Back to life. Back to reality.

Although yesterday was our official first day back to real life after Christmas break, today was our first day without Daddy. The house felt really empty without him. We've kinda gotten used to him being home all day after two weeks. Bella barely left his side the entire time he was at home, and when she found out he was finally returning to work, the tears were almost instant. Heartbreaking. Since I knew munchkin in particular would have a hard time missing her Daddy, I've tried to plan a few fun things for us to do to pass the time.  We started the day dancing to a little Bob Marley (yesterday was salsa music) and after we finish up school we are going to make homemade banana bread. YUMMY!! And just for good measure, after lunch, two of her buddies are coming over for a popcorn and a movie play date. Hopefully all of that will help with the whole Daddy situation.
On the subject of our schooling, we've had a slight change in plans for the math portion this semester. Poor punkin was "blessed" with both her mommy and daddy's pension for math. Seriously, if either one of us had to go back to "math school" we'd both be in the special ed class. It's pathetic really.
After struggling through a semester's worth of addition, my little girl decided that she no longer loved school. She hated it. All because, "those additions are just so hard!" And at 5 years old, we can't have that! So, we have decided to back up. All the way to the beginning. We are starting over in math. For now, no more workbooks drilling addition. We are making math fun again. Math board games. Math coloring sheets. Math computer games. Cooking, measuring, etc. After just two days of this, I can already see a difference in her. She didn't pout or cry this morning. In fact, she informed me that school was starting to be fun again. Music to my ears.

That really is one of the most amazing things about homeschooling-the ability to do what is best for YOUR child, no matter what everyone else is doing. That freedom is both overwhelming and exhilarating. It's easy to get caught up in "following the crowd" or trying to out-do everyone else. It's in those moments I really have to remind myself WHY I chose to homeschool in the first place. I get asked that question a lot. Although I could ramble on and on trying to express why, I will simply share something I found on someone else's blog. These are not my words, but they express my feelings perfectly.

We chose homeschooling so that we could be with her. walk beside her. delight in her new discoveries. We made that choice not because we felt that it was the right one and all the other choices we wrong, but rather because it was the most right for us at the time.
Mainly, we did it to give our family time. Time for being together. Time for exploring our interests. Time for pausing and working on the things that are difficult for us. Time to figure out what it is that pleases us.
What our passions are.
And time to just be still.