Homeschooling with a little one…..

I have to admit: homeschooling has been very difficult with a little one in the house. It is hard to sit down and teach with a 6-month-old who is used to always being held and wants to grab everything and put it into his mouth. We were used to having our schedule and sticking to it....for the most part.

We have been able to get some work done but not all of it. We usually get through 5 or 6 subjects and we have only been able to get through Instruments, Math, Bible, and Spanish. These subjects are self-directed, while subjects like World History, Spelling and Science which require my input have not been done in the last month. 

I have been telling myself it is okay for a bit while we get ourselves back into a schedule. We are getting work done and we are obviously learning from our experience of having a baby in the house.

How did having a new little one change your homeschool day? Were you still able to be very involved? I would love to hear your comments and suggestions!

To pay or not to pay…that is the question?

Let’s talk chores and allowance… I know many parents have different opinions in whether to pay or not to pay their children allowance.

I would like to share what we do in our home. We actually do a combination of paid and unpaid chores. We agree kids should do their part in the home but we also take the opportunity to teach them about tithing, and financial responsibility.  We explained to our daughters that the same way mommy and daddy have to work outside of the home as our part we need them to “work” in the home so we can all share the responsibilities.

Some examples of the unpaid chores are pet care, bathroom, bedroom, and dishes. Some examples of paid chores are making dinner, dusting, polishing furniture, and cleaning refrigerator. The way we decided between paid and unpaid is the usual chores verses the extra chores.  Obviously more extensive chores get more money.  For example dusting is only 50 cents but making dinner is $3.00.  But of course all unpaid chores must be done in order for you to get paid on your paid chores.

What does your family do when it comes to chores and allowance?

Our First Placement

On November 6th I got the call every mom waiting to adopt hopes for. About 4:25pm I got a call asking if I wanted to accept an almost-6-month-old boy as a foster child.  I kept my cool as I was screaming on the inside and said yes.  My husband got home and we anxiously waited for someone to knock on our door. About 6:50pm we saw a white van with the state emblem pull into our driveway. My daughters where jumping from so much excitement to see the little guy coming to stay with us a while.  I took a deep breath and went to open the door. They brought him inside and we were all smiling from ear to ear from the happiness of having a little guy in OUR house!!!  

It has been amazing having him with us for 3 weeks now and it has definitely been a run down memory lane. The last time I had a baby in my house was 8 years ago. All the waking up in the middle of the night, changing diapers, and fixing formula has become almost foreign to me already. My girls absolutely love having him around.

Of course we are aware that our gain means someone else’s loss. We pray over “Baby A” and his mother every day. I have open communication with her. We text, call and send each other pictures several times a week. I hope to keep the relationship open so she can feel she still has access to her son. He is her son not mine right now and I have every intention to respect that.

Are you a foster mom? Or are you in the process of adopting from foster care? I would love to hear your story or to know how you deal with birth parents. Please feel free to comment.