A Week in the Life of Homeschool (Part 1: What is it Like?)

I've had a lot of parents recently ask about how we manage to do homeschooling. For some, it's a case of "How do you manage to do that and still work?" For others, it's "How do you do that without killing each other!?!" Still others want to know "How do you do it, because this year in school is getting crazy?"

When it comes to homeschool, I'm probably different than most. I'm not an "unschooler" who lets my child do whatever she wants whenever she wants. I also don't do an hour of religion and memorizing of bible verses every day. In many ways, the homeschool experience is not too different from the "traditional school" experience, with a few key differences.

* A class size of one means that everything is taught one-on-one. This allows me to have a good grasp on what's working and what's not, where we can skip ahead and where enrichment is needed.

* There's no grades--at my daughter's request, she doesn't get graded per se. That said, she still does paper and pencil tests in math (and I look them over to identify areas where a concept was missed or something that needs extra work). She also takes online "unit tests" for ELA, which does provide immediate feedback.

* She can work at her own pace -- if she wants to end her school day early and save work for the next day, she can do that. More often, she tries to work ahead so she can take a day off at the end of the week. She has a set amount of work she needs to complete in a week. If she doesn't, then she knows she'll be working on it over the weekend. (Thus far, she's had no desire to make things last into the weekend.)

* If something becomes stressful, she has the option to walk away for a while, compose herself, and return to it later.

* There's no homework -- or as she points out, all work is home-work.

* Extra-curricular activities are a must. Some she does at her old public school (LEGOs and VR Coding), some she does independently (swim lessons, Girl Scouts, Art Class), and some she does via a co-op.

I work full-time, and so we have separate work stations. Most of her work is self-directed, and anything else that she needs can be done during a coffee break of mine. Big projects, like science experiments, are done on the weekends if they require parental involvement.

Time permitting, this week I hope to write up what the experience is like to answer some questions about the whole homeschool experience. Stay tuned!

Back into Blogging

I was never Catholic, but starting up a blog again after a long absence feels like a step into a confessional. 

Bless me readers. It's been several years since I've tended to this blog. 

In that time, I've switched jobs, kiddo has switched schools, and much more decluttering has happened around the house. 

Regarding decluttering, we're now basically at the point where it's tough to figure out any other things to declutter. Don't get me wrong, we still have enough items to justify the size of our living space, but the items we have work well for us. It's very easy to keep the house clean without going crazy. 

On the family front, our daughter had her high-stakes test year last year, and it was tough. Oh, the test was easy. She could have passed a year or two ago. But the amount of prep leading up to it gave her crazy amounts of stress-related issues, coupled with frustration that no new material was being taught. She brought up the idea of homeschool, and after talking it over with the teacher, we all agreed it was worth a shot. So...we're starting homeschool.

Speaking of stress, my day job has provided enough stress that I was starting to show health issues. Needless to say, I'm working to figure out stress management and then see if it is worth it to continue with the job in my current role. In the meantime, my nights/weekends blogging job has been growing exceptionally well. Much lower stress, but there's always the "fun" of being a freelancer in that you don't have a set income to feel secure with. 

Since 1999 or so, I've always worked more than one job at a time. I maxed out at one point where I was working one 40-hour/week job, one 28-hour/week job, and two part-time (~10 hours/week or less) jobs all at the same time. It started out that I worked multiple jobs because that was the only way to make ends meet. Then it became a case of how I could have financial security to the point of if I wanted something, I knew I'd have the money to make it happen. Then it morphed to "Well, if I wasn't working, what would I do with my time?" (with no actual answer). 

Now, call it a mid-life crisis or whatever, but I'm feeling greedy about time. I've got good organization in place to build a wonderful life, and so I have to ask whether or not working insane hours is doing anything beneficial. 

In other words, we got physical belongings decluttered, and now it's time to simply life! 

I may blog about it. I may not. We'll see if this blog is useful or clutter. Time will tell.