Frizz Family Homeschool: RV Edition

Our first week of school happened to coincide with a lovely head cold, but you know what they say about homeschool moms: can't stop, won't stop! Except I totally have stopped more than a couple times and pretended that the kids were at a real school instead of just rampaging on the other side of the RV while I took a cat nap. Still, it's Thursday, and by tomorrow we will have completed our first week of Frizz Family Homeschool: RV Edition! during which time we will be teaching 5th grade (ish), 3rd grade (ish), and kindergarten (times two!).

I bribed them with first day of school cinnamon rolls so they would think I was a cool homeschool mom. It only partially worked.

I don't have any cutesy first day of school pictures with All the Information on personalized chalk boards (or white boards or maps, like we've done in the past). Mostly because since we started RVing it, our fridge is the whiteboard, and that doesn't show up super well in pictures. Also, there's just something about saying, "Let's go pose with the fridge for first day of school pictures!" to get your kids really excited about the school year.

Not sure what subject this was, but obviously, it was enthralling. Never mind. I just remembered that this was the picture the Man took while he was letting the kids watch a movie to recover from their first day of school while I went to a meeting.

I did try to get some pictures. For posterity. Of course. And Littles got some really artsy black and whites while I was distracted by blowing my nose. Kid has phone stealing skills. His dad's a cop: figures. But you will see just how energetic and accomplished we were this week. Still: everything got done. For the most part.

Here was my attempt at a first day of school shot. Everyone squinted. I gave up. Story of our school year. Kidding.

It's been pretty much what you'd expect from a first week of homeschooling my kids. Lots of excitement, lots of books, and lots of unexpected derailments.  Although props to Tiny for not allowing himself to be derailed by Twinkle this morning while making blueberry muffins (pretty sure that counts as a life skills class). She was putting on the full court press to crack the eggs (debate club), but he didn't buy it. Being a smart kid and all. Because he's homeschooled. Those public school kids would've let the two year old crack the eggs. {This is a joke.}

This is me pondering the deep questions of life so that I can teach my children all the important things. Kidding: I was thinking about whether or not there was green snot on my nose ring.

For those of you who are wondering about our schooling plans for the year: we're sticking with Classical Conversations, and I'm upping my game and tutoring this year because if I can live in an RV with five kids, I can do anything! Also, I'm curing cancer and helping the UN achieve world peace. Other than that it's nothing but work, work, work all the time (name that quote!), by which I mean the actual nose-to-the-grindstone nitty gritty of homeschooling which generally means making sure your kids aren't illiterate...among other things.

Artsy shot number one. See how much we are accomplishing with our school day.

For now, I'll settle for making sure the kids aren't illiterate: we're still trying to get the twins reading. Since they're only five, I feel like the word "still" was unnecessary in the previous sentence, but Twinkle is now joining us for reading lessons and may end up giving them a run for their money because that kid is precocious. And terrifying. But that does kind of make me feel like I should be speeding the twins up, if only to keep from having Twinkle shame them for the rest of their lives. Other than reading, Bruiser has decided that he wants to ask me to teach him all the material he's not ready for yet, so we're totally doing that too, and Bee has decided to follow in her Aki's footsteps and become an artist so...we're doing all the drawing, all the time. With a strong emphasis on butterflies because she's a five year old girl.

He did manage to get his brothers to look like they love each other. So, I guess that's impressive.

Tiny and Littles, meanwhile, are continuing on their path of world domination and continual sibling rivalry while also attempting to help me forget that we were actually supposed to be doing school work by reading quietly in their beds so as to not attract attention. It's surprisingly successful most days but only because I get sucked into my own books (Ayesha at Last today--nothing like a good novel to make yourself forget that your head wants to explode). On the days I do remember that I have children I'm supposed to be teaching, there is cursive, math, vocabulary, literature, Latin, Spanish, Bible, history, geography, science, music, art--one big giant jumble of learning that will hopefully turn them into legitimate adults capable of cool things.

These girls. Such cuteness.

So we begin another school year. A bit more minimalist than usual maybe, and always more chaotic than I wish, but hopefully enough for our purposes, which are always to strengthen the kids' minds, souls, hearts, and muscles so that they can more fully love God and their neighbor. And (fingers crossed) at the end of it, still love me and know that I love them. Even if I make them do cursive and long division.

Best first day of school shot. Plus Bruiser's flower. Eyes are mostly open and kids are mostly in frame. We'll take it. Standards are lowered. If no boogers are showing, it's a win.

At any rate, happy new school year! May our textbooks smell clean, our pencils stay sharp, and all of our children's dramatic eye rolls be put to good use. Also, may there be coffee. And lots of it.

Trying to post this video clip Littles' took,

that really shows the essence of our schooling.

If it doesn't work, blame my lack of tech savvy.