Why We Choose to Homeschool :: Part one ::

Before I officially decided to homeschool Grant for his Kindergarten year, I made a list.... sort of a pro/con list.  There are some profound reasons as to why we've made this decision for our family, deep and self revealing.

However-
today's post is far from profound.

One quick fire answer as to why we choose to homeschool?

BECAUSE IT'S FUN!!!
Last week Tuesday was an incredibly fun day. 

We are using My Father's World kindergarten cirriculum.  Each week we have a new letter to study with a new theme.  This week's letter is M and the theme is the moon.  So naturally, we took a trip there!

We started our day by creating the 'rocket ship' (dining room table) and we packed our bags full of essentials (snacks and books) and blasted off (watched a YouTube video of a take off!).  The boys loved it. In order to ENTER the space ship, they had to answer some very difficult questions. I needed to make sure they had the proper training.
Tanner's questions:
What is your name? Tanner
What letter does that start with? T
When is your birthday? January 29
Where do you live? Michigan
How can you be like the moon- reflecting Jesus' light to the world? By obeying mommy and daddy

Grant's questions:
What is your full name? Grant Alexander Kalman
What's your address? **** Adams St
What's 2+2? 4
What's 4+4? 8
What's 10+4? (needed a little hint from mom) 14
How can you be like the moon- reflecting Jesus' light to the world?  By sharing our food with people who don't have any

Well done, boys!! You may enter!

 

 

 

 

Grant even made us an oxygen pack so we could leave the space ship and walk around on the moon!!

 

Our view of the earth from the space ship's window

 

 

As if this OUT OF THIS WORLD experience wasn't enough to call it a day.. in the afternoon we went downtown with Grammy to check out some Art Prize exhibits and enjoy the gorgeous weather. 72 degrees and pure sunshine. Doesn't get much better than that!

 

Many people ooohed and aaahed Lucas and Landon (as usual).  I jokingly said to one man "they aren't part of the art". He replied with "too bad- they would have my vote!".  What a dear! Too often I receive comments with more negative undertones (my least favorite "you have your hands full") so I greatly appreciated his positivity!

We are big fans of the hands on art!!

Snack break!

One of Grant's favorites. Obviously we need to plan a trip here soon!

 

Our day was not perfect. No day is. I still did my fair share of referee-ing and timeouts. And we ALL needed naps once done downtown.  But I hope the memories made and experiences enjoyed with my boys will be looked back on by all of us years from now with joy our hearts and knowledge in our brains.

Cake Batter Puppy Chow

Tried (and tweaked) a new recipe today.

Mighty tasty and slightly addictive- you've been warned!
I'm a big fan of sweet and salty snacks (ahem- Kettle Corn doesn't stand a chance in my house) and dumping cake batter into random recipes so this was a total hit for me.

 

Cake Batter Puppy Chow

 

 

Recipe adapted from Chef In Training

6 cups Rice Chex cereal

1 bag (12 oz) semi sweet chocolate chips

1 TBSP milk

1 1/2 cups funfetti cake mix (or WHATEVER kind sounds good- devil's food, butter, french vanilla- embrace the flavor my friend!)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Pour your six cups of chex in a large bowl, set aside. Put the cake mix and powdered sugar in a large ziploc bag. Melt chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Once melted add your milk (give or take the full TBSP depending on how thick your chocolate is) and stir til it's the perfect consistency to stick to those nice little rice squares in the bowl next to you. Pour this perfect milk chocolatey mix into the bowl full of rice squares next to you. Mix until the squares are evenly coated. Now comes the fun part where your kids will be invaluable. Drop all the cereal into that big ziploc bag, SEAL IT, and let your kids (or your inner child) do the twist! Shake, rattle and roll! Get jiggy with it! (I totally just aged myself there- I'm embracing it). After you have shimmied to your heart's content - pour the mix on some wax paper. Give it a chance to recover from the vicious beating it just received then store in an air tight container. And beware- it's entirely possible to eat the whole batch in one sitting.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na!

Embracing the sugar-

Melissa

Welcome to my new blog friends! A very warm welcome to you.
I know how life is crazy busy. I-for sure- know. That you have landed at ETR and are willing to spend some of your own precious time here means the world to me!

I am a firm believer that life is a journey (I even have the word 'journey' (NOT the band...) tattooed on my body as proof and a reminder). It's about growing and changing and adapting and relating and staying the same and trying and living and breathing and failing and trying again. Add in DAILY   copious amounts of coffee, endless loads of laundry, countless diaper changes and you've got a glimpse into my life. Honestly-I would not want it any other way. We are ALL on such a journey. Each looks a little different from the rest. Each has it's own unique hiccups and heartache.

This journey is our race. Not like - let's run as fast as we can so it can be over as quickly as possible-kind of race. But a marathon that requires loads of training and support. It cannot be done on our own. We are meant to run the race together which is why I am here at ETR attempting to put into words how I will embrace this race. I want to be the type of wife, mother, friend, teacher, mentor that embraces the divine in the daily, hope in the hopeless, mess in the madness (You mean I can embrace the mess that IS my kitchen?! Utterly liberating!) and joy on the journey. I hope when you read some of these ramblings you will be inspired to embrace YOUR race- all of it- the good, the bad, the every day.

Embracing this race- Melissa