Mar

31

Back to School

Posted by Homeschool_Dad

March 31, 2008 |

sean

So, coming off of a break is hard. Noone really wants to settle back in and do much of anything..and this close to spring i don;t even know WHAT I want them to do.

Spring is for finding tadpoles in the creek, and the newest violets, and watching baby goats being born. Surely that is enough science for anyone!

Shiloh is reading through my antique Cherry Ames books, having read through her large collection of Antique Nancy Drew at least five times…

Matt is dreaming of land and building a log cabin. He has researched several ways to accomplish the task and now is antsy to start.

Ethan is taking spanish at the private school associated with our church, and doing well there. Basketball season is over so there is less for him to do.

Sean is reading everything..and Nick is still struggling to read. Kyrie is happy to be 4 and just living.

I don’t know where I want to go from here, or what I want to do.

My Kid’s Mom shares her day back and her homeschool classroom. Very organized!

Principled Discovery is hosting Profiling Homeschoolers.

home education week

it challenges us to write a little about what our normal day is. Gosh, what is normal!

So here is my “normal” day.

Our family consists of my husband and myself, my oldest daughter, son in law, and their 2 children, and my youngest 6 children. My oldest son is away in the Air Force.

Marc is a disabled vet, Son in law and daughter are not working..I blog and write articles..

To say that our days have to be flexible is probably an understatement. I have gone from being a totally organized mom to literally having my schedule changed on an hourly basis. School here is very relaxed because of it.

Generally, we are up and feeding goats, horses, chickens by 7 or so…do a quick pick up of the house, start laundry (whose laundry day is it today????) and the older kids work on whatever they are doing independently. They rarely come to me for help…we discuss what they find interesting or they are learning, but again it is very relaxed.

The littler kids get read to throughout the day. I will stop my writing to read, or play a game, or spend some time…I help them with what they need help with. Sean (9) reads very independently and more or less amazes me with what he knows.

My kids learn alot just from observing the world, where we live, how the seasons change. They swim in the creek, watch fish, discover beaver tracks (I didn’t know they lived around here) and generally educate themselves moment to moment.

Sometimes I stress because I think that I am too relaxed, that they should know more academics, dates in history, important treaties and when they were signed…an then I listen to my 15year old chatting with my husband about the black powder rifle he wants to make…and how he plans to put it together. His plans for building a log cabin, and his eagerness to hear his dad’s ideas on that…I listen as my 14 year old recites a passage from Shakespeare that fits well into a conversation we are having…or watch my 12 year old deftly trim a pineapple top for growing into a plant.

The world changes daily. There is no way that a person could learn all that needed to be learned to keep up with it. Learning as they are, what they enjoy, and how to research seems to me to be the best strategy for the future. Who knows if the world will be such that they will need to understand technology or whether they will need to know how to hand split wooden shingles to make roofs? If they are used to finding their own answers, designing their own education, and gathering their own information their academic strength will be versatile enough to cross any barrier.

At least that is my hope.

After a morning of focused academics, we eat a hot lunch, really, an old fashioned dinner.. then it is basically clean up and free time until the animals need to be cared for at supper time,,maybe a game after supper, and then bed.

That’s it..pretty simple and boring. ;)


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. mrs darling on March 31, 2008 3:01 pm

    I wish we lived by a creek for th e kid to play in. We did when I was young and we loved it. We also loved the Cherry Ames books. My daughter now does not like to read. I cant relate to that. LOL

  2. Marye on April 1, 2008 10:56 am

    LOL! The creek certainly gives a lot of opportunity for learning!

  3. mykidsmom on April 2, 2008 1:54 pm

    Hi. Thanks for linking to my blog post about homeschool. Someone told me they saw my link somewhere, and that I could set Blogger to find links to my posts (I’m still learning in that department)so I did.

    And it looks like you’re doing a good job to me. I would LOVE to have my kids outside playing (and I assume helping to take care of:)with the animals and running by the creek; that’s actually my dream for the (hopefully) near future. But we don’t have that now. Although my sons do love to collect every leaf, rock, feather,ect. that they can manage to find, LoL. I have a feeling our boys would get along real well…

    And you are living your teaching. Your kids aren’t limiting their existence and knowledge to a game system or computer. And that has everything to do with you…I am not extremely organized at all, just striving to keep on top of
    things;) And since we are more limited on outside activities, I try to make up for that by making our own little world where they can indulge in learning and activities.

    Sorry about the long comment, I just like to give praise where it seems to be deserved.

  4. Marye on April 2, 2008 4:48 pm

    thank you!

  5. Henry Cate on April 3, 2008 4:35 pm

    It is wonderful to see how much children can learn when they are not putting their time in at a public school.

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