Some Explaining to do

*** I have written this post very long ago, but never clicked the publish button, don't know why!


Firstly, most of my friends and family knows why we have been so quiet lately. No pictures, no projects, no blogging. Well, the short explanation is that I had some health problems, but because we have been AWOL for so long, let me give you some detail... In the beginning of March my appendix decided it wanted out! So we ruched to hospital on a Sunny Thursday morning and by ten that evening, it was all over and done with and I only had to take a couple of days to heal. However I have found that the healing didn't go as quickly as I wanted and a week later I was feeling very poorly, but decided to wait for the 14 day appointment to see the doctor. Well, this time it was a sunny Thursday afternoon as well. When the doctor was finished listening to my symptoms, he said that we should do a CT scan of the lungs immediately. He tried to downplay it, but somehow I knew this was serious. It turned out that I had Pulmonary Embolisms - which is a big word for blood clots through both my lungs! The following day I also found out that I had a DVT - blood clot in my leg. So, I stayed in hospital for a week, drinking Warfarin and injecting in order to thin my blood. I read up about my condition and found that I was indeed very "lucky" to still be alive - it could just as well have been fatal. It scared me and still do....
Two weeks later I went to see the doctor on a - you guessed it! - sunny Thursday afternoon. It was my third doctors visit, on a Thursday, wearing my green top and before I knew it, I was back in hospital for my third CT scan. This time for the headaches/migraines I was getting (supposedly) from my medication. But first we had to rule out anything sinister. Luckily that Friday night I was released from hospital.

So, all of March and half of April no schooling happened. I was concerned about it, even worried that my kids are "not learning anything". My husband assured me that they were always learning through reading and playing. Also, that school was not the most important thing at the moment, but their mother's health. However, being a Mother and it being our first home school year, I did not stop worrying about my children especially being pummeled with questions and accusations every time someone (nursing staff at first) asked me in which school was my children. I also experienced first hand the misinformation (if any) people have regarding homeschooling and the preconceived ideas about me as a homeschooling mom.

Homeschoolers around the world will nod their heads when they hear me rehashing these questions. The favourite of course is the socialization question.  Now, in all honesty, this year has not gone as planned and that includes making time for social events and visiting friends.  To the point that both my kids have not had their Birthday parties and they had their birthdays in the beginning of March and April!!
However. The homeschooling community here is VERY busy, and you have to pick and choose your outings very carefully, or you won't get any other schooling done. There is definitely no shortage of socializing opportunities. My kids also each have their best friend, whom they visit often and a few other friends whom we visit too.
Then again, they have no problems playing with kids at the kid-friendly Restaurant, or friends birthday parties. They do not seem odd or out of place.

How do you TEACH them. People think you are standing in front of your "classroom" giving a lesson. They do not see that one can teach your child while sitting next to him in any room in the house. But how do you teach BOTH kids of different ages at the same time? Well if it is history or biology we use the one schoolhouse approach, where the same lesson is presented to both age-groups and they give account of what they have learned through different ways depending on their ages.
When it is Languages of Maths, one gets put to work while the other is busy doing something else and visa versa.

Now, my favourite. You probably have the most patience ever! NO, I don't. You probably never shout at your children. YES, I do - I'm only human.
It doesn't happen every day, but at times things get too much for either one of us. Sometimes we are both in tears.

Well, do you see it as a job? Don't you miss having free time? Don't you want to pursue something else in your life, that you really want to do?

Yes, this is my job. It is something we contemplated doing when my oldest were just a baby. Sometimes I see it as a calling, but most of the time, for us, it is what was needed to be done when we had to change the situation we were in.  It is difficult and it is a joy, to name just two of a myriad of things homeschooling is.
Of course I have other interest, but for now, they will stay a hobby, because homeschooling my kids won't last forever and it is the most important job (next to being their Mom) that I have ever had the privilege to do. 

Nine month training coming to an end

When I started off with Home schooling in the beginning of the year, I was feeling very overwhelmed. Phoning my curriculum provider with a lot of questions and getting answers to them, I also got a very good piece of advice, that, might I admit, didn't remember most times. The advice was this: Go to your calendar and circle the date nine months from now. Mark it as Day ONE. - that is how long it takes to find your feet.
I'm six weeks away from that date. I should have remembered those words more often and stressed less,  relaxed more and have more fun.
However, we have settled into a routine. Some days are harder than others, while there are days we just breeze through. The kids are less reluctant and with a few changes we made to our Study, it is easier to  communicate better and work gets done faster. (Can you imagine that changing around furniture can accomplish that?!)

I was staring at that date, and I was thinking.... What if? What if we just have a "vacation" for the rest of the year? (My kids already think that we have been on holiday since the beginning of the year. Well, my 7 year old is convinced of it (and she is my most eager student)!)  What if I do not use the lesson plans from the curriculum and just read whatever the kids choose from the books we got from the curriculum providers. My children love those books, but could we not make it even more informal than we do now? What if we did not write a report on everything? What if we don't learn about "voornaamwoorde", prepositions, verbs, etc, for the next couple of months and just read, read, read as much as we can? What if Maths didn't come from a textbook?  What if we spend hours and hours drawing, doing crafts, painting?
Just until DAY ONE - 5 November 2012?

Then my son came to me this morning, telling me a story of his schooldays where he got bullied once again. (Sometimes he gives me some insight into those days, but I suspect we will never know how bad it was.)  My heart cringed. It dawned on me that he never talks about Spelling, Mathematics or any of the subjects he learned. Although he struggled through his schooldays because he couldn't manage the pace and that was the number one reason we decided to Homeschool. The bullying came a very close second.
I wondered what he would remember of his time being Home schooled? He will certainly remember facts and such, but will he remember it as fun and interesting, or dull and boring?

So, what if we threw caution to the wind for a short while? Will it undo all the 'training' that we have done up until now?


***After writing this blog, my kids reported to me that they DO like to be homeschooled!! My son said it is MUCH better than school. "There is no bullying!" "Schoolwork is also a lot better!" "The books are a lot better" - My son was interviewed (more like interrogated) by my daughter***

On the Playground

It has been five months since our last entry. We joyfully received our curriculum and started unpacking our books and started out with our work. We wanted to start out as soon as possible exploring every subject.
 Homeschooling for us is part necessity and part calling. The ratio it about 70:30. So, I do not have the same convictions others might have to do this. But I had my ideas of what I wanted it to be for my kids and myself. We were going to spend time having fun and learning, while building a strong relationship between everyone in the family.
Soon I discovered this was not at all what I expected. We started with the disciplined studies and while the Dené flourished, Ryan struggled. We just started getting into some sort of frustrating rhythm, when all hell broke lose in our family with me going into hospital with appendicitis. From there on end it has been disastrous. I came home from hospital and tried to do some schooling from my "sickbed". It didn't work - for them or for me. Then two weeks in, I was back in hospital with a pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. After a week in hospital, I came back home with the doctors orders to keep it calm and not move to much until my blood work was where it should be. Two weeks later, I was back for a two day stint in hospital. I came home so tired it felt like life was sucked out of me. I had nothing left for anything, much less schooling my kids.
However, we tried. Still frustrated and unhappy. I cried many times to my husband. Is this what I should do? How come it is so difficult? Why am I not getting it right? I'm seriously missing something in my approach!
I know we cannot go back. It is not an option. We cannot go to the special school for learning disabilities for Ryan and I refuse to put him back into the state school he was in the first three school years of his life. Especially not when hearing the horror stories from the moms about the current teacher!!
Like with all things there are highlights or in my case, glimpses of light. Yes, we had those and still do.
But after all the struggles, we decided that our school year will go from the 7th of May to the 7th of May. ( The luxury of homeshooling (-: !)
So in this month it has been like being on the playground, stuck on the see-saw, mostly with no-one to counter weight so that you can go up!
Well, when you are down, there is only one way you can go, and that is up - eventually. Well, today was a up day - just in time, I tell you. Cause I'm honest, yesterday I was going to throw in the towel...

Some of today's success

I don't want to come over negative, but rather be honest about my struggle in ensuring my kids get the best education I can offer them while not wanting to commit homicide in the process. I like things calm and peaceful - stress and anxiety are just not my friends, and I do not want my kids to experience those emotions. 
In one of the blogs I read, someone said that some of us are just limping along because of various reasons. I've been limping long enough.
I know we are still in the very beginning of our journey and there is still so much to learn, take in and experience. I hope that we can grow in our willingness, enthusiasm and the joy of learning.
I want to make this work for me as much as for my children. They deserve to be as happy in their homeschooling as they are in their home. (Sometimes you can separate the two)

Maybe there is someone who have been feeling this way - you are not alone. Maybe you are one of the HS moms who has more ups than downs - we need your wisdom. Maybe you are still balancing the act - we your encouragement.

Box day!

Hurray! Hurray! It is box day!!

Well technically speaking - yesterday was box day. We were rather surprised at the arrival of the books on Monday, as we were told it would be here on Wednesday. My house was in turmoil as they were trying to fix the new air conditioner that started leaking last week. It was Monday- that should say it all... weekend dishes and such cluttering the kitchen and the dining room table was packed with anything but the kitchen sink. So, as the books arrived, we had to speed clean at least the dining room, which were also invaded by my living room furniture. In a few minutes everything was ready to be documented. (well, almost!)


So, here is a photo collection of the event.

Dené cannot wait for us to open them up

Ryan awaiting the rest of the boxes

A joy to see!

Yeay! Box day!

A bookcase full of books!!

Now for some more preperation (not too much though) and then start our "formal" homeschooling.

Waiting in the wings

We have been quite the busy bees in the past few weeks. So many changes. While homeschooling was at the top of our list, there were some practical things that needed to get done to make it a more pleasant experience. Firstly we had to fix the lighting in our study - only half of it was lit and it left little king Ryan without light at his workplace. We were also melting away in our "cave" as it has no draft and the opening to the garage left us with more sweltering heat in it than we could tolerate. So, in with the air-conditioning!! We now have a cool (sometimes too cold for the kids, while perfect for the Mommy), well lit un-cavelike working place for the three of us.

We have went to a homeschool/learning styles seminar and personal session profiling the kids and our learning and operating styles, so that homeschooling be more relaxed and that we can have greater understanding for each other. My husband and I both realised that we were unknowingly doing many things right, including having plans in line with our kids strong points. We have changed our own minds on how we saw and approached things in the past few months since deciding to homeschool. While in the beginning I was really very stressed out and fretting about everything that lay ahead, I was now becoming more relaxed and hopeful about the future. These sessions only enforced that feeling and gave us some more perspective and security in our decision.

working

In the meantime we also attempted homeschooling. I say attempted, because we didn't have any curriculum or real plan as we are still awaiting our box day :) We went on outings, picnics and made lapbooks, did maths, reading, spelling, some gardening(also known as nature studies), painting and drawing.  We learned, laughed, played and yes, we fought. Sometimes finding ones feet and setting right the "pecking order" so to speak is hard and while it has been fun, these couple of weeks has been trying. Tiring. Frustrating. Hard work.

Epic battle ... this one was for fun ;)

Well, as you can see, when waiting for something, we do not do so idly.  Before I leave, I leave you with some pics of our Lapbooks...