Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Spring Has Finally Sprung!!!!

After an unusually cold and long winter for the south...Spring has sprung! We have enjoyed the last few days of warmer weather, but today it hit 80 degrees!! We ended up with 4 extra kids today, so we took advantage of the great weather and spent the day outside. The two youngest (My Molly and her friend who was adopted from Guatamala at the same time as Molly) spent the afternoon with the waterhose. Molly is a true southern, country girl with her mismatched clothes and crazy hair (made even crazier by the water) and drinking straight from the waterhose. And then her "bestest" friend in her princess dress. The two of them are quite a pair and love playing together. The older 5 (ages 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9) spent the afternoon in the creek--while I was praying the snakes were still sleeping! Everyone had such a wonderful spring day!








Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Australia

We are working on a unit on Australia and the kids are loving it. Most of our schooling is done before lunch time. But, I have started taking a little time after lunch (while we are all still at the table) and doing a unit study on something all three kids will be interested in. We are currently learning about Australia. The kids are really enjoying it. The other day we watched a few videos about The Great Barrier Reef and the kids were enthralled

Why "Homeschooling My Miracles"

I thought long and hard about what the title of this new blog should be. My children are truly miracles, as all children are! However, our children came to us in 3 different and quite miraculous ways. Thus the title of my blog "homeschooling my miracles". So, in the next couple of days I will share a little about each of my miracles! But, for now, let me share a little about why we homeschool! When our oldest was school age it was the natural thing to do to put him in school. I loved being home with him, but we thought he needed more. So, we sent him to a 2-day/week preschool. the following year we put him in a 3-day/week preschool for 3 yr olds. I hated him being gone 3 days per week. But, by then we had our second son, and he had a few medical issues as an infant so I spent a good bit of time at doctor's appointments and the hospital with him. He was very bright, and loved to learn. When it came time for the next school year (4 yr kindergarten) we signed him up for the 5 half days that our church offers at their Christian school. The thought of homeschooling never crossed our minds. He was supposed to go to school now. Afterall, most of our friends ha their kids in an all-day program--we were strange enough to pick him up at noon! We loved his teacher and Paul excelled in school--as we knew he would. At the end of that year we were planning our 3rd child and financially things were tough. So, we thought we could save a little cash and homeschool. Our plan was to do it for kindergarten and maybe 1st grade. Our parents thought we had lost our minds. They were indoctrinated (as we were) that school is where a child should spend their days. After about 6 months of schooling him at home there was no way we would consider sending him back to school for a really long time. God showed us, through a little financial difficulty, that at home is where our children should be. Why would we send them off for someone else to raise! Why would we let someone else be in control of what and how our children learn. Looking back, it makes no sense at all to me that we even considered sending him to regular school!! So, it is quite a simple story. But, somehow, still miraculous that God showed us what is best for our family, without us even realizing that we weren't already doing what was best. Now, we have three children--ages 8, 4, and "almost 3" and I wouldn't have it any other way then to have them home with me learning about the world around them.

Welcome

So, here goes! For a couple of years now I have followed more blogs then I care to count. I have gleaned so much from them. So, now I am going to give this "homeschool" blogging a shot. I blogged about our adoption a couple of years ago, but that was a little different. So, bear with me while I figure all this out.