school
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back to school.
Yesterday was back to school for us, after almost a three-week break. If you think it sounds crazy attempting to homeschool with two new-to-our-family toddlers in the house, you’re right. It is. I spent an hour during naptime on Mother’s Day spread out at the table, trying to make it all work on paper. Legally, we have to both complete 180 days of school a year, and also get through a certain amount of curriculum. Thankfully after looking everything over we seemed to be in good shape: 17 days of school and we’re on track to complete our material by then too. It’s been a three-ring circus around here in…
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school at the neighbors’ house.
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julie’s homeschool day in the life (with a 7 and 5-year-old).
This month one of my favorite homeschool blogs, Simple Homeschool, is doing a series of “Homeschool day in the life” posts. These are some of the most helpful posts on the blog for me, so this year I’m writing my own to link up. I’ve hesitated to post much about our homeschool schedule and curriculum mostly because I myself have struggled a lot with doubt and comparison in the past, and am coming to learn that there’s simply not one right way to homeschool. There’s not a “best” curriculum or homeschool philosophy, not a “best” routine. I haven’t wanted any of you to feel the pressure of needing to do…
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home school.
Can you believe it’s November? We’re closing in our our fall semester of school and I’m feeling a little anxious to get through the school work we need to before my first semester report is due in the beginning of December. This is my first year of reporting for homeschooling. In the state of South Carolina starting in first grade, we’re required to be registered with a homeschooling accountability organization. We have to complete 180 days of school in a year. And I have to keep records of the work we complete. At the beginning of this year that felt a little overwhelming, coupled with the fact that I’m homeschooling…
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new school year.
Monday was our first day of Classical Conversations (CC) co-op. It was such a wonderful morning: I was reminded why we chose to participate again this year. Judah is in the first grade class and Amie in the 4K/Kindergarten class and both love their teachers (who are called tutors). In fact, they loved school so much that on Tuesday and Wednesday they asked, “Why can’t we do CC every day instead of home school?” It’s a question I myself wrestled with all week as the three of us struggled to find our rhythm at home. It’s been way too long since we’ve had a regular routine and we all chafed against it.…
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homeschooling kindergarten.
We had our Classical Conversations end-of-year presentation last week, and today is our first official day of summer! I wish I could say we ended the school year with a bang, but fizzled to a halt is more accurate. We crawled painfully ahead, in fits and starts, with schoolwork this past month. The weather was gorgeous and life was busy and no-one wanted to hole up inside doing reading lessons and math worksheets. We took advantage of warm spring days to have lots of field trips: to the river, the zoo, a lake with 10 different breeds of swans, a nature walk. This made everyone happier. And I had to…
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pinterest.
I’ve had a Pinterest account for over a year now but I could just never get into it. Pinterest seemed to me like one more temptation to waste my time. While it definitely can be that, I’ve had several friends urge me to use it as a way to get organized. And lately I’ve been asking for and dispensing lots of recipes and homeschooling advice, so I’ve begun to realize how nice it would be to have one place to keep all of that information. I adore researching topics that interest me (natural house cleaning, food, homeschooling, etc.), but sometimes I don’t do a good job of documenting the helpful…
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01.07.14.
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seven weeks in: our experience with classical conversations.
We’ve been in school for seven weeks so I figure now is as good a time as any to write about our first “real” homeschooling experience. This post will be mainly about Classical Conversations, and I’ll write later about the rest of our week and our daily school schedule. I apologize in advance for another lengthy post — it’s for those you of who’ve been asking for the full scoop. Can I just say this first of all? I love homeschooling so far. I mean, I love it. I feel like after all the research and the questions, all the anxiety about school in general, we’ve actually settled down and…
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my real life.
Remember all those photos I posted of our idyllic school room? Remember the sunshine, the peace and quiet, the morning cups of tea curled up on the futon? Well, I’d now like to present to you Exhibit A: Or what I like to call “my real life.” Um why yes, that’s a stationary bike in the corner. Brought home by my husband this weekend, so we’d have “something for our cross-training.” Which is wonderful, because I’d been laying awake at night worried about our cross-training. Apparently the chair makes a great post work-out towel rack. Apparently I’m also not a stickler for cleaning up the table after our school day. There…