Weekly Homeschool Wrap-up–July 12, 2009

I’m early this week for the simple reason that I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough to write if I posted my thoughts today and then post again on Monday morning.    If you want to participate in this meme, please visit Carol atThreeLittleLadies, and be sure to link your post to her Mr. Linky so that we can all see what life has in store for you.   From where I sat this past week,

As an individual, I…

am happy for today, a relaxed, no-stress kind of day in which I get to enjoy the computer, for the most part, rather than having to get a lot of work done on it.   I intentionally wore the pajamas I’m most comfortable in, and have no intention of getting out of them until right before the superhero comes home.   I am using the time while the children are still asleep to catch up on blogs, respond to comments, and read Heart of the Matter’s “funky flipbook” edition of its summer issue (see here).   From the first article, “The Great Back-to-School Breakfast,” I was hooked.   This is a neat idea, although we start our year earlier than the kids around us for the sheer enjoyment (for our kids, that is) of being able to sleep late in May when they’re still crowded outside waiting for the bus.  It’d almost be worth pushing our date back for this type of celebration.

As a wife and homemaker, I…

am excitedly anticipating some quality time with my husband on next week.   Every night is VBS for us, and normally, we are both fairly active in this event.   I tend to float about, helping wherever needed.   My husband, as a leader for the younger boys, is always a part of the male leaders vs. female leaders competitions—our big VBS fundraiser.   Over the years he’s had slime poured over him, and he’s worked like a mad man to avoid having to kiss a pig.   In light of our busy, busy lives over the last few weeks, though, I followed the advice of Sheila Wray Gregoire of To Love, Honor and Vacuum, and I “thought like a man.”   I took the lead, suggesting that we drop the kids off, come back home, and spend four of the five nights (the final night is the closing ceremony) of rare moments at home–alone.   We can actually make noise, if you know what I mean.   Forgive my candor, but I believe that ministries like Sheila’s are a necessity, especially for Christian women, delivering us and healing us in an area that we often either neglect or become too uncomfortable to discuss.     In the meantime, the divorce rate in Christian marriages is as high as it is in the homes of unbelievers, and let’s face it: our men are not leaving over disagreements with scripture.  The Word says that ‘this is how we overcome Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.’  (Revelation 12:11).    So with that in mind, I pray that my own freedom in discussing our plans gives someone else some victory over the evil one.

As a mom and homeschooling parent, I…

am still shocked at how this summer has flown by.   As I mentioned before, next week is VBS, and after that we have about 2-1/2 weeks before school starts for us.  I feel as if we’ve not had a summer, just days with less school.   I even flirted with pushing our date back, but that first week of August just works out so perfectly for the rest of ’09.  Anyway, I put our schedule together for this coming school year, and I found myself thinking, was there an easier way to get this down on paper?   It looks like a Skittles candy ad!  I think one of the problems is that we don’t truly adhere to a certain time of day to get started.   Our school day might have been more realistically illustrated without the hourly time brackets, although I fully intend to stick to the allotted amounts of time to complete each subject.

I found a wonderful series of books that I’ve begun to purchase—slowly—through Amazon’s used book dealers.   This series contains many of the stories that are classics from my childhood, but without buying each one separately (and some aren’t sold separately), I was at a loss of where to find these.    I will admit that, at the early reading level, our bookshelves contain far too much twaddle.    My intent, like that of most parents, was good; I wanted to start my children reading as early as possible.    However, until I was introduced to Charlotte Mason’s concepts, I didn’t give conscious thought to what kinds of books the children read, as long as they were reading.   I would have never picked up a book like The Borrowers or Paddington Bear for a kindergartner—it’s too big, I would think.   So I filled the shelves with little A-B-C series and “Help Me Be Good” books that I would never buy now, and I only hold on to them because I invested a small fortune in Grolier Books when the oldest was a preschooler.   Okay, so I’ll forgive myself for not being CM-savvy 15 years ago and give the books—over time (HA HA)—to some other parent who’ll not look at them with disdain.

Yesterday was our son’s last day of national dance competition.   He performed very well both as a solo performer and with his duet partner.   I came home with a rare headache between my eyes, and I slept for hours.   I think the stress of the competition wears on each parent in a different way.   His duet partner’s mother can’t eat on competition days as she’s too wound up.    For me, I’m not anxious before they dance—at least, I don’t think so.    But the task of getting up and being sure that everyone and everything is in place, from breakfast to bow ties, snacks to dress socks, all comes down on me at the end.    I really don’t care as much about him winning, particularly as I notice a disturbing trend amongst the judges.   Increasingly, the winning numbers are scantily-clad little girls (under the age of 12) who give Beyonce and Britney a run for their money in the gyration department.   If that’s what it takes to be first, our kids can be runners-up all day.   I do, however, worry about our son’s self esteem, wanting trophies more for him to know that the Lord is honoring his efforts than for my satisfaction or any other component of winning.   Once we finish the awards, I think all the emotions come crashing down on me, hence the headache and the deep sleep.   I feel better today.

I found out this week that he will compete again on next year, and the oldest made the performance team—no competitions, but it comes with its own stresses.   My prayer life is growing in leaps and bounds.

I thought about picking up with school again today, our first carefree day this week, but who wants to begin something on Friday?   I’m going to enjoy a “down day” for what it’s worth.   We will read as we’ve got one day of Code Talker left, and I’m sure the library is developing a new wing based upon my mounting late book fines.

As a business owner, I…

didn’t have a hard copy of the elementary curriculum readily available, so I started with the Christian character project.   I am relieved that this doesn’t need quite as much editing as I thought.   I rushed through it initially to overcome my own issue with deadlines.   I find it so difficult to simply get a project to market as I am always tweaking it, fixing this, adding that.    So as I mentioned, I rushed to the point of just getting the Christian character series available to the public such that pre-orders kept me from doing too much tweaking.   Now I’m at a stage where I can step back and look at it to be sure that all i’s are dotted and all t’s are crossed.   Thankfully, the lion’s share of my changes thus far have been to improve the content, not to outright replace it.  

I pray that God is blessing your week as well.