My cute friend, Desiree, has been doing a Gratitude Journal on her blog all year. She is amazing for keeping up with it! I love reading what she is grateful for because it helps me be reminded of the things I am grateful for, too. I decided I can at least copy her with November gratitudes because I have had so many amazing things come into my life.
Today I am grateful that I decided to homeschool. After several years of working, I realized that I wasn't paying close enough attention to what my children were learning. Now we get to have devotionals every morning as a family before Dave goes to work. We eat breakfast together, read scriptures, listen to General Conference talks, say the Pledge of Allegiance, and have family prayer. This may be par for the course for many of my friends, but I didn't grow up in a home where we did this and it doesn't come naturally to me. I have to work at it and after a few months we have created a habit. We miss a day here and there depending on circumstances, but for the most part we are doing really well at it.
I love being a part of my childrens' learning plan. I love the flexibility that we have to do things together. They do their core subjects in the morning, and then have the rest of the day to explore what they want to learn. We have read several books together from the Little House series. We are reading The Story of the World. We have learned about Squanto and John Smith, and my daughter has read 3 of the American Girl doll books from the Kaya series.
Every week they spend four hours at Ignite Academy where they learn history, math, science, art, music, kung fu, and they have the opportunity to spend time with kids of all ages. They are also required to do a presentation every week about a different subject.
Every other week we participate in our Commonwealth School. My son goes to Knights of Freedom and my daughter goes to Liberty Girls. They read books, create cool arts and crafts projects, and learn about history.
It isn't easy and there are some days that I wonder what on earth drove me to this. Then there are days where we spend as much time as we want reading and discussing books, watching science dvds or geography. My kids still battle each other, but they also love each other. They are learning to work together and I find them playing more and helping each other out.
With as busy as I am with my personal endeavors in business, I am grateful that I am able to spend so much quality time with my kids. Our family is stronger for it, and we needed that.
Um, considering how popular YOU and this blog are, I am honored to be mentioned. I love the idea of including the kids on the gratitude fun! I am now starting a 30 days of thanks for my kids to go along with their "happiest and saddest" at the end of each day:) Thanks for always inspiring!
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you are doing this and what you love! Someday I hope to do the homeschool thing too, but I like how they also get to have the interactions through the Ignite Academy during the week too. So cool. It is probably really hard like you said, but wow - all your vacations could become field trips and you'd be able to go and do things that others can't dream of at a drop of a hat if you wanted. Good luck and really great to see what you are doing!
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