Thoughts on Homeschooling

I love talking to people about homeschooling because everyone has different perspectives and does it for their own personal reasons.  Everyone has their own methods that work for them.  One thing that I have learned is to adapt and adjust and figure out what works for you.  A lot of it is trial and error, giving it time and figuring out what works, what your child likes to learn and how he likes to learn.  It is hard to adjust from the traditional view of school to the plethora of ways of homeschooling.  I started to homeschool to help Blake emotionally. He was never happy and I wanted more than anything for him to be happy.  There are times when I feel like we can do so much more academically but then I take a step back and realize that emotional stability takes time, energy and effort.  Playing tennis, walking around and going on lunch dates is emotional happiness. When I feel like I need to do more, I remember how far he has come emotionally.  For the most part, he is happy.  He still gets angry and has moments of stress but within normal limits.  He smiles a lot.  I don't have to worry about going out and him having a meltdown that we can't get out of.  Blake has been a gift to me because he has changed my perspective.  I was such a type A, driven kid. Sometimes I think if my kids work like I did, they could develop all these skills and gifts and then I remember the unneeded stress that that personality also had.  So now I am just striving for my kids being happy, contributing members to society.  It is a great shift.

Our weeks were filled with various activities.  I made him continue to do his charter school and then when we got back from vacation I decided to leave it up to him and he decided to continue tennis and ceramics.  I feel great about it.  I am trying to listen to him more instead of having an expectation of all the activities we need to do.  

He is becoming an independent reader.  For a long time he would only read really easy books alongside me and now he is picking up easy books and reading them independently.  I watched these sweet girls this week for a friend and Blake spent most of the time reading to them in his room.  They are the sweetest girls.  Pretty much opposite of crazy parker who would never be able to sit for that long quietly reading a book.  It made me so happy.  We are reading a series about dragons and tonight he asked if he could read a page with me.  He didn't get stressed with sounding out words.  Just flowed with the process of reading.  He said how excited he would be because in 2nd grade he will be able to read it by himself.  I know reading will be a great source of happiness and peace for him and I am so grateful for that. 

Our neighbor homeschools and the boys took beanie babies and decided to play all these games with them. They spent hours playing tag with them, throwing them in the tree to see if they could get stuck and then trying to get them down.  Danny and I always talk about how the best fun is usually free and with some made up game.  It was so much to watch and I got to rake up a ton of leaves that needed to get done.  Parker loved climbing in the garbage can to smash the leaves and have them poured on his head. He also liked to close the garbage can on himself.  Hanna ate her apple in the chair and wandered around in the leaves.  Parker took a little cutie and bowled around the stuffed animals.  I hope they realize and remember what a great childhood they had.  We have a great court of kids and neighbors which I am so grateful for.