What I have learned so far...

I've been a bit of a Negative Nellie to this point concerning our homeschooling journey...I blame a recent encounter with a certain man named Daniel and his non-discovery of the natural health benefits of coffee..., so I thought I would change my attitude and sit and reflect on what I have learned about it so far, halfway through our first year.

1.  It's hard work!

• This isn't a great revelation, but it's still surprising to me nonetheless.  Maybe I was a bit overconfident going in.  I don't think I was naive about the work, but not having a kid who goes happily along with every planned activity is a bit of a buzz kill, dude. She's getting better though.  Most days. 

2.  I need to stop worrying.

• I tend to be very hard on myself as a teacher (actually this generalizes in most areas of my life - unfortunately housekeeping is not one of them.)  While talking to a potential HS mom (almost got her in our clutches - haha!), I realized that I cannot worry about what the public school deems as the right academic scope and sequence.  I can use it as a guideline, but we are the ones who determine what we want to teach, otherwise, she'd be enrolled.  Goodness, if we moved to another state, the guidelines would all be different anyway.  I've got to relax.

3.  I am addicted to curricula, oh, and catalogs.

• I have always loved print catalogs.  Seriously.  Love them. I blame my cousin.  She used to send me bags of these unique catalogs:  Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heart Song, The San Francisco Music Box Company, etc. I would go over and over them. The beautiful pictures of all the goodies and the wonderful slick pages. *sigh* I have issues.  And I have always loved educational stuff.  Now, with homeschooling, I get to enjoy the best of both worlds in many, many varieties of catalogs. Oh, if I could just be a curriculum or product reviewer or a millionaire...  

4.  Changes need made to the way we do things.

• We're in a rut.  I think we are both bored with our routine - some things were instituted by me and others we have just fallen into.  How quickly bad habits can be established, huh?   I have discovered things that have not worked and now I need to rethink the plan and make some adjustments.

5.  It has been a half year of new memories.

• We took our first family vacation to the beach.  Julianna learned to tie her own shoes.  She climbed a tree by herself.  We celebrated her first day of Kindergarten.  She went ice skating for the first time.   She began Daisy Scouts.  She has her first wobbly tooth.  *sniff, sniff*  It's all happening so quickly.  When I was pregnant with her, my school's Principal told me, "Some days will seem long, but the years will fly by."  Oh, I can see she was so right. 

6.  We're doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing

• In my previous post, I told you we were going to visit a private Christian school as a possible placement for Julianna next year.  We did visit and while I can see some definite benefits of her being in a classroom setting (things that cannot be recreated (or at least not to the same effect) with just the two of us at home):  small or large group dynamics, social interactions with peers, school experiences in general (recess, going to specials, etc.) they don't outweigh the drawbacks (mainly which include doctrinal differences.)  I can't really explain it, but going to the school and seeing that it's not the total Utopian society that I had envisioned in my head (especially on those days - all you HSing mommas know what kind of days I mean!)  or was that perceived Utopia because I was imagining myself eating bon bons and reading a good book ALONE all day long?  Ha!  Probably more the latter.  Regardless, I came away with the peace about our decision and  that is something I have been struggling with since we decided to HS.  It's still not an easy journey, but we will make it through and we'll be all the better for even attempting to take the steps in the first place. 

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