College Visits, Mom Doubts, and Routines – Homeschool and Life Happenings

I’m not going to lie. This week hasn’t been all sunshine and happiness in the house. Aside from the fact that it’s literally been overcast and we were prepping for some major rain thanks to Hurricane Flo (which it now looks like will miss us), kiddos have had headaches, and there have been some rather stinky attitudes all around. 

The kind that make you cry a bit, call a friend to vent and get some reassurance that you are not scarring your children for all eternity. And then you pray even more for guidance.

We all have doubts and there are days when little (or big) things the kids say or do touch on insecurities and make us question all that we are doing. 

So we regroup. Refocus. See if there is something that needs to be tweaked. And we keep going.

Our Days…

One of these days I will get around to sharing what a day looks like in our house. Except here’s the thing – each day doesn’t follow a set routine. 

We do start our days with routine of sorts, but our kids aren’t on a minute-by-minute block schedule. We know what subjects need to be done each day and work through them in the order that works best. 

But every morning the boys watch CNN 10 together and then take turns using the downstairs computer to work on their Teaching Textbooks. Having the 3.0 online version of their math levels has been a huge help for this since they can use any computer in the house. 

As soon as they finish up math, we read together. Currently we’re reading The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt and absolutely loving it. And because of all the cream puff references, I need to find a local place that makes them fresh so we can all enjoy one. :)

Independent Work

Back up in the schoolroom (which is still unpainted), the kids all work on their work independently as much as they can. Zachary is on a bit of a learning curve with this – checking in with me and making sure he is tracking everything in his planner. 

For the most part, I’m sitting between Kaleb and Zachary and helping Zachary as needed. Kaleb is getting into a better routine and definitely jumping into his new subjects without complaining. 

Kaleb finished up his first unit from AOP Lifepac History and Geography and started work on the second unit. He really likes the format and although the reading at times is hard (hello to names of countries from the beginning of civilization). Having him writing more is also a huge encouragement for me. 

If anything, this year has been a definite turn in attitude for Kaleb toward his school work and expectations. We did have a talk at the start of the year about him needing to step it up a bit in some areas. Since he loves swimming, we made a comparison to his dropping times in events to his level of practicing. 

For him that helped him understand that even when he doesn’t necessarily enjoy something (such as reading or writing), it won’t get better if he doesn’t keep practicing and work on it. 

One more subject we added in this week was spelling. We’re not using paper to write the practice words this year, but instead using our  Boogie Board which Kaleb loves. 

In reading, Kaleb has started reading Mad Scientists Club in addition to The Yellow House Mystery Boxcar Children book. He was a bit hesitant at first in adding more reading to his day, but he is really enjoy the Boxcar Children (and wants to read more), and has 

McKenna has been working and figuring out her schedule and trying to balance her drama class since she spends about 8 hours (or more) in class each week in addition to memorizing her lines and songs. It’s definitely been a lot of work, but she is loving the class. 

Laurianna and I also re-visited one of the colleges she is interested in this week to make sure the classes she is taking at the community college line up with their requirements. After this fall semester she will have all of her nursing pre-requisites completed, so she will be able to apply directly to the nursing program and begin working on her electives as well. Next week we will visit another school and talk to them about their RN to BSN program and see how it will line up with her current classes. 

The last bit of the week we’ve been watching the hurricane via the Frying Pan Ocean live cam. While we are thankful that our area will not be receiving the magnitude of rain that was initially expected, we’re watching areas our friends live in and praying it doesn’t cause as much damage as they expect. 

That’s it for us this week. Hope you all are having an amazing week – talk to you soon! 

Be sure to stop by WeirdUnsocializedHomeschoolers.com and hang out with some other moms who are sharing their day-to-day happenings.