Homeschoolingthewholetribe

Because I have always felt the universe has dealt me a hand that has been too hard to carry at times. I made myself a promise that my children would feel what I never have loved and cared for.    Every parent I know wants what’s best for their children. But our idea of what is best for them might not always jibe with their ideal’s.   I am often in a battle with myself over gentle nudging and helping them with what personal decision they think is correct, trying to find that delicate balance between encouraging and pushing too hard. The question I am always asking myself is: Am I pushing too hard? At its best, getting kids to do things that are challenging for them will teach them grit and flexibility while also widening their world view — whether it’s participating in sports, trying out for a new class or engaging in a new social situation.  But at its worst, pushing children too far can cause them to retreat inward, become resentful or develop even greater anxiety a...

Vacation 2022  Dania Beach Florida     

  This year has been really hard on the whole family.  I have tried so hard to put everything out in the open so we as a family could start over.  I planned this family getaway so that we could reconnect and start healing.  I knew Al has been under a lot of stress lately, so I decided to surprise him by trying to involve him so that he felt important.  But for all my labor, all I got back from Al was mental shutdown and again being pushed away.  I was disappointed and hurt.  I Looked up the word "expectation" in a dictionary and I find two definitions. The first is about expectations that signify my belief about what someone should do. I expect my children to clean their rooms once a week and not hit each other. I expect my partner to be reliable—pay the electric bill when he says he will—to be honest and faithful. In real life, such expectations are like ground rules that create the foundation for a relationship and are usually openly talked about. B...

  Do you believe in the old adage that tells us that opposites attract for the better? Not only is it wrong – but it may be less true than we ever thought.    If you're like me you truly believed in the old wise tale that opposites attract,  Hell  if like me you put your whole life on it.  The older I get the more I realize that the older generation missed a few things.  Maybe back then marriages and friendships were established on a different foundation.   I don’t think they had the Disney-ified versions of this playing on the big screen so for us it has been kind of hard not to buy into this concept of the more opposite of our true self the better.   There are many important aspects of relationships, the most important being  personality traits, needs, and preferences that would be a much better fit when they are opposite or complementary, rather than similar.   I truly believe that I was attracted to my husb...

  If you would have asked me 15 years ago if I would be living in a sexless unforfilled marriage I would have laughed at you.... We use to have sex everywhere two or three times a day and it was amazing my husband was amazing.  I thought we had something special ... untill we didn't  There are many reasons we are here and to be honest we both have played a part in the failure of this part of our relationship ( here's my part).  I have always felt that I was never enough for anyone and my husband was added to the list a few years ago.  The devil has always played with that weak part of me  feeding into my  insercurites of just not being enough, not pretty enough, not small enough, not smart enough just never able to meet the standard of what I felt was already set .  To be honest being married and having my forever person  didn't help, in fact it made it worst Below are the three main reason I felt I aided in the lost our deep connection: 1) T...

  I need to find out when the feeling of exhaustion became my constant  reality? I was standing in the laundry room  eyeing loads and loads of clothing,  and the load that has been washed 3 times now. still set in the washer  I’d absent-mindedly  put it on again and forgot about it yay me!  A year or two before,  I’d have spent some energy upset about the waste.   Instead, I shrugged and blankly stared out the window in our laundry room, the trees becoming a hazy blur as I restarted  the koab for the fourth time.  I was too tired to care.   Sadly this wasn’t the first day I’d had such an apathetic reaction. Off and on for months, I’d  became impatient, anxious, maybe even uninterested in all things family.  It was a challenging state of mind, one I’d drifted into while caring for the six children I still had at home. As the washer started it's gentle dance,  I gave up on assembling a clean and organised laun...

 Rebuilding a Broken Relationship after months and years of damage! An old wise woman once told me that trust is the foundation of every relationship.   How do you rebuild trust once it is broken?  Trust can be broken in many different ways often infidelity and other times by the result of one partners behavior betraying the others sense of safety and confidence.   Trust can also be broken when unspoken expectation have failed to be met.  Lines get crossed when what is expected is not communicated to the other person.  What ever the cause hope is not lost.... You can rebuild trust but it will take work from both parties. Let's not not get ahead of ourselves it is crucial to understand what trust is, what it feels like , and how it looks.   Trust is described as a feeling of commitment and faith, like a big hug all warm and safe.  Trust is  something  you can consistently rely on a safe place to land when everything else is...

No one plans on their loved one becoming an addict?  It just happens somehow, somewhere out of the blue for some and by genetic default for others. Even though we can understand that our loved one who have become addicts are struggling with issues that they can't handle alone, but the human side of us still have the whys, whens, and hows that invade our thoughts and sway our emotions to deal with.  The constant questions of why can't they just stop using.  When is enough going to be enough? How could they do this if they loved us? Addiction comes with many faces it could present as prescription drugs, street drugs,  or alcohol and in many cases all the above. The Problem is as they struggle so do their loved ones, spouses, children, parents, and even friends. It is so important for those who love someone who  is struggling with drug abuse here are some signs to watch for :  Does the person in question sleep more or have irregular sleeping hours (not due...

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A WORKING HOMESCHOOL MOM So life is crazy enough just trying to homeschool throw a job in the mix and the fun really starts... LOL  So I thought it would be interesting to give everyone a peek into this craziness I call life.  So I will be sharing what a typical school day looks like for us with my work schedule included. Make sure you customize your schedule to fit your family best. MORNINGS Wake up by 6  – 7 I get up first and wake the children. The kids take a long time to get up.  To help with mornings we lay out everything out at night. I try to also prep for breakfast the night before also.  7-7:45 – We  ge t dressed and are on the road by 7:20.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday breakfast is on the  road and consists of stuff like yogurt/ granola, fruit, pop-tarts ( don't judge I try to buy the all-natural ones). Three days a week I teach at a local private school.  My 5 youngest take classes there and I tr...

A homeschool vision board is the same as a personal vision board.  The main difference between a personal vision board and a homeschool board is it will be about the vision you have for each of your children and the vision you have for your school. A  vision board  is a tool used to help clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal. Literally, a  vision board  is any sort of  board  on which you display images that represent whatever you want to work on, goals for each of your children, your self, or things you want for your school. The human imagination is powerful, but it works like a muscle. For most of us, that power remains potential power and it's never fully utilized. A vision board allows you to  exercise  your imagination regularly, creating a more vivid vision of your ideal homeschool life as you develop your ability to make your visions, tangible and the benefits attainable. You'll need:...

8 children and two adults populate my home, which means that we buy a lot of groceries, make a lot of meals, do a lot of laundry, clean a lot of floors, homeschool daily, pack a lot of lunches -- you get the picture. There's a lot to do. And even if your family can fit in a sedan which we can not, there's still a lot of work involved in raising a family. I don't know about you, but being the only  person in the family who knows how to do everything is very tiresome.   I believe that others in my home should also share the knowledge of how to operate complicated machinery like a toaster, a washer, and the bathroom sink. So I decided to approach my home life as I would a client project: I created a home Operations Manual. From the get-go, I set out to create a Operations Manual, at first I packaged it in a navy blue three-ring binder. If I had called it "Mom's Journal" or "Family Planner" or anything else, and if I had chosen a prettier binde...

I sat with one of my best friends today and secretly we both wished school was over.  I  have been feeling this way for a while, something has not been working and we are all feeling it.  Between the sick days,  hurricane days and just the regular I don't want to do school today days.  Our last  evaluation let me know how we had done academically for the year. But, it also let me know what we NEEDED to do better a lot better. This is the time of year when most homeschool moms are evaluating one way or another. And we all at some point ask ourselves the following questions: What has been working? What’s not? How many days do we have in? Are we behind?   What could we do better?  But, what if your evaluation as mine did just reiterates the fact that homeschooling just isn’t working?   Like me maybe you’ve been trying and things haven’t gotten easier, in fact on most days it is down right heartbreaking,  T...

I made a statement on facebook yesterday that homeschooling my youngest son Amaziyah is about as hard as herding cats! ( No Joke) Amaziyah (Ami)  is such a strong willed child .  I use to ask my self  what I had did to be blessed with such a strong willed child . Ami sincerely believes that the world was created for him and revolves around him.  It took me a while to understand that this was just Ami and he was born this way.  I truly believe that most strong willed children like Ami grow uo to be natural born leaders. I guess I can't complain much  because I was the same way, I had an extra dose of well everything.  Ami is made of the same thread.  He has always had an extra dose of confidence and vision, but oh my God combine those two things with his age, lack of wisdom, experience and understanding and most days i have the perfect melt down or major storm depending on the day and time.  The funny thing is he truly does believe that he ...

My loves and my heart beats....  Children and Grands All ready for his new adventure! Learning to give back!! My sweet hearts! Sleeping Beauties  Ema's babies  Ema's baby!