Fun with school

Some days of homeschooling can be boring, tough, have tears, or just be severely long. Then there are days where you can't get anything done because your laughing all day at something someones said or done. That was today. My son is studying the solar system and we were discussing the different planets. While looking at pictures of the planets I said...."Wow, Uranus is really a pretty blue color due to all of that methane gas around it." Instantly my son died out laughing. It took me about two seconds to recall what was so funny. Needless to say school stopped for a period of time. :)

Home for the holidays....ugg!

We've been home since September and we've really enjoyed it but I still feel the longing to be on the road. We are heading out again after New Year's. Don't get me wrong I love my family but being with them really drives me nuts. I think I love them more from a distance. My kids are starting to understand why family can make you crazy. Places we have to go, things we have to do for others, expectations from family,.....now don't think I'm trying to be a grump or a hermit but when people realize that you home school they automatically think you don't do anything all day long and you can be at their beckon call. This really burns me up.

Since it's hunting season around here family expects that my children can go to the deer camp anytime. Hello!! We still are having our lessons each day. "Well can't they skip it for a couple of days"...NO, NO, NO! Their school is just as important as public school children's. I've even been asked to sit for 6 hours and wait for the cable guy to show up. "Sure cause I don't have anything better to do". Now it would be different if the ones asking were family that cared about us and had things to do with us but they don't. They just figured that I'm sitting at home eating bon bons all day. We do have some liberties that others don't but they shouldn't just assume that we have the live of lesiure.

I've entertained the notion of skipping Christmas like the "Kranks" intended. We come home for Christmas to purchase gifts for family members that we don't see or much less talk to all year and for what? Is that really celebrating the holidays the right way? Our children are selfish and greedy around this time of year. They compare what they get to what their cousins get. It really burns me up. We ask for lists of what they want and have to do our best to get them something that they will like when in reality we don't even know the kids very well to know. We're just swapping money. I call my husband Scrooge but he really is right on things. If we spent all the money we spend on Christmas for our own family then we could really do something nice together....like a cruise! I feel bad about wanting to do that, like I'm letting everyone down, but in all honesty I'd much rather do that then fighting the stores, paying for things we won't use, and the kids getting presents they really don't want or need. I'd rather enjoy family with dinners and visiting together but noone has time. Thanksgiving is a joke. Noone wanted to have dinner and visit. Everyone was too busy.

Times have changed. It seems that family traditions of gather and spending time together is non-existant. That's why I love our lifestyle. We are together 24/7. My husband is working but we're there when he comes in and supper is cooked, kids are happy (for the most part), and we do things together. Movies, bowling, riding bikes, playing a board game, playing a sport, or just visiting together. People don't get it cause we aren't normal. I might as well go full weirdo and skip Christmas next year. The kids are for it already, so next year the lights will not be hung, the tree will not be trimmed, and gifts will not be wrapped. I'm thinking of someplace warm and sunny with white sandy beaches. Now that's a Christmas dream.

Homeschooling how to

When I started out homeschooling it was kind of scary. First you need to find out the requirements that your state has. Our home state has very few requirements. I filled out paperwork at our schools administration building and that was it. I'm responsible for their learning, record keeping, and curriculum. One requiement is that I do have to have them tested every spring. (That is for students in the third grade to ninth grade.) You can go to http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/gettingstarted/a/legalusa.htm and select your state to find out the specifications.

There are so many things to decide when it comes to how to teach your kids. I didn't know which curriculum to use, if I should unschool, or if I should buy the dvd teaching series. I decide that my inner teacher wanted to do it alone. I decided to go with a canned curriculum. A canned curriculum is a full course curriculum which will cover all of your students needs. Math, English, Science, History, and Reading. My kids had already been in school and liked the textbooks but just didn't like that pace or the unruly kids in their class. Unschooling is somewhat apart of our daily schedule. In unschooling you don't use books or rote learning. Unschoolers learn by living. I like unschooling but I believed my kids needed "school" skills. Check out http://www.unschooling.com/ for more information. We tried A.C.E. paces and they were not as challenging as I wanted and my third grader was bored. They are workbooks (36 books for each subject) that last about two weeks at a time and so you have quite a few to keep track of which can be hard to do in a camper. We then went to Alpha and Omega's Lifepacs. They are workbooks also but you have only 10 books for each subject. Each one of those listed here include teachers guides, tests, and students workbooks for about $250 per student(a years worth). We decided to come off our money and get Abeka this year and even though it was twice as much and alot more books my kids and I love it. It's challenging to them and is more classroom/teacher oriented which is what we like. The best advice I can give anyone is if your not sure on what you like or what your kids will respond to don't go and spend tons of money on homeschool curriculum. You'll just get discouraged. Do your homework and research all your options. I suggest checking out http://www.homeschool.com/ which has tons of information.

We had another family that traveled with us and homeschooling just didn't work for them. The kids and parents didn't see eye to eye on what was important and they weren't excited about it. You can make it happen if you want to. Your attitude and approach can make it work for you. I think that's what has helped us. I love to teach my kids and we learn from each other all the time. Homeschooling is very rewarding and I'm glad I made the choice to teach my children.

Home school "school pictures"

Since my family loves school pictures they all asked me if I had any pictures of the kiddos. I decided to have a picture day in my mother's backyard while we were home this summer. The kids had fun posing and my mother loved that I chose her yard. This was the cheapest school pictures I ever bought and they look so much better!

Cade is 10 and in the 5th grade and Emily is 8 and in the 3rd grade. I'm a little partial but I think their adorable!

What's normal anyway?

My kids have been homeschooled going on two years and they love it. Each has been in public school and we all decided that it just wasn't worth it. My husband travels for his job and we decided to pack up and go with him. We live in an RV full-time and although it is sometimes inconvenient it has really made our family closer (literally). I don't understand why people still raise their eyebrows at us when they find out that how we live. They may say nice things but you can see it on their faces "that's just not normal". So tell me what is normal anyway? Before our lifestyle change we lived day to day stressed out, over worked, and never had anytime to spend as a family. Now (besides my husband) we have no set schedule, no gotta go here, no gotta do that, it's just a slower pace of life. We have time for exploring, time to just sit and wonder, time to be kids. But of course that's just not normal. We don't each have our own rooms to hide in and vegg-out in front of the the tv. We have to sit down and eat together, we play outside together but that's just not normal. Most people have told me that all that togetherness would drive them insane. Why? You married your spouse to spend all your life with, you had those kids to take care of and love, so why is it so hard to spend time with them? I think people have become so dependent on other distractions like, meetings, church functions, ball games, dance recitals, karate, etc. that they don't know how to just be. Now don't get me wrong I do like to be alone at times but my kids are 10 and 8. I can let them go play without me and we do have friends that travel with us but I still keep a watchful eye. That's my job. Before we homeschooled we hardly ever were asked "how are the kids doing in school", but now it's like they assume the kids are struggling. Why would they? We get to go as fast or slow as we need. My kids are excelling and learning life experiences too. Besides the regular academics I teach them music, Spanish, art, computer skills, and we go to the library. We don't have to worry about being held up by unruly kids or sticking to a cookie cutter education. We make our learning environment the world around us instead of a classroom of 25+ kids. I guess most people have forgotten that some of our most influential people have been homeschooled. But of course it's just not normal.