The Upside

This homeschooling thing has had me a little shook.

We hadn't planned to undertake it, but did so because we had kiddos dealing with some wacky health issues and felt we'd be better able to get on top of it all if we had the kids home where we could be in control of most of the facets of their lives.

Smart idea. Hard solution.

I like to P-L-A-N. Methodically. Deliberately. Thoroughly. In triplicate. With charts and outlines and diagrams. Winging it is not my thing. Ever.

Winging it on something as important as my kids' education has had me in vapors. But, I've talked to lots of people who are good at this, have read a lot and have spent hours at the library (that new resource I discovered recently). I did this for a few weeks, then figured we'd better just get started. We've jumped in and it seems to be going OK. We're two days in.

Here's my big concern: my kids are really, really smart. What if, in 3 short months, I break them? Like, the smart part of their brain will be irreversibly broken by my feeble attempts at educating them? It's keeping me awake. Seriously, my eyes are extra dry these days because I'm spending what should be sleeping hours with my eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.

I'm sure it will be fine. I'm going to keep at it, and we'll be fine. I'm certain of it. How much damage can I do in 3 months? OK, never mind. I can't go there. I'm just going to stick to the belief that somehow it will all be OK.

The kids are calm so I suppose I can be, too. Tentatively.

We did discover two upsides today:

1) Because we're doing this learning thing together, I'm learning new things, too. Like, did you know that they found ancient graffiti in Egypt? Translated it reads, "Go hang yourself." I'm not kidding. Can't you just picture that early tagger hoodlum, wearing a gold ankh upside down on a big chain to flash his gang sign, standing lookout while his buddy used spray soot & vegetable gum ink to leave that scathing graffiti on the side of some big-wig's pyramid? Ahhh, kids.

2) The other upside? When the kids are using all of the Internet sources in the house for their schoolwork and it's not my turn to do the dishes, I'm left at loose ends. Me + loose ends= Cooking!

The kids have discovered that "school lunch" can be a beautiful thing. That is, if you think honey glazed salmon, rice and spinach are beautiful things. Around here we do.


The kids discovered today that school lunch in Momland does not mean squeaky chicken nuggets or cardboard pizza. They'll soon discover it doesn't mean salmon every day, either, but why burst their happy little bubble before we have to?

I have to say this was a particularly yummy dish. Want to try it yourself?

Here you go:

Honey Glazed Salmon

4 Salmon fillets
2 Tbs Canola oil
1 Tbs Honey
2 Cloves minced garlic
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place salmon in an ungreased 9 x 13 pan; sprinkle with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, mix the oil, honey and garlic. Brush on fillets.

Bake covered for 10 minutes; uncover and bake additional 10 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice and vegetable. We started with everything side by side on the plate, then just mixed it all together. We had steamed spinach as our green thing. It was a great choice.

Enjoy!

Love from the farm,
Teri

(UPDATE: Oh good grief. My fears of being inadequate are confirmed. It wasn't Egyptian graffiti, it was Pompeiian. See? I don't know what I'm doing. Criminy.)