We started homeschooling this year. And that’s why I don’t blog anymore.
But honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being on this journey has been so amazing. In so many ways.
And before you go thinking that I’m all super mom and stuff… sooooooo not true. And I’d like to take a moment and tell you how I got over myself and decided to homeschool.
But even before I do that, I’d like to say that I totally recognize that homeschooling is not for everyone. And it’s not for every child.
And I’d like to say that I totally recognize that there are many people out there that will think that I am a total nut job for wanting to homeschool my children.
Anyway… onto our decision (“our,” being Adam included, because yeah, he’s a part of picture too).
I’m a loner. I grew up an only child. I crave being alone. Seriously, my idea of a fun time is like cleaning my house (by.myself. I don’t need your helpthankyouverymuch), playing my piano for hours on end (oh, I was a music major in college… further indicating my loner-ness), or working on some crazy martha stewart craft project. That likely won’t work.
I have a love hate relationship with Martha Stewart and her craft projects. More hate because my version of Martha’s projects never turn out like the picture in the magazine. Grrrrrrrrrrrr…
My loner personality is not conducive to homeschooling. AKA, having three little people around me allllllll day long.
In other words, there was a part of me that had to die (pretty extreme I know) in order to make this work. And that’s okay. I will say, for me, the biggest shift as been this: prior to starting homeschooling, my days were ordered around when am I going to get my alone time. When do I get to meet my needs. I mean, I met my kids needs happily, and had LOTS of fun in the process, but deep down in there, I was often waiting for nap time with baited breath. Hurrying them along at bath time to get them in bed. So that I could recharge.
(I’d like to take this moment to report that this is not my proudest moment ever. But I like to be honest, so there you go).
My personality, well really, just ME, was the biggest hurdle to get over in regards to choosing whether or not to homeschool.
Homeschooling has been so good for me (and hopefully the kids too). No, I don’t have a nice long nap/ rest time to get things done. No, I don’t get to play the piano as much, take naps, clean the house when I want to, read the books I have stacked up on my desk to read, spend time with people outside of my family as much as I want to, call friends on the phone. Or blog.
But, these little people are going to be grown before I know it. I’m so glad that I get to be with them during these years. I get to tailor their education based on what their interests are, what they like and don’t like, what their personalities are bent to.
Now, that’s just one facet to my decision to homeschool. There are faith based reasons and discontent with the public school system that also led me to homeschool.
So, onto some pictures. And before you go thinking that it’s all puppies and roses with some granola on top over here… there are days that are great (most days in fact), and then there are days that are oh so not great. I’ve realized so far (you know, in my very vast knowledge of homeschooling over the past 4 months), that anything that is worthwhile doing, will not only have tremendous blessing, but will also take tremendous work and sometimes frustration and discouragement.
Alanna has been working very hard on holding her pencil. 🙂 I love watching her write. She’s started to write her own stories now, which is sooooooo precious.
I don’t have many picture of Alanna doing school for this post (sad!), but I thought I’d share what I do with the little guys while I’m doing school with Alanna. That seems to be the question I get asked most.
Nora is adamant about a few things. Her toe sock seams and that she needs to be doing school just like her sister.
She has her very own box filled with things to do. She has her own notebook. And the funny thing is, she’s just picked up stuff watching her sister. This is her little notebook. She wrote, “cat,” all on her own. (Sorry, proud mom).
Cole is at a tricky age for homeschooling right now. The majority of school happens during his nap, but we try to squeeze a bit in in the mornings. I’ve made a few things for him to do with us at the table, because he often gets fussy being on the floor by himself. Usually he and Nora play at the table while I’m schooling Alanna, and then he and Alanna go and play on the floor while I “school” Nora (which doesn’t take very long… 15 minutes tops).
Here’s a fun little game. I cut a slit on the top of this can, and they drop stuff like dried pasta and pencil erasers in the top. They make a really fun plinky sound when they drop in there.
Alanna does reading, writing, and math for Kindergarten. She also enjoys little sorting games and the like. This one involves using tweezers to put pony beads in leftover medicine cups (I always have an abundance of those things!!).
Those things take some dexterity!!
The cups have the corresponding colored bead hot glued in the bottom.
This one is Nora’s game. I’m sure you can figure it out… if you’re older than 3.
You can probably figure this one out too.
We have some of these for Nora as well.
I have an assortment of leftover keyboard pieces (from the recycle shop at the Children’s museum). I picked them up thinking they’d be kind of fun.
Not fun. Not fun.
So mad.
Cut to the sticker… Some cards have squiggly lines, some have zig zag lines.
The 2 beads on the ends of this stick are hotglued on so that Nora can match the pattern with the empty stick in the bag (there are a few patterns to follow).
This is for Cole. Slide the beads back and forth.
One of the books that we use for reading.
Nora reading the Bob books.
Holes punched in the top of a coffee can… put the pipe cleaners inside. Cole can even do it!
So, there you have it.
And again, before you think that I’m super mom and came up with these all on my own. No way. I found all of these ideas online. Actually, I didn’t even find them. My friend Mirandi emailed me the links. Which talk about the homeschool expert… she’s your gal. She totally have a blog. But she’s homeschooling her kids so she doesn’t have time. Oh the irony… 🙂
PS. There’s a lot more that I could write about this. And I’m sure this is like the most schizophrenic post that I’ve ever written. But Cole’s waking up from his nap gottagobyyyyyyeeeee!!!!