Homeschooling + Blogging = No Blogging

You may have noticed that since I started homeschooling I haven’t really been posting anything here. I guess you could say I have been busy. You could also say that I have never been busier in my entire life. Something is always happening around here, and it’s making time go by much faster than usual. Every day I seem to run out of time for all the things on my To-do List. This phenomenon has made for an incredibly long To-do List. And, yes, writing posts for this blog is definitely on it.

Since the Dinosaur Unit Study, we have spent time studying cheese, one of our favorite things here at the Reddy Zoo. Hey…if I get to create my own curriculum, it should be fun. Not to mention delicious. We learned about how cheese is made, various kinds of cheese, and some of the ways cheese is used in making other food products. We invited grandparents over for a cheese tasting and the kids were spouting off cheese facts for them at lighting speed.

They also used this occasion to show their grandparents all the work they had done so far, which had been hole-punched and put into binders. They were all so proud of their binders, and they enjoyed sharing the details of some of the more complicated things they had done. It was very good for them to have that opportunity to “show-off”, as it were.

We also spent a good deal of time studying Columbus, just in time for Columbus Day. The kids really got into this more than I expected them to. They enjoyed hearing about the long voyage across the ocean. They were surprised that people didn’t know that North and South America existed in 1492. They were even more surprised to learn that Columbus still didn’t know he had reached a completely new continent. He truly thought he had found a new route to the Indies, even after making four trips here and back before his death. We were also surprised to find that Columbus didn’t actually discover America. At least not the chunk of land known today as the United States of America. He never came this far north during his travels. But his voyage did pave the way for future explorers to venture into our hemisphere and eventually settle in this great land.

In addition to our daily lessons and our Unit Studies, we have gotten involved in a Homeschool Co-op. On Wednesday mornings we meet with other homeschooling families for Art, Music and P.E. classes. It has been great for the kids not only to be with other children, but also to have those more creative type of lessons that might get skipped at home in lieu of the 3 R’s. We have also been on multiple field trips, keeping things even more fun and interesting.

Powder Valley Nature Center

Kinder Konzert at Powell Hall

Nature Walk at St. Francois State Park

All in all, I have been very pleased with homeschooling so far. In fact, I am thrilled with how well things are going. Believe it or not, I feel less stressed out this year than I did last year when three of the kids were in school. I like that we make our own schedule, we can keep our own pace, and plan our own lessons. I also like that there are no papers to sign, backpacks to pack, or lunch money to send in. Things are going very, very well.