Ooohh…baked salmon sounds delicious! I have a ton of fish in the freezer from DH’s grandpa that we need to use up…might have to make some this weekend!

There are soooo many ways to homeschool! I love the freedom of choosing my own favorites for each subject, but it takes more work for the parent that way, than having a ready-made curriculum package. The nice thing is you will never run out of options, it’s almost overwhelming how many homeschooling resources there are out there. My girls love to picnic too, and sometimes I let them take their schoolwork out to the hammock or on the deck to complete. Mostly we do it on the couch or around the kitchen table…then we have math on CD-Rom and Music Ace (also computer). When we’re having fun, we’re really having fun…but we have plenty of feet-dragging as well.

On homeschooling, prior to having children, I’d always pictured myself sending the kids off to school and having baked treats for them when they came off the bus, but my own bus experiences were not great, and I really didn’t want the peer pressure/anti-God stuff rubbing off on my children, so my outlook began to change. My hubby, however, needed convincing! But we were surrounded at church by successful and amazing homeschooled children, so that was helpful! Then he started listening to Christian radio and something James Dobson said on Focus on the Family was what finally convinced him. And he’s kept me on track ever since!

Our girls are the best friends EVER and it’s funny, we’ll be at someone else’s house and they play great with the other kids, but when they return home, it’s like they have to get their “sister fix” again. They have a ball together. And it means so much to me to see them rejoice with each other’s successes rather than be jealous, or to show each other genuine compassion. And I didn’t even realize these were a side-perk to homeschooling…but they definitely are.

Btw, your fort-castle memories are awesome. I’m so glad you had the time to do those things! To have a real childhood!

And one other time when we were out in our fort we had brought out a huge bag of my Dad’s home made smoked salmon (my Dad rarely would make it himself but when he did it was unbelievably good and we weren’t supposed to pig out on it). We ended up sneaking off into the bushes with our lunch to eat there and forgot the smoked salmon in our “castle”. When we got back the poor neighbor dog was going psycho…she was absolutely wired running like crazy all over the yard. And in the middle of the yard was the bag of smoked salmon torn allover…She must have loved it because she was so energetic. I can’t remember how we explained that one to my Dad…