Unschooling......The Experiment (365:150-153)

I woke up last week and realized that I just could not do this anymore.  I hate the absolute drudgery of school. I hated it when I went to school and I hate it now that I home school my kids.  That's a lot of hate.  So, I wrote a long and impassioned email to the hubs about learning - what it is, what is isn't and what it should be in our home. I wrote, in part:

Well, exactly 3 weeks into school again and........I'm bored to death.I want to homeschool, not school at home. To me, homeschool is learning through living life. It's adventure not drudgery. It's out in the world, not home at the table. Yes, there are days when we should be at home, but not every day. Not even most days. I think that might be why Ladybug wanted to go to school. Why some of the others want to go. Shoot, I want to go.
I've never had the courage to change things. I'm so afraid I'll screw them up - well, their education anyways. I've already screwed them up. I've been so indoctrinated into the public school mentality that I don't know how to educate any differently. But I can feel in my heart that this is NOT the way to inspire creativity, passion and a love for learning.
I have a vision of what our day would look like. It's the ideal and even on the best of days, reality would fall short. But even falling short of the ideal, I still see laughter, less fighting and more cooperation, less grumpiness on my part and more appreciation of God and His creation.
I need help. I need your permission to let me put away the textbooks (except for math and language arts in the younger grades). I need help developing a plan of action so that learning does happen and we don't just play video games all day. 

He agreed wholeheartedly.  The experiment began. 

Two bees covered in pollen.  So cool!

Squirrel!

365:138 - 149 and One Thousand Gifts (756 - 761)

Mushroom

Wolfie at the park

Tigger.  Why does he smile like that?  Only when I take a picture too.

More Wolfie

Hmm.   I take a lot of pictures of my grandson.

End of summer fun

That looks painful

Close up of the water coming down.

756.  Ladybug went to school this year.  It's a very small charter school. I'm still struggling with her decision but she seems to enjoy it.

757.  Mrs. M started teaching.  She teaches middle school English.  She loves it.

758.  I got Wolfie full time.  He's getting more fun each day!

759.  E-Baby started kindergarten this past week.  She is excelling.

760.  I get to go up and see my mom and dad in a few days.  I miss them so much!

761.  Hubby got to go see his family.

365:126 - 137 and One Thousand Gifts (741 - 755)

Only 71 pictures behind!

The view outside my window when my hubby took me away for my birthday

Dragonfly

Beautiful mountains

Sorry, but I do like bugs.

More bugs

No clue what it is but it looks like a white pinecone

Tigger and Princess

Tigger, Ladybug, Knight and Mr. Baseball

Near the end of our hike.  A few of them were not happy hikers.

God paints an amazing picture

You know it was hot when even the chipmunks were sprawled out in the shade 

741.  Wonderful birthday

742.  Time away with my husband

743.  Romance

744.  Roses and champagne

745.  Talking to each other uninterrupted

746.  The kids had a wonderful time with D and E-Baby

747.  They got spoiled rotten. :)

748.  So thankful that D willing to come spend the night

749.  Coming back home

750.   I missed the kids

751.  Hiking with the kids

752.  Togetherness

753.  In awe of God's handiwork

754.  A clean dog (she is scared of water, but I finally insisted.  She stunk!)

755. My sister's coming to town! 4 weeks and counting.

365:116 - 125 and One Thousand Gifts (732 - 740)

The kids found an art dvd in a pile of homeschool stuff that I was going to sell.

Art class is now in session.

Tigger breaking boards

He earned his yellow belt

So proud of him!

He wouldn't let me hug & kiss him in class so I got him as soon as we got home!

Still counting my blessings...............

732.  We started school again.

733.  Back to a nice routine.

734.  A few cool(er) days.

735.  My sister is coming!  Yay! Yay!

736.  She is bringing my great nephew with her.  Love that kid!

737.  Mr. Baseball was accepted into the club ball team that he wanted.

738.  Tigger got his yellow belt

739.  Lunch with Kathy.  I've missed her so much!

740.  Ladybug has been reading her Bible more lately and is re-thinking some of her ideas/choices.

365:112 - 115 and One Thousand Gifts (724 - 731)

The boys on Mr. Baseball's team praying before game time.

Mr. Baseball making a great catch

Beautiful rainbow at the fields

Spa day!

724.  In a world where Christians are spit on, my boy is not afraid to stand with Jesus!

725.  Baseball is done - - for a month.

726.  Mr. Baseball just played his last ever Little League game.  He is too old now.  Bittersweet.

727.  Excited for what the future might bring

728.  Cooler weather at the field

729.  They won last night  (They were eliminated tonight)

730.  The 4 younger girls having a fun slumber party over at Dee and E-Baby's house.

731.  More rain!  Lots of it!

365:106 - 111 and One Thousand Gifts (719 - 723)

Hubby's birthday

Every year I read about taking good fireworks pictures.  And every year I get "ho-hum" pictures.  I am on what could be a lifelong mission to take a good firework picture.  Not the ones in the air, but the ones on the ground.  

Tigger made his birthday cake from scratch.  It was a pumpkin cake
with cream cheese frosting.  It was sooooo good!

He was actually excited about getting clothes.  

719.  Rain!  Well, for 5 minutes.

720.  My baby boy turned 11

721.  My Father in law's surgery went very well.  He'll be back to his wonderful, ornery self soon.

722.  The new meds seem to be working for Mom in law.

723.  Hubby had a good birthday

365:101 - 105 and One Thousand Gifts (711 - 718)

Wolfie's new favorite thing to do

Pomegranates!  Only about 3-4 more months until they are ripe.  Yum!

Spider webs are really very pretty

The latest installment of "Kids are here"

More specifically - Grandkids are here

Boys are here

711.  Back rubs from hubby AND the kids!

712.  Hanging out with Wolfie after not seeing him for a week.

When I get so caught up in my own selfish world and have trouble finding blessings, I go back to Ann VosKamp's prompts.  Her suggestions really help me to see the things in life that I take for granted.

3 Gifts loved:
   713.  My husband
   714.  My kids
   715.  My grandkids

3 Gifts read:
   716.  Bible
   717.  The classics like Pride & Prejudice
   718.  The Little Bunny series that I used to read to E-Baby every night that I babysat,                   when she was 2.