A "Scary" Moment!

While I was at my inlaws' house today enjoying a relaxing day at their pool, I had to chuckle as I remembered a "scary" moment that happened to me there a couple of years ago! My mother-in-law and I were sitting on a patio swing that had a canopy over it to keep the sun off of us, and the kids were in the pool. My oldest said to me excitedly, "Hey mom, look at that falcon sitting up there on the wire!" I peeked out from under the canopy, looked up at the phone wire, and saw a little tiny humming bird sitting on it!!!! My homeschool mom mode kicked in right away as I thought "We definitely haven't done enough science if my sixteen-year-old cannot even tell a falcon from a humming bird!!!!!!" Needless to say that was one of the "scariest" moments of my homeschooling life! After saying a quick prayer, I patiently answered him, "Uh, honey, that's a humming bird!" He patiently answered back,"Uh, mom, look on the wire above the humming bird!" It was then that I realized that if I bent just a little farther forward, there WAS another wire, and on that wire WAS a beautiful falcon (I have never been so happy to see a falcon in all my life!)!!!!! As soon as I spotted him, the falcon flew away, along with my panic about not teaching my kids enough science! When I told everyone about my moment of panic, we all laughed and laughed, and we still laugh about it to this day. I hope it brought you all a laugh as well! The Lord has also used this moment to help me not to stay focused on the little "humming birds" that we sometimes get hung up on in our homeschooling, but to keep any eye out for the "falcons"!

"Easing" Back Into School

Many homeschoolers start their school year in August, so I know that some of you have already started! For those of you who have not, I would like to make a suggestion that someone gave me when I had only been homeschooling a few years: start out slowly, or "ease into" your new school year! The basic idea is to start out with one or two subjects, then after a few days or even a week add another one or two until you are eventually doing all your subjects! This has worked really well for our family, and it helps us not get "burned out" before we even hit Thanksgiving! I know that for some of you, jumping right back into your school year with both feet works fine, especially if you did not take the whole summer off, but this suggestion is for those of us who need a little time to adjust to a more rigid schedule again! This also gives me the opportunity to "tweak" my schedule if it seems to need changing. Most schools take at least a few weeks to have their students doing all their subjects, plus they usually have to spend more time reviewing than we homeschoolers do, so even if we take some time to have a full schedule, we will probably still be ahead of the game! So take a deep breath, do some preparations, and "ease into" your new school year!

A Different "Busy"

When I tell some people I homeschool, many of them say "I couldn't be that busy!" Well I am going to propose that moms of kids in schools are just as busy; it's just a a different kind of "busy"! The year before I started to homeschool, I had my oldest son and my daughter in public school. With my son in second grade and my daughter in half-day kindergarten, I had to come back at lunchtime to get my daughter and then come back again a few hours later to get my son (taking my two toddlers with me who were not always happy to get in car the for the third time that day!). I also tried to be a helper in each of my kids' classes once a week, and that meant finding a babysitter for my other two. I then started to consider how busy my life would be when all four of them were in school, and then to the future when I would someday have one or two in elementary school, one in junior high, and one in high school, with all three schools having somewhat of a different schedule! A lot of people think that homeschool moms are busier because we don't have that morning when the kids are off to school and we're "free"! In reality, all that time is not "free" time; there's housework, grocery shopping, taking care of younger kids, and those mornings when you are helping in your kids' classes! What free time? So you see that homeschool moms aren't that much busier than moms whose kids go to school; it's just a different "busy"! I decided that I would rather be busy at home teaching my kids than busy trying to get everyone where they need to go!

The Ultimate Homeschool Expo!

Most of us homeschoolers try to go to some kind of homeschooling convention every summer to encourage us and give us a "shot in the arm" to keep going for another year! This year, we just could not afford to go. I was sad but knew that some things had to give this year in our budget. The neat thing is that I found something online that I could join that cost much less than going to a convention, and I can access it all year around! It's called the "Ultimate Homeschool Expo", and it has all the things that a convention has to offer plus MORE! One of the things I love most about it is that I can finally make it to ALL of the workshops if I want, plus I don't have to spend any extra money getting the CDs of the workshops that I had to miss! Also, you have all the workshops on your computer FOREVER, so if you don't listen to all of them but you see one that might help you with something in the middle of your school year, you're all set!!!! They also have an online marketplace where vendors will have special offers for you. No crowds, no lines, and no time crunch! In addition, when you join, you get some free gifts! There are some other things that they offer when you join, so check it out and see if you might be interested. The cost is minimal, but the help is HUGE!

The Best Hours of the Day

Hi! My name is Julie and I started my homeschooling adventure about ten years ago. I just graduated my oldest (Praise God!), and I still have three more kids to go! I wanted to start this blog talking about the main reason my husband and I decided to homeschool. First of all, I need to establish that we are Christians who want to raise our kids to love and know the Lord. As I sent my oldest son to kindergarten, first, and then second grade, I realized that it was really difficult to find the time to teach him from God's word (plus I had three other kids younger than he was). I kept trying different times, but it was really hard to squeeze it in! Then I thought,"Wait a minute! God is too important to just "squeeze" into our busy day! I want Him to be in every part of it!!!!!" I also realized that my son was so tired and worn out when he got home from school, that it was really hard for me to teach him about anything, even if it was just table manners or how to do one of his chores correctly! The school had stolen the 'best hours of his day", and by that I mean the hours that he was fresh and ready to learn something ! Now I'm not blaming the school, for they need their students to be at their freshest in order to learn, but I felt like I was being cheated out of some precious time with my child! Therefore, we decided to look into homeschooling, and we've been doing it ever since! It hasn't always been easy, and there are many times when I feel inadequate! I will tell you one thing though: I would not trade the years that I've been privileged to spend getting to know my son who just graduated, as well as the time I'm spending getting to know my other three! It is quite an adventure, though, and now some of the "best hours of MY DAY" are those I get to spend with the children that I have been gifted with! Thank You God!