for our school this year.

I went to town with the label maker I got for Christmas last year and labeled EVERYTHING... I will admit it took (way) too long to chose the font/color/size I wanted to use. Too many features = me using the most basic setting after trying every other one.

We are well on our way into the first year using the My Fathers World curriculum and so far so good! I will post on our curriculum next :). Organization has been key in running smoothly thus far... (I'm pretty sure if I had not pre-planned on making this as easy as possible, I would have thrown in the towel the first time I woke up at 5:30 am). After everything arrived, which by the way was an excitement equivalent to Christmas (the girls were also excited), I started organizing the curriculum by week and day.

I started with a file box that holds either legal or letter size folders, I then made a folder for each week for Novee and one for each week for Durie. I used the Teacher guide to see what was planned for each week and pulled out the corresponding Student sheets and extra printables (if I added any). I then used a small post-it labeled with the day of the week and a paperclip to keep each week day together.

So to recap:
File labeled with week (Example: Week 1)
Inside File are 5 Post-its labeled with the week-day (Example: Monday, Tuesday...)
Once I have all my papers together for the day I paper clip them together and put the corresponding post-it on top.
*For the Kindergarten files I also put the corresponding book in the files.

This seemed like a lot of work at first but it has been amazing to just pull out the papers already labeled for the day and not need to do any prep work every morning!

I then use the workboxes to organize each activity to be completed by each lady.

This has also eliminated missing anything planned for the day and also lets each lady know what to do next without having to wait for me if I am helping someone else.

I also made each lady a 3-ring binder for their school work for the year so they could look back and see what they have done and how they have progressed, so completed work goes there. I then made them a separate 3" 3-ring binder to keep all of their art in for the year, which also allows me to 'toss' the extras that they feel are not worthy of keeping in their art folder (phew...).

Well, hopefully that all made some sense! I am sure I am missing something somewhere... I will add on if I can think of anything else!

TTFN

Home-Skilled...

It's time... The girls are so excited, and I am finding my own excitement starting to creep up. I will have a First grader and a Kindergartner this year! After months (and months) of excruciatingly detailed research, I finally settled on My Fathers World First and K curriculum this year. I had the opportunity to get a hands on look at their curriculum at our local Homeschool convention in June and I knew it was the right one. It just 'felt' like the best fit. I have been at peace with this decision since then so placing the order was actually really exciting! My plan (goal...) is to use this blog as a way to track our year and hopefully help anyone who comes across this and is interested in Homeschooling. My first post will be about my (attempt) to organize our Homeschool life... Stay tuned!

Brief Recap...

Ahhh! Well, to put it lightly things have been a little crazy since my last posting. After raving about my germaphobia, my youngest baby was admitted to the hospital for a 4 day stay from dehydration after catching my oldest daughters stomach bug. Oddly, my fear of the girls getting sick has eased since this event. I think it is because having to take one of the girls to the hospital was a fear of mine and something I SO wanted to avoid. But then it happened. And we made it.

Sweet Girl in her Hospital Crib

Unfortunately, the hospital stay lasted through Easter so we had an "Easter Tuesday" to make up for it. My middle baby Durie was right in the midst of potty training and has since reverted back to diapers, not having us around for those few days was not easy on her... :(

Easter Tuesday

We have since toughed out a very difficult quarter in college and made have successfully remained on the Deans List (Chad) and the Presidential Honor Roll (Tia)... Now we have a brief break from class before summer quarter starts. Whew!
Well... that's my brief (very, very, brief) recap of the last couple months! More to come!

My Name is Tia and I am a Germaphobe...

I get a lot of grief over my germ-issues. I sanitize every cart with a complete rub down, then I sanitize the girls' hands upon entering and exiting a store. I will skip aisles if there is a coughing kid in one of them, I avoid large children get-togethers during the flu season. If you and your family has been sick, I won't see you for a while. This may seem over the top for some, but this week has re-affirmed my diligent germ attacking nature. Friday, Novee woke up with the brief yell "My stomach hurts!" then, before any reasonable reaction time, vomits on my bedroom floor. Oh, fun. She has no fever and is acting relatively normal so I try to convince myself throughout the day she just ate something... then the evening comes and she is back to it, not able to keep down any liquids. Saturday morning brought forth a visit to the walk-in, and then back to the house where I try to 'quarantine' my poor sick daughter from the rest of the children. I realize how futile my efforts are in reality, but in my own mind there is some hope if they are not all in the same room. Novee has a slow recovery (and each hour brings new world-ending tragedy; "My WATER is ALMOST gone!") but by Sunday evening she is back to the norm. Whew! Glad that's over! Wait.... did I just hear... NO! 4 am Monday morning Miss Mae begins her run with the dreaded virus. Poor Mae has not been sick before and I believe she has the intention of transferring all of her illness to me via me absorbing her. I am not able to put her down for 12 hours until I have to go to night school. Last night consisted of 40 minute intervals of vomit, crying, rocking, walking, etc. Today has been no different and now another trip to the doctor is on the schedule. Lets pray Durie is safe... Sick children is not something I handle with grace and ease. I am a complete stress ball, exhausted, emotional, and scared to death they will never get better (yes, I understand this is slightly irrational). So, the next time we head out to the public petri dish, I will need a sanitizing body spray to add to my arsenal of disinfectant.

And Then She Was Three...

Tonight is the eve of my beautiful daughters third birthday. It is always hard for me to look back on their little lives so far. Not only is the nostalgia of their babydom already bittersweet, but then I always question whether I am doing a good job. Did I read enough books to her last year? Did I give her enough love, attention, affirmation, etc. I know I cant beat myself up on the small things, but every birthday I vow to do better. I think every mom feels the pinch of time with their babies. The responsibility involved in developing these little beings into children of God is a little overwhelming to me sometimes. It is up to me to develop their character? I know the Lord doesn't give you more than you can handle, but I honestly wonder 'Was he sure on this one?' Three is not typically hailed as one of the 'big' birthdays, but it is the one wear the baby-ness starts to fade and the new young girl starts to develop. Durie is our second child, and is as opposite from Novee as hot and cold. After having a daughter already, I expected Durie to be born with the same looks, personality, etc. She had other plans. Hair as light as the snow and eyes as blue as the ocean, these angelic looks easily deceive you. This childs personality rivals a firecracker. She has a quick wit, and an imagination that keeps her in her own world. Her truly has a heart of gold and searches for laughter from her sisters and parents. Everyday with her brings something new to my life: new insight, new frustration and always a new smile. Happy Birthday Sugarpea. I love you!