Burn-out Encouragement night topic

Here where we live, we are fortunate to have a large homeschooling community. Every month,  mothers are invited to get together to discuss an area of homeschooling.
This month was burn out. I can identify with burn out in others areas of my life. My job as a Midwife was wonderful, but very stressful. I worked Delivery Suite. You never knew what the shify would entail.
I had every symptom of burnout, but my time to move out of the unit for a 6 week break was 12 months away. WHAT!! I was desperate, so I organised with another midwife of exactly the same experience to work my 6 week roster, and I would do her roster in post natal.
The Lord had other plans, because I was sick before I could take my break. I had the Flu twice, and then Pertussis. I was very weak when I returned to work months later, but nurses soldier on, don't we. I looked at my Roster. Night duty, and 2 solid weeks. Argh. I welled up. In that moment, I knew I had to leave. The Midwife looking across at me, when I read my roster, could see how upset I was. I was struggling getting to work for reduced hours and getting out of bed on time. I was exhausted getting from the carpark to the unit. So how was I going to do 10 and half hour nights. And look after my family.
So what were my symptoms of burnout. It is a little embarrassing but... I dreaded every labouring women walking in the door. "If I hear another....". I didn't want to spend time getting to know the couple and the Mum to be. Totally unlike me, I couldn't see my way clear, everything was fussy regarding work. My clarity had gone. I knew this was not the best way to present myself in my area of work. This is why I knew it was the best thing for me, to have a break.
It never happened.
I left the next day. I didn't give my mandatory 4 weeks’ notice. I took extended sick leave. All my colleagues were totally shocked.
When I had recovered sufficiently,  I worked casual at the local Private Maternity Hospital.

So Burn out, I do know the signs. I may find myself stressed from time to time, but it is me creating the stress. Placing unfair expectations on Brid. So how do I deal with the stress. It might sound simple, but I take it The Lord.
I re-evaluated our school day. What was necessary and what was not.
A word used last night was 'slashing' curricula. I do that often. I felt guilty in the past, at times. Do others do this? And the answer is Yes they do. So if things aren't working we try a new direction, all the while learning.
At present we are using a resource. Stories of the Saints - CatholicHeritage Curriculum. Great resource, but we slash as we go. Brid is still learning. The resource covers all the key learning areas, and more. Therefore, if Brid is not happy doing a question, I access. "Is this worth it". More than not,  its better to have  harmony, enjoy the topic than drudge through it. Often we reap much more this way.
I wake up every morning wondering what God has install for us this day. I love homeschooling Brid, I love our lifestyle, I love the fact that my darling hubbie works from home, I love my family and I thank God for every opportunity, he places in my path.
This post did not follow the path I expected it would but it followed its own journey....
Two of my homeschooling friends, from the hunter, have written great posts on last night’s topic. Pop over and have a read.

New Blog

I have created a new Blog for all my school entries.
 Including my older childrens stories from there schooldays.
Life as a Catholic Homeschooling family.
Come in and have a look.
I am still deciding what to add as gadgets.
I have already added some older posts.

Encouragement

 

We are very Blessed here in the Hunter Valley, NSW to have an evening set aside, once a month, when us Mums get together and encourage each other in the calling of homeschooling.


We gather in a home central to most of us. We share a welcoming drink and yummy food and we chatter. Getting to know each other better.


We make our way to the loungeroom and we settle. We ask God to be with us, thanking him for his greatness and providence and we begin our evening session.


We share our ups and our downs.


We laugh and we remember and we listen lovingly to each other, as we share our stories. All our stories are so different. Why we began homeschooling, where we are now in our journey, where to from here and the list went on.


We were asked to think how God talks to us in our journey. How much do we listen to his guidance and do we trust in his journey for us.


This lead to lots of great discussion.


At the same time our teen girls are being guided in a little share group of their own. All 8 sit at the dining room table and one of the older girls was asked to take a leadership role in their group. I am so proud of these girls; they are taking the steps in sharing and listening to each other, with love and respect. Brid is enjoying having this special contact with her friends and is relishing in all the sharing.


Brid took along her All things Girls books- essentially Catholic, but there is a lot of good solid wholesomeness to share and talk about. It certainly could be a spring board for them.


The night ends too quickly, and we find ourselves in the car driving away with our spirits lifted. We have wonderful talks on the way home. Lots of deep sharing from the heart. Brid just chatters away. At one point she said, if I was at school, I don’t think I would be having this conversation with you Mum. Very true I would think.


This leads me to tonight’s discussions. We love our girlie nights, and we take the opportunity to light a candle, pray, and read a mum daughter book. We are cherishing our Beautiful Girlhood nights and they themselves generate lively discussions. Tonight we chatted about sincerity and ideals. It was a beautiful way to share some time together.


.

... funny thing happened .........

Well today was the day set down for my Board of Studies interview. I had been preparing and making sure everything was in order. I was quietly confident.
I had a friend, a couple of months ago, help me rename the study areas into BOS language- ie LOTE- foreign language, PHDPE- areas of personal health and physical exercise. That certainly helped me feel better about interview.
So the day came.
I had all our resources we were studying or going to study on the kitchen bench. Its a long bench- plenty of space to display.
I had printed off this years plan and next years as well.
All our library and living books were displayed for easy perusal.
Dermot went to work very early, so he would be at home for the scheduled meeting time.
We prayed today for the meeting to go smoothly and left it in Gods hands.
So Dermot arrived home with 20 minutes to spare. "thank you Lord".
our "appointed person" was on time and Dermot answered the door, followed hot in his heals by Brid and myself.
We welcomed her into our home and into our school area. Brid was asked were she does most of her schooling, and then over to the resources.
Brid quickly took over the interview and thoroughly enjoyed showing our appointed Person all her work, and how we would be doing our work this year. She explained Saxon Maths, She showed her examples of IEW and her magazines she worked on last year.
Every question directed to me Brid answered. I just stood back and watched her do her thing in the end. 

The appointed person(AP), enjoyed interacting with Brid and told her, that she was a confident young lady, at which Brid quietly thanked her. 

Brid was so enthusiastic and was so willing to participate in this interview, it was amazing to observe. 

So my dear Brid took over the interview and it was the funniest thing to have happen. I suppose, it was inevitable that this may occur. She is certainly a happy little homeschooler. 

Australian Parliament & Government Part II

These are the finished posters that Brid made. She worked really hard and there is a lot of detail.
Hope you can make some of it out

there was enough information to make 2 posters. She has little flaps over selected areas as well

Brid wrote about how a Bill was passed, that was very interesting. next to it on the right is the original questions I had her answer- look at previous post 

Brid merged the 2 houses so she could place various key people in there positions

Brid followed the levels of government and now has a fairly good understanding of who does what. She even found our Local councils emblem

Australia, Parliament and more

Every year we begin our homeschooling year with Australia, in one form or another.
This year, I decided Brid needed to discover more about Australian Parliament & Government. So I proceeded to write out a list of questions and gather some links.
I wrote down basic questions to start with, knowing she would want to research and investigate various areas. The questions were:-Who is our PM, What council do we belong to, Who is the Local Mayor, How is a Bill passed, what type of government system do we have???? etc. These are random- they were set out much neater and in order.
I had a few links to various kid friendly sites like this as well.
This has been quite a worthwhile project. I have not assisted in this one at all. Brid has had a vision for it and has set out to achieve that goal by herself. I have been banished from the school area, so she can surprise me. So tomorrow is the day it must be completed. From the little peek I have had its looking good.



Parliament House, Canberra.



Teens and homeschooling

It was so nice to see a bunch of girls, including my Brid,  at the Presentation Day for our Area, late last year,  sitting chatting and not one felt left out. They were all engrossed in the conversation. So my heart melted- that is so nice. I knew this would be a good thing.
Now we are in our 6th year of homeschooling and its been a great experience for the whole family. We are heading into the teen years now.
Although we have been there before with 3 teens, they were largely involved with Catholic Schools- so they had friendships formed.
We are Blessed in our homeschool area to have several teens and Mums who want there teens to expand beyond the computer and the Wii and the techno stuff.. ( all that stuff is great, but there is nothing like chatting and 'doing' with other teens.) As said School can look pretty inviting at this time, because there are no teens at events being held.
Brid has been praying for a Teen group, a teen prayer group and get to know you group for teens.
Her prayers were answered as I logged into our local proboard, and saw all these things Teens unfolding.
An activity type group, a teen girls group to be run at the same time as a Mums group, Various picnic days. Brilliant.
She has several good Homeschool friends from the local area and others from homeschool camp. I made sure that she developed friendships a few years ago when the wind was taken out of our sales with 2 family crisis', within 3 months of each other. Brid prayed and I prayed for Girls here age to be at various events. And Guess what, God is good, it happened.
So as well as various catch ups with teens- ie birthdays and just because..., I think we will have a strong little group, if we as Mums and Dads all stay strong and keep it going.
Praise God for his mighty work. Thank you Lord.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Yesterday, we celebrated The Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We got up very early, for us, and drove to the Monastery of the Holy Redeemer for 8.30am Mass. It is a 35 min drive for us through some pretty aussie farm land. There is a group of cloistered Nuns who live in the Monastery, and we knew they would be attending Mass with us.
Mass began and I had to adjust my ears to hearing these voices coming from behind a opaque glass wall. The Mass was said beautifully By Fr John. It was a very special Mass and it was lovely to celebrate Our Ladys feast day at this Monastery.
Afterwards we shared morning Coffee and yummy foods at a homeschool families home. It was great to just be able to sit and enjoy the presence of these Mums, while the children made up imaginary plays.
We were entertained at the end of our morning by Jack and the Beanstalk narrated play. It was very busy and animated. The kids had been practicing during the morning.

The school year is coming to a close

Well its been a huge year for us homeschooling.
Brid has had a huge learning curve and I feel the curricula we have invested in, have been worthwhile.
Brid understands that it makes her Dad and I very happy when she completes her work and turns her work in to us on time.
We are at a crossroads or are we?
Brid will progress into high school next year.
Several of the curricula used this year has been high school level. So there will be a natural progression and not a jolt.

So what has changed and worked for us?
We have followed the liturgical year much more closely. Maybe, we haven't posted about various feast days, but we have journeyed in our own way- but that's another post.
1 IEW has made a big difference to our English and writing program. With this, Brid has been able to write her first Essay. Her essay was about one of her  favourite Composer, Beethoven. We used this book as a reference and  using the IEW techniques and dress ups she wrote an informative report.
2 Saxon Maths continues to impress me with its explanations and its lesson plans.
3 Nature study and botany has been fun this year. It has been quite hands on and we have all learnt a lot about our beautiful plants in Australia, and how they have adapted to our Climate.
Our topic approach has certainly freed us up to explore and delve into an area of study for a longer length of time. It has taken the bite out of watching the clock to fit lots of subjects per day.
American Indians was a great success. We spend 3 weeks discovering these people and their land.
Catechism in the lounge room with Dad has been a great success. Once a week we get together and discuss learn listen. Its been a great experience, especially for Dermot & I,  who were not taught the catechism as children.
We have delved in Bible history and enjoyed the discovery of the Bible. Alongside this a dear friend has lend us several Saint books. thanks. They have been fun.
Art was covered every week, by a very kind and sweet friend Bernie. We drove 40 minutes each way, and observed the changing scenery throughout the year. We have experienced a year long Art course, designed for high schoolers, but adapted for young Children as well. It was excellent, and boy did we learn a lot. It certainly was a great in depth Look at Art Design.
We are so proud of Brid, her commitment to her studies in well noted.
We will change things next year a little. We will introduce more Classical Literature. We have purchased our Religion, History and  Science syllabus and will purchase everything else we need as the year progresses.
There are definite advantages to educationing only our youngest daughter. We have more time, We have been there done that, fought the battles and now we choose the battles which we know are important. We know God has Blessed each of us.
So a well deserved break, very soon is in order for us all. Phhewww!

Happy feast Day. St Nicholas pray for us.

.

American Indians -part 3

The last 3 weeks Brid has been researching and reading about American Indians. The last part of her project was to complete a report. Here is the link to my post on the lesson plan. Brid not only did this project solo, but typed every word and made the typed word fit and match the shape of the image. 

Brid has learnt about Blessed Kateri Tekawitha and St Isaac, and we have added them both to our All Saints Poster.


adding finishing touches



work ready to be pasted










now lets sort them



Sticking the lapbook together

 



The proud girl and her work

Showing off her hard work.



Last week....

It was an unusual week. Firstly getting over the very late night coming home from the Canonisation events.

Dermot was sick with a Flu all week. So between looking after him, running the business in his absence and schooling Brid, it was a big week.

Our Unit study on American Indians is going well. Still enthusiasm and enjoyment. We are now putting together the Lapbook, and it means lots of cutting sticking and creativity.

We began our next Saxon Maths book, with Brid wanting to attempt 2 lessons for the first week. That was Ok with me, but by day 3, I could see her concentration waining. Now when I say 2 lessons, they are fairly easy, as they review the last book, so I choose some questions from the lesson for Brid to complete. So maybe 20- 22 questions in total. But then we were back to one lesson a day.

We have a new piano teacher and she has certainly inspired Brid. She is teaching her some new skills and motivating her to play harder pieces. Brid is up for the challenge. Brids 'last piano teacher was lovely and we have only moved on because her Hisband has taken work in another city.

I am continuing to tackle the yards and getting it straightened out by summer.

We are watching our plants grow in our pots. I am going to add more this weekend....it rained so this didn't happen.

We watched Brids ballet rehearsal on Sunday. Very sweet.

Louise popped in and we made bags for her Irish Dancing shoes.

new homeschool look

The last few months has been driving me crazy with storage issues with all our homeschool bits and pieces. After reading one ispiring blog or 5, I thought I need to do something. But what. I had craft stuff in 3 different areas. OH and S would have had a feild day here!.
Anyway, I had a custom made shelves and drawers made for one young boy some years ago, and its not needed anymore. It was sitting looking lifeless in our Spare room.
So Brid and I unpacked it and moved it to our school area. We don't have a school room, but what we have is effective were it is.
So here are some pictures of our new storage with our Missals, Saints books and Prayer space on top.

Our family Alter in the lounge room.

 I won't show you Brids' desk. Its a little messy, but a good mess. Its a creative mess.

American Indians

These are the resources we are using at the moment for researching and exploring the Native American Indians. We have also downloaded this for extra resources. Its been a lovely change from the usual school day. I have left most of the setting out to Brid, and again she has put together a framework for her work to be completed. I have used a very simple lesson plan. I also have sourced a book by Holling. The book of Indians. A very good book, easy read aloud, and thank you to the ladies on 4 real for suggesting it. It covers the main tribes of North America, in a story. Wealth of information.

The framework for a teepee

One book I forgot to put in was Pocohontas. It was completed very early on and was very enjoyed. Thank you to all the people who helped me source resources for this study. We will update soon, but Today we are looking at our soon to be 1st Australian Saint. Mary of the Cross. Have a Blessed Day

A most Special Evening

Just recently we as a Catholic community were in for a treat in the grounds of The Holy Redeemer Monastery- a cloistered order of Nuns, in the Hunter Valley.
It was the Anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun, Fatima.
We were asked, as a dioceses, to gather around 6.30pm for a picnic tea in the grounds. It was a lovely gathering as many of our homeschooling families travelled from all areas of the hunter to be there.

Some of our homeschool friends

It was then time for The Rosary Procession. Several Priests lead the Procession, two homeschool boys were candle bearers and Brid was asked to carry a banner of Our Lady. The Our Lady Statue was surrounded in flowers and was totally gorgeous. Each Priest took his turn to read a scripture and a reflection on the Glotious Mysteries of the Rosary.

Its she just beautiful

The Samoan Choir sang several hymns and also 2 in there native language.
After a Reflection on The Fatima story and how it purtains to today, we were asked to gather before the Cross for Benediction. All the traditional hymns were sung and it was a very special evening enjoyed by all.
 It took me back to my childhood at another Monastery in Newcastle were I vaguely remember Rosary Processions. I pray we may further be Blessed with more regular Processions.

Ready and waiting for the Blessed Sacrament to Arrive

Homeschool camps

Well we have been Blessed enough to have attended 2 homeschool camps in the last 3 weeks. One was in the glorious sunshine provided by Our Lord- 7 hours drive north, the other was in the cold crisp air also provided by Our Lord, a few hours south of our home.
We had an awesome experience at both Camps, and neither could be compared.
Fr Terence Mary is a Franciscan Priest who provided the Latin Mass, Adoration, Rosary, Benediction,  Rosary Procession and Confessions for us at the first camp ( Northern Rivers). He also provided great spiritual direction and gave us adults and our children great talks.
We played on the beach and caught up with friends and made new friends.
We had wonderful games and concerts in the evening.
We had the Bishop of Lismore attend the local church for Confirmations and Holy Communion. That was a beautiful Mass and the Girls including Brid sang in the Choir.
An opportunity was provided for the Mums to have a Mums only night and the Dads to have a Dads only night. So we talked homeschooling, exchanged ideas and encouraged each other at these nights.
The beach was the scene for lots of fun and sandcastles and sculptures. Lots of competition between the kids.
A Sports day was a lot of fun with MacKillop, Assisi and Bosco being the 'house names'. There was lots of support and encouragement for each other. Fr Terence was there to encourage the stranglers who may have given up, that was a blessing to see.
Each Day Fr Terence fed us Spiritually and each day our tummy's were fed as well. Our hearts were fed with encouraging warm supporting homeschooling Mums and Dads. Wonderful experience.
And our bank accounts had the opportunity to be debited by resources freely available. Especially the divine Gifts in support of the Carmelite Order- Lismore.

Lennox Head Beach

The next camp was one we attend twice a year- Easter and September. Its were we have several friends, and a place that gets so cold, but its atmosphere is very warm and welcoming. The best bit was that Dermot attended with us.
Fr Perry, from Wagga Seminary, Provided our Spiritual Direction and Our Mass, Adoration and Benediction daily. He was also there for our Confessions.
Food was provided by 2 very gorgeous and pregnant young Ladies- God Bless you both. They are sisters- there Mum organises September camp, so lots of helpers where in the kitchen to help them out. It was great food and lots of networking happened in the dining room meal times.
We had several talks during the day by several parents and Our Priest. The children were broken up into age groups and had catechism as well as practical talks. Brid learnt about Relics and Hospitality, in her group. Her group had a high tea to celebrate what they had learnt in Hospitality. We had discussed Relics in our History earlier in the month, so it was timely.
The Sisters of Charity were available on Monday to spend the day with us. It was Mother Teresa 100th birthday and they wanted to talk about her. It was a brilliant opportunity to talk with this order.
The kids had lots of free time. The girls around Brids' age found a cabin free and played and chatted in there.
Did I tell you that there was a book store as well. yes, but the prices were so outrageous I didn't purchase very much.
There is a bed time curfew for the kids and as the cabins are away from the main dining areas, its easy to sleep. Usually I would go off to bed early, but with Dermot at camp with me, it meant I wasn't responsible for driving, so therefore we stayed up chatting.

I loved both camps, and as they are spread out next year I think we will go to both again. I loved spending time with my blogger friends from both camp, namely, Erin, Tricia, Linda, David & Gil, who did I forget.! I loved spending time with my 4 real friends at Lennox head - Erin, Tricia, and Linda. My only regret was not getting a photo of the hunter valley mums- Tricia, Jane, MaryRose at Lennox head.

Now its official, its school hols in this state~!!

Fitzroy Falls chapel

 

Tricia, me, Erin, Linda- Lennox Head









The way we approach our school day

Recently I was asked to talk about how we approached our day, at a Homeschool camp, It was very late, so I skimmed through my notes and picked the most important and relevant parts for that evening. It did make the talk a little jumpy, so I decided to share it here. Some of this has been shared before.

A few months ago, Brid was feeling very tired and after all the usual good food, rest, reducing activity etc., and these were not effective, we decided to take a break from the usual book work. ( she had grown 8cm in a few months, looking back on it).

I searched homeschool share and others for inspiration, for a lapbook/ notebook and saw one on Ballet. Brid loves to dance, so I knew she would love this. Brid entered into the spirit of the project with zest and got out all her old ballet books, picture books and used them as references as well. It was interesting to see her style of learning, how she organised her work, and worked her way around her project.

So my mind started working overtime,why not trial this approach with all her topics we cover? All we would keep from our current timetable would be religion/devotion, saint reader, cursive writing practice and maths. This meant after morning tea @ 11ish, she was free to embellish her topic.
So what topics would we do like this?
Science, History, Geography, Music, Art, Latin, Virtues, everything.

So what’s so good about it?
Brid gets momentum, there is no stop/ starts. I see it as a preparation for high school work. (in Australia high school starts from 13). She is free from scheduling as such. I know she can stick to task as her concentration has increased. We are seeing much more work completed and being put on display more often. So Brid is very much encouraged by this.

So what about subjects she isn’t keen on? Well that is why we created a newspaper. It can be quite a fun thing to write a newspaper and all those areas that you ‘have to do’, can become much more alive.

So will we continue? Yes we will in one form or another. I can see a place for it. I know Brid has matured in her studies, and on reflection, we had moved away from a bookwork, schoolie approach a while ago.

So in the future we will tweek it as I need to. Next term, we are looking at American Indians- we haven’t studied much American history, and although this will only be a snapshot, we can spend lots of time unpacking and discovering so much more. Its been fun researching and purchasing/ borrowing great literature and references, knowing it will be a source of fun. Thats a whole post ofits own.

So from the mouth of the Brid “ I don’t feel so rushed”. “ When I start something I want to be proud of it, by doing it thoroughly.”

ROME Topic Approach

Week 5 has seen the coming of the close of our study of Rome, its Kingdom, Its Republic and Its Empire. It has been a long journey, but very fruitful.
We used History Links as our main source and bounced of here and there using the references it suggested, and as my usual style, the books I knew we had in our library to embellish each area as needed. History Links has 3 bound books presenting Rome from its beginnings to its fall.
It covered the Saints of the time, the beginnings of our early church and the heresies at the time. It placed emphasis on our Church Fathers and the rulers of the Roman Empire.
We learnt about Vestments and Sacraments within this unit. Iconography was discussed and we could practice what we learnt on other Icons we knew.
We were able to end this amazing time in history this week because we implemented the topic approach. As I stated last week, we can gain momentum, and stay with it, rather than swapping to a new subject several times a day.

So why was this imporrtant to complete?
We were both feeling we had journeyed enough with this unit. It is a very full unit, and I culled what I knew was information that would just go over Brids' head. This made it more manageable and wothwhile.
So tomorrow brings a new day and new adventures.

Topic Approach week 3 and 4

Its been around 4 weeks since we began using Topic approach. Its been a good fit so far. Brid likes to 'get into a topic' and although she will move on to another, she finds it distracting of her concentration.
So the last week Brid concentrated on her newspaper. It is something, she puts together once a month, on various topics. This month being Music.
This week we have been able to flesh out Rome. We are close to the end of this period in History and it has been worthwhile being able to stay on a topic and get momentum.
So would I say its been a good switch?
yes and a tiny bit of hesitation on a no.
We are covering more and certainly the continuity is worth it, but I am reluctant to say its how we will continue.
Time will tell.

Topic Approach week 2-

Last week, we covered several Musical Composers, and this week Brid is looking at rivers of the world.
 I wrote a lesson plan, last year and I just tweak it to suit our needs. I chose to look at rivers, because there can be so much that can be discovered about the surrounding countries and landscape.
Firstly, I ask Brid to identify where the river is and support this by adding the longitude and latitude, and landmarks. This gives us the opportunity to discuss map referencing.
I then ask her to look at the townships and cities on the river and ask her why they were established there. Now sometimes, I need to help with this one, but she is learning to identify the reasons. So the question then arises what is this rivers' main purpose, and who are the people of this area, particularly for rivers like the Congo and the Amazon.
She then finds the length of the river, and discovers does it cross states, countries and if so which ones.
Where is the source and where does the river flow to. We use google earth to look along the river. Some are fascinating.
We are loving this approach to our school day.
Once we have covered the main rivers of the world, we will journey to looking at people of the world in greater depth. This will merge with history at times as well.

New posts and pages

Finally, I am beginning to get somewhere with putting all our resources together. I have finally got my homeschool resources page in some type of order- although, I would like to add photos.
I love the beginning of term, there is so much creative energy, just waiting to be unleashed.
Last night for example, Brid got powerpoint working, without any instruction. I was impressed, but I figure its every child these days is good at these applications.