Homeschool

There are a lot of things that I love about homeschooling. One is that I am there for the kids "Ah-Ha!" moments... and ultimately, they are also there for mine. you know, those moments when you want to kick and scream b/c no one is paying attention to what you're saying and you feel like their whole well being is in your hands, hanging on this ONE lesson. No? Okay, fine...back to the kids.

Caleb had an "ah-ha" moment this week. He had been struggling with place value which means I have been struggling with patience whenever we opened his math book. It's hard to watch someone struggle with something when we find it so simple...but after many computer games, practice with money and worksheets he finally GOT IT! He was so proud of himself when it clicked and of course...i was elated. :) He now can breeze through his math with few questions or a need for encouraging from me.

Sela also has been diligent in her math, reading & sight word lessons. As diligent as a Kindergartner can be. She has a gift to pick things up quickly but her attention span has yet to mature. She's only 5 so hopefully that will develop over the next year. I wanted to share a video clip of her reading lesson today... lesson 45 of 100 but I can't seem to upload it on here. Maybe Rob can help me figure it out when he gets up without us having to buy the software that keeps popping up when I make my attempts to share. ok...

Another thing I love about homeschooling is working their interests into our lessons. For instance, we've been on 2 field trips to the new LEGOLAND recently. We've also been learning about Europe - France in particular and I had the boys build the Eiffel Tower out of 3 different materials of their choosing. Legos came out the best!  They had fun and I was quite impressed with Noah's final product. He loves Legos now...now that he has been to 2 classes at Legoland and seen just how cool legos can be!

Don't you just love how he had people there to view the tower too? 

Kids sure make learning Fun. 

I love the ability kids have to think outside the box or as Mary Poppins said "see past the end of their noses" . I love that movie. 

I know I haven't mentioned Ava  until now in this post. It's not that she's not involved in our schooling time...she is ... but not much. She just plays with puzzles & blocks, colors a little, loves the dry erase boards and sometimes if I have a break from helping the school age kids I can do number or letter flashcards with her. I'll tell you what though...I think  Leap Frog DVD's, Barney, Mickey and Blue are where her heart is though...she seems to want to learn their songs & I'm okay with that...for now. 

Undoubtedly my biggest challenge in homeschooling is keeping perspective...remembering why we are doing what we're doing everyday. It's so easy to focus on the day to day aspect of life that I overlook the big picture... 

I read once that parenting is like architecture...something that has stuck like glue in my mind. Ever since reading that,  I pray daily that our work brings Glory to God.