Our Year is Underway! (Well.... Kind of!)

Okay, so I must confess.... we STILL do not have curriculum! What?! Yes, it is true. It is after Labor Day and we are still with out our school stuff. I am not worried- we took our time and looked at everything carefully- I wanted to make a good decision. (this is our children's education after all)

We decided to go with a mixed set rather than one system. I found a company that puts it all together for you and it is all of the core stuff we know we want. *yay* It will be ordered this week and be delivered next week.

With that weight off of my shoulders- we spent the first traditional day of school ignoring all norms! The girls stayed in their pajamas all day and we watched the neighborhood kids get on the bus and leave for an institutionalized first day of school. It was quite glorious and they were a little giddy to be bucking the system!

While we are waiting to order and receive our school work, we are working out of this great workbook from Brain Quest.

 It is really thick and has all subjects in it. They were found at our local educational store and Barnes and Noble. What I like about them is that you buy the previous year and use it as a review and that everything in in one place. 

 Every day the girls do a lesson from each subject- sometimes it is just one worksheet, sometimes it is two.

I wish these guys put out an entire curriculum! I love the style of their products!

Maybe I will write in and tell them that!

Our home school progress is as follows:

1) Decision was made, girls relieved

2) Public school ended, girls did the happiest dance I have ever seen- and we have mad dance parties all of the time here!

3) Letter of intent was turned in and happy dancing was even crazier

4) Kids spent the summer being KIDS and getting the rigors and stresses of formal education out of their system.

5) Mom stressed about making the right choices on course of study. Mom got LOTS of hugs, kisses and "I Love Yous" from the kids

6)Relishing in not heading off to school on the traditional first day

7) Dad helps Mom trough decision process and curriculum was chosen in no time- kids are excited

8) Brushing up on our skills while we wait for the new stuff to arrive

Sounds like progress enough, right?!

Just with the improvement in my girl's temperaments- I will call this major improvement!

We are moving forward, albeit slowly in the curriculum department, but I know we will catch up quickly.

For your viewing delight...

A video of my girls utilizing a YouTube video to help with their workbooks:

Yes, we have made the right decision!

The Summer Buffer

This year summer is not crammed full of activities we want to do before school starts.

No seeking the perfict back to school outfit or fighting over the school supplies they want vs.. the ones they need, vs. what the school list tells me I have to provide.

We are not packing in multiple weekend trips or trying our hardest to capture happy family/childhood memories before the offspring heads off for another grueling year of standardized testing, peer pressure and hectic schedules.

Nope. None of that this summer.

THIS year summer has been dedicated to allowing my kids to be kids.

That's right. I am letting them be just kids.

They have been allowed to stay up and watch the Olympics because they have taken a huge interest in the competitions this year. They sleep in as a result (which in this house is about 7:30 am).

If the girls want to play Barbies all day- that's okay. Owen spent the entire morning just today playing with nothing but a roll of scotch tape, paper and safety scissors- creating his little heart out!

So you are probably asking yourself what my point is... and it is nothing more than the idea that my kids have turned back into the kind of children I think they should be at this point in their lives!

Since agreeing to home school them, my daughters play with toys again- even the baby dolls have come back and are played with daily. They have started wearing hair bows again, they are getting along much better and they fight me WAY less than they used to and the emotional melt downs have all but disappeared.

Now that the stress of the traditional school setting is out of the way, they are beginning to re-blossom into the shining little personalities that had been lost. I feel like I have gotten my children back- which is great, but it is sad to know how drastically they changed in the few years that they were in school.

I am really looking forward to everything that home schooling has to offer! So far we have already seen huge benefits for our kids and I am sure there are many more to come!