School started Monday

To the shock of my sons, school started in our house Monday. They drug their feet grabbing up the books we needed for class first thing that afternoon. DS1 went to the computer and loaded up Saxon's cd for his Algebra I lessons. He loves it. Much better than me trying to explain it to him. DS2 has a goal this year, straight A report card. Because I have to keep grades for the oldest, he wants me to do it for him too. Why? So he can show it off to everyone. LOL!! If it means that much to him and it gets him to do his work, I'll do it. DS3 just goes with the flow, but loves to have one-on-one time with mom. He and DS2 fight over couch time (study time with mom). I'm finding that DS3 might need a more advance set of curriculum, he's beyond 5th grade as is. I'm going to wait and see though. Don't want to push to much on him, or he'll baulk.

Yet, after all this good we are doing I'm having issue with my oldest. He has to get over this crappy attitude of "but I was taught this way, you're showing me different. I can't do it that way" Talk about grinding your teeth. I hear him, I understand what he's saying to a point. It the tone he's using. This kid fights me on everything, its like his joy in life. See how to tork mom off in 10 words or less. Some may say its his age. Maybe, but he has major underlining anger issues that stem back to 3rd -7th grade in public school. He was the victim of bullies (yes plural) and never told me about it; mom had to figure it out on her own. I'm starting to see what his problem/issues are. He totally believes he's an idiot. My helping, teaching, etc., are triggers for him and only adds to his embarrassment. This will be a work in progress. He has a long road ahead of him. I truly believe when he starts seeing progress in his own abilities his anger/embarrassment at himself will go away. Lots of prayers are needed for us.

Our schedule is working out great! While I'm working the kids do their 'homework' at grandma's. I work until 1pm or so; we get home 30 min to an hour later. Get home, unwind for 15 minutes and start school.
I can throw a load of laundry in, get supper started, tidy up a room, etc., as I get a free moment between lessons with the kids. They are all self starters, which is great for me. In the evening, after dinner, we finish up school. Usually done around 8pm that night. Bedtime routine beings (baths, jammies, snacks, cuddle time on the couch). After the kids go to bed its my time to work some more to add to my 4 hrs at the office, but from home. This is working for us so far. Doesn't mean it will last, but for now...its doable.

*Drum roll* School starts....

Monday. Yep, two days from today we get to go back to the grind of learning, coaxing, begging, pulling our hair out, and walking away before you say something you'll regret later just so out kids will actually learn something. School is upon us.

Driving to work this week I saw the public school had started up. I watched new mom's walking their little ones to school, both scared and nervous about the first day. First day of school and adventures for the kid, first day of no more little one at home with mom. Broke my heart, I remember those days. Always wondering what my boys were doing, if they were safe, if they needed me. Those days are no more for us.
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Wrote out a school schedule this week, in pencil of course. hehe I know there will be changes to this baby before the month's out. Got a call from our homeschool support group yesterday, they had a meeting that I couldn't attend. Looks like I'm the go to person for information, getting things done, etc. Don't know if I'm in charge of the group or not, I'll find out soon though. Even so, I'm seeing that no one wants to or can get things going. So I sat down last night and came up with some things we as a group could do together.

Field trips once a month. I tried to make them on the 2nd Friday of every month with the exception of February. That's when we will go see the Maple Syrup begining made, but its in the last part of the month. Another idea I had was schedule a play day once a month. Say the 1st Fri of the month. Everyone knows that if the weather is nice (warm, no rain, etc.) then it will be at a local park. If it is not so nice outside, then we can meet up at a church and have arranged games/activities for the kids to do for a couple hours.

So, today I'm going to get my household chores done first. Then I'm going to come up with more ideas on what we can do as a small group. Co-op classes will have to wait until Spring because this fall there are too many of us weighed down with extra things in our life. Like a new job, a new baby, other commentments, etc. We'll get together, do what we can this Fall and start planning for Spring.

Back from camp

Church camp was a blast. Hot, lots of walking with hills and hollers. Had a couple bad sleepless nights due to a couple of the girls in my dorm being homesick or just to wound up and talked to much. Zip line, swing over the lake, rock wall, and several other activities....whew! The kids were exhausted every night, so were the adults. ; ) (I'll attach pictures later.)

All in all, my boys and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. First night DS2 wanted to go home. He hated it there. This kid doesn't like loud noises and is extremely shy. I finally had to tell him he had to suck it up and deal with it, we weren't leaving. Day by day, I noticed he was talking more and more to the other kids. At night during worship we caught him singing. No he wasn't dancing and acting silly like his mom, but he was smiling. He told me on the way home he can't wait to go back again. That was worth the trip in itself.

DS3, my youngest came forward the last night we were there. He is going to be baptized tomorrow at church. Woot!! The kid asked his dad to do it. DH is so honored to do that. Don't know who is going to be crying the most tomorrow. Probably me.