Adventures in Homeschooling

The adventure has begun, and we are now one of those families. There are alot of reasons why we decided to homeschool this year, which I won't go in to, and we don't know what we'll do in future, but for now we have jumped in with both feet. It started out a bit rough. I was still feeling sick, and just unprepared for beginning. The week I aimed for starting didn't happen, and I was beating myself up about it. In spite of this the Lord gave me a sweet day of realizing how much the kids are already learning with all our reading and just experiencing life together. Ruthie initiates learning on her own. She asks me what words like "immaculate" and "gratitude" mean. She practices her letters on her own. So once we started I tried to work with Ruthie in the morning with both boys VERY involved, which was fine for Mac, as I have some workbooks for him, but disastrous for Harry, as you will see. He just doesn't play well by himself. He has two entertainers, and when they're busy, well, the results are obvious. Harris became a destroyer and usurper. Here is the list of school supplies he ate or attempted to eat during one school-time:

2 tips off markers
2 pencil erasers off pencils
1-2 crayons
3-5 pieces of chalk


Here's a good moment.




Here's a not so good one.

And another. I fought for the mornings, because my only other viable option is when the boys are napping from around 2-4, which is my time to rest or read or do things around the house and even prep for dinner and I didn't want to lose that time. But I lost it. In a sense. I've gained some really sweet school time with Ruthie, and I am learning how to adjust other things.

I include these pictures because helping around the house is an important aspect of learning for children. (I know they should probably not be using Windex...need to get one of those kid-friendly cleaners...)

So things are going more smoothly, weeks in, and I'll just share an anecdote from Ruthie. She and I had been working on school work for what seemed like several hours- we had some interruptions with me trying to get some soup in the pot, and Harris waking up early and beginning his "interest" in what Ruthie was doing. Ruthie was becoming exasperated with Harry and weary of practicing her "P's" when she looked up dramatically and asked me, " Can I have recess? I just feel like I've been working on this forever!" And I laughed and "rang the bell" for recess. One more reason to love homeschooling.