How Is Home Schooling Going?

Many people have asked me this question the past month, so I've done plenty of reflecting on it. Even if I hadn't been asked, I would be making an almost daily assessment of our new undertaking. I have decided that there are two ways to look at this question. The answer varies based on how I look at our experiences the last five weeks.

If I look at it and ask myself how it's going based on how well our new routines are established and going, I'm a little disappointed. Obviously, there is a "learning curve" in this whole process. I think that the plan I have for each week is a sound plan; however, it is also one that requires some flexibility. It required quite a bit of flexibility due to the Ike interruption and friends out of school for 8 days (my children were anxious to get outside and play with them during the day while they had the chance). I also just got the remainder of the curriculum I was waiting for at the end of last week. Not having that for the first month made our home school feel a little less official and "put together."

I have learned several valuable lessons from how school went this past month. I learned to be more patient with myself and my circumstances. I learned that if I just relax and give it some time, things will come together--the home schooling book shelf will get assembled and organized, curriculum will get ordered and arrive, etc. I learned to be flexible when needed, but not too flexible--I have to stick to our schedule within reason. I learned that, as much as possible, I need to avoid scheduling anything in the mornings. That is our school time, and if it is interrupted, it throws me and the kids off. There have been several rather unavoidable interruptions like that this month. I did take the time to realize that some of these interruptions were at least somewhat educational. For instance, all three children pulled up chairs to the window in Derek's room to watch the stump grinder remove the stump of our fallen tree. This was their view:

If I look at our home schooling experience from the perspective of what we have accomplished and experienced that I feel has been of value so far, I feel pretty good about home schooling. The most valuable lessons and conversations we've had this past month likely would not have taken place at all if they were still in public school.

We get outside in the mornings and exercise 2 or 3 times per week. I walk or ride my bike; the children ride their scooters or bikes. We made some interesting nature observations on our walks (an almost-whole mushroom ring was the most memorable). We stopped at the park on one of our walks, and before Derek and Shayla ran off to play, we had a little chat about what I'd been thinking about before we stopped, which was our motivation for doing things. We talked about the difference between doing something because we have to versus serving someone out of love or doing something because we want to learn, etc. It was a great conversation, and I learned so much from it!

I have enjoyed our daily scripture study, which we do after our exercise and chores. We are using the "Preach My Gospel" manual produced by our church as our curriculum (Chapter 3). We read the summaries and the scriptures that go with them. We spend 15-20 minutes on that each day, which is more than we've spent on that in years past, and we also do it consistently now.

We've also had several great math lessons, although Derek thinks some of them are torture. I feel most confident with our math progress right now. I'm challenging Derek to do some mental math every day, and he really dreaded it at first. It's getting better now. He wanted to home school for the challenge, but he says he just wanted harder equations to solve, he didn't want to do it all in his head. I feel the approach we're currently taking will leave him better prepared in the long run--life's math problems don't come in neat, little equations. And a paper and pencil for long division or multiplication and calculators are often unavailable when needed. If he can solve math problems in his head quickly, he'll be so much better off than I am!

I have taught Derek how to mend clothes and both Derek and Shayla received ironing lessons.

Another thing to be happy about is the number of books Derek and Shayla have read. An amazing thing that is occurring is that staying on top of house work is easier than it was in the past. Derek and Shayla help out quite a bit, and routines are being established that are making it easier to keep up with everything.

I mostly feel good about our decision to home school and how things are going because the children and I are HAPPY. When school started, it felt so natural to keep them home with me. I really am enjoying our home schooling experience so far, even though in some ways, my ideal has not yet been met. I have come to accept that my ideal may never be reached, and along with that acceptance, I have realized that my ideal may not even be the "right" way. Maybe the way things are going and will go is the right and best way, so I will continue to be happy with and blog about it!