Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

Yeah, it's been a while. Right now it's 7:20 a.m. and all my children are still sleeping (!!!!) so I have some unscheduled time to myself. Yay!  I've been up since 6 planning the homeschool week, which didn't get done this weekend because we were just so busy! We have finished 5 weeks of homeschooling and it has been going relatively well.  I have had my first curriculum fail (Spelling Workout doesn't work, at least not for us!), now I'm trying to decide if we start with something else or wait until the boys are stronger readers to work on spelling. It seems like when I was in school we started in 3rd grade or so but that was a really long time ago and I might be wrong.  At this point I'm thinking it might be best to wait until after the baby is born regardless.  I did a survey on a popular homeschooling board and it was seriously a 3-way tie on whether people thought I should do spelling with C only, C and Y together, or wait to start spelling until later...

We started school on Monday!  Here are my little cuties. The boys always try to match their clothes as much as possible so they are both wearing their Batman shirts, he he he! I think it's so funny!  Mercedes is learning through play and working a little bit on fine motor skills with drawing, listening in on history and science (when she feels like it) and that's about it, nothing formal yet (we may start phonics at the beginning of 2015, we will see). Yusuf is starting Kindergarten, and Cassius is starting first grade! I tried to get Ben in the picture but he was really upset to be told to sit still, so there you go. Story of his life. :) Our first day went fantastic. We started about 7:30 a.m. with Bible/catechism during breakfast (I get up at 6, shower, do my quiet time and eat breakfast and do any last-minute preparation, so that way I can read to them and talk to them during their breakfast and not have to go hungry).  The boys take turns with me for math, then ...

So I took the three older boys to get their eyes checked. Cassius already had glasses, but only needed to wear them at school. He kept them in the case in his backpack. A few weeks before the last day of school he said "Mommy, when are you going to fix my glasses?" Ah, well, I guess when you let me know that they are broken, son!  They were unsalvageable and by that time it really didn't matter too much anyway. I have no idea how long they were broken before he let me know about them. D lost his glasses, or broke them or...something. He typically looses them within a few weeks of starting the school year.  Then since Y will be starting kindergarten this year we got his eyes checked as well. We had an inking he maybe needed some help. Yep, his right eye is 20/100 and his left is 20/400!  So he needs to wear glasses all the time. Even with glasses the ophthalmologist said she could only get his vision to 20/30, but obviously that is still much much better. Anyway. I took ...

I think there is a misconception that homeschoolers look down their noses at parents who allow their children to attend public schools. I'm a product of the public school system. So is my husband. My dad was a public school teacher for a long time, my granddad and grandmother were both public school teachers.  I loved, LOVED several of my teachers that I had over the years. Some of them I didn't like so well but that's just life.  :) We've decided to try this, for our family, because we think it will be what is best. Will it be what is easiest? No way. It would be so much easier to send the kids to school every day. Hey, in 6 or so years I would have my days completely to myself! Bliss! Alone time in abundance!  Grocery shopping in peace, my home would probably be the cleanest it has been in a long time, I might have some time to do some things that I love like building stuff or gardening or ...???!!!  Will we always homeschool, for the next 19 years? I can't sa...

We're considering dual enrollment for Yusuf and Cassius at our local elementary school. Really it's just music and PE, and it's only 1/2 hour four days per week. And they'd be in class together which would be pretty convenient. I'm having a hard time finding social things that a) I feel I can get us all to without wreaking havoc with our schedule and b) do not cost an arm and a leg. This seems like a pretty good option. It's also from 8:45 to 9:15, which should be before baby's first nap (once that time comes, which won't be for a while) and early enough that it shouldn't really interrupt anything else, it would just delay our start of the school. And hey, it's free. And Cassius would get to maintain some of the friendships he's made, hopefully.  And during the winter the opportunity for them to burn some energy would be nice! My conundrum is, what the heck are the rest of us going to do for thirty minutes? It's not really long enough...

Can I just say, having a teenager is so much harder than I thought it would be.  I think it's especially difficult having one who was raised with a completely different value system for the first 11+ years of his life, who has difficulty trusting authority figures in general, and who thinks you are insane. Yes, I'm pretty sure our son thinks we are crazy. Without going into details, I'll just say we are very, very tired of being lied to and deceived (not outright lied to but you know what I mean). It's so ugly, it's so terrible, and I am sure that it is very normal but AAAGGGHHHH.  We have some serious thinking to do to figure this problem out because it really is a problem. Really.  We're to the point we need to start relaxing on rules, giving more freedom...and yet we can't trust him so how can we possibly do that?  We only have a few years left. Now. Onto homeschooling. I'm making a list of books to check out from the library to go along with ou...

It's getting to be crunch time around here! I've scheduled our first day of school for July 7. Which still seems like a long way away, honestly, but it's close enough that I feel like I need to start getting my year planned out a little bit. I browsed online for what felt like FOREVER looking for a good way to organize things. I stumbled upon a website, which I can't find now of course because I didn't bookmark it, with all kinds of free forms. I browsed and settled on some that made the most sense for me. (edited to add: I found it!  http://www.tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/free-printables/7-step-curriculum-planner/ ) I am planning on schooling 4 days per week, with Friday (or whatever day) as a catch-up, field trip, library, whatever day. This may not work, but that's what I'm trying for now. We might need to do 5 just to fit it all in, we shall see. Regardless, it's nice to ease into the school year a little bit.  I also have read about some peop...