Fly Like An Eagle

I'm well into week 2 of homeschooling Chance and I gotta admit I'm loving it. Last April when he spent a week home for spring break I had a major realization. Specifically, how much I enjoy spending time with Chance.

He has a curiosity like no other and such an endearing way about him that it just makes you want to spend more time with him. I started to feel guilty that I was missing out on quality time while he was at preschool every day. I mean, this is why I became a stay at home mom, to be their first teacher and the more I thought about it the more my heart was telling me to hold on to him a little longer. I have this very small window of time before he goes to kindergarten and by golly I'm going to make the most of it.

So I took him out of the school that adored him and made it my mission to be an awesome homeschool teacher. I went back and forth about which direction I wanted his curriculum to focus on and ended up settling on an animal of the week. Chance loves, loves, loves animals and an in-depth look at one particular animal would allow for so many cross-curricular activities.

My goal for our home schooling this year is very simple, I want to have fun every day and I want Chance to become an entry level reader by the end of the school year. That's it. We focus every week on one animal and within the week we will read about it, write about it, watch movies about it, create art about it and at the end of the week, put together a movie about it.

It's safe to say that I no longer have any time for myself and that any extra projects in the near future will have to be put on the back burner. But with that said, I'm loving it. I love planning for it and researching it. Our daily routine is slowly becoming more familiar and we're having a ball. Even the whole family is getting into it.

Just yesterday Mia went to her school library for the first time this year and checked out a book on orangutans for Chance. Is that not the sweetest damn thing you've ever heard?! She thought of him before herself, I oozed happiness when she came home and surprised him.  Most breakfast and dinner conversations focus on Chance telling us intresting facts about the animal. He just loves regurgitating the information we've read about and it makes him feel proud and smart and it's the CUTEST darn thing to watch.

Point is, we're all having a blast learning with each other and I can't think of a better more effective way to spend this year.

Here is our first movie project: Eagle Week

I hope you enjoy it: