10 Years of Homeschooling

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Our summer break starts today. This concludes our tenth year of homeschooling. Our son finished 9th grade. According to the law, he started out with Kindergarten (or Year 0 as it is known in some countries). Hence, 10 years of homeschooling.

Girl playing violin

I am holding her book as she warms up before her violin recital.

Words do not come easy to describe the last decade. My husband and I are happy we went this route – let us start there. Then, we can say that we plan to continue on this road until high school graduation for both. Continue reading »


The Last Week of School

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It’s here, folks! The last week of school has finally arrived. As usual, I have mixed feelings. Homeschooling is my passion, so the end of the school year leaves me thinking, “What am I going to do with myself for the next three months?” On the other hand, I have been at this for nine years, so I know summer schedules can be even busier than the school year.

Mom and daughter holding hands

My daughter still wants to hold my hand while we hike. It’s sweet.

We have not finished all our textbooks, either. So this leaves us with a few things to wrap up here and there throughout the next 12 weeks. Actually, it is more like nine weeks, because three weeks will be spent in summer camps at different times. Continue reading »


Summer Break

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We have been on summer break for a month now. Every day, we do what we want to do, but we also have certain goals to reach this summer. Many homeschoolers use their summer break to finish up a history book that they did not finish, for instance. We are doing the same thing.

Andrews Bald

Andrews Bald picnic with friends

Do you have academic goals for the summer, in order to avoid the summer slide? You probably should. Many libraries have a Summer Reading Program going, with workshops and activities, prizes and craft projects. I am finding out quickly that tweens and teens are not interested in those programs though. Continue reading »


Time Warp Trio Books

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When the National Spelling Bee recommends a book, I take it seriously. They know good vocabulary and plots. Therefore, I want to be right there with my children, learning, learning, learning. So when the Bee people said, “Read these three historical fiction titles,” I paid attention.

Time Warp Trio Books

Eight of the 13 books we read in this series

Amazingly, my local library actually owned one of the three titles, “See You Later, Gladiator.” We read it, laughed a lot, and realized this is a part of a book series called The Time Warp Trio. Three middle school students, all boys, travel through time and space, encountering different adventures. Continue reading »


Summer Break Goals

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Our summer break has started. As I look at the stretch of two and a half months of break from homeschooling, I know from experience it can still be intense and busy. Due to COVID-19, I suspect a lot of the camps my children normally attend will be canceled. We have no confirmations yet, but I expect they would not happen. They will let us know by June 1 for sure.

Identifying butterflies

Identifying butterflies during our last hike

In a way, I like it. We will save money and energy by staying home and reading more books from the library. This brings me to my list of summer goals. In no particular order, here it is: Continue reading »


End of the School Year

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It is almost the end of May and this means summer break is here. We do not homeschool year round, although learning never stops. Children are naturally curious and they will learn even if I don’t record it as a school day.

Boy and girl holding homeschool certificates of completion

First grade and third grade certificates

We have some summer camps coming up: art, orchestra, app making, manners, soccer, swimming, archery – all these activities involve learning. I have not yet decided if I should count these days toward their next school year. This past school year, I did. But it almost feels like cheating. Continue reading »


Unschooling Through August

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As I wrote in a previous post, I don’t particularly jive with unschooling. But when I decided that August was going to be our official summer break, I unleashed unschooling. The results almost persuaded me that unschooling is the Holy Grail of homeschooling. The key word being almost

Some days, the kids played with their LEGOs and DUPLOs, with their toys and bikes, or in the sand box or the tree house. I’ll have to tell you about our tree house in a future post. In the meantime, here’s a picture of DS in the tree house just before we put a roof on it, in June 2012…

Our tree house, no roof yet

 

On other days, they asked for crafts and workbooks and painting time. I complied. It worked so well, it gave me an appreciation for the unschooling method. They were so eager to learn and so happy to receive instructions on how to finish their projects.

Do-a-Dot Letters

And yet. And yet. And yet. How would I know what they learned? And was it Math or Science? Do I count it as Language Arts or Fine Arts? Did they just do P.E.? Or was it recess?

Learning obviously happens all the time and everywhere we go. I just don’t know how to record it. I need a box to check.

If my kids grow up to be freer in their thinking than I am, more power to them. If they take this education revolution to the next level, it would not bother me one bit. But I can only come so far.

For now. One never knows the future. I have watched some homeschooling friends evolve over time in their methods. I suspect it can happen to me, too.

Until then, I remain eclectic with a strong classical-Charlotte Mason-Moore Formula bias. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the energy the kids show during delight-based, child-led educational pursuits, i. e. unschooling. I’m just not ready for this approach, as I feel like I am lost without a map or a GPS in the educational jungle.

Please leave me a comment below about your experience with unschooling. How comfortable are you with this method?