Homeschool Joys...

I want to blog more, Sunny is 16 months old and the last 18 months since my last post have been...overwhelming. Everyone always said, "If you can have 3 kids you can have 10! It's just an extra plate." That seemed to hold true for 4 kids. I'm finding 5 kids to be a whole 'nother ball of wax and it's left me feeling a bit blindsided. Some of it is the ages and personalities of my kids...Actually that's a lot of it. We're smack dab in the Middle School transition and it's been a bit of a shock. Personalities that were mostly low key are doling out a lot of hormonal angst. Personalities that were never low key are hinting at the ride ahead and we're...trying to be intentional. Trying to keep learning the same lessons we've been trying to learn for the last decade. I'm so very tired.

He's a super sweet and happy bub though!

 I wanted to start blogging about our days...Homeschooling and how delight directed homeschooling melds and bends a bit in the middle school years. I don't want to teach my kids out of fear. I don't want to have some arbitrary list of things that they "just have to know because I say so."
I want them to really absorb what they're learning and have see the depth and practicality and life applications. This leaves me at odds in this funny in between place of not really being a traditional Homeschooler, not really being an official Unschooler, not really being fully "self-directed" or "delight driven" either. I want my kids to know the importance of pushing themselves to grasp hard things. That not everything in life feels good or is convenient. I feel like they are learning these lessons, being part of a larger family we ask them to contribute to the household in meaningful ways.

Requiring daily lessons doesn't have to mean fights and tears and lines drawn in the sand. Using a curriculum *can* be delight driven. Using different resources and requiring daily intention and progress doesn't automatically shut down all joy and "true learning".

I want to share how this works in our home. Joy in living life at home with Mishmash Homeschooling.