October 27

"This is Blahblahblah Elementary school...nothing is wrong." Um, not really what you want to hear when you answer a call from your kids' former school. Apparently, I hadn't signed some form. It had nothing to do with homeschooling. I was still anxious about going up there though. I was worried that it would be some kind of trap in which I would be forced to meet with the principal and explain myself.  Yes, I am paranoid...and a huge chicken.

I thought I would miss the school once we started homeschooling. But I haven't. The truth is, I never really felt comfortable there for a lot of reasons. Now our school is the park, the library, the car, our dining room table or sofa. It feels right so far. And in the end, revisiting Blahblahblah Elementary wasn't as hard as I thought.

October 26

Today is a little hectic, but that's o.k. I stayed up way too late last night and woke up way too early this morning. We've done a little math and a little language arts, but what we (I) needed most was to get outside. So, we went to the library. It's amazing how much a 30 minute outing can do. I feel energized but relaxed and the kids are thrilled with their new book discoveries as usual. They are heavily into graphic novels right now with Babymouse, Kit Feeny, and the new (to us) Geronimo Stilton being their favs. We'll "do more school" later. After all, flexibility is one of the great things about homeschooling. With that said, I'm going to curl up with some of my homemade granola...


and The Three R's!

October 25

Our day so far:

• Early morning spent playing soccer in the yard (Daddy & Robin cut the grass yesterday)
• Read aloud time for Robin and Wren.
• Vocabulary and spelling words based on unfamiliar words from read aloud time.
• Tears brought to you by the letter "P" which Finch has a hard time writing.
• Fractions.
• Too many sentences beginning with "I".
• Division.
• Hot Wheels.
• Me loving Math Mammoth.
• Time4learning. Much more fun than that pesky letter "p".
• Breakfast...
• again...
• Snack...
• again...
• And in the background, nursing. Always nursing.

October 23

Every person we have told about homeschooling has brought up socialization. It wasn't something that ever occurred to me would be an issue. My kids had a few school friends, but they were all just that: school friends. The only time they would really spend with those kids were a few minutes during P.E. and sometimes lunch (and then only if they were in the same class as they were not permitted to talk across tables). We're lucky enough to live on a street chock full of kids. There is a knock at our door nearly every day after traditional school is out asking if my little birds can come out and play.  It's not unusual for my kids to spend two or more hours outside on a daily basis playing and exploring a nearby field and "woods". My door slams a few times an hour as they go in and out with bikes, toys, scooters, blankets and snacks. The large, active homeschooling/attachment parenting community here also organizes many events and park days. The only thing preventing us from attending was school! On top of that, Wren is a Girl Scout, the kids all swim, and the boys usually participate in fall/spring sports. So, yea, I think we've got that pesky socialization issue covered.

October 22

Last night I dreamed that the kids hated homeschooling and asked to go back to public school. In the dream, I did the walk of shame through the school and could practically feel the superiority of the staff and the teachers. They knew I would fail. This dream came about b/c of a conversation I had with L right before I went to bed last night. I told him that more than anything, I fear won't be able to teach Finch, our 5 y/o, how to read. The older kids and I love reading, we have tons of books in the house, and we go to the library at least once a week. But I feel I don't know how to translate all that into teaching. We've been doing the free trials at Headsprout and Reading Eggs, but frankly, he finds those boring. He has asked that I teach him instead. So next up is The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading which I requested from the library. Today is our last weekday of "free time" before we jump into working from a curriculum on Monday. We're planning on doing a science experiment and DD Wren is going to do some research on Siberia which we heard a little about on NPR this morning. I definitely love being to learn about something when we feel like it without time limits or expectations and I know the kids do too.

October 22

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

October 20

Things got better on Monday. We met up with some other homeschoolers and my kids went letterboxing for the first time. I got to learn more about the co-op I'm interested in for the kiddos from a few people that are actually members. I woke up this morning without the butterflies I've had in my stomach for the past couple of days.

Yesterday, I gave the kids some math placement tests even though I know we're technically supposed to be deschooling right now. They are both about a grade level behind in math. And these are "honor roll" students. Damn that Everyday Math! I picked up Wren's remaining school supplies and got a sweet encouraging email from her teacher which was nice. We went to the library which is one of the kids' favorite places to go. They were thrilled to go in the middle of the day and promptly came home and spent a couple of hours reading. Love that. I spoke to my mom about everything that we're doing and she told basically told me that she supported me as she knew I was doing what I felt I needed to. She did the same for my brother and I when I was growing up. She was a fierce advocate and activist and still is.

I've made decisions about all our curriculum (curricula??) except for language arts for Robin (5th grade) and Wren (3rd grade). The breakdown is as follows:

Math: Math Mammoth for Robin & Wren, Singapore Math Essential Math Kindergarten for Finch
History: Story of the World 
Science: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey
Language Arts: ?? for Robin & Wren, Headsprout for Finch
Art: Our normal weekly family art days & museum trips
P.E.: The kids take swimming and we are thinking of taking another class
Music: Undecided, they may learn new instruments

I'm also going to supplement with Lesson Pathways which is awesome and free (!) as needed.