Progress

It's hard to believe that I'm almost finished year 2 of home schooling- which I'm feeling more and more is going to be a longer term activity than originally anticipated.

The past few weeks have been somewhat of a blur, but somehow this semester we've done well (or rather the kids have done well). My oldest has managed to finish an entire year of math in about 4 months! Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. English is still struggling with the older two, but I'm planning on buckling down on that next year to get them caught up to speed and make them more confident in their writing.

All in all, we will finish well this year- and for that I'm truly grateful. This summer there will be no 'loose ends' that need to be dealt with and August/September will see us starting on a clean page.

The more I think about next year and some of the things we'll be doing, the more excited I'm getting. I really feel that our direction for next year is where it's supposed to be- and I have peace. I'm also not thinking a whole lot about what the kids are going to say about it and just praying that my enthusiasm will be infectious enough to help turn the corner on some of the bad attitudes we've faced over the past two years.

I'm hoping that the summer break will help us take a breather and work on teaching/learning chores for everyone so that the fall/school/household will run much smoother than we have up until now. It all goes together, and we just have to figure out how to walk it.

The best laid plans...

I kid you not, this past week I probably spent about 20+ hours preparing for my curriculum shop at the local home school convention. And you know what? It pretty much went out the window the moment I got there! So not good! (on a side note, at least it was better than last year- which I didn't prepare for at all! I didn't even know what topics my kids were supposed to cover in order to know where to start looking for curriculum.)

Unfortunately, the more time I spent researching, the more programs I'd find, the more I'd have to research to find out about them to see if THAT was what I was supposed to use... You get the picture.

But as most of you know, most websites don't show you much of anything, so you really don't know what the program has/covers/looks like/entails/etc. So then I'd go to review sites, but of course everybody's opinion of said programs are different, so you really don't get any idea of whether or not it would be a good fit for your family.

I seriously think that people should have to divulge their background info and schooling philosophy in order to really give a truer picture of their review. Like if someone is more of an 'unschooling' type home schooler, than of course they're going to say a structured program totally didn't work for them and was a waste of money. But the person who likes that kind of thing will absolutely rave about how great it is. As for me? I still have no clue about how it will work for my family.

Last night I finally had to turn off the computer and just give it up to God. He knows my kids way better than I ever will- even if I spent a lifetime trying to figure just one of them out, never mind the 5 I have! This brought some measure of peace that allowed me to actually fall asleep in less than the hour or so it usually takes. Then, as I was driving out there, I kept praying- help me pick the stuff that will work for my kids. Things that will help them learn and feel more confident about the tasks I assign so that they don't hate school so much.

I'm not sure how it's all going to work out next year, and I think that maybe I've bitten off more work than we'll be able to handle. However, I deliberately chose stuff that will allow the kids, for the most part, to work as independent learners as much as possible. I'm still going to have to do some teaching with these areas, but it won't be as labour intensive so that they will all be working at the same time, on different things, and hopefully get the core stuff done every day- so that we can do more of the fun stuff every day as well.

Going into year 3 I am finally starting to feel like I'm leading this ship instead of feeling like I'm only qualified to swap the poop deck. I feel like the vacation is now over and I'm really to take things and my kids to the next level. To expect more out of them, to push them harder and (hopefully) watch them soar as a result!