2020/2021 School Plans!

 August is my New Years. I've said it before here. I feel much more of a 'fresh start' feeling in August than I ever do on January 1st. This year, in this strange, pandemic induced, groundhog day sort of limbo we're in, August is feeling like even more of a fresh start than normal. Our final term of school last year, while nowhere near as disrupted as non-homeschoolers, was kind of an anxious mess and we hurriedly finished school 2 weeks earlier than originally planned with a gigantic sigh of relief. I threw myself into making the summer count, despite knowing it wouldn't look anything like the summers we're used to. We did it up big. Movies every afternoon, so many nights up past bedtime, camping both in the yard and at an actual campsite, loooots of marshmallows, ice cream sundaes, bubbles, hours in the pool, baking, obstacle courses in the yard, hiking. By the time we made it to August, I was feeling pretty tired and desperate for a routine, and I don't think I was alone. 

Falling back into our school routine always feels good after a summer of no (or at least less) routine. This year though, it feels like taking a stand and establishing ourselves. Okay Covid World. Let's do this. This is what our days will look like this fall and winter. We are ready. Let's do this. We know our local, not overly populated hiking trails. We know how to work the library's curbside system. We've got our masks when/if we need to go out in public. Let's go.

On top of those feelings, I'm feeling so excited for this school year because I'm changing up aspects of our curriculum. Some things I have changed or added to in order to make sure the history my kids are getting is less whitewashed and Euro-centric. I am so grateful for the homeschool bloggers, FB groups, and friends out there also on this journey that have helped me find such awesome books to enrich our schooling and bring more truth into everything we're learning. 

I also reminded myself that Ms. Charlotte Mason herself said, "Children are born persons." Not, "Children are born ready to slot into the curriculum you choose and stay there fitting happily for the rest of their school career, happily followed by each of their siblings in the same exact way." First of all, that's nowhere near as snappy and second of all, how silly is that? Of course kids are going to change and be different from one another. So, remembering that my children (namely Sam in this case) were born persons, I decided to veer off from our usual science plans and found something that looks more interesting to him while still fitting in with our family's philosophy on education.

Now, without further ado, here's our round up of school plans for this year! For reference: Sam just turned 9 and is in 4th grade, Kate is just about to turn 7 and is in 2nd grade, Henry is 4 and considered 'pre-k', Anna is almost 3 and considered 'preschool', and Julia is 9 months old. Only Sam and Kate are formally schooling this year. In this post I talk about what we do for preschool thru Kindergarten.

4th Grade

We are still largely using Ambleside Online as our main curriculum. I am substituting some free reads and have incorporated some different history spines into our schedule to make sure we are getting a full picture. Some of these history books I will later begin in 1st grade, so to catch Sam and Kate up to the sections I've marked off for 2nd and 4th, we are reading the parts marked for 1st in the morning before splitting up to individual tasks. One of these books is Turtle Island: The Story of North America's First People by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger, another is African Beginnings by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson. African Beginnings is the first book in a series that we will use coordinating with that grade's history period, Turtle Island is a longer book and I will use different portions for different years. We are also flipping through Joy Hakim's The History of US series as we do our other history readings. It's important to me that we read as much of an unbiased history as we can, but also be able to point out and call out biases when we do come across them. As part of his history instruction this year, Sam will begin keeping a Book of Centuries, marking well known people and events under the appropriate time.

We are still using copywork for handwriting practice and learning sentence structure and basic grammar. I found copywork books on Amazon this year that Sam and Kate have so far been enjoying. When those run out I'll go back to writing out sentences or short passages from other school books or poetry for them to copy. Sam already knows cursive, but prints his copywork. I have cursive practice books that he will start using later in the year to keep those skills sharp. I don't like to introduce everything in the very beginning of the year. We hold off on some things until Christmas or after. 

New for Sam this year is more formal grammar instruction. We are using grammar cards from The Good and the Beautiful and will also start playing Mad Libs later this year to work on those skills.

Horizons is still our math curriculum of choice. We are doing it a year behind so that we match up with when Horizons stops their math levels and I want to start Teaching Textbooks for higher math. However, we've been going through lessons fairly quickly, so we may skip ahead a little and start a split year. Half the year a year back, half the year on 'grade level'. We'll see how that goes.

Sam is starting some very basic Latin this year. He is pretty excited about this since he is so interested in science and animals. He has been telling me all of the Latin words he already knows so I can't wait to see how he does with this program. Getting Started With Latin comes highly recommended by other homeschool families.

For Geography, in addition to reading through the scheduled lessons in Elementary Geography and Charlotte Mason's Geography and mapping his other readings, Sam will be starting map drills this year. When I ordered The Good and the Beautiful's grammar cards, they came with a set of geography cards as well so we will use those as well as geography games from Seterra.

We'll continue with our recitation rotation of a Psalm, a passage from the Old Testament, a passage from the New Testament, and a poem to work on public speaking skills, memorization, and reading fluency. We'll also be adding in studied dictation this year. I've typed out some short-ish passages, one per week. Sam will read each passage carefully throughout the week and then will copy it down as I read it every Friday. We'll use this to make up spelling lists and to further work on grammar. 

For science and nature study this year, I've pre-ordered the 4th grade science and nature study from Blossom and Root. We haven't received the actual curriculum yet, but have purchased the books to go with it (it's a Charlotte Mason based program, so of course there's a good stack of books!) and Sam has been poring over them in his free time. He'll be studying engineering and anatomy and his nature study will be yearlong care of his own garden plot. We can't wait to get the curriculum and dive into that!

He is going to continue working through Art for Kids: Drawing and he has asked for a simple Dover drawing book for fun/extra practice.

The biggest hit for Sam after finishing our first week of school seems to be typing. He's been showing some interest in the computer after using so much Zoom all spring and summer, so I figured now was a good time for him to learn how to use it. We're just using the free program on typing.com (which I can't link to because the site is undergoing maintenance until Sunday. I'll come back to edit and link on Sunday if I remember!) It's simple and so far so good!

2nd Grade

Kate is also using mostly Ambleside Online with the same history modifications, just tailored to the period of time she's in right now. I'm also using Exploration and Conquest by Betsy Maestro because it presents a more balanced view of white people coming to North America than the books already scheduled. She is going to continue with her personal life timeline to work on better grasp of the passage of time, but midway through the year she will start marking historic events and notable people on our roll out timeline already begun by Sam.

Kate is capable of reading well, but struggles with the confidence to make her a very fluent reader. So we're using phonics cards from The Good and the Beautiful and a movable alphabet (there are some beautiful wooden ones on Etsy, but due to financial restraints, we have a foam and magnetic version found on Amazon). We also use Banagrams tiles for word building. I want to spend the beginning of the year reviewing all of the rules she already knows and then work on confidence reading simple picture books and chapter books together. She read Psalm 23 in its entirety just this morning for her weekly recitation and needed very little help. There's a fluent reader inside her, we just need to coax it out this year.

She will also be doing a copywork book I found and then copying things I've written out for her once the book is completed. Handwriting Without Tears sells great primary lined paper for handwriting practice and I like their workbooks too for extra practice. Kate will be using their beginner cursive book later on this year.

Kate's geography will also be from Elementary Geography, Charlotte Mason's Geography, and mapping her readings. We will also work on filling in a few blank maps to help her learn all of the continents, oceans, and states.

She is going to use a Dover drawing book for drawing practice, we just haven't picked which one yet!

Last year Kate memorized a poem each term for recitation, but as her reading improves, she'll move into the same recitation rotation as Sam (with her own passages) reading weekly out loud from her recitation folder.

All Together

We will be continuing our routine of Bible reading, devotions, prayers, poetry, and memory work all together over breakfast as well as our art and music study over lunch. For music study we will loosely follow Ambleside's scheduled hymn, folk song, and composer studies, but will substitute sometimes to make sure we're presenting a diverse field, same for our art study. Right now they look at our current art study on my computer while listening to the music. I read them artist and musician bios, but keep it brief. The main point right now is appreciation. Sam and Kate are also going to make their way through Alfred's beginner piano book for kids. We started it last year, but then abandoned it when end of pregnancy and then baby and then pandemic (yikes) just got to be way too much.

We have been slowly working through Cherrydale Press' French together. It's simple and very basic, conversational French. The have suggestions for more advanced instruction later on, but for now this works. We will also listen to French songs for children on YouTube.

Sam does have his own specific nature study this year, but he will still participate in our family nature study. We follow Exploring Nature with Children which has a different theme for every week of the year. We read the blurb in the main book, borrow books from the library that are on theme, and bring our focus to the theme while we're playing outside or hiking that week, marking notable finds in our nature journals.

Some handicrafts we are planning on doing together this year are continuing with Paper Sloyd, sewing practice, watercolor, pastels, soap carving, and finger knitting.

This year I purchased an African Folktales curriculum from Heritage Mom Blog and all of the beautiful books on the booklist she includes. We are reading through those together in the mornings.

We still begin our days with Swedish Drill (basically structured Simon Says). I've thought about moving it to after school, but it just works so well to get us started.

I have played around a little bit with how I schedule things this year. Sam will be more responsible for keeping track of his own tasks. I'm keeping his weekly task sheet, as well as the daily and weekly task sheets I keep for both of them in page protectors so I can just mark things off with a dry erase marker and then start fresh each week. I still keep the scheduled readings in my binder along with our attendance sheets and book logs.

This year I tried to organize and freshen up our collection of quiet baby/toddler/preschooler activities to try and give us a smoother year. I want to very strongly emphasize that I do not do any of these activities with my little guys. I still very firmly believe in staying pretty hands off until they're 6. But these are some fun activities that make them feel like they're part of our morning. I've made most of them with scraps from the recycling bin and my ideas are 100% from Pinterest. We're only a week in, but so far everything I've pulled out has been well received and helpful in buying me at least a little bit of time.

And where do I keep all of this? I change that up every year it feels like, but this year feels like the most streamlined our school things have ever been! I found this bookshelf/cabinet combo on FB Marketplace last weekend and it fits all of our stuff, plus looks pretty! I have been loving not only having everything in just one spot, but also having everything easily accessible by the kids so I don't always have to be the one fetching everything (but the 2 littlest girls can't quite open the heavy magnet cabinet doors, which is also a win!)

I think that's about it! Our first week has gone really well and I am so excited to learn alongside these kids this year. 

What's Keeping Me (somewhat) Sane Right Now

Back in January (approximately 400 years ago, right?) I kept coming across all of these, "What's Saving My Life Right Now" or "What's Keeping Me Sane Right Now" blog posts and I loved reading them. They made me think about all the little things that help me get through the cold, dark days of winter and I thought it would be super fun to write a similar post of my own. Life with a very needy 2 month old baby meant that I never did get around to writing it and then came... March. Things started closing or getting cancelled and stay at home orders started rolling out. Life as we knew it had been completely shaken up. The idea of writing a blog post about the things keeping me sane seemed laughable at best because what was 'sane' anymore? Every day was different and I couldn't concentrate on anything at all. My focus, or what remains of my focus 5 kids later, was non existent. What was keeping me sane? Ummm...?

2 months (!!) later, and this idea of listing the things keeping me going right now feels relevant and doable again. My brain doesn't feel quite as chaotic, anxious place these days (most days anyway), and I feel equipped to articulate what all is helping me along day to day. My hope in sharing this post is that maybe somebody will find something that they themselves want to try, but at the very least I want to try to capture this surreal moment in time to look back on in the future.

So here we go. Here's some of the things helping me at least attempt to stay sane at home for 2 months and counting with 5 small children, in the midst of a global pandemic (yikes).

*A devotional and some scripture reading first thing in the AM.
I've always enjoyed a morning devotional, but I haven't had the brain space to dive into one of my favorite devotional books or a full Bible study lately. Besides the whole pandemic thing, there's the whole postpartum with a very needy baby thing. The app 'First 5' has been perfect. It's quick and to the point, and I can read it on my phone before I've even sat all the way up in bed yet.

*Minimal news reading, but still SOME news reading.
For a few years now I get an email from The Skimm every morning. Each email is a concise overview of some of the big news points from the last 24 hours. They include links to read more if you want to, but just skimming (see where their name comes from?) the email helps me feel knowledgeable without feeling overwhelmed.

And then of course there's John Krasinski's amazing YouTube weekly news show, Some Good News. He did 8 episodes and every single one made me cry. If you haven't watched them yet, GO NOW.

*Getting ready every day.
I don't mean like full hair and makeup. But I do mean changing out of my pjs into leggings and a clean shirt and brushing my hair before redoing my top knot. It's often really tempting to skip all of this, but the mornings I wash my face, brush my teeth, make my bed, get dressed, and brush my hair set me up for days where I don't feel like I'm going to fall asleep before lunch. It has proved important for the kids too. We do have the occasional pj day, but mostly they get fully dressed and I do the girls' hair.

*Music
I've been making a LOT of playlists. Show tunes especially have been clutch.

*Reading
My first thought when I knew we wouldn't be going anywhere for a while was, "I AM GOING TO GET SO MUCH READING DONE!" This wasn't immediately the case. I struggled to stay focused enough to finish books quickly. That has gotten better with time though, especially if I mix up the types of books I'm reading to keep things interesting. Without the library, I'm having to change my normal reading habits. The Libby app to borrow ebooks and audiobooks has been great, but since so many people are using it right now, most books have holds and some have LONG holds. I don't usually buy many books, but I've needed to lately. ThriftBooks has always been my go to for our books for school and books for Christmas/Birthday gifts for the kids, but I've ordered myself a few from there lately as well. Great prices for used books and they carry new releases too!

I also just joined Book of the Month, which I'm really excited about. I should actually be getting my first book tomorrow! The way it works is, you pay $14.99/month for a book credit. Each month they release 5 titles for you to choose from (and you also have the option of looking back into their archives and choosing from there). If you want to skip a month, you just click 'skip' instead of choosing a book and your credit rolls over to the next month. Since they're hardcover, fairly new releases, that's a good price! It's going to give me something super fun to look forward to, which is another big plus. Fully shameless plug here: I have a referral link for Book of the Month. If you want to try it out and go through my link, you can get your first month for $9.99 (and I get a book credit!) So here's my referral link if you want to try!

*Baking
Baking has always been soothing to me. It's also been helpful lately to make our groceries stretch since we're trying to only send James out for them twice a week. Every Wednesday (I am craving structure and making it wherever I can!) I make a batch of muffins to eat for breakfast the next 2 days. It's Wednesday as I type this and I'll be making blueberry muffins later this afternoon! I've been making a lot of bread (since James was able to score a bulk bag of flour and my mom was able to find me some yeast! Yeast and flour are like gold right now!) and baking different treats with the kids. They made brownies totally on their own a few weeks ago!

Here's one of my favorite muffin recipes

*Barely planned projects with the kids
I do love a planned craft and there are some seriously cute ones floating around the social media sphere right now, but what's been working best for us lately is me putting out the materials and letting them do what they will with them. Setting out paints, making a batch of play doh, getting out a couple pairs of scissors and some glue and then just letting them have at it. I shared on my Instagram recently that, when the kids are in a funk, water (bath, sprinkler, pool, etc), outside time, and art in any form can turn their moods around.  Which leads into my next thing...

*Outside
It's good for the kids and just as good for me. This past weekend it was warm enough to get out our sprinkler and fill up the little pool. Laying on a big blanket in the shade with Julia while the big kids played in the pool was amazing and I'm looking forward to a lot more of that in the future. The only thing missing from our house and yard that we love so much is easy access to a place for walks. I would absolutely love to be taking regular walks together right now, but the best I can do is loops around the yard without driving somewhere else. Our favorite place to hike has just reopened though. Hopefully soon we'll be able to hike a couple miles there on a day when it isn't too crowded.

*Deliberate mommy time outs
This is a little easier right now because Julia's in that super distracted nursing phase, so I have to go upstairs to my room a few times a day just to get her to eat well. But I've realized those deliberate quiet moments have been incredibly important to my sanity lately. Especially in the evening. James has been working late and Julia gets hungry right around dinnertime. By then I've been stretched pretty thin and one of the hardest parts of the day is still ahead of me. Putting dinner on the table for the big kids and taking 5 to 10 minutes upstairs to nurse Julia, listen to music, and take some deep breaths is very helpful. Same goes for the mid-bedtime routine breather I take while the big 3 kids are finishing cleaning up the playroom. I take the little girls upstairs to get in their pjs and have a little snuggle.

*Disney +
The kids watch 1 movie every afternoon and having all of the old classics available has been amazing.
They get stuck easily (right now its the Lion King movies over and over and over) so on Mondays we have New Movie Monday and they have to watch something they've never seen. We've also been loving the Disney Family Sing-a-Longs!

*Podcasts
My favorite time of day right now is when I'm making dinner and folding laundry while Julia is napping in the wrap and I'm listening to a podcast. Here's my favorites if you're looking for something new:

Novel Pairings
Sara and Chelsey, both high school english teachers, read a different classic every other week, talk about it a bit, and then each offer 3 book recommendations along the same theme or feeling as the classic. Since they've had some extra time on their hands lately they've been recording bonus episodes on their 'off' weeks too where they've talked about comfort reads, poetry, and a really excellent Edith Wharton short story. Their goal isn't for people to read the classics with them, and you can definitely listen if you haven't read the books, but I have really been enjoying reading along! Sprinkling some classics in with my regular classics feels like it's helping keep my brain from turning to complete mush.

He Read She Read
Chelsey (same Chelsey from Novel Pairings) and Curtis, a married couple, discuss books they've read, make recommendations, and occasionally do buddy reads. Their show is on a hiatus right now because Curtis is deployed, but they've been around for a while, so there are a lot of episodes in their backlog.

What Should I Read Next
Anne Bogel (Modern Mrs. Darcy) talks to a different reader every week about their reading life and then they tell her 3 books they loved, 1 they didn't, and what they're currently reading so she can recommend them a few new reads.

Office Ladies
Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly) and Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin) from The Office are watching and discussing an episode a week. They're up to Season 3, episode 1, so a fair amount of episodes in their backlog to binge listen to!

Showmance
Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang) and Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams) from Glee are watching and discussing season 1 of the show right now.

*Working out
I need to do some sort of movement every day or I get really mean. BodyFit By Amy on YouTube has a ton of really great workouts. I highly recommend checking her out, especially if you are pregnant or postpartum! Also on YouTube, Katherine Morgan has been uploading some really awesome ballet class videos for different levels. I did an Int/Adv barre the other day and it felt absolutely amazing.

*Babywearing
The fact that I do not know how to effectively and sanely parent without babywearing is nothing new, but it deserves mention here. Julia's last nap of the day right now is always in the wrap and doing things around the kitchen with her asleep on my chest is like therapy for me right now.

*My husband
James' job is considered essential and he's been working quite a lot of overtime, so I'm not seeing more of him right now than I normally do or anything, but I'm just especially grateful to see another adult at the end of the day. He recently had to isolate from us at home due to potentially being exposed to somebody who ended up being covid-positive and at the end of that isolation I was more grateful than ever not only that he was healthy, but for the extra set of hands, even if they're only around sometimes.

Coming up with this list has actually been really fun. Life is hard right now and there is way too much scary uncertainty, but remembering all of the little things that have been bringing me some joy and some calm lately has been a great exercise! I'm curious to know what keeps you sane? Either in these weird Corona days, or just normally. Because we all need something (or multiple things), right? I hope you get a chance to see/do/hear/etc your things today.

(Hopefully) Helpful Homeschooling Resources

With more schools and businesses closing their doors everyday in attempts to slow the spread of COVID-19, families everywhere are being thrown out of their usual routine in a time of heightened anxiety. I know that personally, my anxiety feeds off of a disrupted routine and I know that I am not alone in this. I want to share today how we structure our day as homeschoolers, as well as a list of free resources that I love and social media accounts that I have found helpful in our homeschooling journey, in an effort to hopefully help some people out there navigate their new normal for the next several weeks. 

Before I start, I do want to be sure to say that I don't think you have to come up with a plan at all. Some people I know will be happier to take things day by day as far as any structured learning activities and others will be happier just enjoying a nice long spring break. I don't think there are any right or wrong answers in this situation, and think that different families will all have different ways of coping that work best for them. But if you are looking for some structure or ideas for a plan, I hope this helps!

First I'll share what a typical homeschooling day with no outside of the house activities looks like for us. We don't have a set schedule exactly, but more like a loose outline. It's too hard for us to stick to an actual schedule because babies and toddlers complicate things, but an outline at least gives the bigger kids a sense of what's going to come next. I have found that the more you try to structure your day like a typical non-homeschool school day, the more you will frustrate yourself. There are so many disruptions and distractions when schooling at home, it's just easier to stay flexible! 

We start our school day over breakfast. For us it's an easy way to get some reading done without too many interruptions since everybody is occupied eating! We do poetry, Bible, and memory work at this time, but any reading out loud would be an easy thing to do. After breakfast we clean up, get dressed, AM chores, all that good stuff.

Once everybody is dressed and chores are done and the baby is either down for a nap or up for a nap and fed (depends on the day right now because we are at the mercy of the 4 month sleep regression) we start our big chunk of school time. We always start with a gross motor activity because it's really hard to go from playing with your toys in your own house to doing schoolwork immediately. We do something called Swedish Drill which is basically a formal Simon Says, but in the past we've done freeze dance, stretching, skipping around the room or house, or red light green light across the room. 

Once we are finished some sort of movement, we settle into the sit down work. I have out puzzles, books, or sometimes a fine motor activity for the little guys (I have a whole post about homeschooling preschoolers and toddlers, check that out here), but mostly they just play. I try to alternate independent work and one on one work with the big kids, but sometimes they'll need to wait for me and then they go play. 

The breakdown usually looks like this:

-Phonics lesson with Kate/Sam copywork and 1 independent reading

-Kate copywork/Sam narrate independent reading and 1 reading and narration together

-Kate reading and narration together/Sam math lesson (we go over it together first) and mapwork, history timeline, nature journaling, or drawing

-Kate math lesson (go over together first and map, timeline, nature journaling, or drawing/Sam reading and narration together

-Repeat same sort of thing for whatever is left

Over lunch is when we often do music and art appreciation study and in the afternoon we do more crafty things or go outside or nothing structured and just play. 

Everything we do follows our curriculum, but there are some aspects of it that could be easily adapted for temporary homeschooling. In particular:

Copywork- We start copywork with just the alphabet. I write it out on primary lined paper and they copy it out slowly and neatly underneath. Then we move up to words and eventually sentences. I pick the sentences from their poetry books, but you could choose them from any books. Sam right now either does copywork that I have chosen or he chooses a couple lines from one of his books and copies them straight out of the book. When he's doing copywork that I have chosen and already written, he covers a few words at a time with an index card as he writes them down. This helps him with spelling. Copywork helps with handwriting obviously, but also sentence structure and punctuation without having to really drill it. Next year Sam will start studied dictation, which is something else that could easily be used in a temporary situation. I will choose a short passage from one of his books and he will have the week to read over it and get to know it (including punctuation) and then at the end of the week he will write it out as I slowly read it. Any misspelled words will go onto a spelling list and any missed punctuation will be highlighted and worked on.

Narration- Our curriculum is literature based, so we don't have textbooks. I read out loud from a history, science, geography, etc book and afterwards they orally narrate back to me what I read to them. The science behind narration boils down to the fact that telling information back after hearing it helps lock it into your brain. Sometimes for fun they'll do a drawn narration. Next year Sam will start written narrations. It's sort of a gradual lead into learning to write essays. It can be done with any book that you read to them or that they read to themselves. It's a really good brain exercise for everybody! Sometimes when I'm reading a heavier book I challenge myself to narrate it back to myself. It's hard! But it really does lock the information in there and makes your brain work in a different way while you read, organizing everything. I try not to ask any leading questions before they narrate. Just simply, "Can you tell that back to me?" or, "What can you tell me about what we/you just read?"

Mapping and timeline- Keeping a big map and a history timeline is a really fun accompaniment to any reading that you're doing. A timeline especially (we use a big long piece of paper, but you could just use any notebook with each page showing a hundred years) is super interesting! It's cool (and often surprising!) to see which historical figures actually existed at the same time. After we read something about any historical figure or event, we write it on our timeline and mark it on a map. Just a good way for kids to get an idea of some basic geography and a sense of how the passage of time works. Before we start the history timeline (end-ish of 2nd grade-ish), we do a personal timeline and they just mark what things happened in their own life in what years.

The advisory board who created the curriculum that we use created an emergency curriculum plan several years ago, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. It has many free resources and ideas for homeschooling through an abnormal season of life. I'll link it here.

https://amblesideonline.org/HELP.shtml

Some other great resources:

Librivox- free audiobook versions of a lot of titles, particularly older books.

Libby- app that connects to your library system so you can borrow e-books and audiobooks

https://www.myteachingstation.com/ - good resource for printable worksheets. I like to laminate them or put them in a plastic page protector so the kids can use a dry erase marker and use them multiple times

Hoffman Academy- online piano lessons. Their full program costs money, but they do have a free program as well. 

https://afterthoughtsblog.net/2016/07/beginning-swedish-drill-videos.html - this is a blog post that explains the Swedish Drill (structured Simon Says) that we use to start our school day

Some social media accounts that I like following for inspiration and ideas (most are on both Instagram and Facebook) I'm going to type their names with spaces to make them easier to read, but on Instagram obviously you'd need to take the spaces out:

TheDadLab

Play at Home Mom

Modern Miss Mason

Learning Well

Charlotte Mason IRL

Home Ed Printables

The Conscious Kid

Read Aloud Revival

A couple other companies offering free resources right now (I think there are a lot more, but these are 2 that I've heard of today that I can vouch for)

Raddish Kids

Logic of English they are putting out a series of new videos in the next few days that will be free for the duration of all of the closures

Pinterest is also a wealth of information and ideas. Craft ideas, fine motor skills ideas, printables. I have quite a lot of homeschooling related pins on my Pinterest organized into boards by subject. You should be able to find me on there just by searching my name!

Here are a couple other blog posts I've written about our own homeschooling journey.

Our Daily Routine at the End of 2018

'18/'19 School Plans

How We Homeschool Preschool 

What's Working and What's Not

Homeschooling Looks Like

Lastly, if I can, I want to offer some slightly more personal advice. Don't stress yourself out about it. There's going to be a different dynamic between you and your kids than there is between them and a teacher. There's going to be more tension and awkwardness because the whole world is tense and awkward right now and kids are feeding off of that. It's really okay to stop a math lesson smack in the middle because you're at each other's throats. It's okay to leave it for later that day and it's also okay to leave it for another day. It's okay to say, "This just isn't working today." and go outside instead. Or watch a movie. It's okay if that movie is a Nat Geo documentary, but it's also okay if it's not. It's okay if you have a schedule and stick to it and it's also okay if you just leave books and paper around your house and let them do with it what they will. And it's okay if you do both of those things over the course of a week. Homeschooling your kids, whether it's for a month or for 13 years, gets to look like whatever you want and need it to look like.

I'm here to talk anytime ♡

Julia's Birth Story 11/14/19

2 days ago we became a family of 7 when Julia Helen made a very quick entrance in the small hours of the morning. While she's asleep on my chest with Christmas music playing in the background and we wait on our pizza delivery (because we are living our absolute best postpartum life right now), here's the story of her birthday!

My 11/8 due date came and went with no baby, despite feeling really sure the entire week leading up to my due date that something was going to happen at any moment. Go back and read my other birth stories though, I think I say that in every single one. The end of pregnancy reminds me of distance running. There is definitely a lot of physical endurance necessary to get through, but it's also so much a mind game! I didn't feel too discouraged about going past my due date though because that day I woke up feeling awful with a pretty bad cold. I was absolutely miserable the whole weekend. I don't remember the last time I was quite that sick! I was struggling to breathe just while sleeping, the thought of trying to labor while feeling that way made me panic. So I just concentrated on resting and recovering.

By Monday I felt slightly more human and then by Tuesday I felt more like my self (albeit very, very pregnant at the end of what had been a particularly exhausting pregnancy). I had an ultrasound appointment with a midwife follow up scheduled for Friday, when I'd be 41 weeks, but I was hoping not to have to go. At that point I was feeling sporadic contractions, but nothing worth timing. I was also feeling a lot of pressure. It was that feeling of pressure when I woke up on Wednesday, 40 weeks 5 days and the most pregnant I'd ever been, that prompted me to call the on call midwife and ask if I could please just come in for a check. I needed to know if what I was feeling was doing anything. I was feeling incredibly anxious because my last labor, with Anna, had progressed so strangely. Bev, one of my favorite midwives at Birth Care, was on call and told me to come in and she would see what was going on. I called my mom and she came over so she could sit in the car with the kids while I ran in for a check. 

At the birth center Bev and I talked about my labor with Anna and what I had been feeling the past few days. Then she checked me and said I was 4cm and about 80-90% effaced. I felt a huge wave of relief wash over me. Something was going on. I asked her if she could do a sweep and she did. Before I left she gave me a long, tight hug and told me, "Soon. You're almost there." which obviously made me cry. I went back out to the car and my mom and I took the kids to Target and out to lunch. While walking around I was feeling a lot of pressure and every now and then a little contraction. Mostly I just felt tired. At home that afternoon I just laid down while the kids watched a movie and then I heated up soup my mom had dropped off earlier that week for dinner. At dinner and bedtime I felt like I was going to wake up disappointed and pregnant the next morning. I looked at James and said, "I. Just. Want. To. Have. A. Baby." Then while I was nursing Anna and putting her to bed I felt a couple stronger contractions that gave me pause and I started to hope a little bit. I rushed myself off to bed once the kids were all in bed because I was so exhausted and wanted to sleep some first if I was going to go into labor. I fell asleep some time between 9 and 9:30.

Around 11 I had a contraction strong enough to wake me up. It was the first contraction I'd had that required a little breathing so I assumed things were getting going. I tried to go back to sleep though since nothing consistent was happening. Between 11 and 12 I dozed off and on and had maybe 2 or 3 more contractions that required my attention. Right around midnight I had a contraction that I didn't want to lay down through, so I got up to breathe through it and opened up my contraction timer app. I woke James up to tell him labor was starting, and told him to go back to sleep, I'd wake him when they were closer. I went down and put on an episode of Downton Abbey and sat on the couch to time my contractions. They were about 10-12 minutes apart and I was very grateful to see that they were holding their pattern instead of being all over the place like they had been when I was in labor with Anna. By the time the episode was over I wasn't able to sit through the contractions anymore and I was swaying in front of the tv. At that point I figured we'd probably need to head to the birth center before the kids woke up. The game plan for that was for my dad to stay at the house with them while my mom went to the birth center with me and James. Then my dad would bring the kids in the van once they woke up. Not able to focus on a show like Downton anymore, I put on The Office as background noise and started moving around the house. I put away some clean dishes and tidied up the kitchen, laid out clothes for all of the kids, packed bags with toys for Anna and Henry, got out the snack basket I had put together a few days prior, just sort of generally did busy work and chores while my contractions started to space more like 6-7 minutes apart. 

Around 2am my contractions were more like 5 minutes apart so I woke James up and called my parents to come over. I called the birth center and spoke with the on call midwife, Myra, who told me she and another midwife were already there and to come whenever I was ready. James and I gathered our things and got dressed and my contractions were coming more like every 4 minutes and getting significantly stronger. I started to feel like things were moving pretty fast and felt a sense of urgency, but still thought my dad would certainly be bringing the kids over once they woke up around 7, so I wrote him a quick note about shoes and jackets and things like that while we waited. Once my parents walked in the door my sense of urgency was even more heightened and I could tell my mom and James were feeling it too. We quickly said goodbye to my dad and got into 2 cars. I went with my mom and James brought his truck. My parents would need 2 cars to get the kids back home after my dad brought them in the van later, so James and I could bring the baby home in the van. The logistics of getting everybody safely to and from the birth center in the correct car seats had been plaguing me for weeks to be honest! 

Pause for a contraction on the way out to the car.

On the way to the birth center, about halfway there (it takes between 15 and 20 minutes to get there) I had a long, strong contraction that left me sweaty and anxious. I had one moment of panic right then. I've given birth enough times to know what it feels like when transition comes and know my body enough to know when it's getting ready to push a baby out soon. My mom later told me that she had a moment of panic at the same time because she's watched me give birth enough times to know how my breathing changes when we're getting to the end. And James later said he had that same exact moment of panic following behind my mom's car when she noticeably sped up. 

We arrived at the birth center right around 3am. I jumped out of the car as fast as I could when we got there as I was feeling another contraction and contracting sitting in the car is my least favorite thing ever. I breathed through that contraction while James rushed over from his truck to rub my back and my mom got my bags. I made it the 10 steps to the front door before having to stop for another contraction. Myra had seen us pull in and had come outside to stand with me for that one. When it passed she told me to go into the little bedroom they call "triage" and she'd do a quick check. I had 2 contractions, very strong, before she could do that. Baby's heartbeat sounded great on the doppler and Myra said I was 9cm. She went to make sure a birthing room was ready and told me she'd be right back. I got up from the bed when she left and another super strong contraction came, but with this one I felt my body start to push. As soon as the contraction faded I told my mom and James that my body was pushing and right after that Myra came in, but I was contracting again. She could tell from how I looked and sounded what was going on and told me we could totally stay right there in that room or we could try to go back to a birthing room. The little room was plenty comfortable with a regular bed and everything, but it was pretty tiny and I wanted to try to get to the other room. I made my way as quickly as I could around the corner and down the hall, contractions just piling on top of each other at this point. I had to stop right outside the room and really felt my body pushing and had to vocalize through the contraction for the first time. Myra was standing next to me, quietly telling me I could keep going or stay. She has the most calming voice and I was so grateful for it! I made it the last couple steps into the bedroom and immediately grabbed the edge of the bed. With that contraction I felt very distinctly the baby move way down and some burning. When that contraction passed I said, "Uhhhh, the baby is coming. Right now." and then my water broke. 

Myra, still in her wonderfully calm and quiet voice, told me I could stay standing right where I was, or she would help me up onto the bed if I would be more comfortable. I told her I wanted to be on all 4s on the bed. I knew getting on all 4s would relieve some of the pressure I was feeling in my lower back, and it would be easier to get comfy once the baby was out. I needed a lot of help to get up on the bed and I was struggling mentally at this point. I think I said something along the lines of, "This is the part I don't like." (meaning that panicky, transition, "I just can't do this" part). I was also so very, very tired. Once I was up on the bed everybody helped pile a bunch of pillows under my head and I started pushing and breathing down into contractions and sort of falling asleep on the pillows in between. I could definitely feel the baby coming down, but my energy was so zapped. I didn't say anything, but Myra could tell I was exhausted, so she suggested I lay down on my side to be in a more restful position. I said I wanted that very much, but needed a lot of help. Myra, James, and the nurse were able to get me onto my side and James helped me hold one leg up. As soon as I laid down I felt the baby right there and with the next contraction I felt familiar crowning feelings without consciously pushing. At that moment I felt so. freaking. strong. all of a sudden and I pushed right into that crowning feeling until I knew the baby's head was out. Once baby's head was out I felt the most immense relief, both physically and mentally, but still had to dig really deep to get baby's shoulders and chest out. That's never been an easy part for me or my babies, and this time was no different, but out they came and I reached down and pulled my baby up to snuggle into my chest at last! It was 3:33, only a half an hour after we walked in the doors of the birth center, and only 3 and half hours after I got out of bed! 

You can see the contraction in this picture

He just continuously tells me, "You're doing it. You're doing so good." right in my ear and it's exactly what I need to hear.

Baby!

For the first time ever, I remembered to ask if we had a boy or a girl. I've always had to be reminded to check in the past! James looked and announced to the room that we had a baby girl and I said, "It's Julia! Hi Julia! Hi baby girl!" I so love that moment of greeting our new baby by their name for the first time!

Eventually the placenta was delivered and the cord cut, Myra said I didn't need any stitches (a first for me!) and everybody helped me get from laying onto my side to sitting propped up with pillows and Julia latched on. The nurse who had been there the whole time finally had a chance to say hello and introduce herself at that point! She took quick vitals from us and she and Myra left us alone to repeatedly exclaim to one another, "I can't believe how fast that went!" and to discuss that moment when all 3 of us had thought I was about to deliver a baby on the side of the road in front of an Amish farm. That would have been quite a birth story!

Noting the time, we knew I'd be discharged and we'd be heading home around 7:30, so there was no point in my dad even bringing the kids. My mom warmed up some food she had brought for us and then went back to our house to bring back the van with Julia's car seat. James and I just ate and talked and gazed at our beautiful baby girl. The nurse came back in to weigh and measure Julia. She was 8lbs 3oz and 20.5oz, making her our 2nd smallest baby. My mom got to hold her for a little bit while I showered and got dressed and we all hung out for another hour or so before getting Julia dressed and heading home! I immediately put my new Christmas cd into the van's cd player since I had been holding myself back from listening to Christmas music only until the baby came.

Beautiful mural in our birthing room. Beautiful tub too, but there definitely wasn't time for the tub!

Ready to go home!

At home Kate came running up to me first, looking so sweet in her messy braid and nightgown. I went over to the couch and everybody else came running too. They had all flip flopped between thinking we were having a boy or a girl, but most recently they had all firmly agreed that they were getting a brother. Luckily nobody was upset to be wrong and they were very excited to have another sister. Everybody petted her and examined her, my mom and dad headed home, I ate some more, and then Julia and I went upstairs to nurse and sleep while James and the big kids watched Moana. And that pretty much sums up the past couple days! Napping and nursing and movies (thanks Disney+ for your timely release!)

I still can't quite wrap my head around how fast everything went, but I am so grateful that it did. I truly did not have the mental or physical energy in me for anything longer! My recovery has been very smooth and easy so far and Julia is nursing and sleeping great. We had our home visit today and she is actually already an ounce over her birth weight!

We're now looking forward to more quiet, slow days soaking up this tiny new member of our family and are so excited to be celebrating this holiday season as a family of 7!