Freedom

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our house. More importantly, it's beginning to FEEL like Christmas. My goal for the next 25 days is to make each day special in some way, no matter how small. To make sweet memories every day so that our hearts are filled with happiness.

Last night we added to our Christmas home decor and ended up about 2/3 of the way done with the whole project.

I remember being so completely in awe of the way my mom set up our Christmas decorations each year. I thought everything was so amazingly beautiful and it made the season seem that much more magical for me and my brother. It's so funny because my girls do the same thing now that I used to do and I can just see their eyes sparkle and hear the delight in their voices as each Christmas item is awakened from its' year long hibernation to adorn its' own place of honor in our home for the coming month. Their joy brings the magic of Christmas alive once again for me as well.

After decorating we all snuggled up in front of the TV to watch a Christmas DVD

Small One- A boy who has to sell his old donkey friend and ends up finding a perfect owner in Joseph and Mary on their way to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus

Disney Christmas classic at it's finest! Eric and I both loved this cartoon as kids and now our kids enjoy it just as much.

After the mess of Thanksgiving dinner and the proceeding boxes of Christmas items that were brought into the house, all I could think about this morning was getting the rest of that Christmas stuff put out and sending those boxes back into the garage so that I could clean my quite neglected kitchen. It was in the moments of exhaustion last night while staring at the house that was nearing uninhabitable status that I realized that we would not be having any sort of formal schooling on Monday so that I could focus my efforts on cleaning and organizing and running errands.

This is something that I really appreciate about homeschooling- the freedom that it allows our family. We don't have to get up and rush around in the morning to get out the door in time for school. The stress alone that this eliminates is worth the whole effort for me. I do not miss those days in any way. We still get up in the morning at a set time (sometimes a little earlier if the kids wake up hungry), eat breakfast, get dressed and ready for the day, and do a few chores before we start on any school work, and I do try to put everything to a schedule, but it is not a schedule that is not flexible if the need arises. I like that :) In fact, we don't even have to have school on a Monday if we don't want to or if something else comes up. We can double up later or we can do something on Saturday or we can not do anything at all! I mean, really, will it matter in the long run?

Who says learning isn't fun?

The girls enjoy free play with math manipulatives and call them by number and change their names by adding or subtracting cubes from the columns.

The important thing is that my children are learning. They are learning every day. It's true! When you provide an environment of learning and you just get down and play with them, they learn. There are learning opportunities in real life, you simply need to take advantage of them. Learning does not have to be sitting at the table or a desk and doing busy work. Learning should be active and ongoing. That is the life I hope to give my children and I hope that they will know that learning is fun!

One of Alex's favorite things to do is to "play" video games with Daddy.

And a little game time never hurt anybody!

~ Make each day count! ~