Our fourth homeschool year has begun. While we never give up “the books” completely, we do enjoy a lighter schedule throughout the summer. The first of August we started with our science [Seashore] and history [The Wright Bros.] because they will so nicely complement our upcoming [surprise] trip to the Outer Banks. This past week we have worked to add back in our math, english, poetry, music, etc., etc., etc.

The first two weeks, Skeezix was a pain! Everytime I would get out the boys’ history book she would stand in front of me and invent questions, or when she was asked to go play with Angel, or go to the other room, etc., she would leave, but then walk back in a moment later and drop a toy banana on our open book, or throw a ball at her brothers. By God’s grace [and a LOT of time outs] she now is doing well playing by herself or doing her own “school” which is to copy words off of other things.

Angel – she is another story. She is a mess! She pulls the book out of my hand, or sits on my lap to listen… for 16 seconds and then tries to turn the pages, when I won’t let her, she slaps me. Off to time out… we start again, now she needs help in the potty. Off to help. Oh, look, the boys are messing around. Okay – start over again. Now it is quiet. Too quiet. Angel is in the bathroom applying foam soap to her “bebe.” Redirection. Melt-down. Consoling. Boys are now playing with swords. Walk Angel to Skeezix and ask Skeezix to play with her… Angel says, “No play, Rie. Rie bowing.” But, she does stay up there. We finish our reading and move on to the activity. Then you hear crying. Need I go on?

The blessings of homeschool are abundant. I will post another time of what I witnessed recently at Target with parents shopping off those school needs lists. 😛 But the actual logistics of pulling it off are not pretty. Oh, yeah, I get lots of very unhelpful suggestions from other homeschoolers which for reasons A, B or C would not work here. But once in a while I get what I really need… another mom whose eyes light up and says, “YES! It is the exact same way at my house!” which I did get to hear on Tuesday from a friend with 5 kids in my 4 kids age range. I guess what I need more than answers is knowing I am not alone.

Here are some photos from our resent science and history lessons.
As we learned about high and low tides, Champ delighted us as he picked up the concept immediately. This is his Science Exploration book. Notice his cursive! ♥