Detox is over….

The kids have been out of public school now for a month.

I have been pouring over every bit of information about unschooling, homeschooling, and all sorts of different terms dealing with teaching at home.

To say I have been overwhelmed is an understatement!

We have no “structured” school day and I love it. In the last few weeks the kids have been more relaxed, open to learning new ideas and even though there are no “grades” to chart their progress, I think they are doing very well.

Now is the time to start putting together blog posts about what we are learning, sources I am implementing and show everyone that homeschooling is really not that hard!

Connor and Ian have been learning at their own pace on http://abcmouse.com . There are some days that I can’t get them to stop playing.  It is a pay site, but it’s worth every penny.  I was knocking my head against a wall trying to get Ian to participate in something, anything, and within 10 minutes of setting him up on the site he was glued to the laptop.  Both of them enjoy the site and earning tickets that they can spend in the virtual rooms on the site.  I actually had to turn the ticket spending off so that they would accumulate a good amount and then we can spend them together.  Saving and spending lesson coming up soon to teach them what happens when you don’t save.

I asked Phoenix what she wanted to learn about and she chose mythology.  Not only is she learning about mythology, she is learning to create her own webpage to share her information.  Her website is: http://pgchomeschooling.webs.com  Her assignment is to post her research in a manner that is easy and interesting to read.  It’s still a little raw because we haven’t edited it for proper grammar, so it’s a work in progress.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Our house is rather disorganized because we are trying to incorporate so many more elements to the extra room and the living room.  Is it chaotic?  Yes.  There is paperwork, books, project materials and all sorts of random items scattered in both rooms.  Does it bother me? Nope.  Rome wasn’t built in a day and our house will eventually be organized. Okay, who am I kidding?  I should say that the house will eventually have some “order”, but it will never truly be organized.  We don’t live in a model home.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Over the last few weeks I have had the kids out during the day and the question seems to come up, “Why aren’t you in school?”.  Ian is normally the first to answer, “Mommy teaches us at home.”

I thought a lot about homeschooling before I decided to take the leap. Trust me when I say it is definitely a leap of faith.  I love my children. I love spending time with them and even though they drive me crazy at times, I love having them around during the day.  By the time they would get up in the morning, spend all day at school, come home and do homework, have their playtime, then eat dinner….. it was time for bed.  During the week I wasn’t really spending a lot of quality time with them.  We were forced to try and get in all the quality time that was missed during the week crammed into two days on the weekend.  Having them at home now is wonderful and we are able to spend more time working on our family with learning thrown in here and there.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I will post when I can and try to add pictures when possible.  I will be adding a links page with all the different resources I have found that work for our family.  There are thousands of homeschooling blogs out there and I am thankful for all the information that is shared.

Check back soon for an update!!