Update on Homeschooling

Well, we are back into the swing of life! Big changes in the way we School this year has taken place, or one –  we have a dedicated School room now, yeah!!!!! I LOVE this space. I feel that it allows the kids space to learn and be creative. I made my own bulletin boards for each of the kids complete with some “tips” to help them out as well as reward charts! I am all about the positive affirmations! In this post I will go into more detail as to how the reward charts work and what our homeschooling day typically looks like. One thing I would suggest and have found it to be invaluable is finding someone you can bounce ideas off of and to have some time to have a hang out, with the kids. For me I have formed a new friendship with someone whom we have some similar friends but never really hung out together. Well I am SO THANKFUL for this friendship!!! She is very creative, seems to know all the cool programs and websites and is so fun to hang out with! We both started around the same time homeschooling so we are both figuring this out together, it is also awesome to note that our husbands get along so even double dates have happened, well one double date has happened – but we had so much fun I know many more will happen! We have made it a priority to meet up once a week and go to the library. This is much for us as it is the kids. They get out and get to get new books and continue to learn and well, we get to sit and have a tea, or try to amidst many interruptions by our sweet babies.

Our typical day is pretty straight forward to be honest. We start our day by praying for whatever needs we find to be of importance, right now we are praying for our church’s second campus and a permit we need to get to open our doors! Then our family devotional and journaling. This book is new to our personal library, “Sheila Walsh’s Family Devotions”. Then we switch which one goes first doing their flash cards.  We switch between spelling for Kennedy and math and for Cole sight words and math. Then into the books they go. This year we switched from a computer based program curriculum to books. For Cole I made up a binder for the first 4 weeks which was all review of what we have done last year to make sure that his skills where sharp. Starting next week he is back to his grade 1 Complete Canadian Curriculum book as well as reading 9 pages from a level 1 reader, and 5 pages from a level 2 reader. Spelling is his area of opportunity so his day is heavy in reading. Kennedy is doing a grade 5 Complete math and English smart books as well as a grade 6 Complete Canadian Curriculum book for extra English, spelling, science and socials. She also has a Canadian geography book that gets done 2 times a week. Next month we are going to introduce French. We also signed up for Letters from Afar, I would recommend looking them up on Instagram! Monthly we get a letter from “Isabelle” who is an explorer and it tells of her adventures. We then go and do some research on where she is, some of the local things that are common and then do a small presentation with our friends. It’s a great way to teach them about the world, what other cultures do and also gives them public speaking experience. We have a giant wall map and when we get a new letter we move the arrow to show where Isabelle is for the month we are studying her. We also on the map have an arrow for a friend of ours who travels for Ministry, so the kids can also see how far he travels, where he travels too and gives them a visual of where in the world he is. The kids came up with the idea and I love it.

The reward charts are super fun! The kids each have 2 of them. Kennedy’s 2 are for good behavior/80% on tests and the other is for being patient with her Brother as he reads to her. I felt this was important to teach her patience, to show her that not everyone learns the same as you and to have pride in teaching her Brother how to read. Some days as I watch them, I am so happy I did this and other days I want to call it off! Cole’s 2 are for good behavior and his 2nd one is for reading to Kennedy with a good attitude. Lets be real, siblings don’t really like to work together a whole lot so this has been good for him to learn that his Sister wants to help him and for her to learn how to be gentle and kind in a leadership role while getting your point across. It also for both of them, I feel prepares them for marriage one day, not to each other let me clarify, lol. I often say “listen one day you will be married and that person won’t always make you very happy or might do things to anger you BUT your partners so you have to learn to work through it, speak to each other with kindness and respect so this is a training ground for your future marriages, WORK IT OUT”!! I figure it’s never too young to teach them lessons that will hopefully propel them into the future full of successes, time will tell.

Here are some pictures of what the school room looks like, before it gets messed up in a day.

 

 

 

 

Until next time, keep exploring life.

 

Jen

A gift that keeps on giving this year.

This holiday season was extra special or many reasons but one of the big reasons was my husband didn’t have to work on Christmas day!!! It was only the 2nd time in 6 years, Hospital life! This year I decided to go out of my comfort zone and make a gift. I had seen it on many Pintrest pins, the 365 Jar. I thought at first it would be a challenge to make but I had lots of time before Christmas so it should be a breeze, hahahahhahahaha, famous last words! So if you don’t know what a 365 Jar is, it is a Jar ( duh) that you fill with 365 different papers. You have 5 different colours which each represent a topic. So I did white for Bible scriptures, blue for memories, teal for words of encouragement, pink for quotes about love and yellow was things I love about him. Doesn’t sound so bad does it?, until you do the math. Each colour topic has to have 73 papers with it. SO 73 things I love about him, 73 memories etc. It was hard towards the end cause I felt like I was running out of memories or like I was repeating love quotes. Thankfully there are over 100 scriptures about love!

My love language is gifts, so I find it super fun and easy to buy gifts for others. (If you haven’t heard of the 5 Love Languages Google it, they also have one for kids) My husband on the other hand is physical affection and words of encouragement. So I knew this gift would just hit him in the emotions, and it did! I got the reaction I was expecting, tears! I know, how mean of me to expect tears but sometimes that’s how I measure how “good” a gift is. So for Mark to have his own jar I knew would mean a lot to him. A whole year of words that mean something to him. Each day it’s super fun to see what one gets pulled out of the jar. Some we share with the kids and others not so much because those memories are better kept just between us. I tried to make it as much of “me” as possible by throwing in some funny things and just as much of him by putting in super mushy things.

I had to dig deep to make sure this project got completed. When it came to memories it was super fun to go and look at old photos, Facebook posts and memories from our times together. 14 years is a lot of memories to try and record. It was fun to relive in my memory some of the old memories such as our 1st house. How excited I was to sleep in our 1st house that we bought together that I insisted we sleep on our hardwood floors the night before we moved all our furniture into the house. It wasn’t a great sleep but its a special memory we have. Telling him 73 reasons why I love him, such as, now this is very me…kills bugs!!!! Scriptures to encourage him like Lamentations 3:22-26 and my favorite love quotes. This one I laughed at and he felt the need to share with a close friend who is sensitive like him. “I might not be your 1st kiss, 1st love or 1st date but I want to be your last everything”. Thanks to Pintrest for that one! I just laugh when he reads it but it truly warms his heart. Its funny thought, cause I love Nicholas Sparks films, the girly of the girly films but to live it out, not so much.

 

I am so happy that I choose to take on this challenge because it’s easy to buy a gift, but one that is made especially from such a big project I feel speaks way more to the receiver. This gift I know will be something that He will treasure for years to come. It is a type of gift that our kids will remember in years to come. It is a type of gift that on hard days it will be a light in the darkness. The type of gift that goes beyond this year.  So with the start of a New Year, Birthdays come up and we all know how quickly Christmas can creep up, start thinking about a gift that goes beyond a store and dig a little deeper. I’m already thinking of this years gift!

That’s what 365 papers all written out look like. I seen 3 am, 2 days in a row to make sure it got completed. It was a photo finish!

 

Until next time,

 

Jen

Staring down at a new season pt2

Come September my little guy goes to school and I re-enter the workforce. I know the 1st day of school will be emotional but what happenes the days and weeks to follow is what scares, worries and makes my heart sad and excited. I am thankful that I will be able to make money, work with adults and know my kids education is top notch. That makes it easier but its the days that my kids are sick and I won’t be the one to comfort them like I could before, the school trips that I will have to coordinate in a new way and face the reality that I won’t be able to go on every trip like before. I won’t be the one to greet them after school, but they will be in the care of someone else. I won’t be the 1st one who gets to hear about their highs and lows for the day, to be the homework enforcer or at the dinner table every night.

With all these changes comes a peace, I will admit along with lots of tears, knowing just like before when I worked full time God takes care of it all. I knew at some point this season would end but, it seemed to creep up on me. Don’t get me wrong I am very excited about going to work! It will be nice to have to get all dolled up, meet new people, develop new relationships and contribute financially to our household. I am excited to plan a family vacation for next year, to be able to give more to people in need, to pay down debt and to feel less of a burden when an expense comes up. I will say though, I wouldn’t change what has happened in the last 4 years. We have learned alot about each other, what we can live without and overall God is in control and life really is better with less!!! I know it will be a transition for all of us but I know God has called us into a new season.

Now that I’m staring down at a new time it makes me really realize that the days are long but the years are short. We often say before we know it they will be off in college and getting married and wow is that ever true! It seems like just yesterday we where planning the arrival of our 2nd child and now he is off to school in 6 weeks and turning 4! My oldest I feel is 7 going on 17 but I’m finding joy even in the girl drama. As kids we can’t wait to be teenagers, teenagers can’t wait to be adults, adults can’t wait to get married and have kids(if that’s your desire) and then as adults we want it all back. I don’t want to get to the end of my life and feel I didn’t let me kids interrupt me cause I was so busy being an adult that I missed building Legos, playing dolls, colouring or playing in the park. I want to soak it all in cause just like that newborn baby smell it all goes away one day, too quickly. Enjoy today, live for today and let tomorrow take care of itself.

Making memories and sand castles at the beach!

Walking to school to pick up his sister.

Starting down at a new season.pt1

Relief, tears, and alot of how is this going to work?! is what goes on in my mind during the day. See this month marks exactly 4 years ago I said good bye to my job and Hello full time motherhood. I entered into this season with high hopes, fantasy like dreams and alot of unknowns. I only really raised my first kid for a year then most of it was done by amazing babysitters. I was a part time Mom but a full time employee. The second one rolls around and now I’m the one who has full responsibility. How I wish I had the first one full time to raise cause nothing could prepare me for him. I am so very thankful for this season thou, I have grown as a Mom, Wife and Woman. I have learned patience in a new way, its ok to be the Mom in WalMart with a screaming child and a sick kid can only be healed by prayer and lots of cuggles(that’s what we call cuddles in this house) from a Mama.

Now it’s time to move on. My reality has been for 4 years, if I can find childcare to hang out with my friends during the week at a cottage, I’m free, or I don’t want to put on clothes today, PJ day would be claimed for the day! I knew as the school year drew to a close this was my last summer of “freedom” and I planned on making the most of it. I feel we have had a great summer so far, park time, hikes, sleepovers at Nana and Papa’s house…oh how I love summer days! I’m planning a beach day this week because we can! I just find it hard to wrap my mind around the fact it’s almost 1/2 over!!!

When life doesn’t add up!

When I got married I had a husband who worked 9-5 Mon-Fri. Life was predictable and ideal. We didn’t have kids so oh the glory days of sitting down for dinner just the two of us. Fast forward 6 yrs,1 kid at the time and he now works an on call only job. Now picture this, I’m in line at a grocery store, buggy full of food and he calls saying I got called into work I need you home now!! So much for the groceries.

This was not what I signed up for! I had a 9-5 working husband not a drop everything now cause I got a call to work husband. A few weekends ago my mighty man worked 20hrs in 1 day!!! Slept the whole next day, then on the 3rd day worked 12 hours and still has 3 more days of work to go this week! Do I complain? NO, God created Him to be a provider, and He is!!! That weekend was not ideal for him to work that much, my daughter had 2 birthday parties, a friend come over to play, I had a meeting which I don’t brig my kids to as a rule, and to top it all off I fit in a 3hr visit in to the ER cause I got my 1st ever ear infection while being a single Mom for 3 days! I complained about my ear but not the amount of work my husband was putting in.

I think sometimes we get caught up in how we think life “should” look and miss the opportunity to enjoy how it is. I believe life would be like trying to swim up a river if I didn’t accept this IS my life and I will make the most of it. So the day my mighty man of provision worked 20hrs, well family time was the 30 mins in the car driving him from one location to the next. My kids will remember those times where in the mist of life we made the most of it. Life doesn’t have a perfect way, we just get a perfect perspective. So wives encourage your hard working men who provide for your family, build them up and most of all THANK them!!

Family time, saying goodbye to Daddy who now was going in for a 12hr overnight shift!

Learning to Live with Less

When I think back to my childhood I remember keeping everything!!! Papers that I drew something on that had no use, to toys I didn’t play with anymore “just in case”. I think this stems from moving around a lot due to life circumstances and always feeling like nothing was mine as everything was changing almost every year.

Sadly as an adult I continued this pattern of behavior even knowing my life is very stable. I had to dig down deep and ask myself, “why?!” Why did I feel a need to keep baby clothes, even knowing we where done having babies, why did I keep stuff around that was “extra”, or really just an impulse buy. After praying about it, I discovered it was a fear that was revealed to me, I was scared that what if this stuff is what is keeping my life stable?! What if I needed it one day, I totally had a poverty mindset.

Last year I began my journey to becoming comfortable with less stuff. I have donated close to 20 garbage bags of stuff. It started with old baby clothes which I blogged about previously, then went on to my kids stuff and I saved my stuff for last and to be honest still working on. Its a great feeling walking into my house now with less stuff, I feel like I can breathe. The atmosphere in our house has changed, my husband is happier,   the kids are happier, and I’m not cleaning as much which makes me happier!

See the thing is, life with less shockingly is way more fulfilling, less stressful and happier! I know for some that sounds crazy but give it a try, you might be shocked at how much happier you can become with less!

I went thru these and made folders labeled Breakfast, Lunch,Dinner, Smoothies, desserts and snacks.

The last project I have is our bedroom and I’m excited to see the end result!!!