Adventures in Homeschooling

We are officially one week into our homeschooling journey and it's been, well, interesting.

I have to admit, I've had some "what the heck was I thinking" moments - like that moment I realized my kids just put up with the math and grammar to get to the science and history. Which they clearly got from Dusk - I lived for English and Math. History? Not so much. And now I have to teach it? Ugh. Just ask my mom how much I "loved" social studies in elementary school.

And we've definitely had moments of sadness as we're seeing pictures of their friends starting at new schools. For Sierra in particular, it's hard as many of the kiddos in her classes landed at the same school. She really misses them. And I miss their moms, my mom tribe.

And Bodie and I have definitely butted heads. That kid is so much like me. SO MUCH. And there's definitely a learning curve to mom being your teacher.

But already, the blessings of homeschooling are becoming so evident to me. I keep having these aha moments where I am given 100% certainty that we made the right choice.

Like when the kiddos came home from their first day of enrichment academy. They LOVE it. As in, they don't want to leave at the end of the day and are over the moon at what they're learning. They are both developing a newfound love of math already, and are discovering there are multiple ways to learn things. Their eyes are definitely opened up and they're having a ball!

Moments like this morning, when we pulled out of our driveway to head to the enrichment academy. I looked to the left, at the insanely long line of cars waiting to turn left onto the main street by our house. The line we sat in 5 days a week for the last 6 years...and then I turned right. The traffic was light. Our drive was easy. We laughed. The pressure of the last 6 years is just...gone. It made me realize how much unnecessary stress we've added to our lives.  And it made me so hopeful that this year will be exactly what we, as a family, need.

And maybe my biggest aha moment came on Thursday. Bodie had appointments in the pulmonary clinic at CHLA - all went well, and he thought being "trapped" in the Pulmonary Function Test box was hilarious.

On our way up to the hospital, I told the kids if they finished the work they brought with them (math and science), we could go out to lunch on the way home. On the weird route Waze sent us on, we passed a random park that looked super cool. So we decided we would stop there, too. 

The kids finished their schoolwork while we were waiting for the doctor (most productive pulmonary appointment ever!). 

So we stopped by El Pollo Loco to grab some lunch to take to the park. 

(watching them grill the chicken totally counts as Home Ec, amiright???)

And then we stopped by that random park.

And we ended up staying for almost 2 hours. 

We wandered around, looking at all the different kinds of plants. We talked about the different kind of adaptations we saw.

And the kids climbed trees. 

And then climbed some more.

Guys, my kids never climb trees. We just don't have the time. 

But last week, they climbed trees for 2 hours. 

Homeschooling is helping my kids get some of their childhoods back. 

Childhoods that were taken due to illness, heart attacks, hospital stays, burglaries, housefires, and so many other things we couldn't prevent. 

But this, a moment to recapture parts of their childhood. 

This much we can do.