Weekly Journal Post

My Homeschool Mother’s Journal

Because I recently came across this blog, I've been excited to start a journal of our homeschooling days, more than just the checks on the boxes in our teacher’s guide; this will give me a better feel for “are the kids getting it?” “Did we deal with attitudes today?” “Did anything sink in?”

Maybe those questions will not be answered, but it is my hope to get some sort of feel for those things.

Today, Reformation Day, we read through the Martin Luther chapters of Hero Tales.  This was out of order according to the teacher’s guide for Exploring Countries and Cultures. But I felt one day out of order was important enough because of the holiday.  I hope to make things as relevant as possible for my children.  I want them to know the “why” behind what we do.

I printed out coloring sheets for the Luther Rose, Reformation Day and the Luther Rose but I had read-alouds and coloring sheets to do with discussion questions afterwards. I am met oft times with blank stares and sullen attitudes.

Like right now, for instance.  I had to go upstairs and referee a squabble between two girls who can’t work together. I had to “reel in” a 9 yr old boy who gets lost and doesn’t come back to finish an assignment.

Robby is working beside me, because that’s the only place that he can stay on task.  Ace is at the kitchen counter working on math. The girls are upstairs hopefully completing Saxon math and no longer fighting.

This has been a difficult transition from public school to home school and I’m not sure the kids “get” the importance of it.  At Sunday School they had discussions with the other girls in their class about where each of them goes to school.  Most of their Sunday School classmates attend school together at Concordia. Distance and cost have prohibited that for us, but Bear and I feel that a Christian education is so very important. Chels and Miss Busy were the only ones who answered homeschool.  And then it seemed as if they were ridiculed for it.  (That was the impression I got from their retelling of it to me.)

I feel as if I am not making a difference. I feel as if I am forcing my will upon them. I feel like most days I am talking to a brick wall, or rather 5 little brick walls.

I am thankful, however, that I get to have my children around me during the day.  I do enjoy them. When some mothers say, they can’t wait for school to start so that their kids are out of their hair, I find that funny.  My daughter Miss Busy is a little Mini-Me, and we laugh and joke sometimes like sisters.

This week I’m working on a special quilt, when homeschool is not in session, for my younger sister-in-law.  My father-in-law passed away a year ago and I took his ties and have made them into a quilt, or rather, blocks for a quilt.  I have to sew the blocks together and add borders still.  Then I’ll layer and quilt it, probably for a Christmas present.  Pop’s birthday was on Christmas Day and that is a particularly difficult day for them. 

A picture to share:

I made a quilt for my mother-in-law out of his shirts, which you can see here, so this one is for Jen. I hope she draws comfort from it.