My artist girl

 Having four kids to homeschool at a time can be challenging. At the beginning is for sure hard (because they are all in different levels) until you get a routine. It could take a few weeks or even months until you get the hang of it, but you will, even if right now you feel like you will never get used to it or even if you feel you are failing. Just keep the great work one day at a time. 

However, even if they all have a routine and know what to do like my oldest (12 years old) who works independently, she might have questions, or concerns about what she is doing, while I'm teaching another child, and the other is asking for a snack, etc. It's kind of crazy!!

One of the things I try is to work with the little one first. she is the one who wakes up the earliest, so while she gets her milk, yes, she loves her milk in a toddler bottle. I can of like it because that gives me some time to work with her. We do reading, reviewing her booster cards until she is done with breakfast. Then we go to the workbooks, and since she is still in kinder/ first level and those lessons are small we are usually done fast and early, so most of the time while I'm teaching the other kids, she is drawing, playing or waiting for the siblings to have their small breaks between subjects so she can play with them. 

She also does coloring, additions, or watches some learning videos or does learning games on a website I really love. Education.com. She can work on whole guided lessons through games or reinforce what we learned. I love that she can entertain herself most of the time.

One of my favorite this she does is drawing. She starts by drawing what she wants, or feel. Then, she is asking us for ideas. I give her themes, so she gets inspired and draw more than one thing. I love seeing her so creative and her drawing skills have improved for just being 5 years old. Maybe this doesn't seem much for you but I am a person with no drawing skills so I think what she does is amazing!! Of course, after she draws she wants to show me her pictures and explains me what she did that and why and how she did it!

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Words of Encouragment

 Not everything is "color de rosa" as we say in Spanish... "Not everything is rosy". Even when we have all the best intentions, life and its turns make some days feel not so great! In those moments we have a few options. I will talk about 3 of the things that help me going in those hard days. Sometimes I use them individually and sometimes I mix two or the three together!!

1. Next to my makeup table, I have two quotes that I read every once in a while. One    of them say : "attitude is everything, pick a good one" and the other one says "
   
   when you feel like quitting, remember why you started."  Discouragement happens to everybody, sometimes because things are not like planned, others because they are taking longer, or because we have self doubts but remember that when there is a will, there is also a way. I think that homeschooling our kids is not an idea we ourselves thought about. I think it's a calling, an inspiration we feel, it is something we have to remember in order to keep motivating us even when the road ahead is not as smooth as we would like. 
2. Sometimes those words or the ones that motivates you don't work, then...We can just rest, have an easy learning day if you still want to feel like you are accomplishing something. There are lots of documentaries, learning show, movies, books where we can find lots of information and have a different "out of the books" kind of day but still working on our homeschool. Just give yourself the time you need while someone else is in charge of the teaching. 
3. NOTHING AT ALL. You can also stop school for that day/days/week. We are not racing with anybody, we are riding the journey with our children and we should do it the best way possible and sometimes the best way possible can't happen and until it can... it's ok!! I promise you the kids will be ok too! Things will be better and school can be back when that happens.

This can be a beautiful journey even with its turns, ups, and downs. Usually for that we need to find the purpose of the ride and the importance of it. It will all be worth it!