Getting back into things

For a long while now we have been preoccupied with various family members visiting, it has been wonderful for us, but I apologize for the irregular posting. Next week we should be getting back into our routine…well, sort of. After such a long period of being busy touring the island with family, enjoying their company, trying to relax and catch up with each other, a lot else in life has been skipped. I have a TON to do around the house to recover, to organize, to spring clean.

I am truly sad to see my sis-in-laws leave, it has been so wonderful having them here, and it is hard to know that they will be so far away and it will be a long time before we see them again. This is the most difficult part of being world travelers, as we are, we never have family nearby and I wish my boys could be with family more, but I digress…

Although I am sad to say goodbye I am looking forward to getting back into a routine, getting back to work with the boys, and getting our home back into shape! I am thinking a lot about what needs to be done and how to go about it because there is so much to do, and as always there are never enough hours in the day! I want to get Rylan’s room more organized, so that I can easily rotate toys every week or so (like I used to before our last move!). It keeps them more interesting and the space less cluttered and more organized.

I want to give our craft and school supply cupboard a serious overhaul. I need to go through everyone’s clothes and separate what can be re-purposed and what needs to go to Good Will. I have already started to sell baby toys and items that are no longer in use, but I need to do more of that.

Let’s see what else? I need to figure out a new schedule for our week, since our activities have changed with the new year – although I like to be flexible, I do need to have some basic ideas of how each day should proceed and be able to make sure things are getting checked off my to do list.

I have some new materials to choose and order, since Rylan has finished his kindergarten reading curriculum and I don’t think we will continue with Hooked on Phonics. And there is more, but you are probably dozing off by now! As I finish these projects I will share them with you…but now enough thinking and writing about it, time to get to work!! :)

Why homeschool?

A reader asked me this question recently, as well as a couple of friends in conversation. I decided it was time to post about it, so that there is some place I can refer people to when asked this question. The reasons we chose homeschooling are many, it can be summed up in, “because it was what felt right for our family in general, and our kids specifically”, but broken down, these are the main reasons it felt right for us (disclaimer: these are the reasons it works for OUR family, homeschooling is not for everybody, nor is it the only way to achieve the results I list below, so please don’t read this as a judgment on what may work for you):

- ensuring a strong spiritual foundation in their lives, character development (see this post for more detail), and helping them to establish a world view based on the equality of all people, respect for (and interest in) cultural diversity, and a respect for and desire to protect this beautiful world we live in.

- protecting them from what goes on in schools (I don’t need to elaborate here, we all went to school ourselves…)

- academically we can do so much more with them, we can follow their passions and interests, work at their speed and abilities, all with the advantage of one-on-one attention from parents who know them far better than any teacher (no matter how perceptive and involved) ever would, and who care deeply about their development.

- to foster a love for learning

- the ability to offer our kids more hands-on learning, in multiple settings, for example, out in nature. Related to this, the ability to include life-skills in their education, such as housework and cooking, and when they get older, managing finances and so on.

- flexibility – we have to do “school” a certain number of days a year, but we are not bound to any specific schedule, so those days can happen when we want them to (you need to look into your specific State laws, though).

- time for the boys to have plenty of unstructured play time, which is so essential to early development and learning.

Our family is only starting on this journey, so our focus right now is on the early years, and that is all I can speak to, since I have not explored in-depth beyond those years (though we hope to homeschool all the way through high school, this will depend on whether homeschooling continues to work for all the members of our family). For more details on the specifics of homeschooling in the early years, I recommend reading this post in FIMBY (a blog I enjoy). Renee really covers a lot of what we are trying to do with our homeschool, so it seems easier to just refer you there. If you would like a selection of books on the subject of homeschooling you can find them here.