-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
school room.
One of the most heart-breaking things about leaving South Asia was giving up our beloved Richmond Town flat, and with that, our homeschooling room. After the decision to homeschool, we moved David’s office into our bedroom, and I worked for weeks picking out a school table and curtains and a reading corner, setting everything up for the kids and me to have an inspiring place to learn. And then, just when it was perfect, three weeks into our school year, everything unraveled. I wasn’t able to get out of bed most days to homeschool Judah and Amie. I had to quit my Hindi studies. And that’s when we knew something…
-
first week of school.
We started kindergarten and 4K on Monday! Our Classical Conversations campus meets on Monday mornings, and I love starting the week this way. I think it’s going to be motivating for both the kids and for me. I’ll go into more detail later about what we do at Classical Conversations, but our first day was wonderful. Truly wonderful. Everybody was so very friendly and kind to us, the kids loved their teachers, and I left feeling for the first time like maybe I can actually do this homeschooling thing. Then we had our first day of “at-home” homeschooling on Tuesday. Thanks to lots of good ideas I got at Classical…
-
homeschooling: a story about change.
Some of you know this, but I’m about one of the most unlikely homeschooling moms out there. Seriously. It was something I never, ever considered doing: so much so, that years ago during our missions process I told David’s boss that my biggest requirement for our overseas home was a city with good schools so I wouldn’t have to homeschool our kids. I’d give you reasons all day why I was dead set against homeschooling, but I think in the end it mainly boiled down to two things: 1. I couldn’t imagine being with my kids all.day.long for the next however-many years, and 2. The very idea of being in…
-
“let’s do school!”