Snow Day Activity: Baking Apple Pies

We used spelt flour in place of white and honey in place of white sugar. The kids are used to it, so they won't know the difference. Shhh....;-)

Having children at home and in full time school has been very, very tough. {I may or may not have been caught muttering under my breath I hate Peyton Elementary at least once a day for the past 2.5 months.} It's silly, because I don't really hate Peyton Elementary.

It's just that I am not a fan of what adding the traditional school piece to our plates has done to our lives. I feel like a slave to it. This is due to the fact that something I did not anticipate was the challenge it would pose to all of our schedules, our precious time that I've grown accustomed to savoring.

Our mornings are spent getting ready for school. I run to and from 2x/day. Our afternoons are spent in homework. Our evenings are spent rushing to get to bed in time for a good night's sleep before the next early morning. My calendar is full of things to provide and take and prepare and remember for the classrooms. Unlike moms who have all of their kids in school, my daytime hours in between drop off and pick up are spent educating the ones I have home. It leaves me feeling as if I am straddling both worlds, fully able to partake in the benefits of neither.

At the top of the list of reasons I love to homeschool is the lifestyle. We can move along at our own pace. Early mornings need not be rushed. Evenings can be spent in family activities such as games or movies, (even on weeknights!) rather than with homework. Hurry is word that was rarely spoken throughout the course of our day, and now it is one of the most common. Having just 2 kids in school has changed life significantly for all of us.

Meadow and Flint are doing well. So well in fact, that they are not getting any type of additional, specialized assistance. (They are each in the highest reading group in their respective classes. {The highest!}) Much to Bobby and my surprise, they were assessed to have no "special needs." (No, we do not believe that is true as they certainly have many special needs! Apparently, not from an academic perspective as compared to other kids in their grade. But, that's another story...for another day...)

JOTSC miss them. I miss them. It has not helped our bonding the way I thought it would as I have discovered that rushing them through homework is not an entirely endearing endeavor. :-)

Thankful for the opportunity to live and learn, I believe we are about to make a change....