Falling into Place

I was skeptical before beginning this journey into homeschooling. Mostly because there are people in my life that rain on my parade from time to time (and sometimes even daily) by stating their disagreement with my decision to HS; which, in turn makes me question my ability to do so. I have learned to take each statement of criticism in stride as I press on with my plan to teach my children to be contributing and morally graceful members of society. It comes in baby steps though. Each new day there is a new challenge. Lately, Austin has doubted his intellegence. He even said one day, "I am not as smart as I thought. My brain is already full, I don't think I can fit anymore stuff in it." That was followed by a melt down and complaining that his math assignment was too hard. I let him take a break to go play with his legos for a while. I talked to him while he played and told him that his attitude about the work will make all of the difference. If he begins the lesson thinking that it will be too hard, then it will be. However, if he goes into the assignment thinking, 'I got this' then he would be surprised by what he would find. Today I saw I think a little glimpse of what God means when He says, 'the Faith of a child'. Austin is wearing his shirt that says the verse Phillipians 4:13 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me'. He began his day saying that today his work was going to be easy because God is where his strength comes from. Amazing.

I make it a goal each week to do at least one science project. This week our project is 'String of Spikes', taken from our $1 book that I purchased at Target. This experiment references the 'Grow a Gummy Bear' experiment while discussing osmosis. Items needed are:

• two plastic cups
• water
• baking soda (2 tablespoons)
• 1 12inch piece of cotton string

Fill each plastic cup with water and then add a a tablespoon of baking soda to each cup.

 Then dip each end of the string into each cup. The string is supposed to grow spikes after two days.

We are still waiting to see what is going to happen. This worksheet has a spot for the child to draw a before and after picture.

Tuesday was Abi's first gymnastics practice. Her first response once running off the mats was, "Mommy, I had so much fun, do I get to come back tomorrow?!" She did a really good job focusing on her coaches instructions. She looked so cute out there, attempting to do jump-n-jacks alongside the other equally uncoordinated girls! Even though her practice wasn't until the afternoon, she had her leotard on 3 hours before we even needed to think about leaving!

me and Abi before practice

Abi outside the gymnastics place

Abi waiting to start her practice

stretching

Abi about to start the bars

All in all, it seems as though our schedule is working out and starting to fall into place.