Category Archives: Homeschool

Learning at home with a second-grader and a fifth-grader.

Homeschool, National Blog Posting Month

A few words about school

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I used to write about our homeschooling adventures all the time, and then this year came along and I stopped writing about it altogether. There’s a reason for that, and the reason is not that the children have stopped learning but that I have for the most part become more of a homeschool administrator. And that’s just for Poppy. Pete isn’t homeschooling at all this year.

The last time I posted about homeschooling was in April, in The Evolution of a Homeschool Mom, in which I said I was struggling to figure out my new role. And that’s just what I’ve done this year. My job this year has been to keep up with their schedule and get them where they need to be and make sure they’re doing their homework. And it’s gone pretty well, for the most part.

Our semester of co-op just ended. Poppy took video production (in which the kids made a sequel to “Pretty in Pink” with puppets), French and literature, and I taught Creative Writing to 9- and 10-year-old girls. One of them wrote an amusing little poem about Elvis meeting Nixon. It was a fun class. I had fun, anyway. I don’t know if the kids did.

Poppy’s also taking US history, physical science and writing elsewhere, and she’s also participating in a book club and working on a monthly newsletter there. She loves her classes there, although she’s a little disillusioned with it today because one of her teachers assigned a lot of homework over Thanksgiving break.

Pete got his first report card recently, and he’s done just fine. He made the A/B honor roll, and he’s made a few friends. My primary concern for him and public school was that he’d be in trouble for talking all the time. That hasn’t been an issue at all, though. I had to laugh in our parent-teacher conference earlier this year when his teacher said, “I was worried when I saw he’d always been homeschooled, but he’s fitting in just like he’s always been here!” I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.

So all in all we’re having a fine school year. I’m mostly just driving people hither and yon and saying “Did you do your homework? Do your homework!” a lot. The kids are happy and healthy and they’re learning, so I’m OK with that.

Homeschool

The evolution of a homeschool mom

We have about a month left in our school year, and as the end of our 6th- and 3rd-grade year draws near I’ve been feeling a little reflective. Specifically, I’ve been trying to figure out why I’ve struggled so much this year. I’ve been stressed all year because I’ve felt that we weren’t getting enough of our schoolwork done. The kids have a lot of away-from-home activities, and I feel like all I’ve done is play catch-up.

And suddenly a few days ago something occurred to me: I’m evolving. I’ve been the kids’ primary teacher for their entire school career, but that isn’t really the case any more. Poppy is taking classes elsewhere for almost every subject this year, which means I’m more of a coordinator than a teacher for her now. That time hasn’t entirely come for Pete yet, but it’s getting closer.

Here’s a glimpse at what our weeks have been like these last few months:

Monday

Poppy’s taking a creative writing class from me at Monday co-op, Pete is taking a class called World Building that involved making up his own country, and they’re both taking a class in which they play board games. We’ve been a part of our Monday Co-op for almost five years. It’s a very sweet group, but it skews toward young kids and it isn’t really meeting our needs anymore. It’ll be a bittersweet departure, but it’s necessary.

Tuesday

Poppy has been taking an Shakespearean acting class, a lot of tae kwon do and some extra training for soccer on Tuesdays, while Pete meets with his spelling tutor and has a swim lesson — all worth activities that do not take place at the same time. Tuesday was meant to be a day that we stayed home and focused on our schoolwork, but best laid plans and all that.

Wednesday

Poppy spends a good bit of the day away from home taking writing, science and a culture and civilization class on Wednesdays, and Pete has chess class. This is one of the days that we actually do get a bit more work done at home, especially for Pete.

Thursday

Thursday is New Co-op day. That’s winding down for the year, too. It’s been a terrific addition for us, academically. Poppy is currently working on a presentation on Nirvana for her History of Rock ‘n’ Roll class, and she did a presentation on Australia this week in World Geography. She’s also taking a literature and writing class, in which her most recent assignment is to write a persuasive paper. She’s trying to persuade the world to adopt a pet. Pete is working with a small group on making a stop-motion film about the parts of a computer for his Technology class and researching javelin in Sports & Games and the Marquis de Lafayette in literature, and he just finished a project about The Sun for his Astronomy class.

Friday

Fridays are my least-busy day, because the piano teacher and the spelling tutor come to us. This is the day we get most of our at-home work done.

Don’t you hate it when you get a demanding text from the principaw?
My personal goal for next year is to embrace my new role. I’ll handle the registration and help them figure out how to juggle homework and sports and free time, and I’ll plan field trips, and I’ll drive them all over town and back again. And most important for my peace of mind, I’ll stop worrying that we aren’t getting everything done, because they’ll be doing quite enough.

Want to peek into some other homeschoolers’ lives? Check out the weekly roundup at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Homeschool

We’ve entered a new era in homeschooling

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It’s been a good long while since I wrote a This Week In Homeschooling post, and that’s because this semester the kids have more outsourced work than ever before. We joined a new co-op that’s much more academically focused than the one we’ve been doing for years. We’re still doing math, history, spelling and some science at home, and between the new co-op and the classes Poppy was already taking downtown a good bit of our school time at home is dedicated to doing homework.

Here are a few highlights from the week:

Monday

The kids had their final Odyssey of the Mind meeting before the regional competition. I think they’re both kind of relieved that they’re nearing the finish line. We listened to our “Story of the World” chapter on the way to and from the meeting. We learned about Pedro II, who was the second and last emperor of Brazil and seems like a pretty good leader.

Tuesday

Poppy’s OM team came over for a few hours to practice some spontaneous problems and run through their script a few more times.

Wednesday

Poppy went off to her classes downtown while a sickly Pete convalesced in his room all day.

Thursday

Thursday is New Co-op Day. Poppy’s literature class is reading “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she learned a little about Elvis in History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and she discussed India in world geography (which I’m teaching). Pete’s reading “The Boxcar Children” for literature, and he played soccer in Sports & Games, learned about Venus in astronomy and took apart a computer tower in his technology class.

Friday

Poppy had a piano lesson earlier today, and Pete had a session with his spelling tutor. We learned about The Pantanal via a very short history project, and the kids did some homework. And then we ended the school day early because it’s beautiful outside and they wanted to go enjoy it.

We used one of those origami fortune-teller gizmos to learn about animals that live in The Pantanal.

Want to peek into some other homeschoolers’ lives? Check out the weekly roundup at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!