7 QT: Homeschooling with a sick baby & fangirl Pinterest moments

~1~

I'm rather behind the eight ball on the first day of school blog post, seeing as though we've been at it for over a week, but oh my, what a week it was.

On the night of Labour Day, my husband and I stayed up much later than we normally do getting our little homeschool nook in order. I wanted very much to have it look appealing to the boys because this is our first year formally homeschooling and I want to have them excited about it all.

Anyway, we managed to create this little space:

and I was quite pleased with it. 

The boys each have their own IKEA-hack shelf with their daily read-alouds picked our for them, as well as a little calendar to learn more about the seasons and weather (mostly for Isaiah) and laminated prayer cards of the Morning Offering, the Act of Contrition and the Anima Christi.

Oh, and the lunar cycle there for good measure. We love the moon a lot around here.

Anyway, I went to bed that night thinking I'd sleep the sleep of the just, knowing we had worked hard getting ready and were well-prepared.

~2~

Except you simply can't be prepared for life and all the curveballs it throws you.

That night I slept fitfully because the baby was sleeping fitfully -- I brought her to bed with us, thinking she wanted to be close to me. When I did, I noticed she was hot, I panicked when I realized I couldn't find the thermometer, and as she quickly began to burn up, I decided to take her down to the ER; it turns out she had a dangerously high fever. She was actually put on a round of antibiotics, and is doing much better now.

But what that meant was I left the house at 4am, got home at 8:30 when we had decided our "school day" would begin, went through our lessons... and then I crashed. Like, "I can't possibly make lunch, or read aloud; my eyes are falling out of my head at it's only 11am."

Thankfully, work-from-home husband came to rescue. He made and fed the kids their lunch while I took a nap, and then took them to the pharmacy to get the baby more Tylenol and her prescription filled so I could, again, nap.

I really had to smile wryly to myself; what a funny way for our first official day of homeschooling to unfold.

~3~

Just in case anyone is deluded into thinking that because we are now "officially" homeschooling, I must have morphed into an incredibly organized, hard-working and energetic woman, I have not. 

Our "school" consists of only one hour of lessons in which my husband sits with us before he begins his work day and we trade playing with the baby and doing preschool activities with Isaiah while Noah does his workbooks. Just 10 minutes each of Catechism, Math, Phonics, and Handwriting or Poetry Recitation with an action song thrown in between each block to keep us all motivated and peppy.

(And sometimes, the action song is simply making them dance with me to "The Hamster Dance" song. It's really quite adorable how excited they are to dance to it.)

After we finish up with the book work, we are free to be a "normal" family with a stay-at-home mom. I make food, we read books together, we play and go for walks, and I try to ignore them for a few minutes while drinking my iced coffee.

I guess you could call it "unschooling." It's still deliberate and planned stuff, but with the structure of consisting of that one hour of one-on-one tutoring.

It sounds nice, doesn't it? 

Because it is.

But I repeat, this is all happening right now because my husband is starting his work day slightly later than normal to help out. Other moms do it totally by themselves, and that's stupendous. 

But that won't work for us, at least right now. I am immensely grateful our schedules can allow for this.

~4~

We took our kids to the fair for the first time ever this past week. They got to ride on actual honest-to-goodness midway rides and eat fries for lunch and take in all the noisy, over-stimulating fun.

Their faces don't communicate just how thrilling the whole day was for them. I love getting to share moments like this with them.

~5~

Yet more often than not, my favourite moments are like the day after the fair. It was a Sunday. We enjoyed brunch together, followed by Mass (we have to eat our brunch before because of the odd timing of the Mass we attend), followed by changing into outdoors-y clothes and going for a hike.

Busy days with kids require quieter days in the fresh air. And I know how long winter is in this province, so I plan to suck the marrow out of the beautiful autumn weather, so help me Hannah!

~6~

Speaking of autumn...

Those who know me, know that I am the antithesis of crafty. Not only do I have no idea how to knit or crochet or embroider, the very thought of doing any of those gives me a tension headache.

Don't even get me started on scrapbooking.

The funny thing is I actually kind of enjoy doing crafts with my kids. Sure, the set-up and clean-up is often twice as long as the actual execution, but they are always so proud of themselves when they create something, and they are so endearingly appreciative of my efforts.

(Given all that, I really ought to do more crafts with them than I do. But I digress.)

So this week after our work-book time, I set them down and we glued some leaves I snatched to pieces of newspaper I had cut into pennant shapes. Then I threaded a piece of yarn on it and voila, an autumn banner. Simple, simple stuff.

I posted this picture on Instagram of the results and imagine my true fangirl moment when Bonnie asked if she could PIN my craft...!

One of my favourite bloggers wanted to pin my craft?! I would be floating around in a cloud of excitement if it weren't so incredibly absurd.

~7~

Since I brought up Bonnie's name, please pray for the situation regarding Fulton Sheen's canonization. 

She recently posted a touching video explaining her very personal connection to the cause and it's impossible not to be moved by her story.

As she says, it's not about her, or her son, or even Archbishop Sheen himself, but God, and having Him glorified through one of His faithful servants.

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