Our First Week of Schooling at Home

These pictures aren't of us homeschooling, but they were so darn cute I thought I could add them anyway.

Wednesday we started homeschooling. So far so good. We've been listening to Mozart music, looking at pictures by N.C. Wyeth, learning the sounds vowels make, reading the Bible, trying our hand at math... I'm not sure what level she's currently at, so I've been experimenting all over the map... painting, sewing, reading from The Princess and the Goblin, and cooking. Whew! Oh yeah, and we went on a very long nature walk to 7-Eleven. That particular walk took almost two hours! We drew trees, leaves, failed at some crayon rubbings, played at the playground for a few minutes, bought and shared an extra large Slurpee for $1.96, and walked back home. Nathan wasn't in the stroller, and that's partly why it took us two hours to walk there and back again. On the way back we saw a squirrel. Nathan wanted to hold it on his hand. I told him squirrels just want his food, not his hand, and instantly Nathan was holding out his cup of Slurpee shouting, "Try it, Squirrel! Taste it! Taste it!" In the end we had to leave a drop of Slurpee on the ground, so I could continue walking home without hearing about the squirrel all the way home, because I know he would keep talking about the hungry squirrel who didn't run onto his hand.

I am loving homeschooling so far! I love the endless possibilities of learning, hands-on experience, learning right along the side of our children, and building strong family relationships. One of the pitfalls I already see in my future though comes from the fact that I am now very rarely, if ever, alone. The kids wake up around 6:45am. Brad is out the door around 7:15am, so as soon as the children wake up it's game on for Mommy! Nathan is on a very weird schedule where recently he seriously begs to go to bed and skip lunch. I tuck him in and an hour later, maybe an hour and a half later, he's awake and ready to go. Kaeley and I do most of the school work during the babies nap times. When the babies wake up it's back to changing diapers, feeding mouths, cleaning the house, and trying my hand at damage control. Thank God we have that playground out front, because the two older children will play down there for an hour or two. I stay upstairs with the baby who spends most of her time trying to get outside with the older rugrats. Brad comes home at 6:15ish, and then it's dinner, washing dishes, and more damage control for an hour before bedtime.

In only three days of homeschooling I see a Mommy burn-out in my future, so I'm brainstorming with myself about letting the kids watch a short movie while I do whatever I want (no house cleaning allowed) or asking Kaeley to listen to an audio book for half an hour or so while I take a nap. Anyway, I just mention it because it's real. I'll let you know how it works out next week.

Oh, and I must tell you. We did school on Wednesday, and Kaeley really liked it and was anxious to learn, with math as an exception, and then on Thursday we went to the pool with two of our beloved little girl cousins. When I said that they could come over to play after school work Kaeley crumpled a bit and moaned, "School? Ugh! I can't wait for summer to start so I can be free!" I calmly told her that if she didn't have to do school if she didn't want; she was welcome to take a nap during that time. Her face brightened up again and shouted how she wanted to do school! Then, when my mom was over, I said we had to do school work and Kaeley jumped up and down and clapped her hands. I guess she enjoys complaining about school with the rest of the population. She's now in the "school-age" club. I got a kick out of that.

Next week: Bible, vowel sounds, counting higher than twenty (maybe), packaging and sending some packages at the post office, helping Mommy with the budget at the Dollar Tree, learning that Earth is a globe, listening to Mozart, and more Wyeth pictures. Um... and maybe a few Pixar movies for a break. Pixar teaches art, social studies, how to use your imagination, and the importance of not defying your fishy father, right?