School Time

This is what my dining room table looks like on Saturday afternoons or Sunday evenings.  This is my planning time.  I gather as many books, my planner for Julia, the reading curriculum we use, our Bible and Kid devotional, and I start filling in the new concepts we will learn, the new books we will read and re read, the crafts we will do, and I grab my own schedule and start planning the playdates, park trips, and library times we will go to.

I love how the first thing people ask when you mention you are home schooling your children is: "What about their social life?"  It is truly laughable because what do they think we do all week?  Do they think we lock our children in their rooms with books and manipulatives and expect them to learn and teach themselves?  No!  Obviously we do things outside of the home, we are involved with church activities, our friend activities, gymnastics, library story time, park time, my kids have PLENTY of social time and interaction, they are social bugs I call them because they love meeting and playing with other children.

Lately I've gotten a lot more serious with Mark's learning time, he no longer does the two naps so he joins us for all of our learning time.  But we no longer have a set learning time.  We learn throughout the day, sometimes once we wake up til right before bed.  I just have a very difficult time caring for the kids, house, meal planning and having set "school time"  we work best by being flexible throughout the day.  Some days Julia wants more and more school time, and some days she says, "Mom, that's enough."  And I really try to be very sensitive to what my kids are telling me because after all they are only almost 2 and 3 1/2 and sometimes the concepts can be overwhelming, especially teaching your child to read.  I've gotten so much good advice from my home school friends, what a support they have been to me.  So now when I plan for the week ahead I have a Mark paper and a Julia paper and I list all the concepts I want the kids to learn/practice that week and throughout the week I keep checking my list to make sure we hit them all.

We have been having a great time learning to count and teach Mark his numbers.  I really think Julia might just be a teacher some day, she is so serious and patient with teaching him new things, I think she may even have him potty trained!

I also am loving teaching my kids social skills and social awareness through The Clifford books.  We do two books a week (I bought over 10 they are about $3.99 each) and we read the book during the day and before bed time and we talk about sharing, spring cleaning, counting, fire safety rules, etc, and it is a fun way to teach your kids because my kids love Clifford the Big Red Dog!

I'm loving this time God has given me with my children, I'm not sure how long I will be at home, but I'm ready and willing to stay as long as He allows! And I think both my kids are better off because of it!

My boy is totally growing up in leaps and strides and let me just brag on him for a minute.  He is the sweetest kindest little guy.  If you sneeze or cough (anyone, even a stranger at the library) he will walk over and go, "You ok?"  He is so tender hearted.  When I'm driving and someone cuts me off and I go, "REally!? How rude!"  Mark goes, "MOmmy what happened???" He's so aware of other people's hurts and injustices-es and he really seems to understand and care.  I think he just might be a doctor some day, just a guess, but you never know!