Homeschooling And The Working Mom

Yes, we are homeschooling! C is working though My Father's World Kindergarten and Math U See Alpha this year and we are both loving it! We sit down for about 1-1.5 hours four nights a week when I come home from work and we get to work. C looks forward to school all day and she is soaking it all up! As time goes on, I will share some of our more fun ideas with you and tell you all about our "fails" as well (ants...need I say more?). I will also review both programs with my own opinions in a separate post.

I have to admit, sometimes teaching Kindergarten/First/Second all day long and going home to teach for a few more hours can seem rather daunting and is a true test of my patience some days. However, I wouldn't change it for the world! (okay, maybe I would...but only if it meant being a stay-at-home mom and homeschooling). I love seeing how much C learns and knowing it is due mostly to me and the hard work we have been doing. I love seeing her love of Christ and her growing understanding...even though her questions do sometimes catch me off guard and leave me wondering how to answer them in a 4-year old appropriate manner! I also love that we can take learning at her own pace. For example, she is sailing through her Kindergarten curriculum right now and I am finding new ways to challenge her reading all the time (Thank you, Starfall!), but we have temporarily stalled our Math while she works to memorize the facts already taught and review for increased understanding. I love that we can go at her pace with homeschooling!

C may attend public school next year, but if she does we are already planning to supplement with My Father's World First Grade for both the academic challenge and the awesome Biblical studies.

I can't wait to share all the fun things we are doing with these programs with you!

~Mommy S

The Return

Hello hello! I've been gone for a very long time but I'm back and ready to blog at least a little bit!

Allow me to reintroduce myself! I'm a wife of a wonderful, hard-working, God-fearning man and a mom of two lovely little girls, C and G. C is 4.5 years old (going on 13 so she thinks!) and G is 20 months old. I am homeschooling C who is working through kindergarten this year, although she might go to school next year so we will see where life takes us. I am a cloth diapering, co-sleeping (Yes, G still co-sleeps from about 3am on), baby food making, breastfeeding (well really G gave that up 2 months ago), clean eating, God-fearing, fun-loving mommy. I am also a special education teacher full time in kindergarten through second grades....man some of those kiddos sure do keep me on my toes! I'll probably talk about the fun games and such that I do for them from time to time (although of course you won't hear any specifics about those kiddos for confidentiality purposes).

C keeps me on my toes! She definitely is my more defiant child. We are working on a program called We Choose Virtues to help instill all virtues, with obedience being our focus at the moment. Her favorite phrase right now is "Okay Mom, I'll obey right away!" She is so smart, caring, and loves to take care of her little sister! She is also on the move all the time and long-ago decided that she doesn't have time for cuddles because she is just too busy exploring life.

G is my snuggler! She would sit on my lap and "huggy" all day long if I would let her. I am pretty sure she would love it if I would still Moby her! She does go to play but she prefers to take me with her, although she also is quite attached to her big sister so if C is there G is more willing to run off and play. We just took her paci away except at naps/bedtime and she has done well with that...until she gets tired or upset. I'm also quite excited that she has suddenly noticed that her big sister has school every day and she now wants to learn "counts" and colors.

On my blog I hope to post at least twice a week as work will allow, review products for the kiddos, talk about life as a momma, share my adventures (and mis-adventures) and create a space of encouragement and understanding. This weekend I will be doing a bit of an overhaul on the looks of the blog to create easier use for all of you.

Have a wonderful week!

~M

I'm Back...

I know I know I know I've been gone for almost an entire year! I'm so sorry! I switched jobs and this new one is so much work I feel like I never get any down time.


Anyway, I decided to get back to doing something that I love and that something is sharing my fun adventures with all of you!


In the last year I have had a few fun adventures. We went to Florida for a week, I overhauled my mudroom, and just last weekend Baby "S" started potty training herself! I have also been couponing and have started to see the rewards of that hard work during weekly grocery shopping trips. In the coming days look for posts on all those things.


I'm so glad to be back! I hope not to disappoint you all :)

New Happenings

I have been on a bit of a break from my blog I suppose, although not intentional. In my attempt to earn money for my family, find a career I enjoy, and build a financial base so I can homeschool my daughter when she turns 4 (her 1st birthday is in a week), I have begun to try on many different hats.

Today I applied to rate examinations for a leading national company (*fingers crossed*). This would happen online so I do hope I get it!

I also have begun to write half-heartdly for examiner.com. Half-heartedly only because I'm not a huge fan of having to stick to just one topic...especially local...I'd be much better at national. I am writing on homeschooling and enhancing your child's education while they are at home. It has proven to be very interesting and I have many fun articles planned for the upcoming weeks. (If you would like to become an examiner please reference me in your application so I get a bonus!)

I also have begun to write for Hubpages.com. On here I write about anything that I want: dogs, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, homeschooling, crafts for kids, etc. Please come check it out! Again, if you want to write for them, please reference me (Mommy S) on your application so I get a bonus!). I'm not yet sure what this one pays as it is mostly advertising-driven.

I also have a few other pots in the fire so to speak. I'll inform you of them should they work out (or not). Also, if you have any other thoughts for me, I'd be more than happy to listen and investigate!

Stay tuned for more on working from home: how I experience it. Also, I'll be posting some craft ideas and some more on cloth diapering in the coming days!

Product Review: Bummis Swimmi Diaper

Rating: A+
I would buy more of these in a heartbeat!

Review:
We recently began taking Baby "S" to the pool at our local YMCA. As I'm sure you know by now, I'm not a fan of disposable anything due to personal experience, so of course I did a little research and ordered two Bummis Swimmi Diapers. Most of the reviews I read were positive for this diaper. After using it once, I love it! Here's why I think this is the best swim diaper out there:

The outside of the diaper is very soft which is good if your little one has chubby legs that will rub on the diaper. The inside is a breathable mesh that does not stick to baby's bottom. The diaper itself is very stretchy. I ordered a size Large (22-30lbs) and on Baby "S" (about 25lbs), I was able to cross the tabs over to make it nice and secure without getting any disturbing red marks on her thighs. In addition, the diaper is very trim. It fits easily under her swimsuit and is not very bulky at all.

The performance of the diaper is superb. We had no leaks of any kind. It keeps everything in that should be in. After about 45min of swimming, the diaper was quite heavy when I took it off, leading me to believe that it does absorb liquid (poll water and urine both) quite effectively.

The only drawback I have found for this diaper is the lack of laundry tabs. You must fasten the diaper as you would if it was on the baby for washing. This is not a big deal when it is going through the wash, but when you hang it up to dry the tabs get caught on everything, including the diaper itself. I do wish that it had laundry tabs to make washing easier. On the washing note: it is very easy to wash (just toss in with your other diapers or your swimsuits), and it dries very quickly. I threw mine in the wash at 9pm last night, and hung them up to dry. By 10:30am both were dry so we could use them again this morning.

Overall, a wonderful swim diaper! I highly recommend this to everyone! (at $12/swimmi you really can't beat the price! Imagine how many disposables you'd get for $12....try making that last through the summer!)

Happy Diapering!

New Goals For My Life

This is a follow up to the below post that I wrote.

I have decided that while I still would like nothing more than to stay at home with my daughter, it is just in the cards right now. However, homeschooling her is still very important to me. Therefore, I have decided that my goal is to save enough that in another 3-ish years I can stay home with my daughter for the purpose of homeschooling her through elementary school provided my husband has a job at that time.

I plan to save this money by:
* (hopefully) getting a new job seeing as how in two months old I will be out of a job.
* Writing for hubpages.com
* Writing for Examiner.com (I just got accepted! Yay!)
* Also, you'll see ads going up on my blog soon as well

And just for fun, I've picked up an old book idea of mine and am in the process of writing a mystery book that might hopefully get published one day.

Here's hoping I can achieve my goal! I'll keep you all posted!

Honesty During A Tough Time

I have kept many things to myself over the past several months. Times here at my home have been very difficult. I have found little support for what I'm going through and that has made the tough times seem even more difficult. Therefore, I feel that it is time for me to share my story here. My hope in sharing this is that it will provide support to someone else out there.

We planned for our daughter. We wanted to feel secure enough at our jobs, and financially secure as well. We felt financially secure enough to buy a house and still try for our daughter. The same day that we brought our daughter home from the hospital, my husband was laid off. My job at the time was only 5 mornings/ week.

It has now been 11 months. My husband is still looking for a job and 2 weeks ago I was informed that my job will not be continued for next year. In 2 months we will both be unemployed and looking for jobs.

That is difficult enough I'm sure. On top of it all, I don't actually enjoy my chosen profession and I would love to find some kind of a job in another profession. However we clearly don't have the financial stability to send me back to school, especially if I'm not sure of what I may want to do with my life. All I know for sure is that I want to stay home with my baby and any others that we may have in the future. I'd love to find a work-at-home job that could help to support my family when my husband finds a job.

A large part of my difficult time lately has been my intense desire to stay home with my daughter. I become jealous of my husband for being able to stay home with her all day long. He gets to experience everything with her and although I do cherish every moment I get with her, I yearn to be there all the time. Then directly after that, I feel guilty for not being more grateful that I have a job and she has her daddy at home with her. I also feel miserable when it is time to apply for another job because I am becoming both discouraged with the rejection and dreadful of spending another year not at home with my daughter.

My husband cannot understand why I feel the way I do, and honestly I can't expect him to understand. We're very different and in general moms and dads feel differently and view parenthood in vastly different ways. I do often wish that I had someone to talk to or vent to. I admit (with a slight bit of embarrassment) that I have begun going to therapy to try to understand how and why I feel the way I do and how I can cope with it.

I have so many emotions running through me all at once. I feel anxiety and guilt much of the time because of my feelings and desires. I still hold hope that one day in the future, when my husband finds a job, that I will be able to find a way to supplement our income from home so that I am able to stay home with our children and homeschool them (only through the 4th or 5th grade).

At the same time, I also want to feel like myself again: more laid back, not so controlling, and certainly not so miserable and jealous. I have been praying and seeking counseling, but having someone to speak with as more of a friend would be helpful I believe.

Hopefully, this reaches some of you so that you know you are not alone out there. It is okay to feel what you are feeling as long as you learn how to cope so it does not become a long-term problem and negatively affect your life.

I will keep you all updated on my journey. All things will pass eventually. I'm trying to learn to ride this out and discover God's plan for my life.