My Mom Homeschooled Us for a Week and All We Got was a Lousy Blog Post

One week ago, I was surprisingly calm as I anticipated the morning's adventures.  It was as if I were filled with a peace from someone's prayers.  (Thanks!)  On Monday, July 30, we dove headfirst into our first year of homeschooling.  I had no idea what to expect, and thanks to an over-active imagination on my part, I feared "the worst."  What the worst might be, I had no idea, but as is my modus operandi, I like to go into things with low hopes so that they always surpass my expectations.

It worked.

I'm fully aware that we may be in the honeymoon phase right now.  Surely the novelty of being homeschooled will wear off and my kids will hate it as much as any kid dislikes going to school.  We're still working out kinks, ironing out our schedule, and figuring out some house rules...like "No shooting Nerf Guns at your sisters while we're working on reading."

Honestly, though it's been amazing. 


On the first day, we got dressed, sat at the table, and got things going.

This will have to suffice as the year's official Back-to-School photo.  While we did get dressed, I didn't do hair.  They were hardly "picture-worthy"...

If anyone cares, one day I'll go over our curriculum (which, I cannot for the life of me spell correctly), but for now, I'll just recap with pictures and some funnies from the first week.  Goodness knows this blog is in need of some levity after that last post.  (Geez.)

By the second day, we opted to stay in pajamas because that's how I roll.

"Math" for Abby has proven most fun for the whole family.  (I use the term "math" liberally because even though we have a legit curriculum, for the first few days it was mostly free play.)  Even Ben joins in to play with the teddy bear counters.  It's nice to see him being a little boy every once in a while.  Seems most days he's lost that.  'sniff, sniff'

On Wednesday, we made cave paintings which now decoratively adorn the walls in our dining-room-turned-playroom-turned-school-room. 

 

Sarah took some liberties with the paint.  I tried to tell her we weren't doing interpretative dance/body painting, but she wouldn't listen. 

 

The best part about homeschooling is you get to be goofy...in your nightgown.

 

....with your brother...after you ride scooters in the driveway to get some of those jitters out of your system before sitting down to do spelling work...

 

Abby made Yankee Doodle - see "Macaroni" up there?

 

Our history lesson today was about the Nile...we made a miniature model and flooded it, just like the real one.  Abby cried.  Apparently her irrational fear of floods applies to miniature models as much as real life.  It didn't help that the side her pyramid was on flooded way worse than the other.  Hahahahaha.  Poor Abby.

 

You're going to think I prompted this - I promise it was completely spontaneous.  The kids were looking for any excuse to use their dry erase boards, so I just told them to go for it while I cleaned up the Nile project.  I came back and Ben had written a "cinquain" poem about homeschooling.  

 

 We made some family pictographs.  Abby drew the faces on the bottom one, and Sarah did the top.  Notice, on Sarah's, I didn't even make the list.  I see where I rank.

 

My favorite part was Abby's interpretation of Ben.  He's frowning and crying.  She smiled so much when she finished his face.  She ran straight over to him and showed him.  You can imagine how well-received that was.

Last picture (finally, I know) - I instructed Ben to write a sentence using the word "evaluate", and he wrote, "Mommy used her nose to evaluate if the sausage was good."  Clearly we've had some questionable sausage here lately.

While creating an original mnemonic for the planets, I shared with Ben that I used to say, "My Very Eager Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas."  His reply?  "I hope you're that eager someday."  It's the little gems like that I would miss out on otherwise.  Hahaha.

I stole the idea from a friend to write letters back and forth, journal-style, between Ben and me.  I pulled out a spiral notebook and got things going halfway through last week.  It is already my favorite thing - and not even necessarily a "homeschool" thing.  I totally recommend it, if for no other reason than it helps ensure that I am affirming him on things I might otherwise forget to verbalize.  I'm much better at writing my thoughts and feelings than saying them.  Here are some excerpts from his notes back to me:

I enjoyed our first week of homeschooling.  It wasn't what I expected at all.  It was ten times more fun than what I thought.

I enjoyed today's History and Math and can't wait for the next subject.  My absolute favorite is science.  I have learned so much already.

I'm sure the honeymoon will end at some point, but for now I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  The first week went so well - here's hoping it continues!