Reflections on First Week of Homeschooling

Sophia and I just completed our first full week of homeschooling. (We did a few days together the week before to start us off.) BOY - do I feel good! I can hardly believe it. Ever since Sophia was born we knew we would like to educate our kids at home. I admit that during the last five years I was usually happy to know it was still in the future. I was a little - okay, a lot - apprehensive about how it would go, or even IF I could actually do it. I guess I'm feeling very empowered as both a woman and a mother. Another way to describe it - I'm finally feeling like I've arrived at my vocation. You might call this the homeschool honeymoon!

My days have been spent doing school with Sophia in the morning (most days - some days we had activities, so we did school in the afternoon) and doing the household chores in the afternoon. Now, my kitchen wasn't very clean every single day, but we did manage to do laundry, pick up toys, and vacuum.

Some of the fun things we did this week include celebrating the Blessed Virgin Mary's Birthday on Monday, September 8th. We talked alot about it, read some stories about Mary, found a beautiful picture in our Art book titled, The Virgin, and made a chocolate cake to celebrate. On Thursday, we marked Patriot's Day by attending a homeschool group function at the National Guard Armory. We watched the guardsmen fold a flag, listened to some AMVET volunteers, and had a chance to visit (and run around) with other homeschool families.

Sophia also really enjoyed our "letter play" on Thursday and Friday. She wrote letters and numbers in shaving cream on a plastic place mat at the table. What could be more fun!
The drawback from all this very fulfilling busy-ness is that I have had very little time to talk to my sister and mother on the phone, as is our want, or spent much time on the PC, which is actually pretty good.

Now, not every single moment has been picture perfect, but we are developing our rhythm together as teacher and student. I have heard people say that homeschooling draws families together. I can attest to that after our first week. I already feel so much closer to Sophia through sharing these meaningful moments together.

So, one week down, only 11.95 years to go!