Homeschool Notes Week 29

Monday, oh Monday, it felt like things were off all day. Three kids had dental cleanings, which Daddy was in charge of, while I was homeschooling the other kids. Then there were phone calls to make. I had to pick up a regular prescription for one child at the pharmacy, which turned into a mini-grocery trip. I got home in time to make lunch. Then I took a nap because Rebekah was up from 4:30am-6:30am. By the time she was back to sleep I had to be up getting kids ready for the dentist and missing that 2 hours of sleep. I can't wait to find out what is going on with my body (hypothyrodism and anemia)in the next couple weeks so that can hopefully be addressed. Who has time for naps?

Then I went to the tax preparer's office only to find out the appointment I schedule online (and had an email confirmation for) had been recorded as an hour later in their office. I handed over paperwork and rescheduled to come back 2 hours later with my husband in tow - because they also hadn't told me ahead of time that he needs to be there too. Back home I went for a while before hubby and I went back to the tax office.

We finally came home and I was so glad I had prepared Family Home Evening ahead of time so we could get right to that. I pulled several things from the Peer Pressure lesson at A Year of FHE. I adjusted one of the games (the yes/no signs game). I printed one of each sign and hung them up on opposite sides of the room. When each situation was read the family ran to stand by the sign they thought was the best answer of what to do.

Tuesday I took advantage of the flexibility of homeschooling. Two kids had dental cleanings in the morning. I took them and brought Rebekah along with me while Makayla watched the kids left behind. Nobody did school until I returned home. They started the morning with a movie together instead. School found me doing math with a couple kids, reading lessons with three, discussing the Latin plan and working on balancing chemical equations with Makayla, and chatting about writing ideas with a few others. One child worked on manga drawings of a current favorite superhero. Our piano teacher arrived and there were many lessons.

In the evening I worked my mommy magic on Rebekah. A few minutes walking around with her in the Ergo carrier and she went from grumpy to sleeping. A sweet friend gave me this Ergo several years and several babies ago and I love it! It is comfortable for me to carry babies from tiny to 40 lbs. I can still carry Mason, Samuel, and Tobias on my back with it.

Wednesday we had no appointments. I was so glad! I started my morning by doing something new for me - exercise. I'm 5 weeks postpartum and starting super extra light. I actually bought a year membership to Fit2Be. It's an online website with more than 200 workout videos and more added each month. The exciting part is their focus on "Tummy Safe Workouts" for people who are healing diastasis recti (split abdominals - that would be what I have!). They offer classes you can buy individually that have a series of videos with a common focus, or membership options. I chose to do the premium membership because it includes everything. In other words, I have options galore from just barely postpartum to beginner to more advanced workouts. There are even a couple videos for kids (great way to get energy out when weather is yucky) and a few yoga for tweens/teens videos. I started a class series today (Foundational 5 Plus). My goal is to make time 6 days a week for a Fit2Be workout. They even have a Roku channel with most of their videos uploaded (new ones appear every few weeks) that is included in my membership. I had a coupon code and got $53 off my year membership. Breaking down my cost, it works out to about $10.50 a month, from the comfort and convenience of home. I'm excited to get my body strengthened after all these sweet babies.

Wednesday was also Pi day (3.14 - March 14th). We made a peanut butter pie to celebrate. Homeschool happened as usual - the first day this week that every did school because there were not dentist appointments.

Thursday we were back to the dentist grind. It takes so many visits to get cleanings done in a large family and then there are the follow ups for cavities or loose fillings. It takes over our schedule for a couple weeks. I took 4 boys to the dentist.

Everyone else did school and hung out at home with big sister Makayla, who loves getting paid and generally doesn't mind babysitting. How can she be turning 17 this summer? It seems like not very long ago she was the tiny baby I was carrying around... sigh. Our day was pretty normal after the dentist. Just following routines. Daddy got home late in the afternoon and right after dinner I headed to bed for a nap because I was so tired.

One thing that made me smile today was Emma. She has fallen head over heels into the superhero multiverse in the last two months. She draws superheroes, she watches superhero shows, she takes notes on the characters, she talks superheroes, and most recently she writes fan fiction. She is writing nonstop. Her obsession with superheroes is driving Makayla crazy but I love that she's dived in and it's pulling her to do so much learning and creating for fun.

Rebekah is smiling a lot

but it is really hard to 

catch it on camera. 

Oh well!

Friday the morning was homeschool work until about 11am, when we were back to the dentist for two kids who had a cavity on the exact same tooth. Weird, but true. In the afternoon I started watching my first class from the Teaching Saints Virtual Summit. It is a free summit (sign up here) but you only have access to the videos from each day for about 24 hours, then new ones appear on the website for the next day. It started yesterday (the 15th) and goes through March 24th. There is an all access pass you can buy where you can keep access to the videos plus get the audio download, slides, and written transcripts, and a private Facebook group. I was able to earn an all access pass free when a couple people signed up for the free option with the link I shared and I'm so glad! There is no way I could watch these each day in the 24 hours they are free without feeling like I'm being flooded with ideas and information.

Rebekah is sleeping at the moment so I'm going to take advantage of that to finish preparations for next week's Family Home Evening. We'll be using a lot of paperclips. The kids saw me put them in a bin and are dying to know what we're going to do with paperclips.