Saturday, December 19, 2015

Adventures in Homeschooling

I have been wanting to start this blog series for some time now, but honestly homeschooling has kept me so busy I haven't even had time to think about it.  By now I had already planned to have written several post on this topic, but there just aren't enough hours in the day to do it all.

Since we started this homeschooling adventure back in August we have really had a time. Most days have been great, but their have been many days when tears have happened, for both of us. The beginning was really rough, we had a hard time adjusting to the schedule and had to rearrange our day around the school itself. It is not your typical home school, there are actual live classes that she has to attend every day at certain times. It is also the first year our state has had this type of school, so naturally there are some "bugs" in the program.

The hardest thing so far has been taking myself out of some of the work. For instance, she is very independent as far as the online classes. She needed a little help with learning to take notes, but she is doing better with that.  The hard part is test time. The majority of her test are online and it is very difficult for me not to jump in to help. I have to remind myself to keep my distance, only offer help if needed and then keep the help small. The only help I give is to ask her questions and get her mind to thinking on what she needs to do. Just a simple question can sometimes get her mind going and heading in the right direction.

Homeschooling is defiantly not for the faint of heart. By the end of most days I am so exhausted I think I actually fall asleep before I crawl into bed.  Others my brain is so wired up from he day that I lay awake thinking about what I didn't get done or what I need to have ready for tomorrow.

Some days she just gets it, no problems at all, it just clicks. Other days not so much. We have not started fractions yet,but this little cartoon sums up the "other days".



I try to start off every day with a positive attitude and encourage her to do the same. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, this describes those days: 



I am very happy about having the next two weeks off and so is Caroline.  She is most excited about not having to do Math for a while and I can't say as I blame her. What can I say about home school?  Is it hard work? Absolutely! Does it get trying after a while? Most defiantly! Even through it all I am so thankful for the opportunity to do this with her. It gives us lots of one on one time and believe or not I have actually learned some things that I didn't get in school. I was either not listening that day or I just don't remember, but now I am getting it. 






"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"



No comments:

Post a Comment