Good News (?!) and homeschooling thoughts/update

I'm sorry that updates have been few and far between on here. Admittedly, the stress of whether or not we'd get our dream home has consumed much of my thinking and energy, to the point where so many things have been pushed to the sidelines of my life.

I'm happy to report that we have a preliminary 'YES' on our offer to buy our dream home!!!

It's been 6 long months, and I have many mixed feelings about how this process has been for us. 'They' say that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. 'They' say that such challenges 'build character'.  'They' also say that you will appreciate your victories more if the process wasn't easy.  Who ever thought up such things?  

Has it built character for us to sit and wait, wonder and worry about our dream house? I'm not sure I can say that my character was in question before, or that it has been vastly improved by the process. I CAN say that if this all works out in our favor, it certainly will have given us a bit more hope that 'if you dream it, you can have it'.

This process has meant that soooo much of the outcome was completely out of our hands. In other situations in life, there are ways that you can gain control over the outcome. The only contribution we were really able to make to the outcome was to invoke the help of animal spirits and other magical acts to try to protect the house and ward off other potential buyers.  I'd like to think it helped, because there certainly was no shortage of people who looked at that house over the last 6 months. In most cases, the people determined that the house needed too much work and that their financing would not be able to handle it.  I suppose I have to be glad, then, that our mortgage guy approved us for a loan that would allow for improvements to be made on the house.

I am very grateful that things finally look like they're working out for us to buy this home.  When all is said and done, when I'm finally in the house and looking back on all of this, I suspect it will seem somewhat humorous to me.  That's what 'they' say, isn't it...that we'll laugh at it all later?  

I wish it hadn't been such a long, arduous journey for us to get to this point.  I know that 'they' say that all things happen in the proper time, and that perhaps 6 months ago was not the proper time.  OK, I can kind of get on board with that - then why not at least make the process a little easier in the mean time? Why not give us a 'YES' with a stipulation that certain things need to be sorted first so that the closing date would need to happen later on? I could have waited happily for 6 months if I knew we'd end up with the house in the end!

Yes, yes, I realize that the Universe doesn't work exactly the way we tell it to.  I realize there are factors out there that are beyond our control, or that we can not always know about or understand.  

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I've been continuing to work at home doing childcare, but recently this month one of my families moved up north, which basically halved my income.  We can technically live off the amount currently coming in.  When we move into the new home, I'm likely to then go without an income at least for the first few weeks while we get settled in.  It's a little scary to think about starting a journey in a new home with a financial question mark, you know?  But, I am keeping the faith that all will be well, and that my financial situation will only be temporary.

I am truly looking forward to starting up pre-school classes again in September - with or without other kids to learn alongside my 4 year old. I'll be focusing on getting him ready for kindergarten, which he basically already IS ready for.  He's already reading simple books and has been learning his days of the week lately.  He can count to 20 (working on 30 next), and knows all his colors, shapes, etc.  This year I want to really work on his writing skills, because he's still pretty clumsy with a pencil.  Other issues I am hoping to iron out this year include his unwillingness to keep his clothes on! He strips them off at least 3 times a day, and it is a constant battle to keep him clothed.  He also is somewhat whiny, which is a difficult trait to break (and I've been trying to break him of it for over a year now).

I'd like to send him off to school with the ability to  a) stay dressed all day   and b) not cry and fuss over every little thing that does not seem to go his way.  

A supervised situation is also very important to me.  I don't agree with the mindset that says kids should just run around like banchees because that's what their interests are.  I don't agree that kids should not have some kind of structure, or that yearly educational goals cannot be set for your kids (rather than letting kids decide every subject they'll learn about that year).  I don't believe that kids should not be held accountable for their actions, such as when they might insult someone else (for example).  I just feel that it is not realistic to teach your children that they can do whatever they like and that the Real World (tm) will never ask them to do things they may not always have interest in doing...or acting in a way they may not care to act.

I am coming from the mindset of a school teacher. Granted, I was a non-conformist teacher, and preferred to use my own curriculum wherever I could.  This translated into me being a non-conformist homeschooler in the sense that I did not want a specific book series or state mandates to tell me exactly what I should be teaching.  At the same time, however, I DO believe certain guidelines should be followed. This is really a gift to our children, because I'd care not to have my kids fall too far behind their same-age peers. Also, I think the guidelines set out (ie. Best practices and yearly Learning Standards) are a nice jumping-off point for homeschooling, even if we use our own pace to get to those goals.

If a child lacks the skills and interest in a certain subject area, why not try to find other ways to introduce the material?  You could approach a desired skill more slowly.  There are a gazillion ways that you could get the same (or very similar) educational goals and subjects introduced if one got creative about it.

When my youngest is old enough for kindergarten, I'll have to make the decision to keep her home or not. Her personality is such that she's very happy quietly humming along at home with 1 or 2 playmates. I may try to keep her home till grade 2, as I did with my oldest, but I guess I'll see how each year progresses.

Well, here's to some new upcoming changes - both in residence as well as in local community.  Perhaps a new locale will reveal more homeschoolers that MIGHT change my mind about sending my son off to school next year. I am willing to keep my mind open about it.