Homeschooling found us

We turned to homeschooling out of desperation. Looking back I can see Gods will in our change to homeschool.

We sold our house, and while we decided where we wanted to be permanently, we rented a house in the same school district our 4th grader was in previously. It was the same city. I called the school board and made sure if we lived in the same city she would attend the same school. They assured me she would. We started packing to move to our new house. I got a call from the secretary warning me that our new address, although the same city, was a different district. This  different district was out of the question.

I jokingly said something that would change the course of our lives "I could just homeschool". 

After saying this my husband, a very wordly man, at the time said "Yes thats what we will do."

I was excited and terrified all at the same time! As I began looking for how this would be accomplished I came across verse after verse about "training up your child". It became clear to both my husband and I that training her up should be our main focus. I was working part-time as a nurse at the time.

The end of our Artsy girls 4th grade year we dove in to books and wrote a lot of papers. I thought homeschool meant I sat at the table with her and "taught" her for several hours a day. I thought this was so easy and as we rounded in to summer I realized she had not learned a single thing.

In panic mode I signed her up for K12 and was so excited to have teacher backup. My Artsy girls fifth grade year was spent mostly at a computer learning what the state wanted. I constantly felt I was behind because I had to grade everything and was always days (sometimes weeks) behind. There were days I creid and wanted to put her back in public schools because I felt so inadequate and unprepared.

Every time I hit these lows there would be the resounding answer from God and my hubby to keep with it becasue it would pay off.

Spring 2013 Arty girl took her acheivement tests.... AND Passed. Not only did she get higher than state average in Math, her hardest subject, but she also got exceptional scores in science and reading. I was thrilled. I cannot describe the feeling of having a intregal part in teaching your child the things she/he needs to know. I felt so proud of her and accomplished as a mother. By this time though we had Brown eyed girl who was 4, Blue Eyes who was 2, and a moving Smiley baby.

For sisth grade we signed up to start K12 again and when the first week rolled around I realized that we would have hardly any time as a family anymore becasue Artsy girl would be spending all her time meeting with teachers. I was not ready to give up so much time with her and so much of the time she has to work on her interests. Thats when I stumpled upon Easy Peasy allinonehomeschool.com. If you are considering homeschool and cannot afford the curriculums this is the place to go. Everything is there and is so easy to use.

We have had less arguments over how to do math and I have had to remind her to stay focused so much less with this program. She looks forward to it and can accomplish everything in just a few hours. She has plently of time to draw, look further in to other subjects of interest, and spend with her family.

Homeschool has been an immense blessing so far. It is so nice to be able to spend time as a family, be the major sources of encouragement and teaching for our children. There are still days I want to run and hide for a few minutes but they are so fewer and far between.

My Full-time Job

Being Mommy

This summer has been the hardest I have ever encountered. Coming out of a long Ohio winter,  having some mild baby blues after having our youngest it was hard to adjust to being at home full-time.

I can not count the number of times I have had friends that said "I wish we could afford for me to be at home full-time". I too had said this many times during the years I worked full-time. As we had more little cherubs I wanted to be at home more. My husband and I came to the conclusion after our fourth daughter that I could no longer work at the hospital. I was blessed with an oppurtunity to work almost contingent at a local school district; I pick my hours. I jumped on the chance and knew it was blessed by God because I was at peace with leaving my old job that I so loved. I didn't look back because I had something else to fall back on, until summer hit.

I transitioned from working several long shifts a week to working a few days a month over the course of four years. And then my dream came true this summer. I was going to be a "stay at home mommy" for the three month summer break. These three months have been some of the hardest and some of the most rewarding months of my life. With my husband in school full-time most days I felt like I had no one. The biggest adjustment was decreased adult interaction. Couple that with three under the age of 5 and a pre-teen and its a recipe for disaster. There were days of defeat and anger and depression and dismay. Overall I know that I have a blessed life and a wonderful family and am exactly where God wants me. This did not help on a day to day basis of little ones screaming and big ones complaining and talking back. Being at home full-time is not a clean house and freshly made yummy treats. Its more like aching feet and trying to herd cats. By the end of the day I am more tired than I ever was working full-time. I found a few things to be essential to making the days as best as they could be.

 Here are some tips I think are essential to getting through the transition working full-time to being a stay-at-home mom.

1. Wake up, pray, and read every day.  In that order. The days that I did not start with this were disastrous. I spent these days battling with the girls and with myself over not getting anything accomplished. If you ask Christ to be the driving force behind your day it will help you get more done and feel more relaxed. If you don't you leave a breeding ground for the enemy to slip in.
2. Spend time with the little ones early. I have read this so many times and it is so true. If they feel like you are involved and paying attention to them early in the day they do not get in to as much trouble. I spent so many days this summer trying to get my stuff done first and paying for it with disasters created by our 4 and 2 year old; for example the painted blanket, moon-sand wall painting, and nail spa gone wrong.
3. Have adult contact daily. If I called my husband just to say "good morning I love you and am thinking of you", when problems arose he would be so much calmer and loving about how to handle them. The days that our first conversation was about something that didn't get done or needed done we would be confrontational with each other all day.
4. Plan time away weekly. Each week there has to be time, even if its only an hour, to get away. This isn't abandoning family but is a retreat to regroup yourself. Take a walk, talk to a friend, better yet go visit a friend. At first I thought this could be my trip to the grocery store but quickly realized that was not enough to keep me sane and energized. I needed planned time where I could do something I wanted, not something I had to do.