Weekly Wrap Up

This is my first Weekly Wrap-Up, and I am excited to be sharing a few changes we've made in our homeschool.  I have to confess that the homeschool paradigm has not totally sunk into our daily habits.  What do I mean?  Well I keep trying to schedule too much, I am more worried about marking activities off a list, and I forget we're not controlled by any outside force about when schooling needs to take place or how lessons need to be presented.

So, this week I really concentrated on letting my son dictate a few things.  For a type A personality like myself this was a little frightening, but I handed the reins over to him anyway.  I enjoyed watching him grow in so many ways and his imagination expand.

My son's first decision made me almost bite my tongue off.  He decided he should be allowed to stay up until 11pm every night.  I have always thought children need their sleep and should go to bed at a certain time.  Here is where the homeschool paradigm comes in to say, "Why does it have to be that way?"  My son is not getting up a 7:30am to attend school, so what is the problem with him staying up?

Here is how wonderfully it has been working out.  We go to bed at the same time!  I have been getting a full 8 hrs of sleep, which is a miracle.  I get up 2 hrs before my son does, and have gotten so much done it amazes me.  {I always thought I was more productive after he went to bed at night.  Boy was I wrong.}  We sit down together for breakfast and devotions, then we "hit the books".

We concentrated on Science and Math on Monday and Tuesday.  My son just learned about the periodic table, and you would have thought he discovered a new and amazing toy.  He spent 2 hrs on Tuesday looking up each element.  He really enjoyed learning more about copper.  {Wikipedia is his new best friend.}  I can't tell you how many times I heard, "Mom look at this," with wonder and excitement in his voice.

For the Language Arts buff in me it was a great way to work in some grammar and spelling.  Some of the words were difficult for him to pronounce, so we went through some spelling rules, and we both were happy with the study.

We also worked on multiplication.  My son is very good at math, but he is impatient until it clicks.  While drawing columns of little circles and adding them up works well for the smaller numbers, multiplying by 6, 7, 8, and 9's this way isn't as easy.  It takes a lot of time to draw and add all those little circles.  So, we had fun learning a new method to figuring out the answers.  My son actually enjoyed his Math lessons this week more than he expected.

Wednesday and Thursday our focus was on History and Art.  And of course he read 2 chapters a day from one of his Happy Hollister books.  He enjoys them enough to want to hang on to the books forever.  It is nice to see him enjoy reading.

Finally, this was our last week with k12.  We are now independent homeschoolers looking forward to a more relaxed atmosphere in learning.  Already this week showed me that marking off lessons does not make for an education.  I have been so uptight about staying "on track" that my son was getting lost in the process.

I do want to take this opportunity the say thank you to the k12 users, especially the Yahoo group members, that helped and supported me as I got my feet wet in homeschooling.  The staff for k12 and CAVA for putting together a program that is so supportive to the ideas and needs of homeschooling families.  I will miss everyone I met through k12, and consider it my pleasure to have been among their wonderful community.

If you would like to join in a Weekly Wrap-up check out Kris's blog, Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and link up.  It was a lot of fun for me to look back over our last week with k12.  I look forward to sharing more about our new journey as independent homeschoolers.