We took 3 weeks off for Christmas and to adjust to having a new baby. The first week of January, I decided we would attempt to get back into the swing of things. My strategy was to ease back in to everything very slowly so I could see how our current routine might still work and what I would need to tweak due to the new dynamics of homeschooling a seven and five year old while managing the needs of a toddler and baby!

Our first day back was January 4th and it was a very simple day. The girls did their handwriting/copywork, we read the Bible and then I did a joint math lesson with them on Fact Families because that was Little Bug’s new math concept coming up in her math book that week. Sarge was having his Independent Playtime and Beau was taking his morning nap. I knew I needed that day to get the momentum going again for school since we had been out of the routine for so long. Those first couple of weeks were more challenging than normal, but we pushed through. Within 2-3 weeks, we found a new rhythm that I am sure will have to be tweaked many times from here to the end of our school year in May, but I am confident our homeschool will be just fine through this transition.

A big reason for that is because Sarge is already trained to play happily in his bedroom for 60 minutes every morning! If I didn’t have that time without a toddler underfoot, homeschooling would be a daily disaster. The last 30-60 minutes of our school morning can be quite challenging once he is finished with his Independent Playtime, but putting a sister in charge of playing with and entertaining him while I am working with the other sister and giving him “table activities” (coloring, puzzles) helps us make it through the last half of our school day somewhat sane on most days.

On days when our school day is a disaster, I remind myself that this is just a season. Every year, the littles will be a little bit older and, before I know it, I won’t have the challenge of a toddler underfoot while trying to school my older children…and then I will have a new set of challenges to deal with!

These boys already have a special bond. I pray one day soon, they will decide school time is "brother time" and they will go off and play cars together and do whatever else brothers like to do together while I am schooling their sisters. Wouldn't that be nice?!

Classical Conversations

Like last year, I had plans to review Weeks 1-12 Memory Work during the 7-week Christmas break we had. Obviously, those plans did not happen, and that is perfectly okay. I do not feel like the girls have their Memory Work down like they did last year, but I would bet they probably know more than I am giving them credit for here because that is the beauty of CC!

We jumped right back into the routine of daily Memory Work review once we went back for Week 13 on January 10th. Grams and Gramps are attending Community Days with the girls during this time when I cannot leave Beau with anyone else as we work to form healthy attachment and bonding between us and him.

The girls received a telescope for Christmas from Grams and Gramps and they have enjoyed looking at stars and planets after studying the Solar System in CC before Christmas Break. They were also excited to see Gallon Man back for Week 13 math!

During our "get back into the routine" weeks, the girls randomly asked if they could trace the world map from their Geography trivium table. They both did such an excellent job and they both even labeled each continent! They took these for their presentations one week this month! I was so proud of them. Little Bug's is on the left and Sweet Pea's is on the right:

This Matching Matter! was a fun cut-and-paste activity we did the week we were learning about solids, liquids and gases in science.

Bible

We gave The Big Picture Bible to the girls for Christmas. It didn't take us very long to read through the entire thing during our Bible reading time in the morning. I've heard such great things about this children's Bible but, after reading it, I was disappointed in it. Like Little Bug said, it left out a lot (which I know children's Bible story books tend to do). I guess I am still glad we have a copy because certain parts were well told, but overall I don't think I would recommend this children's Bible.

We are now reading Genesis straight from The Adventure Bible! This is something I have longed to do with my girls and I felt they were both at the age where I could keep their attention reading straight from the Bible. We are also continuing to work our way through God's Names.

Little Bug

Little Bug finished All About Reading Level 2 on January 19th! She is an avid, fluent reader but we will pick up with Level 3 in the near future. We will skip over the phonics sections for the most part and focus on the other parts of All About Reading Level 3. She will continue to get phonics reinforcement with Explode the Code.

Little Bug finished the first book of Horizons 1 on January 25th! I will talk more about where we are headed next in math below.

We have started All About Spelling Level 1 and that will be our focus for language arts for the time being. I love that AAS reinforces what we've learned in AAR 1&2.

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea continues to work through Confessions of a Homeschooler's K4/5 Kindergarten Curriculum. I was planning to start some more formal schooling for Sweet Pea in the new semester, but with the new baby, I have postponed those plans. I am incredibly thankful for the freedom to do a very relaxed Kinder year with Sweet Pea. If we were choosing to send our children to public school, I probably would have "held back" all 4 children due to their summer birthdays. So, instead of entering Kindergarten at newly 5 years old, they would enter Kindergarten at newly 6 years old.

The sudden and unexpected adoptions of both of my boys when they each had an older sister that was in Kindergarten, has made me realize the beauty and freedom of delayed academics. Five year olds do not need formal schooling. At all. They do need plenty of time to play and explore. Sweet Pea likes to "do school" and COHS K4/5 Kinder meets those desires for her. I LOVE the Add It Game included in her curriculum. It is a game designed to teach children their basic addition and subtraction facts. We are focusing on that right now for math instruction. AAR Level 1 and Horizons Math K will come in their time and this is not the time!

In this season, I have allowed Sweet Pea to choose how she spends her "school time" many days. Once she completes her K4/5 Kinder work, she has asked to draw! She loves to watch Art for Kids Hub and draw with the instructors step-by-step directions. She drew this My Little Pony!

Handwriting/Copywork

Our school day still begins with Copywork and handwriting practice. This is something the girls can each do independently while I am getting the boys settled in Independent Playtime and nap so we can begin our formal morning learning time.

Both girls are working through A Reason for Handwriting K. This is Little Bug's second time through this book as she needed some extra practice in handwriting. Little Bug is doing 1 lesson (letter) per day while Sweet Pea is working on 1 lesson (letter) per week. I put Sweet Pea's page in a dry erase pocket so she can practice the same lesson multiple times throughout the week. On Friday she takes the page out of the pocket and writes her letters on the paper.

Little Bug's copywork consists of tracing Bible verses that I have written. I've placed the page in dry erase pocket so she can trace over what I have written. She does 1 verse per week and she is currently writing the Bible verses we memorized together last year. Next month, she is going to start copying the verses on the extra line below my writing (instead of tracing). Our eventual goal is for her to copy these verses onto her own sheet of paper.

New Curriculum

I have decided to try a different math curriculum - Christian Light Education. I have shared how every year at Convention I am always torn about what math curriculum to use. Little Bug has completed Horizons K through the first book of Horizons 1. As I looked ahead, I knew the "busyness" of Horizons was going to complicate things for Little Bug. When I looked at a sample of CLE math, I loved the simpleness that I saw. It was just straightforward math. No fluff.

Knowing Horizons is advanced in scope and sequence, I did not want to switch to another math program that was not. As I explored and researched CLE math, I quickly discovered that CLE's scope and sequence is nearly identical to Horizon's. That was my deciding factor to go ahead and make the switch.

Our first day with CLE math will be Monday, January 30th! I am looking forward to diving into this math curriculum with Little Bug. I think it is going to be a positive change for both of us. I will report how we like CLE math in next month's Homeschool Highlight post!

CLE's prices are astoundingly affordable, which was another huge deciding factor for me in deciding to take the plunge and give CLE a try. For this reason, I also decided to go ahead and buy Sweet Pea the Kindergarten II books! She will finish K4/5 Kinder before the year is over and since I am delaying formal academics, I decided these 5 books (for under $20) filled with language arts and math activities would be a smart choice for Sweet Pea.

Outside Play

When our formal learning time is finished, it is outside time until lunch time in our house every day! We recently fenced in our backyard so that I can safely send the older three children out to play while I feed Beau his bottle and get lunch prepped and on the table for the other three! Little Bug has taken to capturing lizards...and holding them hostage in my tupperware! I ended up giving her a few containers for her lizards that are not to come back in the house!

We've had a warm "winter" and have enjoyed many lunches out on our deck!

I love this picture Little Bug drew of our family of 6! 

I look to the future with great expectation. This has always been my dream...to be a mother to four and homeschool them. There are certainly challenges and days when I wonder why in the world this is what I wanted! I am quickly reminded why when I stop in the middle of the chaos and think....

Mothers have the most important job in the universe.

Daily, we are training, molding and teaching our little ones in the way that they should go...so that when they are old, they will not depart from it.

I don't take this role lightly in the least bit. It may not look glamorous to be up to your eyeballs in spit up and dirty diapers from a toddler and infant all while trying to educate and referee your big kids, but it is not lost on me that I am doing the most important work I could possibly be doing right now in this season of my life.

- Elaine