School Days, School Days...

We are finally in to my favorite time of year...Fall! I just love it and cannot get enough of the cooler temperatures, the beautiful colors, the crunching leaves... My boys have loved being outside for bike rides and lots of walks, too!

We are in a great rhythm with our schooling which is an awesome blessing! Our days are full of so much learning, exploring, reading, and the like. Our current unit is on the moon and Aidan is so completely taken with the concept, he is currently planning his first flight to the moon. :) I have found that I love My Father's World curriculum (I wasn't to sure at first). It encompasses so many interesting ways of learning; classical education, Charlotte Mason, and Montessori, that it gives such great variety. Aidan loves all of the subjects, but his favorites have to be Bible and Science which really go hand in hand.

Now that we are well in to our fall term, I get many questions when we are out in public about why my 5 year old isn't in school. I save my long explanation for someone other than the Target check out lady and Aidan is usually quick to respond that he IS indeed in school...Skeens Academy specifically. :) The long and short of our decision to homeschool is this: I firmly believe that with proper prayer and planning, I can create the best environment for my son to learn. He is healthy, happy and thriving learning at home. My husband and I see no reason to disrupt that just because it is the norm to send your child to kindergarten when he is of the appropriate age. I have had to restructure my thinking on what learning really is. Sitting in a desk doing seat work isn't the only way to learn. Children, especially little boys, need to be learning by DOING. By playing, by exploring, touching, and moving. Seat work and following directions are certainly important components of learning, but not the most at this age. We make it a goal to engage Aidan's brain in every day activities...while eating breakfast, while playing with Legos, while we are at the store, etc... He is the greatest little problem solver because we have allowed him to use that God given mind and THINK through choices and situations in his day. I usually get the "socialization" card as well, but after a person meets my son, that card is quickly chucked out the window. Aidan knows no stranger and is very comfortable in most all social settings. He is very independent and a natural leader. It is my job to sit back and watch him grow into the young man God has for him to be. Along the way, we help mold and instruct him according to the word of God. I am so privileged and blessed to do life with these 3 little men. Being Aidan's teacher has just added to that blessing every single day! So, in a nutshell, that's why I educate at home! Some understand it and support it, others never will. An important lesson I am learning along the way is that you cannot please everyone or make others understand you. That used to bother me so much (natural born people pleaser). But God is showing me that the relationships of those closest to me, my family and few friends, are the ones that I need to nurture. Making others understand me is a time and energy waster! So, with His grace and mercy heaped on me daily, I am enjoying my new role as K5 teacher to my little classroom of one.