Okay, I warned you on my first blog post that I'm horrible at keeping up with journaling. At least I know my weaknesses ;) Now be prepared because I'm going to talk for awhile to make up for it.
11 months ago, I created this blog as an easy way to "out" myself as a new homeschooler. I didn't want to have to deal with the same conversation over and over again where I explained how we came to this point while I defended our decisions. 11 months later I'm very happy to say that I am definitely a homeschooler, very proud of it and will talk anyone's ear off about it! This last year has been amazing! Don't get me wrong...it hasn't been perfect. My educational vision has evolved multiple times, the girls and I have had our share of power struggles, I've been ready to pull my hair out when my husband got home in the evening (even more so on the evenings when work kept him away), my housekeeping skills appear to have been taken over by a 6 yr old child and yet, through it all, I still say that it has been amazing!
For those of you that like specifics, I will give a quick listing of SOME of what we studied last year and what curriculum we used to guide us through those studies:
As a family, we learned in surprising depth, about space and what is in our sky, using Apologia's Astronomy course. We also went through many different areas of history using pieces of Biblioplan, Story of the World, and TruthQuest. Aly went through all facets of single & multi digit division using Math U See Delta and Sav went through single digit addition & subtraction using Math U See Alpha. Aly began the Student Writing Intensive course from the Institute for Excellence in Writing while also using Christian Light Education's Language Arts books to work on her language arts and grammar skills. Sav made amazing progress in her reading using Hooked on Phonics, while she did Grammar from First Language Lessons and Writing from Writing with Ease. They also did some handrwiting books, made several lapbooks, did art projects and read more books this last year than they have read their entire lives. Miranda still attended our awesome co-op preschool 2-3 times a week but when she joined us at home, she adored doing her Letter of the Week work, playing all sorts of fun file folder games, and just generally tagging along with what everyone else was doing.
So, why has this year been amazing? I don't want to negate the fact that the learning they have done has been phenomenal, but that honestly hasn't been the best of it. The growth they have made emotionally, socially and spiritually is what has made it all worth it. For anyone that is concerned about the social aspect of homeschooling...well...it's crap. Sorry, just putting it out there, but it is! This last year has shown me exactly what the difference is between "socializing" in a 5 day/wk regular school environment and socializing in normal, every day environments.
I can see the difference most clearly in Aly, simply because she was in the regular school system for longer. The peer influence of regular school which caused my then 3rd grade daughter (8 yrs old) to constantly discuss the continuously changing cycle of what boy she liked, what boy liked her, how large a male classmate's boy parts were (yes, really), and so much more, is now practically non-existent. Don't get me wrong, she still has her crushes. The difference is they are now normal, 9 yr old crushes. Not the obsessive, my-life-revolves-around-this type of crushes. She has, on her own, picked up on the difference between those friends who exhibit virtues that she agrees with and those who she still may enjoy hanging out with, but she doesn't necessarily want to emulate. She has learned that her sisters aren't the enemy, they truly can be her friends. She has learned that her mom and dad are available for any off the wall question she may have (and boy does she have a lot), no matter how personal they may be. And best of all, she has learned that God isn't separate from life...God IS life!
Since Sav is younger, and only went through kindy in regular school, I don't see the amazing about-face like I do in Aly. Instead, what I see is a tremendous growth in the confidence she has in herself, her love of Christ and her patience with her sister. She is growing into a wonderful young girl, who doesn't have the 7 hr/day, 5 day/wk influence from other immature children. Instead, her main influence is a woman who is confident in who she is and very confident in who her children are becoming. Unless things drastically change, Sav will always be the quieter one. She's more reflective, more introspective and just darn sweet. This isn't getting squashed by 30+ loud and overbearing 7 yr olds. Instead these qualities are being enhanced by a mom who can see exactly how to work with it and bring out the good parts of these traits.
Let me also clarify all of this by saying that I am NOT their only influence! I'm just their main one, the same way I have been since their birth. They still have tons of interaction with their peers through enrichment classes, tennis lessons, dance classes, play dates, field trips, church activities and so much more! Whoever came up with the term "home"schooling really should be slapped because it truly gives an incorrect picture of our day. We are anything but just home! I've put more miles on my car this last year than in quite some time...and I'm enjoying all of it :). It really isn't anything like most people imagine!
So, while I have loved watching the learning take place, and loved seeing them grow to new potentials, the thing that really has made me have that amazing year is to see who the kids are becoming as individuals. I get to see that just because they hit school age, all my years of being a stay-at-home mom don't have to be thrown out the window. It's an amazing sight to see and I'm very happy to say, we will be proudly continuing this adventure through another year (and hopefully more). I've changed some of our curriculum around (and am VERY excited about the changes...more on that later) and I've kept some the same. Very anxious to see where this next year in our Life of Learning will take us!
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