Well now...homeschooling....

You know there's so much I want to talk about and so much I want to say and so much I want to share, but I don't want it all to get mixed up in here and confusing and just nonsensical blabbering all over the place.

So with that in mind I decided to make a little header for my homeschooling posts, this way you know what's coming up and if you're not interested in listening to me or see the pics of what is going on, you can just skip it altogether.

I promise I won't be offended, not everyone homeschools and not everyone is interested in what I have to say about it.  Ha!

When you see this guy pop up, it means I'm going into Homeschooling blabbering ok?

We've been homeschooling for a week now.  One whole week of having my children home, of not sending them off to school in the morning.

One week of easy, relaxing mornings and not "are you ready, where is your homework, did you brush your teeth, where is your backpack, I don't KNOW where your shoe is".  You know what I mean right?

Before I got any further, for those that don't know, we're homeschooling or online schooling or whatever you wish to call it.  I call it homeschooling because well, they're HOME and they're doing schooling at home, I don't have to plan the lessons (though I actually do, if that makes sense), I have teachers on hand to help in any way shape or form.

I guess you could say it's an assisted homeschooling because I can pick up that phone and cry to the teacher if something is not making sense.  One of the reasons I love Connections Academy.

Nicholas learning how to send email, what is an email, what it does, when to open and when not to open messages etc.

Another reason is because of this....I LOVE the curriculum, not only the usual subjects we're used to in school but learning so much more and in this day and age where children have access to computers and internet, I find it imperative that they are aware of the dangers of talking to strangers on the computer.

For our Educational Technology and Online Learning today, we got to learn about Personal Safety and we also go to visit the FBI's Website to watch a little video on Internet Safety Tips.

I highly recommend this to every single child from Kindergarten to 5th grade which is who the program is directed at.  You can visit the page here:

FBI Internet Safety Tips

Language Arts:::

Our language arts lesson today turned out to be quite a pain in the behind.  I'm not even kidding, it was super long and I literally felt like I was losing the boy to boredom.

If you're a homeschool parent I'm sure you know full well the tell tale signs of the deflation.  I have learned them in just one week and I know when it's going downhill fast.

Nicholas will be sitting next to me and then I feel him slowly starting to get lower and lower on the chair, the arms are draping to the side, the head is slowly edging toward the desk until the forehead is propped right on the edge and then there's the never ending sighs slowly emitting from his mouth.

And that is when I quickly set the handwriting and reading down and grab his attention with something more hands on.  He is a visual hands on learner so we have a bit of a problem when it comes to reading and listening.  LOL

One of the tasks he had to do was make words with his letter tiles.  These are his words and I will tell you that I only had to help him switch out two letters in alphabetical.  I was shocked, I was floored and I got a boost that "Hey, this kid is super smart for a second grader, I'm sure I can't mess him up and I'll do just fine".

Science:::

By far one of the kids' favorite subjects and they're both studying weather patterns and weather changes and all that fun stuff.

There's Jasmine above learning about cold fronts.

Since they both are sort of doing the same thing, for Nic's science activity we went outside.  He is learning about clouds.  Cumulus, Cirrus and Stratus clouds.  In second grade.  IN.SECOND.GRADE.

I'm sorry, but I don't even know the names of these clouds and now that makes me feel super dumb and wonder what the heck I was learning in school and just when did we begin studying this stuff.  I sure don't remember doing this in second grade.

So for the next week, he will be watching the skies, drawing what it looks like and predicting the weather then journaling if his prediction came true or not.  He loves it, thinks it's super cool.  So does Jasmine....and so do I.

Now I know you're probably wondering why I'm even sharing this with you guys but aside from the fact that I like sharing my life here on my blog, I'm also using it as a way to document just what we're doing and how homeschooling is going for us.  These early first days especially I think will come in handy in the future and who knows maybe it will help someone else out there who is trying to decide whether homeschooling is the best for their family.

So far?  We are loving it and can't believe we didn't start before.

Tomorrow I may be ripping my hair out and wondering WHY I ever pulled them out of public school but you know what?  I'm determined to take it one day at a time and homeschool in a very relaxed way.

As long as we get our hours in each week, we are not sticking to a strict schedule and I like that cause you know, what works today may not work tomorrow, I may be feeling off, or one of the kids may not be in the right frame of mind for studying.  Whatever works for us, is what we'll do....and it feels darn good saying that :)