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Today was a monumental day: I let my oldest child drive the car out of the driveway and down to the end of our short street. It took her quite a few tries to get out of the driveway, but once she got going she did fairly well. It's hard to believe she is old enough to start learning how to drive! My how time flies!
In other news, it looks like I have probably lined up my summer job. This is a **HUGE** weight off of my shoulders. With a fairly new house, and my current income somewhat sporadic, I really wanted something that I could count on for the summer - and possibly even longer. The position isn't exactly glorious, but it will hopefully give me the hours I need and a reliable paycheck each week. I just want to find something that will help my husband to do his continuing education and be home in time for him to go to his job so that we hopefully will not need to pay anyone to care for our kids.
The days of having the child who my husband and I take turns caring for during the day are coming to an end...and this is our own decision. This child has some...let's call them 'issues'....that have been sources of frustration for quite some time now. We've hung in there because the child is a good playmate for the kids (particularly my son), but my son will be attending school in September, and so he'll have lots of other friends.
I've touched on this before, but I'll touch a little on why he's not going to be exclusively homeschooled. Firstly, let's start with the fact that there are **NO** homeschoolers in my area with boys his age (or even girls his age, for that matter!). There's ONE boy who lives nearly an hour away - that's simply not enough for my high-energy, very social son. Heck, I have to travel 20 minutes to get even close to a story-time activity at a local library! Of course, that will end in June and so we'll be struggling for activities with other kids over the summer that will not require us to pay lots of money for him to go.
It's really sad to think that the major reason I'm not exclusively homeschooling him is because of the lack of children around here and my unwillingness to burn tons of gasoline to cart him far away for just a few kids. Never fear, however! I will still do enrichment education with him here at home. That's something I also did with my oldest when she decided she wanted to go to public school (for many of the same reasons - she was lonely!!!). I always did summer learning with her, as well as other enrichment activities during the school year.
We provide a very learning-heavy environment in our home - filled with books, educational games and videos, and a focus on learning. Of course, it is at home where my kids get much of their earth-honoring lessons. They'll also learn about gardening, raising chickens and other homesteading skills from their parents (us!)
Everyone "homeschooling" family is different. Some are exclusively homeschooled, some send their kids to school for just a few activities, and the rest of us have some other combination of public school and home learning.
Yes, I still call myself a homeschooling mom.
I do not consider the fact that my kids attend public schools as 'giving up'.
I pull them out of school whenever we have a family fun day, or even just for a mental health day.
Goodness knows being in the public schools can be overstimulating sometimes, and everyone needs a break from what can be an over-structured system.
Whatever works for each family is what should be honored.
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