The School of Excellence!
*sigh*
I crack myself up.
Yes. That’s right.
We homeschool now.
We are some of those people.
Look out the window!
Can you see my house? Can you see my wood pile? Can you see that strange feeder looking thing?
What, pray tell, is that thing? It was there when we moved in.
Our school room is complete, but it is nothing spectacular like some of the school rooms I have seen online. All we did to it was paint the walls blue (holla!). The previous owners left several different throw rugs, tables, shelves, and lamps of which we were able to use for the school room.
The shop at our new house is divided into three sections: a garage area and two different large “shop rooms.” The room closest to the house is the one we use for a school room. I think this room was intended to have someone live in it-there is a closet and a room where a bathroom might possibly be able to go in the future.
This little area is where we have our “library.”
Inside, I just have one shelf unit with books organized by reading level.
Brace yourselves.
Our library is massive.
Baby steps, people!
Baby steps.
I am only 3 days into this nonsense.
The top shelf is books that I choose for the kids or I read aloud to them, while the second shelf is for fun reading. The clear box holds library books.
The girls each have their own desk, complete with a white board, pencil box, and art box. The shelves in the back of the picture hold their notebooks and such.
As you can see, it is extremely well-organized and aesthetically pleasing.
Curriculum.
Oh, how I stressed over curriculum. I decided on using The Well-Trained Mind, which is a guide to classical education. I chose this because I agreed with the author and became excited to homeschool after reading her book. I also appreciate the fact that she tells you specifically which resources she recommends-which was helpful to me, seeing as how I was a wandering soul lost in a sea of confusing curricula.
Yes. That’s right. I said “curricula.”
No. I am not sure if I used it correctly.
So-The Well-Trained Mind is a guide. I use First Language Lessons for grammar, Writing with Ease for writing, The Story of the World for history (we are starting with book one-The Ancients), All about Spelling for Spelling, Artistic Pursuits for Art.
Explode the Code for Phonics, Saxon for Math, God’s Great Covenant for Bible, Zaner-Bloser for handwriting, and Making Connections is for reading comprehension.
For reading fluency, we will try to get in about 30-60 minutes of reading a day.
Science is divided into three sections this year. We are starting off with animals, then we will move on to the human body, and finally, plants.
For the most part, the girls can be combined, although I am being mindful that Sweet Pea needs to be a grade ahead of Daisy Mae. So far, I am really liking the curriculum. It looks overwhelming to see all the different books, but I find them all to be really interesting and fun to teach with thus far.
Yes. I am super experienced in my in my 3-day journey of founding The School of Excellence.
I have had several people ask me why I am homeschooling.
Honestly, I have always toyed with the idea. But I had a hard time committing to it in the past and we lived within 3 minutes of a public school that we were quite happy with.
I went to a Christian school from K-12, so I had always envisioned my kids going to a private school.
But in order to afford that, we would have to sell the children, and then we would no longer have children to send to the aforementioned school. So that wouldn’t work.
I kid! I jest!
I knew that if we moved to Ruralville, homeschooling was in my future. In order to get them to school in town, I would need to drive 45 minutes one way. So, if I drove there, went home, and then went to pick up the kids, I would be driving for 3 hours a day. Our winters here can get pretty nasty, and I am not comfortable with committing to driving that much.
I feel there are pros and cons to all methods of schooling and I don’t think that homeschooling is the best option for everyone. But, for now, homeschooling is the best choice for our family. And I am excited about it! It might not be the right option for us forever, but for now, it is.
One of the harder things for me with homeschooling was the fact that I loved school when I was a child. Getting a new backpack and new school supplies, meeting my new teacher, seeing my friends . . . I loved it all.
And eating lunch in the school cafeteria!
Oh. Be. Still. My. Heart.
My girls were bummed about this, so they talked me into letting them walk through the kitchen in a “cafeteria line.”
Mom.
Of.
The.
Year.
I asked the girls what their favorite parts of homeschooling were.
Daisy Mae: Snacks and recess!
Oh, Daisy Mae. You are disappointing the headmaster of The School of Excellence!
Sweet Pea: Well. When I was in the other school, it was fun, but I would miss my mom. Now I get to see mom all the time!
*Tear*
Then Sweet Pea looked at me and said, “Mom. You are my kind of woman.”
Hmmm . . . interesting.
And, for now, I am content begin this homeschooling adventure.
Content to keep them at home. Happy to watch them learn.
Eager to keep them young.
Those two girls got their dolls all dressed up to join them for school today.
Yes. I want to keep them playing dolls, enjoying tea parties, and playing pretend.
What’s with this growing up nonsense?
They can worry about that later.
There is one small, minor hiccup in The School of Excellence.
The dudes.
Lest any of you are confused, the small heads you see on the “library” floor and on the couch are not factual children, but they are the girls’ dolls.
My dudes present a small . . . . challenge to the daily schedule of The School of Excellence.
I welcome, dear readers, your ideas and suggestions on how entertain my dudes while I teach my girls.
And now, I shall leave with some random facts you should know:
1) I have homeschooled for 3 days.
2) This makes me an expert.
3) I reserve the right to change my mind about any and everything that I wrote about in this here post.
4) I am making my husband’s second favorite dinner tonight.
5) I’ll make his favorite tomorrow.
6) I like to mess with him.
7) I have not left my house since we came home from camping Monday. This does not bother me.
8) I have yet to wear striped socks with Birkenstocks.
9) I have showered every day.
10) I still wear jeans (pants. not jumpers. not that there’s anything wrong with that), I don’t have chickens, and I strongly feel that people would not label me as “eccentric.”
11) I might still be normal.
12) I may or may not have found mouse droppings on the loveseat in my living room.
Happy Thursday . . . Go, Homeschool!
Ahoy! Log Pirates!
The youngsters got haircuts this week, so I thought I would share some before and after pictures with you all.
Handsome Dude, looking uber handsome per usual.
He didn’t have too much hair to cut. This is because his father, bless his heart, gets a little razor happy when he is bored.
Remember the incident with our Little Dude last spring?
Tragic.
Ooooh-la-la!
That is one Dapper Dan.
Daisy Mae’s before.
Fun Fact: When Daisy Mae was a toddler, her hair grew in as a mullet. And it would grow no other way.
And believe it or not, mullets are never cute, not even on cute toddlers named Daisy Mae.
If you or a loved one enjoy the look of mullets, then I apologize for I mean you no ill-will.
Look at Daisy Mae and her “goin’ to town” hair!
Take that, Mullets!
Little Dude.
Little Dude was not pleased to be getting his hair cut.
“Mother! Oh, the humanity! Mother! Save me!”
Now, this picture is a treat.
I believe one of my lovely daughters captured this moment in time.
The lady in black is the hairdresser. The large hands holding gum as a bribe while also restraining the poor child by his neck would be the hands of his loving mother.
But restraining was a necessity, dear readers.
He was wailing and thrashing and gnashing and screaming.
I know it sounds cruel. But he really needed a trim.
“Is it over?”
He’s such a turkey.
Aaaaannnnnnndddd . . . . I love him.
Sweet Pea’s turn!
Fun Fact: Even though Sweet Pea was only born yesterday, she is already 7 and 1/2 years old! Amazing!
It was too much fanciness to take home to Ruralville.
So, we made a day of it and stayed in town!
***
And now, to clear up some confusions on the ol’ blog.
Liquid gold=breastmilk.
Thank you and I apologize for all the confusions.
***
And now, it is time for the COW (comment of the week)
This week’s winner is JoAnn:
You are making wood sound like precious treasure. It makes me want to be a Log Pirate. A Log Pirate is something I just invented, and basically it’s a person who wears an eye patch and sneaks around after midnight, loading up wood from Lumberjacks woodpiles and hauling them off to sea. Hide yo kids. Hide yo wife, cause they’re stealing everybody’s wood out here.
Oh, she is so silly.
Alright.
I must go plan out my school lessons!
We start in T minus 11 days!
Later, Dudes!