The Crunchy Mommy

There was a post on the Homeschool Lounge asking what was our ONE, unexpected, favorite thing about homeschooling... I, obviously, couldn't stop at one. :)

Unexpected things I love about homeschooling:

1- Eating breakfast at noon, and not being late for anything.

2- Doing schoolwork on the trampoline in the fall, fighting with the little boys to not bounce us so much!

3- Starting school at 3pm because that movie we've been dieing to see came on after breakfast.

4- Spending an entire day watching cheerleading videos with my little girls.

5- Being able to go shopping when the stores are empty and...

6- Doing schoolwork in the car between stores in our new fuzzy slippers in broad daylight.

7- Watching the light bulb going off in my kids head after they've struggled with something for a while.

8- Listening to the children have educated (for 5 & 6 yos anyway!) conversations about things I didn't realize they'd learned.

9- Forgetting about grammar and science to spend the afternoon learning how to make coins.

10- My six year old teaching an adult stranger about the Native Americans.

11- Listening to my oldest daughter read Treasure Island for the first time when she doesn't realize I'm listening.

12- Staying up until 3 am making jewelry on a school night.

13- Having my son count to 100 one hundred times a day.

14- Experiencing the pain of my first 'drop your child off and drive away' line, and being thankful it's an extremely rare experience.

15- When my two year old, not-even-in-preschool, son reads a book to me.

16- Homeschool Days at museums.

17- Homeschool Days at amusement parks.

18- Homeschool Days at popular attractions.

19- Teacher discounts.

20- Having a child who starts a business at age 6, and actually makes money at it.

21- The look of surprise on public school parents' faces when I tell them my very socially adept children are homeschooled.

22- The look of amazement on teachers' faces when I tell them my children are homeschooled.

23- Finding all the coolest, free hangouts and being able to call them 'field-trips' while we all get to meet awesome people and play all day.

24- "Go ask your Dad."

25- Piled up in pallets in the living room watching Star Wars and Lord of the Ring marathons.

26- Other homeschooling families.

27- Kids who enjoy tramping around old historic sites and Revolutionary War Cemeteries.

28- Being able to catch the earlier tour b/c we're not tied to desks.

29- Being able to catch the later show b/c we're not governed by alarm clocks.

30- Waking up to six kids cuddled under the blankets watching the Wizard of Oz at 4am because there's a thunderstorm outside, then sneaking out of bed at 10 while the kids snooze away.

31- Being the one who sees all the 'firsts': the first smile, the first step, the first picture, the first story read all by theirselves, the first addition problem, the first pangs of their independence.

I wish I had something interesting to blog about, but alas... it's just me. :)

We didn't do anything spectacularly interesting yesterday. About the time I got started with school, my DH called to ask me to do some work on his website, so that consumed most of my day yesterday.

I'm going to have the baby (my niece) tomorrow, and probably most of next week, so that's interesting :)

However, this morning, i was getting out of the shower and was ATTACKED by a HUGE spider. I don't know what kind it was... it was just humongous!! The tiles on my bathroom floor are 12"x12" and it took up 1/4 of a tile! I very quietly shrieked (the kids were still asleep after all!) and ran out of the room!

I dashed to the kitchen looking for some type of poison... anything so I wouldn't have to risk getting touched by that spider and found the rabbits' flea spray. I must have used half of the bottle, and watching the spider convulse and cling to my dirty shirt laying in the floor was terrifying! My poor heart was racing and my hands shaking!

Once the smell of flea spray became too overwhelming, I left the room to work up my nerve to dispose of it. It took me and entire load of clothes drying to be able to go in and dump it in the toilet!!

I have no idea why the size of the spider directly correlates to the fear level involved... that one's a mystery to me!

So that's pretty much as interesting as I'm getting today! I hope you enjoyed my little tid-bit!

Yesterday, the children and I decided to make up for missing our co-op (where we have an awesome history lesson every week in old, historic buildings) and went to the Old Mulkey Meeting House.



We learned about how the church was formed... what life was like for those that attended, how the church was made, some about the Revolutionary War, and a little bit about Daniel Boone (and family) for good measure. We used maps and compasses to find our way around.