We finally Made it to The MLK Monument

We took a quick trip to D.C to visit family &  friends for the holidays. Frontier had an awesome deal. 5 of us flew from Atlanta to D.C. for a total of $150.00 (Not per person. IN TOTAL).

This Tiger at the Washington Zoo was spectacular! I don't remember seeing one that close before & so playful.

Anyway, we stayed with family and enjoyed the Smithsonian and the MLK Monument. Years ago I had the children to donate money to having the museum built. This was the first time we saw what we contributed to live & in person.

Teen Expression? Teen Angst? or Teen Life

She cut it all off. I love it! She got tired of combing through the curls, so we went to the salon & she got it cut like, Lupita Nyong'o.

She Keeps Thanking Me...

As many of you may know from following, I started homeschooling my two daughters in 2008 before I even had my son. It was a family decision, and it's one that we are all happy with. Despite the challenges  , which I've been honest about along the way. It has worked.  We didn't homeschool every year, we took a year or two off, but mostly it was on. The most important thing for me was that my children knew that learning at home was an option for them.

My oldest daughter attended two years of high school at different performing arts schools. After feeling disappointed in the quality of education at her second school, she requested coming home to learn again. We signed her up for public high school at home, and got her a private vocal coach. She also sang in two choirs, and joined a theater ensemble thereby creating her own performing arts curriculum in the community as opposed to school. 

She thanks me all the time and points out exactly how homeschooling has helped her to be free, independent, understanding, and feeling as though she can take on the world. 

I am always shocked when I hear that thank you, but it melts away all the doubt and side-eyes I got from outsiders when we first made that decision in October 2008. 

Here she is doing what she loves best! Enjoy!

New School Year Approaching!

Welp, it's coming. So many new things. My oldest girl is going to college in two weeks. I am so proud of her and myself. She is proof that homeschooling works. Of course, she wasn't only homeschooled, but she was schooled in a passion-led and purpose-led way. We put her creativity and her interests first and now she's going on to college. She received a scholarship for her vocal performance and one for her academics. And a new life begins for her...

My baby girl is starting anew as well. She's an amazing visual artist, theater artist, and culinary artist. She is completing her unschooling/relaxed homeschooling this year, and moving on to High School. It will be computer-based high school, so no homework at night. She'll be acting in a theater ensemble and she'll continue her passions at night.

Finally...my little 4 year old is going to begin more formal homeschooling/unschooling. It's time to start reading writing. He already does math because he loves numbers. So it will just be me & him at home doing our thing!


I am excited for the this upcoming year! What about you?


Here a few snippets of how we spent our Summer.

Do You Stipple & Stencil?

My 13 year old wanted a new bedroom set, so instead we made her old one new. Together we antiqued, stippled, stenciled, and had loads of fun remaking her bedroom.  Of course my young son wanted in on the fun, so we made his painting time fun with stippling and stenciling on paper. I love creating with my kids. They come up with most amazing art. It just pour out of their little minds!

What's Up These Days!

1. Senior is studying with Connections Academy
2. 8th grader is unschooling 
• Elements
• Asia
• Italy
• Computer Programming
• Digital Art (Adobe Illustrator & keynote)
• Middle School math
• Social Science & Science - Smithsonian channel, netflix Documentaries, Cooking and food experiments, Gardening, hair products making, body
• Mixed Media Arts
• Journaling
• Library books on specific interests
3. 3 y/o is learning the basics with games, puzzles, video games, books, and YMCA classes. 

I haven't posted much because I've been busy with our life. I promise to try a little harder to record here. 

Excitement!

I don't see it very often anymore in my 11 y/o. She acts ho-hum about every assignment and every experience. Truly she has been outright resistant to learning these days. Until this morning. My husband had been talking to me about Asian children learning computer programming in the 1st grade, and I vowed to start my 7th grader. It took me a few weeks, but this morning I went over to Khan Academy to browse their free lessons, and there was computer programming. I know a few things about script, since I did a lot of statistical script writing in my other life. When I saw the examples, I was very excited, so when baby girl woke up I introduced her to computer programming. She stayed on Khan Academy's website doing computer programming for about 6 or 7 hours. She was excited about it, and I realized that it can assist with several subjects.

1. Math (Geometry & Algebra)
2. Science (Mechanical engineering)
3. Spelling (She reads like crazy, but doesn't pay the necessary attention to spelling to be great at it. Script writing require attention)
4. Art (color mixing, drawing, creativity)
5. Critical Thinking (so many decisions to make to draw with script and to animate with script).

It's so funny because when she started it, it was like she was made for it. I got a little misty watching her go at it.