What a crazy few months it has been. We have had so much going on that blogging took a back seat. With school starting I couldn’t help but want to share the kids first day with all our family and friends.
As for many other families, we have been put in a position to make difficult decisions. Schooling has been one of them. Fortunately, my work has graciously worked with me to allow me to homeschool my children this year. I homeschooled my oldest his kindergarten year and for many reasons we decided to enroll him and his sister in school the following year. Although that was also a tough decision, it was for the best for our family during that season of our life but always intended on returning to the homeschool life.
However, we are not able to do your more traditional style of homeschool, where the parent gives direct instruction to the kids throughout the day. I work a 7:30-4:30 position and have to be logged in and helping customers during those hours.
That being said, we are 1 week down and I have 4 happy kids that are loving school. They are interested in learning and have a passion to ask questions and learn how to answer them independently.
We are using a website for our main instruction, DiscoveryK-12. We will be adding a second reinforcement site in the next couple of weeks. One that adjusts to their abilities, we are looking at A Time for Learning or IXL. Both of them are amazing programs, I am just not sure yet which will fit our needs best.
My older 3 are 99% independent learners, they hold any questions for my lunch break or after work hours. My youngest is able to work independently for about a 10 minutes increment of time. So we do most of his work before I log in, during my lunch break, and at night. This has been working out well for us. It allows him the breaks he needs to be a kid and play but also still get the instruction he needs. I give him about 10 minutes of instruction at a time and then leave him to work on his independent work, once I can see he is able to do it independently. Then he will watch an educational video that is ready for him on his computer. I keep educational tabs open for him so throughout the day when his siblings are busy with school he can do some school work too. Although it is optional for him.
My older 3 love deciding when they do what and deciding when a break is needed. We have set clear expectations for them. In order to help guide them through these expectations, we started on a Sunday. This allowed me to dedicate 100% of my attention on them and correct anything we needed to prior to them being left to figure that t out by themselves.
As anyone “new” to homeschooling will say, I am nervous and excited all at once. But I have 4 happy kids that want to learn and that is what matters most. We have made some adjustments along the way already and we have had some educational wins!
