A Series of Fortunate (homeschool) Events

Remember this post?  It's the one where I talked about how we made a couple changes and now school is glorious and easy and blah blah blah?  Well, as is usual - the week after I posted that, we changed our minds.  Again.  It seems that whenever I make a public proclamation, something happens to make me change my mind and do a total 180.
I don't know if it's weather, or losing mid-year steam, but the kids turned into monsters.   I was seriously doubting that we'd be able to homeschool.  My patience was gone.  My kindness was gone.  I was frustrated and counted down the seconds until my hubby came home each day. 

Then, a series of fortunate events unfolded.

First, as I mentioned, my children were acting like monsters (I'm certain they couldn't have learned this from their mother...  Right?!) .  I felt that if we were stuck in the house together all day that arguments would ensue and everyone's mood would be negative.  It just so happened that we had a heatwave last week and the temperature rose to 45 and sunny.  So, I did what any true Ohioan would do - I decided we would spend all day outside burning energy.  We packed up and spent time at the zoo.  We guessed which animals would be outside by considering whether they were warm blooded or cold blooded and which part of the world they lived in - quite educational.  As we were walking the zoo (along with maybe two or three other families), I realized that we wouldn't be able to do this if we didn't homeschool.  I also realized that my decision to 'escape' for the day, was okay - it's alright to leave home and experience life - in fact, that's one of the reasons we started homeschooling.  And it was really nice to spend some time enjoying each other while learning.

Second, we joined a homeschool gym class.  The kids LOVED it.  They got to run around with other kids their age and play games.  I began talking to a mom there and she mentioned that she was a part of Classical Conversations and it just so happened that the next day was their open house - more on that in a second.  When we got home from gym class, the kids behaved so well!  They got along much better with each other and seemed to listen better too.

We decided to attend the open house at Classical Conversations.  I'm glad we did.  The day begins with a prayer and the pledge.  They then break up into groups with other kids.  They learn some geography, history/timeline, Latin, science, math, and a few other things (we had to leave early so we missed some).  The kids seemed to enjoy it - Little Lou said that she liked it, X-Man said it was too early in the morning, but I think he enjoyed himself.  Again, when we did our schoolwork, they listened really well and got along with each other for the rest of the day.  I have since met with the director and she gave me some more information and I asked a few questions.   She said that if we're interested in joining, that I could actually be hired on as a paid tutor since I have previous homeschooling experience.  So there's a lot of opportunity there.

We're also going to attend some private school open houses in the next month, just so that we can see what's out there before we make our decision for next year.  But again, as of this moment, we're leaning toward homeschooling.  Come back soon to hear how I've changed my mind again (smiley!).