A HOMESCHOOL MAMA’S JOURNAL: MARCH

Welcome back to another installment of A Homeschool Mama’s Journal. This is all the things that have been happening over here in the few weeks.

First and foremost…spring!! It seems that spring has finally arrived. The maple sap is flowing, we’ve had some rain, there’s puddles to splash in–I think it’s official.

A Homeschool Mama's Journal.

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A Homeschool Mama’s Journal

For us, I feel like our school months might look something like this:

January: totally burned out from the holidays and we must return to school with a really simplistic approach.

February: Getting a bit more energy because of changing up the schedule for winter-schooling.

March: We’re all sick of being cooped up and school feel super blah. We need a break.

April and May: We’re almost finished, let’s work hard and get stuff done!

So, we’re taking a break.

Way back in August when I sat down to create a framework for our school year, I wrote down our projected start and end dates, and all the dates I wanted to take off–including a spring break. I totally forgot about it till last week. I thought it would be unnecessary at first, but we are experiencing an extreme case of the BLAHS over here and we need a little breather.

So, spring break is here!

I’m taking this week to get some things organized and plan out our last eight weeks of school. Sometimes you just need to get a plan to get you motivated.

Recent ‘Hoorays’

We’ve read some great books in the last several weeks.
This was a great journal-type story about an immigrant boy from Finland. His father was an iron ore miner in Minnesota actually. The journal led us through the family’s struggle in the mine village and the dangers of the mine. It was really engaging and my kids loved it.

This was Noah’s literature pick for March (well actually February, but we got a little behind.) It’s all written in poetry, so it’s actually a really quick read and really a great book. It’s about a teenager who loves basketball and is dealing with normal teen woes plus some big family health issues. It was really wonderful. I loved the poetry. 

This was a great story! It’s about an orphan looking for his mother. He’s a great character and we found ourselves talking about Bud even when we weren’t reading about him. Again, this was our February pick, but we’re behind. 

The Fun Stuff

We’ve had TWO birthday parties since my last “journal” entry. 15 and 9 now!

With my teen, we just hung out…because much more fanfare is just unbelievably nerdy, right? But it was still fun. And I can totally appreciate this stage of parenting where kids are content with just “hanging” and gong to the trampoline park for the afternoon.

We also had a fun Harry Potter bash! It was lots of work and loads of fun. 🙂

The three little kids and I went to a production of The Velveteen Rabbit this month.

The maple tree’s sap is running!! We’ve gotten tons of sap and had several failed attempts at making syrup. It’s always too runny or too thick, BUT it’s a ton of fun!

My three big kids have been totally into Minecraft–even more than usual lately. We only allow gaming on the weekends, so I can see the wheels start turning on about Thursday night. They are sitting down with sketchbooks and pencils and rulers, sketching out their “worlds” and what they plan on doing for the weekend.

Where we need work

I think the thing we’re going to focus on this coming month is finishing some of the projects that we’ve started, revive some fun in our daily work and get energy for the light at the end of the tunnel that’s coming up fast!

Where need to work is making a plan for the rest of the year. I’m a little bored with our history right now and I’m contemplating just ditching the end of our study, going a different direction, and putting together a few different unit studies.

I get hung up on doing history in succession. We skipped over a whole period of history this year because I wanted to study the Industrial Revolution and my kids didn’t care one way or another. But now that we’re in the study, I feel like I should have stuck with the order…ugh. Decisions!

What about me?

Our days at home can get really monotonous. And I’ve been feeling it, big time. So, I’ve been remedying by getting something fun on the calendar: a date with a friend, a special outing, etc. OR I could just refer to my list of things to do when you’re not feeling really great.

I finished up my Whole30 last month and sure enough–I didn’t lose one pound.

*Sigh.*

Has this happened to any of you?? So frustrating!

BUT I’ve got some other ideas and I’ll let you know how they work out next month.

Earlier this month I had the privilege of being a guest on Julie Bogart’s podcast. Did you listen in? It was so much fun! 

I’ve been planning some fun Easter projects and I’ve got all the basket goodies ready to go!

This was a great month for reading, too. I finished The Sound of Gravel. OHMYWORD this book!!! It was a memoir of a woman who had escaped from a polygamist cult at the age of 15. She was something like one of 46 children from her father?!?! Anyway, this book really sucked me in and I finished in just a few days.

I’m also almost finished with Cleaning House. It’s a book about a woman who felt like her kids were way too entitled and created a year-long project where her kids tackled different big jobs around the house each month. I don’t love every single word, but it’s really good and it’s given me a lot to think about.

And that’s about it for March! I’m looking forward to spending this last week getting excited and organized for the last eight weeks of school! Yay!

What did your March look like? How are you holding up, mamas?

 

2 Comments

  1. It’s my first year homeschooling and I’m learning what works, doesn’t work, what makes me happy, and what makes the kids happy! I am so thankful to have a way to read about the different ways families homeschool.
    I have been in a bit of a funk, very easily distracted…I may need to do a quick reset next week for a day or two. I thought I did that already, but may need to do it again! Haha! Thanks for sharing! Can’t wait to check out your book recommendations. 🙂

  2. We just got another dump of snow last night so any hints of spring are buried. But I did loosely plan out our spring term full of gardens, rabbits, flowers and butterflies. Basically anything fresh and green! We’ve got lots of craft projects to do, something I typically don’t do a lot of and I’m trying to get us all outside daily.
    Love these kind of posts!

    Oh, and I just finished the Cleaning Home book and it gave me some good ideas for my kiddos (7 and 5 and baby) as well as encouragement to see areas that we’re actually doing okay in. =)

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