Stay-at-home homeschooling mom month 2!

November 5th, 2022 We have just implemented quiet time at the Moore household – an hour whose goal is as it sounds. It may not be much, but I'm confident we will all benefit from this time to play, imagine, and create independently. I plan to use it to read and write, as I have found that in the evening, after putting the kids to bed, writing keeps my brain going rather than letting it slow down and rest. Also, I'm often too tired to grab a book. I have resolved that no cleaning or work is allowed during quiet time (this is sadly hard for me!). I think exercise should be separate as well, for I can do that with the kids running around the house, bringing toys in and out of the workout room, and pretending to be my coach (Abby's the tough one; Lincoln's the softy!). As I sit here today to write, I am keenly aware that my last blog post coincides with the kids' last week in school. This is no coincidence...I'm sure! My first two months as a stay-at-home homeschooling mom have been amazing, busy, and humbling. Selfishly, I have had less time for phone calls with my girlfriends, manicures, massages, runs… you get the drift! But I have had more of so much else, and I'm incredibly thankful for days together with my kids that go by faster than I could have imagined. Some friends have asked me what homeschooling has been like so far. At this point in our journey, my answer is that for a 1st grader and preschooler, homeschooling is not much different from parenting. The complex parts of teaching are the hard parts of parenthood as well. Daily, I am working through the varying interests, attitudes, and behaviors we exude and encounter. The biggest challenge comes not from the school work or my children but from myself, specifically my mood, tone, and energy. They feed off of me, and the more prepped I am for the day and focused on my little ones, the better it is for all of us. Regarding our homeschooling schedule, I made three changes before Day 1! Most recently, I have just made a few other changes this week. We have followed our math, handwriting, and reading curriculums and are a bit ahead of schedule – so there are no significant changes there. However, I have made three important observations that I feel compelled to address. The first concerns our work/play rhythm; the second involves Abby's attention span; and the third is my need to have a loose schedule. Until this week, I have been trying to keep Lincoln entertained with different activities (simple tracing, toys, arts, etc.) while Abby completes her subjects. I sit between the two and go back and forth, involving Lincoln in Abby's material whenever possible. Abby joins him in his activities on our frequent breaks between subjects and when her core subjects are complete. It takes about an hour to complete our primary curriculum, and I try to break this up between three 20 to 25-minute sessions. However, the hours go by quickly between play breaks, reading aloud, cooking three meals a day, and keeping the house in order. Sometimes, and especially if we have anything outside the home scheduled, I am sure I sometimes hinder the kids' ideas and natural creativity to "get through" material. I don't say it aloud, but I can sense it in myself and am sure they can too. By beginning to spend 15 minutes reviewing our electives the night before, I can instead flip the script and create applicable art projects and games that encompass our elective subjects as well as the 3 Rs. My heart is telling me our days should be focused on these activities, how the material interrelates, and how the kids can use building toys, art, singing, and acting to reinforce their learning. While focusing on these various forms of creativity and play, we can weave in the core subjects and stay on or ahead of schedule. This brings me to Abby's academic stamina. The more I encourage playtime, the more she is focused when it is time to work. She wants to learn and do well, and when her body and mind are refreshed, she can navigate new material positively. However, when I try to push her past her first signs of fatigue, I am reminded of the law of diminishing returns. The curriculums we use encourage about 20 minutes of continuous work, and I must be more disciplined about setting a quiet timer on my phone - not for her to work to this standard, but for me to stay within it. I started on this new method today. We began the day with an art project while I read about art history, then we played trains until Abby was ready to start handwriting. We then played dominoes before using them for our math lesson. While I made lunch, the kids played some more. After lunch, we read our Introduction to the Orchestra book and listened to the playlist while the kids played play dough. Following, we cleaned up, read a Bible story, and rolled into quiet time. After quiet time, Abby will do her reading lesson and read aloud. Every day will not be as smooth, but they will be as productive as my positivity and their freedom to express themselves. My final observation over the last several weeks is that I need a plan and checklist that encompasses the kids learning and my personal goals. Our previous schedule let me rotate through our electives as we chose one to two per day. In theory, that was going to work, but in reality, we were skipping some subjects and focusing more on others. In the grand scheme of things, this is probably not a big deal, but for my peace of mind, I reworked our schedule to look like this:
DailyMemory verse Spanish phrases (Drew) Handwriting Math1 hr quiet time Reading Abby read aloud Bible story (Drew) 1 hr story read aloud
Weekly Electives Latin (M, W, F)God and Science, Nature activity book (W, F) Art History and Introduction to Orchestra (T, TH)US and World studies (Sat) (Drew) Vietnamese culture (Sun)
Mom Daily1 hr reading/writing 30 min exercise before dinner20 min Vietnamese
 To my surprise, minus editing, I could write this post in one hour of quiet time! Usually, I would begin at about 9 pm after putting the kids to bed and stay up well past midnight to work on a blog or other project. Being a stay-at-home mom, however, has taught me that the marathon sessions steal my attention, good mood, and healthy routine away from the following day – especially as I can’t nap while they’re at school! Here’s to Day 1 of quiet time and many more!