Reason # 217 That I Love Home Schooling

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be able to home school my kids.
I live in a country that allows it.  
Some don't.
I have a husband that has always encouraged me to stay home so that I can teach our kids.
He willingly makes the sacrifices of being the sole bread winner.  
Some husbands don't.
Also, I consider myself very blessed to belong to an amazing group of home schooling moms.  So amazing that I sometimes can't believe that I get to be friends with these ladies and raise and school our children together.
God is smiling upon me to be sure.
I try not to take any of this for granted.


Our group meets every week for a field trip.
Every week we adventure together with the 50 or so kids we have between the 10 of us.
Or however many kids there are.  It's hard to keep track because it's a small army.
3 of our outings are for nature study.
We hike and explore, identify birds, wildflowers and oh thrill, sometimes we see snakes.
And the thing of it is, we all like that stuff.
We're bird nerds.  Plant nerds.  Rock nerds.  And definitely book nerds.
There is always someone who can tell us why buzzards have no feathers on their heads, or who can look up the name of that beautiful plant and we all get excited by these kinds of things.
We are cut from the same mold.


The 4th week we visit a cultural destination of some sort: China town, Ovlera St., and the Mission San Jaun Capistrano are some of the places we've been to.
This week we were heading the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
Come to find out the planetarium is closed on Tuesday (should have looked that up when we scheduled it--oops)
And, it's been a zillion degrees here for the past few days.
So we went to the beach instead.

How amazing is it that I can take my kids for our first beach day of the year on a Tuesday in the first week of May?  
I am so very happy to have this kind of freedom and flexibility.
I know home schooling isn't for everyone.  We don't have to agree on everything.
In fact, I assure you, we won't.
But that isn't going to stop me from being really, really happy that I get to do it.
Because days like this, slow, simple and sweet, are fleeting.
I know it won't last forever.
Soon enough there will be more school work to do.  It will take longer.  We'll get busier.
I wish it wasn't so, but I know it's coming.
So right now, when they are 7, almost 5 and almost 3, we will relish this time we have.
Time to build in the sand.

Time to be buried in the sand.

Time for dipping our toes in the water.

And being pulled along by our friends.

Time for stories in the shade.

And time to PLAY.
They are only little for such a short time.
I'd like to let them enjoy it as for as long as possible.
............................................................................................................
I know what some of you might be thinking: "what about responsibility, learning to live in the real world and becoming productive, contributing members of society?"
I agree with you.  I want my kids to be responsible and to contribute to the world.
But I also want to show them how to be spontaneous and to give them time to build their dreams.
I think my boy can learn math just as well wielding his tape measure and drawing up plans for his tree fort, as he can sitting down with a math worksheet.  
Or maybe more because, he, like his father did, hates work sheets.
The thing I learn every day that I am home teaching my kids is that there is more than one way of doing things.  
I learned that in teacher training, too.  It's called differentiation.  And they wanted us to do it in our classrooms.  With 35 kids.
That's a tall order.
But I only have 3. 
It's much more manageable this way.
I guess I am the lucky one.


Hope your week allows you some spontaneity!
Love from,
Greta