Rambling Thoughts

It's summer break here. I wish I were a year round homeschooler. I would love it if my kids didn't think of learning as happening only between the months of August and May. I would love it if I were the kind of mom who felt inspired to plan fun learning activities all year, to teach grammar in July, to plan fun field trips over the summer, but that's not reality for us.  Right now, I have one kiddo in the pool with her friends and the other three kiddos are rotting their brains playing League of Legends together, and I haven't done one productive thing today, unless you count getting a pedicure as productive. We are slackers from late May to mid-August and we like it that way.

We have been part of the public school system in one way or another for 16 years. The younger two have been homeschooled for the past four years, but we have always worked with the older boys' public school calendar. Summer weather signals a break...a big chunk of unscheduled time with few obligations. We love summer break. We need it. That's never going to change.

In the fall, we will start our fifth year of Otherwise Educating. I can't believe it. This whole thing kind of started out as an experiment. I had no plans for how long I would continue doing it. I truly take it year by year and figure I'll do something different when this doesn't feel right anymore. Right now, it still feels right.

As the kids get older, people get more uncomfortable with me not having my children in "proper" school. When we first started homeschooling, many people thought I was crazy, but I've always been a little unconventional, so most just chalked it up to another odd thing I chose to do like cloth diapering, baby food making and breastfeeding for longer than most people consider "normal".  As time has marched on and my older homeschooled son approaches high school, people are starting to get uncomfortable and have started asking what I'm going to "do" with him. I mean, clearly I can't homeschool him once he reaches high school, can I?  Sometimes I pretend like I've put a lot of thought into it and lay out my "plan", but most of the time I shrug and say, "I'm not sure", because that's the truth.

I am conflicted, because when I look back over my older boys' public school experiences, there are some cool things they did/experienced/learned that I'd hate for my younger kids to miss out on. I also see that they wasted an enormous amount of time and they both tell me that they would have been much better served doing things differently. They don't learn the way public school teaches. Much of the time they were bored, frustrated and sadly apathetic. While I can't give my younger two identical opportunities my older boys had available to them in public school, I think the different experiences and opportunities we have because we homeschool will more than make up for it.

I make no promises about our future plans. My second son just graduated from public high school, so we are definitely going to enjoy one year of not being tied to the public school calendar in any way. After that, we will reevaluate.

Happy summer!

Saturday Morning Writing

Thing 4 started writing a story yesterday. As soon as she got up today, she began writing again.

When kids are excited about and invested in a project, they take ownership of it. No threats or bribes are needed to motivate them.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Finding the passion again

When I started this crazy experiment, I was beyond excited about learning at home with my children. I researched curriculum options until I couldn't see straight. I read more books and blogs on homeschooling than I can count. I blogged every sad science experiment we did. We field tripped, co-oped, crafted and nature walked our little hearts out those first two years. It was wonderful and we loved it. When I look back on those years, I just feel all warm inside. I wouldn't trade that time for all the money in the world. As time has gone on, we've fallen into a rut. We are bored. I hate to admit it, but homeschooling just isn't fun anymore. It used to be a way of life. It has turned into something we check off so we can move on with our day.

One by one, our homeschooling friends are going back to school. I admit that I'm tempted. Wouldn't it be nice to "just" be the mom? No more answering "What do we have to do for school today?" No more  Sunday night list making. No more worrying and stressing about whether or not I'm teaching them everything they need to know. More coffee with girl friends. More time to clean and organize my house. Maybe I could finally get to that four year old to-do list.

Whenever I am trying to make a big decision, my wise younger sister always advises me to envision my day to day life as it will be if a make the change. When I envision my life with my kiddos back in school, I don't like what I see. I see rushed mornings. I see kids coming home exhausted after spending  all day at school yet still facing two to three hours of homework at night. I see me opening up a lunch box and finding a lunch that wasn't eaten because my child was being teased at the lunch table and couldn't "stomach" eating. (Ugh... I still get teary when I remember that event.) I see busy work, stress over state tests, drug dogs... I could go on and on. I see these things because I have seen them. I've done this before. It's less than 70 days until my second son graduates from public school (not that I'm counting). Having had two children go to public school from K-12, I know of what I speak.  As I have said over and over and over, my kids have had some fantastic teachers and experiences in public school. They have also had some not-so-great experiences. I'm just not ready to travel that road again... yet.

I'm not saying my children will never go back to school.  I don't know what tomorrow holds. When people ask how long I'm going to do this, I often respond, "At least until next week." What I do know is that I really like my life right now the way it is. I love learning with my children. I love not feeling rushed. I love walking into the family room and seeing them bundled up by the fireplace reading or working on math. The flexibility is priceless. It's wonderful to be able to drop the books and go spend time in nature on a beautiful day.  I like being able to allow them to follow their interests instead of having to follow someone's idea of what they should be learning at this point in time. When I focus on the the good things, I realize that there is a lot that I would miss.

So... I have started reading John Holt again. I'm reading homeschool blogs and books.  I watched Sir Ken's Ted Talk for the umpteenth time. I have committed to making new connections with other homeschoolers. I am going back through the pictures of our first two years of homeschooling and re-reading my blogs from those days. I'm even considering going to a local homeschool convention, which will be new for me. I am reminding myself of why I started this journey in the first place and it gives me renewed passion to continue. Thanks for following along.

"What children need is not new and better curricula but access to more and more of the real world; plenty of time and space to think over their experiences, and to use fantasy and play to make meaning out of them; and advice, road maps, guidebooks, to make it easier for them to get where they want to go (not where we think they ought to go), and to find out what they want to find out." ~ John Holt

A very long overdue post

It's been months and months since I've blogged. We switched things up a little last year with the kiddos going to a Montessori school a couple of days a week. It was a good fit for them, but it caused a real time crunch for me, trying to cram five days of lessons into three days. I felt like I didn't have time to do anything extra, so the blog got put on the back burner. I regret not having blogged much last year because I really enjoy going back through my old posts from the first couple of years and seeing what we did.  It's a homeschool diary.

Today was a beautiful day here in OK so we headed out to the nature preserve this afternoon. It's one of our favorite local places to hike, and every time we go there, I wonder why we don't go more often.

While we were hiking around, 

looking for letters in nature for art projects for the kids' rooms, 

enjoying having our pictures taken,

and watching butterflies do their thing, 

I had a moment of clarity. 

Lately, I've been feeling like I'm at a crossroads with this whole Otherwise Educating thing. This is our fourth year, and I've loved it. I haven't loved everything about it. There have been days when I have not loved it at all. But overall, it has been a wonderful experience for me and for my children. I wouldn't care if they hadn't learned anything (they have), I would not trade the time I have had with them for all the money in the world. However, we are quickly approaching the high school years with Thing 3, and Thing 4 has been telling me she wants to go back to school. She doesn't want to go back to any school. She thinks she might want to go back to public school. You know, that place from which I rescued her over three years ago. 

I've had many conversations in my head, with my husband, with my neighbor and favorite homeschool mom about whether or not to continue on this path. I wonder if my children would be learning more in school.  Would they be better off socially? I have doubts about my ability to homeschool high school.  It's one thing to homeschool elementary school kids. Anyone can teach state capitals and multiplication tables. But how will I teach geometry, chemistry, writing? Can I do this for the long term? Do I even want to? Should I have done this at all?

And then, as she often does, Thing 4 said something that brought me back to the moment. She has been learning about food chains and food webs. Before we headed out today, we covered (for the third time) the various parts of the food chain...producers, consumers, scavengers, decomposers. As we walked past a log that had been eaten by termites, I casually mentioned, "Oh look. Termites have been eating that log. Where do you suppose termites fall in the food chain?" She looked at me, looked at the log, thought for a minute and shouted, "Decomposers! They're decomposers. And look, Mom! You can see how they're breaking down this log. It's turning back into soil." Then, "Wow. You know, it's one thing to read about decomposers, but when I can actually see and touch what they've done, I really get it." 

And that's why I do what I do. I'm doing it again tomorrow. After that, who knows? For now, I'm just going to enjoy the moment.

A Warm, Fuzzy OE Moment

Math isn't so bad when you're sitting by the fire.

Fall Break!

Fall Break starts Thursday and goes through Monday. I am doing the Happy Dance!

Most homeschooling moms I know don't take Fall Break or many of the other typical school breaks. I, however, welcome the public school vacations and take them just as if my children were in public school. I do it with little guilt, too. Maybe I'm just a slacker, I don't know, and at this point, I don't really care. I just know that after 8.5 weeks of lots of focused time with my precious angels, I need a break. If that makes me a slacker, then call me a slacker. I've been called worse.

So tomorrow our school work will consist of doing our history crafts for the week and then we break until next Tuesday. The OE Dad insists I deserve the time off (smart man, eh?), and I couldn't agree more.

Why I Love Otherwise Educating...Reason #278

This is gym class...and recess!

True Confessions Of This OE Mom

School starts tomorrow in our town. My kiddo who is in the 10th grade starts back to school. I will start our new school year here at home tomorrow, too.

So here's my confession. All day long, I've been daydreaming about dropping Things 3 and 4 off at school and meeting my friends for breakfast. How I would love to have coffee with my girlfriends and then come home and clean my house and have it stay clean for a couple of hours. Or start one of the 486 different projects that have been on my to-do list for months. Or just sit on the couch and read a book with no interruptions.

The truth is, right at this moment, I don't want to start school tomorrow or the next day or the next week.

It's not that I don't love having my children around. I do. I love nothing more than when we're all home together. I've never been one of those moms who can't wait for the school year to start. However, I would be lying if I didn't admit that state funded child care was really nice to have sometimes. I'm envious of my friends who, for the next nine months, can plan a hair appointment without worrying about what to do with the kids. I'm envious of the girls who are meeting for the annual "Back To School Breakfast" tomorrow. I'm envious of people who will pick up their children tomorrow afternoon and bring them home to a clean house, and will sit and listen to all of their "first day" stories.

I've enjoyed our summer off. It's been so nice to not have the day to day responsibility of educating my children, of planning schoolwork and enrichment activities. I've enjoyed just being their mom. I'm not ready to start being their teacher, too.

Am I allowed to say all that or will I get kicked out of the Homeschool Club?

One Year Down!

Our first year of Otherwise Educating is finished and we're well into our summer break. I had big plans to school over the summer, but so far those plans haven't materialized. Neither have my plans to paint two rooms and organize all my closets. Oh well...at least I'm consistent.

I learned a lot in my first year of Otherwise Educating. Here are just a few things I learned:

• Homeschooling is harder than I thought it would be.
• Greek Mythology is really interesting!
• So is Ancient History.
• I own the curriculum. The curriculum doesn't own me. (Many thanks to veteran HSing mom, Meredith, for that pearl of wisdom.)
• It's tough for some kids to hold on to a pencil for longer than five minutes at a time.
• When you realize the day is going downhill fast, it's ok, and probably even wise, to ditch school and do something fun. There's always tomorrow.
• A good network of homeschooling moms is essential.
  
• Making the bed is overrated.
• So is cleaning up the breakfast dishes before dinner.
• Time spent with my children is priceless.

While I'm enjoying our summer off, I am excited to get started next year. I have finally settled on all of my curriculum. I'm going to start seriously planning as soon as our new Latin and Language Arts programs arrive.

I'm really excited to start using our Oak Meadow curriculum. I'm hoping it's going to add some fun and creativity to our school days.

And just because I think all blog posts are better with a picture or two, here are a couple of pictures from our summer vacation.


Thing 4 at Space Center Houston:




Thing 3 as an X-Man:

Planning Ahead

The end of this year is approaching quickly. I've liked a lot about our first year of Otherwise Educating. I have to be truthful, though, and tell you that there has been more than a little about our first year that has frustrated me and made me feel like a totally lame homeschooling mom.

It was about a year ago that I started thinking seriously about Otherwise Educating my children. I had big, big plans. I shunned the all-in-one curriculum. I wanted to "roll my own"...choose the best of everything. I did just that. Some things I chose I love, some things I don't love.

One thing I don't love is the fact that I often feel so disjointed. I feel like I never have enough time to plan properly, to coordinate subjects, etc. I often feel so overwhelmed by everything I want to teach my children that I end up paralyzed, not ever settling on one thing. There are days on end when I feel like all we really accomplished was trudging through Math and Grammar. Where is the creativity in that? Something has to change for next year.

I've done a complete 180 and decided to go with a pre-planned curriculum next year. Shocking, I know. I feel like I need something that will lend structure to our days and weeks. I want something that will provide a "jumping off place" for our learning.

My criteria for a curriculum are pretty tough.

• I want something that allows flexibility in timing...something that doesn't have a daily schedule, but has a more general schedule. I'm a little OCD, and I have trouble letting go of things on a list. (That's precisely why the Fly Lady routines never worked for me. I couldn't keep up yet I couldn't let go. I always felt like a failure.)
• I want something that is heavy on good literature. I can't stand the idea of my children reading paragraphs and answering comprehension questions.
• I want something that is integrated across subjects.
• I want something that will easily allow me to expand on topics of interest.
• I want something that is "holisitic". Something that educates the whole child, not just one side of the brain. Something that will inspire and nurture creativity and imagination.

I thought I'd never find a curriculum that is a good fit for us, but after much searching, I came across Oak Meadow School. It was love at first sight! It is Waldorf-inspired curriculum that encompasses everything I love about homeschooling. There is too much to go into here, but please check out their site if you are looking for a great curriculum for next year.

It can be a little pricey, but I had many of the required books, and the ones I don't have, I know I can find at the Goodwill or used on Amazon. I also found some of the teaching materials for about half-price on Ebay.

I can't wait until it arrives! Once I get it and have a chance to look over it, I'll post my thoughts about it.

Socialization

When I dropped my daughter off at dance class today, she and another little girl who is homeschooled starting talking about their homeschool experience. A third girl who was listening piped up and said, "Homeschooling isn't good for you." My daughter said, "Why not?" She said, "Because you don't learn to play with other kids." I said, "Oh, that's not true. Who told you that?" Of course, I knew who told her that. I don't know why I asked. I stood there like a fool, listing all the ways my children get social interaction in spite of (actually, because of) their educational experience. Yes, I was arguing the socialization issue with a 7 year old...defending myself and my children as if I were on trial for child abuse. It was ridiculous but I couldn't help myself.

Can I just say how sick to death I am of hearing that "concern"? Why is "socialization" (or lack thereof) the one thing so many homeschool opponents choose to focus on? I suppose it is because people can't really pick on any other aspect of homeschooling. "Hmm, overall, homeschooled children excel in every academic area, so we can't say the kids aren't learning. I know, let's say they weird and unsocialized."

Do people think we sit at home all day, just the three of us, never interacting with the outside world? Do they think my children stand, noses pressed against the glass storm door, watching longingly as the children on the street play together? Do they think we drive past the park and just wave at the children playing there?

Why do people think that spending time in traditional school is the only appropriate way for children to socialize with other children?

Why is sitting in a crowded, noisy lunch room at a table with 25 other children who are trying to eat their lunches in 20 minutes while the lunch lady yells at them better for children than a group of 12 homeschooled children eating a leisurely lunch at a picnic table outside?

Why is being teased on the playground at school better socially than a multi-aged group of children playing a game of football after our science class?

Why is my child looking at pictures of a naked woman on another child's cell phone in the hall at school (yes, my child saw this) preferable to him taking a trip to the art museum with a couple of other homeschooled children?

Never in a million years would I go up to a parent of a traditionally schooled child and ask, "Don't you worry how all the negative stuff that happens at public school will affect your child's self-esteem?" Yet so many non-homeschooling parents feel free to question and criticize what I'm doing and talk about how it will negatively affect my children. (By the way, as a parent of two children who attend public school, I do worry about all the negative things they experience there.)

Here's the real story. I find the "socialization" issue to be a challenge, but it's not in the way you would think. We have so many opportunities to socialize with other children that I have to carefully choose what we do or we would never be home to do our schoolwork.

We have been on more field trips than I can count. We have had play dates at the park. We "school" with a group of 10 other children every Monday. We go to the gym and play with other kiddos. We meet with our co-op for Culture Club. My children take lessons, go to church, play outside with the dozen or so other kids who live on our block. I think they'll be fine.

Really, the horse is dead. Let's stop beating it.

My Inspiration For The New Semester

"Learning that begins in freedom, that is guided by curiosity and that is conducted without a need for external rewards and punishments gives children an understanding that life is learning." Linda Dobson from The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas

Are You Smarter Than A Second Grader?

On Thursday, my daughter was watching "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" The question was, "Which of the original 13 colonies was the last to ratify the Constitution?" The adult contestant answered "Pennsylvania".

Thing 4 came running into the kitchen and said, "Oh. My. Goodness. That man thought Pennsylvania was the last colony to ratify the Constitution! Everyone knows Pennsylvania was the second to ratify it! He's not even smarter than a second grader!"

As a slightly insecure Otherwise Educating mother, I really love it when we have those moments when our decision to OE is validated. It's great when I see that my children really are learning something from me and I see that I'm not completely screwing up their lives...unless you think weird, nerdy kids who wear pajamas until noon most days and who ask to study History and read about Odysseus are screwed up. If you do, then I've totally screwed them up.I feel compelled to point out, however, that they were weird and nerdy before I started OEing them. But they didn't wear pajamas until noon. That's all my fault.

Just don't ask Thing 4 what colony was the third to ratify the Constitution. We haven't gotten that far yet. We got a little sidetracked with our study of Greek Mythology.

There's just too much to learn and not enough days in the week!

Teacher or Mom?

Otherwise Educating allows me to spend a lot time with our two youngest kiddos. A lot of time. A crazy, ridiculous amount of time. So much time that sometimes even I think I'm crazy for choosing this path. I mean, I really love my children and all, but I spend a lot of time with them.

One would think that if the children weren't sick of me by 6 p.m. every day, they would at least feel like they had received plenty of deposits into their "mommy time" account and could stand the thought of being apart from me for more than five minutes. By 6 p.m., I'm sick of me. As much as I love my children and love being with them, I admit that by 6 p.m. on most days, my "kid time" account is practically maxed out and I'm ready to make a withdrawal or two.

My daughter does not share my sentiments. The girl simply can't get enough time with me. She wants to be with me every waking moment. (And when I stop and think about that, I think, "Who could blame her?" I'm no Pioneer Woman, but I am pretty cool. )

So today on the way home from a four hour errand outing (preceded by over four hours of school with me as her teacher), she said, "Mommy, will you play a game with me when we get home?" Exhausted at this point, the thought of playing Sleeping Queens made me want to drive a stake through my kneecap. I took a deep breath and said, "No. I just can't tonight." I could see in the rearview mirror that she was teary. There was a pause and she said, "You never do anything with me." I almost ran off the road. "I never do anything with you?!? I am with you all day long. I spend hours with you every day teaching you history, math, spelling, geography, reading with you. I even played Scrambled States with you this morning. That's a game! How can you say I never do anything with you?" Then she passed teary and launched right into the ugly cry and said, "You don't understand. During the day you're just my teacher, not my mom."

Oh... Darn.

I was counting all that time as quality time together. She was just counting it as school.

I saw that time as us having mommy/daughter (and son) time. She saw that time as teacher/student time.

Hmm.

I thought about it for a minute and it made sense to me. Since I have taken responsibility for educating our children, I try to use every moment I can to squeeze in some kind of learning. The problem is, the children don't want every moment we spend together to be turned into a teachable moment. Sometimes they just want to have fun with their mom. I had combined the roles, but they don't like it that way. They love having me as their teacher, but they miss having me as their mom.

I said, "You know what? I understand what you're saying and it makes sense to me. Let's play Sleeping Queens tonight." She let out a big sigh of relief and said, "You really understand? I love you, Mommy."

For the record, I won the game.

Settling In

I apologize in advance if your eyes bleed after reading this post novella. I had a lot to say today.

We've been Otherwise Educating for eight weeks or so. During that time, we've gone through several stages. We had the Honeymoon Stage when I was giddy with excitement about educating our children and all the possibilities in front of us. I loved watching them learn by doing. I was positively overjoyed by the fact that they weren't sitting in desks doing worksheets. I was thrilled that they didn't have to eat lunch in 15 minutes with someone yelling at them on a microphone to "Quit talking and eat!" It was so much fun to watch them running through the rain with their friends at "recess". I knew in my heart that we had made the right choice for our children's education.

Then the second day, we moved to the next stage which I like to call "Seriously, This Is My Life?" stage. Reality set in and I thought, "Really? I have to do this every day? No more coffee with friends? No more getting a pedicure without having to arrange child care?" I have to be honest and tell you that the loss of free, government child care every week day is still a bummer sometimes. I love my children more than anything, and truly enjoy having them with me. I was never the mom who counted down the days until the first day of school. I admit, however, that sometimes I find myself dreaming of a day when the public schools offer a one day a week program for Otherwise Educated kids. You know, sort of a Mother's Day Out for home schoolers. I could get my hair colored, get my pedicure, have lunch with a friend, clean my house and catch up on laundry (in theory). Ok, I'm kidding...sort of.

In the "STIML?" stage, I began to question whether or not I could or even really wanted to do this every day. I mean, is it really that important to learn Latin? What is the practical application for Greek Mythology? Hands-on learning, enrichment activities, creative writing, field trips, live theater, art study, nature study? What's the point? I began to see the value in being confined to a desk for many hours every day. If our children don't learn that skill at an early age, how will they ever function in the corporate world when they are confined to a cubicle for eight hours a day (or more)? I was sure I had read a study somewhere about the many positive benefits of florescent lighting on the growth and development of children but I just couldn't locate it.

Then we turned a corner. My incredibly supportive husband (who has been telling me all along how great this is for our children) pointed out the positive changes he observed in Thing 3. I stepped back and thought about it and realized it was true. He was much more settled. He had stopped being so critical of himself and more accepting of mistakes he made. In general, his stress level had gone way down. We talked a lot about how Thing 4 (who loves to do creative things) was allowed to really show her colors (literally) and be herself. She can dance her little heart out all day and then draw when she gets tired of dancing.

I had conversations with other OEing moms, and realized that my feelings were normal. The Pioneer Woman, bless her heart, wrote this great blog post that made me feel so much better...especially the part about the pencil dropping. I thought I was the only one...

Now we are in the "I Can Do This" stage.

When you've been in traditional school as long as we have, you tend to see school as something you "do". It's something you get through in six hours. Five days a week. Nine months a year. You live for the weekends, the holidays, summer break. The children want to get through with their work so they can move on to things that interest them.

Otherwise Educating is very different. I have finally figured out that it's not something we "do". It's something we live. It is a lifestyle. The transition was challenging. It took us a while to go from thinking we had X,Y and Z to accomplish in a day to realizing that learning is just what we do...all day, every day. If we don't get through the grammar lesson, it's ok...we can do it tomorrow. When I finally grasped that concept, OEing became much less stressful.

The children have made the transition, too. They now see the endless possibilities for learning. Almost every day one of them will say, "Mom, I want to learn about..." or "Can we study..." When someone mentions something happening somewhere else in the world, invariably one of them will jump up and grab the globe to locate that state/country/continent. They have rediscovered their natural, God-given love of learning.

It all finally made sense to me last week when we were sitting on the patio studying Mythology together. I was in the middle of a great story about Persephone when my daughter shouted, "Look, Mom! A Praying Mantis! Can we Nature Journal him?"

And that is why we Otherwise Educate.

One Thing Leads To Another

I am finding that one thing I really like about this unconventional way of educating my children is the divergent nature of their learning. Typically, children are taught to think convergently. They gather facts, narrow down the information and focus on one solution. That is an important skill to have, and there is certainly value in learning to think in that way. (Without it, we would not have Tollhouse Cookies or brownies or muffins.) However,  there is also considerable value in allowing your mind to work in reverse, starting with a single bit of information and branching out. It's sometimes good to think like the mouse in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

Often, my son will be working on something that will spur a question about some other matter. We get totally sidetracked from our original lesson while we hop around the internet or through books following the rabbit trail of questions.

For example, today he was working on his copy work. He was copying a short paragraph that talked about Hot Springs, Arkansas. He asked, "How hot are the Hot Springs there?" So we researched that. (143 degrees F.)

Then he wondered, "What makes the Hot Springs hot?" ("Geologists believe that just the right combination of rock types and old faults exists here to permit water to perculate deep, where it is heated by surrounding rock.")

Then my daughter asked, "What's a fault?" So we talked a little bit about the Earth's crust, plates, etc.

That led us to a discussion of Earthquakes.

I think after Earthquakes, we all decided it was time for lunch. We had spent a good thirty minutes researching something we didn't even know interested us when we started our day. Both children asked if we could study more about Earthquakes next week.

It's really wonderful to have the time to indulge and encourage their curiosity.

Why I Love Otherwise Educating...Reason #174

No Homework! Our nights are so calm and unhurried now.

Why I Love Otherwise Educating...Reason #168

AC: "You know why I LOVE homeschooling, Mommy? Because I can hug you anytime I want to. I don't have to wait until 3:30."

Our Official First Day of School!

Much to the dismay of my older boys, we have a tradition of taking pictures outside our front door on the first day of school. It's a fun way to see how much the kids have grown from year to year by checking how tall they are compared to the door.



After taking pictures, we did a little math.



For some, math can be a bit of a challenge.



But she got it!



We met some other OE friends for donuts and then headed out to the Oxley Nature Center for a first day of school field trip. We thought it would be fun to take a little hike on the nature trails.



(My daughter is quite the fashionista with those arm warmers, doncha think?)

But approximately 30 seconds after I took that picture, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. It poured for an hour. We poked around the nature center waiting for the rain to stop...but it didn't stop.

There is a lot of cool stuff to touch in that nature center! The working beehive is particularly interesting.



The staff there was great! They answered all the questions our kiddos had, and our kiddos had a lot of questions!

We had such fun! I think I'm going to like this!

Otherwise Educating

Scott and I have made the important, controversial, unconventional, crazy...take your pick of adjectives and feel free to add your own...decision to educate our two youngest children outside of public school. I hesitate to use the term "home school" for several reasons, not the least of which is that the term "home schoolers" conjures up images of families like the one depicted in this Tim Hawkins video:




...not that there's anything wrong with that. (And I must admit that, like the boy in the video, two of my nerdy children are quite good at Speed Stacks.)

While researching home schooling, I read a wonderful book, For the Children's Sake. In it, the author mentions a law in England that allows for "Education otherwise than in school". For me, that perfectly describes the plan we have to educate our children. It is about so much more than schooling at home. To be more specific, we have no intention of "schooling" our children at home or otherwise.

Unfortunately, Education Otherwise was taken...copyrighted, trademarked and all...so I had to switch things around a little.

And there you have it.

I hope you follow along as we learn the ins and outs of Otherwise Educating our kiddos.