I am a homeschool mother of 6. I don't have everything figured out, but I can help you with the experience I do have.Please join me as Christian mothers who seek answers through prayer in study in raising our children in a Godly way.
What is homeschooling like?
A Week in the Life February 10-15
Monday
My son that I like to call Skeebers has been sick sadly way too much. He had a tummy ache and a bad cold. He got to lay around and chill while the rest of us did school.
For our combined circle time, we read scriptures and read our read aloud extra since he was sick. We’ve also been reading picture books from the library to my youngest three kids. That’s made bedtime so much easier because it’s one less thing to get done. We’ve been working on a song called Follow the Prophet from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As we cover prophets in our picture Bible then we also cover the prophets in this song.
We finished homework and dinner at a decent time so we could have a family home evening night. We’ve been encouraged by our prophet to do this weekly. We usually have prayers, songs, a lesson, an activity, and sometimes a treat. It was our youngest daughters turn to choose an activity. We ended up playing a game with our kids called The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game.
Tuesday
Tuesday we did school in the morning. My Skeebers was still sick, so he didn’t do much again. My husband had a chiropractor appointment. Our older two boys stayed home and watched some school movies. Our other kids came with us to town. We took my oldest daughter’s homework with, but we didn’t ended up just doing it the next day. My husband went to the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints while we went shopping at Walmart and Winco.
Winco was great. We haven’t been in a year and a half. We did amazing at throwing all our groceries in a cart. That’s such a joy when you have four kids in tow by yourself. You can totally forget about adding up how much everything costs when you’re just trying to keep your kids from playing hide and seek in the toilet paper aisle. When we finished checking out, I realized I didn’t have a debit card with me.
I ran to the bank across the street, but it was already closed. I hate to say this, but it’s totally not the first time I’ve forgot a debit card at Winco. I put a mental note not to go there for another year and a half, and we bought our groceries at Walmart inste
Wednesday
On Wednesday, despite everyone being tired, we went to our homeschool co-op. We had a Valentines Day party in the class I teach about bugs and plants. We decorated boxes including putting bugs (love bug stickers) on our boxes. We then exchanged cards and gifts. I’ve had a difficult time waking up early and getting through our long co-op days. It made it worth it to have the little Children’s parents say they were looking forward to our party all week. We even went to classes for three hours. After lunch break and a quick trip to the library, we had PE.
My Skeebers was feeling better, but my husband took him to work with him on the ranch. I didn’t want him catching something else or making other kids sick. He listened to an audio book with his dad while feeding cows in the truck. He also watched a school movie called Science Max for a while.
Thursday
Skeebers was extremely difficult on Thursday. After his three day holiday of laying around, watching movies, and hanging out with dad, he really didn’t want to do school. There was way too much arguing that day. It was a day that really had me questioning my life decisions. I definitely didn’t handle my sons push back very well. That night there was a family dance at our church building. I really didn’t want to go anymore. My son and I had both been fighting and crying. We went as a family anyway.
Before all my issues with Skeebers, I was also terrified of how my child that struggles with math was doing. I was intensely worried about her and decided to give the kids a break while I went to room to cool off. When I came back out, I dictated a sentence for my oldest son that said, “Fear not, your righteous efforts will be rewarded.” I knew that wasn’t a coincidence. It was my loving Father trying to comfort His daughter and tell her it was all going to be ok. In my other words He was also telling me to just chill.
When we got to the church, I was crying and didn’t want to go in. Our kids had already excitedly ran in. My patient husband talked me into going in also. I went to the bathroom and then sat down on a chair where everyone was dancing. I still had tears in my eyes and didn’t want to be there. A lady at church who looks over the welfare of the women at church came over and asked me to get up and dance with her. I didn’t want to but I did, and it changed my whole night.
She was a huge blessing in my life and my week. The rest of the night my son didn’t want to dance, but I literally dragged him around anyway while he secretly enjoyed every minute of it. At one point the kids and adults at church were following my dancing actions around the room. I never thought in my life that I would be the person leading a dance party like that. It was pretty sweet though. We had a total blast. I also got to country swing dance with my handsome cowboy.
Friday
Friday was a major day for the Lord to teach me. I read my scriptures and resolved that I wouldn’t raise my voice with my kids. If they decided to yell at me, I would tell them I was done with the conversation. After looking up anger management tips, I made a plan if I have a hard time controlling my mood. I planned that I will go into my room and read a website page about how to control my anger.
I’m writing this post the week after all this happened. I haven’t been perfect, but I’m so happy to say that Heavenly Father has really helped me control my anger. The biggest thing that has helped is taking a deep breath and telling my children that I’m not going to fight with them.
Skeebers had a lot of homework to make up, and he wasn’t happy about it. I made him do it mostly because his attitude was so awful towards me the day before. He worked hard, and we got through lots of it. What we didn’t get through, he finished on Saturday.
During circle time, we finished our book Katie by Mary Notgrass. We all really enjoyed this wonderful retailing of many events from Mary’s life. I’m excited to read the sequel of it to my children, and Km hoping we can do that during circle time in the future.
It’s been below zero lately where we live. It’s like a double edged sword if I enjoy it or not. My kids stay inside because they don’t want to be out in the cold. That makes life harder because they can’t burn energy outside. However, my husband comes in sooner because it’s too cold to ride his horses after work. Since it was too cold for him to do much outside, he came in and we started our weekly Friday family movie night.
Saturday
Saturday we don’t usually do school, yet as I mentioned before, Skeebers had school to finish. I also worked with my child that really struggles with math for a while. I had her play a game with me using a cash register to practice money. She also did Moby Max for a while. She worked for about an hour.
Summary
I’m so grateful Heavenly Father is extremely mindful of what my kids and I need at certain moments. He is so patient with my imperfections and understands perfectly my limitations and how to help me through them. I’m so grateful he parents my babies with me, and I’m not doing this alone.
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