Too Cool for School

I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that our neighborhood children don't have the same stereotypical ideas about home schooling as it seems some adults still do.  When a handful of them were at our house the other day, and one of Brooklyn's friends happily announced to the rest that we home school, I will admit that I held my breath for a moment.  That one friend had been so cool about it before, but I was worried that the rest of them might not.  There was no need.  Their reactions were not just of acceptance, but they literally gushed about how cool it is and how jealous they all are.  She is suddenly the luckiest kid they know, and our house is THE place to be.  Whoda thunk?!  

Brooklyn beamed and the last of my silly doubts fell away.  These kids didn't pop immediately into the "but how will she socialize?" gear.  Obviously, since they are her friends and they see her regularly, they know we don't lock her up in a closet or something, lol.  Although I know the past generations may be a bit tainted by biases and stereotypes and we're bound to run into that eventually, I can rest assured knowing that the children she sees most often are wonderfully accepting and open-minded about it.  One even asked if she can do school with us!  It was Brooklyn's "weekend" so instead we settled for making play dough and decorating cookies with her yesterday evening.  

The kids had a blast mixing and kneading their own dough.  Even little Charlotte helped out.  That is, until she got a hold of the red dye and made herself look like a homicidal maniac.  -Insert bath time and frantic floor mopping here-  My hands look like tie-dye, and Charlotte's arms are still hot pink, but after it was all done they were occupied for quite a while with their dough.  I took advantage of the relative quiet and got some dishes done, only to go on and dirty some more, lol!  Play dough and cookies in one night... I am the coolest mom in the world!

(Brooklyn, her friend, and Charlotte)

I typically use a recipe for play dough that involves "cooking", but I found one in her school lessons that is much simpler! 

Then later that night we prepared for our weekly "LiveLesson" with Brooklyn's teacher.  All the kids were to share a photo of themselves and could include their sibling(s), pets, favorite toy, etc.  So we took some pics of the girls and their rats:

(you can see some of the pink on Charlotte's arms here, lol)

A LiveLesson with Connections Academy is basically a virtual conference with the teacher and her students.  Ours are once a week and take about an hour.  She went over the alphabet, and all the kids helped think of words that start with each letter.  Easy peasy, but a cool way for the kids to connect and hear ideas from others.  

We look forward to getting through our first 30 days.  After that, Brooklyn will be able to choose an elective as long as she's on track with the rest of her subjects.  That shouldn't be a problem at all.  The Kindergarten curriculum is easy and fun.  We're considering adding either Spanish or Sign Language.  Other than that,  we're just keeping busy with family and friends, and are looking forward to my cousin's wedding coming up.