Originally written October 5, 2020

I now have 10 weeks of homeschooling under my belt. Now that public schools are all back in business it feels so much more real. For example, when my kids were in public school they would get out at 3:15 and we’d often hit up the library which was right next to another elementary school that got out at 3:45. I used to make sure we hurried so that we could grab some materials and get out before the school traffic hit. So the other day I told the kids we had to watch out for that traffic. Then I realized it was 1:00 in the afternoon! Hooray for homeschool perks.

Another time was when my co-op group rented a gym during the day and let all of our kiddos run around and play dodge ball and nerf war. That was definitely a homeschool perk.

On Ezie’s birthday last week we got to visit an apple orchard and a pizza and icecream place that you would typically have to wait an hour or more to get into. We went during the day on a week day and there was NO line at all.

 

Even though I have shared about all of the plusses and fun times, I want to be honest that there is still plenty of head butting and push back when it comes to really putting in 100% and doing the hard work.

All in all I would call our first 10 weeks of homeschool a success. Here are some more highlights from the past month.

We finished reading the book “Charlie & Frog” by Karen Kane. It had a lot of sign language included in the story. Part of our family homeschool lessons is ASL, so that was really neat.

We also did video book reviews for what each of the kids read individually. I posted the videos on Instagram stories. If you have an account and would like to follow me I’m @messymom.

We learned about Patriot Day, as shown on the chalkboard. That was a tough lesson, but an important one. We also did science lessons like the power of air molecules shown through the balloon and a toy car.

One of my FAVORITE lessons was a study on the Constitution which we celebrated on September 17th (Constitution Day). We camped out on this topic for a week, reading books and watching a video about the Constitution and even making our own quill pens using our very own chicken feathers. 

One week we focused on handwriting using a curriculum borrowed from a friend in our co-op.

Going to the park in the middle of the day with your grandparents is another homeschool perk!

All that and playing outside with the chickens and lots of leaves made for a wonderful September. We are looking forward to even more fall weather and fall fun!