a little mid-term school update.

It’s hard for me to believe that we’re well into our second quarter of the school year!

Well, I guess we sort of cheated by taking off and hitting the road for three weeks in September (and truly, I was out four weeks because of Charleston). “Road-schooling” was amazing for all of us. It involved tons of learning but zero workbooks.

So as you can imagine, it took us a bit to get caught up and accustomed to our normal routine, but we’ve made the transition and are enjoying this semester more than ever after the gift of exploring our great big country.

First, Classical Conversations.

After a year off, we’re very happy to be back in the program, and love our new campus that’s closer to home. All four of the kids have a spring in their step anticipating weekly community day on Wednesdays. They’re each in a class of about 8 kids, led by a tutor who’s a homeschooling parent.

 

[Third grade, first grade, fifth grade, kindergarten]

In the Foundations program of Classical Conversations (kindergarten through 6th grade), we all cover the same material, adapted by age. This year we’re in Cycle 1: Ancient Kingdoms. We’re learning ancient history, math multiplication facts through the 15’s, English grammar, Latin declensions, Science classifications, and geography.

My student with learning disabilities is shining in class, which majors on her strengths: oral memory work, lots of movement and class participation, science experiments, and fine arts, and minors on her struggles: reading and writing. This is a big boost for her confidence, and I’ve noticed that this year she’s stopped saying, “I’m not good at school.”

All the kids practice public speaking by giving weekly class presentations which last two minutes and are followed by questions from their audience.

 

[Gabe’s presentations are often from his beloved Nature Anatomy book]

This past week, their assignment was to give a demonstration of something they know how to do.

Judah chose to demonstrate how to make his favorite sandwich, which he invented himself: The Canto Bite, named after a planet in Star Wars called Canto Bight. He told the class he plans to try to sell the idea to Jimmy John’s.

Amelie showed how to make a friendship bracelet. Gabe chose a favorite game: animal-food-chain War, and Noah also chose a game, Rat-a-tat-Cat (which he ropes different members of the family into playing about a dozen times a day).

This year I’m the classroom mom for Judah’s class, which is comprised of 5th and 6th graders, and I’m enjoying the group so much. They’re funny and yes, sometimes goofy and distractible as junior highers are, and also very interested in learning. They ask great questions. I feel immensely grateful to see Judah in a class of avid readers, who spend their breaks talking about books, and are writing and practicing a play together, just for the fun of it.

 

 

We bring our lunch and a picnic blanket, and when the weather’s nice, congregate outside on the grass to eat and play.

David’s mom picks up Gabe and Noah for me at 12:45, and takes them home for afternoon rest time, and I stay with the big kids for their afternoon classes.

Judah is in Essentials, a two-hour writing and grammar program for 4th-6th graders, with some Math games added in. There are 15 kids in the class this year. I sit in the back of the room with the other homeschool parents to learn about the material Judah and I will cover in the week ahead, and he leaves with daily assignments. He diagrams sentences and writes an outline and a paper each week, and the students either read it in front of the class, or in small groups.

I was a little overwhelmed at the prospect of this program, which is rigorous, but now that we’re used to the rhythm, I love it. We both do. Judah does his daily homework without complaint because he enjoys learning in the group, and wants to be prepared if he’s called on in class. The writing assignments are based on our current history cycle, so he has the added benefit of learning more about ancient history, which he enjoys.

When his tutor wrote a sentence from one of our favorite series, the Wingfeather Saga, on the board for a grammar example, I knew we’d get along just fine.

 

 

Amelie takes an art class during that time, which she enjoys very much, but she also told me she’s looking forward to being in Essentials next year “with the big kids.” I’m thankful for a sneak-peek year with Judah, so that I’ll be better prepared to guide her through it next year (thank you Judah, for once again being the Practice Kid).

So that’s our mid-week community day.

When the kids were younger, I thought CC would be just perfect if only it were a drop-off program, so that I could actually have a break one day a week. At times the idea’s still tantalizing, but for the most part, I’m glad the program includes so much parent involvement. The goal is to help me be a better, more knowledgeable educator of my kids, and also to give me weekly community and accountability.

Now that Judah’s learning to write, I’m so grateful for the help, because I believe writing well is critical. It’s funny, people have told me, “I thought you’d want to teach Judah to write yourself, since you’re a writer.”

But being able to do something well, and being able to teach it well are two very different things, my friends. I have a lot to learn in that respect.

Thus far, as someone who cares passionately about writing and finds joy in it, I’m very impressed with the program we’re using, Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). It’s thoughtful, methodical, very thorough, and inspiring. I’ve seen Judah grow leaps and bounds in just 9 weeks, and best of all, he’s really proud of his work when he finishes his weekly paper.

I’ve learned a lot from the curriculum myself, and feel inspired to try some of the techniques in my own writing.

 

 

So that’s Classical Conversations.

I take so much time to tell you about it, because truly, now that we’re back, I see that our homeschool centers around it, and for us, that’s what we need.

At 36 years old, I’ve pretty much eliminated the words “I will never” from my vocabulary, but at this point, I’ll confidently say I doubt I’ll ever try to homeschool without a program like this. I’m thankful for our experimental year last year, homeschooling on our own, because it taught me that it just doesn’t work for our family.

My kids need the weekly social interaction, and they need the positive peer pressure of learning in community, wanting to push themselves to keep up with their friends and earn class parties and please their tutor. Their friends’ interest in learning piques their own interest in learning, and vice versa.

I need the accountability and help, and I need one day where I’m not talking at my kids. It helps our relationship.

It’s good for my daily dynamic with Judah, who’s eleven and naturally bucking for a bit of independence, to have a tutor explain the material and assign his weekly work and me on hand to help when we’re at home.

Starting in 7th grade, he’ll do a whole day a week of seminar-style classes in the Challenge program, which will cover all of his homeschool subjects. I won’t be sitting in with him anymore, but will be here to guide and help with his assignments the other four days. So Essentials feels like the perfect transition.

 

 

And finally, to wrap this up, school at home right now is so good.

I hate to sound like I’m gushing about homeschool in this post, but the truth is, I feel like gushing.

This is just a really, tremendously sweet season for us.

We’ve put in some hard, tedious years, folks. The years right after we adopted the boys which are sort of a crazed, white-knuckled blur (and I can’t believe we really got a thing done). And like I shared, last year was hard for other reasons.

I was so tempted to put the kids in school last year.

Not because I wanted to, but because I worried constantly that I wasn’t doing enough, couldn’t give them what they needed at home with me just trying to survive each day.

But I’m so thankful that we didn’t.

Maybe that will turn out to be best one day in the future, but not now.

 

 

For now, I love our days, both the ones at home, and those at Classical Conversations.

I love that Noah’s in kindergarten, and is now officially part of the pack. He’s risen to the challenge and has matured as a result. We still have our moments (which I call “the clash of the wills”), but I’m getting lots of advice from friends and mentors, and learning how to motivate him better, and maybe also just how to love him better, just the way he is.

Also: can I attest to the power of the sticker chart?

I love both that we follow a consistent school routine, and also that the kids have opportunities to be in and out of the house all day long: jumping on the trampoline, visiting the chickens, digging for bugs, riding scooters, which helps very active little boys let off some steam.

I love our daily read-aloud time, where we pile on the sofa after kindergarten. We laughed through The Trumpet of the Swan before our trip, and are almost finished with The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, one of my favorites from my own childhood. Next up is The Railway Children, for our book club meeting in November.

I enjoy Friday spelling bees, learning Latin vocab together, and sitting at the table with coloring pages twice-weekly to listen to our Story of the World audiobook for history. Of course there are things I don’t love so much. Workbooks. Math. Making kids finish their work on days when just they don’t want to. Or days when I just don’t want to. But those things are important too, and we all press on. David helps with teaching Math now, which is another favorite thing about our year.

This week Judah said to me, out of the blue, while we were working on his writing assignment. “I love Essentials. I love school. I hope my kids can be homeschooled like I am.”

He also said, “I think I’ll teach them Math, my wife can do all the rest.”

Ha ha.

 

 

This year of homeschooling feels like the fruit of years of hard work and being faithful.

Not because I’m great or strong, but because God’s grace is great, and I want to obey His calling on my life.

Training my children to listen and obey has been worth it. Working through sibling disputes and teaching them how to show love and respect to one another has been worth it. Persevering during the seasons when homeschooling was hard and didn’t feel fulfilling and I rarely had alone time was worth it.

It takes so.much.time and energy that you want to pull your hair out (or hide in the corner by the fridge and eat dark chocolate), but the fruit of all this work is all of us growing more mature, and the ability to enjoy learning together.

God has multiplied my efforts beyond what I imagined. He’s shown me my proper place — that our homeschool is about Him, not about this recovering performance-addicted mom, or even about my adorable, quirky, rascally children.

And so, now that I think about it, maybe that’s why this year is filled with joy.

Something deep inside my heart has eased. A wall that I put up and guarded so fiercely, out of fear of failure, seems to be crumbling down. I am starting to find rest. I’m learning how to be myself. I’m learning how to let my kids be themselves. I’m learning to smile more.

And with that, I’m becoming content.

 

 

I feel incredibly grateful for all of it.