One Month In! 1-30-2008

So we have almost made it through our first month of homeschooling and I really think we have accomplished a lot. I am a bit surprised actually, looking at all that we have done because there were days that I was thinking “have we done anything today?”
We have been in decompression mode and trying to figure out “how“ this was going to work for us. We are very scheduled as I am a bit neurotic, however I am flexible with the schedule. I have had to rework the schedule several times and rethink the way we are approaching some of the curriculum areas, but we are starting to get in a good routine and flow.
I am also starting to understand a bit more about how unschooling and other less structured learning actually works. KM has been so interested in certain areas on her own that she wouldn’t have gotten to explore if they came up in school. They would have had the set amount of time and when the time is up it is up, whereas we were up one night until well past her bedtime looking up information on the Olmec Civilization BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO! Not because we were rushing to get the project or paper done, but because she was so interested in it. She just kept coming up with more and more questions and she couldn’t fall asleep until all of them were answered. So we are following curriculum but if it is something that she is just NOT interested in then we move through it a bit quicker. I want KM to be able to figure out what she WANTS to learn about in Art, Music, Science and Social Studies, but in Math and Language there are things she HAS to know and has to be lead more strongly through. I know no matter what I am doing the right thing for my child! She is getting more attention and opportunity than she ever could have in any other school.
Mind you not everything has been sunshine, roses and smiles. We have had our moments of aggravation and bumps in the road, but compared to what our house was like, it has been a day at the beach!
Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.-- George Evans

P.S. I still have not figured out how to get the crystals out of the jar!!!