Here We Go Again!!

 Homeschool Year 13

Time just flies! We're about to start our 13th year of homeschooling, which seems just about impossible. We are continuing to be a part of Classical Conversations weekly, so when you see things like Challenge and Essentials, that's referring back to CC classes. The community and fellowship we have there is a huge part of why we are still homeschooling! As a family this year, we're going to be reading through the Psalms independently and discussing them together. We'll be continuing to watch World Watch News daily, too. I'm also planning to be more intentional with one on one time with the kids. Here's a quick run down of what each kiddo will be doing for this school year:

Jon, 17, 12th grade, Challenge 4

First, how is my son a senior?!?! I can't think about it too much yet! Let's just stick to the facts. Since Jon finished up Calculus last year, we decided to switch gears and get much more practical with a finance course that's been highly recommended to us by several friends. Dave Ramsey's Personal Finance: High School Edition. He'll continue studying Latin with his Challenge class and be focusing mostly on translations. This year he'll also dive into physics, world history, ancient literature, and theology. I'm excited for him to continue with his class of eight and a seasoned director, who will help mentor him and his classmates as they have great discussions and write a senior thesis. 

Jon just finished up summer swim team, and is going to continue working at Chick-fil-A, acting as much as possible with Inspiring Arts (he just finished up Bye Bye Birdie--it was fantastic!), playing piano, and being involved in youth group and other church activities. 

Sam, 15, 10th grade, Challenge 2

Sam will be learning with his Challenge 2 class of 11 students, most of whom have been together for years now. They'll be learning how to do Lincoln-Douglas Debates, studying biology, reading British Literature, studying art and writing an art grant proposal, studying traditional logic, learning about Socratic dialogues, continuing to work through Algebra 2 (beauty of homeschooling, we could slow down and work at the pace he needs!), and learning about Western civilizations. 

Sam grew about 6 inches this year, which has helped tremendously with his favorite sport, basketball. He just finished a great summer swim season, and continues to play piano and loves youth group and serving at church. 

Will, 11, 6th grade, Foundations and Essentials

I cannot believe that Will is almost finished with elementary school! He and Maggie will be doing some things together, which I will list separately. He will be doing Saxon 8/7 this year, as math has come easy to him so far. He'll be writing with IEW (Institute of Excellence in Writing), learning grammar with EEL (Essentials of the English Language), medieval history with Veritas Press, Simple Machines and Motions with The Good and the Beautiful, and reading a bunch of books I've picked out for him as well. 

Will loved tennis this summer, and is interested in continuing that this winter. He's joining art class with Maggie. He's also hoping to be in another musical, after really enjoying being in Aladdin as the sultan last January. He's also continuing to play piano and in a small band with boys from church called The Worship Worms.

Maggie, 9, 4th grade, Foundations and Essentials

Maggie will be starting her first year of Essentials this year, and she will have me as her tutor at CC. Together we'll be learning writing skills from IEW, grammar from EEL, and she'll do history and science alongside Will. She'll be doing handwriting and some reading/phonics from The Good and the Beautiful. She'll also be reading books that I've picked out for her. 

Maggie had a fantastic summer swim season, and loved her ballet, jazz, and art classes this past school year. She'll be continuing in art, and we're considering a switch to volleyball! She's been asking all summer, and there's a Christian homeschool group that has volleyball just a few miles from us. We're looking into it now.

Heather, 43, Wife, Mom, Homeschool Teacher

I thought it would be kind of fun to update what I'm up to around here. I'm continuing to be a CC Support Representative, helping to contract and equip local directors and help support local families. I'm also an Essentials tutor, which means I lead about a dozen students for 2 hours once a week in learning about language and writing and math skills. I'm also making a change this year. After being a counselor at church camp this summer, God really gave me a love for the teens, so I'm stepping away from leading a women's Bible study and helping with the youth group instead. I also sing in the church choir, love my book club, and find any excuse possible to meet up with a friend for coffee. 

Homeschool Year 12: 11th, 9th, 5th, and 3rd Grade

 

If you had told me in the fall of 2010 that I'd still be homeschooling all of my children 11 years later, I'm not sure that I would have believed you. Yet, by the grace of God and with some fantastic support, here we are about to start our 12th year! 

A big part of why we're still homeschooling is our CC Community. Classical Conversations is such a blessing to our family. We meet once a week and have fellowship and are spurred on to keep on keeping on--in our faith, and our academics. We joined when Jon was 5, and I can't imagine homeschooling without our CC family!

Speaking of family, at home we'll be reading some missionary biographies together and watch World Watch News each morning. Then the older kids will go get to work, and the younger kids and I will continue our morning time by doing some of the following:

• hymn singing
• learning part of the West Minister Shorter Catechism
• reading/memorizing some poetry
• reviewing CC memory work
• reading a chapter book (some of the books we'll read are listed below)
• Little Pilgrim's Progress
• Pages of History
• The Last Battle
• Vanderbeeker's Make a Wish    
• Archer's Cup, A Green Ember story

Here's a quick rundown of what each of our kids will be doing this year individually:

Maggie, 8, 3rd grade:

• Math: Saxon 5/4
• Language Arts: The Good and the Beautiful level 1
• Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful level 2
• History: Veritas Press Self-Paced Ancient History
• Science: The Good and the Beautiful Animal Kingdoms

My girl will also be continuing to take ballet, and adding jazz and art classes this year. She's pretty excited!

Will, 10, 5th grade:

• Math: Saxon 7/6
• English Grammar: Essentials of English Language
• Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing
• Spelling: Spelling Workout E
• Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears
• History: Veritas Press Self-Paced Ancient History
• Science: The Good and the Beautiful Animal Kingdoms and Marine Biology

Will's excited to be a part of Acting Academy Jr this fall, and to be trying out for a musical in October!

Sam, 14, 9th grade, Challenge 1:

• Math: Shormann Algebra II with Integrated Geometry
• History: American History/Government/Economics
• Logic: Memoria Press Traditional Logic
• Latin: Henle Latin 1
• Science: Apologia Physical Science
• Literature: American Literature novels

Sam will be playing basketball again this year. 

Jon, 16, 11th grade, Challenge 3:

• Math: Shormann Calculus
• History: American History/A Patriot's History of the U.S.
• Music Theory: Math in Motion (dual enrollment)
• Latin: Henle Latin 2
• Exposition: Shakespeare and Poetry (dual enrollment)
• Science: Apologia Chemistry

Jon will be swimming again this year, and leading worship at youth group. 

I'm so thankful for the gift of being able to learn alongside these kids, and I'm praying that this year the Lord will help us all to ask great questions and dig deeper and learn amazing things together!

How and What We're Doing: Homeschooling Year 7

   

     This past summer I read the book Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie and had several light bulb moments. If you are a homeschooling mom reading this and you have yet to read Sarah's book, stop reading my blog and go get your hands on it STAT. Seriously, I was so encouraged by it and it helped me to narrow my focus as a homeschooling mama. Sarah gives practical ideas and speaks to the heart of the reader, and she does it all succinctly because she knows we all have a million plates we're trying to keep spinning. But since this post was not intended to be a book review I will move on...kind of. One of the biggest take aways for me from Teaching from Rest was thinking through what I want my kids to get or remember from our time homeschooling together. The other, which is closely tied to the first, is that I need to teach in a way that works with my strengths and not the way I've seen other moms teach, otherwise I will end up spinning my wheels and feeling exhausted. In thinking about those two things, how did I want to/need to change what we were doing to make sure that I am spending time on the things that I value the most in a method that works with my personality and strengths. Pretty much figuring out how to work smarter, not harder as a homeschooling mom.

The kids with Miss Elisabeth, a homeschool graduate, now Liberty University student, who used to be my mother's helper.
     All of this came together at just the right time as our family's babysitter extraordinaire, Miss Elisabeth, just left for college and is not coming to help with the little ones while I do school with the older two this year. I was freaking out about how I could possibly handle schooling a sixth grader, a fourth grader, and a kindergartner, with a three year old tagging along. But I'm probably giving more details than you need. The short version is I decided to change up our schedule and do more together. More together meant rearranging our school room. At the same time that I was thinking through all of this, my amazing husband has been growing in his woodworking skills and offered to make me new bookshelves and a school table. 😍 I'll post pictures of the table, please let me know if you have any questions about how Pete built it. I'd be glad to share. (Here's a link to the original plans I found. We did use this Ikea table top x2 instead of making the top)

Our brand new school table! I'm so excited and the kids are loving it, too!
Here's our general* schedule for this year**:

9:00-9:30
~Older two boys (4th and 6th grade) work on their CC Notebooks doing basic copywork of this weeks memory work, trace maps and prepare or practice their presentations
~I get my breakfast shake and my coffee and orally review the memory work with Will (5)
~Maggie (3) usually eats breakfast during this time, she's my late riser
9:30-10:00
~Older two boys do their history class. It's an online self-paced class from Veritas Press. They really enjoy it and it gives me about 30 minutes to work with Will one on one.
~Will and I work through Saxon 1, 2 pages of Handwriting Without Tears, and 2 pages of Explode the Code. Then we read one leveled reader together.
~Maggie usually colors or plays with stickers while we do these things. Sometimes she watches the history lesson with the boys or watches a show on tv.
10:00-10:20/30
~All together we have "Morning Time"
Morning Time starts with singing the Doxology, then learning a hymn together adding one verse at a time until we can sing it without looking at the words. We just finished learning Holy, Holy, Holy. After that we share prayer requests and I write them down in a prayer journal. Then one of us prays. After that we do one or two of a few things: -read a few fun poems; learn about an artist or piece of art; learn about a missionary; read about a Bible verse and how it can help us in our day to day lives; or read a seasonal picture book(s)
This is a piece that we just began adding and it has quickly become a favorite for all of us. The kids are loving the poetry-which I was nervous about adding-and the older kids truly love reading the picture books even though they are older. They have caught on to the hymns and remind me of prayer requests. Really this part of our day has blessed me more than I imagined and I'm so thankful!

10:30-11:00 Read Aloud

Reading Ember Falls together 
~We start this time all together, and if the younger two get bored they are allowed to leave and go play quietly. Initially I had hoped this would be a together time, but coming on the heals of sitting and listening for Morning Time, I have decided to roll with this and make this time more for reading books the older two can enjoy. That said, I still need to work in a more consistent time to read other books with the younger two.
11:00-11:30
~The older two take turns doing math (Saxon) with me for about 15 minutes, then work on their own.
~Will plays Wii U or iPad for 30 minutes
~Maggie either plays with Play-Doh or paints with water or something like that
11:30-11:50
~Will and Maggie play together
~Jon and Sam read non-fiction books that I've gathered from library that coincide with the science and history that we're learning about with Classical Conversations.

Sam and Jon reading in one of the two book nooks they've made recently
11:50-12:00
~Older two do Duolingo to learn a little Spanish for our upcoming trip to Peru!
Noon-1:30
~Lunch

~Break/Recess

On a rainy day, playing keep the balloon off of the floor works for recess!
1:30-1:50
Older two report back to work on Essentials
~Chart copying and sentences
Younger two play together or separately. Maggie often goes to play with her neighbor buddy! :)


My 4th and 6th graders copying charts for Essentials 

1:50-2:20
~Day 1 Write a Key Word Outline
~Day 2 Write a rough draft
~Day 3 Add dress ups and stylistic techniques
~Day 4 Finish final draft
~Day 5 Go to class and read paper and learn about the new chapter
2:30-3:30 Quiet time for ALL

*One of the biggest lessons I'm learning is holding my plans and my schedule loosely. We've had two rounds of viruses run through our family and my plans have had to go right out the window. I just keep coming back to God's plans are better than mine. He knows what these kiddos need and what I need and loves us even better than I could even begin to imagine. More important than covering all the lessons in the math book is being present with my kids and pouring His truths into their precious hearts and souls. I have a feeling that this lesson is going to take a while to get through...like maybe the rest of my life. ❤️
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the LORD God is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4

** This is our schedule Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tuesdays we go to our homeschool community group, Classical Conversations. It's definitely a highlight of our week!

There is a Target right next door to our Classical Conversations location, so we often stop there on the way home. The kids love to pose in the circle. 

Notebooking with Boys-CC Cycle 2

         Guess what? We've finished our homeschool year, which means I'm starting to look forward to next year. The teacher in me totally loves planning what we'll be doing. The teacher in me also loves summer break! I personally need this time to recharge and just be mom to my kiddos. After reading some great books*, I am trying to streamline some of our learning so that I have more time to read great books with my kids and let them explore different things they're interested in and less time spent on busywork. After all, I don't need to keep them busy just for the sake of keeping them busy, I'd rather invest that time a little more wisely.

         We just finished up our sixth year of Classical Conversations. Although I am far from being an expert, I know that I am constantly looking to those mamas who are a few steps ahead of me to figure out what might work better than what we've been doing, so I thought I would share for those who might benefit from what is working well for us. In the past we have used pages from CC Connected to give each of my older kids (they just finished 3rd and 5th) what we call a "CC Notebook" with one page of copywork from each subject we cover with Classical Conversations. This has been great reinforcement for my boys as they have both gone on to become Memory Masters for the past couple years. My youngest son, Will, is 5, and not really up for all the copywork the other two boys do, but I think he can do some. I am trying to make him an age appropriate notebook for the fall. I have listed below the usernames that I am planning to use for my older two and made a note if I think I will use them for Will, too. For now, I'm planning to give him a history page with a coloring portion and some simple printing and a simple science copywork sheet. I'm considering a timeline matching page and possibly a geography page as well. We'll see. For now I thought it might be helpful for others to see what our notebooks look like and which users we'll be using for Cycle 2. Please feel free to comment here with any questions, or send me a message on Facebook. :) Also, check back later because I plan to post about what we're going to be doing besides our CC notebooks this fall!

Things we are using from CC Connected: 
History color and copy pages by Melissa Corkum (cursive for my older two and print for Will)
Science copywork pages by me (heatherg) (I made a younger version for Will and shared them on CC Connected, too)
Geography blackline maps by Tara504 (and possibly her lapbooks if I get crazy! ;))
English Grammar pages by me** (heatherg)
Latin by abbycarp and anniepat
Math by me** (heatherg) for Sam and Will and
         chart to be laminated by JosephsAprilAnn for Jon who is over 10 and can't do skip counting
Timeline: I might use the pages by user whitmanmc for Sam and Jon, or I may create my own.
         I may also use Sheri Ellis' timeline sheets for Will

*I cannot recommend Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie enough! Read it and be encouraged homeschool mamas!!
Also, any of Leigh Bortins books are an excellent help us mamas to understand her vision and plan for using Classical Conversations to help our kiddos blossom under this program! :)
**I have been told that the files I uploaded to CC Connected are not working right. If you find this to be true, please let me know. I can open them from my computer, but that may not mean anything!
You might be interested in reading about why we homeschool, getting started with CC or about how we use Audible.

All You Need Is Love...

Since summer and all it's fun is now officially over. (Boo!) I keep meaning to blog about my incredibly awesome and perfect homeschool plan for this year, but then I realize that I am so far from having it figured out--STILL, after 5 years of homeschooling. So instead, you are going to get a little bit of information about our curricula and "my plan" for the year, but a lot more about what I'm hoping to accomplish personally and as a mom.

This summer, I kept thinking, "I need to get things organized for our school year." And then I would sit down and do a few things and feel like I hit a wall, like I couldn't go on. I could not get into a rhythm or figure out the best way to do things. Don't misunderstand, the teacher in me ordered all of our curricula last spring. It wasn't that I didn't know what we were going to be doing, it was the how. The flow, the methods, the schedules, they just weren't coming together. And to be honest, it's still a work in progress.

This school year brings us a fifth grader (yikes!! I used to teach fifth graders, how do I have one?!?!) a third grader, a pre-Kindergartner, and an almost 3 year old. I could juggle 30 sixth graders, or 24 fifth graders, but each year that my own kids get older, I feel even less confident of my ability to juggle teaching them all well.

However, God is always faithful. Every year I have had something that has caused me to be fearful about homeschooling. Whether its been pregnancy, or a toddler giving up their morning nap, adding a commitment outside of the home, etc...I have been nervous of trying to find the new balance every single year. This year is really no different. And just like previous years, we are slowly finding our rhythms and working things out. It's still not quite as smooth as I would like, and the house is certainly not as clean as Pete would like--hee, hee! But we are making some great progress.

My Hobby Lobby find that now hangs front and center in our school room   

The biggest game changer has been my focus and attitude. The educator in me gets so caught up in the academics and routines, that sometimes I forget why we do this. It's so much more than the books we study, it the heart, the character not only of my kids, but my own heart. I kept coming back to LOVE. I need to model love to my kids. I need to help them figure out how to love each other better. I need to point them back to the best example of love--Jesus Christ. It's really all about love. Remembering that has really helped me to breath more freely.

A few other things that are making the year go smoother than I had anticipated:
~Jon is getting more independent in many areas of his work. This is huge!
~Sam continues to be one of the easiest kids I've ever taught--he is such a people pleaser, which is something that concerns me from time to time, but when it comes to school, it is a huge, I mean HUGE, blessing!
~Will is absolutely LOVING "doing school." He changes the calendar in our school room without me each day and often starts his workbook pages without me, too! It's been a lot more fun and a lot less fighting with him than I had been expecting!
~Miss Elisabeth. What or who is that? Our family's favorite babysitter/mom's helper! Elisabeth started babysitting for us once a week three years ago. Last year she started coming three times a week for just between 2-3 hours each time. She plays with Maggie and Will while I get some solid teaching time in with the older two boys. It is priceless. And thankfully, my tutoring at CC on Tuesdays pays me almost exactly what I pay her. How's that for perfect? She is going off to college next fall, so I am already beginning to mourn. She will be sorely missed.

If you made it this far, that's impressive. So what are we actually doing here?
Well, here's a quick run down for each kiddo:

Jon, Fifth Grade

Math: Saxon
Reading: literature based, novels that coincide with our history and/or science studies.
Spelling: Spelling Workout
Geography: Memoria Press Level 1
History: Classical Conversations (CC) and Veritas Press-Ancient World--Old Testament, Egypt, Greek and Roman History
Science: CC earth science and astronomy
English Grammar: Classical Conversations Essentials of English Language
Writing: Institute for Excellence in Writing
and more

Sam, Third Grade

Math: Saxon
Reading: literature based, novels that coincide with our history and/or science studies.
Spelling: Spelling Workout
Geography: Memoria Press Level 1
History: CC and Veritas Press-Ancient World (see above)
Science: CC earth science and astronomy
English Grammar: Shurley English
Phonics: Explode the Code
and more


Will, Pre-K

Math: Pre-K workbook
Letters: Handwriting Without Tears, Get Ready for School
Phonics: Get Ready for the Code A
Will also attends Classical Conversations (CC) with us this year and is learning about ancient history, earth science and astronomy, and much more. He LOVES it.

What this homeschooling thing looks like for our family

So what exactly do you do? I have been asked this on more than one occasion and there's not a simple answer. Just like each family has their own rhythm and routine, their own unique spin on crazy, each homeschooling family is unique. I remember being told once that homeschooled kids are only as bizarre as their parents. To that, I can only say, I'm sorry, kids!

Sam reviewing his memory work for Classical Conversations

I have always loved teaching. My mom will tell you, I used to teach my stuffed animals and dolls. I have a degree in Elementary Education. I taught sixth, then second, and then, my personal favorite, fifth grade before having kids and staying home. Teaching in the classroom gave me some great insights that are no doubt a huge asset to my teaching at home. On the flip side, sometimes I think that our homeschooling needs to look like my time in the traditional classroom. That is actually quite silly. In the classroom, I had between 22-30 children to teach at one time. At home I have two at different levels, plus a toddler and a preschooler. Clearly, it should look quite different. Probably the most helpful thing that I have taken away from my time in the classroom has been that I can learn along with the kids. As long as I have resources to turn to, which are abundant in this day and age, I don't have to know all about every single thing that I am teaching the kids. Which is good, because I have learned through our homeschooling experience that I don't know a lot of the things that I want my kids to learn, and I've had a blast learning with them!

I have mentioned Classical Conversations (henceforth referred to as CC--on my blog it is not short for Common Core) before in several posts, but in case you missed it, you can learn about it in a clip here. Briefly, CC gives us a skeleton of sorts for our curricula. We base our history, literature, science and even some of our handwriting on what we are memorizing at CC. Classical Conversations has three cycles that get repeated, one per year. This is our fourth year in CC, so Jon is memorizing information that he was introduced to three years ago. Obviously, at age 8, he is able to comprehend more of what he is memorizing than he did at 5. Because of that, we are actually applying much of the memory work in our math, English grammar, science, and more. Each week the kids are introduced to seven new facts (science, history, math, Latin, English grammar, geography, and timeline) that we review and expand on at home. I explain this just so that you have a better idea what I'm talking about later.

In case you're visiting, we have four kids. Jon is eight and doing third grade work. Sam is 6 and doing first grade. Will is three and is a whirlwind of activity. Maggie is one and is recently trying to give up her morning nap, much to my chagrin because we usually do most of our schooling while she naps in the morning!

 piano practice often involves a younger sibling "helping"

A typical week here is anything but typical. As I sit here with a sick three year old, I can safely say that rarely does one week actually look like the next, but...in a perfect world the following would be our norm:
Monday/Wednesday and Friday are very similar and begin with piano practice around 9am. While one boy practices, the other begins his handwriting (Handwriting Without Tears or CC Prescripts) for the day. Then they switch. After handwriting, they each do two pages of phonics(Explode the Code). This gives me time to finish up breakfast with the little ones and get my morning cup of coffee. No one wants the teacher to start teaching before she gets her coffee! Once they've finished phonics, we typically review CC together for 20-30 minutes (we review in many ways, I will write about that later). Next Sam begins his math (Saxon 2), while Jon does his spelling (Spelling Workout-Mondays: Pretest/Wednesdays: workbook pages/Friday: test). Next, I teach Jon his math lesson (Saxon 5/4) and do the first 10-15 problems with him. Often Sam finishes his math and spelling during this time and goes to play with Will (3) for a bit. Once Jon gets to problem 15 in his math, we switch to science (AIG) or reading. After completing science or reading, they'll often take a break for a snack or to play with their brother. Then I call Sam back for Shurley English, teach him his lesson and get him started on his work, and call Jon to do the same with him at his grade level. After they finish, they listen to a chapter Story of the World CD that correlates with what we are learning at CC, while I go make lunch. Sam is typically able to finish all of his work by lunch time. Jon usually finishes his math during quiet time, which is from 2-4 pm at our house, but occasionally has other work to finish up on as well.

Sam playing Mouse Trap with Will during a break from school

Tuesdays we meet with our CC community. My mom graciously comes and stays at our house with my little two, who are one and three. That gives me more freedom to help out in Jon and Sam's classes at CC. Classical Conversations for their age group, Foundations, is from 9:15-12:00. We stay for lunch to fellowship with the other families there. The kids love playing with their friends, and I love the encouragement I get from the other moms. If you are considering CC, and aren't sure if you'll stay for lunch, I would encourage you to try in for a couple weeks. I think you'll find that it is worth the effort of packing lunches to spend that time with other moms who are going through similar experiences. Next year, we'll stay for the afternoon for Essentials, Classical Conversations class for 4-6th graders, but for now, we head home around 1pm.
Thursdays we host a Bible study group for ladies from our church. It's such a blessing that they come to our house. I don't have to load up all four munchkins, and Maggie can take a nap here in her own bed. The boys get to hang out with friends in our basement with the sitter, while I enjoy fellowship and refreshment from God's Word and the ladies who come each week. It does make for a little bit of chaos with school. We don't start until after lunch, but I plan for Thursdays to be light. We do a shortened CC review, math, handwriting, and reading is often assigned as silent reading on their own during their little siblings' naps. That's the beauty of homeschooling, I can make Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays a little more saturated with work and Thursdays lighter, or we could do school longer into the summer, or...well, the possibilities are endless.

this boy is so messy-and the mess doesn't phase him a bit!

I love routine. It's for this reason that we don't take many random "days off" during the school year now. If we get out of our routines, it is like pulling teeth to get them back into those routines. And again I say, I love routine. We do take a week off in the fall to go to Alabama to visit family and have a vacation of sorts. Also, we usually take a week for Thanksgiving and Christmas to spend time with family. Besides that, we'll take a day here or there for field trips.

To sum all of this up, I am sharing this not because we've got the perfect routine or method here, but because I'm often asked and frankly, I like reading about what works for others. I'd love to hear from other homeschool moms about what works best for you. Or if you don't homeschool, but have ideas that you think my be helpful, please share!   I am often making little changes to make things run more smoothly. I love asking seasoned moms for their tips and tricks in all aspects of mommyhood. There is so much we can learn from each other along the way!

**It should be noted that I am completely overwhelmed at the thought of trying to do school with two preschoolers next year. Maggie won't be napping, and Will will just be turning four, so there will be some serious juggling going on over here. We've actually been talking to our super-wonderful-babysitter about being my mother's helper a couple mornings a week so that the younger two get some fun activities and attention while the older two can get some quality teaching from a mama who's attention is not quite so torn!**