We're officially homeschooling ;)

We did a trial run last year that just did not go well, because there was too much going on (pregnancy, moving, etc.)--not that that stopped Lilly from learning! This year, we are in the full swing of things!

Lilly wanted the full school experience, so we picked her up a backpack and she keeps her dry erase board (the modern slate!) and pencil in it. The rest of the supplies, I keep track of because Naomi is three. Do I really need to explain that?

Gym!

Another homeschooling mom said that one of the things her kids looked forward to was riding on the bus, so we integrated that, too. We pile on the couch (the bus) and the baby drives (Lilly calls her the bus driver for the rest of the school day... we're probably the only place where the phrase, "The bus driver needs mama milk!" has been uttered) while I make bus noises and shake the couch. Then we wait for the "other buses" to let off the kids (I'm usually nursing here) and then we go into the 'classroom' (the dining room, where their desks are).

Naomi plays along, but gets bored and wanders off eventually. Lilly has already tired of some of the school game and we're adjusting as needed (she still loves the bus) to keep learning fun and interesting.

We usually start out with writing, then math and then have recess (which is usually met with protests and requests to keep doing subjects, but I usually need to nurse the baby again at this point, who has been attacking the desks the whole time, fascinated by pencils and crayons). Classes after that vary by day so things don't get boring. So far, only music has been an utter flop. We'll figure it out.

Reading is the exclusive realm of Daddy at this point because Mommy does not have the patience to deal with 20 second pauses between letters while she stares at the ceiling, twirls her pencil, hums, etc. (yet if I try to end the lesson, she gets upset, so it's not boredom, just her attention issues--I can handle them for anything else, but I've always been impatient listening to slow readers--Daddy isn't).

I try to link up the lessons. When science was about birds, we did a bird craft for art and bird and egg were in the spelling lesson. Lilly doesn't like when the school days is over and tends to pester me about what we'll be doing the next day and one of the happiest parts of her day is when Daddy gets home so she can show and tell him about everything she learned that day.

Random facts about our homeschool: We're eclectic, not curriculum. We're secular. We wake up in the afternoon. We don't always do classes in the same order. We do classes six days a week, though one is just dedicated to non-core and reading. We have 2 recesses. Gym got rained out today. My oldest is an audio learner (I was kinesthetic, Daddy was a little bit of everything--Naomi seems to be visual). Kat is nine months old now and taking her first steps, which poses challenges for us all! Sometimes we move from the desk to the couch. I use recess to teach myself guitar and crochet and then share it with the kids.

Do you homeschool? What are some random facts about yours?