I just love to learn new things!  I finally got around to trying Photobucket, I have been just too busy to do it.  But, I want to post some new photos and I am out of space!  So, here is just an experimental "thing."

  This is a beautiful barn out at Rock Ledge Ranch, near Garden of the Gods.  We recently went on a field trip to identify and sample some of the edible plants in the region.  And they must have all been safe because I am still alive!

We have been busily taking boxes to storage and doing repairs like mad here. Planning to look for a slightly larger place to live soon.  Today, though I was thinking I would just be happy in a big field where my kids could run like crazy, with two seperate bathrooms right in the middle of it!  Sorry, but I just can't help myself.  One bathroom is not enough for a household of six.

Ok, enough of that.  Just a quick family update:  My oldest daughter was asked by a dear friend what grade she is in (we don't do those) and then how will she know when it's time to graduate (when Mom says we are done) and it was a bit funny to me.  We do have a few required subjects here in our lovely state that we need to cover to fulfill our statute, but we aren't told when they need to be covered.  That is great with me!  We cover what we need, when we are ready for it and when we need it.  I won't say that my kids are not lacking in any areas, but we will continue to plug away at life and all that comes our way~including "academics."  One child has been lamenting that he doesn't know enough about a certain subject of interest to him and to that I say, great!  Maybe now that he really has a desire and drive to dig deeper, then it won't be with so much "weeping and gnashing of teeth" that we attempt to do this.  So the moral here, Mom, is "All things in their proper time."

Another child was talking to a friend who is a teacher, and it was so funny because he told her we don't do school, we just do experiments and reading and cooking and stuff like that.  I used to get frazzled if the kids said things like that, but really, we count so much of what we do every day as "school," that we don't call it school, we just continue to call it life.  I look at it this way:  If I compartmentalize it too much, then they start to hate it, it becomes drudgery.  Not that some drudgery isn't a part of life, of course.  But it depends on how you look at things.  I want them to be able to learn what they need to know, so they can use what they learned when they need it.    A little busy work now and then is ok, but a lot of busy work and twaddle out of context is wasting precious time.  AND when was the last time anyone ever got their education by doing school, anyway?  I didn't.  I learned the basics in the first few years---the rest was a waste of time.  But I won't go into all that right now.  :)

My education, right or wrong, was after high school.  And I don't mean in institutions of higher learning.  My education (which is being added to daily) was gained during the years after I "graduated" from school.  It was during jobs, independence, grief, exploration, research and folly that I gained my education.  Then it was added to by faith, marriage, family, hardship,revelation and relationship.  I still have lots more to learn, and thank goodness it is not only to be found in a box, in some contrived method or curriculum.  Life is my teacher, God is my guide and I am only limited by the time I have on this earth.  Each day is a new lesson, and a new opportunity to make sure my kids are well cared for and that their thirst for knowledge and more importantly, my love, is satisfied!

I am so excited about each new day and the opportunity to help them grow and flourish, how about you!?!

Happy to be alive and homeschooling,

Nancy