Homeschool Mother's Journal - Week 3

In my life this week... Trying to keep positive.  All of us has been struggling the remnants of a cold we caught.  We have also been getting ready for our upcoming family anniversary party.  We include the kids in our celebration and since our anniversary is a week after my parents and my brother's and sister-in-laws is a week after ours, we all celebrate together.  It's a huge time and the kids look forward to it every year.  I have been frantically checking my gift checklist and wrapping presents and finalizing any plans I had in the works for this Saturday.  I also have been trying to not pester the doctor's office, but cannot help calling daily to try to find out the results of my blood work from last week.  I so hate the direction that medical care seems to be going.  The doctor usually shows a caring nature, but the insurance companies control the nurses and office staff.  So their goal is to push through as many patients as cheaply as possible.  Just sad!!  Especially when we pay as much as we do for health care!!

In our homeschool this week...We finished our Spring unit that we have been crawling through.  It took us way longer than it needed to.  But with illness and appointments and field trips, well you all know how it goes!  Still doing the same stuff in Math.  Our literature book this week was Feathers for Lunch.  We painted with feathers and talked about birds (and why we don't see so many sometimes in the winter).

Places we're going and people we're seeing...This week we should have gone to LEGO club, but I had a sore throat.  So another wonderful mom in our group took over...boy was I grateful for that!!!  She and I are going to share the club now.  YEAH!!  Other than a med check for the boys, we haven't gone anywhere. 

My favorite thing this week was...Watching Joey paint with feathers today.  It was really neat to watch him "create" the colors on his bird.

What's working/not working for us...Sometimes technology can be a bad thing.  As much as I love using the Internet, it's also a distraction.  Not going to change anything, but working hard at my patience levels.  It takes a long time to redirect kids with obsessive behaviors....A LONG time!!  Just a patience thing on my part.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...My only thought this week was trying reflecting on why we homeschool.  In the beginning it was out of necessity.  Now it's out of desire.  We had looked into homeschooling even before we moved to this area.  Then still sent them to public school.  In a way I am regretting that decision on different levels.  Not all the personnel that we worked with caused issues, but enough of the bad affected me.  I still do thank all those awesome staff/teachers for their help.  But I am glad for the decision we made, no matter how many times I beat my head into the wall on a daily basis.

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

So my hubby was super excited about the kids "big" present for anniversary this year.  He couldn't wait.  We bought the boys used IPads.  I found cases that also had keyboards for them also.  So they can use it like a laptop.  It's a really cool idea.  Well at first he handed them headphones and said, since you guys have been going through so many headphones this year, we bought you some new ones.  They were a little shocked (yes...our kids are spoiled!!).  Then he pulled the first IPad out from behind the couch and handed it to Joey.  Joey was like WOW!!!  Brayden then freaked out a bit and said...Where's mine?  Joe said well you have to share.  We explained that money has been tight.  He just kind of got a disappointed look on his face and started opening his headphones. 

 Lydia got an ITouch that she can play educational (and fun) games on.  She can also watch her precious "Justin Bieber" videos on it.  At least I don't have to hear that cd all the time now.

Caty got her own "DS" as she calls it.  We got her a Fisher Price iXL that she is loving.