Friday, August 27, 2010

Homeschooling

Today ends the second week of my homeschooling adventure. So far - easy breezy.

Fears:
1. I would lack the self-discipline.
2. I'm not patient enough.

1. It doesn't take that much discipline. Honestly, it's fun. It doesn't take too long, and I find myself excited to spend the time with my girlies.
2. I'm not patient enough. But I'm working on this one.

Criticisms:
Most people who know me, know I'm more the capable of homeschooling my children, and that their education will probably be superior to public school, and so I don't receive a lot of criticism for that. However, the number ONE criticism I hear - over and 0ver - is that my kids are going to be some sort of anti-social freaks.

I could give some long drawn-out response to that, but I will say, that my children spend several hours playing with their siblings every day. They fight - and learn how to resolve it. For the most part, the get along well, respect each other, and learn much how to interact with each other. The world is a cruel place, and if I can teach my children how to behave and react in an encouraging home environment until they mature, I believe they'll handle social situations with more dignity than students who pick up baggage from the insecurities that those early school years develop. This is one criticism that has not been a fear of mine.

Joys:
1. Freedom of scheduling. I've always been a free-bird of sorts. So the freedom to do school after dinner, if needed, is awesome. Today, we didn't do school. We did half of today's stuff yesterday, and we'll do the other half, which is reading, over the weekend. It's BEAUTIFUL today and the girls have been outside playing all afternoon. I have the freedom to let them play today :)

2. Sonlight. I was extremely overwhelmed when I decided to homeschool and really started researching what all there is. Sonlight makes it so easy! I pull out the lesson plan binder and it's all right there. I really can't believe how easy it has made it. We're doing a Pre-K 4/5 curriculum with Evelyn (5) and Riley (3.5). And I'm doing K math and Language Arts 1 with Evelyn. We're moving slowly with those as she's not technically in kindergarten yet, but I can't believe how well she is reading!

3. Being part of the milestones.

4. This one is embarrassing for me to admit, but I really don't spend a lot of 'quality time' with the girls (at least not when I compare myself to other moms - tsk, tsk!). I work at the church part-time and like my house to be semi-clean, and it's easy to just pop in a video or send them outside. I've enjoyed spending the time with them - it's created a real bonding opportunity.

5. Surrounded by Faith. Our curriculum is so faith based. I love having Bible as a daily subject. The girls love reciting their verses for Daddy. It's definately a cool thing. :)

Ah, geeze....


It's been so long since I posted that I don't even know where to start! Here's a picture of the whole gang at Eric and Kayla's wedding. Riley hates to have her picture taken, which stinks because she's so stinking cute.
So what's been going on in my life:
1. I've gained weight. Gah! I've needed to lose 15 pounds since Gigi was born, and now I need to lose 20-25 pounds. That's not really fun. I love working out, but I don't always find the time to do it. (For example, I could be doing it now!) But the main cause is my lack of self-control when it comes to food. Anyway, the WiiFit told me the other day that I'm officially "over-weight" for my height and based on how small my pants are all getting, I'd have to agree. So I've been dieting - watching carbs and calories - and trying to exercise more.
2. Enjoying summer with my girls! I was so excited to have a summer with no babies! We hit up the pool a lot and just in general had fun this summer. Loved it.
3. Cleaning, sometimes cooking, cleaning, attempting to work, cleaning. I definately have too much on my plate because something always suffers in my life. For the past few weeks, I've been keeping the house clean, but I haven't been working as many hours. Etc. One thing always suffers in order to make way for another.
4. Homeschooling. This deserves a special post. :)