Well, it has certainly been a while since I wrote on here, and in my absence much has happened. Given the fact that I had decided to expand into lifestyle as well, this will be my first lifestyle post. I have seen many topics being covered in lifestyle, and to start off here I felt the need to share about our most recent development in life. You see, we have recently had a big lifestyle change, if you have read some of my other posts, you know that I am in college full time, and a mom to 8 children, 4 biological and 4 step kids that I do indeed love just as much as the other 4, I can’t even imagine a world where I am not their mom also. For now, only 4 of them are living with us, in the summer we usually have them all, and during spring break.
Most recently I have started homeschooling the 4 living with us currently. I suppose the 2, almost 3-year-old, is not technically homeschooled in the sense that he is in a grade, however given that I also teach him I don’t see why I cannot feel like I am homeschooling all 4 of them. A long time ago I told my mom that I would not ever be able to homeschool my children because I just don’t have the patience for it. I would go nuts, and I wouldn’t be able to keep myself calm.
Fast forward to now, and here we are. This was our second full week of homeschooling, and easy is the opposite word I would use. See, what had changed is someone called CPS on my family claiming that there was physical neglect of our children. Supposedly our oldest daughter had bite marks, (she did not), the kids were tired, (we have a routine bedtime schedule and have since they even started school) and there was a hygiene issue (our girls take baths so much we actually have to limit it, so they don’t use the bathroom all the time because we only have 1 bathroom). Basically, none of these issues were in fact present with the kids. Our older son that is living with us doesn’t like baths much, but I do make sure he takes a bath or shower at least once or twice a week as he has not hit puberty yet and he doesn’t have any awful smell.
CPS is unable to inform the parents who called but this was something easily deducible for us as we do not know very many people around here. The only different thing in our life this year was a new teacher for our daughter. Our son has the same teacher he had last year as she had transferred to be a 4th grade teacher this year, and our youngest daughter had the same teacher for her 1st grade class as both of her older siblings. Given that there were no issues with the school in the past, we figured out that our 3rd grade daughter’s teacher was the one who called. This was all but confirmed when I took the kids to the school to say bye to their friends and teachers, as her teacher did not even say a word to me or even look at me for more than a second.
I cannot fathom people who would try and destroy a family like that, if something was indeed wrong, I get it, but to make up false accusations and not even attempt to speak with the parents and just jump to conclusions is real crappy. Especially when you knowingly lie about a child’s health, I mean what kind of person wants to take away someone’s child? Someone with no joy in their life, someone who relishes tearing families apart. And for what? The satisfaction of being an asshole?
Anyway, now we are homeschooling as I am still in school and working the books for my husband’s business, and ensuring the house is clean, and cooking, and yeah, just so much to deal with right now. Last week I was changing our toddler’s butt and as I was doing this our younger daughter, the 1st grader, had come up to me showing me an assignment that I had given her to look it over, and there I was in the middle of a gross diaper changing and reading a homework assignment realizing that I have not given myself nearly enough credit for basically being a supermom. I was so stressed trying to look it over and not get poop on myself that I started laughing ridiculously. I already had plenty on my plate before homeschooling had started and let me tell you right now that teachers don’t get nearly enough credit for dealing with all of those children during the day. They may not have to take them home or anything, but they do have the stress of ensuring that no one is falling behind in their work and making sure they receive help as needed.
I am actually doing okay though. I give them no less than 3 assignments every day to do, and a spelling word list on top of that. I even do a spelling test on Friday’s. This Friday will be their second one. I also went to the public library and got us all library cards. The hardest part about homeschooling is that there are not nearly enough free resources. I mean I can send my children to public schools at no cost, but every single homeschooling website I have encountered requires payment. This is a large gap in our current market, I feel that if homeschooling is necessary for the kids, then we should have just as much access to education as children in public schools.
Not that I haven’t found any resources that I can actually use, I am quite handy with research thank you SNHU. But it certainly took some time to find things for them to do. This path we have taken for them makes me reflect on past versions of myself, and doing this is only making me grow more. This is a huge lifestyle change for us, and for them. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and this is simply another chapter that was indeed supposed to happen.
As parents, we have to do right by our kids, and what is right for your kids is different for every household. This is a fact of life, and as someone who didn’t even want kids in the beginning of her life, I can honestly say that being a mom is the role of a lifetime. And while I have not always made the best decisions in my life, I have no regrets because everything I did brought me to this point.
All the best <3
TKNott
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