I’ll be honest. I entered our first year of homeschooling with a little fear and trepidation. Afterall, I was the mom who rejoiced when my first went off to preschool (not the mom with a tissue and a camera). I was the mom who was counting down the days to daytime empty nesting. As one friend so aptly stated when she found out we were going to homeschool, “Really?!? But Melissa loves her ‘me’ time so much.”
While we entered homeschooling for financial reasons and to be more available for ministry opportunities, we’ve discovered some other delightful effects.
- Decreased Sickness
Call it a coincidence, but we have had the healthiest winter in our family’s 9 year history. I’d like to attribute it to the fact that all the kids (for the most part) are far more rested since I no longer have to wrangle them out of bed like little soldiers every morning. In the past, I could always predict when the sniffles and coughs would turn into full blown illness based on the amount of sleep my crew was not getting. This year, occasional late nights can easily be balanced with occasional late mornings. - Decreased Stress
I didn’t realize how stressed the school schedule made me until its absence this year. I’ll admit last year was a little extreme with 3 daily trips back and forth to drop off, then pick up one, and then pick up the other. We still do a lot of running around this year but it’s more on my terms. Our evenings are also much more relaxed because I’m not stressed about a strict bed time since wake time is more negotiable. - Increased Responsibility
Because I hate chores and because I think it’s good for them, I like relying on little hands to help out. In the past, I always felt a little guilty piling on chores when they already had such limited time at home to just play. With everyone home all day, there’s plenty of time for school and housework and play. - Blurred the Lines Between Education and Life
We’ve always been a family who loves to take full advantage of teachable moments. We love day trips to historical sites and impromptu math and science lessons. I had begun to notice as the kids got older (especially PJ), that he was starting to compartmentalize life. Learning happened at school (and only school) and the rest was supposed to be all fun and games. He was not receptive to turning Saturdays into educational field trip days or cooking into a math lesson or to reading anything but comic books outside of school. With homeschooling, anything can be school and the more efficient we are with weaving school into life, the more time there is to play!
We win!
If you are a homeschooling family, what are your favorite parts?
]]>On a completely different note, I am now the Director of Girl Scout Relations for FIRST Maryland. This will give me a great opportunity to use my gifts, work from home, and help provide for the kids’ tuition next year. Just another reminder of how God always provides. ]]>
First, let me thank you all for your prayers and support. We raised over $10,000. God has provided the rest between our federal adoption tax credit and 2008’s return.
We’ve also been encouraged by all the inquires to when Ty will actually come home!
Our immigrant petition is moving through the National Visa Center and then will go to Seoul. Travel will be shortly after that.
You can find the latest updates at our newly designed blog… http://www.thecorkums.com. I’ve been updating almost daily and will be able to update it during our trip.
There is a RSS feed icon in the lower left corner where you can subscribe to get notified when updates are made.
Many thanks and blessings,
Patrick and Melissa
Oh…we also found out that the Baltimore Adoption Officer for USCIS may have been pulled off adoption cases to work on other stuff. It appears God has much to teach us about using this time wisely
Just for the record, another great Mia quote…
Melissa: Mia, are you tired?
Mia: No, no, no…I’m just stretching my mouth.
We’ve been dealing a lot with irrational fear around here lately too. There are varying theories between Patrick and me as to what the precipitating event was, but that really doesn’t matter since the reality is that our children have become seriously afraid. I remember waking up after bad dreams when I was little and having to pee soooo badly but remaing in bed in agony because I was so paralyzed by fear. This is the kind of afraid our kids have been but I wish they were as hesitant to wake us up as I was to wake up my parents
Last Wednesday, they were both in tears at the dinner table because they couldn’t identify a mysterious sound. They were well aware that the three of us were the only ones home and when I absentmindedly told them I didn’t hear the sound, they freaked out and swore there was a monster in our dining room. Turns out it was the hardware on the buffet wrattling and I was tuning it out. Mia’s practically afraid of her own shadow because, “monters live in the dark.” Oooy vay. Here’s a peak into another conversation about monsters…
Melissa: Mia, there’s no such things as monsters. You have no reason to be afraid.
Mia: But there are such things as mean people that might try to put me in their cars.
So she was listening to our stranger danger talk.
Melissa: You’re right and what would you do if that happened?
Mia: I could bite their wee wee.
Melissa: (supressing uncontrollable laughter) Yes, you do whatever you need to get away.
This went on for sometime, but I’ll spare you the gorey details…and to be honest I don’t remember the exact dictation. This was a good distraction but we were soon back to the irrational fear thing.
Mia: What if mean people come into my room and try to get me?
Melissa: That won’t happen.
Mia: But they could!
Melissa: I’ll lock the house and they don’t have keys.
Mia: (rolling on the floor laughing and chanting) The mean people don’t have keys.
That was finally the thing that convinced her she was safe.
Well this post has already been all over the place so let’s take one more wacky turn.
These are pictures of the kids doing a creative project that I’ve been wanting to do since we saw an example of it at the Boston Children’s Museum. You use pipe cleaners to connect straws. It’s super versatile b/c you can cut the straws to any length. We found coffee stirrers were better because they held the pipe cleaners in place better.
I apologize the pictures aren’t better. The coffee stirrers are just so thin and my kids happen to be working on a not-so-perfect backdrop.
