So we begin....

Last week was a big week for us.  The first week of school.  I had intended on planning more before we started but the kids were excited to start, so we did.  It went really well and know I am scrambling a bit to make sure we keep the momentum.

We had taken a road trip to Southern California the week before and spent some time talking about missions and their history.  Since we followed the 101 or El Camino Real (The King's Highway) almost all the way to San Diego, we passed a majority of the 21 missions that were established by the Spanish so long ago.  We toured Mission Santa Barbara on the trip home.  It was beautiful.   We talked about the brick work and all the labor that went into  a building that survived earthquakes and the test of time.  The mission has had repairs done over the years but parts of it are original.

When we got home, we spent the week exploring the missions, talking about the Ohlone Indians who are indigenous to our area and their lifestyle before the Spanish came.  The Ohlone Days will be happening in a few weeks and we can get an idea of more of their customs. 

I feel like we are moving through local geography a bit out of order.  I had planned on starting with us, our neighborhood and spiraling outward from there, but the trip down south made the missions seem more alive so we went with it.  We will be taking a couple of day trips to visit Mission Santa Cruz, Mission San Juan Bautista and Mission San Antonio.  For this block and probably for this grade, I will not delve too much into the wrongness of removing lands from the indigenous people.  

This week, I am back tracking a bit and we will be looking more locally at our community,  who we are, the physical aspects of Santa Cruz and different history bits for the area.  This area is so rich and has such diversity,  I could really spend a great deal longer then the three weeks I planned.

We also spent some time working on mapping, form drawing, remembering the math skills we worked on last year,  practiced reading skills which I was quite pleased to see were not forgotten.  We finished reading the Seven Year Wonder Book which was very well received and worked on a little knitting.  It felt like a very productive week.

How was your week?

Planning For School

I have been studying diligently.  We will be starting our homeschool year in two weeks.  Two weeks!!! Yikes.  I am reading curriculum.  Thinking about how our days will work.  How the week will be laid out to fit the home lessons and the extracurricular classes which we enjoy.  We are using Christopherus Homeschool kindergarten, grades 1 and 4 this year.  I will also be using Before Five in a Row for my preschooler so he doesn't feel left out.

It can be a little overwhelming to try to process all this information, lay out a basic guide of goals for the year and make sure I have all my materials.  But when I have planned well, our days, weeks, year goes smoothly and we accomplish what needs to be done.  We also have plenty of time to play and travel which is also important to us as a family.

Even if you don't homeschool, it is important to plan.  When you provide your family with a basic framework of how your days will look, life is so much more pleasant.

You might think that this will make life more complicated, but in reality, a little structure relieves a considerable amount of stress.  You know what needs to be done, your house will be cleaner, and your meals more nutritious.  This will free up your overtaxed brain to focus on other tasks and allow you to move efficiently through your days.  Perhaps you will find you have more time to take care of yourself or spend some time doing something fun and unexpected with your family.

Enjoy you day.  I have some planning to do!

Where does the time go?

I can't believe it has been so long since I've written.  My life often feels like a blur.  We have just celebrated three family birthdays, spent time at the beach, planned a family camping trip and made another enjoyable trek to the snow country.

Now I am settling back into our homeschool routine with a gardening block.   Tomorrow I will head to the nursery to pick up some seeds to plant and a few other flowers which catch my eye.  We will also feed our herb garden and our lemon tree this week.

We will are making these lovely tutus for a local dance recital.  It took some thought and a couple of prototypes which were not quite up to my standards.  But I think it is perfect.  The girls will look adorable in it.

Tomorrow will be the day where I won't work and will just spend time playing with my family.  Hope you can carve out some space to do something you love.

Enjoy the lovely spring sunshine!

The importance of planning

 

Photo courtesy of iheartlinen @ flikr.com 

I've  lost my way.  How did this happen?  I forgot to make a yearly plan for our homeschool.  

We use a curriculum but I pick and chose from it.  I try to plan our yearly goals as we have 3 kiddos doing "school" of sorts.  We write down a daily plan.   However, I feel like our lessons have become somewhat random and unconnected.  

It happens to me every year. We are completely gung-ho for the first half of the year and then January hits.  I get a yearly case of the blues in January that morphs into spring fever.  So hence the need for a really strong guide that I can follow.

So last night I pulled out my planner and the curriculum and set out to make a guide so we can finish the year properly (in my mind anyways!).

It is quite the task but having a plan for our days really make life's rhythm much smoother and enjoyable.  I feel good about starting our "school" this week.  Yeah!  Now if I could just figure out what's for dinner.  Ha.

Have a great day.

Self Creation

 

I have been creating handmade items for many years.  My abilities have improved greatly since that first attempt at sewing by myself when I was 11.  I misread a the jumpsuit pattern and instead of creating two pant legs, I created a uni-leg.  It was awful.  I ripped out the stitching and managed to repeat the same mistake all over.  Aaarrgghh.  Now I find the tasks that I found so difficult and frustrating when I first started creating (there were many days where I swore I would never sew again) no longer slow me down.

Over time certain design elements have become important to me in my sewing and crafting. 

• it must be practical
• it must be pleasing to the touch and easy to wear
• there must be interesting details 
• it must be beautiful

Now I have begun venturing into new territory - e-commerce.  The development of the product line for the new business has been great fun.  Navigating the set-up of the website has not been so easy.  There is so much to consider and so much terminology which is completely foreign to me; HTML, encryption, SEO, domains, hosting, etc.....Yowzer!  How's a girl to see straight?  

The good news is I am getting it.  Mistakes happen but I am learning to fix them and improve on the original product just like the process I went through when learning to sew. 

I am very excited about the developing website.  I think we have a wonderful opportunity to share products that are lovingly made by us.  I hope you will like them too.

Have a great day.

run run as fast as you can.....

 PHOTO COURTESY OF PRISMAGLITTER @ FLICKR

Today our little homeschool will put on a puppet show of The Gingerbread Man.  Nothing fancy.  Puppets are drawn by me, colored and mounted by one child and performed by my eldest who is also in charge of sets.

After a more authentic version of the play is performed, the kids will put on their own interpretation of this classic tale.

Maybe if I'm really ambitious, I'll bake a loaf of gingerbread to eat while we watch our production.

What fun!  Have a great day.