beginning again
I just wanted to jot down a few quick notes here, before I forget them. I've created this dedicated space to notate all of our homeschool goings-on, separate from but obviously intimately related to our regular family/life happenings.
So! This week, after much mulling over, family meetings, hemming, hawing, etc., and a sorely-needed winter break, we pulled MJ from the little parochial school down the street, and began homeschooling. (Again).
If you recall, we homeschooled her for Kindergarten because we just couldn't quickly make educational decisions. It was an okay year. Not a failure by any means, but lackluster. Of course, B being in #forevertraining (PGY4, that is, four YEARS of additional training after medical school, with two more to go) and us having a baby and a 3 year old with some tricky needs didn't help. It was tough to balance everything, and though MJ shined academically, we worried for her socially. We live in a relatively rural town at the foothills of the Appalachians. Booming, thriving homeschool community there is not. We made it work, but we resolved to try the local Catholic school so we could compare options. #experimental
THAT experiment, for us, was a resounding failure. MJ loved having regular access to friends, but really missed the freedom to play, read interesting books, create self-guided art, and all of those things that our loosey-goosey eclectic homeschool provided her. The biggest sore point was the chosen math curriculum, which I learned after internet sleuthing is widely reviled by teachers, parents, and children alike. I watched my bright girl wilt under the pressure of daily math homework that she didn't understand, and most worryingly I watched her strong math sense melt away in favor of methodologies that just didn't make sense. At that point, *she* begged to be homeschooled, and of course we have happily brought her home.
This time around, I'm feeling stronger for several reasons.
First, I have thoroughly done away with any sense of there being a "magic bullet" homeschool pedagogy, be it Charlotte Mason, Classical, or any other path that promises an Educated Child TM. It just doesn't exist, at least for our family. The humility has been freeing, and has allowed us to adopt more positive attitudes towards our own personal styles of education all around.
Two, and related, we know ourselves better. I know that I need a small bit of structure, at least a scaffold of our day and week, and to know that we're covering some of the Three R's. I also know that I need a break from constantly being "on", and so I unashamedly nap with the baby several times a week while the big kids have quiet time reading or crafting or independently playing. I know that we thrive on art, that the kids resist outside time but that it's a huge mood boost for everyone once we get out there, and the subjects Margot is most interested in exploring for the rest of the year. (Marine Science, which we'll get to when we dip into Life Science; Typing; Writing).
Oh! also, where we've previously eschewed technology on principle, we've allowed wiggle room where warranted: Margot's learning to type on the computer with Typesy, we do Mystery Science lessons on the computer, we keep track of bird counts and look up bird calls with Cornell's Ornithology app, and I'm sure there will be many more subjects for which we'll call on technology as a resource. We feel a big sense of breathing room when it comes to just being able to do what works-- to do math games with math and call it math for the day, to read American Girl books and call it history, to find our favorite poems to practice copywork, etc. Not feeling pressure to conform to a set curriculum or pedagogy has made everything that much more joyful.
And this year, we have a few homeschool friends-- not many, just two families, but they are dear friends and it means the world to us to have people we can call on for community.
There are so many benefits to homeschooling mainly in terms of flexibility, academic superiority, and family time, that it feels easy and right to make the few sacrifices necessary to make it happen. (Though, let it be known, I'm actively looking for an amazing babysitter so I can give myself recharge time, take the older kids to their various lessons, date my husband, or get in quality time with the kids one-on-one).
So! This week, after much mulling over, family meetings, hemming, hawing, etc., and a sorely-needed winter break, we pulled MJ from the little parochial school down the street, and began homeschooling. (Again).
If you recall, we homeschooled her for Kindergarten because we just couldn't quickly make educational decisions. It was an okay year. Not a failure by any means, but lackluster. Of course, B being in #forevertraining (PGY4, that is, four YEARS of additional training after medical school, with two more to go) and us having a baby and a 3 year old with some tricky needs didn't help. It was tough to balance everything, and though MJ shined academically, we worried for her socially. We live in a relatively rural town at the foothills of the Appalachians. Booming, thriving homeschool community there is not. We made it work, but we resolved to try the local Catholic school so we could compare options. #experimental
THAT experiment, for us, was a resounding failure. MJ loved having regular access to friends, but really missed the freedom to play, read interesting books, create self-guided art, and all of those things that our loosey-goosey eclectic homeschool provided her. The biggest sore point was the chosen math curriculum, which I learned after internet sleuthing is widely reviled by teachers, parents, and children alike. I watched my bright girl wilt under the pressure of daily math homework that she didn't understand, and most worryingly I watched her strong math sense melt away in favor of methodologies that just didn't make sense. At that point, *she* begged to be homeschooled, and of course we have happily brought her home.
This time around, I'm feeling stronger for several reasons.
First, I have thoroughly done away with any sense of there being a "magic bullet" homeschool pedagogy, be it Charlotte Mason, Classical, or any other path that promises an Educated Child TM. It just doesn't exist, at least for our family. The humility has been freeing, and has allowed us to adopt more positive attitudes towards our own personal styles of education all around.
Two, and related, we know ourselves better. I know that I need a small bit of structure, at least a scaffold of our day and week, and to know that we're covering some of the Three R's. I also know that I need a break from constantly being "on", and so I unashamedly nap with the baby several times a week while the big kids have quiet time reading or crafting or independently playing. I know that we thrive on art, that the kids resist outside time but that it's a huge mood boost for everyone once we get out there, and the subjects Margot is most interested in exploring for the rest of the year. (Marine Science, which we'll get to when we dip into Life Science; Typing; Writing).
Oh! also, where we've previously eschewed technology on principle, we've allowed wiggle room where warranted: Margot's learning to type on the computer with Typesy, we do Mystery Science lessons on the computer, we keep track of bird counts and look up bird calls with Cornell's Ornithology app, and I'm sure there will be many more subjects for which we'll call on technology as a resource. We feel a big sense of breathing room when it comes to just being able to do what works-- to do math games with math and call it math for the day, to read American Girl books and call it history, to find our favorite poems to practice copywork, etc. Not feeling pressure to conform to a set curriculum or pedagogy has made everything that much more joyful.
And this year, we have a few homeschool friends-- not many, just two families, but they are dear friends and it means the world to us to have people we can call on for community.
There are so many benefits to homeschooling mainly in terms of flexibility, academic superiority, and family time, that it feels easy and right to make the few sacrifices necessary to make it happen. (Though, let it be known, I'm actively looking for an amazing babysitter so I can give myself recharge time, take the older kids to their various lessons, date my husband, or get in quality time with the kids one-on-one).
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