I Love Homeschooling

I really do. This year has just been the best year so far in our homeshooling journey. We started a new way of organizing our curriculum called a workbox system. Basically, the boys each have a tower full of drawers that contain a day's worth of work. On the front of the boxes I have attached little numbers by velcro. When the box is completed they remove the number and place it on a card. They are able to see what they have accomplished and how much is left to do. The best part is that no one ever asks, "Mom, what do I do next?" Some of the things they can do independently and some things they do with me. I alternate my time between the two older boys and squeeze Nathan in where I can. Nathan does about 15 minutes' worth of actual sit-down school work at this point so that's easy.

Beyond just having a way to move through our schoolwork, I just love the lifestyle of homeschooling. I know what the boys are learning and I get to reinforce it in our daily lives. For example, a couple of weeks ago Seth learned about graphs. It was a simple introductory lesson about gauges and graphs. Well, today, I was looking up the weather. I showed Seth the current temperature and then I clicked on "hour-by-hour" to see what the rest of the day would look like. A graph popped up and Seth was so excited! We talked about it and looked at a few more things on weather.com. That's the kind of stuff that just makes homeschooling so cool to me. It also makes me feel appreciated as I see my teachings being understood and applied. Those are the pats on my back.

I also love how my little guys are learning so much just by hanging around. Since I've been teaching Nathan all the sounds of the letters in the alphabet, Benjamin is picking them up, too. It's amazing!

The reasons we homeschool are too many to list and the rewards are greater still. I just feel so blessed by our family and our school year.

Here's a picture of my big boy doing a little school: