Why I miss homeschooling....

When we homeschooled I absolutely loved it.  Then one day I didn't anymore.  And so the kids went off to public school.  They are very happy there and I am heavily involved in the PAC.  We are all happy. 

But when I see pictures like these it makes me long for the enriching experiences I was able to give my kids when we homeschooled and it makes me want to do it again.  I also experience guilt because Zee was the only one of my kids who never had the opportunity to be taught by mom.

Here are some of our homeschooling highlights:

Enjoying private swimming lessons.  Zee is only 2 here and is swimming like a little fish!

Watching a First Nations person turn cedar bark into a basket.

Blowing up a balloon with vinegar and baking soda.

Art.

Learning the science of air.

Gardening

Pulling our first radish out of the grownd.

Dropping rocks into flour to learn about how craters were formed on Venus.

Taking advantage of the sunshine by going on a nature walk.

Finding an adorable little green frog and naming it Juniper.

Finding the hugest maple leaves ever!

Craddling Juniper and crying when Mom forces you to leave her in the forest where she belongs.

Beholding Nature's Halloween display.

Learning topography.

Drawing cute little bunnies in the cabbage patch at age 7

Mo's drawing of an elephant when she was only 10 years old!

Teaching your little brother about sorting and organizing using Smarties.

Making frescoes after learning about ancient civilizations.

Donating your hair for kids with cancer.

Loving the new hair do.

Recreating 'The Twins (Castor and Paddox)' constellation using Magnetix

Creating a Pionner town complete with a livery, blacksmith, church, general store and school.

Identifying with Louis the Swan (from The Trumpet of the Swan) and writing the word 'catastrophe' with our mouths.  Novel studies were my favorite!!

Mapping your intestines on a life sized model of yourself.

Churning butter.

Eating that homemade butter on homemade bread!  Yum!!

Building a bridge out of popsicle sticks and glue that held over 130 pounds!

Indoor rock climbing.

Creating your very own Webkinz marketplace.  Learning about shipping, ordering, pricing and inventory.

Having free time in which you teach yourself at the age of 10 to knit.

Raising larvae and watching them burst forth into butterflies.

Having the opportunity to have butterflies crawl on your shoulder and not fly away.

Having a butterfly dry its wings while clinging to your finger at the age of 3

Looking into a butterfy's eyes.

Fashioning a hanging stick for newly hatched butterflies to dry their wings.  Some days we had as many as seven of them hatch within an hour.

Loving the gimpy one, named Nemo, who was missing an antenna and a wing.

Converting a little portion of the backyard into a butterfly friendly garden.  We spent DAYS pulling out rocks and weeds. 

Making jewelled butterflies for a craft.  So pretty.

Releasing our beautiful babies...

Creating clothes for Webkinz using paint and left over denim

Making your own pajama bag.

Making a birthday card in Latin.

Learning the definition of GROSS: opening a 'cooler' in a forensics lab and finding a body inside.

(it wasn't a real one; it was in a 'hands on'  forensics museum)

Studying a full wall of organs that were cancerous, deformed, stabbed, exploded--all kinds of weird and wonderful things--in the forensics museum.

Getting to see the play Pride and Prejudice.

Having tender moments between siblings...

Donating over 9 inches of hair to kids with cancer. 

Killing three birds with one stone:  Reading, enjoying the sunshine and gettting physical acitivity.

Getting Mom's old, squeaky sewing machine out and learning how to sew.

These, and many more, are the reasons that I am missing homeschooling today....

Wonder if my kids miss it?