Hello everyone!  Yes, I am still in existence.  It didn’t seems like  this summer was that busy, but I hardly got on the  computer execpt to keep up with some emails.  I am going to  try to keep up with the Blogger Friend School this year, so here is my first entry.

School….hmm…not sure I am ready to get back to it yet….

We are pretty excited about some aspects of it though.  We are going to be working on learning Russian together as a family, so that is pretty exciting.  Also, my hubbie is pretty excited about the Omnibus that the older two boys will be doing, so we are going to go through it with them!  Hopefully we will be consistent enough with it, as we will have to make time to do it in the late afternoons/evening time.  Dh is working from home almost exclusively now (PRAISE GOD!!) so we are trying to fit it in around 4-4:30, as long as he doesn’t  have conference calls that interfere.  I have already learned so much!  It is rather fun to start kind of going back to school myself!

We started out our homeschool journey rather differently than most.  Hubbie and I were both homeschooled, so it wasn’t really even talked about, just planned to do the same with ours.  I will be the first to admit that there are days that I wish I had a choice, but I don’t let myself even think there is an option, because really, there isn’t.  God has given me this responsibility.  Who am I to question that.  If you leave the door open a  crack, it is much easier to just give a little push and start heading down the slippery slope of neglecting your responsibility. No one else should be the main influence in my children’s lives.

As far as comparing my childhood education to my children’s education, even though I was homeschooled, it was very textbook oriented, and I don’t remember much of it, particularly history.  I remember doing it, and what the cover of my book looked like, but there are only a few things that really stick out to me.  One in particular was the research paper I did.  THAT I remember.  I think it was because I chose the topic and enjoyed learning it!  I am trying to keep that in mind, and really help my children enjoy learning what they are doing, as well as letting them help me select what they are learning.  For example, my 12yo really wanted to learn about composers.  He is very musically inclined, and is very interested in history from that perspective.  He is still doing Omnibus with us, but he LOVES to do his "music" and will do it with no prompting from me.

Well, I could go on and on, but I need to get  some things done around here.  The older boys just got a job with the neighbor so they are off learning the ropes, and we have friends staying with us this week while they are transitioning between jobs and towns, so the middle three are outside  playing with their friends.  Now is a perfect time to actually accomplish something around here without too many interruptions!