After 5 years of being a stay-at-home mom, I found the wonder of mothering slowly starting to get crowded out by the mundane feeling. I realized our world seems to surround people with the negative, and complaining about blessings seems totally acceptable. So I decided to fight against that "normalcy" and focus only on the positive. I look back to my first year as a mom when everything was new and keeping house was fun and I aim to have that attitude again. This blog is my outlet to showcase the daily miracles that surround me in my blessed life as a stay-at-home mom so that I will never forget the wonder of it all.



Monday, June 10, 2013

Sum it Up Saturday Break

I decided to take a break from my Sum it Up Saturday posts.  Mostly, because I decided to take a REAL Summer break.  Since we jumped into homeschooling, 3 years ago, I have never taken a break to just "be" and plan.  All our breaks were forced due to health issues; a crashing thyroid, a healing thyroid (that in itself was a year and a half process), 2 miscarriages, Arrow's first trimester, bed rest, postpartum....phew!  I'm tired just thinking about it all!  After coming out of those breaks, I'd jump right back into home schooling, feeling behind and stressed.  We have never taken a Summer break.  I have never taken time to sit down, think about our home schooling goals, and try to find a program that fits those goals.  Well, correction, I would TRY to do that, but always in a rushed fashion.  I bought boxed curriculum that I thought looked good during rushed research.  Then as soon as it arrived, we'd jump into it without much prep time on my part because I was so worried the children were behind.  That left both the kids and I muddling through the foreign territory of the new curriculum together, and it always failed. 

Still feeling behind, I was planning to again School through the Summer.  It was causing me great stress though as really, I was just completely burned out.  I randomly stumbled upon a method I thought would fit us well and was cramming to figure it out enough to just jump right in when I got to my breaking point and realized I just couldn't do that again.  I needed a break!  The program suggested really prepping yourself first before starting up with the kids, as its more about implementing a methodology than completing a program.  That night I decided to throw schooling through the Summer to the wind and take our first official, HEALTHY break!

So I've been reading through every link, rabbit trail and related blog I can get my hands on.  I've made Pinterest boards to keep things organized, bought books, made notes of what our library has on hand that we'll need, made goals, and am working on sprucing up our home school work area.  Zac is also jumping in with me, reading up on the methodology of Charlotte Mason, and helping me form plans and goals.  We are planning to use Ambleside Online, Year 1, with both Felicity and Logan next year. 

I will plan on coming back to the idea of Sum it Up Saturday posts when we start up again.  It really helped me stay accountable. 

And since this was such a wordy post, I'll leave you with a few random, cute pictures.






 
Happy Summer (almost)!
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