Homeschooling with Chocolate, Vanilla and Caramel

My 5-Year Old Describes Homeschooling

2011-03-16T12:27:00.001-04:00

Lately, my daughter has been asking me if she can send emails to her grandparents who live in Papua New Guinea. She dictates and I write it all down, word for word, and send it off to my parents. Normally, she tells them about her current love of Zhu Zhu pets, her upcoming horseback riding lessons, her friend Emma's birthday party, and what she's planning to do for her own birthday, which is 7 months away (but hey, it's never too early to start planning).

A couple of days ago, she wanted to tell them all about homeschooling. Here is what she said:

*****

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

Today in math I learned about a half-dollar, pennies, nickels and dimes. I learned about telling time. If the time is 4 o'clock, then one hour before is 3 o'clock and one hour after is 5 o'clock. I did adding. I added 85 + 2, 87 + 0, and 83 + 3 [mom's note: she uses a number line]. I also did word problems. Here is one: Bob has 2 toy cars and Jim has 3 toy cars. How many cars do they have altogether? The answer is 5! I did more adding, and more telling time.

My favorite page in my science book is the rainforest page. There are toucans, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, capybaras, turtles, anacondas, macaws, morpho butterflies, arrow-poison frogs, giant water lilies, hummingbirds, and jaguars.

I also like the grasslands page. It has antelopes, vultures, zebras, elephants, rhinos, wildebeests, hyenas, and warthogs in Africa.

The castle page in my history book has knights on horses. There is a big castle with a jester and music-players for when people are eating. There are big, fancy beds. There is a dungeon where people go when they do really bad things. Knights do jousting. Daddy did a fun thing. He hung up a bunch of balloons and drew faces on them. He rolled up magazines and those were our lances, and we would joust the balloons on our stick horses.

In handwriting, I learned lowercase k's and I wrote these words: "out," "doll," "cake" and "We like kites." Last time, I wrote these words: "old," "will," "gate" and "Leo was lost."

We also did music. We learned about Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Gershwin, Copeland, and Bernstein. We listened to their music on a CD. We liked the music. We like Bernstein the best. We acted it out. We pretended we were in a city, and we were hurrying around, because the music sounded like we were in a city!

My two front teeth are getting loose! My other teeth that came out before are growing. I can't wait to see you. We will have lots of fun together.

Love,

Holly

P.S. I forgot to tell you about my reading. I read a book called, "Is Don Sad?" The first page says, "Don is a fat ram." Don eats grass. Don bites his lip and it hurts and he sobs. His friend Jan pats him and dabs his lip. And Don is happy.

I Could Really Use a Maid Right About Now

2011-03-04T11:00:00.002-05:00

I wish you could see my house today. You would think a cyclone touched down here (a strange cyclone that only hit one house in the neighborhood, and only the interior of that house...).

It's 10:30 am as I write this, and breakfast dishes are still on the table. Dinner dishes from last night are stacked on the counter. The dishwasher is full of clean dishes that I need to put away. The living room...where do I begin? The kids' "turtle habitat" lays strewn all over, made up of boxes from the basement that have been cut and taped together, leftover pillow stuffing from one of my projects, some library books (turtles apparently enjoy reading in their free time) and a big white blanket draped over everything.

I truly wish I was a homeschooling mom who always had it together. My house would always be clean and tidy. My kids would always be dressed and looking nice. I would always have a great supper on the table.

Well, life just isn't like that all the time and some days, I'm happy to surrender to the cyclone. Take this morning, for instance. I woke up not feeling well. I dragged myself downstairs to feed the kids breakfast. And then I decided to just take the day off -- stay in pajamas well past noon, spend the morning blogging, and let the kids destroy the living room with their turtle habitat.

Later this afternoon, I'll tackle the kitchen. The kids will clean up the living room. We'll get dressed. There will be no traces of the cyclone that swept through this morning. And I'll be feeling better -- happy to have spent time blogging, happy that the kids had a great morning playing and creating, and happy that I'm not trying to be the perfect homeschooling mom.

Goodbye, Blog

2009-09-12T14:22:00.003-04:00

For the past couple of weeks, I've been mulling over whether I should continue writing my blogs.

When I started blogging almost 3 years ago, I was really struggling. Our dear friends' baby had died just a couple of hours after birth and I had been there to watch him slip from life to death. My own baby was just a few weeks old and I was battling post partum depression. I was doing the bookkeeping and office administration from home for our Subway store and was having a hard time juggling two kids and office work. Our landlords had decided to sell the condo we were renting, so we were trying to figure out what we would do next -- continue renting, or buy a townhouse which would mean moving about 30 minutes away to an area we could afford.

Blogging provided me with a welcome escape. I've always loved writing, and blogging was a way to do what I loved without the pressure of having to try to sell pieces or impress an editor. It became a wonderful outlet and something I looked forward to.

A few months later when we did buy a townhouse and started attending a church much closer to our new home, blogging and reading other people's blogs helped me get to know people much faster and provided easy conversation starters when I would see them around church.

For the past 3 years I've really enjoyed sharing our life and my thoughts here in my blog. But lately I've been wondering if my season for blogging is perhaps over. I'm at a much healthier place personally than I was 3 years ago. My kids are almost 5 and 3, and I'm thoroughly enjoying watching them grow and develop. My friend whose baby died now has an adorable 18-month old who brings so much happiness to her and her husband. We sold our Subway store and I no longer do the bookwork and office administration. We're settled in our townhouse and neighborhood, feeling like we really belong here and enjoying our neighbors. I belong to a great moms group of about 70 women who meet every other week for speakers, small group discussion and a buffet breakfast while our kids are watched after by volunteers.

I write this not to make it sound like our life is perfect, because it's not and we have plenty of problems and struggles, but I feel much healthier and solid than I did 3 years ago.

Lately I just haven't enjoyed blogging as much. Sometimes it's actually felt like a burden. And then last week I realized, "Why am I putting so much pressure on myself to continue my blog if I don't feel the need for it personally and God has brought other things into my life right now that I enjoy focusing on, like writing for our moms group newsletter?"

So I've decided that I'm going to stop blogging (at least, that's the plan...who knows, I may go through such withdrawal that I'm back here in a few weeks!). I feel a little sad, because I've really enjoyed the blogging community I've become a part of. I have so appreciated everyone's thoughtful, interesting comments. They have meant more to me that you know!

I'm not going to delete my main family blog. It will still be there. But I'm not going to write any more. I'll just use to as a place to post pictures of the kids so my overseas parents and our "adopted Grandma" can see what the kids have been up to.

I haven't quite decided what to do about this blog. I'll probably just leave it for now in case I decide to return to it later.

So goodbye, blog, and goodbye to all my blogging friends! God bless you!

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Homeschooling Day

2009-08-31T06:00:00.004-04:00

If you also read our family blog, you'll notice I have the same post on both blogs this week. This post is more about being real in blogging, than it is strictly about homeschooling, so I felt like it applied to both blogs. Check back next Monday for my reflections on our first month of homeschooling.

This past week, we had a rough homeschooling day.

Michael woke up cranky and it continued all morning. He cried and got upset every time his Lego building fell over (which was many times). Holly didn't want to do her homeschooling, and I was really dragging for some reason.

Then we went grocery shopping in the afternoon and Michael and Holly were out of sorts. Prison may not be very sucessful at reforming people, but I'm sure that grocery shopping with two kids would do the trick.

By the end of the day, I wanted to quit homeschooling and send my kids to my sister's house for a month.

Originally, I intended to write a post about something totally different. However, after our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad homeschooling day, I thought it was more important to blog about this.

Here's the reason why. Sometimes when I read blogs, I feel discouraged because it seems like everyone's life is going so well except for mine. Everyone else is taking great vacations, having a grand time with their kids and getting along perfectly with their husband.

I know the real problem is me -- my lack of contentment and my tendency to compare my life with others'. But I also think a little bit of it is the fact that many of us tend to blog about the good things. I do. I don't normally write about the big arguments I have with my husband, the days I yell at my kids, or the financial struggles we have living on one income.

I do a disservice to myself and everyone who reads my blog if I'm only willing to write about what goes well. Not only do I present an inaccurate view of our family life, but I rob others of the chance to be encouraged by the fact that they are not the only ones who don't have it all together. This doesn't mean I inappropriately reveal everything about life in our family, but rather that I am not too proud to admit that sometimes I have rotten days.

My friend Stephanie recently wrote a post that I really appreciated. It addressed this very thing. It's called My Real Life and it talks about the parts of her life that she doesn't usually reveal on her blog.

By the time my husband came home from work, little Michael had apparently worked out a plan to help Mom get back on track. "Me, Holly, Daddy go Inner Harbor [a place the kids love in downtown Baltimore]. Mommy not go!"

When I heard that, I burst out laughing. "Michael," I said, "you don't want me to come?!" He replied, "No, you go sleep in bedroom!" I guess he already knows that a little more sleep solves many of Mom's attitude problems.

That night during our prayer when I put him to bed, I asked God to help us all have a better day the next day. Little Michael smiled up at me and said repentantly, "I sorry, Mommy. I sorry." My heart melted.

Maybe it wasn't such a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day after all.

Just How Busy Should We Be?

2009-08-17T06:00:00.002-04:00

One of the things that I've been thinking through lately is how many outside activities we should be involved in this year, and what kind.

There are lots of things we could pursue -- playgroups, moms groups, Bible Study groups, homeschooling co-ops, sports activities, music lessons... Just thinking about it all makes my head spin.

On one hand, I don't want to have so many activities that we're simply dragging ourselves from one commitment to another. On the other hand, the right activities can make life rich and enjoyable.

This year, I've decided that we'll each have one main activity.

Mine is MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) which meets at our church every other week. Around 40 or 50 moms attend while our kids are looked after in age-appropriate classes by wonderful volunteers. We enjoy a buffet breakfast, speakers, small group discussion time, and outside playgroups. This group was a lifesaver to me last year (in fact, when my husband met one of the "mentor moms" -- an older woman who encourages us younger moms -- he said, "Oh! So you're the reason my wife is so much happier this year!").

Holly's activity is her free preschool art class at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore that she and I attend one morning a month. It's a fabulous program. Miss Sarah reads a book about art, then we go and look at several paintings in the museum as Miss Sarah guides the preschoolers in a discussion of different art concepts, then we do a related art activity. Not only do Holly and I get to spend one-on-one time together, we also get to learn about art, and Holly always has a neat project to bring home.

Michael's activity is a toddler art class at the same museum. This one I imposed on him (yes, the drawbacks of being the youngest in the family!). Although Holly's art class is free, space is limited and slots fill up very quickly. Families who buy a $75 family membership to the museum get priority registration for the class. Since Holly had been asking me for months to find an art class for her, I was more than willing to pay $75 for an entire year's worth of classes. Since we already bought a membership, I figured this could be Michael's activity too, as it wouldn't cost us any additional money, and meant that each child's class is only $3. We pay $2 for parking, and pack a picnic lunch, making the grand total $5. His hasn't started yet, but if Holly's class is any indication of what his class will be like, it will be great.

Of course, MOPS and art class aren't the only things we'll be doing this year, but those are the main things we're going to focus on. We'll still get together with friends for playdates, go to the library every week, and go on field trips. But hopefully, keeping things simple will give us time to enjoy each other, our activities, and our homeschooling.

Homeschooling: The Honeymoon is Over

2009-08-10T06:00:00.002-04:00

My last couple of posts have been about how well homeschooling is going for us. Those posts were glowing tributes to our curriculum, to how easily we had transitioned to homeschooling, and to how well we were all doing.

For anyone who felt a little depressed after reading those posts and thought, "That's nice for them, but why don't I feel the same glorious feelings she does?!" then this post will make you feel a whole lot better.

That's because the honeymoon is officially over. In the back of my mind, I sort of knew we were in that "everything is great" stage, but boy was I enjoying it and hoping that perhaps it would be a permanent fixture in our homeschooling adventure. Well, it wasn't exactly.

This week, my 2.5 year old son who previously had been happy to join in Holly's homeschooling activities or play nicely by himself decided that he wanted ALL of my attention. That didn't work so well for me. My poor daughter got so frustrated at the constant interruptions ("Mom, can you PLEASE stop fixing his Lego train and finish our history?!").

And then my daughter just didn't want to do any homeschooling a couple of days. I told her that we needed to at least do some work, and once we got into it she actually wanted to do more than I had planned, but it certainly wasn't like day one when she was begging me to do school.

Yes, I guess our homeschooling honeymoon had to end some time or another, but I was really enjoying it and I'm kind of sad to see it go. One thing that's certain, though -- I feel about homeschooling the way I felt about marriage: the honeymoon may be over, but I'm still really glad I married this guy!

Our First Week of Homeschooling: 4 Things That Surprised Me

2009-08-03T06:00:00.002-04:00

Our first week of homeschooling is officially under our belt. Here are 4 things that have surprised me.

1) How much I love it.

I have to chalk this up to the great materials in the Sonlight Newcomers Kindergarten Package. Considering that I always said I would never homeschool, the fact that I am enjoying it as much (more?) than the kids is a miracle. The books we use are fascinating, the activities in the Instructor's Guides are fun, and there is lots of reading. My kids and I love to read, so Sonlight's literature-based curriculum is perfect for us. I wake up each morning excited about the new things we will learn together.

2) How confident I feel.

Again, I have to give credit to Sonlight for their marvelous Instructor's Guides that come with every subject. Having never taken even one elementary education class, I need a lot of guidance. The Instructor's Guides list everything I need to do each day. And Sonlight is adamant that parents not just rotely follow every single lesson plan, but tailor the activities and assignments to their children. We are free to go at a pace that works for Holly, and I know that she is receiving a great education.

I spent a lot of time choosing the right curriculum for us, and I think this is a large reason why I feel so confident. I spent weeks looking at all sorts of curriculum companies -- their educational philosphy, their materials, their support resources (Sonlight provides online forums where I can talk to other moms who are using the same Kindergarten curriculum). A different curriculum might not have worked as well for us and made me second-guess our decison to homeschool this year.

3) How well Michael has done.

Before we started homeschooling, I had no idea how well 2 1/2 year old Michael would fit into all of this. He's done much better than I thought he would. He normally sits on my lap if we're working at the table, or snuggles in my lap when we read our History and Science books. He doesn't stick around for the Read-Alouds (right now we're doing The Boxcar Children) but usually plays by himself or asks me "You done yet?" every few minutes.

As much as possible, I try to include him in whatever we're doing. On Friday, Holly was counting colorful beads for a math lesson. I let Michael count some too ("One, two, three, eight, nine, ten, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen!"). When Holly practices Handwriting Michael uses her little chalkboard and practices too. When we sing our Bible memory verses on CD, Michael sings along.

4) How easily homeschooling has fit into our family life.

Before we started homeschooling, I wasn't sure how much time it would take every day. I hesitated to start this summer, even though my daughter was begging me to, because I didn't want us to miss out on our fun activities outdoors.

It turns out that we haven't really had to change our daily routine much at all. We still do our normal morning activities (library, playdates at the park with friends, grocery shopping and such) then we stick around home in the afternoons. I still cook dinner while the kids nap, so my afternoons are free to interact with them. We do homeschooling in the afternoons -- a few subjects every day as Holly is interested. The Kindergarten curriculum only takes about 2 hours a day for all subjects, but I'm not rigid about having to accomplish everything every day. I just rotate subjects so that we are getting through them every couple of days. In the evening after the kids are in bed, I briefly look over upcoming lessons and make any changes that I need to.

Additional Thoughts

I'm sure that part of the ease with which we've transitioned to homeschooling is due to three additional factors. One is the fact that we are starting with Kindergarten, which is easy for me to guide Holly through and doesn't require loads of time each day.

The second is the ages of my kids. Holly is almost 5, and Michael is approaching 3. I don't have any little babies who require feedings every two hours and who keep me up at night. Michael is old enough to be very interested in what Holly does, and when he gets bored, he's usually able to entertain himself.

And last, because my kids are still young, I'm used to having them with me all day, so having Holly around for homeschooling isn't any different than life usually is. I'm guessing it might have been a harder transition if she had gone to school for several years and I'd gotten used to that lovely free time each day.

I know that there will be days that are hard, but I'm thankful that right now, homeschooling is working well for us and we're really happy we made this decision.

Our First Day of Homeschooling: How It Went

2009-07-26T13:34:00.008-04:00

Ever since my daughter's homeschooling materials arrived back in June, she's been asking me if we could start homeschooling. I figured we should just enjoy our summer and start at the end of August when all the neighborhood kids would be going back too.

But she kept asking...and asking...including last Thursday afternoon, when she looked up at me and said in a sweet, pleading voice, "Mom, can we PLEASE start my homeschool? I really want to learn my math!"

I gazed at her eager little face and, in a strange out-of-body experience, found myself saying, "Yes! We can. We will start tomorrow morning!" She stared at me in disbelief (I guess she was expecting the old "Let's just enjoy our summer and we'll start in August" line again). And I looked at myself in disbelief, wondering what I had just agreed to.

Here's how our first day went:

6:15 am -- My daughter bounds into our bedroom and stands on my side of the bed, breathing heavily with excitement. I keep my eyes tightly shut, hoping she will go back to bed. But that, of course, is wishful thinking.

"Hey, Mom," she whispers, "is it time to start my homeschooling now?"

Bless her heart. She goes downstairs to play, and I sleep until 7 am, when Michael wakes up.

7-7:30 am -- I get ready for the day: wash my face, brush my teeth, get dressed, put on makeup, curl my hair. Hey, I want to look good for this big first day. After all, this is my new job and I certainly don't want my "client" thinking I don't take her seriously. Amazingly, the kids play Legos downstairs peacefully in the living room. I make a quick trip to the laundry room and stick in a load of darks that I sorted the night before. (I do one load a day -- whites on Monday, pinks/reds on Tuesday, blues/greens on Wednesday, etc. Honestly, it takes a full day for that one load to make its way through the whole process.)

7:30-8 am -- We eat breakfast. Michael wants Cream of Wheat, Holly has a piece of toast with grape jelly, and I feed my morning addiction: a cup of Twinnings English Breakfast Tea with milk and brown sugar , and a piece of hot toast with butter and peanut butter.

8-8:30 am -- I clean up the breakfast table, unload the dishwasher, wipe all the counters and sweep the kitchen floor. Holly asks me about 10 times if I'm done yet so we can start our homeschooling.

8:30-8:45 am -- Get the kids dressed. Holly dresses herself, so I dress Michael and then fix their hair. Holly convinces me just to put hers up in a ponytail because it's much faster than our usual routine of combing through it. It'll be a lot more tangled tomorrow, but she's so excited that it's worth it. I run down to the laundry room and put the load of darks into the dryer.

8:45-9 am -- We start! We begin with Bible. We read a chapter in the children's Bible story book, and then start memorizing this week's Bible verse. We'll learn one verse for every letter of the alphabet, and today we're starting with "A." After we repeat it several times with hand gestures, we pop in the CD that has each verse set to music. The kids love this, and even Michael tries to sing along.

9-9:30 am -- Language Arts. This week's letter is "F." Holly already knows her letters, but I figure she'll enjoy the review. We find "F" in her Picture Dictionary and look at all the things that start with the letter F. Michael enjoys naming the objects too. Then we make a sheet with the letter F written in the middle and she cuts out, colors, and pastes objects all around the the page that begin with F.

We move on to handwriting. We're using Handwriting Without Tears, which I love. We first make an F out of wooden pieces, and even Michael joins in this. Then we use a little chalkboard to draw the letter F several times. Holly already knows how to write most of the letters, but we work on spacing and neatness. Last, she uses her handwriting book to practice several Fs. I'm pretty amazed that Michael, who is 2 1/2, has stuck with us for so long. He sits on my lap and watches and copies everything Holly does.

9:30-9:45 -- Math. Holly breezes through this lesson which is about counting. But again, I figure the review is fine.

9:45-10:15 am -- Break. We have a snack, play a game of Memory (Holly's favorite game right now), and read a couple of books to Michael.

10:15-10:30 am -- History/Geography. We use the Usborne Internet-Linked Children's Encylopedia. I love this book. The pictures are fascinating and the kids are glued to it. Today's lesson is on dinosaurs. We learn about the different kinds of dinosaurs and some of their names. Then we hop on the internet link and play an online game of dinosaur matching. My daughter is thrilled. Sonlight's History program is based on the Narrative Method of learning, so I ask Holly what she remembers. She repeats several key facts about dinosaurs and I'm satisfied that she got it. In future lessons, we will also use a book called Living Long Ago, a timeline on which to glue pictures of important historical people and events, and a laminated map to locate places we read about.

10:30-10:45 am -- Science. By now, we have completely lost Michael who is alternately playing with his toys and asking me if we're finished yet. Holly's interest seems to be waning a bit, but she says she wants to continue. The lesson is titled "Our Planet" and includes information about earth rotating once every 24 hours, and traveling around the sun in a year. Holly gets a glazed look in her eyes and I can tell it's time to stop. I didn't think she would really get these concepts, but we'll go back over the material when she's fresher and see if that helps . Our science curriculum includes experiments, which I'm looking forward to and think the kids will enjoy.

10:45-11 am -- Read-alouds. The final part of our curriculum includes books that parents read to their children. Starting with 3rd grade and up, these books are linked to the history lessons, but in Kindergarten, they're just enjoyable family books. Holly loves reading, so I know this is a great way to wrap up our morning. We read the first chapter of The Boxcar Children and she is able to answer several questions afterward about the story.

11-11:30 am -- We go outside and play. The kids are eager to be outside, racing up and down the sidewalk on their tricycles. I ask Holly if she liked her first day of homeschooling. "Yes!" she says, her eyes twinkling.

As I sit on the front steps watching the kids, I marvel at how well our first morning went. The curriculum we purchased includes Instructor's Guides which break down every subject into manageable daily assignments. All I had to do was tailor the plan to fit Holly by deleting a couple of assignments.

I know that not every day will be this smooth, but this homeschooling thing may really grow on me.

Better Than Christmas Morning

2009-07-20T17:23:00.001-04:00

The company we purchased our homeschooling materials through, Sonlight, has a new blog where they post stories of "Box Day," the day customers' boxes arrive with all their homeschooling materials inside.

I wrote up our story and sent some photos, and they are on Sonlight's Box Day blog.

Here is the link: http://boxday.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-is-better-than-christmas.html

Happy reading!

Our Homeschooling Year: When Do We Start? When Do We End?

2009-07-13T06:00:00.001-04:00

One of the cool things I realized a couple of weeks ago is that because I am now the teacher, the principal and the administration (as well as the cook and janitor, but I digress) I am the one who gets to decide when we do school and when we take vacations.

The past couple of weeks I've spent quite a bit of time thinking through all of this. Normally, of course, someone else would hand me a calendar that mapped out full school days, half-days, teacher conference days, Christmas vacation, and Spring Break.

But now that we have decided to homeschool, I am the lucky one who gets to decide these things.

There are about as many ways to homeschool as there are people who do it. Many homeschooling families I know start up in late August or early September and finish at the end of May. But I've read about people who homeschool year-round, taking off perhaps 6 weeks at Christmas and a few more weeks here and there throughout the year. And I recently read a homeschooling forum where one mom was considering taking her "summer" break during 2 or 3 months in the fall because that was when her kids liked to be outdoors.

Where we live, winters are pretty cold and boring, but summer is a great time. It gets hot, but not unbearably so until late summer. Plus, the neighborhood kids we know are all out of school during the summer and I think it would be hard for Holly to do school when exciting things were happening right outside our living room window. So I think we will definitely take summers off.

The curriculum we chose for next year, Sonlight, provides work for about 36 weeks of school. That leaves us with about 16 weeks off.

Of course, having never homeschooled before, I have no idea how quickly or slowly we will go through the material. It will probably be some of both, I'm guessing, depending on what is challenging for Holly and what is easy.

Right now, I'm thinking of doing a system of 5 weeks on and one week off, with a couple more weeks at major holidays, and a couple of months off during the summer. Not yet knowing quite how we will need to pace ourselves, this will allow us to have a full week off every few weeks, and if we are in a good groove and don't want to take a week off, we can just keep on going.

I tend to be a person who likes having a routine and likes planning ahead. I have some friends who feel very restricted by a routine and prefer to live spontaneously, deciding day by day how to spend their time.

I've often wished I was more like that. But I've learned over the years that I don't function very well that way, and having a good routine and planning ahead actually gives me the freedom to be more flexible and spontaneous because I know there is a system in place for getting everything done. Not having a routine or plan ends up making me feel frazzled because I tend to react to crisis after crisis: no more diapers for Michael, out of toilet paper, no pasta for the dish I need to make for dinner, etc.

Because I know this about myself, I realized that I will probably be able to relax a lot more with homeschooling if I plan out our year in advance in terms of when to do school and when to take breaks. We may not end up following this plan at all, and that's totally fine with me. Just having a game plan will make me feel better even if it ends up not working at all.

So our first day of homeschooling is going to be August 31. Hopefully we'll wrap up our year by mid to late June. And hopefully, somewhere in between, we'll get some learning done!

Homeschooling moms, when does your school year begin and end? What has worked well for you and what hasn't worked very well? How do you decide when to take breaks and when to keep plugging away? Do you schedule your year ahead of time, or just go with the flow?

Homeschooling: 5 Things I'm Not Worried About

2009-07-02T23:59:00.019-04:00

So we've made the leap and decided to homeschool our daughter next year.

I'm quite amazed that I am now, officially, a "homeschooling mom." I keep thinking that strange-sounding title belongs to someone else, not me -- just like "wife" sounded pretty strange once my husband and I got married, and "mother" sounded a bit weird too after we had our daughter.

I never thought I would homeschool. In fact, I always said I would NOT homeschool (not because I didn't like homeschooling, but because I have never had any desire to be a teacher). So the fact that I am going to be devoting a major part of my life next year to this pursuit is rather funny, and the fact that I am totally excited about it is even funnier.

As I think about homeschooling, there are many things I'm still thinking through: how best to organize our days, how much time our various subjects will take, and how flexible or scheduled to be. But there are some things I'm not worried about at all.

1. That we'll be isolated. The great thing about homeschooling is that we can decide how many extra activities we want to be involved in. For months, Holly has been asking me to find a painting class for her to take. I finally found a free art class for preschoolers at The Walters Art Museum, which she's very excited about. We're also going to continue MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) where every other week we meet with 60 other moms and their kids, the moms enjoying a wonderful hot breakfast and a speaker or small group time while the kids are looked after in age-appropriate classes by wonderful volunteers. And we'll still be able to have playdates with our friends and neighbors.

2. That it will be boring. I spent weeks researching curriculum options, and the company I finally settled on, Sonlight, has amazing materials. When our materials arrived in two big boxes, and we opened everything up, my daughter had over 60 items she will be using next year -- fascinating books like the Usborne Internet-Linked Children's Encyclopedia, kits containing everything we will need for science experiments, manipulatives so she can learn math, and so on. Holly kept pulling items out of the boxes yelling, "Hey Mom, look at THIS!" No, I don't think any of us will be bored.

3. That the kids and I will get tired of each other. I'm not worried about this because I'm confident we will get tired of each other at times (thus, I don't need to worry about it). Let's face it, I've already been with these little people almost every day for the past 4 years, and I've already experienced those days when I wish I had a different job...one that required leaving the house for an extended amount of time. I'm sure homeschooling will be the same way on occasion and I won't worry too much when those feelings strike.

4. The fact that I'm not a teacher. Not only am I not a teacher, it's always been one of the worst careers I could imagine. Not because it's a horrible profession (my own awesome mom is a teacher!), but because I would simply be dreadful in front of a class full of pupils. The very thought strikes fear in my heart. What I've learned through a lot of reading and research is that you don't have to be a teacher in order to homeschool your kids. Thankfully, my "class" will consist of just one pupil who I know really, really well. Also thankfully, there are curriculum packages out there for people like me so I don't even have to write my own lesson plans. Now how nifty is that?

5. That it might not work out well. The beauty of homeschooling Holly this year is that because her birthday is one month after the cut-off date for kindergarten, I don't yet have to register with the county even though we're actually going to be doing kindergarten instead of preschool. This means that we have total freedom to try homeschooling without the pressure of having any kind of oversight. It means that if we love it, we can do it again next year "for real" when I will have to meet twice a year with county officials to make sure I am covering the mandated subjects, and if we don't love it, we can say, "Well, that was a nice try," and look at other options.

I've always enjoyed trying new things, whether it's a new ethnic restaurant, a new drink at Starbucks or visiting a country I've never been to before. Homeschooling will be a new adventure for all of us, and I'm looking forward to sharing our journey with you!

***

Our homeschooling boxes arrive! One happy girl.

The awesome materials we'll be using next year.

The Case Against Homeschooling?

2009-06-13T20:12:00.004-04:00

A friend recently sent me a link to a blog post titled, The Case Against Homeschooling. I don't think I've ever seen a blog post with so many comments: 805 of them at the time I viewed it.

After reading the author's "top ten reasons why homeschooling parents are doing the wrong thing," I didn't feel angry (why bother?!), but a bit sad.

I don't think all schools are terrible. I don't think all teachers are terrible. I don't think parents who put their kids in school are terrible.

In fact, I think it's great that our country gives us so many options when it comes to education. I love the fact that people can educate their kids through public schools, secular private schools, religious private schools, tutors, or homeschooling (or some combination of these).

As parents, we're all trying to do the best we can with our kids, and one solitary option won't necessarily meet the needs of every family. In fact, one single option won't necessarily meet the needs of every child within a family either. I know some families who at different times have had a couple of kids doing homeschooling and a couple of kids in school. I think we're all a lot better and healthier when people have options.

I just wish we could graciously respect the educational choices other people make, even if we don't agree with them.

Me? Homeschool? You've Got to be Kidding!

2009-04-09T11:00:00.002-04:00

This post originally appeared in our family blog, Chocolate, Vanilla and Caramel.

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's the fact that whenever I say I will never do something, I always end up doing it.

Take children. In college, I decided I was never going to have children. Too much work and besides, I wanted to be a career woman.

And marriage. One too many broken hearts had convinced me I was better off on my own.

And cooking. Not only was I going to hire a cook, but also a cleaning person (those were my naive days when I thought a new college graduate could actually make enough to hire a cook and a maid).

Or townhouses. When I moved to the East Coast 10 years ago, I just couldn't understand why people would willingly buy a cell-like home for twice as much as my Iowa parents paid for their single family home.

And so it goes. As you have guessed, I am currently doing all of these things: I am married, have two kids, do most of the cooking and cleaning in our household, and live in a townhouse. (I now realize I should have made declarations more along the lines of "I will never live in a beach-side mansion," and "I will never spend my days traveling around the world having fun.")

So I suppose I should have known better than to think "I will never homeschool."

It wasn't that I had anything against homeschooling. My own sister homeschools her kids and quite frankly, my 6-year old niece knows more about the discovery of King Tut than I will ever know. The kids are all delightful, engaging and energetic.

It's just that homeschooling was certainly, definitely not for me. A few months ago, a friend asked me if I would ever homeschool my kids.

I laughed and said, "Oh NO! No way. Nope."

And then I started looking into our schooling choices for our daughter. Here's what I found:

Public school. Unfortunately, the school my kids are zoned to attend is the worst one in the area in terms of test scores. Not too encouraging.

Private school. $$$. The only way we could make this option work right now is if we sold the house and lived in a tent in someone's back yard.

Co-op preschool. Weird times. I can hardly remember my own birthday, let alone different school times on different days.

I emailed several people I know who homeschool their kids and who are normal (to be fair, I don't actually know any abnormal homeschooling people, but I hear they are out there).

"I NEVER thought I would homeschool," most of them said, "but when I started looking into the schooling choices, it seemed to be the best fit."

I have to admit that I already knew the school situation before we moved here. But we loved the neighborhood and the community, and I figured we would just sort out the schooling thing when the time arrived.

Part of the problem is that I don't believe we should have to move into a home we can't afford so my kids can get a good education. In fact, it makes me kind of angry that simply because my house is a couple of miles down the road in one direction instead of the other, my kids would go to the public school where only 63% of third graders were at or above grade level in math in 2006, instead of the other nearby public school where that number was 93% the same year.

Maybe homeschooling is the option that would allow us to stay in the community we love, in the neighborhood we belong, in the home we treasure, yet still provide my kids with a great education.

My sister had really good advice: Take it one year at a time. Don't feel like you are locked into homeschooling for the next 12 years just because you choose it next year.

I know some of our friends will think we're crazy if we pursue this.

But that's okay. It's not the first time that I've done something I previously swore I would never do.