The Homeschool Mother's Journal: first time

In my life this week…I have decided it is time to start really working on Aric's potty training.  I think if there is one part of parenting I really dislike, it's potty training.  I can take the melt downs, and long days, but I would really love to just skip over the potty training.  Which is why I have been lazy about doing it.  So, this week I have been pushing it more.  I've put underwear on him as much as possible, but mostly only when I really want to deal with the mess.


In our homeschool this week…We are finally getting to a point where we are working for a good amount of time everyday.  I am really liking how the workboxes are working for us this year too.  I've gotten the process of loading them each night very simple because a lot of stuff just repeats the next day.  I've finally learned to not take a long time trying to make things interesting, they just need to keep plugging along in their work, and the interesting stuff really comes from them when they think of creative things they'd like to do with their work.     


I realized this week that we haven't been doing any science.  My kids beg me to do science all the time, so I made up for it today by doing 3 different science experiments.  I think we'll have to work on spreading those out better :-)  April also finally finished her first chapter in zoology today with the glider experiment!  She had a lot of fun making the gliders, and is excited to move onto birds now.


We also started Story of the world this week!  I decided that All American History was not working for us, and I wasn't sure how we were going to get through it.  I started seeing Story of the World all over homeschool blogs, and wondered if it was a better fit for us.  Then, I saw a copy of it at a new homeschool friends' house, and looked over it.  I decided it looked way more interesting, and we might actually make it through History if we made the change.  So, I took our pretty much unused All American History books to Exodus books (a local homeschooling store that buys back old curriculum), and pretty much got just enough to cover the Story of the World book and activity guide.  What a blessing! 

We also learned a lot about Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Indians, and Turkeys this week (2 teaching Mommies unit).  I'll post pictures of all that eventually.

 Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…Put homeschool first in your daily happenings and great things will come.  At least that's what I have learned after 4 years.  I am finally getting it, and I think this is one of the biggest reasons why...among others. 

I am inspired by…These questions.  I actually filled this one in close to last because it took me a while to figure out what inspired me this week.  Well, these questions are inspiring me to do better in all these areas.  Find a good book.  Cook more good things.  Go somewhere for a great field trip.  At least so I can have something better to write about!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…We didn't go many places this week unless Costco and grocery shopping counts.  I realized today that we haven't really had any good field trips lately, so I'm going to have to remedy that real soon.  April did go play at her long time homeschool friends house this week, that's always nice for her.

My favorite thing this week was…Going Christmas shopping with my family on Saturday followed by dinner at Red Robin.  It was a lovely day, and can you believed that my kids were actually complaining that we spent TOO much time in the toy store??  We didn't leave with anything, but the kids gave us a pretty good idea of what they wanted for Christmas. 

What’s working/not working for us…Well, I guess the workbox comments would fit better here, but oh well it's done.  What's not working for us is reading.  I cannot get Aaron to sit down long enough and read.  He won't do his reading lessons, and when we do he gets frustrated.  I've tried a few different programs, but they just don't seem to help him.  I'm being patient, but I'd love for him to be reading by the time he's through with Kindergarden.  I can't push it too much with him because I don't want him to hate reading.  He does love that he gets a "book it" Pizza Hut coupon for reading each month, and that has been a motivator (a little bit).  He'll read the required # of books to get his coupon.

Questions/thoughts I have…What should we do for nature study this month?  How can I make nature study a more regular part of our homeschool?

Things I’m working on…Well, I'm forever working on being a better Mom, but maybe I should think of this in more of a physical way.  I'm working on finding a book to read.  I'm working on getting my house ready for a Christmas tree in the next couple weeks (which means a little rearranging).  I'm working on my Thanksgiving menu.

I’m reading…No books currently.  I need to start into a good book, but reading is something that I don't make enough time for so it doesn't often happen (at least for books anyway).  I read lots of articles, blogs, stories, Church material (conference talks), and random things. 

I’m cooking…This has been a pretty good week for cooking for me.  I made a really yummy taco casserole tonight for the first time.  That was my biggest dinner venture this week. 

I’m grateful for…The good days we have (like today), it sure makes the hard ones more do-able.

I’m praying for…lots of things, nothing in particular right now.  I'll work on this.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…This is a glimpse of one of the pictures I got from our Christmas card photo session with the kids.  It sure was a challenge to get them at least looking normal in one picture let alone smiling and looking at the camera!