The Boys

Hudson's way of entertaining himself on laundry day.  He loves his (sister's) ride-on toy car.  On this day, he kept zooming up and down our long hallway.  He would manuever around the laundry baskets and head back out again.  Fulton had a great time chasing Hudson and trying to catch a picture of him as he sped by.  Hudson did take a rest on the watermelon which I thought was just so cute.  I don't normally laugh much as I do load after load of laundry for our mega family, but on this day, I laughed a lot!

Towards the end of the summer, meaning when we had carefree days before our rigorous homeschool schedule started, I was reading a Clifford book to Lilly, Ellie, and Ethan.  Ethan saw a boat similar to this one in the book and immediately began to talk Fulton into making one with him.  Thankfully we had an empty OJ container on hand.  These 2 boys had a blast working on their boats.  Fulton especially took his task very seriously and spent a lot of time on his.  Then the best part was sailing the boats in our kitchen sink.

Now that we are homeschooling, I feel as though I barely have time to breathe.  Updating the blog just isn't as high on the priority list as say math, fixing lunch, or doing laundry.  I will spotlight the girls the next chance I get though.

I Survived. . .

my first week of homeschooling 4 students while having not 2 but 3 toddlers running around!

Fulton started the school year off quite early.  This was at 6:40 AM!

Shelby is in 8th grade this year and is taking 2 courses for high school credit - a little scary for me!  Katie is in 6th grade and really wants to go to "real school".  Fulton is in 4th grade while Ethan is starting 1st grade this year.

These 2 little ones did great.  Since they are going to preschool at a local church in a few weeks, they simply enjoyed themselves without any real "school work".  They entertained themselves while the "big kids" and I were busy doing school.  Here they are in our "play closet" playing Leapsters.

This little guy caused a bit more stress for this homeschooling mom and her students.  Here he is in "time in" for . . .well, I really can't remember.

Only by God's grace have I made it this far in my homeschooling journey.  I remember when I first started prayerfully considering homeschooling back when Shelby was in kindergarten, I thought I would homeschool only one child at the time - when Katie graduated 5K at the church kindergarten, then she would come home for school.  Shelby would then leave homeschooling and go to a local private school and that would continue until the last one came home for school.  Obviously God had a much different plan.  It certainly is a challenge now that we have 7 children, but God strengthens me and equips me to get the job done.

Overall, it was a good first week, and we hope and pray it only gets better!