Finally...

After 3 summer months of wondering if we are doing the right thing with this homeschooling stuff, after 3 more months of trying to feel my way through things and deal with my own feelings of bitterness towards the school that gave me such grief, I can finally say that I am 100% happy that we have decided to do this. I really can't explain it, but I guess I was sooooo worried about everything that I couldn't see the bigger picture.

We are actually in a place where we are relaxed about school now. I love that we don't have a lot of rushing around in the mornings anymore, not to mention that we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn unless we "have" to for a reason...

I love the opportunities for all of the field trips we have been on as well. I would never have gotten to take the boys to all of these great places if we were not homeschooling. I am able to be with my kids when they have an "ah ha" moment, and I am quite proud of the fact that I am teaching my almost 4 yr old to read. He knows his alphabet and letter sounds and can spell the words, Addie (his girlfriend) (hehe), mama, daddy, papa, emma, zack, ethan, wyatt, noe, kelli, taytay, GG (I know thats easy, but thats what he calls her! haha), and nana. He can recognize his name and the names above along with Jessie, Woody, Buzz, Bullseye (see a theme?), stop, yes, no, and go. I am really super proud of him.. of them both!

I love that Zack comes to me more and asks me more questions about things than he did last year. I guess he has no choice - it's either me or Scott lol..but still.... And that our learning doesn't only happen during the hours of 7:45 -2:45. The other night, we had a long discussion about what drugs were, why they are bad, why people do them, why you shouldn't do them, smoking, God, Satan, right and wrong, etc. You can't really get that in school these days. And I'm glad that the 1st answers he got to these questions were from his parents and not the opinions or values of others.

I love that we don't have to worry about "falling behind" too much... we go at our own pace. If it takes us a week to learn quotation marks, we take a week. We were able to skip over the adding part of Math the past few weeks bc he gets it really quickly.. so we moved on. Why stay on it just to stay on it and pound it in the ground, ya know? when we can move on to higher things....

I love that we can do school in our pjs if want ;) and most of the time, we do.

I love that we can take a break and go get a Diet Coke from Chik-Fil- A in the middle of the day... (I still have to have my fix) ;)

I love that we can have lunch together as a family...I love that I can teach "home ec" when I need the house cleaned ;)....I love that we can do whatever the heck we want whenever the heck we want to ;)

It took me a long time to get to this place and I am excited that I feel that I am finally here. You might not understand that, but it was super hard for me to go from the structured, classroom world, to this "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of teaching and learning. I have had to do some serious soul searching to realize that this is the best thing for our family. And while I wasn't aware at the time we decided to do this, all of my school experience has helped me be able to do this also. I was no where near prepared to teach Zack in Kindergarten, so I am thankful for that Kindergarten year he had in school...and my year teaching Kindergarten last year... that has led me to be able to teach Wyatt Kindergarten skills now. I am glad Zack got those fundamentals in K, bc I did not know then what I know now. :)

Anyway, if you made it through my ramblings, thank you :) till next time.......