the homeschool diaries: Welcome!

I decided to start a homeschool blog today...I've been thinking about it for a while, actually. I have my own private blog that I journal on almost daily and I've always done mixed posts on it regarding the kids, my own junk, etc..but I thought it would be neat to have one specific place for our homeschooling journey that wasn't private, that anyone could see.

So here it is!

We are a family of 4 from Seneca, SC. I'm Lori and my husband is Joey. We have two sons, Hunter (7) and Dalton (4)...and we have a little dog named Katie that is a year old (or 7 in dog years..lol). Hunter and Dalton both have blogs, Dalton because he has a hip disorder called Legg Calve Perthes Disease and I just found it easier to update a blog rather than to answer tons of emails. His blog can be found here, and Hunter has a blog because he asked why Dalton had one and not him...LOL So you can find Hunter's blog here.

I had thought about homeschooling from the time that Hunter was probably 3 but just didn't see it ever happening. When Dalton was 2 I quit my job as a mortgage banker and have been home ever since. It was the best decision we ever made for me to stay home and for us to homeschool. We started in January 2007 and did some pre-k stuff with Hunter, then we moved into Kindergarten in August of 07. He started 1st grade in July 08. We homeschool year round. We take off about a month and a half in the summer (all of June and half of July) and a month or so at Christmas. We typically take our vacation week in September when everyone else has gone back to school..the rates are lower and you don't run into the crowd at the amusement parks, etc! We homeschool most weeks 4 days a week. We usually take Fridays off.

With the help of my mom, we converted our dining room into our school room when we started school this past year. It's helped me to become more organized with everything. I have a desk with all of my stuff on it and we have a large table in the middle of the room that I sit at with the boys to teach them and do our worksheets and all that. I love decorating the schoolroom so there is no doubt if you walked in our house you would know that that we homeschool. I love it and the boys love it. I love being home and us being in our routine of school. We belong to a wonderful church and there are lots of moms that stay home so we get together some...I also have a good friend that homeschools her children and she happens to have two that are the boys ages so we get together at least once a week as well. My kids are ANYTHING but unsocial! (which is one of the big myths about homeschooling) In this day and age with all the people that homeschool and all the activities and opportunities that we have available to us..if your kids are unsocial then it's your own fault. We don't make our own clothes and we watch tv...not that there is anything wrong with making your own clothes or not having a tv. We are just a normal family that just happens to hold school at home. Hunter plays Upwards basketball and is going to play rec baseball for the first time this year.

Here's a picture of Hunter in his UNSOCIALIZED HOMESCHOOLER shirt. lol