Benefits

If anyone actually reads this blog, she's probably bored to tears of the homeschooling posts.  Unless, of course, she's a new homeschooler and avidly searching for other families like hers who are trying a new way of educating their children.  Then this may be a welcome stream-of-consciousness experience.

Regardless, I wanted to share how excited I am that I get to learn new things along with my son.  This week we've been learning more about the samurai, and today we watched a documentary on the samurai sword.  When Doran first told me he wanted to learn about the samurai I didn't think I'd enjoy the research involved with teaching him.  Boy, was I wrong!  

First of all, there is so much chemistry involved in making a sword in the first place.  That was fascinating in and of itself.  Then, as macabre as it may be, there's the fact that some metal was able to cut through human bone and muscle.  That's a strong metal!  And naturally the social aspect is fascinating, especially when it comes to women's roles in samurai culture.  

It was such a surprise to find samurai culture to be interesting to me.  As I studied the things I could pass on to him, I found myself wanting to know more and before I knew it, an hour had passed since I started researching information.  It reminded me of when I was a child and discovering my world, and it felt so amazing.  I thanked the Universe for the beautiful opportunity to share homeschooling with my son and look forward to many more beautiful experiences of this kind.

Just another day

One of the things I love about homeschooling is its portability.  He practiced math (his choice) while we were out having spontaneous breakfast. 

Field Trip!

Doran and I took a field trip today.  The books and videos I wanted to do on the next topic he wanted to study (Samurai) won't arrive until later this week, so we're taking this week to begin a nature journal and think about other topics we'll want to learn more about later.  Here are some pictures of our first official nature outing as homeschoolers.

Spinning the wheel to learn about different trees

 

Creating a bonsai arrangement

Playing in the fountains

Sitting in silence, observing our surroundings

A tiny snail

Recording our observations

The greatest joy so far?  Seeing my sweet boy show so much enthusiasm about, well, pretty much everything again.  A few months ago an outing of this nature brought nothing but a stream of complaints and it was so much effort just to get him to come along, much less enjoy it.  Today he was eager, interested and excited.  I look forward to so many more awesome moments like this!

I. Love. Homeschooling. I. Hate. Thyroid Disorder.

I realize we've only been officially at this for two days.  I know challenging times are very likely ahead of us.  But I love it.  I love being with him, sharing with him, listening to him.  I love being able to witness his enthusiasm for learning first-hand.  I love how we can modify lesson plans moment by moment.  I love how we can operate without lesson plans.  I love my son!

On a different note, I had a visit with my endocrinologist today.  He is perplexed at my labs and wants to investigate further.  He mentioned immune disorder, and I deflated.  He's giving me a month before more tests are to be drawn, and I hope that avoiding gluten in that time will affect my labs in at least a slightly positive way.  

I did some internet research on autoimmune thyroid disorder and it is discouraging to say the least.  I sat in front of the computer and cried this afternoon feeling completely defeated.  The prognosis is so dismal!  But I'm nothing if not strong and resilient, and I'm determined to create a positive outcome for myself.  I've been passive for a long time and now I'm taking a more active role in my overall health.  It may never go away but I'm so tired of it affecting my quality of life.  I'm determined to live a full, energetic life.  I'll do whatever I have to do to make that happen.

Look for fun pictures of our first week of homeschooling later this week!

Homeschool kicks off

Today was Day 1 on the books.  Although I feel every day is a day of learning and educational opportunities, today was the first day we took attendance for record purposes.  It went very well.  At least three times in the middle of our day Doran exclaimed, "I love home school!"  Guess we're off to a great start!

Gluten is my enemy

At least I think it is.  It's a long story but here's the most shortened version I can offer.  I was officially diagnosed with hypothyroidism at 18, took medication faithfully for 2 years, stopped for 8, managed to get pregnant, medicated again to avoid birth defects, stopped for 2 more years, then had a ridiculously abnormally high TSH reading (we're talking hundreds of times higher than the range of normal...the doctor was impressed I was even still able to function) and resumption of faithful pill-popping ever since.  However, in spite of my diligence and full compliance to medicating myself, my TSH is still significantly elevated after a year.

My initial response was indignation.  After all, I had given up alcohol, lost nearly 30 pounds, started eating more whole foods, moving my body more, just generally truly trying harder and still, STILL I had a problem.  WTH?!  How could this be?!  

Then my ex mentioned something he discussed with his current health practitioner, and it involved gluten intolerance.  I vaguely recalled reading an article a while back about gluten intolerance being connected with autoimmune disorders like Hashimoto's thyroiditis (official diagnosis), and so I decided to research again.  There's definitely compelling evidence regarding the link to gluten and malfunctioning thyroid glands, and I'm finally willing to give the whole gluten-free thing a try.

Right now I'm feeling excited and sad at the same time.  Just last night a friend of mine was trying to educate Doran on the food groups (albeit with outdated information), and we ranked our favorites.  Breads and grains were my #1.  I'm a bread and pasta junkie for sure.  How am I going to just give that up so easily?  And that's just scratching the surface.  Can I truly be as diligent as I'd need to be?

Then I think about getting lab results that show my medication needs to be reduced until maybe, just maybe, I can do without it completely and suddenly those sacrifices seem so trivial.  So I'm going to give gluten-free a shot, but not until I've said a proper good-bye.  So I'll spend the next week enjoying the wheat products I've loved and accepting that my quality of life is more important than any food I could ever eat.  And anyone who knows me knows that's a powerful statement to make.

Here's hoping for miracles!

Finding My Groove

Starting the homeschooling journey feels so much like starting the parenting journey.  You read, you study, you take a break from reading, you try some ideas out, then you panic and go back to reading some more.  After all, there's so much to know!  So many opinions on the same subject, how can you ever decide which one is best.

It seems there are plenty of experts on how to educate your child, whether at home, private school or public school.  I've read articles, books, editorials, blogs, etc. by many of them and feel just as scared and uncertain about this step as I did when I first brought my bundle of joy home.  One mistake and I'll ruin everything!

Thankfully I know better than that, and now it's time to step away from all the reading, abandon any and all official labels, and just be with my son, listening to him, working with him, experiencing life with him.  And if anyone is going to be the expert on him, it's going to be me.