What Now?

     If you haven't already guessed, I am a student of the Now. "What on Earth does that mean?" Well, it means I try to be present every day in the current moment. I try not to dwell on the past, to worry too much about the future, to insist that my present should somehow be different than what it is. I can tell you that I am not a great student. On some days I barely squeak by with passing grades. On really good days (those seem to be long gone) I was the teacher's pet! These days I am an average student. I'm doing my best. Trying to get back to basics. My textbooks are Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now series. Every time I read them, I learn something new about myself and about life, and I think I become a better person.

    I am a homeschooling mother of 3. I love to read. We all do, so for the purposes of this blog I'll give them the names of some of my favorite characters: Scout for my 10year old daughter, Jem for 6 year old son, and Bella for my 17 year old daughter. We have been homeschooling for 10 years. I have learned a lot during those years. Practiced a lot on my poor 17 yr old! But got some right too :)  She is doing really well in community college. She consistently got some of the highest grades in her English 101 class, and her teacher told her it was an honor to teach her. This was my child who hated writing even a sentence, had terrible handwriting, and quit reading almost as many books as we started. But we kept on plugging along. We found out what she liked. We never gave up. Homeschooling works :)

     We have lots of challenges we're facing this year. Our youngest was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Our middle is struggling with OCD. But if we can just remember to stay in the present moment, to enjoy each new day, each new discovery, we'll make it through ok. 

      Along the journey of our homeschooling, I have been lucky to have benefited from the generous efforts of many homeschool bloggers over the years. I have always considered doing one myself, but never felt I had the time or the motivation. I finally have a reason to start!  My niece and nephew are going to be homeschooling preschool with us 4 days a week now. (We'll call them here the Bobbsey Twins, although they are 3 and 4 - Flossie and Freddie.) I know if I was their mom, I would want to know what they were up to all day! I am taking lots of pictures and need a place to share all of the fun we are having.

I am hoping that by starting this blog, I can share what we are doing not only with their mom and dad, but  with others out there who might be looking for ideas.  I'll be posting not just about them but about the older kids too.  Hopefully there will be something of value here for someone to use.  If nothing else, it can be a chronicle for our family of our year of homeschooling :)

Wendy