First Week is in the Books!

I have 3 girls - Magillicutty who is 5 1/2 and starting Kindergarten, WhipperSnapper who is 4 and is playing around with the concept of HS with me, and then Foo Young 2 years old and is on a path to derail our whole operation.
The idea of homeschooling never entered my mind till this past January, when I started talking to my parents about charter schools.  Being the good parents they are - they encouraged me to research all possible avenues for schooling - including HS.  I remember my husband and I snickering at the thought...because we just didn't think it was reality and had many preconcieved notions about it...antisocial kids, uber religious, not educated enough for college standards, etc....but we still did some research which brought us to family friends who live around the corner from my parents.

My husband and I spent 2 hours talking to Kathy & Barry - the parents of 2 boys - one who just finished his 2nd year at Messiah College on Deans list and the other just graduated "high school" - both insanely smart, so unique, social, athletic, and Christ loving....such a tight knit family unit...homeschool became a way of life for them...traveling with Barry when he had to leave the area for work - turning the trips in educational adventures, going on many mission trips to India - where their family grew and made lifelong relationships with people from such incredibly different cultures - these boys learned to appreciate what they have on a crazy different level than most kids their age...thus helping with the tight family unit.

Kathy and Barry sold me on the idea - I knew I still needed to do a lot of research and pray about my own mental well being and if I would even be able to handle it.  I always had this idea in my head that I'd start getting a little "break" once Magillicutty started Kindergarten....but I was starting to see things in the educational system that I didn't agree with.  When I realized that I could teach her everything she needed to know in under 2 hours a day for Kindergarten - I was blown away.  Imagine all the other things she could be learning each day outside of the classroom - real world stuff...nature discoveries that we can than go and do more research on (for example the baby cricket below), travel, field trips, library....all on our accord.

So, after 6 months of educating myself - I'm now educating her.  And Whippersnapper is involved too - she enjoys handwriting and math.  We have been reading The Boxcar Children - a couple of chapters each day and I overheard the kids outside the other day, playing The Boxcar Children - renacting scenes from a book....a chapter book that really doesn't have any pictures...talk about awesome education already with their creativity and imaginations going wild.

Here is Whippersnapper's interpretation of the seasons....

We made a loom out of sticks and then weaved paper thru to show how people once made clothing and blankets.