Homeschool Week #1

We started school last monday.  So we've done 1 full week of classes. 

On Monday I was afraid that it was going to be a nightmare.  Starting all three boys on a new online program (Monarch from Alpha Omega Publishing) was daunting.  Things didn't go great. 

Tuesday got worse because we discovered we didn't actually complete all of Monday's assignments.  And Lyrick had a total meltdown.  She got to do school with Shane Tuesday night.  It took till and hour passed bedtime to actually finish those 10 spelling words. 

Wednesday, two kids were under the weather.  And yet we plugged along.  And it went better.

But by today, I feel like this could actually really work for us.  The 3 boys may not like school but they are doing well.  They get on it on their own to get their work done.  I learned how to return poorly done assignments and reassign them within the system.  I can even just have them redo the problems they did wrong. 

Lyrick and I have time to do school.  She loves the biography about Helen Keller that we are reading.  And Griffin listens too, by choice.  She is actually learning those spelling words that gave her such fits on tuesday.  And she read THREE books to me today.  She asked why we weren't reading in that big book about ships (the history reader in our curriculum) today....and it was because it wasn't assigned.  I feel like she is going to leap ahead this year.  And all my worry and fretting will be for nothing.  I sure hope it was for nothing. 

Last year I really felt at a loss for school.  I felt like we were all failing in some way or another.  But this year I feel like we could actually get this. 

Its only week one but I feel successful.  And that is a good feeling!

1 Corinthians 16:9

A wide door for effective work has opened to me, AND there are many adversaries. (emphasis mine)

This verse covered in yesterday's sermon is stuck in my head as we get ready for the next homeschool year.   Paul does not make a great opportunity mutually exclusive from roadblocks.  Just because a path is good, doesn't mean its easy.  (That's a quote from Tyler not from Paul)

I love that we have chosen homeschooling for our kids.  It is good for our family in the "big picture" way.  But I'll tell you, sometimes it is hard to remember that in the mundane details and arguments of every.  single.  day.    Our adversaries aren't necessarily people...although all our attitudes get in the way sometimes, more often than I'd like to admit.

My adversaries look like doubt - frustration - a messy house - bad attitudes - teenagers - high school level classes - doubt - frustration - phonics - desire for "me time" - piles of laundry - more messes.  Is this what Paul is talking about?  Likely not - he wasn't a mom with 4 kids home all day every day.  He faced much more dire risks in his life.  And yet these are the roadblocks that make me want to throw in the towel some days.

But I have a "wide door for effective work open to me."  With God, we CAN do this thing.  It is not time to run to another thing....even another good thing.  Like Paul needed to stay put, we also need to stay put and just adventure down the path put before us.  It is time to pull strength from God, who never runs out and never feels doubt.  And tackle high school math and phonics at the same time (obviously with different kids-HA!)

Bullet Journal- Busy Mom Style.

So Bullet Journals are a thing now.  It's basically a planner that you create yourself.  I have never been able to make a planner work.  But with 6 schedules to manage a calendar didn't cut it either....Although I have an OUtlander one cause of the pictures  :)  Anyway....enter Bullet Journal.  

You can get a plethora of ideas on Pinterest or Instagram....but if you are like me you don't give 2 hoots if your "bujo" (that's what the cool kids call them) is pretty or has art.  I need to know where my people are,  where they are going, and make sure I can feed them.  I also LOVE making (and checking things off of) lists...to-do lists, goal lists,  packing lists, lists of daydreams,  Lists of blessings, lists of lists, and the list goes on.  (I'm so clever).  So if you don't care if April is decorated with an "april showers" theme so you can have "May flowers" in may I would recommend searching for "Men's bullet journal" or "minimalist bullet journal" on pinterest.  Otherwise the cute-ness may overwhelm and sicken you.  If you like art and drawing things....then by all means have at it.  That is not my style.  

These are my high tech tools.  This is my favorite ruler for my bujo because it is thin enough to be a bookmark  and it has centimeters.  The grid book I got has 1/2 cm boxes and it helps me to measure them with metric.  pencil, white out and whatever pens I have handy.  

BASIC PAGES

Page 1!  Year at a glance....just like you get in a checkbook register.
 Except I like my weeks to start on Monday....so they do!  :D 
Look at my pretty block letters at the start of the year.  Such a high achiever!  HA

Future Log-  this faces the year at a glance page....it is essentially a box for each month.  So when the dentist schedules appts 6 months in advance or we register for church camp or whatever, I just stick the date in the correct month box with a short description of that event.

This is the June box on that page...it was busy.  :)  

At the start of the year I set some goals....these are reading and crafty goals.  I didn't take a picture of the exercise and BIble Study goal page cause they are embarrassing.  :(    I need to fill in several books here and some knitting projects....

Each month I take time to make a monthly calendar.  Again my weeks run monday -sunday so my calendar reflects that.  I move things from the "Future Log" to this page.  I have space on one side each month so I try to list blessings.  I'm not as regular about that as I wish I was.  

This was my first weekly spread.  it lasted one week.  I did not like it much.  So I tried some others....

This is this weeks pages.  I've been using this weekly spread for a while.  At the top of each day in Orange I put the classes I teach for VIPkid  then I have space for appts or to-do lists on that day.  At the bottom is what  I plan to make for supper in its own box.  On the left/bottom I plan breakfast and lunches both for the kids and I and for shane to take to work.  The ideas are very flexible but its where I start my grocery list (the ONLY list I don't put in this notebook)  On the bottom, right I list weekly goals....or break down to-do lists from.  For example, today I needed to clean my kitchen.  Its on wednesday in red.  But in red on the bottom right are all the things that entailed for me today.  I got to check them all off as I went.  

EXTRA PAGES

So the deal is, I always have this notebook.  I know where it is as much as I know where anything is.  So if I want to keep track of something it goes IN THIS NOTEBOOK.  I don't use post-its or scratch bits of paper.  I know a lot of people use their phone.  tried that.  didn't like it.  

I've been in the middle of multiple book series this year.  Its part of a goal to read only books I've never read before this year.  I was losing track of which book I was ready for in each series....so I made myself a "library" page of all the series I was going on.  I highlight the book when I finish it. 

Im starting to brainstorm breakfast/lunch/snack ideas for as we roll into school time.  So I grabbed my notebook and the closest pen and started writing things down.  

So this is the "map" of my garden.  We tried some new varieties this year and I wanted to know where each was.  Also, in the upper corner is some sparkly tape that I got at dollar tree.  I wrap it around the corner of pages I want to find again easily, weeks or months after I made them-also found on the library page..  

My notebook went to homeschool convention with me (of course)....and I used it for notes in session.  If I took these elsewhere I'd never find them again.  :D  (If I were good at this blogging thing I would turn this picture right side up but I'm not and you likely couldn't read my handwriting anyway). 

The thing I like about a bullet journal is that it can be whatever I want it to be.  And that can change week to week or month to month. 

Two things I do not use my bullet journal for.  grocery lists.  And school planning (no lesson plans or record keeping in it)....just calendar planning of school activities and events like any other activities and events. 

Plain.  Simple.  Even a little ugly.  Or  Color coded (I tried that at first but I could never find the right pen).  Artsy.  And a beautiful keepsake.  It can easily go either way.  But that's the cool thing.....its all just how you want to make it!  :D