Big decisions. . . .

 In Australia children start "kindy" at 4 years old.  They attend 2-3 days a week, so our little girl would be beginning school this February.  One of the biggest decisions we have been prayerfully considering, basically since her birth, is what to do about schooling. We have been trying to decide whether we were going to send her to school or home school her.  We have gone back and forth, had many discussions with people who homeschool and with others who are opposed to home-schooling, we have looked at multiple curriculums, and above all have prayed a lot.

 This week we have made our decision.  We are going to take this year and home school her.  We aren't making a decision about the rest of her school career, we are going to take one year at a time and keep our minds open.  Neither Ed nor I feel like home schooling is the only way to go, there were big pluses and minuses to all our schooling options.  We have seen children grow and thrive in both public schools and at home and we have seen the opposite as well, we simply feel that this is what is right for our family right now.

I know there will be some ups and downs, it will take some time to get things rolling and organised.  We will make some mistakes, but we are really excited about this new adventure in our household.

Matilda is looking forward to all the things we are going to be learning together.  Our lives are typically crazy busy, filled with family, friends, our work with the church, and most importantly our little people.  We have made it a point to involve our kiddos in our work here, they visit with us, help us prep meals, and come along to anything that goes down with the group, and now we will work together in their learning experience.  

She is as smart as she is beautiful.

I know I will have to be disciplined and organised (2 traits that aren't always my strongest). My  heart tells me this is the right decision for our family.  Why did we decide to home school her?  It gives us a way to tailor her education for her needs and strengths, to build around her interest and work at her speed.  It enables us to bring God into all aspects of her education.

We also want to get involved in the home school community here in Perth.  We've already enrolled her in some classes so that we can meet some of these other families.  She'll be doing Art, Music, and Spanish with them.  We will also be keeping her active in sport.

If you have home schooled before or are doing it now, what tips do you have to keep things running smoothly?  Are there curriculums you have loved?

A quiet kind of day. . .

Thursdays are our typical family day.  Today we spent it in getting some much needed work done around the house.  We had heaps of cleaning and catching up to do, so while it wasn't 'fun', it was a very productive day.  

It was a nice relaxing day to just let the kiddos mellow at home (we don't typically have many days like that).  Tilly drew some impressive pics and while I helped her sound out mom she wrote it all on her own.  

It's me, laughing she said.

 I personally love her dad's hair, guess this is a bit what it looks like before he gets a haircut.

Nate added the green mouth. 

 Nate ended up changing baby Snow Whites nappy for her.  This it might be a bit big.

I love getting to see the kids play around with their dad.  So blessed to have such a great partner.  Tilly refers to it as "ruffle housing"  it's pretty cute, but can get pretty violent.

We ended our night with some homemade pizza and a nice walk. . . it's great to have some chill out days every now and again.  

What's your favourite thing to do on a quiet day at home?   

Family Day

We've discovered that with some things if you don't schedule them in to your day or week then they tend to get overlooked or pushed aside .  This was the case with our family time.  Although we do spend a lot of time together each day, playing, reading, and just the mundane day to day, we weren't taking focused time to spend together enjoying each other as a family. 

 It seemed like there was always more to do than time to do it, people who needed us, chores that needed getting done, lessons that needed to be written etc.  Since we are blessed with working with a church we try to be flexible with our time and energy, so our family days get moved around a bit, but we schedule in at least half a day of focused family time each week.  

Family day can constitute different activities (a list of ideas is composing itself for a later post), some family days we spend the time working together and try to emphasise the point  that as a family it's important to help each other.  Other days we try to do something fun and different.  

We have started scheduling this day in each week and it has been something we all look forward to.

Our family days are usually on Thursday's but the way things fell this week we were together on Friday instead.  We went to the chiropractor this morning, then headed down to Fremantle, one of our families favourite areas in Perth.  They have a wonderful fruit and veg market, all sorts of yummy little places to eat, and a great playground. 

First off we hit up the markets where we bout some yummy fresh fruit.

Then we grabbed a family favourite a couple of homemade organic (that means healthy right) donuts.  They kids got a chocolate filled one and Ed and I shared a blackberry jam one.  YUM!!! I was enjoying eating them so much that I forgot to take a picture until after we were all through.

 Then it was off to the playground to expend some energy before the rain set in.

 She is such a cheese.

It started to rain so it was back to the car to head home for some much needed naps.  Nate couldn't quite make it home.

Aren't they sweet when they are asleep?  

It was such a great morning spending time together enjoying each others company, we are so blessed.  

What kind of things do you enjoy doing together as a family?  Do you have special time each week set apart to spend together?