The Healthy Happy Wife: Update: Homeschool, Baby and Travel

It has been a long time since I wrote. I have wanted to be on here a little more but alas, the start of homeschooling, baby and travel have taken up some time.

We have been homeschooling officially for just over a month. I thought I would write out the things I love and the challenges. I know there are many of you who are contemplating homeschooling and want to hear about our experiences...so here it goes.

I love:

spending so much more time with my children
knowing what they are learning
picking what resources I think are best for their learning abilities
teaching what they are interested in learning
have most afternoons free
going on field trips
getting together with like minded families
volunteering together as a family
having weekly lessons with other families
home school group with friends
flexibility
weekly presentations to friends
during the day gymnastics/extra curricular
not driving to and from school
not paying tuition
I get to learn as well

Challenges:

spending a bit of time most evenings planning the next day
teaching French (although it is coming back to me)
making sure my eager kinder-gardener is playing more than doing table work

First official day of school

A typical day

Learning about the Compass Rose

Bible craft

Joseph's coat

French class with friends

Fall Poetry by my 5 year old

Baby

A third pregnancy is definitely different. I am not always sure how many weeks I actually am and I have to remind myself to slow down and take a break. I am however feeling great and am thankful for this healthy little honey.

Stripes make you look bigger right?

22 weeks- I had to take the time to figure that out ;)

We were able to find out as a family about a month ago that we are going to be blessed with a little boy. We are all excited about this little man and has been fun starting to plan for him already. Yesterday I gifted an awesome start to cloth diapering. The girls and I were practicing today. My oldest is now well rehearsed in pre-folds, all in ones, liners and covers :)

Travel

This month, Dan and I were able to take a trip together. My husband does a fair amount of travel for his work. On average, he is gone twice month for a few days. I can't complain for when he is not travelling, he works down the hall ;) The other bonus I suppose of his travel is that he collects a lot of points which we get to redeem.

Thanks to both of our parents, we were able to use these points and take a trip to Texas. San Antonio was our home for three days. We were able to bike the Mission trail, tour some missions, learn about the Alamo, shop and enjoy the River Walk.

It was so nice to be in the hot weather and to be tourists together. I love the time to just be together without the outside distractions. I really felt like my brain was able to take a break and just focus on us, the sites and people around. It was a blessing.