Latonya is the creator of Joy in the Ordinary where she writes often about home education, curriculum, and encouragement.  She designs faith-inspired jewelry for her shop, Alexandria's Authentically Made Jewelry.  She currently home schools her two daughters.

Then the rain came, I have a hard time with gloomy days.  My being becomes a bit gloomy like the weather, and I prefer to sit alone and read or ponder about different things.  Luckily, the rain did not come until Friday, but I felt the onset of my mood changing on Thursday.  Since it hit me harder on Friday, I am grateful that there was a plan in place to meet up with friends to begin our study of the book of Isaiah.  It was a safe place to talk about the way I was feeling, and to come to realization that it is perfectly normal to have ups and downs.  I know this, but of course it is always comforting when there is support.  

What do I mean by our plans failed?  Well, each week I write out the goals I have for the girls as it relates to which lessons should be completed, which activities we will do, and the places we will visit.  This past week about 75% of the plans actually happened.  There were two days last week that I was visited cluster headaches.  When I get these headaches, it is really hard for me to function at full capacity therefore I can't do all that I have planned.  Now the girls do continue to move forward with the majority of their work, but not all because there are some concepts that I must actually teach them.  Prayerfully, I will not have a headache for the next few months since I only get them a few times each year. 

The end of the school year often causes me to reflect and ponder the ways I can make our home school lifestyle better.  When last school year ended, I decided that I wanted to make this current school year better.  Now saying better isn't really measurable so I had to be specific.  Better for me meant being more focused with our time together, making sure I corrected their work consistently which means at least three times per week, and using curriculum that they enjoyed. 

Homeschool curriculum selections for 4th and 6th grade including math, history, science, writing, and more.