Homeschooling is more...

Homeschoolin' is more...

than readin', writin', and 'rithmetic. Or at least that's what I believe.   So when I'm teaching them to clean a bathroom, or helping them to do their laundry, I believe it's all school to them.  They don't take tests, except I guess you may call it a test when I let them try their laundry for the first time alone. 

Come to think of it, I should have a curriculum for their "schooling".  Tractorman would start at the beginning with learning to tie his shoes, and other things that preschoolers learn.   Jules can learn to make her bed neatly, and so on.  But generally our housekeeping schooling is low key.  Sometimes I have a schedule of who works where and sometimes we all just work together. 

Making bread, my second son does well at that, is something else that would be good to learn.  Don't get me wrong, I don't expect that they'll be making bread long into their married/bachelor lives, but cooking from a recipe offers lots of valuable lessons - math enters here, but patience, and focus (don't get side-tracked or you may forget where you were) as well.  It's hard to focus in our house.  There is always something fun going on that's more interesting than making bread or school.

Learning to care for animals is another thing on our list and we have to get better at that.  Some days we forget (now that it's cold) that the water freezes and the chickens won't have water if we don't get out there.  Thankfully, it thawed out yesterday or we would be sunk.  Sharpie does well with this ever since he got ducks for his thirteenth birthday.

Also I have been spending some time in the shop working with wood.  I can only run out there during nap time for 10 minutes or so while the babies sleep, but I'm working on a project out there.  In this case, mother is the one learning from the kids.  Jones is good with Dad's tools.  Yesterday I struggled for awhile trying to drill a hole in some cedar (which is actually in the juniper family). 

When Carpenter called to tell me he was on his way home, I told him about the bit smoking and how it couldn't drill a hole at all.  We hadn't had this trouble drilling holes to hang the curtains in the little kids' rooms.  I told him I need some help before I can continue this project and if he could help me tonight that would be great.

When he got home, he whispered in my ear, "That was a masonry bit you were trying to use."  Not knowing anything at all, I said, "Well, that's silly, if it can go through cement, it sure should be able to go through wood."  "Honey, masonry bits are dull, and don't drill, they just go in and out to pound out the cement."  O.k. so even Mom learned something that Jones didn't know yet either. 

Remember that if you aren't homeschooling your children, you still get to teach them all about the areas the schools don't teach.  I must remember that instead of maybe an hour in the afternoon to teach my kids, I get the whole day for some of them.

Making the most of today,
Steph

I must add a note that we use a homeschooling curriculum and we usually finish a lesson a day.  So we do the school stuff too.  Just in case anyone was wondering if we do a non-school type thing.