When The Teacher Is Sick

Last week just about did me in.  I came down with a sinus infection that made me feel like I needed an IV and a hospital bed.  Needless to say, the house went to shambles but luckily my sub, a very handsome young man and my best friend stepped in and rescued us all.  He kept up with housework and even followed my lesson plans and did school with little man.  As the kids started to be sent home from school with fevers and chicken pox, he was here to get them from school and set them up on the couch with their favorite movies.  Yes that's right pretty much everyone in our house was sick come Friday morning.  Everyone except the Dad and number 3. Sadly by Saturday night Dad too fell ill, then there was one.  Today is Monday and the big boys are back at school and although we had to cancel a birthday party this weekend, we are seemingly on the road to recovery!!!

Why Tot Schooling is saving my sanity

Homeschooling a kindergartener is fun!  They are excited about learning and have enough patience to sit for at least a little while.  They don't play in the litter box or the toilet or paint the kitchen floor with tooth paste/lotion/soap/sharpies, but 2/3 year olds DO! I found out very early (my first week of homeschooling 3 years ago) that the hardest part of home schooling might be the toddler!  Over the years I have accumulated lots of games, hand eye coordination, concentration, or just time consuming activities for toddlers to do while I discuss the difference between communative and distributive properties to the older boys.  Tot school (Google that) has endless possibilities and it is a great way to keep those busy little hands and minds going without destroying my house!  I found that the more planning I put into the toddler curriculum/play the more I can actually concentrate on teaching the other kiddos.  I am so grateful for websites like totschool.net and confessions of a homeschooler and countless other bloggers/teachers that have endless ideas that are fun and creative.  I find Pinterest and Teachers pay teachers are both great places to start when looking for fun ideas! 

It's A New School Year

Well this year I almost didn't homeschool!  I sent my kindergarten, third and fourth graders off to a brand new charter school in our area.  But within one week I knew I had goofed on the kindergartener.  Please refer back to my first post to know why I had goofed!  I forgot why I had homeschooled the older boys and all the sudden I was struck with guilt knowing I wasn't giving my precious third born the same care and attention to his education that I had vowed to do for my older two boys...so in a quick gesture I pulled him out on day 5 of school after already annoying the teacher by picking him up at half day instead of leaving him all day. (we had a choice) It turned out, though, I was the only parent that had chosen half day out of two full classes of TK/K classes.  Anyway, it was for the best and I felt so relieved when I did it!! Surprisingly Isaac was also very excited to be heading towards homeschooling and back to CHeP.  We started school last week and the boys Isaac in kinder and Owen 3 (tot schooling) are loving their school time and they are enjoying their play time too.  These two are getting to bond in a way they couldn't with their older brothers around.  Isaac is getting to be the big brother for a change and getting some much needed responsibility and Owen is loving the attention he is getting from his roommate and closest in age bro! So we are back in the homeschool world with two boys in a public charter and two boys at home!