···Mama Scribble···: Goals, goals, goals!

I'm so excited because this week my girls and I start our 'official' homeschool for the new year! Yay! Sabrina is in 2nd grade, Luna is in Kindergarten & my little Kalina is what most consider a pre-schooler.

What? You homeschool? Yes, we homeschool here in the Jubis home. Okay, now hold up, just to be clear, I don't homeschool for religious reasons (not that religious reasons offend me. Quite the contrary, to each is own.) I homeschool because I find it difficult to find a 'quality' public primary education and an 'affordable' private primary education for my kids, so the alternative is ME, an educated, skeptical, organized and highly motivated Mama like myself to do the work of educating my spongy offspring and their (big) little brains. But be under no illusion, it is not super easy to have your kids around 24/7! I love them, yes, but a lot of times it's simply exhausting to be dealing with the dynamics of a 7, 5 and 3 year old. But I do it because I'm their Mama!

Someone just asked me via my FB page, "Official Homeschool, what does that mean?" :)

Just as my girls learned to walk, eat, talk and express themselves when they were infants/toddlers, then they can certainly learn other basic/important things from me. I don't consider myself a genius but I can think for myself which is exactly what I want my daughters to do. If and when I come across a subject that is way over my head, there is the fabulous access to the world wide web, YouTube, the good ole' public library system, and several other resources at our disposal to acquire such information. There are many versions of what 'homeschooling' is to some. Here is what my homeschool is: We love to learn. Children are learning all the time. With every question, every discovery, every argument, every wonder, every opportunity to gain a new insight, learning is inevitably taking place. I've found that while I've tried to fully embrace a no rules, no structure and an 'anything goes' attitude toward my daughters' learning, i.e., Unschooling, it simply didn't quite work for my family. I'm not saying that Unschooling is bad or less important, it simply isn't for us. To those families that make Unschooling work, I tip my hat to you! For my brain to function I need to have a little bit of structured time set aside for some productive learning. Again, not to say that kids aren't learning all the time. I know that they are. Learning is what makes us humans so vastly unique and grossly complicated. My sanity, brain and mothering ability work better knowing that I have set aside some uninterrupted time devoted to something related to educating my girls even if it's a simple sewing lesson. Sewing is a fun and hands on homeschool lesson for them! All kids learn best through play so play is very important here in this home. We converted half of our garage into an engaging classroom for our girls. More pics on that in another post.

Lesson about planet Earth

Luna coloring her Earth

Sabrina's water on Earth

I'm a Mama that considers reaching goals a priority. I didn't have a lovely upbringing. I wasn't intellectually stimulated by things that were amazing to me because I wasn't raised by a mother that had the wherewithal to provide this. Okay, so I made different choices for myself. Goals. Goals are important to me and I'd like my daughters to acquire this attribute by leading by example. I want them to learn that when they decide to do something (anything), that its of the utmost importance to follow through with it. Yes, follow through is key. It's quite okay to make mistakes even when you follow things through. I am realistic not idealistic but my goals are important.

Order keeps me sane!

So what are my goals? Ummm....Okay
1. I must write every single day. No exceptions.
2. Attract more readers to my blog. (I'm up to more than 2,500 readers per month!) Thank you to my current followers and readers!
3. Make my writing work pay off. My passion is writing so getting paid to do it is a serious plus!
4. Continue to generate creative, authentic, raw, thoughtful and well written content for YOU.
5. Make my mark in the writing world. Pitch, pitch, pitch my ideas with confidence, purpose and always good intention. I'd love to be asked to write assignments for my favorite online magazines.
6. Remain open, positive and energetic in my endeavors.
7. I must never give up.
8. I must always try harder.
9. Keep my sense of humor in times of stress.
10. Don't beat myself up if and when I fail (working on it).