Antidote

We're headed to the library to get books for the kids' research projects (and to pay our fine.) It's cold and snowy, not the best day to be out, but since they're so excited about their topics, we're going anyway.

Since my last post was rather grumpy, I decided to post something more upbeat today. This is a list of just a few things that I love about homeschooling...

You can take "school" wherever you go! We spent a few days at the grandparents' house, and we did a bit of schoolwork in the mornings, read in the evenings, took walks, made cookies, helped decorate their Christmas tree, watched football, and just enjoyed spending time together. Nana showed the kids the pictures she took when she was in NYC last month, and Papa played board games with Dude while Super sat nearby and drew pictures. We even listened to our German CD's in the car.





We are really into our current read-aloud! I love that we can stay up late and keep reading when we want to. It is so wonderful to hear my kids say, "One more chapter--please?"






We love writing letters. I don't know if homeschoolers can revive the civilized custom of sending friendly letters, but we're going to do our part. It's a good way to practice handwriting, punctuation, etc. But more importantly, it's a such a lovely way to communicate with the people you care about! It's also a nice excuse to have tea and cookies.





This morning Super showed me an animal in a book and said, "Mom! I bet you never heard of a pangolin, did you?" She then proceeded to tell me everything about it. "Can you believe it's a mammal, Mom? It's a mammal with scales! Cool, huh?" I just had to smile at her enthusiasm.

A couple of days ago were sitting in the theater waiting for a play to begin and Dude said, "Look, Mom! The stage is symmetrical. The two sides are exact mirror images of each other." A lady in front of us turned and looked at him--she seemed surprised.






I am so thrilled that my kids are studying foreign languages at an early age. They are interested in German and French, so we do both. We have Pimsleur German CD's and a lot of German kids' books. We don't use an "official" French curriculum, but I would love to invest in Rosetta Stone eventually.





Without a doubt, we are less stressed now. Sure, I worry, and I probably always will because it's in my nature. But I'm not picking up tired kids after a long day and then forcing them to do homework. We're not spending our weekends decompressing from a hectic week. And my kids are so much happier. What's not to love about that?