When You Are A Home School Mom

Here is why mom's who home school age fast:

- They never get a break, EVER! They are with their little darlings from sun up to sun down, 7 days a week, 12 months a year.

- They bear the brunt of their children's displeasure with long and/or complicated assignments.

- There is no such thing as a snow day because the books and supplies are in a nearby closet.

- They are responsible for lesson plans and for making sure the children have the correct lessons. They need to make sure the legal leg work gets done and all tests and grades are handed in on time.

- Their children have no qualms about fighting their fellow classmates because it doesn't matter how you treat your siblings. (we are working on this one!)

-There is no principal to discipline unruly students.

- When a child is angry or upset with his mother, his teacher who is also his mother, gets both barrels.

- The only parties are those that the weary mom/teacher plans (and for that reason they are few and far between!)

- They have to plan childcare for those many appointments because most places of business do not have evening hours when dad is home to babysit.

And here is why we still home school:


- There is no manipulation/triangulation between teacher and parents because mom is the teacher!

- When the teacher see's a meltdown coming on, she can send the child to his room where he can safely rage until he feel's able to cope with the world.

- You can choose to go on a spontaneous field trip.

- You know exactly what the problem is when a child doesn't get his school work done. You do not have to try to figure out if it is because of an ADD problem, over stimulation, trauma or some other undefined trigger.

- You don't have to worry about your attachment challenged child forming attachments with other adults in place of the bond he should have with his parents.

- The lack of parties and over stimulating events will mean your children are calmer and able to participate in family activities which strengthens the family unit.

One Month Of Home School

Tomorrow marks four complete weeks of home school. For the most part, we are enjoying this new phase of life, although there are days I feel positively smothered! One day when I was second guessing our decision to home school, I read over some emails I sent to a friend last fall. I quickly decided that yes, we did make the right decision! 

   A year ago Joseph ran away - as in down our long drive and onto the road where a neighbor stopped him, he was melting down at school, refusing to work and spent his evenings raging because he was overstimulated. This year he is much calmer, in fact I think he is as emotionally stable as he was during the summer. Of course we have days where the work doesn't go so well. On those days I have him do only the bare minimum and then try to catch up another day. I need to email our supervisor and see if we can revamp his curriculum. His testing showed he was ready for 4th grade but the books are proving a bit too difficult which makes him frustrated. 

Kiana and Tristan are also doing well with home school. We had, and will continue to have, some rough spots but all in all I think it is a good fit for our family at this time.

We cleaned out a small bathroom/storage room and Dean put in some shelves and a filing cabinet. Now I have a place to store all my books and school supplies. That closet made school much more fun for me. I had been keeping all the books in a box and it was frustrating digging through the stacks trying to find the correct book and answer key. Now I go to my shelf and flip through the books until I find the correct one.

The children continue to do most of their work at the kitchen table with the exception of tests which I have them  do in their bedrooms. I used to try to do housework while they did their school work but soon gave that up. Now I sit at the table with them, answer questions, grade their lessons and remind certain people umpteen times to, "Keep at your work!"

I like the flexibility home school brings to our schedule. If we were up late the night before I can let the children sleep in or if we have something planned for the day, we begin school earlier. 

Summers Gone And School Is Calling

It was hard for me to see the month of August arrive because I knew what the month would bring...the beginning of a new venture for us, homeschool. My plan is to start school on Monday which will give us plenty of time to take days off during the school year if need be. Two large boxes of books, along with several smaller packages of school items arrived last week. Seeing those boxes made it all the more real, but I am getting excited. 

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing this summer. It is good I have them because I find it hard to remember what we really did.

I sewed a few dresses for Lia using leftover fabric scraps and a T shirt, fast n easy.  

We enjoyed lots of delicious food made on the smoker. These burgers stuffed with onions, peppers, mushrooms, bacon, ham and cheese were among our favorites.

We did an incredible amount of talking a certain young lady down from Lyme induced meltdowns.

One of the many mishaps poor Joseph has in a days time, He squeezed his gogurt and got it on his shirt.

Joseph enjoys making things. He took the coil from his tablet, attached one end to the battery in his tractor and the other end to his calculator. He was hoping to be able to charge the battery.

Ice cream at Dean's brothers ice cream shop, a reward for finishing school testing. Check out their ice cream shop/produce market @ Plum Creek Farm. They have delicious food and are continually adding new items.

Lia taking pictures with my phone at one of the many doctor appointments we had this summer.

We bought Tristan a mattress topper. He was thrilled!

Dean built a deck for the pool, making a lovely place to spend hot summer afternoons.

Tristan and his friend enjoying the helicopter that landed at the work picnic.

Dean smoked several chickens in the smoker. We pulled the meat off the bones and froze it, now I can pull it from the freezer for a quick meal.

Dean bought this little four wheeler, much to Lia's delight. (They have to wear helmets when they drive)

We spent a few days at the cabin this week.

Lia recently learned to ride bike without training wheels. Her little legs got tired so Dean strapped her bike to the bike cart and I hauled both Lia and her bike.

Mr Bear came to see us

Dean and Joseph went to fill the truck with gas and saw another bear, much to Joseph's delight.

They also saw a porcupine

The girls each have a rabbit and they were thrilled when they had babies. I must admit, they are cute!

And that concludes our summer.

Busy Schedule = Stressed Mom

I haven't been posting much these past few weeks. When life gets busy my brain begins to function at lower n lower levels making writing difficult. I know what I want to say but it just doesn't come out right....now I sound like some of my children. :)

This week has been wild, beginning with Summer Bible School on Sunday evening. Dean is teaching 4th grade, so he went every night so far. Kiana, Joseph and I only made it once, not at all what I was planning.

On Tuesday I went to my sister to see my newest niece. She was so tiny! Kiana was in awe, Abagail is even smaller than her American Girl doll.  

We came home and squeezed in a little swimming, because the children thought it was soooo hot, before hurrying off to school to go over Lia's recent evaluation. The results of the evaluation didn't surprise me in the least, in fact they affirmed what we have been suspecting due to things we see at home. I need to take her for an OT eval, although I will admit the thought of more therapy on top of everything else we have going, nearly made me cry. Dean got take outs for supper because at that time I was still planning to attend Summer Bible School. Somewhere between school and home, all those plans went down the drain and I stayed home with my sobbing 9 year old's.

Wednesday I had errands to run. For some reason, I have been feeling like life will pass me by for the next 6 weeks and anything I want to get done this summer needs to be completed before Kiana's treatments start, hence the crazy schedule. Poor Tristan got a migraine which sent his already unsettled siblings into a blind panic. I guess I never realized how much their feelings of security rest on how big brother is feeling. If he is sick it is as earth shattering as when mom or dad are sick. Needless to say, we didn't make it to Bible School last night either!

This morning the children are working on school testing, something they were less than happy about. We have decided to home school our children for the coming school term, something we have thought of doing for years but I always thought it would be to stressful. However last year made me reconsider. Parents who have walked a similar path to ours have been telling us that home school is the way to go, especially when you have children with FASD and/or attachment issues. 

Learning the home school ropes, Kiana's daily IV schedule, Lia's evaluation and some other things we are working on succeeded muddling my thinking process. My poor husband gets frequent phone calls because my brain simply locks up and refuses to cooperate.