Monday, November 6, 2017

UnSchool Days

I've always known I would homeschool my children. I had been homeschooled myself and after spending a year in public high school, there was no question. It might not be for everyone, but it's for us. We love the freedom that it provides. We love the flexibility. Especially since my hubby doesn't work a typical 9 to 5 job. When he is off, we are off. It might be a Monday or a Friday instead of a Saturday or a Sunday and thats ok. It also leaves us with more ability to go with the flow of life. We might stay up super late to watch a meteor shower, then sleep till 10 the next day and thats ok. We might get lost in one subject because the girls find it fascinating and want to learn more, or we might ditch the curriculum all together for a day spent in nature or being creative.

I try to stick to a no complaining on social media rule for myself. This sometimes means that our homeschooling life looks a little more perfect than it actually is. There are days that are hard. There are struggles. There are poor attitudes, laziness, and impatience. That goes for me as well as for them. There are also learning difficulties. My seven year old, who we call Bunny, has had a tough time with reading. She is right on track in math and whizzes through most of her lessons. But reading is hard for her. We've tried different curriculum. We've even had her vision checked. But still, she struggles along, slowly making small improvements. I didn't expect for her to have this struggle. I LOVED reading as a child. I still do. But her mind works differently than mine does. She is much more like her father, and thats ok. He's pretty awesome and so is she. 

Bunny has the chicken pox right now, so we've had a pretty laid back school week. Yesterday (a Sunday) we read hours of history. One way she is like me is that she loves history, and being read to. We colored and cut out paper dolls of the greek gods and talked about weather we would rather live in Athens or Sparta. Athens all the way for us. We need art in our lives.

Today she was feeling a little better and started talking about what she wants to do when she grows up. This kid is so much cooler than I ever was or probably ever will be. She asked if we could make a vision board (Something she's seen my husband and I do) of all the things she wants to "manifest" in her life. Yes, she said manifest. I helped her make a list (spelling the words out for her to write down), then she picked pictures to print off the internet, cut them out and made a collage, adding some stickers. 

We discussed the things she could do now, to work toward her goals. We found a place for her to take swimming lessons this winter. She is a pretty good swimmer now, but we both agreed she should be excellent. Then I talked to my surfer friend and Young Living Essential Oils up line, Beth, about where to get lessons next summer. Bunny was THRILLED when Beth offered to teach Bunny herself. Bunny already had a surfboard on her birthday wish list (Which Beth also offered to help pick out since I have no idea what we will need), so that about covers that area.

Next she decided that she better practice her baking since she some day wants to own a bakery. So she whipped up some little vegan, grain free, cookies for our morning snack. When I say she whipped them up, I mean SHE whipped them up. I didn't do a thing except take them out of the oven. She didn't even have a recipe to follow, she just made one up on the fly... And they were DELISH!!! AND HEALTHY!!! WHAAATTT??? 

Then she took a break to rest, but little did I know she was actually drawing out floor plans for a bus house. This included figuring out measurements of different furniture.

Now she actually is resting, playing Minecraft which she taught herself to play. I am soooo not tech and have no idea how she builds all these things.

The best part about today is that it was not even supposed to be a school day. Hubby was off for the morning. He actually has zero full days off right now. Either work or school or both. We cleaned the house and hung a shelf and built lego towers with the little girls. No school was expected. This was all her. This was her chasing her dreams. Those are my favorite kinds of school days.

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