Well we officially started back homeschooling. We ended up taking off way more time than I had planned to, but the truth was we needed a break. I would also like to add we needed a reboot of our curriculum, but I can't say I did much with that. It's not to say everything wasn't working. Most things were. I will say science...oh science how you always seem to allude us. That is our biggest homeschool hurdle. I will say I took a look over at the Simply Charlotte Mason website and printed out their living books list for science books. I spent some time getting a number of the books from our local library before we started back. We had a three day school week and we read two of the books from the science grade 4-6 list. I'll be honest and say my kids enjoyed them. Usually when I read science they get this glazed over look in their eyes. I am not CM homeschooler, more eclectic if I'm being honest, but I do love living books! We've been reading landmarks with our history spine and the kids love them. I think we will continue reading through the suggested science books.
For Christmas, I made sure little Z received many gifts to help keep his little hands and mind occupied while we homeschool. Now he is very good at playing on his own. He knows C and M will play with him as soon as they have the opportunity (and honestly sometimes in the hopes of playing with him may lead to a break). So far, (for the whole three days we've been back) he's been really good. I was a bit nervous since he had so much attention over the Christmas break. I do think the new toys helped. I didn't pull some of them out of their boxes until this week. I also cleaned out his toy room and put some toys upstairs and I'm hoping to bring 'new to him' toys down when needed.
I am planning on being better about arts/crafts. The kids love them and I don't mind pulling things out to do. The problem I have--is I always feel so behind. I'm not even sure who I feel I'm behind! We do keep busy with a co-op once a week, but the kids are doing great with their studies! One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool, was so my kids had more time with hands on...and yet we rarely do anything hands on. Again, one of the things I'm hoping to reboot for homeschool!
Well, I have more to add like I got a new book from Target I'm super excited to dive into plus I was going to share my crochet blanket I'm working on, but this will have to wait. I have potatoes in the oven and I need to get the pork chops started.
