Home-?-Schooling

welcome to the jungle

Today there was very little home in our homeschooling. 

We were out the door by 8:45am heading to our first event.  As a side note here, any time we have morning activities to attend, I am thankful for all the days we don't have to rush out to catch a bus.  Most mornings in our house have a very casual beginning. 

One of the local libraries has been hosting a series of classes called Healthy Holiday Cooking, presented by a community educator from Penn State Cooperative Extension.  We have been learning about healthy menu choices, correct portioning of foods, evaluating ingredients through label reading, and tactics for frugal grocery budgeting. The kids also get to make cool recipes.  Today they made pumpkin pie in a bag!  Here is a link to a similar version of what we made:  pumpkin pie in a bag.  We have one more session in the series.  One nice benefit is that the boys get a chance to visit a library other than our usual one and spend time with other homeschoolers.

We left the library at 10:45am and headed out to a local coffee house with a play area for the kids.  Today was our first visit to this establishment.  It is run by a church as a community outreach.  We were impressed by the food, friendly staff, very nice facilities and beautiful murals in the parent area near the play equipment.

hanging around

The place was fairly busy since it was right around the lunch rush.  Quite a few preschool age children were there when we arrived.  An event had been planned through our local homeschool Meetup group, but only one other family came.  I was a little disappointed since there were no other kids close in age to my boys.  However, they didn't seem to mind that much.  JT asked me if anyone else his age would be coming, when I told him no, he just went back in to play.  He told me he was nearly run over by a 'swarm' of little kids.  EM spent his time policing the younger ones.  He used to tell me he wanted to be a policeman when he grows up.  That boy loves rules.

impressive detail

 I had a good time chatting with the other adults and drinking my iced mocha.  Mom definitely scored some socialization points today.  We spent about two hours hanging out, then set out for one more stop.

I needed to make a quick trip to the mall before we could go back home.  I remember the days when the boys were very small and a trip to the mall took all the energy I had.  Sometimes it surprises me to realize how much different things are now that they are nine and eleven.  We were in and out of the mall with only a short, unplanned stop in the bookstore.  It is pretty much impossible for our family to go in a mall without a visit to the bookstore.

When we finally returned home around 3pm, the boys quickly worked on the few items I had put on their lists for the day.  I knew we'd be busy, so I kept the assignments to a minimum.

So often, I hear misconceptions of what homeschooling is like.  The idea that we spend all of our days sitting at home, drilling the boys on times tables and preparing for national spelling bees, is nothing like what we really do.  In fact, I'm fairly certain our homeschooling days have more variety to them than what the boys could expect from a day in our local schools. 

Homeschooling is definitely a journey for us...
...in more ways than one.