10 Things I’ve Learned about Myself

1. I think I have ADD.
I have a difficult time sticking to one topic for very long. I get bored easily. If I plan two weeks to study Ancient Egypt with my children and I get bored after 3 days, we move on. Therefore, I don't spend a lot of time on lesson planning. We go with the flow, or we go with mama's flow. (And, yes, sometimes that means her actual flow, because I think we all know that our lives revolve around that at moments.)

2. I love to learn. 
Who knew learning could be fun? I grew up going to public school. I remember getting butterflies in my stomach when that last day of school rolled around in June, and I knew I could spend the summer watching Card Sharks, $100,000 Pyramid, and the Price Is Right every morning while I clipped coupons for my mom. Now I see summer as an opportunity to be filled with art, educational outdoor play, gardening, swimming, and science experiments. I hope my love to learn is rubbing off on my kids. I think it is. (We do our fair share of TV watching though too. In this century it comes in the form of Netflix. Sadly my kids don't even know what a Whammy is.... or Plinko. That sounds like a good pop culture history lesson to me!)

3. My kids are fun.
I see and hear so many people complain about having to actually raise their children. I had children so I can be with them. They are full of fun conversation, jokes, and amusement. Yes, there are times I wish I could cage them up and have a quiet moment alone to myself on a normal homeschool day, but I'm sure I will have plenty of alone time when they are all out of the house. *Sniff*  For now my occasional escape to my bathroom to indulge in a secret ice cream sandwich will have to suffice.

4. I'm not as organized as I thought I was. 
I was once an organizational junkie. In high school, the clothing in my closet was color coordinated in rainbow order. I also had a diary of every outfit I wore so I would not repeat it within two weeks. (Can you say OCD?) Now I feel lucky if any of my clothing makes it out of the laundry basket and onto a hanger, and I repeat my outfits 3-5 times within the same week. In my early marriage when I put a pair of scissors in my desk they stayed there until I wanted them again. Now I spend 10 minutes looking for a pair of scissors, and sometimes I might find them in the refrigerator cheese drawer or next to the toilet. One decade ago if I wrote a list on a notepad, it didn't get milk spilled all over it. Now I don't even bother writing lists. I'm working on keeping my brain organized so I can keep mental lists. (It's not working.) So, yeah, I blame my kids for my lack of organization and brain power. Maybe one day I can be organized again. I already know that regaining brainpower is hopeless.

5. I don't know much about grammar. 
I'm drilling grammar into my children because I want them to be better than me. Or is it better than I? Or is it better than I am? See? So confusing. I'm learning with them. I feel like my public education didn't pound this in enough.

6. I'm not an early morning person. 
Ok, so I think I already knew that, but homeschooling confirmed it to me. I would love to say we get up at the crack of dawn, finish our math, spelling, and grammar by 8 am, then go on a nature hike, but we don't. Normally we get dressed by 9 am and then go forward with our day. However, as I write this at 12:30 pm 2/3 of my children are still wearing their pajamas because we are claiming today as a 1/2 sick day, 1/2 catch up on Netflix movies that go with the Viking history we've been learning for the past week or so. (A couple of my kids do have coughs and my throat is scratchy, so it's totally legit.)

7. I value freedom more than I realized. 
I was born and raised being taught what a blessing it is to live in a free country. I knew it, but didn't understand it. Now the moment that I feel the tad bit threatened that any of my homeschool freedoms will be taken away, I feel like a mama bear in need of protecting her cubs. I immediately write my congressmen, research the issues to get informed, and prepare to fight the fight. I also think studying American History along with my children has helped me gain an appreciation for America too.

8. I like mythology? 
I've been reading Greek Myths, Roman Myths, Norse Myths to my children this year. I never thought I would enjoy it, but it's actually kind of fun. This is also true for many other topics that I never thought I would enjoy. I think it's all about the atmosphere. Learning things within the comforts of our home without having to worry about a pop quiz or essay to write for everything we read, might actually make learning enjoyable.

9. I'm a great Home Economics teacher.
I teach this a lot. My kids are great cleaners, cooks, sewers (as in seamstresses, quilters, etc.), and shoppers. I think they will do well when they go off to college.

10. I can raise smart, confident, social children.
I admit I was a tad skeptical going into this whole homeschool thing. It was something my husband strongly felt we should do, so I agreed because my husband is generally a wise person. The world will have you think that homeschoolers are social misfits, religious extremists  and will never be normal functioning people in society. Yes, my children are slightly on the nerd side of the coolness spectrum, but I'm ok with that. They have proven to me that they can interact normally with other children, and not just other homeschoolers, but other children who attend public school. I think my kids are fairly normal except for maybe they don't have smart phones and Instagram accounts. They have proven to me that they have faith founded upon Christ, which is the most important thing to me for them to learn. And of course I think my children are geniuses  What parent doesn't? :)

This post was inspired by: