I'm not sure if Box Day is a strictly Sonlight related phrase for getting next year's curriculum or an overall understanding among other homeschooling families, but alas, we had our box day for the 2022 school year. Wait, 2022, you ask? Yes, for us, our school year begins in January. To take part in deals and use a few coupon codes I had to receive, I usually order our curriculum sometime during the summer. Also, ordering a while before we use it allows me to set it up and prep it ahead of time, and this year, with our Baby Bird, I may need a little extra time.

So, what did we order?

The dreaded Socializing question every homeschooler gets asked when we reveal to others that we homeschool has never been a dreaded question. I know all the sarcastic remarks others can make in this instance (we socialize our animals and countless others out there). It is not so daunting if you set out what socializing means to you and not necessarily what it means to everyone else. This (definition) can help answer the questions of the not-so-friendly, random stranger, or even family who ask. People often ask about socializing because they knew someone or saw some news article about weird, awkward, and half backward families who homeschooled. Frequently those families are extreme, but they fill people's stereotypes for what a homeschooler is supposed to be or how they are supposed to act. Like any stereotype, others' preconceived notions serve their definition, not what it means.

I have spent the last eight and a half years loving being a Momma and our homeschool journey. But I have always been a little reserved with it, and I have received my share of backlash for our choice and decision to pursue the homeschool path.

I have wanted to write about this negativity since I started plans for this blog three years ago. Every time I sat down to write it or jot notes down for it, my response always came up short, though, in my opinion, of the message I wanted to express to others. It felt snarky, rude, and judgmental. Precisely the feelings I had felt each time someone criticized our choices. No matter how I worded things, I couldn't get out what I wanted to say.

I will preface this by saying that while I never actually had my own public school classroom, my time as a short-term and long-term substitute teacher, and while pursuing a full-time teaching position, I had many biases in place regarding homeschooling. I spent the first year struggling in our homeschool because my public-school background clouded my education and understanding of learning. By our third year in (and consequentially the year I chose to test out Sonlight), I had a mind shift and finally had the clarity to separate myself from my public-school mindset. While I still have valuable lessons from my college days and my days as a substitute teacher, I now view our homeschool as something completely different, as others should consider it.

Thumper will officially be a full-fledged 1st Grader at the age of 6 (almost 7) for this 2021 School Year. I was going to originally do a gap year in sonlight with her, as I was not ready to do Core B with her again with her since she just sat in on it 2-3 years ago with her sister.

Mouse is 10 years old entering into the fifth grade at the start of our 2021 school year. We will be continuing the same curriculums from last year, as they all seem to fit really well with her. We are going to continue studying American history using Sonlight History/Bible/Literature Core E American History Part 2, Sonlight Readers E and their American History II Lap Book. I will also be adding into the readers again this book from the American Girl History Books Series.

Still looking to make this year easier on myself I had to do a lot of planning and unplanning, knowing we would be adding a baby into the mix with us this year. Since last year we fell short of completing my goal in US Geography I decided to hold off on starting a science or health curriculum at the beginning of the year and instead concentrate solely on Geography. I will reevaluate this plan once we are farther along in the year and how well we adjust to having a baby into the mix of our home school day.

I am sure like everyone going through 2020 crazy things have been happening everywhere. We were issued a few surprises of our own. In May we discovered we were expecting another addition to our family. To say we were surprised would be an understatement. Last year I had finally accepted the possibility our family would not be growing anymore. As items in our temporary outdoor storage had begun to be damaged by the elements and nature we decided, last fall, to sell all our baby gear we had been hanging onto. We knew that we would be able to replace these items in the future rather than hang on to them so that no one would get any use out of them.

I am excited to announce another new adventure for Momma Bear School. For the last three years, I have slowed down our school load during the month of December and taken time to focus on the season of Advent. This year I am going to share our advent plans with others, instead of keeping them to ourselves. Our plans have allowed for us to use this time to create memories and still get school hours in as well. I really enjoy this time with the girls, and I hope to help crate that for others as well.

We have had several seasons where even though home schooling was important, it was not our focus. I have learned during this time to have grace with myself and be ok with what lessons get done and do not get done.