Home*School*Home: August 2015

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Being bad.

I've been a very bad blogger lately, not updating any of my various blogs. They are all getting cobwebs on them ... sorry about that. I've also been a bad homeschooler. my son was supposed to start school on Monday, but with the visit from his brother and girlfriend and various other things, we did not start school and I haven't even ordered him the book I want him to use. How's that for starting out well our last year of homeschooling? At least at this late point in the game, I am wise enough not to panic. He'll be fine. We'll get there. He's motivated to finish and so he's willing to work weekends and holidays if need be. :-) Relaxed Homeschooling

The weather has been so absolutely beautiful lately. I told the kids they must have brought it with them, because it stormed every day until they got here from Mississippi and then the whole time they were here it was gorgeous.

Since we're not homeschooling and I don't have anything about that, I'll share pictures of the giant Mississippi watermelon that filled 5 bowls. We were successful in eating it and not wasting any. :-) Also, here are 2 pictures of the moon, one at night and one in the day.

The next post will be about homeschooling I promise. :-)

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Great Stacation.

Our wonderful stacation is over. I actually was working minimally during the week so I don't know if that counts but we did a lot of vacation-y type things and we also did a lot of homey things so whatever, it was a great week. Now it's over and we have to go back to real life. :-P These are random pictures off my phone .... babies, a drawing, the dog photos I always include in every post, and the pool. I didn't get in the pool much during the visit because I was pretty busy most of the time, but yesterday the pool and I had a reunion. It was great.

Now, back to real life. Homeschooling and home-college-ing will begin shortly, so stay tuned.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Enjoying the week.

We've had pictures made, visited grandmas and aunts, got to have dinner with my brother (and will tomorrow with my husband's brothers and mom and dad), We gone to the local parks and seen the some of the local sites. We've spent a lot of time at home, cooking, grilling, watching TV, playing games, having friends over, etc. Sometimes when I am outside with Freckles (the dog) waiting for her to do her thing, I look in the back door and think about how blessed I am. I hope that I can take some of my blessed peaceful feelings into the next few weeks when we are back to trying to get things done. :-)

Monday, August 10, 2015

Having fun!

We are visiting with my son and his girlfriend baking brownies and bread and seeing friends and family. It's pretty wonderful.

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Positive News?

I set up some google alerts some time back. I have been dealing with depression so I set up google alerts for joy, happiness, depression and positive news. All of them seem to work well with links to good, helpful articles, except for the positive news one. I've thought about deleting it because it really doesn't work in the spirit that I had intended, although it did give me quite the laugh this morning. Here are the positive news headlines I received in my inbox this morning.

Mosquitoes test positive for West Nile

Cannondale-Garmin's Tom Danielson Tests Positive for Banned Substance

El Niño: Destructive, but positive for economy, farming

Woods at Wyndham 'would be positive chaos'

Stray kitten in East Haven tests positive for rabies

FOX CT

Truck driver tested positive for meth after crash

Not quite what I had intended when I set it up. :-)

Saturday, August 01, 2015

A little less whiny today.

Maybe it was watching 4 hours of Gilmore Girls last night ( I really love that show that we have recently discovered) but I am in a slightly better mood today, less whiny. Whatever the cause, I'm going with it. I don't mind feeling better about things today even though nothing has really changed.

I may have defeated the wasps around our back door that kept stinging us when we were turning the key, with 3 cans of wasp spray and a glob of green playdoh (to block their entrance to the inside of the wall.)

I art journaled my first bookmark.

Yesterday, was just a gorgeous day.

My daughter made this fake fire for VBS. The kids were playing like they were camping out.

Homeschooling Advice.

1. Try it. You might enjoy it. It might change your life. It might not be your thing, but you won't know if you don't ever try.

2. Find out what your state (or country) requires, the bare minimum. Do this and then with the rest of it, have fun with it. It doesn't have to be all serious and it doesn't have to look like the inside of a classroom. You're at home. Relax. Play. Read. Learn together. Enjoy your kids. They grow up way too fast.

3. Don't let a written curriculum boss you around. If it works, great. If it's not working for you, throw it out. If only parts of it work, use those and throw the rest out. It's not the boss of you. When shopping for curriculum, read reviews. Try to go somewhere where you can actually hold the book in your hands and look through it. Print out a sample day or week and try and implement it or borrow it before buying. It's kind of hit and miss buying books without being able to see them.

4. Find a homeschool support group. Or two. If you can't find one in real life, find one online. Get support where ever you can.

5. Make a mess now and then. Go outside and put some mentos in coke. Make alka-seltzer rockets. Make some great art. Make a timeline and a map. Grow some borax crystals. Use levers to lift things. Make a trebuchet out of whatever you can find around the house.

6. Go on as many field trips as you can.

The point of this blog.

"there is a theme, if you read, you'll get a growing conviction that homeschooling is a lifestyle that is worthwhile, that it is extremely good for kids and families, that it promotes bonding, is a personalized education that is superior to what you can get anywhere else for your kids, is fun and can be done even if you have a 400 track mind, no math skills (thankfully my husband does though), through working, job changes, bad hair days, home remodeling, deaths, illness, surgery, broken bones and various other things and it actually makes dealing with these things easier, not harder, than it was when we were in the public schools, because homeschooling is so incredibly flexible. That's the point I've been trying to make for the last 5 years or so."