CHD Awareness Week - Resources

Thanks for taking the time to read our CHD story the past few days.  I'll be closing this week with some specific CHD information, support and resources that have helped us tremendously along our journey. 

When Liam was first diagnosed, we had no road map to navigate our way through medical terminology, prognosis, support or care for our child.  Because we had never heard of a CHD, didn't know just how common they are, we didn't know where to get to get the support we needed.  We also were not in a state of mind to process a lot at that point either, given that we did not find out about Liam's condition until after birth.  Granted we did have excellent medical care for him and a local support group that consistently pursued us to come to meetings (Thanks ALH!!), beyond that it was up to us.

Resources and support are important because if you don't know what you are dealing with, you don't know what questions to ask.  Educating myself on Liam's condition was extremely important in handling his care.  And knowing the right questions is also very important.  Parents are the best advocates for their children and we must have appropriate resources to make the day to day decisions.

Below I listed some resources I have found very helpful in my quest to educate myself on Liam's condition and caring for his special needs with feeding.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means, and I did include here some support information, as well as information you can provide to others in useful ways.

Heart Research

National Heart Lung and Blood Institute - Research for specific CHD types, also gives common treatments available and what to expect.

MayoClinic - Researching different types of CHD, with great multimedia presentations for visual learners!

It's My Heart - Publication that discusses CHD's, types of CHD's and also the procedures and surgeries, in layman's terms.  Created by the Children's Heart Foundation.

American Heart Association - Guide for parents of children with CHD's.  This site also has a very nice FAQ section of "What if my child needs..." type of scenarios,  with linked information for common diseases and disorders that are frequently found in children with CHD's.

Congenital Heart Defects.com - Although slightly outdated, this website has a host of links to online resources. 


Please also check out my sidebar, where I have links to some of our favorite CHD related sites, under "Links We Love"


Prgenancy Awareness Resources for Others

5 questions to ask at your 20 week ultrasound appointment - vital information you need to ask about your baby's heart. - Important information that can help detect heart anomalies, and questions to ensure the sonographer has thoroughly checked the heart.

Information about newborn pulse oximetry screening tests - A simple test done at birth that can save your child's life.


Support and Other Resources

Book - Your Critically Ill Child: Life and Death Choices Parents Must Face - This is a great book for all parents of critically or chronically ill children.  This really helped me see how the PICU operates and what the limitations and challenges the doctors and nurses face when dealing with critically ill children.  It is written by an intensivist and he openly and honestly expresses his thoughts on different situations to support parents in making decisions for their families in critical times.  It also empowered me to be a better advocate for Liam when in the hospital setting and provided me the insight and encouragement needed to do so successfully.

A Different Dream for My Child, by Jolene Philo - This is a meditation/devotional book for parents of critically or chronically ill children.  It is a wonderfully insightful, powerful and intimate look at caring for your child, from diagnosis and beyond.  Using scripture to reference the various "stages" (such as diagnosis, hospital life, home life, long-term care, etc.), this book reads very much like a devotional.  Very handy to have a copy on hand for anyone you meet who has a newly diagnosed child....I truly believe it would be a blessing to have a copy from the beginning, but more than worth it to read wherever you are in your journey.

Blogs and BabyCenter Groups - These have been vital for information that is specific to each child individually, but also can help you to look to the future of your child's issue and help find resources specifically with what your child is going through.  A good resource for finding out what to expect during hospital stays, procedures and surgeries.  The list of blogs I follow is on my sidebar.  These amazing families have helped me in all sorts of ways.  Please take some times to visit their pages!

A thorough list of resources can be found here, at this amazing heart mom's blog page.

CHD Awareness Week - A Lesson from The Great Physician

I’ve learned my coping mechanism and I’m learning how to believe the Great Physician.

I need to remind myself of the fresh perspective God offers us…what “truths” am I claiming in my life, especially in regards to Liam and his journey with his CHD?  As I have been pondering all the things I’ve learned while riding this CHD journey, this was a big lesson for me…probably maybe even the biggest lesson of them all.  Looking back, I have struggled with choosing other’s words as truth instead of choosing what God says about situations.  And I have recently come to the conclusion that this was (is) a coping mechanism for me, in a sense.   It especially magnified when Liam was born and continued throughout the first couple years of his life.

I’m a very practical, realistic person at heart.  I try to live positively, but I also try to be honest with myself.  No sugarcoating for me, just give me the real, hard facts.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been hurt in the past…or maybe it’s because I’ve been disappointed too many times in expecting the best that I rarely consider the best is going to come.  I realized through lies of the enemy that the lower my expectations, the less hurt I feel when things don’t work out.  Either way, when our journey began, this so-called- “being realistic persona” began to manifest itself in me in ways I didn’t expect and allowed fears to grow inside me that didn’t need to be there.  Needless to say, this area needed some major weeding out…and a renewing of my mind to set me straight.

Most often times, it began with a diagnosis, or even a prognosis for different things negatively impacting Liam’s health.   I remember very clearly during Liam’s repair surgery in June 2010, after the second attempt at extubating him had failed and they had to re-intubate him, my mind immediately went to the worst case scenario.  I had convinced myself in a matter of minutes that he would not recover from this.  In order to protect myself from disappointment and hurt, I began to accept what had not even come to pass yet, as truth…as our new reality.  I also began to let other’s experiences define our future, even allowing them to make decisions for us at times, all because I had a fear for getting hurt.   My husband would even get frustrated because I would speak these things over our family as truths (of course I saw it as “being realistic” and “preparing myself for what lies ahead”).  But claiming all of these so-called “truths” was doing a number on me and my family.  Numerous arguments and worry began taking over.  I struggled with even accepting the victories we were receiving along the way, because I was so focused on what I thought lie ahead for us.  Although I didn’t realize it at the time, that was a turning point for me, spiritually.  And though it is still an area of constant struggle, the Lord slowly began a work in me…

I don’t think God uses the words “Let’s be realistic here…”  I believe He commands us to fully trust, fully love and fully believe in HIM and His plan for us, and as the Great Physician himself, to truly believe in healing, restoration and completeness and that yes, He can do that.   Even if He chooses not to work in ways we were expecting, we can always trust that “He works for the good of those who love him”.  Through continually seeking Him in prayer and with thanksgiving, we can choose to let God give us the peace we need to live fully now, and truly believe He will protect us and hold us, even if the world’s prognosis turns out to be our reality. 

I want to tread lightly and not sound as if I am in any way saying to not trust doctors, medical profession, surgeons, etc. – for we all know in our heart worlds, they have truly been angels sent by God to help save our little ones.  But when it comes to the prognosis, the answers to the questions like, will my child live a normal and full life, what is the chance he will need this treatment or that therapy, what can we expect our future to be like…Why do we keep believing the future given to us by others…or even ourselves?  Why do we continue to think about our future plans, hopes and dreams in regards to what someone else says who does not know what will happen?  While we still can value and take encouragement or preparation from the guidance given to us through our medical advisors and other heart families, only God knows the true outcome of all of it.   It has been tremendously hard for me to lay the words of men down at the cross, and take up my own cross of His truths for our life.  The enemy always keeps worldly truths and possible realities in close distance, looming over our head and seizing opportunities to distract us with them.   I really don’t want to believe a lot of what the “statistics” say anyways…why would I (only because of fear)?  I had to learn how to be an educated advocate and serve Liam’s needs, but also believe in God’s plan for his purpose and ultimately his life.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

So while I am not saying that we should be unprepared in our journey, I am saying there is a difference in preparedness that stems from fear of what may come and preparedness for what HE has spoken to us. One includes fear, the other HOPE.

So I encourage you to take God at His word, beyond the statistics and prognosis to the eternal perspective of God’s plan.  Let God have control of your family’s future, and know he holds it safe and secure, no matter what lies ahead.  God is the only one who KNOWS...

For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.”  Psalm 139:13-16

In our journey with CHD’s, it is easy to get caught up in fear – it’s ALL AROUND US.  Grim statistics, seeing our children being tortured by this disease, experiencing loss…But God does have a plan and it is GOOD.  Seeing our journey through His eyes is a daily submission of faith and trust, and it’s far from easy.  But when we choose to believe what He says, WHO He is and who He created our children to be there is no doubt that His power can move our mountains, calm our raging seas and replace our fear with peace. 

Last but not least, I write this as my personal experience in my faith and to quote Paul “I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”  1 Corinthians 4:3-5

CHD Awareness Week - Our Story - Part 3

Liam's second open heart surgery was June 3, 2010.   This was the "big" one for us, his full repair surgery where they were to close the large VSD and put in the homograft pulmonary conduit and removing the BT Shunt.  We started the day before with a heart cath, that went well, but left Liam congested and needing a lot of help from Respiratory Therapy that night.  The next morning he was whisked off to surgery.

After full repair surgery, June 3, 2010

Everything surgically went as best as could be expected.  It was recovery that was the hard part for us.  Multiple failed attempts at extubation, feeding issues...it was a rough road.  We ended up staying for 15 days total, and were discharged straight from the CHSU with Liam on home oxygen.  We think he had a virus going into surgery that decided to surface and cause all sorts of issues.

Recovery - 2nd OHS

Unfortunately, when we found out about Liam's heart defect, we knew he would have to have multiple surgeries.  We were hopeful it would be limited to about 3 or 4 during his lifetime.  With is condition, the conduit has to be replaced due to growth.  We he is about 6 or 7, they should be able to fit him with a conduit that will last him into adulthood.  This being said, you can imagine was a shock it was, when on October 26, 2010, during a routine Cardiology follow up (for a 3 month follow up from the last visit), we found out there had been a "change" on the echo that needed to be looked into...Then on December 2, after a heart cath, we found out the devastating news that Liam would require yet ANOTHER surgery due to his homograft conduit deteriorating.  Too soon.

We were strongly urged to schedule the surgery as soon as possible due to the bad shape his homograft conduit was in.  They explained that sometimes the body rejects a certain type of "prosthetic" and for the next surgery they would be using a different kind, the Contegra Bovine conduit.  We scheduled the surgery for the end of December.  Liam actually did really well for both the surgery and recovery, sailed through it and we were home 5 days later.

Liam's 3rd OHS - December 29, 2010

To say that 2010 was a struggle for us would be an understatement.  It was definitely a year of enduring one thing after the next, with merely a chance to come up for air.  Since then, things have quieted down a bit.  Liam has had a few more heart cath procedures since his last surgery to double check the flow rates and obstruction in his conduit, but prayerfully we have not had to have one the past several years!  He will require one more surgery at least, and we are just waiting until the peak time to have that one performed - ideally in a few more years, so that the new conduit can be big enough to last into adulthood.

2011 was a much brighter year for us, Liam was weaned off his tube feedings finally, as it showed he was doing great orally taking food and thickend liquids.  Today, Liam is fully weaned off thickener, and eats and drinks like a normal 7 year old!  Praise God! 

Every year, he seems to be getting stronger and stronger.  We were involved in occupational and physical therapy for awhile up until and after his third surgery, but eventually, he tested out of all the areas.  He is a normal, healthy boy right now, and we love it that way!

That's pretty much our heart story in a nutshell!  As you can see, having a child with a CHD is a LIFETIME affair - there is no CURE for CHD's, only research to provide better procedures and surgical techniques to help quality of life and delay surgeries as long as possible!  The continuing maintenance of Liam's CHD will be lifelong for him.  We appreciate you taking time to read about our story, and hopefully it helps give an inside glimpse into the life as a heart family!  In the next few days, I'll be sharing some resources and specific ways YOU can help be a part of the awareness campaign!

Liam - 7 years old

CHD Awareness Week - Our Story - Part 2

Ok, Part 2...the broken heart.

Surgery was imminent, as they explained to us before Liam left us, that he would be requiring emergency surgery.  My biggest fear is that I would be stuck in recovery, while my newborn child had open heart surgery.  Thankfully, they told us he would be having surgery sometime the following week, that they could keep Liam's heart pumping with a medication....more on that in a minute.

While Liam was getting all settled in at the city hospital, I stayed to recover back at our local hospital.  The nurses let me keep my epidural in that night, just so I could get some rest, knowing how stressful the past 12 hours had been for us.  I was grateful for this.  I did have some pretty major tearing during labor, as they had to use the vacuum extractor to get Liam out, after a solid 3 hours of pushing.  Needless to say I was exahausted.  Then throw on a diagnosis like we had, I was physically a bit of a disaster!  However, God was good and put great nurses in my path during my recovery who encouraged me to start pumping milk.  And that was my focus the next 24 hours of my recovery and the next few months...pump my heart out for my little boy.

3 days after birth, before surgery

Meanwhile, Liam was undergoing some testing and received another echocardiogram.  This gave our cardiologist, Dr. Verma, information to make an official diagnosis: Tetralogy of Fallot with Pulmonary Atresia.  This is a combination of 4 different defects, with 2 major ones that require immediate surgery.  Basically Liam's heart was completely absent of a pulmonary artery and also had a large VSD.  They were keeping him alive pre-surgery by giving him prostaglandin, which kept his PDA open.  The PDA usually closes within a short time after birth, but this was being used in Liam's heart as a bypass to his Pulmonary Artery, so it was imperative they keep it open.

One of our first family pictures

Liam underwent his first open heart surgery, to place a BT Shunt, when he was 5 days old.   The shunt was used to bypass the pulmonary artery while still providing blood flow throughout the heart.  Because the shunt causes oxygenated blood to mix with unoxygenated blood, Liam's O2 saturations would be low until he was big enough for his next surgery, sometime around 8 month - 1 year.

Morning before 1st open heart surgery, October 5, 2009

Following 1st open heart surgery...so many machines and meds.

In recovery after 1st heart surgery

Liam flew through surgery with little to no complications.  He was in the NICU for 23 days…released on my original due date, October 23.  The only real complication he had was a paralyzed right vocal chord, which caused aspiration issues with his feeding.  We were discharged on NPO orders {nothing per oral} only being allowed to feed Liam through an NG Tube.

Our arrival home for the first time as a family was bittersweet.  It was overwhelming to be responsible for such a daunting task of caring for a newborn, let alone not be able to do things "normally".   For the most part, Liam tolerated his tube feedings fairly well, and we were able to keep him on a “normal” feeding schedule. However,  four months later and multiple swallow studies later, after using an NG tube for all feedings, we decided to have a G-Tube placed, as Liam's aspiration issues did not improve, nor did his vocal chord recover.  He had his G-Tube surgery on January 19, 2010.

Going home! October 23, 2009

That spring we also realized how a simple cold could turn into a hospital stay, something the doctors warned us about when we brought Liam home for the first time...that anything he caught could turn into a bad situation, fast, because of his heart and low O2 sats.  Devising a schedule and plan to keep him home 24/7 {thanks to my amazing dad and mom for watching him day in and day out for us that first year} it was still not enough, as Dustin and I both had to work full time outside the home, and thus risked exposing ourselves to viruses and such.  We took him to the ER one April night due to "dusky" color and wheezy breathing to find out his O2 sats had diminished into the 40's and required immediate admission.  That was a frightening night for us. Although he made a full recovery, we had to reschedule his full repair surgery to summer because of his illness.  That "full repair" summer surgery was a rough one.....stay tuned for tomorrow's post!

CHD Awareness Week - Our Story - Part 1

Our heart story - a glimpse into the life of a heart family and what living with a child with CHD looks like as a family.  Although all heart journeys are unique, I believe it would be fair to say there are some Crazy {with a capital "C", mind you!} ups and downs.  Fighting for your child's life one day, and fighting for a sense of normalcy the next.

Our CHD journey began on September 30, 2009, when our little bundle of joy, Liam, was born.  After 9 months of a wonderful and uneventful pregnancy, I went into labor naturally that morning, headed to the hospital and Liam was born a few short {well, long in my book!} hours.  Because I went into labor one day shy of full term, 36 weeks, 6 days, (can anyone say God’s perfect timing??) the NICU team was on stand by as a precaution. Shortly after birth, the NICU team noticed Liam was not getting enough oxygen and also had a "slight" heart murmur….they assured us they dealt with this all the time and that Liam just needed to be monitored for awhile on oxygen.  While to doctor continued work on me, the nurse anxiously handed Liam to me all swaddled up,  telling us to give him a quick hug and kiss, snap a picture and that we would see him again real soon.  She whisked him off after only a quick introduction and about 5 hours later, we got the news that changed our world forever.

 "Your child’s heart is broken and he has to have surgery to fix it."

When the cardiologist initially came in, he was saying Liam had a complex heart defect, and to really get a good diagnosis, he would need to be transferred immediately to the hospital down town.  Shocked and scared at this news, we were devastated.  HOW could we not have known this?  WHY have we never even heard of this?  It must be a VERY RARE condition, we thought to ourselves.  Our faith in God proved us well and encouraged us to know He was in control and had Liam in His hands, the best place he could be.  But the questions never ceased in my head...what if, how, WHY....

Later that night, Liam was transferred to the big city hospital in one of those clear cocoons {or so I call them}.  It seemed very surreal to me seeing him in that big clear "box", what I had only really seen on TV and in movies.  In fact, when we were saying our goodbyes, the nurse cut off my "mommy wristband" {the ones you and your baby both wear to make sure the nurses can see they match up for security purposes - ours actually would set off an alarm if the baby went more than a certain distance from me} and I had no recollection afterwards of that even happening.  I remember very clearly though, being wheeled back into my hospital room with empty arms and silence awaiting me....babies crying down the hallways, in all the other rooms, except for mine.  The stark contrast of that moment was heart breaking for me and something I will never forget.  While Dustin followed Liam in the ambulance to the city hospital, I sat recovering in our now empty room.  My mom and dad were there and I am so grateful they were, but in my mind, my arms were empty, aching and I was alone.....

.....Stay tuned for Our Story - Part 2 on tomorrow's post

Chugging Along

All is well on the homefront and we are just chugging away at life each day! Adeline is 2 months old now, which I cannot believe as time gets faster each day.  She is smiling, awake longer stretches during the day, sleeping HEAVENLY at night for 5-7 hour stretches and then again for another 3-4!  She has been a very easy baby, considering she does have a touch of reflux with her Laryngomalacia.  Because of that, she is a noisy nurser! Ha, it's actually pretty cute I think, but I have yet to nurse in public!  We haven't really gone much of anywhere besides families houses and to the doctor for well checks, given it's cold and flu season here, which is good.

Liam is doing great and we have his next cardio appointment the 16th.  We are anticipating a good report as usual! Homeschooling is going really well considering we have 2 littles at home, and I am thankful for the curriculum I planned for this year.  Most of it is independent work, and while it takes a little extra motivation at times, he really likes having the same format everyday (Type A like his momma) and is excelling in all his subjects.  We still do the 2 times a week homeschool enrichment at a local church which I am also thankful for, as he has made some great friends there, and even some first "loves" if you will, which is cute.  Tuesday he was already telling me he did not know how he was going to choose between 3 particular girls to marry when he is older - LOL.  Be still my heart!!

Noah is just BUSY. BUSY. BUSY.  He is so much fun at this age.  He never stops moving and is always giggling.  Liam and him love to play together and they get along great for the most part.  He loves to help out around the house and do jobs, and loves taking things apart and "fixing" them.  He is also very social, but sensitive when it comes to saying goodbyes to anyone. He has transitioned well with the new baby, and for that I am grateful!  Despite being a little extra clingy at school drop off, he has taken to Adeline and the new baby transition very well.

I am hoping to share our heart story again on our blog coming up for CHD Awareness week and I have a fund raising idea in the works as well!  Stay tuned!

Sweet Adeline

Our sweet baby girl, Adeline Louanne, was born on November 30 =) We are over the moon in love with her!

SHE is what we have been up to these past couple months! 

She has the biggest blue eyes and a head full of strawberry blonde hair!  We were so very suprised to find out that we had a "She!"... We chose to wait to find out the gender until the baby was born and Dustin and I were convinced we were having another boy! But God had other plans, and we are loving every minute of it 💗

My birth was amazing - everything I has asked for in prayer, God delivered!  He is so faithful - I prayed for a uncomplicated, painfree and joyful birth experience.  I woke up the morning before my weekly checkup (where I was going to be "naturally induced" with a membrane sweep...let me just say ouch on that one) and started having some randomly timed contractions.  I knew they were labor contractions, but they weren't very strong and the timing was inconsistent, happening anywhere from 2 minutes to 10 minutes apart!  I called my midwife and she suggested I come in to get checked.  I got my things together, coordinated childcare for my boys and left for the doctor's office - which I thought was scheduled for the office at the hospital (which is where we headed too) but come to find out my midwife was at the other office location, as was my scheduled appt - woops!  However, God knew where I needed to be, and once I arrived at the hospital office, the other midwife checked me and lo and behold I was already dialated to 6!  I hadn't even told Dustin to leave work yet!  I text him as the midwife walked me over to L&D....yes, WALKED, lol.  My contractions were so strange, still only happening about 5-7 minutes apart and not as strong as I thought they would be.  While I was waiting for Dustin to arrive, I was very much at peace and it really was a joyful time....the nurses and I were chatting while they checked me in, even laughing at some points!  When Dustin arrived about 30 minutes later, we continued to chat and he was able to help me through the next 30 minutes of contractions until it was time to push. And that came about suddenly!!  I was praying for a short transition, given my last birth with Noah which was so very painful, but with Adeline I can honestly say I don't think I even had a transition!  It was amazing!  The pushing part however, was a lot harder than I expected, as Adeline was turned face up.  Even still, I pushed through (haha) and 45 minutes later, she was born!

I am in awe of God who heard and listened to my prayers for this birth...While I can't say it was 100% painfree, the pain was so minimal that I was able to focus on meeting our new baby and stay in the moment to really cherish the process.  I am so thankful He answered our prayers, even our unspoken ones =)

Thankfuls

Just chiming in to give a brief update of our happenings lately!  My intention to blog more has not changed but it has been hard to find the time!  Our home renovations coupled with moving and trying to prepare for a new baby (While catching up on mountains of work that need to get done before said baby arrives) has left me down, out and flat out tired....But at least I can try to keep up some kind of record on here before it's 2017, haha.

Homeschooling, which was the focus of my last post, is going great.  I have managed to keep on track this year for the most part and the curriculum choices have all been a really good fit for the most part.  Liam was also accepted into a 2 day enrichment program at Noah's school, same day and times, so I have had 2 days a week a few hours to buckle down and get stuff done around here, which had been a God send of a blessing in this season. In fact, the title of my post is what we call a part of each day that involves writing down 3 things we are thankful for -- so I am often asking him, "Have you done your "thankfuls" yet?"  Such a great reminder of just how much God sustains us, provides for us, and meets us right where we are each day.

September for us brought about the boys birthdays, Liam turned 7 and Noah 2 - They both are just thriving and doing great as well!  Noah is talking more and more, repeating every single word it seems and then making up some we still can't figure out, lol.  Liam is really excelling in Math and absolutely loves it - everything ends up with numbers on it somewhere, even the Thanksgiving turkey he decorated at school had a numbering system written on it!  His creativity astonishes me daily -- he is so unique and really a cool lil dude!  They both are, we are so, so very blessed.


For me, pregnancy is going really great, I am almost 36 weeks and hoping to have this baby sometime the week after Thanksgiving - which is SO. SOON.  Because of my Factor V, they want me to deliver by 38 weeks, and I'm praying and BELIEVING the Lord will graciously bring this baby before then on his own will and no intervention will be needed!  We did have a fetal Echo done on the baby coupled with Liam's last Cardiology appointment (which was stellar! by the way) and all looks good on that front also.  It's been a little tricky not knowing what this baby is boy/girl but it definitely ups the excitement factor and I'm hoping some additional encouragement and energy for the birth!  We've got all the basics and bags are packed so to speak, so let the journey begin, after Thanksgiving preferably!


Projects around the house are slowly coming along, more boxes have been unpacked and put away, pictures have gone up on walls, and I finally got some beautiful roman shades (compliments of my amazing momma who sews) put up in my kitchen to replace the black paper blackout shades we previously had hanging.  It is slowly starting to feel homey and I am loving it.  Hubby has worked so very hard making it the perfect home!

All in all, we just take it a day at a time around here and we feel blessed!  Looking forward to Thanksgiving next week and soon becoming a family of 5!  Love to all of our friends and family!

Homeschool Curriculum Picks

It is already THAT time of year again – back to school!  Last year was our first “official” homeschool year for Liam for Kindergarten, and overall I think it went pretty well.  It was definitely a year of trial and error to see a) what works and what doesn’t, b) more about his natural learning style and tendencies and c) a LOT about my teaching style and habits, which, ahem, which were NOT pretty at times.  Last year, I tried to keep the curriculum challenging, affordable and simple, which led me to “piece” together some free curriculum and do a lot on my own, to save money and create custom learning.  I did buy a couple curriculum sets, like Math and History, but overall I left a lot of subjects to creating my own studies.  While I have the best intentions and get excited about custom tailoring curriculum to exactly what I want each day, it left me quickly burnt out, overwhelmed and behind all. the. time.  With a new baby on the way at the end of this year, I knew I needed to change gears and have more complete “pull-of-the-shelf” type curriculum so we could stay on track and minimize prep time each day.  Because let’s face it, I will have about 0 minutes of extra time to do much come December!

Our first FULL week of schooling will be next week, but we have started back with a routine, and adding a couple new subjects and workbooks in each day so Liam can get a feel for the layout and structure of the curriculum.  I have also started using the spiral notebook method of scheduling so Liam knows what he is to get done each day, and it is working wonderfully!  I have even adapted it for myself, so I can prioritize tasks that I need to accomplish each day, for work and home.  You can read more about the spiral notebook method here. 

So, for FIRST GRADE, here are my curriculum choices for Liam this year:

Bible: This year, I chose to work through a couple of the P31 Ministry First 5 Bible Studies as our bible lessons.  Each study is about 8 weeks long, so I plan on studying Matthew during the fall semester, along with a short study on Major and Minor Prophets (looking at some of her ideas for this) and then Acts and Romans/Corinthians during the spring.  We used  a couple of The First 5 Studies this past year, and I found them to be wonderful resource for studying the Word by chapter, complete with a study/discussion guide (for purchase) that is fairly simple.  They also have a daily app that has a short devotional that I absolutely love.  I will be doing these studies alongside Liam, which is great accountability to stay in God's Word!

Math:  We will continue where we stopped last year in Level 2 of Making Math Meaningful.  I really love this curriculum, not many people have heard of it, but the author and homeschool family live locally to us.  It really worked well for us and Liam enjoyed it.  Math is his favorite subject (as is mine to teach), and I feel like the foundations in this book are very solid and logical.  It is NOT the way I learned math, but definitely a more useful way to learn it.  I often joke that I’ve become faster doing math in my head just from teaching this method, but it’s true! 

Reading: Liam is already reading very well, and I’d even say well above average for his age.  My focus this year will be on comprehension, since he seems to struggle with that more so than actually reading the words.  He will do daily lessons from this Reading Comprehension Notebook for Second Grade, that I downloaded from TpT {sorry not pictured above, I have not printed and bound it yet!}. We used her First Grade edition last year, and it was a great daily comprehension lesson.  And of course, lots of reading time with books from the local library.

Handwriting:  I chose the A Reason for Handwriting curriculum because it is very similar to how I incorporated handwriting into our schooling last year, by having scripture as copywork, but it’s already done for me.  I like that Liam will be learning a memory verse each week in addition to just practicing handwriting. 

Grammar:  We used a free online grammar website last year which was a great introduction, but again, took some prep to print and organize the lessons (but if you like a free, workbook style grammar curriculum, this one is great!).  This year I decided to do the First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Level 1 because after researching numerous grammar curriculum, this one seemed to come highly recommended and was relatively inexpensive.  We have not started this yet, but will add to the rotation next week as we gear up to full school days.

Science and Geography:  I picked up DK workbooks for Geography: First Grade and Science: First Grade to supplement a plan to *hopefully* do some hands on learning, as well as reading books on different topics for these subjects.

Spelling/Phonics:  Liam is on par with knowing all his letter sounds and can sound out words to figure out spelling pretty well at this point.  Our main focus will be to firm up some of the phonics based methods this year, so he has a solid foundation.  I chose All About Spelling I  and Explode the Code, Book 2 to help in these areas.  Last year, again, I used a free online spelling curriculum, which ended up being too much work on my end.  He’s already made a comment the “Explode the Code” is “too easy”, but hopefully it progresses to a more challenging level as we dig more into the spelling lessons.

History:  We struggled with the Mystery of History curriculum last year, but I am going to give it a try again.  I really like the chronological and biblical worldview this curriculum offers, I just have to commit to the time to read the lessons and have time for discussion.

Art and Music:  I plan on incorporating both art and music each once a week during breakfast or lunch in the form of videos.  I found the cutest art videos on YouTube called Art With Mati & Dada, that are perfect for introducing major artists.  Music will be a general study of major composers this year, and I am still working out a few sources to get a plan going on this.  We also will hopefully continue having bi-monthly art lessons with another homeschool family like we did last year.  Since my mom is an elementary art teacher, I have plenty of curriculum to pull from!

There are a few things I also want to work harder at incorporating that we explored last year but gave up on because our life got a little chaotic with the new house, travel, and pregnancy in the spring semester last year.  One of those things is actually having a “Morning Time”.  I decided to keep things very simple and focus those few moments right after breakfast on encouraging and teaching to the heart of my kids.  I am very committed to having the bible as the foundation for my children’s schooling and simply want to start the school day with scripture and prayer EVERY DAY.  Liam and I got into a great habit last fall, reading our bibles each and every morning and I really would love to foster that habit again, selfishly too for myself!  My goal with morning time is to get in the routine of having a short devotional and a character lesson after breakfast.  I will be sharing my Morning Basket book picks soon!

I am also continuing on a “block” type schedule which works well for us.  My youngest, Noah, will be in a 2 day per week Mother’s Day Out starting in September, so I focused more independent work for Liam for those 2 days.  I know that seems like a counter-intuitive choice, but I have trouble getting work done with my youngest at home (because he is my curious adventurer who loves to get into everything!), so this will allow me 2 days a week to get good chunks of work done (I do bookkeeping for a couple clients from home, and it has been a challenge to carve out enough consistent work time to keep up lately).  That being said, the other 3 days of the week will be more hands on with “teaching”, which I think will be fine given Noah is STILL taking 2 naps a day, and loves to listen to me read, lol.  But as usual, we hold our plans very loosely and really just plan on being flexible at all times!

So that pretty much sums up what we will be doing all year!  I have a refreshed vision for homeschool this year and am excited to embark on the journey again!

Back to Blogging - Catch up post!

So recently I have been feeling those little nudges on my heart to return to blogging.  For awhile, things were going smooth with Liam's health and just having a new baby made finding time to blog difficult impossible!  With a year and a half gone by with no news from us, I will try to keep this update post brief!

To sum it up God has been so so good to us and extremely gracious.  Our life looks almost completely different for us than it was 1.5 years back!  Since then, we are currently PREGO with baby #3 (due in December!), celebrated Liam's 6th birthday, Noah's 1st birthday, rented out our old house, moved in with my parents for 3 months, purchased a major fixxer-upper, renovated completely gutted and revived said fixxer-upper, homeschooled, lost a dear kitty pet =( and the saddest news just recently said goodbye to our family Matriarch, my sweet grandma of 93 years.  Numerous other little hiccups, challenges and changes have occurred, but we are trying to move forward with hope and perseverance, completely depending on God each day!

I've been praying a lot about our recent challenges and frankly, I am feeling exhausted.  It has been hard for me to grasp live in complete abundance of God's goodness to us - with the new house I just can't believe we own, and our new little blessing miracle on the way, with also living with extremely challenging times of change, loss and overwhelming obstacles (a.k.a new house renovations and some work issues thrown on top!).  I know this is a refining time for me and an unusual time of contrasting circumstances.  I feel like my blog and writing in general has always had purpose in my life for contemplating, sharing struggles, being real and providing HOPE to others who may be walking a similar path.

I'm praying God will continue to use this blog to share what He is up to in our life....the good and challenging parts, to encourage, inspire and motivate....even if it's just to do those things for me and have a record of His goodness and love for us!

It's so so good to be back to writing.