A Homeschooling Hobby…

I am a scrapbooking fiend. I also like to make my own greeting cards. Having that hobby has saved my sanity more times than I count, lol. Surprisingly, it came in handy for homeschooling projects and activities as well.

The boys (ages 12 and 7) have enjoyed working on scrap pages for my books, so I decided this year we would try to let them do their own scrapbooks. They started off working with some of their favorite photos from this year, but then decided they wanted to scrap about things they learned about.

I discovered that there is actually a homeschool method similar to that, called lapbooking. The boys spend a certain amount of time learning about a place/person/concept/etc., then they create these little mini-scrapbooks (or lapbooks) with artwork, photos, and stories; just anything they want to include in them.

Outside of the fact that are choosing what they are learning, and really enjoying having that control, they are getting in extra arts and crafts time too, lol. And when they are working on their new hobby, I can have some time with my old hobby. :)

Sports for Homeschoolers?

My oldest was only six when we started homeschooling. I was so consumed with making sure I had my footing when it came to the academic stuff, that I didn’t give much thought to the athletic side of things. He was playing soccer, but had only just started and he was still in that phase where it was just cool to roll around in the grass, lol.

Fast forward 7 years and he has played twice a year EVERY year. With this fall season just ending, he has 15 seasons under his belt. He’s very serious about it, and even though I am biased because he’s mine, he’s really very good. But next spring will be his last time with our local recreation department because they only go up to a certain age after that season he will be too old.

We have contacted the local school board to see if they would let him play at the middle school level (cause…you know…we do pay taxes even though he doesn’t attend their school) but they wouldn’t even consider the idea. We live in such a rural area that there isn’t a homeschool athletics association or anything. So we are facing signing him up with a traveling league, that will ultimately cost us a few hundred dollars a season (travel included).

What about you guys? Are your kids allowed to play with the local school system? Are you fortunate enough to have homeschool athletic association?