Most Moms have sticky floors, messy kitchens, laundry piles, dirty ovens and happy kids!




Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Adventures in Year 2

Well, we did it.  We survived another year homeschooling.  I must say that this year I learned more about myself then I did last year.   I became more confident about our decision to homeschool and I became better at articulating why we made the choice.  For the first time I was challenged by others to defend our choices and I think in the end, those people were better able to understand and respect those choices.  Education is not one size fits all.  Goodness, clothing is not one size fits all so why do we expect other things to be that universal!  At the end of the day my goal is like every other mother's or father's...to make sure the children are alive. 

I think I have figured out, at least for now, the kind of planning that keeps me just far enough ahead of the lessons we are actually doing, but not so far that I have to redo it all because I was too ambitious.  I think I have learned what works for us scheduling wise and what is realistic to accomplish in a day.  Most of all,  I am beginning to move away from the thought process that our one room school house must imitate a classroom.  I am becoming more comfortable with recognizing that our real world learning is just that...learning....the extra things we do, trips to the zoo, parades, the grocery store, the farmers market, the museum, the lake, the bait shop, trips to visit friends and family, the places where my children flood the clerks with questions, those are places we are learning too.  It's all part of our homeschool education, and I am finally not worried about it looking like a nice neat little package wrapped in a bow with perfect curly ribbons and just taking it as it comes. 

Learning is messy.  Life is messy.  Both are chaotic.


I hope you enjoy our look back over our last year!

We started the school year with a State Fair Blue Ribbon!
This kid really thrives with hands on type lessons.  The rhyming word puzzles were a big hit!
This one LOVES playing with the light board while his brother and sister are doing other lessons!
A little bunk bed reading.

You know...because who doesn't just let the 5 year old and 2 year old lose with paints :)

Our Co-Op field day!


Our EPIC bike trail ride!

We adopted a dog. 

Do not be fooled by the cool pictures of lessons...this is what most days teaching looks like!


One day he is going to make lots of money as an artist....
School day at the lake!

Co-Op Art Show

Often times the 2 year old provides that extra bit of "help" the first grader needs....