Adventures in Homeschooling

The Bills pre-game is on already and I'm afraid that I won't be in any condition to blog after it's over. I'll either be really really upset or really really elated. Either way I'll probably cry. So I'm kind of mailing it in today. So here's a bit of what we've been doing for homeschooling.

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A few weeks ago when I was preparing to start homeschooling I struggled to get into the mindset it takes to create a disciplined school environment. I've always thrived on routine so I would have thought that planning school would have come naturally. Honestly it's what I've dreamed of doing since I was a little girl so why the hesitation. I'm guessing that it's because that for the last five years of my life I've live on a preschoolers schedule. Should I do my laundry or go out in the yard and pretend to be a dinosaur? ROAR. I exercised no discipline. However, now that I've started homeschooling, I'm loving it! Bella really likes school and even Braden gets in on the action. After the first week of homeschooling this is what we've learned.

Braden- The are direct quotes from the boy himself.

• Not to see God anymore. He is a bad boy.


• These are my beautiful pants


• Dinosaurs can beat me up.

I think it's a good first week of pre-school. Our objective for the coming weeks is to teach him how to go to the bathroom without getting any pee on his shirt. I'll make some worksheets, visual aids and whatnot.

Bella- Since she's five I took the more direct route and asked her what she learned. Here is her take.

• I don't know


• God made the world.

My objectives for her are to teach her what imagination is. Does she honestly need me to tell her what to imagine? I come up with my own stuff. For example, if I'm doing laundry I'm a fashion designer, cooking dinner for my family I'm Emril Lagasse, teaching my children using a craft I'm Martha Stewart. Good things.

We did manage to learn something:

This Is A Song I Haven't Even Written Yet. That's How New It Is.

Since Coach and I have decided to keep Bella home for her Kindergarten year the task of creating her curriculum falls to me. Being honest, I already have all the books from when my mom homeschooled my three youngest siblings through this stage a few years ago. I basically just had to sort through the books and create a plan. I spent the better part of my day at this task and I'm happy to say that I was quite successful. I have written out long term goals and short term goals and created the accompanying forms to layout said goals. Many a tree died today. Well not really, it's mostly all on the computer and I didn't print anything so I guess you could say that no trees were harmed in this process. I'm so environmentally friendly. I hug trees regularly and my mom wears tye dye so clearly the world is a better place because of us.

I have to say that in spite of the feeling of accomplishment I have at completing such and important task, a task that no doubt proves I'm an adult, it really took up a good chunk of my precious time. Time I could have been spending searching the Internet for useless videos and pictures to share and mock.

Actually I did stumble on a picture of a woman with an ungodly amount of facial piercings while looking for soccer registration for Bella. You're probably thinking that when I was deciding what to google to find the proper forms I probably typed in creepy pierced lady and crossed my fingers, but I didn't. I was actually on the soccer registration page and no piercings is a rule and creepy pierced lady is the picture they used to demonstrate it. I was disappointed to see that this was a rule since Coach and I had been planning on letting Bella get that lip ring she's been begging for. I guess she'll just have to settle for a tattoo.

I did manage to find 2 minutes and 56 seconds during my day to waste. I chose to waste it on Eric Hutchinson and I was not disappointed. He was the opening act for Kelly Clarkson at a State fair. Like most opening acts he repeated his name a lot. Unlike most opening acts I bet this crowd will remember his name and even if they don't they can just look through their old yearbooks for him. Oh and the crowd is filling in like crazy because he invited the "nosebleed" crowd down by the stage because Kelly Clarkson cancelled at the last minute and he ended up doing a whole show.




In the event that you are unfamiliar with the song I'm Yours (as referenced in the above video). Jason Mraz is no Barry Manilow, Dione, but he's been on Billboard's top 100 with this song for a record-breaking 71 weeks so that must count for something. Actually it got him into an improv song by Eric Hutchinson so I guess he's peaked.