As we start our 4th year homeschooling I was thinking about friends.† Over the years I have had many friends.† High school friends, college friends, married friends, best friends, girlfriends, talk all night friends.† As a woman I feel very blessed to have great friends.† I honestly do not think men have the same kind of friendships and I feel sorry for their loss.

When we begin homeschooling I didn’t really worry about the whole ‘socialization’ thing.† Kei is hugely outgoing and makes friends wherever she goes. My best friend was in California but I knew we could still keep in touch.† I wasn’t concerned.

We joined our HSing group and I met some of the most amazing women in the world.† There is a group of 6 or 7 of us who get together usually at least once a week.† It is a group with common goals; they want the best for their children.† They have listened to me, cried with me when my Mom died, played Santa when I was laid off, brought us food, laughed and laughed, talked for hours, jumped for joy at my triumphs, lifted me up when I was way down, gone on some of the most amazing adventures, had spend the night parties with, shared ideas, recipes, advice from everything from kids to dogs, been the best friends ever!

What makes this so wonderful is that these same Moms are also my daughter’s best friends Moms.† When Kei was in PS, I was homeroom Mom.† I never got to know the Moms.† They would breeze in when we had a party to bring whatever I asked them to bring. <usually the same few moms> and breeze out.

My HS friends, hopefully, will be there until the end.† We will go through it all together.† I am so truly blessed to have these amazing women in my life.

If I had to offer advice for new HSers, it would be to find a group.† Our HS group has over 100 members.† No they aren’t all my best friends but I found the place where we belong.† You will too. Find your group, your place, your niche.† It will make this ride so much sweeter.

What a great few days!† Kei had a production of sorts on Saturday night.† Our children’s theatre group was doing a little show called “Front Porch”.† It was mostly teenagers and adults but 2 girls danced and Kei did a monologue.† She did an amazing job!† Here it is.† It is about 2 minutes long. 🙂

Kei Quilters AUDIO

She did it in a HUGELY Southern accent and it was so funny.

She has spent a lot of time this week working on her fairy houses.† She has made fairy houses since she was little.† Here is a picture of her at 6.† She still gets just as dirty!

She is building a entire city now.† Here is the hotel.

This is the restaurant complete with plates of food.

This is a delicious fairy treat she made with water and spearmint from our garden.

Liv spent the night and the girls had a blast as usual. There were plays to be put on, fairy houses to work on, knitting needle fights <fully supervised by me of course>, dress up and Liv went with us to Kei’s “Front Porch” and to church. Fun times.

ìThere is no difference between living and learning… it is impossible and misleading and harmful to think of them as being separate.î ~ John Holt

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A HOMESCHOOL GIRL:

Wake up at 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 whenever she rolls out of bed.

Gets dressed in cute outfit picked out the night before, whatever is clean on the floor, whatever is just on the floor.

Eats breakfast, full of nutritional goodness, pop-tart, leftover pizza, a squirt of whipped cream.

Sits down to a second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour helter skelter day of lesson plans.

No..seriously…

Most days she gets up between 8:00-9:00.† Most days I either cook her breakfast, she cooks breakfast or she grabs something quick.† Most days her clothes are cute and match.† Most days I have her lesson plans all planned out and she gets right to work.

But…

that is one thing I love about homeschooling.† No 2 days are ever exactly the same.† We do try to get up at somewhat the same time, but if she stayed up the night before working on a play, writing a song, playing Webkinz; we sleep a little bit longer.

If we had a unexpected snowfall, we take the day off.† If she is doing a play, we may take a week off.† We get our ‘days’ in, but we do it using our time frame not some government issued “you must go to school for 180 days” kinda schedule.

We are always ready for an adventure.† We can follow rabbit holes, stop and read a great story, do an impromptu experiment, wander down to the creek to see if those little fish have gotten any bigger, take the dog on a walk, ride our bikes, look at dog spit through the microscope, run get the flower book and see exactly what that strange purple flower is, have a picnic under the trees, add a mailbox to the tree-house, spend hours looking at clouds and finding pictures, visit with the awesome ladies who live next door and have taken Kei under their wings, have a tickle war, dance through the house.

There are days I want to scream.† Days she isn’t jumping up and down about doing Math.† Days she ‘hates Grammar”.† Days that it is too much, too overwhelming.

But…there are more days that are† magic.† Days that are wonderful.† Days that are special and shiny and unforgettable. Memories etched in both of our hearts and minds that we would never have if she was in public school for 8 hours a day.

When I first started homeschooling, I said, “When it is all said and done, I want Kei to say, “”I had a magical childhood””.† That is still what I want.

Homeschooling, it is the best thing I have ever done.

EVER.

One day, Not tomorrow but soon.
There will be no toys scattered all over the house,
The television, radio and YouTube will not be blasting simultaneously from your room
There be no little pieces of cut up paper on the floor from your latest projects
The fridge will be bare of drawings and calendars filled with activities
There will be no constant chatter as you play out your latest scenarios with your dolls
Your room will be clean, perfect, picked up
There will be no dirty dishes in the sink that seem to multiply all by themselves
I will wash clothes once a week
There will be no singing coming from the shower
There wonít be lights left on in every room
There will not be huge stacks of library books hiding in every corner
Dinner will consist of a warm up meal
There will be no endless questions, ìWhy not, who, when, Can we?î
I will always get to watch exactly what I want to watch on TV
There will never be a race to see who can get to the phone first
The bathroom will never have wet towels lying around
My days will consist of no searching for the best homeschool lesson plans
I will stop looking out the window in the morning to see your chipmunk Chippy is there
The patio will have no balls, sprinklers, games, baseball gloves, bats scattered about
The house will be quiet, organized, a place for everything and everything in its place
One day,
Not tomorrow but soon
Sounds lonelyÖÖ

~Karen

Hop on over to the “Not Back to School Blog Hop” and check out more “Typical” Homeschooling Days…

“Normal is boring!”
Me to Kei, “You are so weird sometimes”. Kei to me, “Why thank you”.

Now that I am living in my Momma’s house, I run across various pictures of me when I was a little girl. School pictures that I always seem to look uncomfortable and awkward in, pictures of my brothers and I, the occasional picture of my Mother and I. I cherish these glimpses back into my life as a child.

Kei will never have the problem of not having enough pictures of her when she was young. I use my camera everyday. I am not a great photographer, but I have such an adorable subject I don’t even need to be a pro.

That being said, here are my offerings for last week. 🙂

Kei and I went to see “Your a Good Man Charlie Brown”. The kids did an amazing job on it! Leah directed and did Charles Schulz proud. We were especially proud of Shane in the lead role.

Friday night we went to a slumber party/Perseid Meteor Shower.† Don’t you just love having sleep overs?† There were 19 of us and the kids and adults had a blast.† Except for my whole ‘bruised rib’ incident that I won’t go into.

The kids had a blast as always!

We saw several meteors.† It was beautiful.† The skies were cloudy but cleared up.† It was just breathtaking and we oohed and ahhed like it was a fireworks display.

The moms woke up early and sat and talked while the kids and Matt stumbled in one by one.† It was a great time!!† I love our friends and the fact that they all homeschool just makes it that much better!

We started our 2nd week of Homeschooling Monday.† We are loving Time 4 Learning. I am supplementing it with all kinds of hands on projects.

Kei spent an afternoon making a Garden stone.† Then I had the bright idea of using a frisbee for the mold for a plain one.† It was awesome until we actually tried to take it out of the mold.† Broke…but Kei made it work.

She explained to me why she ‘ran’ the colors together.† She said in nature everything† combines together.

Wonderful times, wonderful friends, wonderful memories.

Be Blessed,

ìWhen it is darkest, men see the stars.î ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Welcome to our “School Photos”.† I am a single mom homeschooling my 10 year old.† This is our 4th year of† homeschooling.† It is the best thing I have EVER done!

Kei is a girl of God, messy room cleaner who would rather explore the creek than clean, baker and a cook, Homeschool Girl, library junkie, lover of all things science and history and Math, loving a yellow lab, learning-to-love reading, a sometimes reality show junkie, WebKinz playing, tree house playing, guitar learning, movie loving,† talking in the dark, country girl wanna be, musicals and plays loving, Wii playing, playing in the rain, singing, fairy house building, dress up and make believe, champion of the underdog, delightful, strong willed, lover of the Earth and all things on it,† kinda chick.

ìWhile we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.î

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I’d build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I’d finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I’d do more hugging and less tugging.
~Diane Loomans, from “If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again”

Check out the Homeschool Hop.

For some reason the “Hip Homeschool Hop” reminds me of an old rap song.

I said a hip hop,
Hippie to the hippie,
The hip, hip a hop, and you don’t stop, a rock it
To the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie,
To the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.
Now, what you hear is not a test – I’m rappin’ to the beat,
And me, the groove, and my friends are gonna try to move your feet.

Rappers Delight ~ Sugarhill Gang

While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world.† Wikipedia

I listened to it over and over on my record player wrote down the words; knew that sucker by heart!† I still bust out singing it sometimes.† Kei just shakes her head.

?

I spent all winter complaining.† Whining about the freakishly cold weather we were having.† It snowed here!† Multiple times!† All anyone did was wah wah wah.† We are still ‘wahing’.† Now about how HOT it is.† Freakishly hot even for Alabama in August.† I mean, I hate to never be satisfied but seriously.† A month of 60∞ – 70∞ here and there.† Is that too much to ask?

Since it has been so hot most of what we have done has been around either the pool or the AC.† We went to Epic swim party Saturday at Kenny’s house. † It was too hot to sit by the pool!† You had to actually be in the water.

Of course a break was taken for cake!

Kenny, our childrens’† pastor is so awesome.† He and his wife had 3 teenagers and adopted 5 kids!!† They were all brothers and sisters who didn’t want to be separated.† I so admire them for opening their homes and most importantly their hearts.

Kei spent some time strumming her guitar.† She is trying to learn “The House That Built Me” by Miranda Lambert. It is much more country than we usually like but it is such a beautiful song.† She still has the guitar she got when she was 6 from Santa.

Of course Kei and Nomad swam this week.† He seemed to like it a little more.† As much as he loves water, he doesn’t love the pool.† I know it is because he can’t find solid ground.† We put this big bucket in the pool and he seemed calmer.

So August has started out with 101∞ weather.† August is always our hottest month.† Everyone stay inside and stay cool!

Have a wonderful rest of the week,

“How sociable the garden was.
We ate and talked in given light.
The children put their toys to grass
All the warm wakeful August night.”
-†† Thom Gunn, Last Days at Teddington