Home*School*Home: April 2018

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Okay, finally.

I think we're finally finished celebrating my birthday. We finished it off yesterday with a girls trip to Ikea which is 2 1/2 hours away from here. Me, my daughter-in-law and my daughter went and spent the day there. Ikea had sent me a coupon for 15 dollars off and a coupon for a free meal on my birthday so I took advantage of both. I went mostly to shop for an entertainment center but we had to take the smaller car, so I didn't actually come home with one. I did get a good idea what I want and I can wait until the next time (I think) to go get it. We mostly had a good time. I had an asthma attack right in the middle of the store which made me feel bad for an hour or so and my legs got tired so I did a lot of sitting while they shopped. I came home with some pillows and a few other things, not as much as I had planned on, but I'm full of ideas, so maybe that counts.

Today I am blessed to get to have lunch with some of my homeschool mom friends that I haven't gotten to see for a while (we need to work on that) and then it's back into the car to go take my daughter to the doctor this afternoon. So, 2 busy days off work, then back to work tomorrow and then the weekend!! I'll finally

get the house cleaned and something cooked. Probably. I knew this was going to be a busy week, but it really takes a toll on the housework when I'm doing stuff like this. Oh well. It waits. It will be there when I get time.

Monday, April 23, 2018

Celebrating!

I'm celebrating my birthday a ton this year. Lots of fun! Friday night my brother took me out to eat. We had a great time. I tried a maple bacon burger at Cracker Barrel. It was extremely good. We got to sit and visit for a while and it was great. Then on Saturday, my actual birthday, my husband cooked for me. He made fried fish, fried onion rings and hush puppies. All of these are something I can't really get gluten free unless we make it at home and I am not much of a fryer. I don't really fry anything other than some chicken occasionally. It was really, really good. We finished it up yesterday. Yesterday, I took a break from all the celebrating, went to church and visited my aunt in the nursing home and then today, my daughter-in-law is going to cook one of my favorite things that she makes, fettuccine alfredo and my daughter is going to bake my birthday cake.

Since all of these celebrations have involved very fattening food, I will be back on my diet on Tuesday!!!

Friday, April 13, 2018

So yesterday,

I had to get an eye exam in the town where my son is in college. After school and the eye exam, we met up at the hair salon to get our hair cut. As I am sitting there making small talk with my stylist, I hear my son over in the next chair, outlining all the merits of homeschooling for his stylist. Later, I asked him how that conversation got started and he said she asked him where he goes to school. He answered with his college name, but then she asked where he went to high school and she told him. They had quite a long talk. My haircut got finished and I went out to the waiting area to wait for him. When she brought him out, she apologized and said she was sorry it took so long, but that they were talking. It turns out, she has a 1-year-old and is thinking of homeschooling in a few years. :-)

I don't have a picture of this event so I thought I would share some of my recent art projects. :-)

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Whew!

These 2 photos are taken on the same day. Snow on the peach tree and then a cardinal that posed for me in the back yard.

I survived my week of working 40 hours. It wasn't as bad as I thought and it definitely wasn't as bad as that week I spent last week working at the Montessori school. With that one, I hadn't worked there before so it was totally new and it was a much more active job, so I was ~~tireder~~ more tired. The main problem I had this week is that my Sjogren's syndrome flared and my eyes were so dry that one night I couldn't sleep much. I finally got some moisturizing eye ointment for my eyes and was able to sleep. With this job, I've been there a while and it's pretty low pressure; I'm not dealing with any 3 or 4-year-olds, it's quiet, etc. I did get to do some types of reports I had not done before and go into the cutting room and see some things that were interesting, but I can't go into details. I also made some mistakes and had to redo a couple of things. Overall, though, not too bad. I'm looking forward to only working a few hours next week and getting some things done around the house. :-)

The weather has been interesting here, up, down, rain, snow, etc.

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."