Saturday, February 21, 2009

Homeschool is Coolschool

There have been many moments this week where my overwhelming emotion is gratitude. Gratitude for my family and our lovely home and land. For my job that keeps food on our table and clothes on our back. For clean spring water, fresh mountain air , and a night sky full of stars. For the ability to homeschool. Now this is a surprising one for me. My feelings around homeschooling are usually such a mixed bag of emotions. I know it is what I want for my kids and what my kids claim to want for themselves, but man, it is hard. My goal in the beginning was to homeschool for as long as we could, mainly until a child felt strongly about going to a regular school. But I knew that if Noah said he wanted to try school before 7th grade, I would probably try to convince him otherwise. My intital goal was to homeschool until Junior High...and then if he wanted to try school, I would be willing and open to making that happen. Well, now Noah has been homeschooling for 7 "school" years (k-6), and we are closing in on that time (before junior high) I set as a goal. Noah will be going into 7th grade this year! Unbelievable! So, if he shows interest in regular school, I can see myself being willing and open and not trying to convince him otherwise. Holy moly! So, today I am especially grateful for the 7 years of elementary grade homeschooling with Noah. I am grateful for that mixed bag of emotions that came along with homeschooling because I strongly believe that it is our challenges that bring us the greatest gifts. And I am proud of us for meeting our goal without strangling each other because, heaven knows, it was not ever easy. Rewarding and enriching and fun, yes. Easy, no way. So I am grateful for having the ability and motivation to homeschool, for children who flourish in the homeschool environment, and for the opportunity to re-learn some really cool things alongside my kids.

Nimuae's Week

Reading Dr. Doolittle
Times tables (1's,2's,3's,5's, and 10's)
Form Drawing
Natural Resources
Weaving:
weaverbirds, pot holder, placemat


Noah's week
Research for paper on Medieval castles
Pronouns
Mutliplying decimals
The Middle Ages and Vikings
Animal Kingdom: simple animals


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