Okay, so...
I'm homeschooling now. This is something I've always wanted to do... since before I had kids and this past Monday we had an event in our community that pretty much made my decision for me. There are a lot of things in life I can't control, but one thing I can control is how my children are schooled and at least for the rest of this school year, Emma will be schooled at home.
I feel so great about this decision. Yesterday when I was really needing to decide one way or another to prevent Emma from missing any more school than necessary, God put two wonderful women in my life whom I had never met before and whom BOTH told me... THIS is what is right for YOUR family. And I know it is. I know it in my heart. So thank you Kathy and Andrea. I know you probably don't read my blog, but if you do, please know that you made my tough decision a really easy one and you put my heart at ease. You rock.
SO! The past 24 hours have been outrageously busy with me getting everything ready. After my session yesterday afternoon, the kids and I went to Barnes and Noble then Wal-Mart. Then last night I cleaned, rearranged, purged, and researched.
I slept 5 hours and woke up with my mind going 500 miles per hour.
The kids and I got up, got breakfast, and went to School Tools, the most awesome teacher supply store ever opened. It's nearly the size of a small Wal-Mart and it has all you could possibly ever want and more for teaching. Amazing.
Then we came home and I went and raided my Granny's attic, which is where I stored all of my teaching supplies after I stopped teaching in the public school system before Emma was born.
Below is the result of the last 24 hours of blood, sweat, and... not tears... SMILES. ;)
This is the view from one corner of the room. Our school's official name is the Arnold Academy. You have to have a name for your school when you homeschool in NC. Underneath are ribbons with clips to display my Emma and Noah's great work they do! :) Then there are learning posters, number lines, colors, shapes, calendars, all that good stuff, and the stash of learning manipulatives by the window...
Oh! And those are Emma's and Noah's little desks. Aren't they precious??? I hope to eventually find a table for cheap that we can all sit at together, but for now this will do. And you can see what is what here...
The kids and I are all so flipping excited about this! Emma kept asking all day... Mom, when are we going to start our homeschool? When are we going to start? When are we going to start. Unfortunately, I feel the need for everything to be "perfect" before I officially start anything, so at 4:30 this afternoon, we finally did our first activity. It wasn't anything academic. It was a little art project. You can see it displayed above on the work wall. Emma's fall tree is on the left and Noah's is on the right. I should add that Noah had lots and lots and lots and lots of help. But he still did a good job. ;)
Oh, and yes, he is being schooled as well. Pre-school materials and at a very relaxed pace, but he wants to do school too just like his big sister, so who am I to deny him that?? :)
This is a great adventure, friends and I've never felt more at peace about a decision before. This is PERFECT for our family. :)
