Our New Look at Homeschooling

Ok, well alot has changed in the last couple of months! After my last review for the year, I have realized that Gigi (my daughter's nick name) is learning all the time and I need to chill out. I have spent too much time over analyzing everything we do making sure it is perfect. I would check and recheck Homeschool message boards all day long. This is just crazy! I am on the verge of burn out! I need to get back to being ME! I found a book called The Joyful Home Schooler by: Mary Hood at the Library and it was exactly what I was looking for. I was able to remember why we chose to Homeschool and to take is easy and remember that this is not a school, it's a home, my daughter is not a student, she's a child and I'm not a teacher, I'm a mom. I need to remember that when I start to rethink things.

We are working on learning to unschool. Yes, I said unschool! I have decided that my daughter does not need a teacher, she needs a mom. I have stayed home with her since she was born and I have to say I have done an awesome job (patting myself on the back :-) I have taught her now to walk, talk, eat, swim, use good manners, etc. Why does all that have to change when she turns "school age". When we were doing "bookwork" everyday, I found myself missing my daughter and we were spending the whole day together! I was missing the fun and joy of just going through our days together. I am going to relax and *learn* to let go. This is very hard for me but over the the past couple of weeks I have noticed a huge difference in myself. I have taken her lead and am amazed how much she is learning by herself! I was too busy focusing on book work to see any of it. (silly mommy)

Over just the past couple of weeks we have done so much! I can't believe how much we are learning by just living!

Gigi loves listening to books on tape. She has been listening to Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson, Charlotte's Web by: E.B. White, and The Giants and the Joneses by: Julia Donaldson .

Not to mention reading along with Minnie and Moo books. She has even started reading Elvis the Rooster and the Magic Words by: Denys Cazet all on her own.

My husband found a Usborne book about space that I bought at a Library book sale and he started reading it at night before bed. My daughter saw that he was reading it and started asking him some questions and before we knew it she wanted to learn about planets and stars! The two of them are working on making a model of the planets!

Gigi noticed a *star* near the moon that didn't sparkle and she wanted to look it up and found out that is was Venus!!! We purchased a telescope and have been spending our nights checking out the moon and stars as well as Venus :-)

Here are some pictures on the first night with the telescope. They are taken in complete darkness :-)

We have been bird watching and have been looking up birds in our field guide to find out what they are. Each time we see a new bird we put a sticker on the page in our field guide. Our cat (Lily) is also liking the birds too!

The other day we had a heavy rain fall come through. Gigi and I decided to go out on our deck (we have a canopy over the deck) and read while the rain came down all around us. She then decided to get out her math book and asked for some help. So there we were, in the rain, late at night, doing math work outside!!!! Too cool, hun?

The other morning she asked me to open a blank page for her to type on the computer. So I did, thinking that she was going to *play* typing. Well, when I came back in she was typing a story and sounding out words she didn't know how to spell.

We have always gone to the library around once to twice a week, however she has asked to check out Magic School Bus movies and books and has spent many mornings watching them and reading the matching book at night before bed. She then has been telling me all the neat things she has learned from them. (mommy's very impressed)!!! Well, I gotta run for now.