Not back to (brick and mortar) school!

   It's almost like I've lost control of my life these days...  Definitely not as I had envisioned my homeschool days to be.  I'm constantly bombarded with music lesson and babysitting requests (blessing and curse) and with Beans' dad out of work, I feel like I can't refuse.  Out of the house, for 6 to 10 hrs a day, focusing on children that are not mine, love them yes, but still..not mine.  Ever had that feeling of an all consuming brainfuzz? Completely numb? Vacant shell?  It's almost like my soul is having a tantrum.  But then, I get to reunite with her:)  And it's all better.  We aren't focusing on any unit studies yet really, but I have some ideas. So far..

     I love how Beans decided to draw a sun for sunny and everything she loves about Downtown Tampa instead of writing the words.

                                               Parachute time with homeschool friends!

                                                  Beans being beans!

  We've also started a great pen pal web with her friends.  She is loving this!

Summer is here...

   Which means a lot to someone who experienced sending their child to school for the first time.  Beans attended a VPK program at a small Montessori school and it was a pretty cool experience.  She made lots of buddies and loved her teachers. They had great materials and I was able to be in the class any time I felt like.   I did find a few things questionable in their manner of disciplining and the way some of the material was presented but Beans and I would just discuss it later. Example: Her assembled book of Antarctica had pictures of polar bears.  In a parallel universe there may be polar bears in Antarctica. In our universe, pretty much just penguins and seals. And more curious was their reaction when I thought I was just (hopefully) politely reminding them that there were no polar bears in Antarctica. "What? Really? But it's in all our materials!" says Director. Me: Silence and awkward smile hoping I didn't come across as some sort of smartass.  I do sort of think Beans may have been pushed a little much to do things she wasn't quite ready for like double digit addition in Pre k. In turn, causing her to sort of hate math now when she used to love it.  So, I would say I'm glad it is over.  But there is some good news!  I am now their official Kindermusik educator and teach the wonderful kiddos there every week and Beans still gets to see a lot of her friends! But yeah, glad to have her all to myself again.