Have You Ever Had One of Those Days?

I guess the way this week has been is God's hilarious way of bringing me back into reality! Since we have been homeschooling, this has been THE worst week we have ever had! I guess this is what I get for being so "proud" of how smoothly things have gone since we decided to homeschool. It all came to a head yesterday.......

As I was preparing for the day, ya know, making plans, and copying what the kids would need for review, testing, etc. I came to their history test. Now mind you, we have only been schooling for our second full week of school. As I pull out this test to copy, I realize this test is 4 whole pages long!! And to top this off, it is only 5th grade work! Now, me having test phobia(or some form of it), I start to freak out within myself, thinking, there is NO WAY the kids are gonna handle this!!!! I also pulled out their Science which they were supposed to have a test also in and it was 3 pages long.

Frustrated I emailed Nancy who I consider to be a great friend and asked her to help me sort through all this. I also contacted another great friend, Kim, who is using the same kind of curriculum that I am using. They both gave me great advice! I thought I might share that with you since you may be going through the same thing.

1) If the tests seem to hard, don't do them. Use the workbook review pages as test material. Since History and Science are not core subjects you don't really have to test unless you want to.

2) Do Unit Studies to learn subjects that are not core subjects. You can lump things together to help them learn better.

3) Use the History and Science books as readers instead of a "Textbook".

4) Don't do History and Science both on the same day. It makes the day way toooo long!!!

After talking with both of them and talking with my husband, the kids and I decided to treat these subjects more like our reading time and will do reviews when we feel they are necessary.

I can honestly tell you that if you are trying to do this all alone, without friends to turn to when you have questions, you will run into lots of walls and problems.

I am so glad that God reminded me that not every day can be perfect. On those days that are not so perfect, take a step back, as I have noted on numerous occasions and BREATHE!!! God will work it all out if you let Him!!!