Reflections of a first year homeschooling mama

As the school year (I use that term loosely because we are continuing a few subjects through the summer) comes to a close, I wanted to get my thoughts out about my first year as a homeschooling mama.  There were soooooo many things I did wrong, but I do hope that, just maybe, I got a few things right.  (Sorry, this is a loooong post!)

Successes

1. This may seem obvious, but the choice to homeschool was a huge success for our family!  Angel loves it and Sunshine is too young to know any different (but I can say with certainty that her speech has improved so quickly because I am able to work with her all day long).  Lovebug still says he misses "school," but everyone in the family is still trying to convince him that traditional school is nothing like the structured playing he did in his half-day Pre-K class last year  =)  Angel knows better!
2. Setting up a separate school room was a necessity for our family.  I know not all families need this or have the capability to do it, but it was essential in making the switch from traditional school to homeschool for us.  Having a separate, organized, and cheerful space with individual desks was really key for us being able to maintain a "school" environment to ensure we got our work completed.  Maybe I needed the separation more than the kids, who knows.  But it was a huge helper for making things run more smoothly and kept all of our schooling stuff nice and organized.
3. Being flexible with (i.e., totally scrapping) the schedule I had intricately mapped out was so important.  I had incorrectly thought I needed to plan blocks of time using workboxes for each subject.  It worked so much better to give the kids a list of what needed to be done (I used Homeschool Helper App), and let them do it in the order they wanted.  The exceptions were that fun history and science projects were done only when all of the other work was completed first.  This worked especially well for Angel, who did a lot of her work independently, only getting me when she needed help.  If I was working with Lovebug or helping Sunshine with something when Angel needed help, she just moved onto something else until I could help her (or I recently started keeping a fun chapter book available to read at her desk too).  Vice versa for Lovebug - I'd give him work to do that didn't require help while I helped Angel (the Ooka Island computer game was great for this when he was finished his other independent work).  I also kept separate activities put up and out of reach for Sunshine to be played with only during school time.  I set her up at the green table and she was good to go for a small window of time.  This was helpful with keeping her occupied when I needed to work with the older two.  It wasn't perfect and there were plenty of days that simply did not go well, but it was pretty good overall.
4. Joining our Classical Conversations community was absolutely a highlight of our school year.  We loved everything about it, including the friendships we have made.  Through some trial and error, I think we have a good system down for working on memorizing the grammar now.  I didn't do a very good job in the beginning, but I am excited about implementing good memorization practices in the Fall.  I think at least Angel is going to try for Memory Masters next year!
5. Using CC as our curriculum base for history and science was a big success.  I mostly used Story of the World for history and God's Design for Science for our science lessons, both mapped out to our weekly CC grammar (we skipped around in the books to fit what we were memorizing each week).  I also used several other living books, especially when SOTW and GDS didn't have lessons that fit well.  And then using multiple resources from other CC moms and pinterest, I picked different projects to go along with what we were studying.  The kids loved doing different projects each week!
6. The other curriculums we worked with this year were pretty awesome.  I'm sticking with most of them for next year, which makes the english and math planning easy peasy (with the exception of switching Lovebug over the All About Reading).  We are still going to be using CC for these subjects as well, but the CC memorization is in addition to the math and english curriculums we're using.  I am planning to add in more art at home next year too.  Angel loves art and to be honest, we didn't do a ton of extra art, other than the history art projects and what we did at CC.  I'd like to work on a foreign language as well.  We memorized some Latin at CC, but I didn't do anything with that this year.  We think our family would be better served learning Mandarin, but I need to put that into motion.

Lessons to Learn From

1. I didn't plan ahead enough in the beginning ... I learned my lesson the hard way because I do feel like I sort of floated through the first half of the school year.  Especially with the Fall being my busy work season, we didn't do as many interesting things as I would have liked.  I got my act together for the second half of the school year though and planned the whole thing over Christmas break.  Although we didn't get to every project, things went much more smoothly and we were way more likely to do the hands-on stuff because it was already planned, along with all of the supplies already being purchased (I did that while planning).  I planned for one science and history project a week (art, experiment, or hands-on activity).  It didn't always happen, but we tried!
2. We didn't start school at a regular time early enough.  This one is ALL on me and was a big one.  It is so easy for me to get caught up in answering emails or work stuff right after breakfast, and then before I know it, it's 10:00am and we haven't started school yet.  I know that the beauty of homeschool is flexibility, but too much flexibility for me is not good.  On the days when we started early (before 9:00am) and were finished by lunch, everyone was happy and so excited to have the rest of the day free!  It set such a positive tone for the whole day.  So a BIG goal for next year is to be disciplined and regularly start at about 8:30am.
3. Along the same lines, I struggled with time management.  I'm pretty sure every homeschool mama will relate.  Juggling multiple responsibilities is a bit overwhelming, and part of the answer is cutting back on work.  It's such a fine balance, because I love homeschooling and I adore my job.  And then trying to be the best wife I can be, finding time for me, for blogging, for Red Thread Sessions, for adoption/orphan care related activities, for household stuff, etc., etc., ... oy, it can be a lot.
4. I was just getting my feet wet this year and felt a little overwhelmed on the academic side, so I will definitely be working on getting the kids involved in more extracurricular activities.  Angel has been talking about gymnastics, Girl Scouts, and maybe softball next Spring.  We also just bought her a violin and she starts lessons on Monday!  Lovebug has been asking about Tae Kwon Do for longer than I'd like to admit, so I really want to get him involved in that.  There is also a weekly homeschool gym at the Y that is very close to our house.  It's drop-off AND in the afternoon - so I can drop the older two off, head home for Sunshine's nap time, and be back to pick them up when she wakes up.  SCORE!  We tried a homeschool gym at another gym and it was awesome (kids loved it!), but it was too far away and it took place in the morning, which was so hard with scheduling school time.
5. I struggled with Bible study all year.  It was quite frustrating because of all the things we are learning, my most important job is to teach them about God.  The rest will fall into place, but I welcome the task gladly to teach the kids about their heavenly Father!  I had a difficult time using our curriculum (which I really do love because it goes through the whole Bible systematically in three years and involves a lot of good memorization) because of the age range of my littles. Angel was very interested, Lovebug was somewhat interested but mostly indifferent, and Sunshine was usually creating distractions.  It was really frustrating.  I also tried a morning basket at breakfast for individual devotions - it worked quite nicely but we were hot and cold with using it.  And although I love devotions, they aren't a replacement for Bible study.  So I actually gave the Bible study curriculum a retry several weeks ago again, and by God's grace, it worked.  And it worked well! We're several weeks into the Bible study and it's going ... great!  We're reading straight from the Bible and everyone is sitting relatively quiet and paying attention!  We all love the interactive timeline and for now, the whole study is totally working for us!
6. Scripture memory was a big fail this school year.  I was so focused on the rest of our academics that I didn't even try.  But I know that hiding God's Word in their hearts is so very important!  Learning from my mistake though, I put together a Scripture Memory box using Charlotte Mason's system and I am thrilled to say that we started using it this week!  If you haven't checked out this system of memory work but want to memorize scripture (or anything else for that matter), go watch THIS VIDEO about how to do it.  It rocks.

So anyway, I think that this first school year went very well overall.  I pray that we were able to glorify God, and that we only continue to do so as the years go on.  It must be a good sign that I feel like I could keep going and am not desperately waiting for the summer months to hit.  I am even more inspired for next year and am excited about a few of the changes we'll be making too!