This week marked the completion of our second week of homeschooling. And, by the power of the Mighty One, we had a wonderful Friday!!! Peace. Love. Completed studies. What a blessing!
This is a beautiful thing, especially after some of the most grueling past two weeks ever. I think I cooked only about two dinners! We either had sandwiches, MyLove would pick something up, leftovers, or egg/breakfast type food.
Here is what the kids are doing:
Martini - 3rd grade. He is officially enrolled and a student of K12-TXVA (Texas Virtual Academy) which is an official state funded public school that uses an online and book curriculum but the students learn at home. (Here Martini is looking at Carmelita's coloring book at the laundromat)
Ethan - Kindergarten. He is using materials from Mardel Christian store (little learning activity booklets), Martini's old kindergarten homeschool materials and will use some of Martini's leftover public school materials from public school (Ethan at the laundromat waiting for me to finish taking pictures so he could use my phone to play a game and/or flashcards)
Carmelita - She is learning through fun activities with cutting, coloring, letters (very few), counting, shapes. Fun little booklets as well and various activities. (Carmelita cutting out shapes for school).
Giselle - playing, observing, eating, sleeping! (Here is my little trooper. She had fallen asleep in the wrap and I was able to lay her down in the stroller to finish up our comforters)
Why am I homeschooling?
1.) To put the primary focus on their character and hearts. Teaching them to honor the Lord in all things. Although my desires are to start every morning with a short Bible story/lesson, this has not happened even once yet. But, we have had numerous opportunities to stop and pray. If they grow up and live for the Lord with all their heart and live to bring Him glory, if they are able to see the value of the Christian life truly lived by faith, their rewards in heaven for eternity will far outweigh any accomplishment here. Amen!
2.) Time with the kids. The last two school years have gone fairly well, but every morning we were rushing to get ready and out the door. It did become a routine and we got good at it, but the day would go like this:
a. get ready, eat, load up all the kids, take Martini to school
b. Martini spends 7 hours at school trying to learn with intense shyness
c. Martini comes home and has a snack. Usually I am on him about taking so much time to eat because he needs to finish all of this homework
d. Martini spends another hour on homework. I have to keep making sure he stays on task.
e. Martini finally finishes and desperately joins Ethan to play LEGOs or whatever.
f. Not long after, Daddy comes home
g. Some nights have sports, some nights eat dinner
h. MyLove gives the boys baths (now they shower on their own) and does their teeth, reads to them and prays with them
i. Then, the night is over, we are exhausted and feel like any downtime with the kids on the weekdays is miniscule.
3.) Martini's shyness and independent learning style, I believe, somewhat impeded his learning. We now have more time together. He can ask questions. We can use tools he enjoys, i.e. LEGOs, computer, drawing and art, learning outside of the home like in the backyard, Mema's house. Also, I require that he reads to his siblings for his reading time, and that helps with his fluency and nerves. Also, near the end of his second grade year I asked him what he did at recess and he said he just walked around picking flowers and grass and saying which ones were nice/pretty and looking at what God made by himself. I asked why he didn't play with anyone. He said the boys he played with were so rough and were not obeying the rules and the girl he played with sometimes was playing with other girls he didn't know. Oh, how this broke MyLove's and my heart. The thought of him just walking around the field by himself just made me crumble inside. He asked me many time if I would just homeschool him.
4.) Language. When we first learned about K12 I found out they offered Mandarin. Well, in my book, that was like the golden ticket. We signed him up and enrolled and found out later that they didn't offer Mandarin until 6th grade. Boy, did that chap my hide. Not that we would have gone with another system, but I was pumped that he could continue his Mandarin studies. Anyway, we decided he would take Spanish instead. He is looooving the program so far and it is awesome. Ethan and Carmelita are learning right along with him; not to mention myself!
5.) His asthma. Last year, Martini got sick various time and had to stay home. Well, because of the asthma, any type of sickness is compounded because it prolongs his recovery. Also, if he has allergies his asthma can kick in and he has to stay home because he needs breathing treatments. Homeschooling allows us to continue his studies anyway in the comfort of our home, on the couch, in his pj's!
6.) I have always loved the idea of homeschooling. I homeschooled as a child. I homeschooled children for a couple of months in Taiwan. I love the freedom. I love the personalization. And, with K12, I love the structure and accountability. I love knowing exactly what my kids are learning. I love the thought that if we were to move tomorrow, we would not be put in the awkward position of finding a new school right away or being subject to different agendas.
Now, I am only two weeks into this. I homeschooled Martini in kindergarten and I am very open and transparent with others when I tell them I became "evil Mom." I mean, slamming the ruler on the desk while trying to understand why he can't get the letter "e" right. Perfectionism and different learning strengths can really hurt you, not to mention a dire need for patience. Because I know this about myself, I have not come to this decision lightly, nor has MyLove. This came about with much prayer and heart searching. Open communication between MyLove and I has been critical. Open communication with Martini has been important as well. I have asked Martini many, many times if he was sure he wanted to do this. That he would not see his friends. We talked about how I was mean to him in Kindergarten. He doesn't care. He just wants to learn at home. I told him he would have the same amount of work at home as he would at his old school. Again, he just doesn't care.
His reasons to homeschool:
1.) He loves to be home
2.) He misses us and wants to be with his Mommy, Daddy (when on Flex), and siblings
3.) He doesn't mind the work, as long as he is at home.
Well, this was good for me to get all of this down. One of the things that TXVA encourages the parents to do is write down the reasons we are homeschooling and keep them available so when the desperate times come, we remember why we made this decision in the first place!!! What a blessing it is to even have this option! I am so thankful to the Lord for His provisions for exactly what we need.
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