Life At The Circus

I feel like we are off to a pretty good start this school year and we are settling into a routine. The hardest part for me about home schooling and the part I like the LEAST is the juggling act of wearing both the hat of mom and the hat of teacher.  The kids don’t understand that my making them do a subject they don’t like doesn’t make me a mean mom, it makes me their teacher.  That is a struggle.  I am just hoping and praying that these struggles will produce character… godly character in all of us.  I think my favorite part of homeschooling is the actual  mom part… getting to be with my kids more and them getting to be with each other.  As I write this my oldest and youngest are playing football in the backyard for recess.  If my 10 year old was away at school they would not have this time together… nor would they have the moments of talking around the lunch table.  These are the moments I cherish… these are the ones I have to hold on tight ...

This week in Science the kids learned about matter, mass, volume, and density. This week in Science Mom learned that if your going to do an experiment involving food coloring, you should do it OUTSIDE. Everything was moving along nicely.  The kids had finished all of their morning assignments and we still had about 20 minutes before recess.  Perfect, I thought, we’ll do our science lab.  I was feeling so on top of things because I had even looked ahead earlier in the week and made sure we had all the ingredients we needed… I made a run to Target yesterday morning for the necessary alka seltzer to make it all fizzle. Our goal:  to make “lava lamps”  The purpose was to discuss density.  Ingredients needed:  water bottles, oil, vinegar, food coloring, and alka seltzer I even raided the recycling can at the gym yesterday for empty plastic water bottles.  Things were going great.  It worked just like it should and we were all enjoyin...

And so a new year begins… this morning was our first day back at the tutorial.  I can’t believe it marks our 6th year of homeschooling.  What a blessing this community had been to our family.  Here we are starting 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grades! “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”  Philippians 1:9-11

Our youngest child had his first soccer practice this week.  As I struggled to put him into his shin guards and knee socks and cleats, all while watching him grin from ear to ear, my mind drifted back to going through this same right of passage with his older siblings…. Fall 2009 Fall 2010 Spring 2011 Gosh…. look at all those chubby cheeks and teeny tiny legs chasing after those soccer balls…. I love pre K soccer… I love the way they swarm after the ball like a hives of bees…I love how you either have to convince them to chase that ball or remind them not to steal the ball from their team mate..they are so clueless and adorable at this age.  I also love that finally after years of sitting on the sidelines at soccer games, baseball games, flag football games, gym meets,  jiu jitsu tournaments and countless practices, FINALLY it is his turn to be on the field and THEIR turn to cheer him on.  So fun to be a soccer mom again!

I feel like the month of August is much like the 9th month of pregnancy.  I go into crazy nesting mode as I gear up for another school year.   There is the ordering of curriculum… then the purchasing of school supplies… then the organizing of the binders… and cracking open that homeschool cabinet which ALWAYS turns into the junk closet over the summer.  Ya know, the “Company is coming and I need a place to hide all these papers and misc junk from the kitchen counters,”  place…. Then in addition to all of the school prep, I go into crazy nesting mode on the house… deep cleaning and purging and organizing… b/c much like in pregnancy, I know free time is going to come to an end soon and it will be ALL I can do to keep dishes washed, clothes washed and groceries bought… scrubbing the bath tub and mopping the floor typically fall to the wayside until the next school break. And so I clean and organize and do all I can to prep for the new year. This year I have ...

Ever since we signed our 4 year old up for soccer, he has asked when fall is… and my answer is always, “After Labor Day.” So with Labor Day behind us, I guess I must officially bid farewell to summer. If I am honest, summer break is one of my favorite parts of homeschooling… we work hard during the school year, but when our curriculum is done mid to late May, we play hard until fall.  And I love it.  Summer is one of my most favorite seasons. We traveled.   We spent time with cousins. And grandparents We stayed home.  We swam. We visited friends.   We camped.   It was all I wanted it to be and more.  We watched movies… I introduced the girls to two of my favorites, Anne of Green Gables and Little Women.  My oldest son finally got to watch all of the Harry Potter movies, something he’d been waiting 6 months to do since he had finished reading the series.  We listed to the Chronicles of Narnia on CD....