When it rains....

It POURS.  This past week I have struggled between making lemonade and looking for my rainbows.  Luckily Bear, Hubs, and even a gentle friend at Church showed me some rainbows this week. 

Once again, our weekly homeschool wrap up. December 3 through December 9.

Overall it has been a week of constant letter formation and becoming neater and smaller without me getting overly involved in it.  I know our child led/family led method is scary to many, but right now it is working and it has us exactly where we need to be.  Some mommas that prescribe to the Charlotte Mason method encouraged me to do this almost 2 years ago, and so far it is going well;  although I wish we had more reading time this week.  I actually turned over a lot of the task this week to Hubs. 

Books Read:

• Big Book Of Bernstein Bear Stories (this has several stories in it)  
• Minnie Mouse Books
• Bible Stories
• and a few others

In my life this past week… December is not a great month in my family and this year has been no exception. 

On Monday a dear friend; a truly sweet and gentle soul fought the good fight and finsihed her race.  Erica, Uncle Andy's only child and daughter, passed away after a battle with cancer.  I'm not sure if I had mentioned her before on here, but she was diagnosed when Bear was just under a year old with Stage 4 breast cancer.  To make a long story shorter, she eventually developed secondary cancers that creeped into her brain.  She had 4 young daughters who will be lost without her guidance and love.  They range in age from 11 to 17 (I think the oldest is 17--sorry if not). 

December 1st was also the day that my hubs' Aunt Velma passed.  Its been 5 years but it seems like yesterday.  She and Hubs were very close, and since my own mother in-law had passed away long before we married, she was a surrogate mother-in-law in my mind.  While I only knew her a few years, I deeply miss her.  Rarely does time go by without my mind going to her and the influence she had on my husband even as a young child. 

This week ahead will be rough as well.  My own fathers anniversary of when he was killed in Saturday.  I wish I could say the pain goes away, but it doesn't....

December 23rd is 1 year since Aunt Cheryl's longtime companion passed away.  Bear was talking about Uncle Mike just last week.......

In our homeschool this past week… As I mentioned we have done a lot of letter writing.  To that end I have been busy "dictating"  *grin*  but it is teaching her about sentence structure and the importance of the written word.  She has also been doing a lot of Christmas craft projects.  We have a few more planned including making snowman families, ornaments out of nuts, and making cookies.  We have also been working on math, mostly adding and subtracting objects. 

One day we also used a unit from Enchanted Homeschool Mom, a web site I have mentioned in the past. 

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… Be flexible, ALWAYS.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…We have been able to experience so much this week, I even took Bear with me to class on Wednesday where she seen other students and the teacher in action. 

My favorite thing this past week was... Helping Bear make words.  I also got a big dose of joy from seeing her attempt to make up her own words as she write stories and letters to all her loved ones, which included her dolls and Santa Clause.

What’s working/not working for us…  Transitioning away from the chalkboard so much.  We are happily forming letters on paper.  I have given her the lead and allowed her to reach her natural progression points.  Do all the letters get formed correctly?  No.  Right now I am wanting to let her know its fun and not a task to be constantly corrected on.

We have also been having fun making up games with shapes on them.  Making up stories to go along with the shapes.  Our stories include dialog and action!  *grin* 

Questions/thoughts I have… Balance....  balance is so hard.  I know I can do it, but sometimes it hard.  I have to have it though and that means I have had to let some things go.  Which leads me to ....

Things I’m working on… Letting go....




To end on a good note:  Bear had a happenstance meeting with Jolly Santa and his lovely wife the other day at Home Depot.  I guess the jolly old man was picking up lumber and paint...  Anyway he asked Bear what grade she was in, he did guess kindergarten, and she proudly proclaimed "I am homeschooled!"   Mrs. Clause looked at me and said, "Good for you Mom."  We are Mrs. Clause APPROVED.