"B" is for "Being Fun"

This week's letter is "B" over at Ben and Me's Blogging through the Alphabet linky party. I was actually having trouble with this one, especially since the word that kept coming to my mind was "Bed". (Oh, how I love my bed.) I doubt you really care about my bed. And what's that got to do with homeschooling, anyway?

But yesterday, in the midst of making homemade pizzas and listening to my two make farting noises with our homemade Flubber, Dawson said, "Homeschooling is fun. Well, usually."

Did I hear that right? Did my 9th grader say that homeschooling is fun???? YES! I have done what I set out to do! Because, if we can't have fun, then we shouldn't be doing this. And this from a mom who is not naturally "fun". In fact, I don't think anyone would describe me as being "fun".

I have a really good homeschooling friend. Now, SHE is fun! Like on Monday, her girls were learning about the prairie and they just weren't into listening to what she had to say about it. So, she loaded them up and drove over an hour, spontaneously, to the Oklahoma Tall Grass Prairie reserve. Her philosophy includes getting out and seeing things instead of just sitting down learning about them. In other words ... to BE fun and have fun!

I am not that spontaneous, I'm afraid. We do lots of exploring with my friend and her girls. But it is always planned and well thought out (because of me). I sometimes long to be a little more like her.

So, yesterday, after we were done making (and laughing about) Flubber, I sent my two upstairs with their homemade pizzas and instructions to play video games for a half-hour or so. They were shocked.

When they came down we talked about the science behind Flubber (might as well make a lesson out of our fun, right? Baby steps.), made edible DNA strands, and finished up our work.

Brynne sat down and, out of the blue, decided to make mini kites with paper, yarn, and glitter. She was drawing and cutting out diamond shapes. Fun math. We scrapped her regular math worksheet.

Dawson got really into researching the Colt 45 for an assigned notebooking page. He followed it up to the M-16 of today and showed me all of the different guns on an app he has for his iPhone (he loves anything military). Several times I heard him say, "cool" or "that's interesting". Fun history. So we scrapped some other assignments to put off until today.

Our little exchange did inspire me to take a step back and make sure we are having Fun with, or at least are enjoying, our learning process. And that means being okay with taking a break from the mundane to explore learning in other ways.

Our word is not "F" for "Fun". Our word is "B" for "Being" Fun, Mom!  For us to have fun, I have to be willing to "Be" fun. And that takes work. But, it is so worth it!

How have you been fun this week?