Making It Official

(Sister at the mic for her speaking part during 5-K graduation.)

Well...we're moving a little closer to making it official...homeschooling, that is. It feels a little overwhelming, but step by step we're navigating the maze.

We've joined the Home School Legal Defense Association. They provide legal protection for homeschooling families and are also a wonderful resource regarding laws in your state pertaining to homeschooling such as how many "school days" are required, etc.

We're in the process of joining a local "school" which provides a sort of umbrella in terms of accountability. It means Sister will be enrolled in that school, while T and I are doing the teaching and training at home. We'll be accountable to them for grades, days in attendance, etc. and through them, we'll have the opportunity to take field trips, participate in electives and as Sister gets older, if we stick with homeschooling, she'll have the opportunity to take classes through them, taught outside the home. This will also put us in touch with other homeschooling families in our area, helping us broaden our network and provide encouragement.

We've chosen our curriculum...Sing, Spell, Read & Write. This is the same curriculum the preschool we've been attending uses and is also taught for first grade in the grade school we'd considered sending Sister to. So far, we've been very pleased with it and we want to keep her on track so that if next year we decide homeschooling isn't a good fit, she's right where she needs to be to jump right into the private school. We considered other options, but this seems to be the best fit right now. God, in His goodness and provision, provided more than we asked or imagined. A friend learned we were planning to use that particular curriculum. She just happened to have the K-5, 1st grade combo kit and gave it to us. What a precious blessing.

(She spoke in front of hundreds of people...and did it PERFECTLY!)

And now onto the really important aspect of homeschooling...our "school room." We'll be using my office. T built a custom built-in desk that spans the width of the office. He's also hung cabinets for storing school supplies. I've sewn a skirt for the desk...and aside from lots of dreams, that's where we are.

This entire redo has been relatively cost effective. I had material left over from the guest room, but I didn't want my house to feel entirely swathed with the same fabric, so I dyed it. (And got really inspired and not wanting to waste the left over dye water, I decided the sofa cushion cover should be dyed...this didn't work out so well. It just looks really dirty now. Oh well.)

The process wasn't so bad. I washed and dried my fabric. (This is the same fabric that was so generously given to me.)

I filled a galvanized tub with warm water.

I cut open my dye packs...

and mixed them...

and poured the dye in and let the fabric soak...

After the alloted time, I wrung out and hung the fabric to dry...gave it another run through the washer and dryer and began sewing...

I'll save the results for later.

Happy day to you!