there's no school like homeschool

Supergirl & Wonderboy have 'cabin fever'. Who can blame them? The weather has been terrible, and we have the extra sadness over some of their friends being taken from one grandparent & given to parent *custody battle*, and it's left Supergirl & Wonderboy minus 2 good friends. They were really sad to see them go, and admittedly, so was I. I become attached to wee ones, especially those that have struggles....oh I was so sad to see them go.

We plan on taking our 'spring break' week-after-next. The kiddos need time away from hard studies & Mom being in teacher mode...I need time away from feverishly planning weekly plans, and fighting them to stay on task...sigh....and the worry that all my teaching simply won't be good enough......but who of us don't wonder that from time to time.

this week, we've planned the following

• spelling (of course)
• Math camp
• History Chapter 15 (and memorize inventors)
• "Crossing the Bar" reciting (poem)
• Supergirl has a test on her drivers book
• report on Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Supergirl has to read "The Last Lecture" and prepare essay/report on book
• Wonderboy has to read "The Tao of Poo" and prepare essay/report on book
• they both have to do outlines on books, brainstorm, etc. and have to have it complete by next Friday, 2nd draft ready to turn in to be graded.
• even more outline training (can we ever really have enough of that?)

so, they will be busy, that's for sure. Math camp is a 'necessary evil' for them, because with them having spent so much time in the public school system, they are lacking in a lot of general math skills (Supergirl is struggling with this more than Wonderboy...it's just so hard to be dyslexic in math world). But they will get there.....no matter how many times I have to reteach them, I will...they are smart.....they just have to be given the chance. ☺ and that's what I am here to give them......a chance.

I wish they had my love for reading. As of now, they simply don't. I've always read to them, and even taught them to read before starting school......and they WILL read.....but they don't LOVE it. I'm so afraid of what their generation will become if the love of books die....I am sadened that they don't love the smell of the pages of a book, don't just hang on to every word of each book, and don't have characters from the books they read that I just loved and remember to this day. I believe that reading as a child forms your life in a way that no other reading you do in your lifetime can......they can help build you up in ways that can not be described...long before you realize that unicorns do NOT exist, could NOT exist....you are allowing yourself, at a young age, to imagine "IF" they did a lot easier than the doubtful adult mindset can allow. It's an escape from the world that you are living. Sure, you can't jump up and fly in reality, but in a book you can....sure, you can't walk thru the world in a day, but in a book you can.......and oh it's just so sad that whenever I assign books they roll their eyes & say "Ohhh Mom, we just read"......*tear*......it makes me sad.

homeschooling teenagers is not for the weak stomach. They are stuck between the adult and child & sometimes the battles within them spew forth to unlikely places.....for example, Supergirl gets short tempered sometimes & her tongue gets loose from her, and Wonderboy will just for no reason clam up & just want to cry.....both of them unrelated to anything that goes on, but is instead a battle of the teen-mindset, and all I can do as their Mother is correct them, instruct them, and be here at arms length so that they can find 'themselves'....without losing 'me'. Oh it's so hard sometimes.

I'm a new homeschooler, relatively speaking, too. I'm still learning as we go & finding out that teaching is sometimes the most unpopular thing in the world to do. There are people that don't understand the full reason we homeschool, don't see how terrible some of the public school systems are here, and don't understand that for our child, at this time, we are truly the best to instruct and teach them for all intents and purposes. No, I don't have 14 kids (kudos to those that can handle that), no, we don't have some kind of medieval religion that we are holding on to that prevents us from taking them to public school (not judging those that do), no, we don't live in the middle of a 100 acre farm surrounded by nothing but Little House type nice-ities...we do have electricity and telephone and of course this computer (once again kudos to those that can do that). We are just a normal little family, trying to make sure our children have everything we can give them in this world, and at this time it means 100% of their time with us, school at our dinner table, and socializing with church friends when the days allow.

When I had these babies, I never knew I'd be here, teaching them. In all honesty I never thought I'd be "good enough" to do so.......but this is letting me grow as not only a Mom, and a teacher, but as one of Gods children. I know that God has willed this, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to train them up in the way that they should go...and I pray that they never depart from it.

there's no school like homeschool.....lets ring the bell & get started! ☺