This week has been somewhat rough for me in many ways.
I went several nights not getting quality sleep (and not enough hours either). I have been anxious (more than I’ve been in quite a while), and have felt the heaviness of depression starting to settle a bit. Not as bad as usual, but it’s there.
Some specific things have been stressing me out in addition to my normal seasonal stuff:
1) Trying to get signed up for insurance and get doc appointments made in time for my boys to get their refills with new doctors. insurance has officially been set up.
2) One of my kids is out of an important med which just makes his days harder. It’s filled in Texas, and Robert will be there Sunday and Monday (with Karis), so he will pick it up and will be set for a month.
3) One of my kids most likely has a sinus infection, but he currently only has Texas Medicaid, and the only place that will take it is the ER. He doesn’t want to go. Our new insurance picks up on February 1st and is literally the best insurance I’ve ever seen.
4) There have been some struggles with our homeschool all along, and I felt those big time this week. I kept thinking it would get better once we got settled. But I guess the big change didn’t help.
I have spent the past few days just really re-evaluating our homeschool. I was sort of feeling panicked for a few days because of anxiety, and I found myself reaching out to people on social media for advice which only made it worse.
After noticing that my anxiety was getting worse about it, I decided to quiet the noise and look inside myself. I remembered that I DO know. I remembered what I am capable of and what my kids are capable of. I remembered what I feel is important. I remembered that I know my kids better than anyone else, and I know what I like more than anyone else (what I like matters as well).
I spent some time yesterday working on practical guides for narration (found these ideas on the Simply Charlotte Mason website and just put them into Canva), nature study (watched some YouTube videos for these ideas), and notebooking, specifically for science (found these on Sabbath Moon science website).
Also, Levi wants to study reptiles for science right now (I decided he doesn’t need to do the high school science with Ethan), but everything I found was really too young for him. So, I created my own simple unit study for him to do his own research. We have TONS of books including library books on reptiles (adult and children’s books), so much info online, Handbook of Nature Study, Nature Anatomy, Cabinet of Curiosities, and so much more. He will record the info in his science notebook. We will see some live reptiles at the zoo, and he may be getting a leopard gecko for his birthday. We will see.
When we are done with this, we will move into Sabbath Mood’s form 3-4 biology study (for 7th-9th grades). It was only $15 for the pdf file of this plus the cost of one “living book” (I have so many resources in addition). Ethan is using Guest Hollow biology right now. It is a free online textbook, and I bought some books to go with it. Karis is using Guest Hollow Anatomy and Physiology.
I have landed on continuing our world history study. I’m going through Ancients still and will move into Middle Ages. It just started clicking the past few days. The boys have really gotten into it! I read it aloud because that’s how my boys learn it best. They can read decently well, but they have a hard time retaining information when they read it. We do read alouds, discussion, narration, and some notebooking using Gather ‘Round Homeschool. I always start the study that day using Story of the World and add to it with Gather ‘Round and several other resources. I created a chart in December that shows which chapters overlap, etc. I’ll share my resources for history in its own post.
The boys will study the other things they are interested in on their own… I got Levi a pirates study through Campfire Curriculum (plus tons of library books), and I’ve been working on a history of automobiles for Ethan. I found an amazing website with tons of info and free lesson plans. That has been fun!
Fridays we will just do Poetry Teatime (which includes reading poetry, Greek Mythology, art study, and Shakespeare), Friday Freewrites (a Brave Writer thing in addition to the teatime), and nature study. The kids have decided that they want to be in charge of making yummy treats every Friday for this. I’m feeling so much better about things. I am really leaning into the Charlotte Mason way! It’s so simple and beautiful.
I feel like I’m always learning more and more about CM, but I find it so peaceful for all involved. She takes the whole person into account, remembering that even small children are little people that God made on purpose for a purpose with their own needs and passions. She believes in short lessons which is so good for my boys. A lot of things are done through the simple acts of narration and notebooking. We do copywork and dictation through Brave Writer novel studies (I have done this for years… even before I started teaching in 2020). IEW writing is going well for my boys because it’s just structured enough for them. And the grammar is literally just editing and labeling one sentence per day. We also talk about grammar through our novel studies.
They are using Teaching Textbooks for math, and that’s going SO much better. I’m not great at upper level math (Karis is doing pre-calculus!), and they really get how it’s taught through this curriculum. It’s also automatically graded which is helpful!
Taking a step back and remembering what’s important to me and what works well for our kids is the most important thing. I’m feeling a lot less panicked now.
Oh! And apparently kinetic sand and Playdough were all that my boys needed to pay attention and not bicker while I teach them! It went SO well today. I bought each kid a $2 container of kinetic sand and 2 $0.54 cans of playdough each. Oh and a $2 pack of modeling clay. Boom!
We did poetry teatime yesterday instead of today because I was just feeling it. I made peanut butter cookies, the kids drank hot chocolate, and I drank lavender honey tea. I gathered our art materials into a basket (I need more), and the fidget materials are in a basket.
These are random pics… a new hoodie that I got today from our camp, a thrift store haul, and the tapestries that we have put up in our basement!
Last Saturday night, we got to enjoy the snow tubing hill for the first time. It’s a whole thing here. The kids loved it!
We also went to worship in the chapel at camp that night, tried a new church on Sunday, and Ethan went to youth group and LOVED it.
Monday we had homemade brownies, eggs, and bacon for breakfast. That day was pretty great. I’ve also been make my sourdough, and it has been going decently well. My last loaf wasn’t my best, but the several before that were amazing.
This morning we woke up to a winter wonderland! I bet we got at least 6 inches of snow overnight and into the morning. Ethan and I went and played in it… we had so much fun!
One of these days, I will post more often and the posts will be shorter. For now, this will have to do.
As I’m fighting this seasonal funk, I just have to keep doing what I know to do to take care of myself. Movement (I have been more consistent this month than ever before), eating well about 80% of the time, journaling, music playing at all times (worship and Folk/indie mostly), candles, coffee and tea, time alone to re-group, and more. I’ve learned a lot over the years about what I need. I believe that the treatments plus learning how to take better care of myself have made this seasonal stuff not NEAR as bad as usual!
simplycourtney.org 