Never Say Never - Thoughts on Homeschooling

Well.  I never thought I would be writing this post.  Though I suppose I should know by now that I ought not say I will never do something as a parent if I don't know a whole lot about what that thing is.  That thing in this case is homeschooling. 

I have historically had the typical concerns about homeschooling.  "Don't homeschooled kids miss out so much on school experiences?"  "How can they be socialized?" And so forth.  My husband has at times suggested that we consider homeschooling, but I have resisted for these reasons.  Then recently I had a conversation with one of my brothers in law and his wife.  She is a teacher in 6th grade and he was telling me about what wonderful experiences she has had with homeschooled kids when they come into traditional school.  The conversation went on from there, and I'll spare you the details, but it started me thinking.  And asking.  And reading.  And it turns out homeschool is way more than I thought it was.

So, what really prompted me to think I might want to homeschool our kids?  This:

 We watched lots of princess movies with Grandma, which sparked some awesome pretending.

And lots of other stuff I have posted about in the past few weeks as we have been traveling.  The photos in this post are from some of the other fun experiences (in addition to those I've already written about) my girls had while visiting my parents.  See, we don't have any family living near us.  The closest family member is about a five and a half hour drive away, which is a little far for frequent weekend trips, and my parents live 10 hours from us.  My girls get so much from visiting with our families.  They get experiences at my parents' house and at the Farm and in Iowa that could never be matched by the experiences they would get in a conventional school.  Not even close.  My husband is fortunate to have quite a bit of time off from his job, which allows us to visit the people we love.  The people my girls need to know and make memories with.  So, we travel.  But traditional schooling would put an abrupt stop to that as soon as Miss begins Kindergarten.  The more I think about it, I'm just not willing to trade in the flexibility to travel and let me girls know their heritage and all the other things they can and do learn from our trips for conventional schooling.  I would if I thought that traditional school offered something truly valuable that they couldn't get through homeschooling.  I used to think that it did.  But I'm learning that that's not the case.  

Don't get me wrong.  I have absolutely nothing against traditional schools.  I'm not saying that homeschooling is necessarily better than regular schools.  I'm just saying that I have begun to realize that it is better for us.  I contacted another blogging mom, Katrina from They All Call Me Mom, to ask her about her experiences with homeschooling her kids (she has nine).  She was so helpful and gave me some great tips.  In fact, everyone I have contacted with questions about homeschooling has been exceptionally warm and kind and informative.  I have been able to find some local groups that I think will fit with the type of homeschooling I would like to do.  I'm reading some good books (right now I'm really enjoying "The Well-Adjusted Child: The Social Benefits of Homeschooling" by Rachel Gathercole).  Essentially, I have reached the point where I feel confident that when the time comes for Miss to start Kindergarten, she'll stay home with me instead.  It's pretty exciting, actually.  

I have a lot to learn.  And a lot to teach.  But that's what moms do all day every day anyway, right?

Memories in a Box

When I was a little girl I loved to go to my Grandma's house.  She had a jewelry box full of costume jewelry that she let me play with to my heart's content.  I would go back to her bedroom and put the jewelry box on her big bed.  I'd drape myself in her jewels all afternoon.  She had long necklace strands with funky beads, tons of bangle bracelets, brooches, and clip-on earrings, essential for my very young and at that time un-pierced ears.  I have many memories of these adventures.  And I don't remember this, but one story goes that, as a tiny tot, I once placed all of my Grandma's necklaces on at one time and somehow fell over, calling out in my little voice, "Help!  Help!" because I could not get back up.

My Grandma passed away about two and a half years ago.  This past week, my Mom gave me her jewelry box with her costume jewelry in it.  Oh heaven!  Now, I was a little sad because it wasn't the same box, and much of the jewelry I played with wasn't there anymore.  I had had visions of opening my Grandma's white jewelry box to find all the fun beaded strands I had played with in the late 70s and early 80s.  I guess Grandma got some new stuff since then.  The new box is dark-stained wood.  But happily, a few of the pieces I remember playing with were still there and some other items I remember seeing her wear, even if I didn't play with them.  It was magical to watch my girls' faces light up as they explored this treasure trove.  

They both loved to see themselves all decked out.  Lass repeatedly said, "I go wook in miweh (look in mirror)" and "Sissy, wook miweh too, huh?  Come on!"

They were princesses in their finery. Then Miss decided they needed to be "scullery maids" (we had been watching Snow White).  So she changed into her "raggy jewelry" for cleaning house and she and Lass went to town.

Oops.

Anybody remember these?

Those old Fisher Price toys were the other thing I used to play with at my Grandma's house.  The "Mommy" with the blue body and yellow hair was a toy I used to love to carry around with me all the time.  Sort of like how my middle child has to carry around her "Wedda" (Cinderella) doll at all times and always in her left hand (check the photos above, she's always there).  My girls weren't into the little people like they were the jewelry.  Miss said, "Oh, cool people!" and then went back to playing with her princesses.  Oh well.

We're home now, trying to get back into the swing of things after yet another week of travel.  We've been on the road a lot the past few weeks to be with family.  I am thinking about my grandmas, and my husband's grandma, and my girls' grandmas.  Grandmas are just special.  I have always loved and appreciated my grandmas, but I find myself cherishing them more now that I have children.  I wish my girls would know my grandparents the way I did.  I know I can't make that happen (though I try with visits as much as possible), but that makes it all the more important to me that they will have wonderful special relationships with their grandparents.  So we travel.  We get sleep deprived from driving late into the night and sleeping in cramped quarters.  We rack up the miles on my vehicle. We get flat tires that my poor husband has to change at 11:00 at night.  But you'd better believe my girls will have amazing memories. Someday they might have a special item that brings those memories flooding back, like the box of my Grandma's jewelry.  Definitely, they will know the specialness of their grandparents. And that makes it all so worth it.  

A Getaway

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent last week at my parents' house.  The girls were amazing during the 10-hour drive, both on the way down and on the way home.  I do love the portable DVD player for a long road trip!

We had a great time visiting with my parents.  As usual, the girls were mesmerized by my mom.  She's the Baby/Toddler/Preschooler whisperer, I swear.  Lass didn't even need any warm-up time this visit, which made it even more fun.  We made a few trips to the library where my mom works.  The first trip was so I could get on the internet for a bit to check out some restaurants and hotels in nearby Nashville (more on this below).

How cute is this little one typing??

The second trip to the library was for story time.  The theme for the week was the letter "P," so my mom read "The Princess and the Dragon," we did puzzles, ate popsicles and pretzels,

and played with puppets.  There was even a Puppet Parade, which really made an impression on Lass, as she continued to grab my mom's puppets and say, "Mach, mach, mach," repeating the parade over and over at my parents' house for the rest of our visit.

The girls had a blast with these ancient laundry baskets.  The things Grandma comes up with...

And I captured a few photos of their attempts at making pouty faces.

The weather was beautiful and warm, so we got to play outside.  The girls loved picking up rocks, examining moss on the ground and playing in the leaves and dirt.  Lass may have even eaten a little bit of dirt.  But just a little.

She was very interested in the birds.   She kept saying, "Buhdie!  Buhdie, ah doo? (Birdie, where are you?)" and looking in vain for some birds to fly by.

Miss found this rock and named it her "Little Cutie."  She insisted we bring it into the house and then that we bring it home.

It has been carried around with other important friends like Oopsie Bear, Toodie, and Twinkers.

Very special indeed.

One of the best things about our trip was that my husband and I actually left the girls overnight with my parents one night and went to Nashville for an overnight date (hence the internet search mentioned above).  We got a nice hotel room in Downtown Nashville, went out to dinner, sort of slept in (only until 7:15, but my mom said Lass was up at 6 that morning), lounged around and got an awesome room service breakfast, and then went to visit my brother and his family for a bit, including my brand new nephew who is just 4 weeks old.  It was such a relaxing little getaway.  I have never left the girls overnight before, except Miss when I was in the hospital having Lass.  It was kind of weird, but also kind of awesome.  My husband and I both agreed that the next time we are ready to do it again (in another 18 months or so!), we should go for two nights.  I agreed, though by the time we were getting ready to go back to my mom and dad's, I was really anxious to see the girls.  I missed them a lot.  So we'll see about two nights.  But the one night we got was fantastic (thanks again mom and dad!).  And apparently, my girls barely even noticed we were gone.  What a great practice run for when I am gone to the hospital to have Sis.

It was, again, as always, a wonderful time with my mom and dad.

Santa Came to Town

We were at the Farm over the weekend for Christmas with my husband's family.  The girls got to have tons of fun playing with their cousins.

The grown ups got to have lots of fun visiting.  This is a photo of me with my also-pregnant sister-in-law.  She is due about two weeks after me.  The woman brought O'Doul's.  Gotta love a fake beer on Christmas Eve.

And then of course, the Christmas festivities began.  We opened gifts with the family, which is kind of crazy since my husband has five siblings.  There were 14 adults and 13 kids opening and slinging wrapping paper all over.

It was fabulous.

One of the biggest gift "hits" was this "Rody" for Miss from my husband's parents.

Daddy blew it up and away she went.

It caused a bit of friction once Little Sister noticed it.

She was pretty upset at not being able to ride it right away.

But Big Sister is such a sweet girl, she let her sis have a turn,

hovering nearby the entire time, of course.

And, time's up!

It's a really cool toy.

Finally, Miss got distracted and Lass got to have a bit of time on it.  Oh, the holiday drama!

After family gifts, the kids all went downstairs to wait for Santa.  In my husband's family, Santa arrives on Christmas Eve before the kids go to bed.  They have to wait patiently downstairs for him (while the moms put out stockings and all the Santa gifts upstairs).

When he arrives, he makes lots of noise stomping around and "Ho-Ho-Ho-ing."  The kids scream and run up the stairs, hoping to catch a glimpse of him before he gets into his sleigh and rides off.

We all got to see him as he ran out of the house and back to his sleigh waiting in the grass.  Unfortunately one of the older cousins may have seen him a little too much.  He said to his mom something like, "I wish we got to have the real Santa, not the one with dark hair and eyebrows."  I guess the wig wasn't quite straight on my brother-in-law!

When we went back inside, of course the girls had a blast with all their presents.

Miss got the two Care Bears she asked Santa for, and they haven't left her side since.  Here she is reading one of her new books to Grumpy Bear.

In my last post I wrote about how Miss has been insistent about wearing her "ballerina costume" of leotard, tights, and ballet shoes.  The trip to the Farm was no different.  I told her she had to wear some nice clothes for Christmas dinner and family gifts, and we compromised by putting her nice clothes on over the ballerina costume (if you look at some of the pictures above you can see her little ballet shoes). After getting her Santa gifts, the "real" clothes were off and she was back in ballerina mode.

I finally got her out of the ballerina costume when we went on a treasure hunt on Christmas day.  I told her she needed to wear warm clothes and that her ballerina costume really needed to be washed while we were out.

The weather was chilly but beautiful, and as always the treasure hunt was memorable.

Lass was a bit like the little brother in "A Christmas Story."  she was so bundled up she could barely move.

Miss found some shells and some acorns for her "treasures."

She got to check out lots of interesting things, like this deer rub.

She got to examine some mushrooms growing on these trees

And look at these little berries.

Lass fell asleep during our walk in the woods.

Overall, the trip to the farm was a great time for all.  And when we came home, the girls found that Santa had been to our house too while we were gone.  He left some gymnastics mats, a balance beam, and a baby doll high chair (which so far has only been used to feed pizza to Care Bears).

Oh yeah, Santa left bubble wrap too.

I am still trying to get things back in order here after so much holiday traveling. Yesterday I folded six loads of laundry and I still have more to do!  The toys aren't all put away, but they've at least all made it into the house now.  The spare room in the basement still has wrapping paper strewn all over the floor.  But the traveling was absolutely worth it, and we had a magical Christmas.  I hope you did too.