Posted in Lessons I Have Learned

One of the leaders of our homeschooling group has nicknamed me "The McGyver of Homeschooling".  LOL!!!   Oddly enough, I can kinda see how she came up with it.  It is NOT like I am an expert homeschooler by any means...I just don't see limits the way other people do.  Where other people see roadblocks, I see possibilities.  But, this post really isn't about me.  it is about my Mom and how I got to be the way I am. 

My Mom has always been a person who can make pretty much anything and when it is done it will look professionally done.  No one would ever guess it was homemade.  When I was a kid she made all our clothes, pajama's, coats, etc.  She even use to make my Dad's leisure suits!  LOL I always felt like if you wanted something top quality you had Mom make it.  If you didn't care about quality, you bought it in a store.  To this day I honestly believe that my Mom could create anything she wanted to. She has even made a handful of wedding dresses!   A few years ago I had a recliner that needed to be reupholstered.  My Mom had never reupholstered a thing in her life, but how hard could it be?  She tore apart the chair and Voila.! New chair, better looking then it ever was before!  (Unfortunately the new puppy chewed several holes in it a few months later...ooops.)  My Mom is pretty much self taught in everything she does.  One of my favorite memories is when I was about 20.  One of my cousins was getting married and had picked out these cute little fabric covered hats for her bridesmaids.  My Mom took one look at them and said  "We can make these for way less money."  (Meaning she and I could make them.)  I was pretty impressed.  I mean, I didn't know she knew how to make hats!  Well, we leave and I mention this to her and she says something to the effect of "I don't know how to make hats, but we'll figure it out!"  Oh, my!  Well, my cousin ordered the supplies and had them sent to us.  (We lived about 3 hours apart.)  When the fabric came my Mom and I both looked at it and said "What was she thinkg?  these colors are awful together!"  But, we proceeded over the next several weeks to learn how to make hats.  They came out really nice, other then the color.  About a week before the wedding we headed to my cousins to drop off the hats.  My cousin took one look at them and said "Where did you get this fabric?"  It turned out the WRONG fabric had been sent to us.  It wasn't anywhere near her colors!  So, you know what my Mom said?  "Well, let's go get the right fabric, we still have a week to get them done!"  Yep, the hats that took us a month to make we re-did in the correct fabric (Which was MUCH nicer!) in a week!  LOL  This was the atmosphere I was raised in!  If you need something you make it.  Shopping is a last resort and not the best option!

So this was the world I grew up in.  Now, I don't make all my kids clothing the way she did.  (Sew has gotten more and more expensive and clothing has gotten cheaper and cheaper.)  But, that attitude of winging it has made it into my homeschooling philosophy big time!  Yeah, I use a curriculum, when it fits our needs.  But, I also am always on the lookout for a different ways to teach any given lesson.  The more creative the better!! 

So if I happen to look a little like "The McGyver of Homeschooling" there is a good reason, I was raised by "The MacGyver of Motherhood!"