Homeschool Mother's Journal: week of January 9

It only took me all weekend to get this done in between birthday party and everything else...

In my life this week...We finally celebrated Alexander's 1st birthday on Saturday.  Not a big party, just some family and the neighbors. It's amazing how fast the first year goes by with each child.  I love 1st birthdays! 

In our homeschool this week...The wintertime homeschool blahs have settled in here.  It was hard getting back into the school routine for me, and the kids too.  They made that clear with their whining and dragging of feet to get anything done as far as school goes.  The only one that seems to want to do anything is Aric, the 3 year old.  I've been trying to figure out what we could do to get out a little more to keep things moving for the rest of the winter, and in my email inbox pops an email about a co-op that is starting a new term this month.  It's a little bit of a drive, but I knew it's what we needed for a little pick-me-up right now.  So, we went out to the registration on Monday to sign up for Monday school.  The kids are excited, and Aric tells everybody that he's going to preschool class.  It'll be nice to see what a homeschool co-op is like.  It's a little drive, but it's one day a week.  I really need the encouragement right now and the kids could use a little change up.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…I've learned that getting through 1 chapter in a science or history lesson can take more than a week, sometimes up to a month, and it really is okay.  Move at the pace your kids need.

I am inspired by...a bookstore.  We went to the bookstore on Monday, and I wanted to read so many new books!  I guess a bookstore will do that to you, but I don't make enough time for reading, so this is a little different.  I realized that I need to start making more of an effort/time to read because there is so much that I want to read.  Does that make sense?

Places we're going to and people we're seeing...We went to the library for story time this week.  That was the first time in many months that we've gone to story time.  I gave up on it for several reasons, but we decided since we were going to the library that day already that we'd go in time for story time.  It turned out to be a great thing!  The theme for story time was penguins, and we just happened to be doing a little unit on penguins this week too.  They had all the penguin books out that I was going to look for, and they had a penguin craft for the end.  I was so excited to not have to go searching for all the penguin books, and the fact that it tied in was just another example to me that I'm on the right track.  Little blessings like that can do amazing things to fill my cup.

My favorite thing this week was...My Dear Hubby cleaned our living room carpets on Saturday and it has been so nice to look at our clean carpets all week!

What's working/not working for us...April has expressed an interest to bring her individual desk out to the living room area so she can work by herself, and that has helped her.  She likes having her own space to work.

I'm reading...The Duggars 20 and counting.  I have loved reading about this huge family.  Of course I feel like my family is big with my 4 children, I couldn't possibly imagine 20, but what a wonderful family they are.  It's very inspiring, and I am finding some of their parenting advice very helpful.  I also love the recipes throughout the book.

I'm cooking...cake for little Alexander's birthday party.  His cake came together but I can't say it was a masterpiece.  I was lucky to find 2 Winnie the Pooh figures to put on it at the last minute after searching many stores.

I'm grateful for...Days when baby Alexander takes long naps, and we can get lots of school work done.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

April's rock sun.  She's my nature girl!