This morning I overheard J talking to B about maybe going to middle school next year (where K goes). B told me later that he was surprised she said that but I'm thinking she is in love with the idea of walking to school with B, lockers, and the fantasy school-life shown on television. We talked about it and I told her it was ok with me whatever she wants to do. I asked her what she would really like about school and the classes and work were not mentioned. Then she thought a little more and remembered how she really does hate being given assignments and boring projects and how K cried a lot last year from all the social pressure. I didn't influence her decision, I just asked her to think of not only what she wants, but what she doesn't want as well. She ultimately decided she would rather be at home - but she still may change her mind as the months go by.

She has been looking a bit "lost" at home during the day and I've decided to implement a bit of structure for her. Today, I showed her what the 4th-grade typical-course-of-study looked like and used math as an example. We skipped over the stuff she already knows and she pointed out the things she'd like to go over. First was "Roman numeral to C". J knows them up to M, but she wanted to review. She figured out our birth years - 1996, 1993, 2001, 1969 and then we went over the tricky ones like 40, 90, 400, 900, etc. Going down the list we stopped at prime numbers and prime factoring. She thought of (and wrote down) all the prime numbers up to 100. Then I chose some numbers for her to factor down to the primes. She tried the same numbers with different factors and was so amused to see that it still ends up with the same prime numbers at the end. She went to find a 5th grade math workbook that had prime numbers and factoring in it and did a page of that. I was trying to think of what else she may enjoy and remembered how another mom talked about Su Doku puzzles (thanks for the idea, Miranda!). I love those and showed J how to do them. She immediately got the idea and finished the whole puzzle very quickly and checked her answers.

After dropping W off at school, we drove over to the craft store to buy stuff to make an autumn wreath. We found a "blank" grapevine wreath and bought leaves, berries, flowers, and a bow. As soon as we got home she layed newspaper out and we got to work. We'll finish it tomorrow.

J had dance again today. They did intense tap with the studio owner and a couple of new kids were attempting the class. One girl's grandmother and I struck up a conversation and of course the first question was, "oh where does she go to school?". I said she's homeschooled and grandma said "Oh wow! That's fantastic! I never met a homeschooler in real life - just seen them on tv". Well, at least she was happily curious and supportive, kinda. I gave her a brief explanation (very brief) of what the state requires and what we do. They all think we get books from the state and a long curriculum list to follow. I said, "Nope. We are free to do as we wish". I felt so proud that we're doing this. Every day I just love homeschooling more and more.

Oh and I've lost 7.5 lbs so far!!