I have noticed there is a thread of commonality among the moms in the homeschooling community that seem to be thriving. I realize that you can feign this kind of thing, but over the long haul, these moms seem to be coping well, their kids seem happy and confident and they seem to be enjoying their journey. They seem to be motivated and have interests outside of first person shooter games.
So the thread is this: Do the basics really well and don't do much else.
So I am copying them.
We've pared back around here. Not to say we aren't doing 'stuff'. There is still 'school', lots of reading, piano, drawing, we're bladesmithing with a totally awesome teacher in Beckwith, there is Judo, lots of farm work.... but I have cleared all but one evening. Any classes we are doing are during the school day or on Saturday afternoon. We have time in the evening to be home and be together and be about our own stuff. And the stuff is pretty awesome. Gabe is really purposing to teach himself programming and Cole makes and remakes lego and draws endlessly. Esther is becoming a real little pianist. So much so, she outgrew me and has a wonderful new piano teacher. And I get to enjoy my favourite hobbies... like laundry, and staying a chapter ahead of Gabe in Algebra II. It's made a huge difference.
Thanks to Annie Kate who gave me the idea in the first place.
So the thread is this: Do the basics really well and don't do much else.
So I am copying them.
We've pared back around here. Not to say we aren't doing 'stuff'. There is still 'school', lots of reading, piano, drawing, we're bladesmithing with a totally awesome teacher in Beckwith, there is Judo, lots of farm work.... but I have cleared all but one evening. Any classes we are doing are during the school day or on Saturday afternoon. We have time in the evening to be home and be together and be about our own stuff. And the stuff is pretty awesome. Gabe is really purposing to teach himself programming and Cole makes and remakes lego and draws endlessly. Esther is becoming a real little pianist. So much so, she outgrew me and has a wonderful new piano teacher. And I get to enjoy my favourite hobbies... like laundry, and staying a chapter ahead of Gabe in Algebra II. It's made a huge difference.
Thanks to Annie Kate who gave me the idea in the first place.
