Smittle Academy Coming Soon!

My favorite time of the year is upon us. I just love fall. Maybe it's my love of cowboy boots and denim, or maybe it's hot cocoa and football games. Either way, I love fall! This year we're extra excited as we'll head to Disney in just a little over 3 weeks! With fall also comes the start of school. This year feels a little off for me. I'm not sure what it is, but to be honest I didn't really want to homeschool after the end of the year last year. I'm sure you understand that teaching 6 kids under 9 is tough! I look at the amount of kids that would be in school if we sent them to public school(this year that's three), and all I can think of is how much easier that would be for me. I'm tired, ya'll!
Then I started thinking about the bottom line. The real reason why we homeschool. We have such a privilege to teach our children at home. We are able to include any amount of scripture reading we want, we get to be there when they have those aha! moments, and we can school as a family however and whenever we want. I love that.
SO, I put on my big girl pants and decided for a new plan of attack. I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a bit of an organizer. Ha! The last two years I've been trying to go with the more classical training of the whole child, but it's really not my style, and I just ended up being stressed out if we didn't dot every i and cross every t, and there were SO MANY i's and t's! HA! I kept trying to make it work, but it just really stressed me out and the kids weren't really getting it. SO, I decided I needed to get back to what works for me know while I've got so much going on and so many littles who aren't in school yet. If I'm doing what works for me I'll be a better teacher and the kids will enjoy learning.
After looking at everything under the sun I decided to just go straight Abeka(other than Saxon Math). I love how Abeka teaches phonics, and I'll have two young readers this year, so I'm excited about that. I also love a more classic approach to history, so I'm so excited about our worksheets and state capital quizzes! We've been using Saxon Math the entire time we've homeschooled, and that's always worked out great for us, so we'll continue to use it for now.
Are you new to homeschooling? Use whatever works for you! Don't worry about doing the latest and greatest. Don't worry about what all the other momma's are using or what looks pretty. Use what works for YOU. It will make you a better teacher/mom, and it'll make your little learners happy too! It's so easy in the homeschool circle to feel judgment from other moms, but resist, find a mom who gets you, and go with your gut. That is another freedom of homeschooling!
Are you dreading starting school? Maybe it's time to look at your fall line-up. Have a curriculum that you don't understand? Change it up! Even if you get into the year and you feel like you've come too far to turn around and get into something new. STOP. Step away from the Math-U-See(the curriculum that was NOT made for me and/or Olivia). Find something that works, then finish it out however you can. That may look like Math through the summer, but that's OK. It's yet another perk in homeschooling.
All of that to say, Smittle Academy is getting geared up for a fantastic year of school. Come Monday morning we'll be rocking the new school room Abeka style!