Homeschooling

Homeschooling a 2.5 yr old can be challenging, very trying on my patience, frustrating and so very rewarding. Watching him progress and take leaps and bounds forward is wonderful.

Butterfly grow kit
This was a good introduction to life cycles

The nice thing about homeschooling is that I can tailor our days to the kids. On days he is having a hard time we can do no schooling or just 1 or 2 things. On days he is doing well we can bust the work out.

This morning was sort of a good morning. The baby woke up early (not the good part hahahaha) and my husband got up with her after I fed her. I stayed in bed but realized I wasn’t going to fall back asleep easily and figured 30 extra min of sleep would probably end up making me more tired so I got up and went for a run.

We then had a slow morning of watching some cartoons and relaxing. After breakfast we busted the work out cause he was focused.

Baby colored while we worked.

I also read aloud to them for 10min from a magic treehouse book.

Every day is different, what we do and what we get done is different.

The next day was a good morning and we busted it out again. He had some excess energy to burn so he would run a lap around the house and I’d stop him to answer a school question then he’d take another lap. We got through 4 workbook pages and a spread in our things to spot book this way and he laughed the whole time.

Homeschooling

My children are not school aged so I am not doing any formal schooling yet. But I am trying to foster a love for learning and put as many learning opportunities in our lives as possible.

We love to read

I bought a nature study curriculum called exploring nature with children that I am currently dipping in and out of for inspiration. When we are playing in our yard or taking walks I mention the seasons and ask about flower colors and flower bulbs and on and on.

The other curriculum I was introduced to by my friend Stephanie is by a company called Timberdoodle. So far I love, love, love it. They have curriculum for kids from 0 years old to a senior in high school. I don’t know how long I will homschool for but the state of public education in this country is scaring me more and more.

Farmland math
Working dates, seasons and weather

I picked and chose what I liked and wanted to start with. We don’t touch on everything every week but i try and hit 1-2 things a day m-f. The weekends are just bonuses if we manage anything because our schedule is different.

Threading is great for dexterity and motor skills
He LOVES these smart workbooks
Puzzles are still a work in progress hahaha
These 2 are more advanced and not quite as ‘fun’ as the smart workbooks so he’s less into them right now.
Bunny boo. He is supposed to recreate the example on the card. Eventually he gets it but currently needs a lot of prompting.
We also count chicken eggs and fruits and vegetables when they are growing. My 2 yr old helps me in the kitchen sometimes. I’m basically just trying for a wellrounded introduction to life and education hahaha.

I just love when they understand something, when they learn something new, and when he tells me something I taught him 5 min ago, 5 hours ago or 5 days ago. I love when she actually communicates something to me bub pointing or bringing something to me.

Come on this crazy journey with me!

Home school prep

Ok first off, yes, my baby is only 8.5 months old. I fully understand I am not REALLY starting homeschooling him. However, I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mom right now so I want to make the most of it. I simply want to make sure that I am giving him opportunities to learn as much as possible. Most of it will all be through play and exploration.

I have done a very rough layout of the next 3 years. Basically I picked a theme each week of the year, with a few no theme more relaxed ‘off weeks’ thrown in. I had a weekly calendar page that i spilt each day into 3 parts. The first section is year 1, its a lot of reading (me to him hahahaha) ABCs, sensory bins, fun on topic movie nights, learning to color things like that. Year 2 builds on that by adding in tracing and more emphasis on counting and matching small adjustments like that. And year 3 we add in more counting/math a few fun basic age appropriate science experiments etc. Here is a basic example

I also purchased ‘Exploring Nature with Children‘ which I am very excited about. Again the first year or two will just be me pointing things out and talking a little more and each year we can build on it. There is also a weekly poem and art piece to look at and study.

I love the BrainQuest workbooks and other items so as he advances we will add some of that in.

I am also looking at The Good and Beautiful curriculum and will slowly order some of that and as he advances ncorporate that. I also want to slowly incorporate lots of farm study material. Those kind of things will be very relevant as he is feeding our chickens and gathering eggs one day. And asking how plants make a lot of the food we eat and things like that.

Tomorrow we start our first week of ‘official’ not official homeschooling hahahah. Our theme is the ocean as well as totally different theme of seeds from the exploring nature curriculum. I am going to document this week and I will update you next weekend with how it went!!

Bridal shower! 2 weeks until the wedding and sickness!!!

Taco salads have made an appearance over here again. So easy for lunch and last minute/running late mornings. It is just lettuce, salsa chicken (throw chicken and salsa in a crockpot and let it cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 until you can shred it and voila), cheese and hot mild sauce.

Mom was in town this weekend!!! We all went out to breakfast!

Word of Mouth Cafe in Salem is AMAZING!!!!!

I got biscuits and gravy with bacon and eggs.

He got creme brulee french toast with corned beef hash, eggs and bacon

mom got the creme brulee french toast with bacon and eggs

someone got me sick!!!! Fighting off a narly cold over here!

My Bridal shower!!!

The guys showed up at the end and football got turned on hahahhhhaah!!

Dress and Necklace from Stitchfix!

My bridal shower was perfect! My wonderful soon to be in-laws put it on for me, it was fun but low key which is perfect for me. There was delicious food and drink and I got some amazing gifts!!! Moments like this are so surreal!!!! I’m really getting married in just 2ish short weeks!!! So crazy!!!!! Makes me have heart palpitations hahahahahahahaha!!!

more soup eating while i have been sick

This shirt also came in my fix, i LOVE it!! it is a beautiful plum color. How sexy is that neck!!!!???

Here is a closeup of the detail on the leggings. so cute and so comfy!!!

and here is a close up of the necklace.

I also got a jacket but it was a little big so sent it back to exchange it for a smaller size, i will show you when i get it back.

Use this link to try stitchfix and get $25 towards your first fix!

Another great fix from stichfix!!!! now to lose another 14lbs so i can treat myself to another box!!! I am currently at 164. when i hit 150 I’ll order another box!!! talk about motivation!!!!

Now my alarm is going off and i have to get ready for my first practicum!!!! Stay tuned for details about that on Friday!!

 

Fall 2018 school week 2

Week 2 done….mostly. Only 8 more weeks to go not including finals. It still amazes me how fast quarters fly by compared to semesters.

My psych class is more interesting than last quarters because it deals with a person from life to death and all that encompasses their life which is a little more geared to nursing than my last psych class was. Overall though it is still a little boring. This week we are learning about the period of conception to birth. Lots of talk about genes and chromosomes so far.

This is week 2 of muscles and we are getting more in depth. I would say i am comfortable with about 1/2-2/3rds of what is required for my practicum next week. I can find most of it on diagrams and spent 2 hours of lab getting comfortable with where things are on the models and how to differentiate because the models are not the clearest things. Then I spent 10-15 min in the cadaver lab making sure I could find most of the muscles on the cadavers with some degree of confidence.

Let me tell you 10-15 minutes in there is very different than 3 minutes of introduction. After about 10 minutes breathing in all those chemical fumes really got to me and i got lightheaded and felt that hot cold flush so I stepped out, the last thing I wanted to do was faint in there. I took a few deep breathes outside the lab then went back in to get a quick look at the body that was positioned on their posterior side as i had been working with the anterior model. Those are some really harsh chemical fumes with not much ventilation.

The cadaver lab is definitely invaluable as a learning tool but it is really hard to deal with all the emotions, they sneak up on me.

Here is a train of thought for most of the cadaver lad period, yes this is pretty accurate:  oh i am looking at the actual rectus femerous cool! and that is the vastus medialus and vastus lateralus, i got this, where is the adductor longus, oh its right there next to some pubic hair ohhhh hair, this was a person, who is dead…….and oh man the professor is now moving muscle around to try and show us the adductor magnus which is burried down in there oh man that is a little gross but cool but weird…….ahhhh too much to think about and oh man is that smell overwhelming…… oh lets try the other cadaver to see if you can see it better nope, not really, oh good so that definitely wont be asked on the practicum if even he cant find it, uh oh i feel a little light-headed and weird, get out now before you collapse. GO!!! Ok deep breathes, take a minute and get back in there! But pay attention to how you feel. OK i am ok, oh is that the trapezius and the gluteous maximus and the gluteous medius and the piriformus, look at me identifying these! OH that smell, so that is the rhomboid major, is that the levetae scapular? oh man, the smell, it is now so much worse, my nostrils are on fire, oh the tricep brachii ok i think i am done, need to get out. where does this instrament go? wash your hands, oh what is everyone looking at…….oh fetuses in jars in the cupboard, wow that is cool, oh man so sad……so so sad, dont want to think about it. time to leave.

I was definitely woozy, shakey and a little nauseous afterwards. I took it easy all night after lab. It is difficult to digest all the feelings that come with the cadaver lab but I am still so thankful that i get to experience it.

I feel like I am keeping up and on track but don’t feel like I’ve gotten ahead yet this quarter and with all the wedding things I might not get ahead, we will have to see.

3 Weeks until the Wedding!

How do you tell that face to get off the bed? Sometimes I can and sometimes I can’t.

20180929_0921335947569566961729025.jpg

I worked out Sunday and Monday but took Tuesday off because i was still a little squeamish after lab which I will tell you about on Friday.

Quickest dessert I ever made.

This is my breakfast most work mornings. I mix my coffee instead of plain water with it so I get breakfast and coffee in one!

Adjusting to the first week of school new schedule meant I didn’t plan enough meals and made a few fast food stops before class. I THINK I might be better prepared today, if not i will allow myself subway again but no other fast food, I will be in that dress sooner than I know!!!!!

This is how I feel some days about anatomy already. I love it but all the sheer quantity of information is daunting. Though I am learning once I really dig in so far it is manageable.

The rare morning I actually have breakfast.

We went on a nice walk before lab yesterday. I think Tuesdays might be her new favorite day, I am home most of day with her while I study and so far both Tuesdays we have gone on 2 walks to get out some of her energy so I can actually study and to break up my monotony of studying for several hours.

Brandon made some delicious beef and barley soup on Monday. It is great comfort food in the crisp fall weather we are starting to have and really nice after a tough day.

I have always been a great sleeper, I can fall asleep easily and stay asleep but man, I would say already like 3 days this quarter I have had so much information running through my head either with anatomy stuff or with wedding stuff that there have been a few semi-sleepless nights.

Coffee is life.

So yes, just over 3 weeks until we get married!!! I have my bridal shower this weekend that my amazing future mother-in-law and future sister-in-laws are throwing for me. And my mom will be here for it so that will be really nice! We also have a half marathon this Sunday that we have done the bare minimum training for so that will be fun….probably not hahahaha!!

Even this small elopement of 7 people (including us) is a little stressful, probably because it includes travel but I cannot imagine how stressed I would feel if we were doing a larger wedding with all these things I had to coordinate. I am so thankful we went small and intimate. I am counting the days, plus hello vacation!!!!

Fall 2018 school week 1

Hi!!!! Well I have survived my first week of the new quarter!

I am taking PSY 237 which is Life Span development, basically it looks at a person from conception to death, this class is online. My 2nd class is Anatomy and Physiology 2, i have lecture 2 nights a week and lab one afternoon a week. Had to do a little switching around with my work schedule to make it all work, I now have no weekend lol. I still have 2 days off work but they are spread apart. One of my days off I have lab that day. This was the only class that even halfway worked with my schedule, thankfully another girl at work is a student and a class she wanted to take worked out perfectly if we switched one of our days with each other. So I have 1 full day off from everything the next month. That may be the one day i devote to my relationship because anatomy is no joke and i plan on rocking this class. Thankfully my fiance and soon to be husband is so supportive of me going to school.

I think PSYCH will be pretty easy. Online classes, as long as they aren’t math or science, are usually pretty easy to me. They definitely can take more time because you usually have extra work to do since there is no in class work but i love that i can sit down whenever i have time in between the rest of my schedule and knock out whatever i need to do.

Now for the good stuff: A&P!!!! I transferred to a different community college this year since the fiance and i moved to a new city, this is actually the school where i will be applying to the nursing program, no names of course so i can keep talking about it. The price per unit is roughly the same but man they must have extra funding somewhere because WOW, infinitely nicer digs. We each have our own microscope in lab and are you ready for this……….they have a cadaver lab!!!!!! in a community college!!! I feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to learn on a real human body.

We got out first introduction to the cadaver lab this week. I really appreciate that they put a big emphasis on respect, these people donated their bodies to science not to be played around with. We got to see 2 of the 4 bodies. The first was a female who had 1 leg partially dissected so you could see the skin, the adipose layer and the muscle underneath then her neck was dissected so you could see the muscles, arteries trachea. Her abdomen was also pretty fully dissected so we could see the viscera, it was so interesting!!! The second body was a male and it was dissected to be able to see all the muscle, one side was superficial muscle and the other was deep muscle. This cadaver will be my best friend for a bit as we currently need to learn 160 muscles in about 2 weeks!!!!

We also did a little review of A&P 1 and wow am i rusty, it is time to review! As well as cram all the new knowledge into my head!!! My teacher seems really awesome too so fingers crossed this is going to be a great semester!!!!

We have to be able to identify all these on a model, a diagram and……..a cadaver……in 1.5 weeks.

4 weeks until the wedding!! odds and ends

Hi!!! School started this week but i will post more on that on Friday. Here is a little look on how the week has been going so far:

Someone gave me a donut filled with coffee creme and a rum shot hahahaha

Coffee is a must and energy drinks are making an appearance again, the first few weeks of a new quarter are always rough for me to get a new school, work, and study schedule worked out.

I am in love with those prepackaged salads right now!! This one is called sunflower crunch!

Brandon was out of town for work, thankfully he is back now, while he was gone she cuddled with me a lot.

working on a few wedding hairstyle ideas.

Fall is here!!!!…………Some days………. last week was low 70s and mid 60s this week is mid 80s!!

More snuggles

Morning Shakology!!!! i mix it with my coffee for the perfect breakfast….though it takes me some time to wake up!

Go a quickie run in Monday night after class

Followed by this awesome dinner!! Brandon and I shared the Cornish game hen. They are adorable but not that much meat on them, probably why it was only $3 and grocery outlet, still tasted delicious though!

AHHHHHHH! we hit the 1 month mark!!!

My sad sad attempt at taking a picture through the microscope of skeletal muscle.

Tune in Friday for more talk about school!!! WARNING: I SEE DEAD PEOPLE!