No education is perfect.  No matter where you send your kids to school or if you do it yourself it will never be perfect.  Georgia goes to public school and we really like her school, they seriously kill it with math.  Honestly, if I still homeschooled we would mostly be doing history, geography, and reading...math and science just don't do it for me.  Anyway, I'm trying to emphasize some things (in a super casual way) here at home.  

I drew up this little sheet and had some copies made before I filled it out.  I chose some areas that I wanted to focus on and went from there.

Here is a terrible picture of it filled in.  I tried to make the trait, verse, and historical figure all go together.  This was her first sheet so I picked some easy words and an easy verse so get her on board with it.  She's not super excited about it but she doesn't hate it either.

I went through books we already had that touched on the topics I had selected.

Before school started I did another little "dig deeper" session with G.  I told her to pick anything out of any of her books and we would dig a little deeper to see what we could find out.

Milam is also getting in on the fun.  We are doing the colors red and blue, the numbers one and two, and working are drawing circles.

Houston Ballet Field Trip

Two of my sweetest favorite friends are home school moms.  Our three families combined have five girls (no boys) and three of them are three years old.  So, it's a really fun group and we do A LOT together and our girls just love each other.  The oldest of the group actually only calls Georgia, "Georgia Peach" or "Peachy" and last week gave her a BFF necklace.  It's the sweetest thing watching Georgia grow as a friend.

(One of the moms does not want pictures of her kids online so the pictures I post on here will be limited which is totally fine.  I just didn't want readers to think I ONLY take pictures of Georgia by herself without her friends.)

Our group last week went to visit the Houston Ballet Academy for a behind the scenes tour.  The girls loved it and it was a great end cap on our first ever home school unit: Ballet.  Jonathan planned the entire thing actually and went with all of us ladies.  We had a great time.  

We saw the male ballerinas practicing as well as the females.  Some as young as 13 live on the campus in dorms full time.  Mind blowing.  We met two 16 year old boys and they were very sweet.

We also got to see where they make and store all the costumes and their shoe room.  Amazing.

Afterwards we went to a burrito place that had a playground and outdoor seating.  Could not have been more perfect with last week's weather.

Our Week{end}

So, this is me looking back at my Instagram account and wondering where my week went ;)

AND, I didn't proof this post...just a heads up!

We tried to enjoy the warmer weather while it lasted.

Had another usual week of home school.

We went to get Georgia her passport application.  Jonathan and I have been able to travel more lately because of his work schedule but we don't usually take Georgia with us.  I'll be honest.  I like to travel without her.  But, this year our family vacation is to Mexico instead of our normal Gulf Shores, AL.

Before ballet Georgia showed me her "perfect ballerina pose"

My brother brought his lady friend over for dinner.  Too bad our power went out.  The estimated time to come back on was 7pm...too bad it came back on at midnight.  So, we decided to go out to eat instead.  They did bring us dessert, wine, flowers, and two gifts for G so that was super nice.

Our weekend was quite the opposite of relaxing.  Actually, we didn't really get in that much fun or relaxing at all.  

On Friday Georgia was diagnosed with the flu (type A this time around) after she just had it this same time last month.  The dr said that is possible because there are so many strains.  Like, I'll ever pay for a flu shot again.  Not likely.  But, this flu was less severe than the first bout and it lasted less than 48 hours (which is how long her first case lasted).  No tamiflu.  Just Advil and a lot of Essential Oils.

Then, on Saturday I woke up feeling pretty yucky so J let me stay in bed most of the day and rest.  Saturday night and Sunday morning were even worse so again, I stayed it bed.  I never had a fever though so I'm thinking it's just a cold or allergies and not the flu.  So the two pictures below sum up my Saturday.  Meals in bed and a really messy room!

Jonathan and Georgia played the days away and planted a garden (and planted grape vines a few weeks ago) while I vegged in bed watching Friends all day.  I also had a lot of time to stare at our house and contemplate the time and energy it will take to finish our remodel.  I also started planning a lot of vacations in my head.  I was mentally spending a lot of money ;)  We did miss a birthday party (which I hate) and another party was cancelled because the birthday boy got the flu as well.  It's so bad in our area right now.

All of it just really stinks because as a new home school mom I SO value the time Jonathan is at home and I feel like I didn't get to maximize that.  Life happens I guess.

So, today is back to reality for me.  Busy Busy!  Although we're missing MOPS at church and I'm missing The Bachelor at girl's night :( :(  I don't think we're contagious but I just want to give it an extra day.  I loathe people who go out and about and are sick.

Homeschool Week One (And, a peek into our room)

In short:  

Did it go as well as I thought it would?  No

Did we have fun?  Yes!

Did we both enjoy it?  Yes!

Am I glad we're doing it?  Yes!

Was it easy?  No

First, here is a small peek into our homeschool area.

This month our theme is ballet.  She's really enjoying it and so am I.  I'm using two ballet packs from Here and Here.  I made a few things for her myself and her handwriting book is from May Designs.

Why We Are *Trying* Home school

Georgia went to school three days a week but when school starts again after Christmas break she isn't going back.

First, let me say it IS NOT her preschool that is causing me to make this choice.  It's actually her preschool that is making this decision so SO hard.  We LOVE her teachers.

But, I'm not in love with public school in general (any where) even though she's zoned to the best one in our area.  And, home school is something Jonathan, Georgia, and I are all three interested in.  (Jonathan's sister has always home schooled her boys.  The oldest is in 3rd grade.)  I'm a certified teacher and Jonathan is a certified teacher, assistant principal, and has a masters in education so it's something we take very seriously at our house.

So, we want to give home school a TRY.  I say try because I don't know how Georgia will react to it having been in school already, I don't know how I will react to it having no time to myself, I don't know how our family will handle it in that the three of us will have to be in a different routine and with my photography business taking off time is a big struggle.

I do not think she will go back to preschool unless she flips out...just totally loses it about not being at school anymore.  If that's the case back she will go.  I can't do a battle of the wills of that magnitude everyday.

So, the plan is home school the rest of this year and if any of us hate it then back she goes.  Hopefully we can at least make it through preK 4 and if any of us just don't like it anymore she will go back to public/private school at the Kinder level.  But, if we like it we're just going to keep on at a year to year level/basis.

Here are the struggles we are facing with home school:

My confidence in teaching.  How she handles me as her teacher.

Being OK with "failing".  She won't fail academically but I may have to face that home school won't work for us...it might.  It might not.  I have to be realistic about it.  

No matter which choice we make I don't want her to have an OK or sub par education

I do have a more detailed post on this topic but I will wait for another time to delve into it.  Please leave any thoughts, comments, or encouragement!