January & February Goals

I can't believe it is already February! I am very glad. I am sick and tired of winter and each month that goes by brings us a little closer to spring. Thank goodness. The sun is staying out longer every day and that makes me happy. I can't wait til I can start walking in the evening again. 

Blogger has been doing really weird things, so excuse any weird formatting that pops up. Also, I thought about making more graphics and adding more pictures to this...but it's already a week late and I just need to post it ;) Maybe I'll be snazzier in March!

January had its ups and downs, but ended on a positive note.  I'm feeling a lot better and feel really blessed to have such supportive friends in my life. Thanks friends, I love ya!

Here's a look at how I did with my monthly goals in January. 

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Read five books this month - Check. Finished three Harry Potters and a couple others. I knew that I would binge the HP books which is why I made my reading goal so high ;)

Watch at least one Star Wars movie - Tim and I watched Episodes IV, V and VI. SO much better than Episode I, that's for sure. Harrison Ford is a hottie and Princess Leia is a badass. I'm glad I finally watched them! We're planning to go see Episode VII soon. 

Take Lexi on a Mother/Daughter date - We went out to lunch and shopping. 

Figure out a way to better organize the girls' rooms - Got them some storage tubs at Ikea, and now, before they are allowed screen time, they must pick up their rooms, the kitchen, living room, and basement. Works great.

Figure out something consistent to do with Lydia - We started Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She can do it! Her attention span is short, but she's managed to read a couple of Bob Books and she is excited about that! We've gotten into a bit of a routine most days now that Lexi can work independently on some things. I also found some fun learning apps for her to play on her Kindle when Lexi and I work one on one. 
Talk to the vet about the stupid cats pooping in the basement - Had a conversation with him and we're pretty sure it's behavioral. He ordered a pheromone diffuser for us and suggested a carpet cleaner. I am glad we at least have a plan!

Eat a nutritious lunch most days - I started eating salads again. Not every day, but frequently. Good for me.

Walk with a friend at least once per week - I think I managed this most weeks.

Be more diligent about Lexi practicing piano - I've been better at reminding her. I'm introducing a daily checklist for her so that I'm not constantly nagging.

Write, in some form, every day - I have been writing nearly every day! I've started a story, which is why there haven't been as many blog posts. Also, I get distracted easily.
Invite people over for dinner and/or games - It was on the calendar than needed to be rescheduled. But we'll get there! Got two dinner plans on the calendar for Feb so far. 

Come up with some way to connect with God regularly - I've been reading and doing devotions/answering questions out of my Busy Mom's Bible now and then. We've been attending some classes/Bible studies that have been good. I don't have an exact routine. It's a start though. 

Do an Art Lesson each week - I think we did 2 or 3. They enjoyed them!

Finish & publish the Faces of Homeschooling posts I have lined up - Blogger has been giving me formatting issues, so I am just now getting those finished. One has been posted and the other is nearly ready. 

Go on a date with my husband - Sorry Tim. Got two dates on the calendar this week, so that sorta makes up for it ;)

Do a Walk at Home DVD or play Just Dance each week - I think I did this once. Oops.

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I've been mulling over my goals for February and it's been a little tricky, because I've been trying to decided what my priorities are first, rather than just setting random goals. I did much better reaching goals in January than I did in previous months, probably because I set fewer goals overall.

 I'm going to be light on wellness goals for a while. I kind of needed to focus on just feeling better mentally, since everything else stems from that. I saw my doctors and we are trying different supplements to keep my hormones and feelings, well, less insane. It's a bit of trial and error. First thing we tried didn't work but the supplement I'm trying now (lithium orotate) seems to be working really well. Time will tell if it's what I need!

I have also started a long term substitute teaching job at a homeschool enrichment center. I am excited about it! The girls get to come with me, which is great because we probably couldn't afford something like this if I weren't teaching there. I get to use my creative teaching brain in a classroom setting, which is going to be fun. I get paid, which rocks. I think it'll be great. We still need to adjust to going to bed and waking up earlier. For those of you who are unfamiliar, this is a one day per week program that provides Art, Music, Sign Language, PE and other classes to groups of kids who are homeschooled. They are grouped by age level and get to have lunch and recess together and have fun doing activities that easier to do in groups. 

Anywho, These goals are kind of random, but that's kind of who I am. 

Personal

Read three books
Pray more - Consider a routine for this

Attend a Bible Study/Church Class
Go to bed by 11pm on weeknights
Finish Season 4 of Grey's Anatomy (I take my TV watching seriously!)
Put on new Jamberries instead of biting my nails

Family
Go see Star Wars for Tim's Birthday
Play more games - Consider a routine or regular family game time
Analyze the budget and set some $$$ goals
Take Lydia on a date

Wellness

Go on a walk every week
Find recipes for and try 2 new meals

Social

Go on two coffee/dessert/whatever dates with friends

Homeschool

Use the weekend to plan each upcoming school week
Consider implementing some kind of "Centers" for Lydia
Tentatively decide on Science topics for the rest of the semester

Writing

Write every day

Take myself on a writing date where I can work quietly for a while
Finish Chapter 1 of my story

Faces of Homeschooling - Hoosier Family

Welcome to another (extremely overdue) installment of 
Faces of Homeschooling!

This week we're chatting with Vanessa Hoosier, wife of Cole, mama to Meghan (and baby girl Katie arriving this spring!) and former special education teacher who blogs about homemaking, cooking, homeschooling and urban homesteading at Hoosier Homestead. 

Today, Vanessa shares about what led her family to choose homeschooling as well as how she structures educational activities for her inquisitive toddler. Take a look!

What brought you to homeschooling?

Deciding to homeschool wasn’t so much of a decision for our family, but just kind of grew out of our vision for how we wanted to raise our family.

We knew that God has given parents the responsibility of leading their children towards him and we knew that we wanted our family to be a safe place for our children to learn and grow on their way to knowing God personally. As we considered that desire for our family, homeschooling just became the obvious choice - it would allow us to spend as much time as possible with our children loving them and guiding them through the first years of their lives.

We also believe strongly in the value of play during the little years. We want our kids to have the ability to play a lot during their early years. By homeschooling we can give them the individual attention that they need to complete their school work through constructive play and allow them plenty of time during the day to engage in their own independent, creative play.

Those are the two main reasons that our family has chosen to homeschool, but other factors have also played into the decision; such as: 

• Knowing how my husband and I did in school, there’s a good chance our kids will work far ahead of grade level (at least in some subjects) and a possibility that they may struggle in others. As homeschoolers we can differentiate their teaching as needed; we can ignore traditional “grade levels” and allow our children to work at whatever level is appropriate for them in each subject at the time. 
• We want our children to embrace learning as a lifelong activity not as something that occurs in the school setting alone. By incorporating their school into their everyday life we hope they will be encouraged to enjoy and engage in the learning process as a lifelong experience. 
• As American politics and morals are shifting, we do not want our children exposed to the coming changes in the curriculum. While we intend to teach our children about social and moral issues, the way God views them, and the way our world views them - we want to choose at what age they are ready to handle those concepts. 
• Since having our first child, we have learned that she has Sensory Processing Disorder. Having been a special education teacher in the public schools before staying home with our daughter, I understand the stress and pressure that teachers are under in public schools today. It would be impossible to expect them to meet her special needs during their already busy day. I can meet those needs individually in our home as they occur. 
• Schools waste so much time. They don’t mean to, but waiting in line for a whole class to use the bathroom, lining up to go somewhere else, waiting for all children to finish before moving on, etc. all waste time. By doing their school work at home and at their own pace our children should have more time in their day to pursue their individual interests. 
• Pursuing their own interests - if while we’re learning about a topic our child discovers a passion for part of the subject matter we want them to be able to stop and go more in depth in their learning about that topic. We don’t want them to be forced to move on because we have to “cover” more curriculum. Learning throughout the rest of life (after high school graduation) is guided by interest and we see no reason why that interest led learning can’t begin earlier in life. 

It’s not at all a short answer, but it those are the reasons and thought processes that led us to determine that homeschooling was the correct path for our family.

Tell us more about what you're doing with Meghan now and what you plan to do as she (and your family!) grows.

Meghan is 23 months old right now. Currently we have a semi-montessori method of schooling Meghan that we have been using since she was around 13 months old. There is a shelf in her playroom where I rotate activities for her to complete; most of them are completely independent after I introduce them to her but some require help from me to complete. Examples of these activities are:

• matching letter tiles to a paper on which I have written her name 
• placing animal manipulatives on dots that match the number on a card 
• wooden puzzles and simple jigsaw puzzles 
• a few sets of cards from a Memory game for her to match 
• sorting manipulatives into colored cups 
• stringing large wooden beads 
• matching toys/magnets to printed images 
• flashcards - she loves “reading” flashcards to herself or having me scatter them on the floor and then call out a letter, number, etc. (or picture when we were working on vocabulary) for her to find and bring to me 

We don’t currently have a real structure to our school days. When she is interested in working on one of these tasks, she will take it off the shelf and take it to a space on the floor or her small table to work on it. If she wants me to do the activity with her, she will generally come get me from what I am working on. As she’s currently an only child, I can almost always wrap up what I’m doing within a few minutes to complete the activities with her.

However, in April, when she’s 26 months old, a little sister will be joining us, so one of my goals for the year 2016 is to make school a bit more structured for her so that I regularly give her the intellectual challenge that she craves.

I intend for her to still have her Montessori workbox style shelves to work on independently and will be trying to include a 10-15 minutes “school” session with her at least 3 days a week. During this time we will work on tasks which require me to teach or assist her with the activities we do. I very much believe in following the lead of the child when planning educational experiences, especially with Meghan as she’s still so young, so I can’t say exactly what we will do during these times throughout the year. But some of the things I am currently planning to work on with her during this time include activities like:

• the Farmland Math curriculum from Timberdoodle which is designed for 2-3 year olds and uses farm animal math manipulatives and play to teach basic math concepts 
• laminated pre-writing stroke worksheets such as those from ABC Jesus Loves Me and Dot to Dot for Tiny Tots by Priddy books
• Handwriting Without Tears doh mats and Do-A-Dot style printables
• introducing the concept of sounding out words (she knows all of her letters and their sounds) using manipulatives such as letter magnets, Boggle Junior, Melissa and Doug’s See and Spell, the game What’s Gnu, etc.
• introducing the concept of sight words through flashcard games, using large picture cubes to roll and read sight words, the You Can Read curriculum from 1+1+1=1, etc.
• logic and conceptual games such as Day and Night, Brain Quest for 2’s, Hello Sunshine Game, opposite matching, event sequencing cards, etc.

In addition to her independent workboxes and that dedicated school time, we have art time (paint, crayons, play-doh, cutting, gluing, etc.) and outside time (free play, gardening, gross motor activities, water table, sensory table, chalk, bubbles, nature walks, etc.) many days. My goals for this year include being even better about making those two activities a more consistent & regular part of our days.

We read a lot throughout the day. Meghan loves being read to and we usually read for 30 minutes - 1.5 hours of the day. We have several large children’s books anthologies that I will choose to read from as well as a collection of rotating picture books that she will choose from for repeated readings. We also read from the Big Picture Story Bible almost every day.

Meghan is also allowed to watch a movie while she eats her breakfast every morning. Movies that we watch during this time are Leapfrog’s Letter Factory (and we will add Talking Word Factory if/when she shows interest in sounding out words), Preschool Prep Company’s DVDs (she’s mastered many of the topics they have, but we will be using the sight word dvds if/when she shows interest in learning sight words), and the Two Little Hands Production’s Rachel and the Treeschoolers DVDs. These three DVD companies are ones that are solidly educational and ones that Meghan shows great interest in.

With a new baby coming and her young age, I am incredibly flexible with when school, art time, outside time, and read alouds get completed during the day. We have a general rhythm for what we do in our morning routine, how we go about the late morning, and what we do after nap but it’s pretty flexible, which is how I think it’s just going to have to be with a new baby!!

Thank you so much for sharing your story with us, Vanessa! 

Be sure to check out Vanessa's awesome blog at Hoosier Homestead! I find her ideas inspiring :)