Yep, we decided to completely swap to homeschool, we got our curriculum (we got extra!) and we are ready. What we learned quickly was the same as the old adage about too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the soup or whatever that saying is… both my husband and I teaching the same subject to one child that is 2e leads to lots of tears and confusion. So our first try lasted less than a week. I had read the instructions, participated in every group I could find that matched, searched information, and subscribed to sites…. my husband also was searching and was finding so many interesting things to go with too. Two sets of instructions didn’t go well, so we finally got it worked out and coordinated behind the scenes. One teacher and two planners….
We are now a few weeks into it and still run into days that are frustrating. Our public school had to close for a few days to re-evaluate after two days of being open which just made us feel better about our choices, but it didn’t make my son feel any less isolated. He’s doing great with the school work and we are really finding some cool things to work on. We have the same book that the school uses, but we ended up going with the Life of Fred series that my son loves! We are at the pre-algebra level and the first book tied it to physics, calculating the forces needed to move a safe down a hallway to start. The book ties the math completely to the real world using a story to make it exciting and then adds sections that are ‘Your turn to play’. My little one likes math anyway, so the way Life of Fred is written made it hard to get him to stop math for the day and move on.
The books that are included with the curriculum are below his reading level and have some activities that may be more ‘busy work’, so we are trying to figure out a better plan to deal with that. We’ve also decided to tie in some lesson plans to look at the election. The presidential election only happens every 4 years and has so many parts that it’s really good to look at what’s going on as we can see everything in action.
At one point for social studies (Egypt and Mesopotamia) my husband even worked out an archeological dig in our back yard. We’ve now done a few field trips that involved hiking in the woods by our house and also going to a local state park to collect items for science.
We did move a desk down to use for homeschooling, I was hoping it would free up our kitchen table for us to eat and not have to clean up schoolwork each meal…. but what really happened is the desk became a storage spot and the table is still the spot to do schoolwork. – And every meal everything has to be moved. We are slowly getting there though.
I am a SAHM/WAHM of three boys ranging in age from 13 to 29. We are working on saving enough for college at the same time as dealing with school and our older independent kids. I author a few blogs, including http://teched4kids.com. I have in the past taught computer information technology classes for the local university and taught workshops for kid's in technology education besides being the Kentucky State FIRST LEGO League Championship Coordinator from 2005 to 2008. I now work as a computer consultant, run a handmade home business, and am available for workshops. Life here is always an adventure!
