All things considered, our first two quarters of school have gone very well. It’s hard to believe that we’re already halfway done with our 2018-19 school year. I am so proud of my girls for all their hard work this year. I will give you a run down of how everything is going and then talk about any changes that we made to our curriculum. If you have any additional questions, please post them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them.
I have twin girls who are only 8 months old, so our school schedule has looked a lot different this year. I try to get most of my big girls lessons done while the twins are sleeping and then save our read aloud time for when the twins are awake. I’m learning to be flexible, because sometimes things go exactly as I’ve planned and other days things are busy and chaotic. Especially, when Jon’s gone for days on end, I am simply learning to be more gracious with myself and take a break from school if I’m feeling overwhelmed or emotional.
To be completely honest, living in Hong Kong has been the hardest thing God has ever asked me to do and feelings of homesickness, sadness, loneliness, and sorrow happen at times when I least expect it. Instead of forcing my girls to do school with a Mommy who is crying at the drop of a hat and an overall roller coaster of emotions, we take the day off.
You heard we right.
I put everything away and just take a break if it’s necessary. Obviously, we can’t do this everyday, but when I get overwhelmed I’m learning to graciously take a break from our regular school schedule, so I can spend time in God’s word, Facetime my Mom, and/or connect with old friends.
A word of encouragement:
To anyone who has ever felt like I have, you are not alone. God wants to know how you’re feeling, so take time to step back from all your responsibilities and make time to pour out your heart and soul before Him. He will be there to bring peace in the chaos and hope when everything seems hopeless.
One of the biggest changes I have made to our homeschool curriculum is we are now using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 1 for Olivia. She started the year using Sonlight’s language arts curriculum and it was fine. However over the years, I have pieced together our language arts program using a lot of different curriculums. As a result, I felt like there were gaps in my daughter’s knowledge about language arts. As a result, I started looking for a program that was more cohesive. I have been thinking about using The Good and the Beautiful for a long time and this year I finally took the plunge!
My daughter started using The Good and the Beautiful level 1 in January and it is an incredible curriculum. It's exactly what I wanted for my family!! I am excited for my daughter, especially as she learns to appreciate beautiful art which is all weaved into the program. I am so thankful that we have made this change and I'm excited to add more The Good and the Beautiful curriculum to our homeschool this next year.
Like I said before, if you have any other questions, please post them in the comments below and I will answer them.
