I Must Be Nuts!

For the past several days my brain has been in overdrive. I have been reading and thinking and reading and thinking and thinking and reading and so on. I have "home school" on the brain! Teaching Elliott 1st and 2nd grade was easy and we just kinda "winged it" from day to day of course making sure to fulfill all the requirements. In fact, the plan is to test him out of 2nd grade in Feb. or March. Although, I am sure he ready now! But now that Oliver is home too I have more on my plate and I am also working a lot more with Henry on his ABC's and 123's.

However, knowing that I will be homeschooling all 4 of them starting this summer I have a lot of things to think about. Planning a curriculum and collecting the best resources is exhausting...but oh, so exhilarating too. I have been reviewing our options and I am getting a much better idea about which direction I want to go, but of course can I do anything the simple way....no!!! Yes, I could just buy a prepared curriculum for them, but that just doesn't seem to be a good fit for us. Not to mention I am having way too much fun preparing lessons and doing gobs of research.

Perfect time to add more to the insanity! I decide to completely rip my house apart. The other night when I couldn't sleep and my mind was just racing I started thinking about the dynamic of our house and decided that there was room for improvement once again. I tell ya, "Ya just never know how a house is going to work for you until you live in it for a while." and after being here for 3.5 years things are still changing. Remember a few months ago when I was so excited about moving my sewing room up into our loft...well, I moved it back to where it began. Yes. I completely disassembled my beautiful dining room( which by the way was pure eye-candy and nothing more) and my sewing room is back where it belongs and I am happy! The loft just wasn't working for me, I was uninspired and sewing a lot less than I was when I was in my cozy nest downstairs. So, yesterday I enlisted the help of my 4 munchkins and we hauled everything back downstairs...I can only tell you "What a job!". Then once again we are left with that albatross loft of ours, I can't tell you what a headache that space has been, so pretty but so completely annoying. It's been Ole's office (complete and total failure) a playroom (which they never used) my sewing room (uninspiring) and now...... my office/ home school library/ and planning space. Let's see if this works.

It's not a classroom, because I love moving to different spaces around the house and outside for learning. Our big country farmhouse table in the kitchen is perfect for both science and art projects and for reading we love to snuggle up on the sofas in the family room under a mommy-made quilt with a fire in the fireplace and of course a bowl of popcorn to munch. Now, the boys have a desk up in the loft too for doing quiet work and yet another change of scenery. The plan is I can be up in the loft planning and preparing lessons when the house is quiet in the wee hours of the day. Away from other distractions and I will have all of our school books and supplies in one spot so I can be more organized. Only time will tell.

If any of my homeschooling readers have any suggestions, hints, or words of wisdom I would love to hear from you.

Dawn