Week 1 with 5 - complete Success

I will admit it.

I was terrified.

The thought of home schooling my rising 4th and 2nd graders while taking care of and occupying my 4yo, 23mo, and 2mo made my knees shake.  Just thinking of juggling lessons, laundry, littles, 3 meals a day, and the general care and upkeep of the home was keeping me up at night.

Still, I persevered.  I went ahead with our scheduled start date in spite of my husband's sudden change in work schedule that has him gone from the predawn to the post evening seven days a week.   I charged on with my plans to use work boxes which are new to us and all new curriculum and even decided for extra measure to throw some schooling in for the four year old.  All the while a small voice of fear kept saying, "You cannot do this.  You will fail.  You will have to put them in school."  

A stronger voice calmly reminded me that I could.  That I could do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  That I could do all of it, one step at a time, moment by moment.  But that I could only do it with grace, peace and gentleness through the power of the Holy Spirit.  That while, on my own, I could muddle and scream my way through each moment, through Him, we would soar.  And we did.

We start each day with memory verses and catechism during breakfast.  After clearing the table we go to our school room for Calendar Time.  I copied the idea for our calendar board and our calendar notebooks from a blog I found while searching out information on work boxes.  In fact, I ended up following her plan for our work boxes as well and we love them.   You can find the blog at http://www.mama-jenn.blogspot.com/.

While the older two work on their notebooks, I spend some time with N, the 4 yo.  We are going through Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven and then following it up with some worksheets and crafts centered around the number and letter of the week.  She has been impatiently waiting to start her own school work.  She was begging me several times a day, "Can't we just do it now?  I am ready." The verdict when asked how her first week of school went; "I hate school really, but I will keep on doing it."  Ah, four - the obstinate age.

When E and M are done with their notebooks, they get started with their work boxes for the day.  Depending on what the subject is, they either follow the direction I have written out for them, or they come and see me for instruction.  Then during Josie's nap time, we work on HOD's Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory.  This is a little beneath E but she has not had any geography instruction so it seemed like a good place to start.  I beef it up for her with extra required reading and some notebooking pages.  She also follows her own Grammar and Math programs.  Plus she does Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day for science.  Today she made gliders for an experiment on wing structure.  She did it all on her own and was quite thrilled with the outcome.