What Week is This?

Our back-to-school routine has not been near as structured & organized as I had planned. I had visions of 4 compliant children every day who would willingly do all their work in the designated amount of time and life would have a peaceful sense of structure.

HA!

Life happens. When you have 1 or 2 children being homeschooled, life is (or was for me) easily manageable. Double your student population and add in dynamics of sensory processing disorder, adoption attachment, etc and life is hardly plan-able! So here we are...somewhere in our third week of the school year but in various days of curriculum depending on the child and subject. We're muddling through, but the freedom of saying "it's okay" if we don't get to science EVERY day with every child has been liberating and has allowed some calm a midst the storm. The kids are enjoying school and ask to get started as soon as they finish breakfast. I hope that never fades!

Today we start into our completely insane fall schedule. Liam still has a month left in his soccer season (2 days/week) and Ivy begins ballet (2 days/week). Next week the younger girls begin dance (3 days/week between them) and I believe Wednesday night programming at church starts up again too. We will have a commitment every day except Friday (if you include worship & small groups on Sunday morning as a commitment).

I am thankful for the opportunities for our children to be involved in activities that interest them and help them to grow into the unique persons God created them to be. I am thankful that we are able to splurge on such endeavors. I am especially thankful that I am able to homeschool them by day so that the running around and busyness of our evenings doesn't take away from quality time as a family! I'm pretty sure if my kids were in a brick-and-mortar school, they would not be in so many activities because we would never be together as a family...and to me, spending time together as a family is the greatest blessing in the world!

Our Touchy Feely Noisy Vibrant World

To you and I, the world can be a beautiful sight to behold. To most "typically functioning" people this is the case. However, to some people, like our adorable L, the onslaught of vivid colors and touchable textures can be too much for him to handle. You see, L has what's known as Sensory Processing Disorder. I am not a fan of labels, but this one was welcome to us as we were at a loss for how to help him function on a daily basis. He has very real, tactile needs that must be met with love, support and encouragement so that L can learn to adapt to these needs within the boundaries of acceptable social behavior.

We're still learning about L's condition. We're still learning how to help him develop the skills he needs. We know that Occupational Therapy (OT) will be in his future. We're currently researching our options for him there. Most children his age in our state receive such services through the local school district. We are considering that option, but whomever we bring into his life in this regard must not only be a skilled and capable OT, they must also be familiar with older child international adoption and how that plays a role in L's sensory processing. This is a child who likely had little to no sensory stimulation the first 6+ years of his life! Just think for a second about the plethora of colorful baby toys with lights and sounds and crinkles and bumps and rattles and...you get the idea. Children thrive when early exposure to those elements is present. Our son is experiencing it all now...and his brain isn't quite sure what to do with it all. Thankfully we are working with a fantastic adoption specialist/counselor for L and she is beginning to work with him on his impulse control and some of his sensory behaviors. She is gathering resources for us to be able to ask the right questions of any OTs we consider and she would like to have an open relationship with the OT so that they can approach L's care as a team. I find a lot of hope in that!

For now, our homeschool is not as structured as I'd like (see schedules in my previous post)...because I need to constantly divert to meet the needs of one, but that's OK! One BIG advantage to home education is the ability to give to each child individually what they would not get in an institution...the ability to meet each child where they are and work with them to help them succeed. Some days that attention is distributed evenly, others it's not...but no matter what, ALL of my children know that when they are the one who needs a little extra, Mommy is going to be there for them!

So today, instead of forcing my children into a box (or schedule), I am enjoying watching each of them play with Legos before we even begin looking at books.

Fresh Start

Ahhhh. The refreshing summer breeze makes me smile. I am thankful for the sunshine and even more so, today, for the much-needed rain. It made for the perfect day to kick off our new homeschool year!

The children decided that, in lieu of a new outfit to commemorate the first day of school, they each wanted a new pair of pajamas! What a fun idea for "back to school" pictures! Definitely a benefit in home education (in my humble opinion)! ;)

In an effort to begin the year organized, I have created schedules for each day with weekly schedules printed out for each child. We won't live & die by these, but they were necessary for me to visually see what our days will look like.

We are starting from scratch this year. With four children now being educated within our walls and using all new (to us) curriculum, it's sure to be quite an adventure! We were not satisfied with our overall experience using LIFEPAC last year as the children bored quickly and lost interest in continuing their studies. Our new curricula is listed below.

In an effort to allow my sweet I more independence and the computer-based program she desired, we opted to use Switched-On Schoolhouse for her. She is very excited for 6th grade!

All 3 littles are using Sonlight this year. I am excited and nervous about it as I love the concept but fear the time commitment with 3 children using the program. M (2nd grade) and L (K/1st grade) will both be using Core B as their foundation (Bible, History/Geography, Science) with grade level Language Arts and Horizons Math. It is my hope that things will go smoothly with these 2 doing much of their work together.

C will be using the Sonlight Pre-Kindergarten package...and she couldn't be more excited!

Our first day starting out in our new routine went pretty well overall. There are some adjustments that will need to be made to our daily schedule as we find our groove and learn just how this new curriculum is going to flow for us, but all in all I'd say Day 1 has been a success. Looking forward to Day 2!

Season of Change

Looking out the window at the vibrant leaves, I can't help but reflect upon the changes our family has endured this season.  We began this homeschool adventure in a last-stitch effort to "rescue" our eldest daughter from the trauma she was experiencing in the public school system.  She suffered at the hands of bullies who were never punished.  She had overwhelming anxiety that led to full-blown panic attacks.  She had begun acting out in a manner completely uncharacteristic of her personality, simply because she had lost all concept of feeling safe.

Fast forward to now...just 2 months after we "officially" began homeschooling...and I see a changed little girl in I.  She has a sense of calm about her that has been missing for several years.  She is more cooperative.  She has a confidence in her that we have NEVER before seen!  She's full of life and HOPE again.  THANK YOU JESUS!!!

M's adjustment hasn't been quite as profound, but she's loving the fact that she can get her curriculum work done before lunch and have the rest of the day for fun activities.  She has a stubborn streak in her that we're working to break, but overall the switch to home education has been a positive one for her as well.

I now find myself wondering why it took me so long to consider this possibility.  I have friends who home school and I have always shunned the idea as something impossible for me, or our family.  I wish I would have been more open to this in the past...as it may have saved a LOT of tears.

While We Were Away

For two weeks, Sam & I were in Ghana spending time with our newest family members while I & M stayed stateside with their grandparents.  I can not express how thankful I am that my in-laws are such Godly, family-oriented people who were willing to give of themselves to care for our children during this time!  They did NOT homeschool my husband and so asking them to bear this burden was not easy for me, but they embraced it and really seemed to enjoy the time with our girls.

In order to keep things simple and fun, I only sent Bible & Math curriculum to be done while we were away.  I also assigned 2 research/independent study projects for each girl based on her unique interests & grade level.  They were allowed to present their completed projects to us upon our return in whatever format they desired (book report/essay, photo collage, poster with facts, diorama, etc) as long as they provided an oral presentation as well.  We were so thrilled to see the many hours of work they obviously poured into these assignments!

M's first project was to find things in nature that are unique to the Autumn season.  She had a LOT of fun with Grandma searching for acorns and different colored leaves!

M's second project was derived from her curriculum.  She's been studying Genesis 1 across all subjects, so it seemed fitting to have her create a photo collage of creation.  She was able to find pictures in old magazines and newspapers of various things God created.

I's first project was also seasonally derived.  She researched plant & animal life in Autumn and created a poster with facts, images & items found in nature that change during this time of year.

I's second project assignment stemmed from some reading she had done in her History curriculum.  She wanted to learn more about Pocahontas, and so I encouraged that!  I learned a lot during I's oral presentation.

We've been home a full week now and we're back in the "school at home" routine.  Hard to believe we're almost through our first quarter (I have to have the report to the school next week!).  I can not believe how much of a blessing this decision (to home school) has been to our family!  So abundantly thankful to the friends in my life that have supported us in this transition.

How Great Thou ART

The girls & I spent the first 3 days this week at an art camp taught by a man named Barry Stebbing.  He's a Christian artist who travels around teaching homeschoolers art basics (drawing, shading, color blending, painting, etc) with some art history added in...all from a Biblical perspective.  It's an INTENSE three days, especially for a 6 year old, but overall well worth the investment of both time & money for both of our girls!

Mr. Stebbing's company is called How Great Thou ART and I would definitely recommend this program to other homeschooling families around the country!

That Didn't Take Long

I started this school year full of excitement & anticipation of what homeschooling was going to be like for our family.  I had illusions of grandeur filling my mind.

Thankfully, I really wasn't completely deluding myself.  Although I was REALLY hoping to blog daily or at least a few days/week about our adventures, and that clearly hasn't happened...we're a month in and the girls are showing HUGE progress!  I is at ease...she has a peace about her that I haven't seen in her in years.  What a blessing!  Her academics are on track and she's actually ASKING to do additional projects like book reports!  YAY!  M is flying through her work at a rapid speed.  It's amazing how much 1st grade curriculum you can cover when there's only 1 child to teach!  She has such a strong grasp of the material she may even advance to 2nd grade work before this school year is complete.  I'm finding this to be one of my favorite aspects to home education...the lessons can tailor to the individual child as opposed to the middle of the road student in an over-crowded classroom.

Admittedly, we're still figuring out what homeschooling looks like in our home.  We've been pretty regimented thus far, following the curriculum daily, but we're looking to expand our horizons to include more field trips & hands on activities.  That will no doubt be a welcome enrichment to the current routine!  Of course, there's going to be a 2 week shift while Sam & I travel to Ghana to visit our children there & file their USCIS paperwork.  I & M will spend that time with their grandparents.  We (the kids & I) have discussed it quite a bit, and decided that rather than lugging all of their workbooks & all of the teacher's guides to Grandma's, they'll take their Bible & Math with them and work on independent study projects for History, Science & Language Arts.  I am excited to see how they do on those when we return.

Odds are, I won't blog again until our return from Africa...so until then, God bless!