The good, the bad and the Ugly ~ of Homeschooling

Since we began this homeschooling adventure we haven't had a great balance, we have been finding out who we are, how we learn, what works for us (or maybe more what DOES NOT work for us), what we want to learn, what we do well at and what our weaknesses are.  I get very focused on what is NOT happening that sometimes I fail to see what IS happening.  It's a silly little trait I seem to have picked up from two awesome people I call Mom and Dad!  Slightly critical, HUGE expectations, and a pinch of perfectionism....mix that up and WOW I'm a boiling blunder of WHY ISN'T THIS HOMESCHOOLING A WELL OILED MACHINE YET?  I've read blogs and posts and pins about what to do, how to do, why, when, where.  I think it is overwhelming but I need to read things so I remember that it's OK!  Everyone readjusts, even re-readjusts.  It's life, it's gonna happen and It. Is. OK!  So I thought about what GOOD things have come from this adventure and what I like about HS-ing.  Also what Bad things have happened or what I don't really care for. And the Ugly things, or habits that perhaps we've picked up! HA!

The GOOD!

The good is hard to focus on because like I said I am constantly thinking I could be doing more and should be doing better so I forget to think about this stuff.  The good about this year has been the relationship that my and Jo have been able to foster.  She and I have always been the head butting type, I remember MANY days driving her to school so frustrated at each other, she cried a lot back then.  I know she's a girl but she really cried a lot now that I think about it, and she doesn't now :).  We still have our head butting moments but we've learned it's because we are so much alike!  The good is that she likes me!  I think this has been great for our relationship and she is truly an amazing young lady I love her to pieces and I feel like I KNOW her now and that we can deal with our differences better than ever before.  

Adventures

A little DAD time

Fun hair do's and a cute girl!

Bonding

More good, I don't have to chase a teacher down to find out what Buckwheat learned today, or ever! HA!  That's a great feeling!  I know what he learned cause I taught it!!!

Best buddies

Family Time

Togetherness

It's calving season around here and Jo and her Dad have been inseparable!  She get's up every morning earlier than I do and get's ready so she can go with Hank to check the cows and feed, run errands and check the sheep too.  This is a GREAT good!  Having their relationships strengthened with their dad is so important to me!  They are also great friends with each other and that makes me happy!

We have discovered that we like a little freedom in our curriculum, so we might switch it up next year to decide what works a little better for us.

I've learned to..... breathe...!  It's a fabulous thing, I don't need it to go perfectly I can let things just play out.  I'm still learning but it's been good!

We can go places when other people are in school.  It's so fun to be able to go to the zoo, or to the dentist or anywhere for that matter, because most people are in school so we kind of have a little more freedom to roam and do as we please.  That's such a perk that I don't think about too often.

Yep she's all over this!

My little organizing team

Cleaning up the room

If she leaves....he will resort to playing.... better stay JO!

We can count our vacations as field trips~ YEP!  It's awesome!  We went to Southern Utah this past weekend and we left a day early (which is totally feasible when you HS).  We explored and lounged and rode bikes and soaked up the 70 degree weather.  We found lizards and rocks that had erosion lines on them.  It was a great lesson to introduce erosion and now the topic has tangible evidence behind it because we SAW it!

We clean together and they learn great life skills.  My Jo can organize with the best of them!  She's a PRO! And little Peanut isn't far behind. Buckwheat, well he's a boy and he'll help and he loves to move furniture but he'd rather play with the toys than organize them!

We love to play with the doll house

Peanut playin' away

Building stuff

Imaginations running

We actually have time to play!  We can get out toys and play and play all day if we want and those days are truly my favorite!

I love this guy so much!

Cougar!

Beauty of the mountains I get to enjoy!

Hank and I can do date's at any moment. Like we went snow shoeing one afternoon because we could! We can take the kids with us too, but we didn't on this particular day.

The BAD!
Yep there are bad days, terrible days and very very discouraging days!   But I had the same feelings (although probably more often) when we didn't HS.  There are days I threaten I won't teach them at home anymore, days I just want to send them back and not have to deal with life for a few days, days when the grocery store by myself sounds like a slice of heaven.  There are days we literally get NOTHING done, days when we have been sick (this year has been a germ fest!) and we just read.  Days when  I feel like we aren't learning a dang thing!

Some days I wonder if this is really what I should be doing or if I'm just screwing this whole thing up!

Our bad hair days have been quadrupled since we really don't need to do our hair to go anywhere. Oh dear that sounds bad!  It's true though, Peanut's hair was always done in preschool.....now....well let's just say it's a little different these days!

You constantly have to find what is working and what isn't.  Especially this first year.  We have a plan and it works for a moment, then we are back to the drawing board.

The UGLY
There's not too much UGLY abut it, well maybe our hair some days! LOL!  Maybe our attitudes on other days.

But the I think the Ugliest for me is not giving ourselves credit.  We aren't perfect at this yet, nor will we probably ever be; but we are trying and that's what counts.  Also the comparison of what others are doing is UGLY for me because I think "are my kids getting enough socialism, are my kids getting to do what Johnny does?" Comparison is UGLY isn't it?  My kids are not Johnny  my kids are mine, my kids are home, my kids need what I can give them and that should be what I focus on.

SO, with all the good, the bad and the ugly ~ HS-ing is everything I dreamed of, everything I feared and everything I needed!  Today as we talked about our plans for next year we all discussed that we wanted this HS-ing thing to be our way of life, not just a fad.  We want to do this!  That's not to say that we won't ever embark on a different journey, but we aren't planning on that happening.  We are planning to do this through high school and if the chaos of life creates a new turn we will face it when it comes.

~WE ARE HOMESCHOOLERS~

Science~or lack of

I am working on getting my blog world a little more in tune.  We do so much and I want you all to read about it, but then the reality that my SUPERWOMAN POWERS aren't as SUPER as I think hits, and  squelches my longing for having this ROCKING blog that everyone reads!  sigh...Someday, someday I will get it in balance!

We have been doing some more experimental things lately which is super cool, but so out of my realm.  I don't do science, I don't like science, yeah it's cool and stuff but as far as how you break it down and understand how it does what it does, See I'm lost even with those words.  So with Buckwheat's curiosity and Jo's persistence we are attempting to do some Science ~ or at least do some cool experiments whether we know how they happened is a different subject.  (Always learning right?!)

Where would I go to find science stuff? DUH! Went to my fallback site, yep anything you want to find is discovered and kept safe for your viewing pleasure when you PIN it.  For more cool ideas on schooling at home or just cool projects follow me on Pinterest!
We found this milk painting on several sites and thought we'd give it a whirl.  You just add a little milk to a glass plate (yes we tired paper plates, didn't do anything!!!)  Add some food coloring and then a few drops of dish soap right in the middle and the soap creates a reaction in the food coloring and causes it to mix by itself into cool shapes and designs!  It was really fascinating to watch!

Jo and Buckwheat!  Loving life!

Swirling colors

Lil Peanut

See? So pretty!

Yep we even dipped coffee filters in the milky swirling colors
and made pipe cleaner flowers once they dried

The kids had a blast!  We even took it a step further and decided to capture the mixing colors on paper, so we quickly laid pieces of paper on top of the milk paint and the paper was then colored just like the milky creations! It was so fun and the kids had a blast.  Maybe experimenting is what Science is all about, not that we need to understand it all right now but that we try new things and learn as we go.  Science might be our new favorite subject! :)

The BIG day!

Christmas, THE BIG DAY!  The day you plan 364 days for, yep it came, it went!  We had a blast!  Here's a little picturetopia for your viewing pleasure!

The year of the WEAPONS

Gingerbread madness

Too Cute

                   

It's CHRISTMAS!

Scooter, Brave and new clothes for Peanut!

Buckwheat making Captain Hunter!

Stuffing Rainbow

She loved grooming her Rainbow!

Miss Jo finding the perfect outfit for Penguin

What's Sew Cool about that?

Ok, FINALLY I can write this post!  I wanted to do it before Christmas but it would've given away my gifts so I couldn't.  This year I tried something new, I tried to make a lot of the gifts I was giving to family for Christmas.  Now somethings just don't work out, like honestly what would I make for a teenage boy?  Yep that one was not gonna happen so he got cold hard ca$h! :)  But for my cute little nieces and nephew (Yes we are lacking in the boy department around here......could someone do something about that??!!)  I made stuff!  I was ELATED, THRILLED and ECSTATIC for them to open them up for Christmas.  I think it's the first year I have ever been more giddy than the children!  I must make this a habit, for pure JOY experiences! First off I made my three cute nieces ages 4 (2 of them) and 2 aprons, complete with a wisk and the cutest little rubber spatula's I found at Wal-Mart on a whim one day.

           

Here they are!  Three cute aprons for Three adorable nieces!  There were some learning experiences that took place with these little aprons.  For example, when you sew everything inside itself then pull it right side out, you must make sure that the pleats are pinned with the seam pins.  Also do not try to put a pocket on after you sew it together.  I got pricked by pins and had to un-stitch things more than I care to count, but they were made with love and they were made individual for each little girl!  

Next on my list was a car carrier, complete with roads and painted just for my little nephew!  I didn't take a picture of it and I really wish I would've but I got the idea off of Pinterest and it looked somewhat similar to the one here!  I used some old jean I had and an old jean jacket of mine along with some funky fabric that was really durable that I had picked up along my journeys, with the pockets from my jean jacket I made pockets for little man's cars, so they had the zipper and wouldn't fall out.  Then we cut roads and painted little dashes on them for detail (when I say me, Jo helped me too!)  Got some cool cars and wrapped it all up for my car loving nephew!

I have two nieces who are sisters and fairly close in age, so for these two pre-teen cuties, we made spa bags!  This was something I also derived from the ever loving pinning frenzy world.  I saw this idea here and adapted from that.  We made rice filled eye masks and scented them with orange essential oil, and we made finger polish mats with wipe-able fabric on one side.  Then we got some spa essentials and put them into cute canvas bags with the girls names on them.  Once again, I am slacking on the pictures!  UGH!

Needless to say it was such a fun time!  It made Christmas seem more meaningful and made so much JOY around while we planned and created and gave with our hearts!

What Christmas traditions do you have that make Christmas special? OR what did you do different this year that made a difference?