Before I was married I had a vivid image in my mind of what marriage was like. Sure it was going to be hard, but mostly marriage would leave me with a euphoric feeling of magical unicorns dancing in my heart all day long.
Ohhhhh! And did I ever have an image of what pregnancy would be! You know sundresses, glowing skin and walking in a field of flowers... actually levitating above the flowers with just my fingertips gently caressing the tippy tops of the blooms. The joy of future motherhood carrying me in the breeze.
When home schooling enter the equation of marriage and motherhood my mind once again started working overtime. There would be craft projects that accompanied every chapter of every book that we ever read. We would take nature hikes and make murals on the walls. We would memorize whole chapters of Scripture at the age of five. The whole family would learn together and skip through those fields of flowers with a euphoric feeling of magical unicorns leaping over rainbows would dance in our hearts all day long.
I believe I've mentioned this before.
Well, it turns out that a mythical creature can't dance in your organs. I'm sure that if a horned horse did dance in your heart that the outcome would be fatal.
My oldest daughter and I are in our 6th year of home schooling and so far it has been nothing that I ever thought it would be.
Shocking.
I know.
We are beginning our third week of homeschooling this year. Hannah is in the 5th grade, Emma is in the 3rd grade, Benjamin is in the 2nd grade and Gabriel is a very enthusiastic Kindergartner. And I can say that this year has the potential to be the absolute best school year ever.
Say it. Best.School.Year.Ever.
The last few years I have spent hours upon hours searching for a curriculum that would fit our family needs. There are loads of quality curricula available for every teaching style imaginable! It's amazing really. Home schooling families should be very grateful that so many publishers have spent so much time and energy in helping us give the greatest education possible to our children!
That being said...I cannot find the perfect fit. Perhaps asking for a curriculum to be a perfect fit is similar to chasing down a unicorn to tap dance in your heart.
But, I did say it was going to be the best school year ever, I even tried to make you say it. Here's what happened. I found a curriculum that has been around for years and is known for its great literature. It seemed like it would be a perfect fit for our family. One look at the price tag and I knew quickly realized that I was wrong. It was too much. So back to the drawing board.
After agonizingly trying to make up my mind to find a curriculum that would be a good fit for our family, while not breaking the budget, I declared a year of freedom.
Yes!
That's what I needed. A year of home schooling freedom.
Now, before you panic and think that we're "unschooling" our children... we're not. Instead this year I am free of my expectations ... there will be no murals and very few craft projects. Because, I'm not that mom. I know that mom and she intimidates me. Not because she's rude or mean or demands I get my crafting on, but because I see her photos on Facebook and I know that I'm not her. So, I try to be her and it ends in me yelling my ever loving head off because these children have minds of their own and they're not making it just the way I told them to do... and then they spill glue on my table and before long there is glitter everywhere. ev.ery.where.
And I'm not science experiment mom. Have you met that mom? She can turn anything into an experiment, have her children reproduce it and enjoy it. She can pronounce the terms in the science book correctly and understand what they mean without having to Google it. She intimidates me too, not because she's an awful person, but because to me she seems pretty fabulous and my kids will never have that mom.
There are plenty of other moms I will never be...like Patient Mom, Never Yells Mom, Super Organized Mom and Wonder Mom. Yet, after years of telling other moms that they are the perfect moms for their children I decided to see if I could believe that I am the perfect mom for my kids. I'm not perfect, nor do I have to pretend to be... because if there are any people in this world who know that I am not perfect, it's my turkey bottoms.
So this year I will have the freedom to be me. To teach them the way that I know best and to spend time enjoying them. I want to laugh with them. I want to learn along side of them. I want to cuddle up with book after book after book and watch their imaginations and interests bloom. I want them to grow in the truth of who their Savior is and what He wants for their lives.
While I didn't find a curriculum that suits me perfectly I did discover that by going on Ebay and buying some books used that I had enough extra money in our budget to buy some of the literature that I really want my kids to enjoy. And I did that by seeing what books my 5 favorite curricula were using for the time period we will be studying.
I also picked a "foreign language" that excites me. So this year we're learning American Sign Language and some English Sign Language. This will help with memorizing Scripture and other aspects of our schooling that we're already learning. Plus, according to some sources ASL is the fourth most used language in US. Furthermore, it will give our turkeys a unique opportunity to share the gospel in the deaf community (should we ever meet anyone in the deaf community).
This year the turkeys will continue to go with their Papa to sing in a few of the nursing homes here in town. This has been a wonderful opportunity for them. Not only do they learn the value of serving others, but they also get to serve along side of their Nana and Papa. I.love.it.
The other thing that I'm finding freedom in is that I'm the boss of the schedule. Of course, I've always been the boss of the schedule, though there are years when I let the curriculum enslave me. If it says I need to read 12 pages then by golly we read 12 pages. Whether kids are falling out of their seats exhausted or are in tears because it's bored them to death. Believe me, we've had a bore you to death curriculum and it made all of us want to shove pencils in our eyes so we would have an excuse to call it a day!
I do hope that my other home schooling mamas will have the freedom to make this the best school year ever. It makes learning so much more fun for everyone!
Ohhhhh! And did I ever have an image of what pregnancy would be! You know sundresses, glowing skin and walking in a field of flowers... actually levitating above the flowers with just my fingertips gently caressing the tippy tops of the blooms. The joy of future motherhood carrying me in the breeze.
When home schooling enter the equation of marriage and motherhood my mind once again started working overtime. There would be craft projects that accompanied every chapter of every book that we ever read. We would take nature hikes and make murals on the walls. We would memorize whole chapters of Scripture at the age of five. The whole family would learn together and skip through those fields of flowers with a euphoric feeling of magical unicorns leaping over rainbows would dance in our hearts all day long.
I believe I've mentioned this before.
Well, it turns out that a mythical creature can't dance in your organs. I'm sure that if a horned horse did dance in your heart that the outcome would be fatal.
My oldest daughter and I are in our 6th year of home schooling and so far it has been nothing that I ever thought it would be.
Shocking.
I know.
We are beginning our third week of homeschooling this year. Hannah is in the 5th grade, Emma is in the 3rd grade, Benjamin is in the 2nd grade and Gabriel is a very enthusiastic Kindergartner. And I can say that this year has the potential to be the absolute best school year ever.
Say it. Best.School.Year.Ever.
The last few years I have spent hours upon hours searching for a curriculum that would fit our family needs. There are loads of quality curricula available for every teaching style imaginable! It's amazing really. Home schooling families should be very grateful that so many publishers have spent so much time and energy in helping us give the greatest education possible to our children!
That being said...I cannot find the perfect fit. Perhaps asking for a curriculum to be a perfect fit is similar to chasing down a unicorn to tap dance in your heart.
But, I did say it was going to be the best school year ever, I even tried to make you say it. Here's what happened. I found a curriculum that has been around for years and is known for its great literature. It seemed like it would be a perfect fit for our family. One look at the price tag and I knew quickly realized that I was wrong. It was too much. So back to the drawing board.
After agonizingly trying to make up my mind to find a curriculum that would be a good fit for our family, while not breaking the budget, I declared a year of freedom.
Yes!
That's what I needed. A year of home schooling freedom.
Now, before you panic and think that we're "unschooling" our children... we're not. Instead this year I am free of my expectations ... there will be no murals and very few craft projects. Because, I'm not that mom. I know that mom and she intimidates me. Not because she's rude or mean or demands I get my crafting on, but because I see her photos on Facebook and I know that I'm not her. So, I try to be her and it ends in me yelling my ever loving head off because these children have minds of their own and they're not making it just the way I told them to do... and then they spill glue on my table and before long there is glitter everywhere. ev.ery.where.
And I'm not science experiment mom. Have you met that mom? She can turn anything into an experiment, have her children reproduce it and enjoy it. She can pronounce the terms in the science book correctly and understand what they mean without having to Google it. She intimidates me too, not because she's an awful person, but because to me she seems pretty fabulous and my kids will never have that mom.
There are plenty of other moms I will never be...like Patient Mom, Never Yells Mom, Super Organized Mom and Wonder Mom. Yet, after years of telling other moms that they are the perfect moms for their children I decided to see if I could believe that I am the perfect mom for my kids. I'm not perfect, nor do I have to pretend to be... because if there are any people in this world who know that I am not perfect, it's my turkey bottoms.
 |
| This is our motto this year. It works for mom as well as the turkeys! |
So this year I will have the freedom to be me. To teach them the way that I know best and to spend time enjoying them. I want to laugh with them. I want to learn along side of them. I want to cuddle up with book after book after book and watch their imaginations and interests bloom. I want them to grow in the truth of who their Savior is and what He wants for their lives.
While I didn't find a curriculum that suits me perfectly I did discover that by going on Ebay and buying some books used that I had enough extra money in our budget to buy some of the literature that I really want my kids to enjoy. And I did that by seeing what books my 5 favorite curricula were using for the time period we will be studying.
I also picked a "foreign language" that excites me. So this year we're learning American Sign Language and some English Sign Language. This will help with memorizing Scripture and other aspects of our schooling that we're already learning. Plus, according to some sources ASL is the fourth most used language in US. Furthermore, it will give our turkeys a unique opportunity to share the gospel in the deaf community (should we ever meet anyone in the deaf community).
This year the turkeys will continue to go with their Papa to sing in a few of the nursing homes here in town. This has been a wonderful opportunity for them. Not only do they learn the value of serving others, but they also get to serve along side of their Nana and Papa. I.love.it.
The other thing that I'm finding freedom in is that I'm the boss of the schedule. Of course, I've always been the boss of the schedule, though there are years when I let the curriculum enslave me. If it says I need to read 12 pages then by golly we read 12 pages. Whether kids are falling out of their seats exhausted or are in tears because it's bored them to death. Believe me, we've had a bore you to death curriculum and it made all of us want to shove pencils in our eyes so we would have an excuse to call it a day!
I do hope that my other home schooling mamas will have the freedom to make this the best school year ever. It makes learning so much more fun for everyone!
