Good Wednesday Morning to you.
Today is the last day of the 31 days of Blessings in Everyday Life posts. And we all know how well I did sticking to posting each and every day.
However!
I did start the month off quite discouraged in life, especially regarding homeschool. I have since painfully tried to force myself to change my attitude. And, yes, I still get a bit down about school, but it is amazing what a little change in perspective can do. I have been able to see all the little blessings we have since wedo homeschool, and I am encouraged because of it.
So, now, without further ado, I present:
The Homeschool Blessings List
1. Having your kids close by everyday.
2. Knowing exactly what they are learning and being able to make connections and tie their learning into everyday life.
3. Listening to your preschooler read and knowing that YOU, yes, YOU helped him do that.
Also, having your preschooler insist on reading to you while you are trying to paint and him getting quite furious at you when you do not get AS excited as he about his riveting book about jam, Pam, sat, and yak.
4. Homeschool Co Op. Where other amazing parents do exciting projects with my kids so I don’t have to!
Exhibit A:
Homemade Bird Feeders:
Exhibit B:
Dissecting Owl Pellets.
The kids were given an owl pellet and two toothpicks to use to break the pellet apart. Once they did that, they would search for bones and then match them up on their “bone” paper to try and determine which animal met its unlucky fate in the belly of an owl.
It was disgusting.
Later that night, I was telling David all about it. Turns out he also dissected owl pellets whilst being a homeschooling lad.
Teller, the girl who went to school all her life, never did.
5. So, there you go. Blessing #5. Homeschoolers get to dissect owl pellets.
And, no! Pellets are not poop, my friends.
100 (meaningless) points to anyone who knows that an owl pellet is.
6. My girls love to help my boys. It is very sweet to watch the girls teach the boys, although the boys are not always quite as sweet back.
7. My kids’ recess time involves many interesting things. They can ride their bikes. They can jump on the trampoline. They can practice their basketball skills. Or skillz, if you prefer.
They can visit rabbits.
They can chase chickens.
Which is always fun. Of course.
They can visit pigs.
And best of all . . . they are OUTSIDE. And I can be INSIDE having a cup o’ coffee and trying to regroup.
Amen.
8. We can do random, off the wall things when we feel like it.
For example, yesterday, we had a hankering to make a pumpkin pie. And since we do not live near stores and the like, we had to make due with what we had available.
So, we started with one of our very own pumpkins. You know. From the garden that we weeded for 4.2 million hours?
Bam!
We, yes, we The Maliblahblahs, made that very pumpkin.
So, we cut up the pumpkin and baked it and scooped out all the pumpkin flesh. It was really quite violent.
Then we added all sorts of spices to it and EGGS from the feathered hineys of our very own hens.
I did not have evaporated milk, darn it all, but I did use the power of The Google and discovered you can make your own evaporated milk with nonfat dry milk powder and water.
Holla, Google!
I even made my own pie crust. This is a huge, HUGE step for me in life.
True. The crust was not pretty. But it was edible and it was able to contain pie. So there you go.
9. Field Trips! Since we live a bit away from life, these are harder to do with the gas and time, but we love them and can do them together.
10. Snuggling on the couch and reading together. It is the best cure for any frustrating day.
Happy Wednesday!
Owl pellets are kind of like cat’s hair balls. They cough up a pellet of undigestible material like bones and things. My public school son got to dissect one in 3rd grade. I thinks owls are way cool. One of my goals in life is to photograph one. So far, no luck. Pellets I could live without, thank you very much.
I know what an owl pellet is!! We dissected one a couple weeks ago as well =) And I did as a child in school, too. It’s not just for the home schooled. So there! I am glad it’s been a more encouraging month for you!! And I am in complete agreement with you on the accomplishment of teaching your child to read. Tomorrow we will identify all the trees in our yard – exciting stuff!
is an owl pellet the equivalent of a cats fur ball?
Soo… I realized while reading your post that I am THAT homeschooling mom. A few weeks ago I was digging through a friends HS materials she no longer needed, and got super excited over the owl pellets.
My kids were not nearly as excited as I was.
You forgot to add..I am just plainly lazy and don’t want to get 4 kids ready whilst i have my morning tea…or is that me?
I remember dissecting owl pellets in school. My students do it every year, as well. Isn’t a pellet basically what the owl spits back up that can’t be disgested?
I am also a homeschool mom. We have not, nor will we ever dissect owl pellets.
I didn’t say I was good at homeschooling. Just that we’re doing it!
Home schooling has so many perks. Dissecting in elementary grades! Wow! But for the teacher it’s just so DAILY. It’s relentless and thought-consuming. You’re doing fantastic and so are your kids. Take breaks wherever you can get them and be blessed you don’t have to raise kids in an apartment with no yard or washer & drier. It’s even harder. Hi to all.
Ick! Owl pellets!!! I got to help cub scouts with them TWICE at cub scout day camp. You know, ’cause I’m SO lucky!!
Regurgitated rodent parts. Lovely! Better you than me. So glad you are teaching yourself to look on the bright side of life. May I add a couple more positives to homeschooling?
1) No annoying fundraisers. (I have my daughter in our teensy public school and so far in 52 days of school they have had one large fundraiser, 2 donation drives and the school PTO annual carnival is this weekend. All involving money, or begging for it. We did not let her participate in the big fundraiser; it was hard on her because many of the other kids got junky little trinkets for participating, and it’s hard to convince a 5 yr old that junk IS junk!)
2) No public germs. (I know you do get some exposure to germs when you get together with the co-op and with church, but still…. In the first 45 days of public school my daughter had caught 3 viruses!)
Keep up the homeschooling good work, Taylor!
That IS a gorgeous pumpkin from your very own garden! Did you clean off your pumpkin seeds and salt them and bake them? They are so tasty!
Attitude is everything. Glad you found some blessings.:)
11. You can keep them home when they’re sick – they can’t infect anyone else, you don’t have to miss work because you’re already home, they won’t miss anything or at least won’t miss much staying out of class. No one can infect them.
12. They may be smarter.
13. Everyone can eat when they’re hungry, go to the bathroom if needed. Healthy.
PS I think they could still do fundraisers ha ha
12 1/2. You may feel dumber.
Teller,
That pumpkin was helped by millions of bees!
But go ahead and take the credit since YOU, yes you, had to do the planting and watering and weeding–do I really need to say weeding?– to make it grow!
Jams *and* yaks? I don’t know, that book sounds pretty interesting! And I have to say, I am loving these pig updates. You’re the only person I know who has pigs, so you have to fulfill all my pig info needs!
Love your blessings!! I still think you are amazing for all you do and take care of!
I just wrote a post about owl pellets. If you go to read it, you have to scroll down one or two posts, I think. I am lame, and did not help Eliana at all. Her teacher had to do it. I was concentrating on not being sick.
Michaela, on the other hand, used her bare hands to tear her pellet up. She is so not like me, in so many ways. 🙂
P.S. My first sentence is not a command, but is missing the subject “I”. 🙂
Owl pellets were always da bomb for my Fifth graders. Not for me. I’m not a homeschooling mama, but I do love the no fundraisers mentioned above and the snuggling on the couch for reading time. Yes, please!
Good job, Teller. Never underestimate the power of some Owl Pellets. Also, I hope you know about the Secret Homeschool Mom Chocolate Stash. Because that is important. Glad to hear you are feeling better.