True!

BUSY

Wow  the last few months have been busy. The kids are all officially home schooled. The virtual school thing did not work for us. I want my kids to have a natural education. I feel they will learn more if they can skip a subject on a particular day in order to focus on another subject that fascinates them. For example today Gabe did nearly three hours of Math, and only about twenty minutes of spelling, and thirty minutes of reading, and an hour of history. However last week he spent an entire day cozied up with a book, then wrote a report on it, and practiced expository writing all in one day with only thirty minutes on his math. This, to me, is how real learning happens. Organically, naturally, according to what they are focused on at the time. I am not saying that I would allow them to just skip a subject, but if for a day or two they are into a book, or into a scientific idea, or working through a math chapter, then allowing them to pursue that instead of pushing it to the side in order to do what is expected, seems like the right thing. I am proud of my kids, and although I question my self daily, I think that they are happing, and well educated at home.

Tomorrow I will post a record of what we have been up to these last few months, I have most of it recorded but I need to get it on here. 

Some thoughts...

So far I am not LOVING the virtual school. My reasons include the fact that the boys both no longer look forward to their lessons. My goals are 1) Teach them to THIRST for knowledge. I want them to become life long learners because they love it. and 2) Teach them the skills they will need to do well in college.

So far in the online school their work has become a list of things to do, and they don't have time to delve deeply into things even if they are interested in the lesson, there are so many menial tasks to do each day that it does not seem productive to creative thinking. And despite the menial work I don't see how it will be retained or helpful in college because I am still in college and my classes are nothing like that.

So I am back to square one, will likely be taking the oldest two out soon and return to our original plan of homeschooling. Katie, in kindergarten, loves, LOVES, Loves, the virtual program, she gets to dance to music and play with puppets, I  read to her from the many books they sent, she colors, paints, and has a ball. They nailed kindergarten and it is working out well so I will keep her enrolled not matter what happens with the boys. 

Florida Virtual School.

About a month ago we decided to enroll the kids in Florida Virtual School. The decision was based on the fact that I was afraid of not providing enough curriculum, and of doing it wrong and a million other insecurities that come with the big decision of taking control of my child's education. We may do Florida Virtual for a year or for the remainder of their education depending on how this year goes. Even if we just use is as a bridge between going to a  public school to a home school. Florida Virtual is not considered homeschooling, it is technically considered public school at home. Whatever it is called for me, for now it is the best of both worlds, I have the help of a teacher for each of my kids, all curriculum provided, yet I spend the day with them, teaching and guiding them under the supervision of actual teachers. The schedule is similar to public school, the first day of school is the same and they are required attend 180 days with attendance sheets, hours, and work to show for it. They will also FCAT which is the biggest downside for me, but like I said after this year I may be brave enough to home school without the back up of a public school, or it may be awesome. :)

Wednesday-Friday

Wednesday-Friday

I planned on making Wednesday a one on one day for me and Gabe. Then Thursday for me and Nic. The other kids were meant to go with their Dad and have fun and the one on one teaching was to make sure we were all on track. However heavy rain Wednesday morning kept everyone in the house and the one on one day was canceled. After that we went to a nearby bee hive supply store and watched bees work through a Plexiglas hive. We wandered around an antique mall and spent the day as a family. On Thursday we got the kids one of those blue pools that go up fast and they played most of the day, we ended up just hanging out and the kids had yet another day off... Today we have been working on math on Khan academy, playing in the pool, learning our states. The kids cousin is over so I don't see much more school work getting done today. This week was fun I am glad we are schooling year round so when things deviate from my planned schedule I don't have to worry too much. Over the weekend I plan to do a lot of Geography and History to prepare them for the 4th of July, Which they will have off officially but I think we will discuss plenty of History facts in a way that they will hopefully retain it.


By the way, I asked the kids today (four days after the lesson) what is photosynthesis, and where does a plant get its energy and they answered correctly. Yay!

Tuesday June 28 :)

Today we did our typical math on Khan Academy, then science Chapter 3 Lesson 1. We learned that plants are producers and animals are consumers. And we spent about an hour watching videos online about photosynthesis. We did painting in the evening which turned into each of the kids having their faces painted with the finger paint. They looked pretty cool!  Yesterday we focused on Math and a little science. I need to get back into history and geology. I am looking for a good curriculum for that though because as we are trying to learn about US history starting about 14000 years ago it is intensive and we are going through it very slowly. I would like a US history text that includes Ancient History, yet something we can get through quicker than we have been lately. It has been one of those days that at six pm I still want to learn with the kids. But they are playing Indians in the yard and I will just have to wait till tomorrow.

One Month In

I just realized that it has been a little over a month since our family began homeschooling. Then I realized that we already took a week off from it and panicked a bit. However I started homeschooling the kids straight from public school with no break in between. So I think allowing them a week off in the middle of summer is completely justifiable and expected. This has been a good month. I wonder though if I will always question myself every day we do not have school? And when the other kids return to school in August will the worry of not being enough for them or making them do enough each day become even more intense? I don't know... one day at a time... one day at a time.