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| Brothers adoring their baby sister |
Tuesday my husband went back to work and I was on solo duty as a mother of 10. Talk about being outnumbered! Overall things went really well. I had decided ahead of time that we won't start back to school until next week. This week was all about getting our routines in place and adjusting to missing Daddy after he had two weeks off.
Tuesday a number of the kids spent time doing drawing tutorials with their Art for Kids Hub membership from a grandma. I will scatter pictures of their drawing throughout the rest of this post.
We also baked muffins, had piano lessons, visited with an aunt and cousins, and survived the day.
Wednesday was smooth. Nothing of note really. I have started looking at homeschool curricula for next fall. What we are doing this year is mostly working well. I am feeling a bit stretched with 7 formal students and a preschooler. I'm on the fence about moving to something different for language arts for everyone but Makayla. Right now we use several different things depending on the child: Fix It Grammar, All About Reading levels, literature books, Handwriting Without Tears, Draw Write Now for copywork, Brave Writer, and so on. I'm considering moving kids to The Good and the Beautiful language arts. Right now I'm reading through each level (I have PDFs I got free over the last few years of levels PreK, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7) and debating where to place kids and if it would work for us. The biggest hinderance in knowing where to place some of my kids is spelling. We don't do spelling until a child requests it and has been reading well for several years because I firmly believe that many spelling issues work themselves out after several years of seeing a word correctly spelled. However, there are exceptions and one of my kids is definitely in that group. Spelling is just not naturally improving even now in middle school.
Also on Wed: The oldest 5 kids had Wednesday night activities (Youth group and Cub Scouts) - which still left me with 5 children at home! I have had this month off of Cub Scouts while someone else took over. It's been really helpful. I start back at it next week with our Blue and Gold Banquet.
Thursday Makayla decided to be brave and watch the kids, including Rebekah, while I took Joseph to the orthodontist to get braces on. Two hours later I came home to a messy house but happy kids - I call that a success.
This was the day adjustments really hit hard for certain kids. They were cranky with me, cranky with each other, and I spent more time correcting children than not it felt like. However, I know 'this, too, shall pass' and we simply kept moving forward.
Friday has dawned gray and rainy yet again. The boys are busily playing with legos upstairs right now. Rebekah is asleep. I've got laundry washing, laundry drying, the dishwasher running, and meals already planned for the day. Today is going to be a better day than yesterday simply because I have decided it will.
I also need to make sure I have everything ready for starting back to school next week. Kids need assignment sheets printed out so they know what work to do each day. I need books organized and gathered.
***** Quick Afternoon Update*****
I didn't remember to publish this post earlier. Oops! It is now early afternoon and I took some pictures of Rebekah when she was awake earlier, so I'll share those and then hit publish.
Yes, she's adorable. So far she isn't a fan of tummy time, but she will do it for a bit. I love her expressions! She is a bit on the serious side.
You are a wonder! How you keep it all going so well amazes me. I love all the drawings.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
Such sweet baby pictures! I'm sure it was a big adjustment this week. So very glad Makayla is able (and willing) to fill in like that. Joseph looks so grown up these days, and he looks happy with his braces, score!
ReplyDeleteI've used The Good and the Beautiful off and on. It is a wonderful program, but I hate the spelling! I tried to use those lessons, but they go too fast for us. My kids always read far ahead of their spelling abilities, so I dumped the spelling lessons and completed only the reading and grammar portions. I tried to do the art lessons, but I just ended up tearing out the pictures for study and taping them on the wall for everyone to enjoy and skipping the art projects in favor of a family-friendly art curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI like the upper levels better than the lower ones. And the essay writing instruction in level 4 (Grade 4?) is amazing! I've gone back to refer to their instruction many times in helping even older kids with essay-writing skills. However, Nature Angel got overwhelmed with level 4, and we dropped it halfway through the year.
We've never tried level 5.
Anyway, as you consider it, that's my $.02. :)
Wishing you success in changing from a family of 11 to 12.
Here's one of life's little ironies: after my mixed review of The Good and the Beautiful, and my lukewarm feelings about it, my teens voted unanimously to use the new high school year 1 that is newly released (printed materials aren't available until June, and oddly, I can only get to the correct page via a facebook link). I'm still looking wistfully at the other Literature/Writing plans I had for them, but my girls all have compelling reasons for going with The Good and the Beautiful. :)
DeleteAnd we might purchase the preschool and preK primer for my littest ones, too!!
Go figure.
Too funny! We ended up going with level 5 for Joseph and Emma for next year, level 4 for Daniel. Makayla is still deciding if she will use the HS1, but I think she will. For my younger kids we are going to use All About Reading more fully (use the words they are learning for the next story for some dictation/handwriting, etc). The plan being to switch kids over to level 4 of TGTB when they read really well or around 5th grade.
DeleteThose are some cute drawings and a very sweet little baby too! I am enjoying reading your blog.
ReplyDelete