Homeschooling in California

Well, life overwhelmed me in November so I didn’t work very hard on NaNoWriMo.  I’m okay with that.  Sometimes we need to prioritise and realise that despite all the motivational speakers, and cheerleaders out there, sometimes we just can’t do everything we want to.

 So I’ve been focusing on pulling myself together, taking care of my family, and enjoying this journey we’re on.  When we first started homeschooling, I thought I could just add it on to all the other things that already filled up my life.  Turns out, that wasn’t the best way to approach it.  I think we’re doing generally well, but it’s a learning curve for sure.  From what I read on homeschool discussion forums, it will continue to be so too.

 My biggest personal problem, I think, is trying to do too much.  I know how smart my kid is, and she’s also sweet, eager to please, curious, and enthusiastic.  She made it too easy for me to keep pushing at her more than I probably should have, because she just goes along with me. 

We didn’t do much over the week when schools were closed for Thanksgiving.  We did some reading, and other little projects.  Found little lessons in everyday life.  Made me think about what it may be like to unschool.  When we went back to our regular schedule, my agreeable child started complaining from time to time.  Not much, but it was clear, that she wanted more freedom, and more free play time.

I keep telling myself, “This is kindergarten.  We should be playing all the time.  If she isn’t having at least some fun with a lesson, then I’m probably doing it wrong.”  And yet it’s still hard to not try to make sure we cover each subject every day.  Today I think we did better.  We made applesauce (science, math), did a reading lesson, and worked on her scrapbook (writing and art).  She loved it all. 

The school that we work through give parents almost total freedom.  Our advisor gives us ideas if we ask for them, but doesn’t ever tell us what we should or should not do.  We see her this week, and I think I’m going to ask for a little guidance about the level we should be working at.  It would help me to have an outside opinion about how much we should be doing.

I really think we’re on the right track, but it seems like the more we move away from workbooks and toward everyday life skills and lessons the less tangible stuff we have to provide “work samples”.  Is that a problem?  I dunno.  I guess we’ll find out when we see our advisor.