More than a weight loss blog

When I started this blog, I wanted it to be about all faucets of my life, not just my journey to weight loss through my Gastric Vertical Sleeve surgery. I've blogged a couple times about other things, but 99% of this has been about my weight loss. That ends today! I will still blog about my triumphs with weight loss, my struggles, etc but that's not all I am going to be writing about from here on out. Homeschooling is a huge part of our life. In the past I have not blogged a lot about our schooling, but here's the reality, for us homeschooling is more than just the traditional thought of school, it's in everything we do in every part of our day. My children are constantly learning, whether they are cooking breakfast, making a dessert, outside playing with each other. We have a lot of natural learning times, playing with blocks and Lego's, jumping on the trampoline, football, ballet, tap dance, dancing in the living room. We do have structured learning time though.

Monday we began our official school year. This is our 9th year homeschool. J.K was 5 years old when I began homeschooling him. He was a natural reader devoured every book placed in front of him. From the get go he was not a fan of math. He could do it and did do it, but he did not enjoy it at all. We tried multiple ones, but none seemed to just draw him in. The first couple of years we did school during JT's nap time. School normally took us 30 minutes to 1 hour during those days, so we'd still have time to cuddle, some days he took a nap himself during the first year, play blocks, etc. We had a lot of outside play time during those days, at the park that was right across the parking lot.

JT did not enjoy school. Reading did not come naturally to him. We spent most days our first 4 years both in tears, he was frustrated that he couldn't read, and I felt like a complete and utter failure. The first day of 4th grade started off with more tears, then something amazing happened on the 2nd day,reading clicked for him. It was amazing. He went from a boy who needed me to help him sound out every single little word to a boy who was needing no help, who no longer had to sound words out, but the letters had formed words that he just knew! It's been an amazing transformation to watch him struggle so much to loving to read and enjoying school. He still takes much longer than I wish he would, but a lot of that is called poor time management on  his part, and he is the one who suffers, since he's still not finished with his school work today, but is at football practice, so when he gets home at 8, he will get to shower, eat dinner, and then finish his school work.

I sit with E, she's only in 2nd grade and honestly, I like our time to just cuddle on the couch, as I read to her, as she does her math, as we make up sentences for her to write, as she shares what the bible passage we just read means. I love that time. She normally is able to finish school in about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I know that as the school year progresses, she will read more on her own, but I'm thankful for this time together.

While we do school, the youngest two are normally playing together. Daddy is often home in the mornings, so he helps keep them distracted. I do a little preschool work with N. It's not a lot of sit down things, although he is working on learning to write his name, write numbers, and the alphabet. He knows how to count, his colors, shapes, etc He spends a lot of time playing with lego's, building and taking apart. O spends a lot of time dancing and singing for us! Some times she is an absolute distraction! She's so cute though. I need to get more finger paint, find our tub of play doh, pull out the crayons and let them be productive in those fun ways, so that they're less of a distraction.

Our sweet baby girl, O, has decided that she no longer wants to sleep in a crib. I know she's 2 1/2,but well she's always been so awesome sleeping in her crib, until this week, when she started crawling out of it! She normally will crawl into E's bed (they share a room). So we're going to take the crib down, and let her move into the trundle/mattress under E's bed. They'll have more play room in there with the crib gone, and I can just push O's bed back under the daybed in the morning. She's growing up far too quickly for my liking.

I feel like life is going to be very busy this year, but our focus will continue to be centered on the Lord. Christ is the center, and if he's not, we're going to fall apart. I am thankful we have Christ to be centered all, because no matter how many activities we are involved in, what's truly important comes back to Him and only Him.
With that, I'm signing off. I have a couple more pages to grade, cuddles to be had, and an evening to enjoy!