If My Kids Were in School...

This week, I talked to several of my friends whose kids have started school (so my friends have time to talk on the phone:). I listened to their stories about what they do when their children are gone and I wondered (in the vein of top ten reasons to homeschool)...

If my kids were in school...I could go to Big Lots alone. Today, Thomas launched off the end of the cart, rocketing the cart back toward me and the cart handle into my abdomen. Oof.

If my kids were in school...I could go to Big Lots alone. I could spend the entire trip not answering one question. "What is next on the list? What are you getting? How many more things? How much longer? Where are we going next? How much longer? What are you getting? Where are you going?"

If my kids were in school...I wouldn't have to share my McGriddle and French Vanilla Cappuccino (candy coffee).

If my kids were in school...I wouldn't feel guilty about an occasional visit to McDonald's.

If my kids were in school... I could go to doctor appointments alone. "Why are we here? How much longer? When are they going to call your name? When are they going to come into the room? What are they going to do? How much longer? Why isn't he coming yet? What is this? How much longer?"

(For the record, I answer all of these questions BEFORE WE LEAVE and they bring plenty of stuff to do while waiting. They still ask a zillion questions.)

If my kids were in school...I could remain delightfully oblivious to how very strange they really are. Today, Rachel showed me how she likes to put her blankey over her head and feed herself grapes through one of the holes in her blanket. What in the world?

If my kids were in school...I could be alone. I like being alone. I was alone for a long time before I married my husband. I was alone before we had children. I like being alone. I don't get lonely. I like being alone. I have a 70+ year old friend and she has absolutely no trouble being around all sorts of people during the day, and she enjoys her quiet evenings at home, alone. Ahhhhhhhhhh. I could be like that.

If my kids were in school...I could eat something besides crusts for lunch.

If my kids were in school...I could eat my lunch without anyone talking about it or touching it.

If my kids were in school...I could have helped clean up flood-damaged homes in Findlay, instead of lamely dropping off a "flood bucket" at our church. (What is a flood bucket? Why are you buying that stuff? Why did the houses flood? Did the water go all the way to the ceiling? Did anyone die? What happened to all their stuff? Is our house going to flood? Will the water go to the ceiling?)

If my kids were in school...my life would be very, very different and sometimes that is very, very compelling:) If I were not 100% convicted this is a better way of life for our children, homeschooling would be a tough sell. It is a ton of work and an inordinate responsibility. Still, the more I read and learn, the longer I want to do this for them. That doesn't stop me from occasionally wondering...If my kids were in school.....

First day of "school"

Today was our first day of school...well, we've been working up to this point anyway - what made it a first was we had nothing on the schedule until 3:00. So, we had six full, uninterrupted hours to work with.

We made it to 1:30. Then we went to Meijer.

Don't want to get off to too quick a start, after all.

I think Thomas's primary objection to a brick and mortar school is they would make him wear a shirt. He is generally shirt-opposed.

The day really did go quite well. Connor got online and looked over the home page for the virtual Latin class he is going to take. I suspect he is going to enjoy that tremendously. At one point when I was at the table doing workbook-y stuff with Thomas and Rachel, I asked Connor to please go in to the computer room and write a summary of what happened in the first half of the 21st century. Here is what he wrote:

1900-1950 Summary

In 1901, Teddy Roosevelt was president until 1909. Some people didn’t like him because he invited a black man named Booker T. Washington into the White House even though there was nothing wrong with him and the Civil War had happened a while ago.

In 1914, World War 1 started while Thomas Woodrow Wilson was President. The war lasted until 1918. Then the roaring 20s started.

The roaring 20s was when everyone had tons of money and were getting even more money from the stock market. Everyone was really happy that the war was over. Everything was going great until the stock market crashed because people kept withdrawing their stocks which caused the Great Depression.

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939 during which time, 1 out of every 3 people had no job. Herbert Hoover, who was president, would do nothing to stop it. So, the people elected Franklin Roosevelt to be their president. He helped stop the Great Depression.

We got into World War 2 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. We declared war on the Japanese, and later, Germany. World War 2 started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Rachel and I struggled a couple of times. Mostly, she was cooperative. She is intensely interested in Anne Frank and what happened to her. Her narration about Anne Frank went like this:

Hm. She did it on the laptop, which uses Word 2007 and it didn't auto-convert when I tried to bring it to our desktop via a flash drive. Too late to work on it now. Maybe tomorrow.

We also did the first lesson in Rosetta Stone Spanish. Rachel loved that. So, did THomas. For a while. I think that will stick.

Thomas is flying through his Bob books. He still gets "p," "b," and "d" mixed up. He is hilarious with his seemingly unquenchable thirst for knowledge. He chimed in quite a bit when we were discussing history. Very cute!

We had our first homeschool gym today and it was fabulous! The kids played Swedish dodgeball (the version I like with one ball), kickball, and something else I don't remember. Thomas fell asleep in my lap. His allergies are killing him. Dawn HS gave further advice about how to help him. Very helpful, but will cost time and money. Nice friend:)

I got rid of over a dozen books that we will never use. I love homeschool gym. Rachel spent the evening with the Elsassers. We came home and ate and played games with the boys. Connor and I played Scrabble. Thad and Thomas played outside. AFter Rachel came back home, we watched some home video from November 2001.

Play practice starts tomorrow and soccer starts next week. The Longs will be arriving this weekend for the Black Swamp. These last five days of relaxed intimacy will soon be a memory amidst the swirl of activity that will soon be upon us. It'll all be fun stuff - but I love playing Scrabble!

Summer Extravaganza

Today was our third annual (?) Summer Extravaganza. Instead of contributing to the obnoxious, obscene, and offensive inundation of gifts our children receive at Christmas, we have our own obnoxious, obscene and offensive showering of gifts in the summer. It works out well (if I do it early enough in the summer) so that we hit the lull between birthdays (Nov, Jan, Mar) and Christmas.

The kids had a great time - I printed out clues and did a treasure hunt throughout the day. Some of the clues worked to music (like the theme from Brady Bunch). Very fun. They still have one more gift coming and that will be the last one.

Thad gave me the greatest gift of all - he took the kids swimming and to the driving range for about three hours this afternoon. Ahhhhhhh. It was absolutely heavenly. I honestly think I'm about as caught up around here as I have been in years. I cranked through a list of projects while they were gone - including finally uploading the Notification and Assessment Information summary of Diana Fessler's book to BSHEA.