The beginning of this week was a little rough with with my children! 

Boy, was I erasing letters quite a bit from FANTASTIC!, our word for the week!

My 2 older kids were whining, crying, and complaining about school work and being tired (although they are always soooo wide awake when our school hours are over!)

My 2.5 year old daughter was screaming alot and throwing tantrums, throwing papers all over the floor, eating Playmobil toys, and taking colored pencils from my other children!  Not to mention she had pee pee accidents on our hardwood floors as she is literally potty training herself now.

Then I found out Monday evening that "someone" (aka my 2 year old), broke my small portable digital camera by playing with it.  

I know these events are not the worst things that can happen to a homeschool mom, but it still makes for a very frustrating day!

When times are rough, I ask how will I survive homeschooling???????????  Here are just a few ways I get through those difficult days.

Way #1: Prayer (and lots of it!)

Even after the chaotic Monday morning, we were able to say our routine Angelus prayer together around noon time as we were eating our lunch.  This always helps me to remember that without embracing Christ and Our Blessed Mother's grace and strength, I cannot be the best mom and teacher for my children.  Our midday prayer also helps me to survive our afternoon lessons.

Way #2:  Receiving encouraging words from my family (especially from my dear husband),  mommy friends in my homeschool group, and comments that my blog friends leave on my blog or email to me!

Way #3:  Finding support on blogs, websites, and the internet that affirm my joys and struggles with homeschooling my children.  I came across this video on Theresa's blog at "Our Life in Words"  and it reassures me that "I Will Survive Homeschooling" one prayer and day at a time!

Our "Very Good" word for this week

One of my many goals this year is to praise my children more on their work and catch them being good.  So each week I have decided to write a word of praise on our white board in our homeschool classroom with an exclamation point.  If I catch them being on task with schoolwork, helping their sibling, doing neat work, etc. then I add an exclamation point or a letter if letters have been erased due to misbehavior.  This week's word is "SENSATIONAL!".  At the end of our school day if they have the whole word with an exclamation point still on the board they receive a tally mark.  After 10 tally marks they get a treat/surprise of some kind.  This week they reached 10 tally marks so I gave them a small box of  LEGOs that a friend of mine passed on to me.  Maybe their future rewards will be a trip to the Dollar Store, extra computer time, a special movie, or a special outing. 

Last week our word was "GOOD JOB!"

I will be choosing a new word for next week.  I got this idea from a teacher resource book and it has really helped me find ways to praise my children.  Their eyes light up and they have been motivated to work when I praise them and add letters/exclamation points! They are really bummed when I erase letters :(  I have also found this to be helpful because I have not been YELLING at my kids as much during school time.  I just calmly say what they are doing wrong and take my dry board eraser and erase letters.  I don't know if this discipline method will work indefinitely, but for the past 2 weeks I have enjoyed teaching my kids because they all want to be caught being good!

Need some ideas to say "Very Good"?  I have a sheet hanging up in my classroom with all different sayings to praise my children.  I refer to it sometimes while I am teaching.  I found a link that list the same 99 ways to say "Very Good" as I use.  Enjoy!  

Click here to print 99 Ways to say "Very Good".

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I'm also having a "Very Good" Happy UN-birthday (hand-made) Jewelry Giveaway and you can read more about it here and enter to win!