Gearing up for a fabulous Home School year!

I must admit that I am very excited to begin HSing again.  After sending the kids to 6 months of Daycare public school, and seeing the regression dismal progress they made, there is no doubt in my mind that homeschooling is what we need to continue with.  We have taken the entire summer off for decompressing and relaxing, which was badly needed for all of us, so it really amazed me when my DD started asking to begin school again.  It made my day and brought a smile to my face.  DS has also expressed his joy of returning home for our lessons.  We are at peace with our decision to come home.
So what are we doing this year?  We will basically be starting again where we were last year....  I plan on backing up a bit from where we left off and going through a solid review to bring us back up to speed.  I plan on beginning with MathUSee and All About Spelling.  I found some workbooks for the writing process (can't remember the title at the moment), so will be integrating those after a few weeks of warming up again.  We will be incorporating more read aloud time in the Charlotte Mason style as well, and will have one day a week for life skills and character study.  After the holidays I will make adjustments as needed and hopefully keep our learning sessions fresh and interesting.
I feel like I already had our school planned out since last year (but never got it off the ground), so my planning for this year has been easy-peasy.  YAY!  Now with some calmer and clearer weather in our household, we can actually apply the plan and see the fruition of our efforts.  I am smiling and sighing with great joy and relief.
New beginnings are often the Best beginnings!

What to do with loneliness?

A friend reminded me the other day to embrace moments of loneliness as a time for reflection. It was the best advice I've recieved in ages. Here's another reminder...

Deepak Chopra Quotes

Christine Got a Quote from Deepak Chopra

“To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul. To do this, you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions.”

The way things happen

Stopped at a little roadside store today to buy some raw honey. Ended up out in the middle of the apiary looking inside beehives for an hour. It was AWESOME!!! I love how things simply happen while traveling through life, at just the right moment.

Words of Wisdom

“He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty.” —Lao-Tzu

Thunder

Another distant thunder storm is rolling by.  The sounds of nature are so calming.  So grounding.  I feel an utter sense of peace from the naturalness of it all.

Clarity of thought and emotion

That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something. - Meredith Monk

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." - Victor Hugo

I absolutely love this quote.  What a reminder to show your pearly whites, and at such an appropriate time of year.

Family time

What a beautiful day today! The kids and I took our first official bike ride of the year complete with a stop at the playground. Then we worked a bit in the yard followed by violin practice (without moaning) and a yummy dinner that my daughter helped prepare. It feels so good to see the smiles on my kids faces. I am at peace today.


I am so excited about the end of PS and going back to HSing!  There's no place like home.

Rain

I love the sound and smell of rain. It's such a great cleanser for the body and soul.

Guilty or Good?

It's amazing how quickly things can change, right beneath our noses.  And it's also amazing how long the process of change can wreak havoc on our day to day lives.

I write this today with the (in my mind shameful) admission that in January I had to put the kids in PS.  Oh DREAD!   But in reality it was likely the best thing to do at the time.  My marriage and life in our household had deteriorated to such a point that I was physically, mentally and emotionally unable to function in any real capacity.  It took just about every ounce of energy I had to get out of bed and deal with the basics of meal prep and general household maintenance.  Yes, HSing was still taking place, but honestly, it was sporadic and always came with a dark cloud looming nearby.  Patience was no longer in my vocabulary, nor did I have the energy to combat the ever increasing incidences of student resistance.  Needless to say our HS schedule, and life in general for all of us, had been negatively affected by the incessant arguing between myself and my husband.  TOTAL BURNOUT had moved in and taken over our household.  It pains me to even think how dismal my world seemed at the time.

Fast forward 4 months.  Had it been so long???!  The kids have adjusted to PS and for a short while even enjoyed it.  My daughter has made progress in spelling, however has lost ground in math.  My son however has made no real progress in any subject that I can identify, but thankfully has not appeared to lose ground in any subject either.  Yet in the past several months, I have found greater clarity in WHY I felt so strongly about homeschooling in the first place.  I have reconnected with my values and my self.  I feel like I can stand on solid ground now, and not be shaken to the core by the negative energy that is unfortunately a very real part of life.  I have collected myself and I am ready to begin again.  This time with a new set of priorities, a clearer vision of how to meet them, and perhaps a thicker skin as well.  I couldn't have found this clarity had I continued to "go through the motions".  Yes, I still think of PS in negative terms, but at the same time realize that it was better than sitting at home with a miserable mom.  Sometimes we need to bite our tongue and do something we don't want to - in order to save the things most important to us.

The reason I write all this is that I know for certain there are other HSers out there experiencing tough times.  If I can offer just one bit of hope to someone out there suffering the effects of burnout, I am happy.  I have learned from experience that we don't have to feel guilty about sending our kids to PS for a while.  It might be the best favor you do for your kids and yourself...

Ready to start anew!  Look out HS - here we come!