We are homeschooling.

Never really thought this is what I'd be doing right now, but it has been a great choice for us. Since we moved to the outskirts of town, our sweet little school where Lily and Kate have been going and where we planned for them to graduate high school from is now 1 hour away in the mornings. Ugh! We have a sweet public school right here, but the girls still struggle with social anxiety a good bit and I didn't think they were ready to go to school all day everyday just yet. Also, we don't get to see Phil as much as we used to since he is putting in 70 hour weeks nowadays getting the new church started and being at home allows us to see him during lunch sometimes and in the mornings before he goes to work. The girls and I are all fairly introverted, so being at home gives us strength to do all the fun social events of church planting without burning us out.

Here is a picture of my homeschool room. I was hoping to get a picture of it when it was clean so that I could look like one of those really neat and crafty homeschool moms who never loses patience with their children and have succesful times of family worship....but, in reality, the room is NEVER clean. And the patience and family worship are a work in progress. Maybe one day...

I love to teach, but have been scared of the daunting task of being the only one responsible for their learning. Also, I LOVE my job and wanted to continue if at all possible. Thankfully, Birmingham has so many options for homeschoolers and we found a great fit for us. We've ended up with a hybrid of homeschooling and traditional schooling. We do a co-op that meets 2 days a week. So for those 2 days, the girls are in a regular classroom all day for literature, science, math and history and their teacher gives them assignments to do on the other 3 days with me at home. I get to do Bible and reading on my own, which I love! Here is their sweet little class...

The wonderful thing about their class is that over half of them were adopted or have siblings that were adopted. It is a great environment for them as they enter into a new phase of development where they are understanding adoption on a deeper level.

One of the things that Kate loves about homeschooling is that she doesn't have to sit still. She is always squirming around in her chair in odd positions. This the third table I've tried since she squirms so much that the other tables slid around all over the place.

Lily sits very still. Funny that we noticed this difference in the two of them within an hour after their adoption. Kate liked to kick her legs a lot. In those early days when it was hard to tell them apart, I alway knew if I was holding the one kicking her legs, it was Kate. We used to call her Kickin' Kate. She is a bear to sleep with since she squirms even in her sleep.

I like putting the girls to work for me and calling it homeschool. Here they are baking bread for Phil's birthday dinner.

Recently, I found my first grey hair. So homeschool became beauty school....

On the days we are home, we do school in the mornings and something fun in the afternoons. One of the things we do in the afternoon is violin practice. The girls do NOT think it is fun, but I'm still calling it fun hoping the positive attitude will catch on. Being home allows us to have a lot of friends over from homeschool, church or our neighborhood. We bought the house in the middle of the community right next to the playground and pool so there are always kids around.

Here's a rare photo of Kate painting toenails with her homeschool girl friends. Before homeschool, she would have never been caught dead doing something so girly! She is exploring new parts of her little self all the time.

Homeschooling has also given me amazing opportunities to disciple my girls while, at the same time, giving me plenty of material for repentance!