With two weeks under our belt, I feel compelled to share a few reasons why I love homeschooling. Of course, the list of reasons is pretty endless, but here are a few things that stood out to me this past week... We're able to learn through real life experiences. Each day. Every day. Together as a family! We can do school in our pajamas if we wanna! We have so much creative freedom. Here is a postcard we made for one of the boy's little friends; she likes dolphins. And, perhaps one of my most favorite moments from this week- watching the boys play and learn together. Seeing their friendship grow... hearing them encourage one another. It really makes my heart happy! They're even sharing a computer chair. Hehe. When we're out and about as a family during the school day, people often ask how old the boys are and if they go to school. My boys are funny and never know how to answer, because, technically, they don't "go" to school. We just "do" school- it's part of our every day life. After I explain that we are a homeschooling family, we usually receive one of two responses, "That's so awesome! Do they like it?!" or "How are they socialized?" To be honest, "socializing" my boys has never been a priority of mine. I feel there are far more important things to focus on like learning, growing in God's word and likeness, fostering healthy relationships, and interacting with people in our community. I've often wondered, "What's the big deal with socialization...?'" I stumbled upon a few blogs last night that had awesome articles about this very subject. I'd like to recommend these two blog posts: "Confession- I don't want my boys to be socialized" http://www.servingjoyfully.com/2013/09/12/homeschool-confession-i-dont-want-my-boys-to-be-socialized/ and "Why my kids will never be socialized" http://www.jennifermcgrail.com/2011/01/why-my-kids-will-never-be-socialized/ Simply click on the link and it will (should!) take you there! Another reason I love homeschooling? I have the best teacher's helper in the entire world... Here he is in action: ...He even wears pajamas to school! The "before" - a wee bit messy! Gathering materials and things... definitely working hard! ...and the "after!" Pretty cool, eh? It's a TMNT sewer lair! That's how we "did school" today! Here are a few close ups: The best part? All the building materials were thrifty leftovers from our remodeling. The cd player is a pencil sharpener, hehe. Aside from these fun adventures, we've been kicking butt with our curriculum, too! (It's what ninja's do, you know!) Our timeline! So far we've learned a bit about Columbus, the Spanish settling in St. Augustine, Florida and the English settling in Jamestown, Virginia. We're ending our unit on Jamestown this week, so I am surprising the boys with a Pocahontas dvd and popcorn! Spelling test! 100%! I'm picky and make sure he only uses capital letters at the beginning of words. (Although, I think I am going to crack down on that next week... all letters pictured above should be lowercase!) We got to talk about the importance of straight "t's" this week too. Ha. See word no 7. Practicing some math on a hand-made thrifty game we recently found! We learned about David and studied the Psalms a bit too. Ironically enough, before our school week started, the Fantastic Okapi made a special request for David to be our "Person of the Week," so it was neat to see how he fit into our curriculum, too! Pictured: our David's with Jonathan's robe and armor. We baked some homemade biscuits too! September is National Biscuit month, my friends! Having Mr. Mustard Seed home to help with school this week allowed me to make a few homemade deliciousnesses: (Yep, I just invented that word... do you like it?) ...I also had time to rearrange our school space a bit. The object in the lower right corner is our kitchen table. Have a super weekend, super friends!
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