Help me salvage this school year! (Very long)

[lmercon]

Oh, my, you do have so much on your plate right now. You have received really great advice. Just do what you can, and leave it at that. HOD makes is so easy to leave off and pick up the next day. I had to do that that my severely dyslexic ds when he was younger. It was such a relief to know that I didn't HAVE to have every box checked every day. As far as house cleaning, I would only spend maybe 10 min. quickly straightening up the hot spot that most bothers you. It seems to me that you're frantically trying to get the house in order, which is causing you to get a late start on school, meanwhile the house is being undone by the kiddos. Then, Daddy comes home to a messy house AND less school accomplished than you would like. I would suggest, in the morning, a quick once-over in the spot that most "gets" to you. Then get an early start to school when the kids are fresh and not involved in activities that are hard to transition out of to get back to school. In the afternoon, take a little time to yourself - maybe you can get naps/in-room quiet time all at the same time for the kids. Then a bit before Daddy gets home, it's all hands-on deck. A nice spruce up will create a welcoming atmosphere for Dad when he arrives. The kids can have fun cleaning because they know Daddy's on his way.
Just some thoughts.

[MerryHeart]

Thank you all so much for your kind words & encouragement. You all shared so much good advice. I have read over every reply multiple times & have been praying about it all.

And thank you most of all for your prayers.

[faith0428]

First off, God bless you! You definitely have a lot on your plate! And I honestly haven't read over all the other responses, but one thing that came to mind regarding the challenge of having the guide handy is to take it somewhere and have the binding removed and it three hole punched. I think it only costs a few dollars to have this done at an office supply store like Office Depot or even Kinkos. Then you can put it in a big three ring binder and take out only the pages for the day you are working on. You could put those pages in a clear page protector to help keep them from being damaged while you are using them.

As far as keeping up with housework, meals, day to day responsibilities, etc., I know that is a challenge for probably all of us! I find that our school day goes better if I limit housework in the morning so that we can get our school day started early which results in it finishing earlier too. That leaves me more time in the afternoon to work on housework. And with school, maybe you could go at a little slower pace to begin with. One day you could focus on math, handwriting, etc. and the next day work on history, science, storytime. If you complete half a day each day that will be a start and a great feeling of accomplishment!

Lastly, yes, having a schedule definitely does help. but understandably doesn't always work out perfectly each day! Maybe set a time frame that you will work towards making sure school starts each day. Then you could commit to spending a certain amount of time each day on school. I think keeping in mind that each day is different and trying not to be overwhelmed when things don't go how we in vision helps a lot!

Prayers and blessings!

[Cherylanne]

I just read an article about how Finland's schools/student are way ahead of the US and yet they don't start formal education until age 7. I think we have become so ingrained to believe that we must start much younger at 3 and 4 for the kids to be "prepared"...If this is true why are kids not graduating earlier that they did when I started. My mom didn't send us to kindergarden (before it was required) but went straight to 1st grade only knowing our alphabet and numbers. We all graduated they same as the ones who went to kindergarden. Now we are constantly hearing they need to be in pre-k to be prepared for kindergarden! Just doesn't make sense to me.
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about fitting in a curriculum with the younger ones until things even out. If I had it to do over with mine (who went to ps) I would just read to them a lot more and give them some opportunities to learn on their own. I let my little ones watch too much TV instead of doing more active playing in which I have read research shows playing is definitely learning.

That's JMO and I too struggle with organization and time management and I'm not facing the struggles you are. Praying for your journey.

[tpschettle]

No advice, but I will pray for you & your daughter, MerryHeart! You are a mighty warrior. I can't imagine having the strength to handle what you've been doing. God's grace is amazing! Many blessings to you.

[MerryHeart]

I thought I would give a quick update. After praying & talking it over with my husband we decided to combine the older girls in LHFHG. I will keep them separate in skill areas (right side). I also have in my mind that it's ok if we don't get to every box every day. I will go half speed or 3/4 speed if needed. I plan to start little ones in LHTH (probably half speed) & will take Carrie's advice to look at it as an opportunity to spend some time with my little ones.

I tried to implement some of the suggestions given-I tried to go to bed with a clean house-enlisting whole families help before their bedtime. It really helped. A few nights it didn't happen but that's ok. I also followed Julie's advice to set timer for chores. Worked great! I waited til baby took her morning nap to start school this week & since the big girls had their chores done it helped everything run more smoothly.

There is still a lot of other work to be done but I am only going to try one or two new things each week. I probably won't start LHFHG for a month so I can get our routine rebuilt & work out some of the problem areas.

I think most important thing I learned from you all is to give myself some grace during this season. I guess because I have become accustomed to our 'challenges' I didn't realize stressful our family's situation was. Typing it out & then reading all the sweet words of encouragement really helped me to lighten up. I feel so much more peaceful & hopeful about school! Thank you all!

I will update here again after we get going in LHFHG.