We decided to homeschool.At the time of the last post until now, if someone would have told me this, I would've rolled my eyes and thought, "That child is going to live in a bubble" or what a crazy thing to do when an opportunity for keeping the house quiet(er) for a few hours sounded like completely bliss.
We've been slowly embracing more and more "hippy" back-to-the-basics kind of things, but this was right up there with cloth diapers. Never did I see myself, a public school teacher, embrace the dark side of hippydom and decide to take on this monumental (and socially depriving) undertaking.
But, here we are, now almost two months into it with a complete shift of what the public school and homeschool system is. We chose k12 after a lot of praying, talking with other parents of school-age children and looking into montessoris. We all KNOW it's what's right for us right now, even if it means adding more to this juggling act in life!
Cloth diapers are now the only thing keeping me back from being labeled a straight out hippy. I even have multiple tie-dyed shirts, a food dehydrator (totally worthy of its own post so stay tuned!) and use more essential oils from my first aid kit than band-aids now. ;)
But, I digress. Back to out homeschool experience thus far!
I think I was the giddiest one when all of Seth's school curriculum arrived, though the kids kept their enthusiasm pretty high (so we'll call it a tie).
Eliza received a "princess" box of her own so she wouldn't feel left out, then Liam got the empty boxes to play in, so it felt like Christmas for everyone that day!
So what was in the boxes? Why, I'm so glad you asked!
This is Seth's history curriculum, which has created an absolute monster in me as I plan out extra activities (we had a whole day designated as Australia Day complete with Rescuers Down Under, mornay, ginger beer straight from Queensland and family restaurant night at the Outback...yeah, nerd doesn't even come close to describe how much I love history!)
And then the Language Arts box....I would read stories aloud to my children all day if they would let me, so it was so fun to see the many books we get to delve into this year! What's especially fun about this subject area is that I get all three of the kidlets involved in the fun, from ABC song to stories on the reading couch. This is definitely an area that half the time Seth doesn't even know that we're doing schoolwork! If it weren't for phonics....blech!
Seth's favorite subject so far has been Math, which is a subject area neither mommy nor daddy have ever had a lot of love for. It's fun to see how much he already knows and quickly picks up on since Seth is usually the "teacher" when we do this lesson online as he navigates through the lesson and participates in various cute activities.
So, how did the first day of school go?
You simply can't start your first day of school without a delicious breakfast first!
Seth's was so ready to show off his sweet learning skills on the first day of school in his classroom (aka, the family room basement). Shoes obviously optional!
Seth's first school project: Iron Man puppet using shapes! I tell you what, it was such a great feeling when I was a school teacher to see the "ah-hah!" moment in my student's faces, but it's NOTHING like seeing my own child light up after accomplishing something!
Some days have been hard, but these glimpses of love between Seth and myself have made it all worth it, leaving me very fulfilled in my role as mother. Now to squelch the green-eyed monster in Liam and get Eliza to stop making mischief during school time, life would be the bliss that I initially thought it would be by having Seth go to public school! All in good time, I suppose.
