Read during the thunderstorms

I am basically writing this more as a journal to refer back to.  You see, this week in homeschooling has been fantastic.  We have accomplished much, neglected little, and focused well.  I want to be able to look back during those rough times when everything goes wrong and it seems like it has been that way for a while.  I want to be able to remember that there are sunny days in homeschooling when it seems the torrential downpour will never end.

I love homeschooling my children.  At 18 months and 5 years old, my everyday life accounts for almost 80% of their "curriculum"right now.  Brush teeth, get dressed, do hair... that's personal grooming.  Important.  For those of you who have worked with a person who smells like they believe baths are a quarterly occasion, I'm sure you'd agree.  Make the beds, pick up the laundry, wash the dishes, menu planning, cooking: home economics.  Appointments, errands, grocery shopping: time and money management.  The list goes on.

But we do cover "The 3 R's": Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic.  SJ's doing great in her subjects, and loves her school time.  We dance and sing during our lessons (she is much like her mama: can't focus unless she's moving about), we get loud and crazy, and we tell each other secrets.  Today, the secret we shared was that 6+3=9.  Jealous?

Christina isn't left out of the loop.  I didn't put much thought into it until the other day when I was working out at the YMCA.  A woman who is old enough to be my mom was asking what I do for a living while we were waiting for our respective weight machines to be vacant.  I told her that I am a career homemaker and homeschool my children.  When she asked for the ages of my children, I told her.  Thoughtlessly, she said "Oh, well then you only homeschool one child."  How wrong that woman is!  Christina has her own chores.  She has dishes that she is expected to put away, laundry she is expected to gather and put into piles, and every shoe on the floor is put in the shoe closet by my excited 18 month old.  She feeds the dogs, washes dishes, loads the dishwasher, and helps wash the windows.  She has vacuumed the floors, then helped mop them.  Her thoroughness in some of her chores aren't up to my standards, but when will they be unless she practices?

The vacuum was actually attached before this photo.

When it's song and dance time, Christina participates in "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", "The Ants Go Marching In", and our favorite song, "The Hello Song" (where you hold out your right hand, look at your friend, smile, and say hi).  During handwriting time, she gets to color, she listens in on our reading time, and helps with the manipulatives that we use for math.  Every day of her life is nothing short of an education.  Do I have lesson plans for her?  No.  Do I have written scopes and objectives for her?  Absolutely not.  But that doesn't mean I'm not educating her.  And that doesn't mean that I'm not bouncing back and forth between my girls as I educate them.  I am homeschooling two children right now.

On that note, I'll leave you with some pictures we took this morning for Daddy.  Just because he's not here doesn't mean we can't say good morning.