Homeschool Room Reveal

After much deliberation we decided to turn our dining room into a homeschool room! The closet we've been using has been working fine, but as very little as the dining room gets used we decided to just go for it and create our own homeschool room. Honestly it was just the best decision for us. Knowing J's personality I knew he would love to have that dedicated space to go to where the distractions of the house were away from us and we could just focus on our school work. The kids were thrilled from the moment we told them we were doing it, to watching the whole process unfold, to finally seeing the end result. The room is in full swing now and being used daily. So here it goes, our big homeschool reveal...

Let me tell you about how I hate trying to photograph a small room. I did the best I could so I hope you enjoy!!

View from one entry into the room.


View from the other entry into the room.


I wanted to keep our dining room table but decided to switch out the chairs for barstools that could slide right underneath. I didn't want to take up any more space in our small room and I really didn't want anything getting spilled on my nice chairs!! :-) I sewed the tablecloth to be fitted so the little ones wouldn't just pull the cloth off the table. I love the United States map as well. We have family in various states so I knew I wanted a really big map that the kids could easily point to and learn all of the different states.


I felt the urge to be "official" and had an extra shelf and picture frame laying around so I created this little set up with our school name. A LOT of things used to decorate the room were things I had laying around the house or in the attic. I often find myself wanting a fresh look for our little home and consider myself a professional clearance shopper (hahaha), so I tend to hang on to all household decorations for a later use such as this.


I knew I definitely wanted cubeicals. I've had one for a while and love it so I knew it would be a good fit. Fortunately one day I was shopping at Home Depot and low and behold there were two of these in the store. I think they were bought online and returned to the store because I couldn't find any more anywhere in this area. I got the third online and we were ready to go. They even came with the 4 fabric bins per cubical. I still have a lot of room to be filled but I don't think that's going to be hard ;)


Had to show you this little gem. Once again this was just repurposing things laying around the house. This little crate was my grandmothers and used to hold a small Christmas tree. When I was "shopping" my attic I took one look at it and knew it would be perfect for the table. So glad to have a little piece of my grandmother in our homeschool room.


Just had to show off a few more of my supplies and toys. A wall pencil sharpener is a MUST. I loathed sharpening pencils all the time and the little sharpener we had kept busting open and getting little pencil shavings everywhere.


This shelf of toys make me happy. They are what the kids play with the most and there is so much learning that can happen from these toys. They can be pricey so I got all of mine second hand, on clearance, and when stores like AC Moore have their good sales or coupons.


Calendar time is something that my kids love. Up until now I've been using one that I created, but I found this one on a good sale (plus I was motivated by the fact that I hated mine) so I got this. I highly recommend this wall calendar. It's really good quality and comes with a ton of cards to be used on various holidays and more throughout the year.


My dedicated space to show off the kids artwork during the week. The amount of art and crafts the kids produce during the week can get overwhelming so this helps reign it in.


Here's the whole wall. I love having a dedicated space for their backpacks that they use for a co-op they're in one day a week. No more searching as we're rushing out the door!


We've been using the workbox system (in our own way) and this is what we use for our system. Normally there are little labels on the front of each drawer but little S wouldn't leave them alone today so they're off! All three kids are huge fans of Pottery Barn Anywhere Chairs. The green one I got second hand for $25!!! The pink one F just got for Christmas. I see another pink or purple in S's future :)


Another freebie project with a frame I wasn't using and scrapbook paper. I always have scrapbook paper on hand in this house!!


I also recommend a stash of supplies just for mom. Keeps my sanity having my own stuff to work with and always knowing where my good stuff is.


I really believe the most important thing about having a school room is keeping the "home" in homeschool. For me, the room should bring the best of both worlds together. The fun and wonder of a school room and the comfort and love of home. I hope you enjoyed the room, we certainly do!

2013 Round up

What a crazy year it's been here! It's been while since my last blog entry and that's because my computer took a turn for the worst and mostly just didn't want to work. Fortunately I was able to get a new computer for Christmas!! Merry Christmas to me! This is great news for the homeschool too as I wasn't able to do hardly anything for the school on my laptop (no Word program or anything). Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to get back on top of things now (hmmmmm... maybe I should make that my resolution?? Nahhh).

Wow. What a year of ups and downs it's been. Instead of telling you things you already know I'll just give you an update on how things are going here:

The school is better than ever and I'm still thrilled with our decision to homeschool. Our co-op this fall was such a blessing. It was a great time and we all made good friends. The kids are counting down the days until the spring when it starts back up, as am I :-) We just finished our homeschool room. We deliberated quite a bit on if we were going to turn the dining room into a homeschool room, but we finally took the plunge and honestly it's amazing. Better than I could've imagined and I'll upload pictures in my next post.

We had some great news in regards to F's speech. She's improved so much that her diagnosis has been downgraded from Apraxia to Moderate Dyspraxia. She still has a ways to go, but she's also come a long way as well. We're understanding her so much more and I love watching her little personality come out and shine. She also started taking ballet this fall and that is adorable to watch. She danced with her class in an assisted living home nearby for Christmas and they did a great job.

S is just amazing. She is so smart and bright and amazes me everyday with what she's capable of. Seriously though, you have to keep and eye on her because she is curious about everything and has been able to get into things that even I can't understand. A little scary honestly.

J continues to make us so proud with his accomplishments since we started homeschooling. He has told me that he is glad we are homeschooling. He is such a sponge. He is so knowledgeable and is constantly surprising me with things that I had no idea he knew.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been there for us during this year. It has most certainly been a year we never expected in more ways than one. I am so excited about this coming year. We have lots of plans for our family, our school, and our home. I'm excited for all the amazing adventures that lie ahead this year and I can't wait to share them all with you! We love you all!!

Happy New Year!!

My Sweet S

One year ago I got the biggest surprise of my life. I went into labor! You may think "well duh, that's pretty expected", but not for me. As my doctors like to say, I make and grow babies really well... so well that they don't want to come out. I just don't dilate. I don't drop. My water doesn't break... or so we thought...

I got up on the 27th and quickly realized my water broke sometime during the night. I wasn't even having contractions yet. I was in such a state of shock that I just stood there in disbelief. Finally I manage to pull it together and wake my husband. Once the on call doctor realized who I was she had me come to the hospital right away. No waiting around for actual contractions to start. My regular doctor and I are so close, I really wanted to just wait this out and see how long I would be in labor so he could deliver, but that was a big heck no so off we went. As it turned out my OB was downstairs performing a procedure and when he finished he came up to the operating room to see me while they were performing the surgery. That made my day :-)

Everything about this delivery was different for me and it was wonderful in everyway. After surgery they let S stay with me in the operating room and come with me to recovery. She never left my side and it was amazing. Even my recovery was completely different. I was up and walking around the next day with little pain. Incredible.

I knew S from the moment I became pregnant with her. I just knew her. It's unexplainable. I knew how her personality would be and she's lived up to every expectation I had. She is so sweet, happy, she doesn't complain, and she just goes with the flow despite being dragged to multiple soccer games and ballet practices every week. What a joy and blessing she has been to our lives. God has surely blessed us more than I could've imagined with her and all of our children.

S,
You're daddy, brother, sister, and I love you so much. You bring so much joy to this family. Everyday you amaze us with your capabilites and how smart you are. You are most certainly our little sunshine. No matter how dark the day is you have the ability to light up a room and make all the darkness go away. Happy Birthday Sweet S, we love you!!

Love,
Mommy

Answering Your Questions

Now that we've started our first school year I've been getting lots of questions about what we're doing and what our plans are. I have officially lost track of who I've told what, so hopefully I can answer everyone's questions in one place and hopefully it will all make sense.

So how's it going?
As of now we are two weeks into our first year. There haven't been any mental breakdowns or anyone running and screaming out of the house so I guess you could say... so far so good! :-) Seriously though, I have done pretty well and the kids are doing great. My biggest challenge so far is figuring out what works best for the kids in order for them to do their work the best. So far I've discovered J doesn't like silence so I've been playing light classical music in the background (thank you Charlotte Mason) and that seems to help a lot. We've also moved from the kitchen table, to the dining table, to the family room floor. Basically I let it be up to them where we're doing our work (as long as it's not painting of course) and adapt. I will say the second week I made changes and tweaked things from the first week, and this next week I'll continue to tweak things until we find our groove and figure out what works best. By the time I do figure it all out I'm sure something will change and I'll have to make more changes but that is the beauty of homeschooling. We roll with the punches and take things as they come.

So how are you homeschooling a first grader, a preschooler and taking care of a baby?
I've found that getting up and just getting started first thing in the morning does not work for us. For one thing F has speech therapy 3 times a week. Another challenge is that it is nearly impossible to do school while Sarah is awake. So for now what we're doing is getting up and while hubby is making breakfast we're doing bible all together. After breakfast is chores and getting dressed. After chores it's about time for F's speech. After speech I put S down for her nap and then school begins.

What's your method for school?
I'm doing a modified workbox method (see previous post for a pic of my system). On Sunday nights I plan out the entire weeks daily schedule with what subjects will be studied on what day. This sounds like a lot of work but it's pretty repetitive from the weeks prior so it's really not bad at all. I also make any copies I need and make sure I have all my supplies for projects lined up. Every night during the week I set up each drawer in my workbox with the subjects we'll be covering the next day. This is really not complicated, it's simply putting the correct workbook or worksheet in a drawer and putting the subject "coin" (once again you'll have to look at the pic to see what I'm talking about) on the outside of the drawer. For F, it's mostly purposeful play activities revolving around the letter of the week. She also has activities aimed at helping her Apraxia and fine motor skills as well. When the kids are done with a subject or activity they're responsible for putting that back in the drawer and moving the subject "coin" from the left side of the drawer to the right. This helps us all visually see that subject is finished.

What is this co-op and why are you in a co-op if you're homeschooling?
From the moment we pulled J out of public school I knew I wanted him in a community of people that we're doing what he was doing. I knew from day one I wanted to be apart of a certain co-op and I prayed hard to get in. This is because this co-op is rather large but I knew in my heart this is where we needed to be. We are 500 members strong (about 350 are students alone). There were 40 new families accepted in this year. Some families had to be turned away so we thank God for the opportunity to be in this group. J is taking two classes and F's class is a preschool setting. They take backpack's and everything :-) I think this is really good for them because it gives them a chance to learn from someone other than me with other teaching styles. They loved it and are so happy. J has been asking everyday when we get to go back. I'm so happy he's making homeschool friends.

Are you homeschooling all the way through?
I don't know. We never knew we were going to be a homeschool family until God told us we were, so I won't begin to presume when he will have us stop. So basically until further notice I guess the answer is yes. We will teach and act as though we are. This area is saturated with possibilities and opportunities so why not?? The community of homeschoolers are huge. We have sports leagues, music groups, band, prom, national honor society and anything else you can think of. As long as the kids are happy so are we.

Well hopefully that clears a few things up. Here are some pictures of our first 2 weeks and hanging out at our co-op's opening assembly...

Summer of homeschool projects

So apparently I haven't posted in a month. I'm really not sure how this summer has passed this quickly except that I have been knee deep in getting things ready for our first official school year. I'm a pretty laid back kind of person but this school year we are pushing into overdrive around here. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this yet, but here goes nothing anyway!

So first a few little updates... I found out yesterday that we got into the homeschool co-op I was really hoping for so we are very excited about that. I went to my first informative meeting tonight and I couldn't be happier right now with our decision to homeschool. I am really looking forward to meeting some more moms and I know J is excited about meeting some homeschool kids. J will continue on with soccer this fall and this will be his first season having a practice and game every week. He has also been really enjoying going to sunday school at church. He asks at least a couple times during the week if it is time to go back to sunday school yet. We don't really have to be concerned with holding ourselves accountable to go to church every Sunday, J will do that for us :-) F is still doing speech three times a week and we're signing her up for ballet class as well. She loves to dance and is excited about getting to go learn how. S is busy. For real, you can't keep your eyes off of her for a second. She is into everything and is all about exploring these days.

While getting all the kids schedules in order I have been busy getting things ready around here. I've actually been having the best time tapping into my creative side and doing some homeschool organizational projects. I mostly blame pinterest. I just can't help myself. A few of the things I've been working on is a custom homeschool planner (I'm so not paying $20 for something I can make for free at home), fabric covered magazine files (once again, I made these with materials laying around the house b/c I was challenging myself to do it all for free), a ruler growth chart, and finally the biggest project was turning a kitchen closet into our homeschool closet. Oh how I would love a homeschool room, but since that's not feasible I'll have to settle for the next best thing. I'm so lucky to be able to at least have that option so I'm grateful for that. It was a big undertaking and the kitchen was a disaster for a few days but it finally all came together.

I've also been buried in a sea of curriculum choices. Holy cow is there a lot out there. I'm so glad to be homeschooling in the time that I am. The resources... books, reviews, blogs, conferences, stores, pinterest, youtube, you name it... that help you figure this mess out is incredible. I seriously had no idea how big this world is but I've grateful to be living in it. My hat is off to all the moms before me who had to fly much more solo than I. Not to say it's easy now or anything, but definitely better for sure!

So here are just a few of the projects I've been working on. I hope your summer was as productive as mine! Then again maybe not... I need a vacation now :-)

The best presents are free

Well another birthday has come and gone. We had a wonderful birthday vacation at the mountain house (pics to come later). It was calm and relaxing and gave me plenty of time to think about the second half of the year.

I never realized what a blessing it is having a birthday in the very middle of the year. As a child my birthday never got celebrated at school like the other kids birthdays. I hated that. As an adult it's given way to a new take on goal setting and evaluating how my year is going. The first of the year is always an exciting time. Making resolutions that you will most likely not keep. Thinking about the year ahead and how it's going to be the best year ever!

Then life happens.

I think more has happened to our family in the first half of this year than in any other year combined. My grandmother passed very unexpectedly (and honestly it was kinda traumatically). Then we had to pull J out of school which was also quite unexpected. Finally F was diagnosed with Apraxia and Strabismus. Once again, you guessed it, quite unexpectedly. Really though. In the previous year there were no signs that any of this was going to happen. Then wham!! Life hits you in the face and you never even saw it coming.

BUT! To have a birthday in the middle of the year brings a new sense of hope and optimism with it. The first half didn't work out quite as well as I thought it would, but now I've got the opportunity to reevaluate and regroup and start again. It's a new year of life for me and once again I have the gift of getting re energized and making new resolutions (that I may or may not keep... stay tuned...) and thinking about my new year of life ahead and how it's going to be the best year ever! That's right, you can't stomp my shine ;-)

So back to my actual birthday. I came down in the morning and saw I had a few birthday messages on facebook. While reading them over I also saw people posting their back to school pictures as well. In our area year round school is huge and 3 of the 4 tracks went back to school yesterday. This is a little bittersweet for me. One of the things I've struggled with in taking the kids out of public school is the fear of missing out. This is very stupid I know because also in this area homeschool is huge. Anything a public school student can do, a homeschool student can do. Sports, proms, graduation, you name it, we've got it all and there are a lot of us doing it. None-the-less it still tugs at me every once in a while since this journey is never one I thought we'd be on.

So as I'm looking at all these pics trying not to let my mind go down that road, hubby makes a comment to J that it was time to get back to school. J then turned to hubby and said "but I don't want to go back to that kindergarten school, I want to homeschool". He then came into the living room and asked if we could get back to homeschooling. God never ceases to amaze me. His timing is perfect. Of course it is, it's all in his plan and has been all along. He knew that I needed that affirmation that we're doing the right thing for our family at that exact moment and he gave it to me. I hadn't even mentioned anything to hubby about getting back to homeschooling that day so I don't know where that comment even came from except that the entire exchange was prompted from God, for me. He gifted it to me on my birthday.

If that wasn't enough, the cherry on my sundae came that night. As you know F has Apraxia and can be very difficult to understand at times. Since her very first birthday she has HATED the happy birthday song. When everyone starts singing it she begins screaming like you're hurting her. Always. At every party one of us has to walk away with her a safe distance and she covers her ears because she knows it's coming. At her own last birthday party even she covered her ears and no one sang the song, we all just said happy birthday together. So finally last night we were at my parents house for dinner and they all started to sing the song. Of course as a mom my first reaction was to turn to F and see what she'd do. Then the most amazing thing happened. She not only didn't scream, but she also didn't cover her ears. Then, she began to sing. I'm not even sure if the words were right or if it was just the melody, but what I do know is that my little girl sang me Happy Birthday and that's the best present I could've asked for.