Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Homeschooling - What was I thinking!

I’ll admit it. I bought my first “thinking about homeschooling” book back when Dade was about two. We had talked about it for years. But, most likely out of practicality, fear, and insecurity, we decided against it. I won’t rewrite the story, but as most of you know, that changed about 2.5 months ago.  Now we’re living the fear and insecurities previously mentioned.  I have wanted to document the beginning of our homeschooling adventures, but life has been busy, so I’m finally getting around to it now. There was bad…but then there was good.

The first month was crazy. I can’t even tell you how many times, “What in the world was I thinking?” passed though my mind. Followed by the panic of…what is a fourth grader supposed to learn in fourth grade? (Luckily, there’s a book for that!) Promptly followed by the questioning of my own intelligence and ability to be able to teach him anything.  But, we muddled though finding curriculum appropriate for his current level in each subject, and survived coming up with an agreeable homeschooling schedule. Luckily, Dade just rolled with the punches as we went through a lot of trial and error.

After about a month, we final had things moving along in a somewhat organized fashion, and I was starting to feel like this was something that we could do. Then that bubble popped. Dade had a day where a writing assignment wasn’t going well, which isn’t surprising, since he has a special hatred in his heart for writing. On that day, when he was so frustrated that I would even think to ask him to do this, he shouted out, “I want to go back to regular school.” On that day, my heart sank. I had about three days where I felt like things were finally settling into place, and that it was possible that we could actually do this, and that all disappeared. Crying seemed like the right choice.

No one to give up, we talked about things, and he insisted that regular school wouldn’t make him do that assignment. I promptly reminded him of the assignments that he had back in regular school, which were very similar to what he was doing, and the argument ended. I would like to say that was the last time that happened, but that would be a big, fat lie. Whenever he doesn’t like something that we assigned to him, he throws out the “I want to go back to regular school” complaint. We have since learned to let that roll off our backs and give him time to calm down, which he does. He then advises us that he was just kidding, and the world goes back to normal. Is it perfect? Well, duh, of course it’s not. But, it is working.

Selfishly, I will write this down as my favorite thing about homeschooling. When Dade was in regular school, he had to be up by 6:30 so he could catch the bus around 7:15. Being that he is my son, he is not a morning person, so the mornings were always filled with arguments. And, because the mornings didn’t start well, he would be a bear for the rest of the day. Well, those days are gone. He has gotten into the habit of waking up on his own, when his body is ready. It took a while, but that happens between 7:30 and 8:00 pretty regularly now, and he is such a different kid. He smiles in the morning. He still argues about breakfast, but that will never change. Then, he eagerly goes and starts his homework, without having to be told. He decides what order he wants to do his subjects in each day. He takes breaks when he wants to. He gets so excited about being given the respect to have some control over his schooling, that he works hard to get everything done that needs to be done each day, so he doesn’t lose that privilege. He’s just a lot more fun to be around now!

Academically, this was clearly the right choice, which eases my mind every day.

Math – This is his subject. We don’t even assign anything for this class because he is so self-directed. He uses the virtual school for this subject, and any workbooks/worksheets that he can get his hands on. Within the first two weeks, he finished up the 4^th grade curriculum from where he left off after leaving school. Over the last two months, he completed the 5^th grade curriculum, and has now moved on to the 6^th grade work. We monitor his grades, and unless they start falling, we’re just going to let him go as far ahead as he wants to.

Scott handles:

Science – They (I do not include myself in this, because science is completely Scott and Dade) just finished up a series on the solar system. Now they’re taking apart our old electronics. I have no idea what they’re learning, but I’m okay with that! My little contribution is taking him to OMSI to see the Body Works exhibit.

Art – They are learning to draw together. There is also an art appreciation course that Dade is taking thought his virtual school. Then there are arts & crafts that he does with me, just for fun.

Music – Scott is helping Dade with his piano, which is what we are considering music class. Dade refuses to stop playing his obnoxious recorder, so he is continuing to self-teach himself that joyful little instrument.

Bonus class – At the beginning of the year, Scott started taking a programming class; Code Academy. Dade saw him working on that, and asked if he could learn. So, now the two of them are working on programming together, and they speak in a language I don’t understand. Dade is currently working on writing a program that will assign percentages to the different colors of Smarties in a bag of Smarties. When we were grocery shopping, he told me that he wished the world were more in binary. There are days that I just want to punch Scott for doing that to my child.

Coffee appreciation – which I will not discuss. J

My classes:

Reading, writing, spelling, and language arts are all done with workbooks…and time. These were not subjects that he was interested in when in school, but he seems to be enjoying them immensely now. He has gone way ahead in his spelling book, and I don’t know why. He has also been begging me for the last two weeks to give him more proofreading assignments.

Social Studies – He is just finishing up a government unit through the virtual school. We postponed this, so we could do this in conjunction with a Friday School class, but at the end of the month, we’re starting a unit study on the American Revolution!!!

Geography – He loves geography, so I just found the perfect curriculum to use, that we will be starting in a week. First, there is “Road Trip USA,” which will take us through each of the states. I’m going to try and find some way to work our trip across the country into the planning for this curriculum. And, second, there is “Expedition Earth,” which will take us through over 30 countries.

Photography – We’re going to start working on some basics of photography.

Physical fitness – Tennis lessons and swimming lessons.

Finally – aside from Dade’s classes, Scott’s classes, and my classes, his will be starting Friday School in the beginning of March. We joined a local homeschooling co-op, and twice a year they do something called Friday School. The kids sign up for 3 classes that run for about 2.5 months on Friday mornings. He is signed up for Frontier Boys, (the boys will learn what it was like to live in the pioneer days – this is the class that we’re going to use in conjunction with our American Revolution unit) music class, and World Studies, because he wants to do even more geography – and because the chess class was already full.

So, this pretty much sums up the first 2.5 months of homeschooling. I was worried about people reacting poorly to our choice, but we haven’t encountered that problem. My mom was asking me questions about homeschooling a couple days ago, just trying to understand how it all works, and was happy when I offered to bring some stuff along when we come visit, so she can see what we do. So, I’m happy to say that people are more interested than judgmental, and I really appreciate that support!

Overall, homeschooling is working right now, but I still have days that I question what I was thinking!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday