We are in desperate, desperate need of this upcoming vacation.
There has been all manner of schoolish hell breaking loose in this house since January 5th.
See, though we actually started school three weeks before the publics could way back in August, we have taken quite a bit of time off.
We missed a whole week while we were at Deep Creek.
We missed many, many, MANY days when I was down with my morning sickness. Chas schooled himself on what he was able to do alone but Rhyse isn’t to that point yet.
And truth be told, we don’t typically do bookwork five days a week.
During the heights of busy, busy fall and spring, sometimes we’re only book-working three days out of five.
That’s not to say we’re not busy LEARNING.
We’re just out at co-op, art class, field trips, nature programs, etc.
When the weather is nice, my kids are outside during the day. We do manage to get most of our work done over the course of a week but it’s mainly because they are quick learners and we can move fast.
It’s not because we sit inside for x amount of hours a day.
We have no firm time requirements.
If the sun is shining and they want to play…they play.
Which is why we must absolutely buckle down during the months of January, February, and March.
In order for me to really be flexible according to the sun and its ability to light up our world and draw my babies out of the house, we need to be ahead of the game by the time April swings around.
To say that this period of hard work is grueling is to say that it’s sometimes cold and ugly in Ohio :)
Since January 5th, my boys have been in two-a-days here at home.
We complete assigned work for Day One in the morning and then we tackle Day Two in the evening.
It’s A LOT of work.
I like to do things my own way and I really like to allow my kids the freedom of choosing their subjects during the day so we don’t follow K12’s typical day outline.
In August I said to Chas, “Pick a subject and complete the whole first unit. And then pick another. It’s your choice completely but at some point, everything has to get done.”
A unit of schoolwork typically consists of enough assignments to last two or so weeks.
By doing his work this way, Chas has now completed 7th grade science, art, vocabulary, and grammar.
And it’s only the end of JANUARY!
We literally attack subjects, working on just a few at a time in order to reach completion. Once we do that, we turn our attentions to the next nearest-to-the-end subject.
He’s rapidly approaching a finish with his literature course–we’re at 70% currently and must reach at least 90% by the end of May.
My goal is to reach at least that by the end of next month.
Heading into spring, Chas will be left with just three subjects: math, comp, and history (his next closest at 53%).
It’s my hope that we will be completely done with our curriculum work (aside from math which takes FOREVER) by the April OAT testing dates and we’ll start our summer break by May 1.
Allowing Chas to work on what he wants when he wants has made all the difference in our success and progress. He doesn’t complain if I say, “Pick something and work hard–I don’t care what you choose. Just move on it. Spring is coming.”
But LAST year, when I tried to follow the day K12 laid out for me, it was a nightmare.
For this reason, next year will be Chas’s last with K12.
Right now, it seems that he will be home for high school, at least for the beginning, and I do not like K12’s set up AT ALL.
It’s rigid, completely inflexible, and is far, far, far too much like running a high school out of my home.
I’m not interested in being told how to educate my son, when I can take vacation days, and how I must regulate his time. (The younger grades are not like this at all.)
Nothing’s for certain at this point, I don’t quite know what all of my options are but I have time.
I do know that we will be using K12 next year for 8th grade and I’m happy with that.
As for Rhyse, he’s not quite as golden as Chas completion-wise but he relies much heavier on me than his brother does. Where Chas can really work on most subjects independently, Rhyse still needs me at his side. He has completed his 2nd grade music, art, and history courses so far–leaving him with math, literature and science for the next three months. Math and science will cause no grief but the literature is MUCH more challenging this year and we’re nearly boggled down by assignments.
Though I don’t make my boys do “busy work”, I can’t skip much in the literature course because Rhyse truly needs the work. So while we would crank out four history lessons a day (essentially nearly a week’s worth of work), we can’t do that with literature. The best I can do with him is two in one day: one in the morning and one in the evening.
The great thing about Rhyse though is that he sees his other courses as “fun.” I specifically left science for dead last because I need something easy to balance that literature heading into burn-out season. That’s also why two of his creative classes, music and art, are already completed. We work hard on the serious stuff and then turn to the easy so he doesn’t complain about continuing on. If I worked lit right after math, he’d groan about being tired, hungry, having to pee, something in his eye, etc. His work has been strategically planned, mostly for peace and harmony purposes :) One of the best things about homeschooling is really being able to tailor the course work to each individual personality.
It just works better.
Next year, I will be schooling THREE while balancing a newborn and my dear, beloved monster.
He’ll miss the preschool cut-off date which really stinks because I could use a few quiet mornings around here while he’s off playing with friends.
Greer will be starting Kindergarten with me though I’m not planning to using K12 for her as I don’t like their curriculum for the younger grades. I didn’t like K and I didn’t like 1st (I used them both with Rhyse) but am so far happy with 2nd. I will most likely make up my own curriculum for her and of course, will rely heavily on my homeschooling network for the rest. She’ll join the Kindy classes at co-op, will pick up piano and art, too. I may even keep her in preschool for another year just for fun (she loves preschool) and work on the K material at home in the afternoons.
For his part, Creux can’t get into preschool like I mentioned but I’m sort of considering a different type of school for him anyway and maybe they’re a bit more flexible on the age requirements. I’m thinking that Montessori would be a good fit for my monster. I’ve been really impressed with the Montessori class that runs at our co-op and just see him settling in there (with less group “rules” and more individual flexibility) better than at a traditional school.
Mind you, however, that the preschool is about two minutes from my house.
And the Montessori is about twenty.
So…we’ll see.
I hate to make it sound like the drive time is more important than placing him where he maybe would benefit most but the reality is that I will have FIVE children.
And I need to make sure that driving that much does not take away more than it adds to the overall success of our days together.
Things like that matter a lot to me.
Anyway, we’re sticking this hard-core schooling thing out for one more week and then we are closing the books for a nice, long break.
When we return, we will automatically lose a home day with our Thursday return to co-op but we’ll keep plugging away until the weather breaks.
My boys know the drill and they’re on-board.
They’re tired and sometimes cranky but I’m so proud of how hard they’ve worked and I’m bound and determined to make sure that all of these long, long school days have a great pay-off for them with a long, long, fun-filled early start on summer.
We’re starting our weekend early tomorrow with a fun morning at Kingdom of Bounce, followed by a birthday sleepover for Chas with two of his buddies, and then a birthday dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse (his choice) Saturday evening with my family. Next week won’t be as cut-throat in the school department as we’ll (I’ll) be preparing for our Friday departure for Atlanta (where we’ll spend the weekend before heading on to Pigeon Forge) plus there will be a day of snow tubing and a midwife appointment tossed in as well, so the temporary end is near!
And we’re going to enjoy every single math-free, spelling-free moment!
)
