When planning out my school year I try to keep a loose plan and not lay out the year in detail because I know I will end up changing it as time goes on. I started by going through the school year and marking off the days I knew we wouldn’t be doing school. I then broke up the remaining time into …
For this coming school year, I decided that we will do homeschool year-round. I read a lot about why people choose to school year-round and I really think it will be a great fit for us. Frequent Breaks What I love most about schooling year-round is the ability to take frequent breaks throughout the year. …
For the past couple weeks, I have felt very tired; physically and emotionally tired. In turn, I’ve been getting easily frustrated and short with my kids. For a while I kept thinking it will get better tomorrow; I just didn’t sleep well last night; we were just really busy today, tomorrow will be calmer. Of course, tomorrow came and it fell …
My 5-year-old son, Judah, is hyper and gets very easily distracted. The boy never stops moving and has trouble focusing. To help him stay focused, we have implemented some diet changes, as well as some intentional strategies. Some of these strategies are helpful for any kid, not just for the ones who struggle to focus. I …
Last year I spent far too much time on Pinterest looking for a chore chart that would work for us. My problem is that I am far too particular. I don’t want a chore chart that I have to regularly print out. I want to be able to switch up the jobs based on the area …
I am working on making a foam board (I have also used a tri-fold display board in the past) that has all the things I want to review with my kids in the morning. The days of the week, a calendar to cross off days and we often do memorization that I add to the board periodically — our …
After breaking up the 20th argument of the day, my resolve to handle it with grace and kindness often disappears. By that point I am tired and tend to respond with more emotion than wisdom. Over time, I’ve found that preparing a scripted response for issues that come up not only took the emotional pressure from me, but …
I’m so mad! I’m so mad! I’m so mad! Those are the only words I have heard in the past 10 minutes. My 5-year-old has been dealing with some seriously big emotions lately. He has always been our most sensitive child by far, but in the past few months things have escalated. I have worked …
Remember when vacation used to mean relaxing and doing whatever you want? I clearly remember our first vacation with our kids. We had a 2-and-a-half-year-old, an 18-month-old and a 6-week-old. Let’s just say it was memorable, but not for how relaxing it was! I read somewhere that changing your expectations for vacation is important once …
For the most part, I feel like taking my kids along to the grocery store or target is not bad, but lately my 3- and 5-year-old boys are pushing the limits of my sanity with their craziness. They aren’t throwing tantrums or doing anything overtly bad, but they are loud and hyper and feed off …