Back to School!

We're coming to the end of our first week of school. It's been a great week!! This year I will spend more time with them doing "group" activities...to some folks that may sound backwards--shouldn't you wean them off of group work and have them working independently? Yes, they need to know how to work independently...but they already do! God has really convicted me about spending more time with them during the school day--making sure they really understand the concepts, learning together, talking through things......and just BEING together! For a while, it looked as though Ella might return to traditional school this year and there were so many things that I "wished I had done". Who knows when our homeschool time together will come to an end and I don't want to live with regrets!! We're going to spend more time in REAL books and less time in text books, do more projects, take more trips, and just have FUN learning! It's only taken me 4 years to learn this....apparently I'm a slow learner....but the important thing is that I have seen the light! Truly, I think it has taken me this long to "break the traditional school mold" that has been planted in my brain...especially having been to college and grad. school in the field of education--it was almost permanently ingrained. Their system isn't terrible--it's pretty much how you HAVE to operate w/ 30 kids in a classroom that are all at a variety of different levels. I think, for the most part, teachers are doing the best w/ what they've got! But is it ideal?! Not for us. Are we perfect around here? No way, but we have flexibility to change things that aren't working, redo things we don't understand, study the things that interest us, and worship God while we're doing all of it!!!!!!!!! Thank you, God, for the opportunity--it's amazing!

Beautiful: watching my kids learn and grow...."in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man"
Good: living in a place where I have the FREEDOM to make educational choices