Dressed himself today and I had to capture it in all its glory...

Today was a good day! 

I felt like a good mom almost the whole day and that is a pretty big accomplishment these days!

We started a new curriculum, My Father's World (I seriously needed something that would S-P-E-L-L things out for me, step-by-step so there would not be such mental wandering that has been going on round these here parts), and Day 1 went very smoothly! 

After we had covered the stuff provided, we were on such a roll that we added some math work pages (this was partly to make up for the fact that the majority of October has been "Unofficial Fall Break"). 

We also made use of the GIANT World map we had put up on our loft wall.  Since we reviewed the letters A, B and C in our reading work, we located all the countries that begin with those three letters.  It was very educational, even for a "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego-loving kid" such as myself (and a bit of a joy to see my son share my love for Geography!).  I challenge you, too, to look up where Armenia, Benin and Bhutan are located. 

Then, we made homemade play dough and finished our day playing at the park.  My house is a mess, but these are the days I need to use to remind myself of why we're doing what we're doing. 

I'm Back, perhaps?

A little "music appreciation"

For the one person who reads this (I'm looking at you, Julie! ; ), I have been inspired to write some more.  I had taken a bit of a break because I would say I have been in a bit of a season of discouragement with the whole homeschooling thing for the last couple weeks (when your season of discouragement happens to encompass almost 50% of your entire homeschooling history, I don't think that's a good sign).

So, I took a break.  I took a break from blogging about it, I took a break from actually doing it.  I did not seem to take a break from thinking or stressing about it (therefore, it wasn't like it was much of a "vacation").  Regardless, I didn't want this to turn into a place where all I did was complain all the time. 

Let's be honest.  I started out with the intention of recording my experiences homeschooling and pretty all I've done so far is list all the ways my toddler prevents me from homeschooling (and although they're pretty funny stories--always in hindsight, sometimes during the actual event).  That said, it's not his fault I've been such a homeschooling slacker, I think I've just felt completely and totally overwhelmed. 

This week (just in time for when my family comes to visit so we'll be having a more unstructured week anyway), I actually felt re-energized and so yesterday we really "hit the books" hard.  It was really exciting.  I got to see him have a few "lightbulb moments" as he was catching on to some new math concepts and we had some really great time together.

 Of course, 30 minutes later, he was driving me crazy again, so it's not like we've entered a land of magical rainbows or anything.  But there was a ray of hope.