Martin Luther King Day

One of the perks of homeschooling is that you get to decide when you have school and when you don't. For example, my local public school is out today because of Martin Luther King Day. We are having school today. Why, you may ask? I thought this would be a good opportunity to teach my kids about why we celebrate Martin Luther King.

We started our day with pledge/prayer/scripture reading just like usual. Then we went on to memorize the following passage:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Afterwards, we watched the famous "I have a dream" speech excerpt on YouTube. The kids LOVED hearing the excerpt that we had just memorized!! We talked about what life would have been like for little African American kids growing up with racial segregation around the time of MLK. We then watched a documentary called, "Roads to Memphis" which spoke of the assassination of Martin Luther King. It has a lot of MLK's speeches shown in the documentary.

Since we live in Atlanta, we could have visited MLK's childhood home and toured it for free today, but I figured it was going to be jammed-packed. Maybe another time...

(Ideas for older homeschoolers: watching "The Help" would have been fun and informative. Reading it would have been an even better option.) If only Addi was a bit older... For now we will stick with our documentaries.

What a difference a week can bring...

So second week has come and gone at our home. Schooling was definitely tougher this week. We had "tween" drama, middle-child syndrome, five-yr-old meltdowns, and too many repairmen coming and going for mama to deal with. What a week!! On the upside- we covered parts of a cell in science; Egyptians and Sumerians and their writings in History; another unit in math and spelling; book reports began on Monday and due on the following Monday; and we even worked on how to tie our shoes with little man.

Lots of ground was covered. Lots of tears were spilt. (Confession time: even mine.) By Thursday evening, I was ready to pull my hair out. I was OVER homeschooling. Tired of all the frustrations of teaching my children, finding a piano teacher, living life with no home phone or internet most of the week, and just plain recuperating from surgery two short weeks ago, left me with only a twinge of hope concerning lesson plans for next week.

Then on Friday around noon, Rob (who was working from home that day,) decided that we could go out to eat for lunch. Off to Five Guys we went. And then it happened... I saw the kids' school that they were attending less than a month ago. There were lots of cars in the parking lot. My kids looked out the window and then....

LAUGHED. Ha Ha Ha!! Look at those poor kids stuck in school while we are spending quality time together as a family. We were done with school for the week and they were stuck within those four walls, attempting to learn for another 3 1/2 hours. We all had a good chuckle and then I realized that I LOVE HOMESCHOOL and the flexibility it brings to my family.

What a fun week!

First week!

Well- homeschool got off to a good start this week despite the fact that I had surgery only days before to remove my appendix. The kids were BEGGING me to begin schooling, and so we started Monday, January 2nd... before their friends went back to school! At first, we just tried to chug along since I was pretty much immobile and couldn't sit up very well. By the third day, we were in a routine and kicking homeschool's butt!!

Our routine goes like this:

8-8:30- wake up/ brush teeth, get dressed/ clean room

10am- Say Pledge of Allegiance/ Pray/ Read 1 chapter in Book of Mormon

10:30-2pm- History (all together), Science (all together), Math (online for girls and I work with Tae one-on-one), Spelling, Grammar, Writing, and Reading (Currently, we are reading Harry Potter book 1)

So far, this week we have covered "What is History and Archaeology", "The Nomadic People", made cave paintings, (which got ruined by an apple juice spill after showing daddy), "History of Anatomy and Physiology", "Cell Structure", and lots of ABC writing and "Clock" work for Taesun.

All-in-all... a super fun week! The first day we homeschooled, a mom of a girl in Addison's old class dropped by the house and asked me lots of questions about homeschooling. The next day, I found out that two more people I know used to homeschool their kids but can't anymore due to work. The following day, another homeschool mom invited the kids and I to a "parkday" which we had to decline because I can't drive yet after the surgery. We have had lots of invitations to do projects with friends and other homeschoolers. This should be an exciting experience!

Today- we went to a local animal shelter and found out that the kids and I can volunteer there regularly. The kids can play with the dogs (not cats because of our family's allergies,) clean the cages, and help to feed the animals. I am so excited for this opportunity to teach my kids hard work. We signed all the paperwork tonight and we are looking forward to turning it in this week!

Homeschool Funnies

My mother-in-law jokingly emailed me the following message:

"I don't think I like this homeschool business anymore... How am I going to get school pictures now?"

Don't worry... I have a professional camera and will be taking lots of pics of the kids and our school projects. Also- I am a bit excited to not feel guilty about paying $42/child for school pictures anymore. Whew! Those are some pricey pictures!!!

On another note- we are getting geared up for school around here. The kids ask daily if we can start today. I keep holding them off until I feel that I have planned the curriculum for at least two weeks in advance. I know I could start now, but I still feel that the time between Christmas and New Years should be spent being lazy for the kids and taking down all Christmas decor for the adults. So- that's the plan. We will start sooner than I thought. Originally we were going to start January 15, but now we are going to begin on the 2nd. The kids will LOVE it!! :)

Humorous Happenings

The things children will say...

Today while leaving the movie theater, (where we saw "The Muppets" which was GREAT- by the way,) Jenna says:

"Wait a minute.... there are NO SNOW DAYS in Homeschool!!"

Funny kid!!

Countdown

It is official. At 10am Friday there are roughly 6 hours left until my children are home-schooled. AAAHHHHHH! So scary and nervous and anxious and unprepared and... (I could go on and on...)

But it is these three faces that keep me smiling. I get to see this:

and this:

and this:
EVERY DAY from now on. Who wouldn't be excited about that?!

Last Few Days of Public School

So, yesterday was Taesun's class party. I was in charge of it since I have been "room mom" this year alongside a friend of mine. While the party was shaping up, I learned Taesun didn't feel that great. He looked sick. I asked him if he wanted to stay for the party and then skidaddle a bit early... He agreed and we had a plan. Party... then home.

WELL...... As I was calling out Bingo pictures for the kids, I looked over and noticed that Tae's head was down on his table. Hmmm. I asked him if he was feeling alright. He said no. "Why don't we go home then?" He started to head towards his backpack as I was scrambling to find another parent to fill in for me at Bingo.

All of a sudden... BLEH!!! All over the classroom floor.... in front of parents, children, teachers, and me. Quickly we took him over to the sink area where he puked into a garbage can two more times. Poor Tae. We gathered up his belongings and speed-walked to the front office to check him out.

As I was at a church function tonight, Taesun's teacher called. She said for Tae to come to school anyway since it would be his last day at public school. She also wants me there. (I'm assuming she has a 'thank you' gift for being room mom.)

I have been having a hard time with pulling them out of school. This makes it harder. Tae has a teacher who truly cares. We have become friends over the last six months. It will be sad to not have her as his teacher anymore. I still know that we are doing the right thing, but that doesn't make the right thing any easier to do.