Home schooling ~ 2 years on!

Last April marked the milestone of 2 years of officially being a home schooling family here at Sunnyside (oh yeah - this may be a tad overdue).  As we look back at the difficult decision we made those couple of  years ago, we can only be so thankful that God has lead us down this path.  We still maintain that home schooling has been one of our best parenting decisions & it's now that we are seeing some of the fruit of this path.  We enjoy such close relationships with our children - & we love teaching them about the Lord each & every day.  

Devotions is still my favorite time of our school day - I love the chance to share God's word with our children - I love discussing God's views with them & I even love sharing with them when it's hard - being vulnerable before them so they can see what it's like to be human, but a Christian.  I don't think anyone should pretend to be perfect (although I struggle with this) - after all let's face it the children know the truth - they see you at your best & at your worst.  They know more than you can imagine & they are so perceptive.  I think being completely honest with them  through struggles is important.

We tend to keep our home schooling day pretty scheduled & I know I haven't shown you  my MOTH schedule this year, but it is wonderful & has been working well.  I've been much more structured with the twins as well ~ slowly preparing them for next year when they must officially begin their education (sob, sob - where has the time gone?) .  The twins enjoy table time, preschool, quiet play, computer time & story time each day.  They took a while to adapt to this, but they enjoy the routine now.  I am slowly bringing more & more kindergarten work into their day with the hope that it will be a much easier year next year than I'm expecting.

Both Zai & Ellie have really blossomed with their achievements.  It is wonderful to see them striving to fulfil the requirements (& even exceed them in some areas).  It is great to see them working so hard & the amount of work they are completing.  I will admit that the program we use  has been a little work heavy (actually a whole lot work heavy - I thought I was drowning in work by the end of last term), but we still love it & I love the fact that we can give our feedback & they try to rectify the issue.  This is a new program, so it is in the experimental stages - although from what we hear, the NSW education board is very, very happy with it - as are we!

We still attend our home school group each month & it's such a breath of fresh air to sit around & chat to other like-minded mothers.  We've been able to make some wonderful friends there!  It has also been great to meet some more local home schooling mothers which makes you feel a whole lot less alone on this path (can you believe I met one lady who uses the same program we do who lives only 10 minutes away!!)!

All in all although home schooling isn't the easiest option for us, it is definitely the best  - in fact I count it as one of the joys of my life that I have the privilege of staying home with these beautiful blessings from the Lord each day & teaching them & learning alongside them as well!

Thank you God!

We've been a tad busy lately - this picture was taken a few weeks ago - we have even more now, but we are loving taking care of these precious little lambs - I will get back to normal blogging soon, but in the meantime I'm enjoying loving, wooly cuddles, the adoration that only a flock that thinks your their mother can give you & late night feedings :)

Hope today finds you counting your blessings too