T-Minus 7 Days...

We officially begin our homeschooling in 7 days, and I am nowhere near as prepared as I wanted to be at this point. We have had the plague-S around here the last week and a half. Four of us have had strep throat, 4 of us have had the stomach virus (my husband and I had both), and my sweet daughter just had a coughing-fever running funk. Therefore, we have just been trying to survive taking care of sick kids while feeling awful ourselves. Then there is the Christmas clutter of the ridiculous amount of toys the kids got to find a place for.

I do know everything I will be covering for the first few weeks. I have put lots of thought into it, but haven't had time to put work into it. I have been piling all my resources in one room and have bought or collected lots of things. But, I really need to get in there and organize all of it. I also have a plan book that I need to write all those ideas running around in my head down in. I need to prepare things like flashcards and lapbooks. These are all chores I am really looking forward to. I'm just praying for health and productivity in this next week. I really want to hit the ground running with the kids so a fun first week will convince them that this whole homeschooling thing really will be cool after all!

"Teach Like You Wish You'd Been Taught"

I love Sonrise's motto. It really got me to thinking, do I wish I'd been homeschooled? Would I want to give up my days as a Bethesda Dragon? I tried to think back to my elementary school years and see what my best memories were from there. I loved school as I have always loved learning. I had great teachers and remember them fondly. However, I couldn't really think of any very specific memories, good or bad. My best memory that stuck out was that my grandmother worked there and would sometimes surprise me and bring me lunch money. That is a memory about spending time with family. In fact, one of the reasons I decided to homeschool was so we would have time to spend with family including the ice cream money grandmother! I realized my happiest memories from my childhood were the everyday things like just being home and spending time with my family members. Another reason for our decision was so our kids would have that relaxed time at home instead of always being hurried from one activity to another or doing homework. So, yes I think that it is the way I wish I'd been taught. In fact, I am ridiculously excited over the things I am going to learn!