Here We Go! First Things First!

Since the beginning of the year, I prayed and prayed and prayed about the decision to homeschool our children.  As of right now, I have been at it for 3 weeks!!  So, I'm about as GREEN as you get!  As of now, I'm not the blog to offer veteran homeschool advice.  However, I have a passion, and am willing to share what I am doing as we go.

My first goal was to get our kids used to routine life at home over the summer. Due to Noah's ear surgery, we were home for a few weeks right after school ended in May.  We had our summer fun, mostly at home, but we made the best of it! 

Our school routine the past two years went something like this:  get up early(drag the boy cubs out of bed), Papa Bear irons their uniforms, I make breakfast and they eat a few bites, brush hair, find shoes, grab backpacks, lunch boxes, and water bottles, wake up a cranky baby bear, load the vehicle, and head down the hills.  If I was prepared the night before, this routine went a little smoother.  Most days, I really wished the boys were staying home with me.  I REALLY missed them. A LOT!

So after realizing that all signs point to YES! HOMESCHOOL ALREADY!, I made a plan.  I'm a planner.  However, I am determined not to OVERPLAN, like I sometimes want to do.  I am keeping it real, keeping it simple.

One thing I found myself in the middle of was sibling rivalry.  Ava had a lot of alone time with Mama Bear and wasn't too sure about these boys being in the den ALL OF THE TIME.  So I began by teaching my children how to treat one another.  I will just be honest and say that we started out doing great at this, but the stress of taking on too many responsibilities had caught up with us and we let bad attitudes slide a little too often.  If I am going to be at home with these sweet littles most of the time, they WILL learn how to treat one another with kindness.  And over the last 3 months, I have to say, it is working.  They aren't perfect and still have the occasional dispute, but they aren't yelling as much, hitting as much, or seeing discipline as much. 

Consistency, praise, and love.  I'm convinced those are the keys to success in parenting.

So we are all getting along most of the time now.  Yes.  Check.