Afloat

This is hard, really really hard. I think I probably make it harder than it needs to be, but still it is hard for me to be doing this. Still, despite feeling this way, I am grateful for the opportunity to be doing it. I know that it is the best for my family and I know that I will be doing this for the rest of the kids as well. I say I want Viv to finish out elementary but I don't know how long I will be able to send even Viv to school. I am most scared of trying to teach her though, so fear might keep her where she is for a few more years. Time will tell I guess.

I think the hardest part right now is taking what others are doing into consideration and then doing what is best for my own family. I think I have found a balance of getting my own daily chores done, but I am still problem solving to figure out how to do activities and projects that will be beneficial for Cadey up to Will. 2-8 is a huge age difference. We have cooked and done some art projects but I feel like Will could do more and I am expecting a little much of the little ones. They do pretty well working out of the closet (pretty much explore and play time) most of the time with the basic sibling issues of sharing and whatnot, so it really just the time of day that they are all awake and all done with TV and needing some quality project of some kind. Any suggestions????

Will is doing pretty well on his individual studies. He seems to enjoy the math and I love that he is self learning that. That is the easiest part of my day and I feel like everyone is happy! He also finally found a cursive book he seems to enjoy. He has a fascination for Roly Poly bugs and so he has created a soda bottle habitat for a few he found in the yard. We looked up information on them and he wrote a little book about them. His book was basically narrative and described the pictures and I would have liked him to go into some of the facts he learned. I think for tomorrows mom share I will talk to him about the questions he asked as he observed his Roly poly and the answers he found and suggest he add them to his book.

He is also working on a Boston Book from our trip but it has taken a back seat since the discovery of his buggy friends.

We have really slacked on his journal writing and I need to find a time that it will fit in better, maybe right after kids go to bed or right before I wake kids up from naps??

I am amazed at how fast he reads, but am noticing that he doesn't think much about what he reads. During Stuart Little I am trying to remember to voice what comes into my own head as I read. We read a little poem today about taking learning slow and not rushing from the Children's Book of Virtues, I need to remember that my self and realize that it's not a race to cram as much as I can into him as fast as I can, instead it's about building a love of learning a desire of learning and a how to go about learning.

He is also progressing through his faith in god pretty well and as done 3 projects already. Scouts is a bit of another story. He has been working on a 2 week chart of healthy habits for about 4 weeks now!! He forgets to do it, I forget to remind him. . .I will be glad to pick a different project! Our plants are growing pretty well, I need to figure out how and will best to transplant them. I really want some cucumbers and zucchini and the kids will be thrilled if we get a pumpkin even if it is in November!!!

So that's it from our Boat, so far we're floating so that's good.