Thoughts on our first term

Friday will be the last day of our first term homeschooling. It has gone quickly and I have some observations I wanted to make note of:

It's been more natural to homeschool than I thought it would be. This could be because I had spent so much time preparing and knowing what our days were planned out to be but it hasn't been weird or forced. I realize that when other moms tell me, "I could never do that..."  (referring to homeschooling) they think that homeschooling is on a different level than what we as moms do everyday. And it is- kind of. But the truth is that we are constantly teaching our children. And don't we, as mothers, teach our children about prayer, about God, how to write their name, how to count, have good table manners, tie their shoes, brush their teeth, how to get dressed, pick up their toys, etc? Don't we These mothers who say they couldn't do it don't give themselves enough credit. I was one of those mothers who never envisioned myself homeschooling but like I said, I have found it to be more natural than I thought. It's an extension of the teaching that we already do every day... just different subjects in an intentional manner!

Relationships have gotten better, not more strained. The other statement that is always followed by "I could never do that" is "I couldn't handle being with my kids all day" or "My kids would drive me nuts." Ha! Of course they drive me nuts! But the irony is that the more time I have spent with them, the better we are getting along. Before I decided to start homeschooling, one of my hesitations was that I already felt strain in one of the relationships with my kids. I thought that the decision to homeschool might hinder progress in our relationship instead of help.  The fact is, homeschooling has actually helped our relationship. I am not sure why other than the fact that we understand each other better now and have more in common. I really think she enjoys the family time together and appreciates the new learning atmosphere. She enjoys the connection with me as a mom, and as a teacher and we can appreciate the new relationship we have.

Sibling relationships are stronger. This is what I thought might happen and I am happy to say that things are improving. Don't get me wrong... it isn't all lovey-dovey around here (my kids still fight!) but the tone is definitely different than last year between the older girls. They appreciate each other more since they don't have a ton of friends to fall back on, and they get along better since they have more in common. This last point is huge.  I could sense a slight rift happening last year and a general lack of appreciation for the other sister, since they had friends at school and they were each doing their own thing (somewhat of a competition). Overall, they are more kind and thoughtful to each other and it is an improvement over previous years when they were away at school. 

Their capacity to learn and memorize is quite amazing. I am amazed at how quickly they can memorize and retain the memory work. We are two verses away from having Proverbs 3 memorized and I am so thankful we have this opportunity to do it together, the three of us. It is so much harder to try and do it during dinner time as a family since it obviously isn't the best learning environment but that's what we were trying to do when they were in regular school. But to have a regular part of our day be memory work is a blessing. They have also memorized two poems each and we are working on our third hymn being memorized (all verses!). Also, their desire to learn has grown since we have more freedom to learn and study what they want. "Education is an atmosphere", as Charlotte Mason says, and now I can see the wisdom in this statement after just a few short weeks of trying to give them that atmosphere. I hope to continue to give them resources that will encourage this learning and create an even better atmosphere of learning than we currently have, though I need to think through how.