What's New at Divine Mercy School

Last week marked the beginning of the 4th year of our homeschooling adventure. It hasn't always been easy or fun, but it has been rewarding. I love the fact that I am the person who is influencing my kiddos. Most of my own childhood memories revolve around school so I'm happy to be giving this gift to my kids: childhood memories of their family and learning together.

We've changed our schooling for the better this year. Michael suggested moving school from the kitchen table to the our carpeted basement area. I was hesitant at first because so much of my life is in my kitchen. My husband usually has pretty good ideas, so I decided to give it a try. We moved both of our little school lift-top desks downstairs, acquired a third desk for Nicholas, rearranged a bit of furniture and posted school stuff on the walls in our new space. Poof - a new classroom. We also added a new gate to the bottom of the stairs to keep the one year old downstairs with us. We truly live in a gated community now;)!

Here are a few other of the new things we are trying:

• Up at 7 AM. In order to make this happen, I put my coffee maker on a programmable timer. I figured if my coffee was already made when I got up, it would be easier for me to roll out of bed. It's working so far.


• Kid's Daily Devotional. Sophia and I have been doing this in the morning. It's a short meditation on a verse from one of the daily Mass readings. So far, so good.


• Mom's shoes on ASAP in the morning. Truly means I'm ready for school and getting things done when I put my shoes on. Not just sandals, but the lace up type. Sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference.


• Trying to get school started daily at 9, 9:30 at the latest. This helps as Will is now doing Kindergarten. Sophia is in 3rd grade. Nicholas and Alex are along for the ride, but they are going to be two very smart pre- and pre-pre-schoolers!


• Read Alouds at the couch upstairs, then downstairs for seat-work.


• I've also instituted homework...oops, I mean evening work. This is just a little review of some the things they were working on in the morning. Math worksheets, handwriting or cursive worksheets, flashcards, etc. Just a little work to reinforce what they did in the AM.

Now it isn't all rainbows and lollipops. Here are some of the things I'm dealing with:

• Alex. One Year Old. Enough said. Well seriously, the boy wants to gnaw on every crayon and pencil he finds. Hence, writing instruments are being highly policed.


• Alex...the Desk Dancer. Boy can he climb....and quickly! Working diligently to change his habits.


• Nicholas likes to answer Will's school questions. I've been setting him up with an "educational" video the past couple of days in the guest room, which is also in the basement. That is only going to last so long though. Got to figure something else out for him.

Some of the new curriculum we are using this year:

1. Blood and Guts AND The Body Book. Both are going to be very fun, hands-on anatomy texts for Sophia and any little boy who might be listening.


2. Story of the World. History with an activity book. :):):)


3. Catholic National Readers. Like the McGuffey Readers ... only CATHOLIC. How cool is that?


4. Miquon Math. A little math enrichment.


5. Piano lessons for Sophia.

Hopefully, I'll update again soon with how these changes are working out.

1st Day of 1st Grade

My student....

Truly a home school....

Reflections on First Week of Homeschooling

Sophia and I just completed our first full week of homeschooling. (We did a few days together the week before to start us off.) BOY - do I feel good! I can hardly believe it. Ever since Sophia was born we knew we would like to educate our kids at home. I admit that during the last five years I was usually happy to know it was still in the future. I was a little - okay, a lot - apprehensive about how it would go, or even IF I could actually do it. I guess I'm feeling very empowered as both a woman and a mother. Another way to describe it - I'm finally feeling like I've arrived at my vocation. You might call this the homeschool honeymoon!

My days have been spent doing school with Sophia in the morning (most days - some days we had activities, so we did school in the afternoon) and doing the household chores in the afternoon. Now, my kitchen wasn't very clean every single day, but we did manage to do laundry, pick up toys, and vacuum.

Some of the fun things we did this week include celebrating the Blessed Virgin Mary's Birthday on Monday, September 8th. We talked alot about it, read some stories about Mary, found a beautiful picture in our Art book titled, The Virgin, and made a chocolate cake to celebrate. On Thursday, we marked Patriot's Day by attending a homeschool group function at the National Guard Armory. We watched the guardsmen fold a flag, listened to some AMVET volunteers, and had a chance to visit (and run around) with other homeschool families.

Sophia also really enjoyed our "letter play" on Thursday and Friday. She wrote letters and numbers in shaving cream on a plastic place mat at the table. What could be more fun!
The drawback from all this very fulfilling busy-ness is that I have had very little time to talk to my sister and mother on the phone, as is our want, or spent much time on the PC, which is actually pretty good.

Now, not every single moment has been picture perfect, but we are developing our rhythm together as teacher and student. I have heard people say that homeschooling draws families together. I can attest to that after our first week. I already feel so much closer to Sophia through sharing these meaningful moments together.

So, one week down, only 11.95 years to go!