School Year Beginnings

One week down, 35 more to go! The first day of school was awesome!  Our new schedule/routine worked perfectly and was so relaxed.  I thought to myself, "I could do this every day!"  By Thursday I was thinking, "Is it the weekend yet? I need a break!"  Hahaha.  Perfect days like our first day are few and far between, but oh, so wonderful!

I'm glad we are back into a school day routine.  This week showed me how lazy our summer really was concerning following a schedule.  I can't stay up late for "one more show" with my hubby and still expect to have the energy to make it through the school day.  A couple nights like that and our little man awake a couple extra times and all those beautiful plans become a struggle!

We had to make a few minor tweaks to my planned routine for our little guy.  He plays wonderfully on his own when we are in the same room as him, however, when we are doing a lesson at the kitchen table and he is in the living room on his own...completely different story!  He just stands at the gate whining and watching us.  Poor guy.  It seems he forgot we just played with him minutes earlier! :0)  The solution is to do school with one child while the other plays with him and then switch.  Then while they are working on individual things, Mommy spends time with him!

Last year we were able to get most of our schooling done by lunch time.  This year I split it up into morning and afternoon work.  Trying to anticipate the needed flexibility for a toddler added to the mix and also fitting in some time for fun and a few chores.

Next week we start our once weekly full day of enrichment at our local Options program.  I accidentally let my license expire, so my first day of freedom is going to be spent sitting at the DMV, joy of joys...  The girls are looking forward to being back in a group of their peers, the one major thing they missed about traditional schooling. 

Think, Think, Think

I have a brain that likes to ponder things...like Winnie the Pooh who frequently sits and taps his forehead saying, "Think, think, think."  We start our second year of homeschool in a week, and I find myself reflecting on how life was prior to homeschool vs. how it is now.  I ponder the upbringing my older children had being in childcare vs. my son who has only known a home environment.

There are things my older girls learned simply because being in childcare there was a set system of growth and development that is expected and necessary to function well in that lifestyle.  I worried more about training them to sleep on their own, using a pacifier, staying on track with the published typical milestones of child development, and social skills at a younger age.

With my son, everything is more relaxed.  He didn't have to be sleep trained or keep a set mealtime schedule.  We have the flexibility to go with the flow of our home lifestyle.  His life doesn't have to fit into a system.  I have enjoyed the absence of this pressure in caring for him.  For example, it was very important to keep ahead of the game in learning to eat solid foods for my girls and also to learn self-soothing habits because in a childcare program, those skills make a child's day significantly better.  At home, these skills are learned following the child's leading and aren't required in order for a day to go well.  He is learning these skills, just a little more slowly and at a pace that works for him.

One thing that the girls learned early on, is to accept other caregivers.  My little guy is very much attached to me.  I love that I have been able to be there for him, although it has made leaving him with others more challenging.

I ponder similar comparisons with our homeschooling experience so far.  Traditional school is very structured with routines and rules that are necessary to have a successful learning experience within a large group of children and teaching is geared towards meeting specific state goals.  Everything is set up for the group as a whole with very little flexibility for children's individual learning needs. 

At home, I can adjust the day's learning based on the individual needs of my children from slowing things down, to speeding them up; taking a day off or changing the learning environment.  I can even adapt our curriculum as frequently as needed or desired.

The longer I homeschool, the more I realize that in being home with my children, and unlike the traditional school setting, education takes place throughout all of our life experiences together and not just during the set "school hours".  This might sound like a "duh" statement, but I'll explain further what I mean:

I remember my older girls being in their public charter school and wondering what they were learning and how well they were learning.  I had to trust the teachers and the school system that things were going good as long as I didn't hear otherwise. 

Now that I am the teacher, I know exactly where they are in their learning and can use our life experiences with an educational advantage.  Over dinner, I can enforce a concept discussed during school as it pops up in casual conversation.  When we are perusing Netflix for something to watch, I can pick out shows with themes that correlate to things we've been learning in school.

Homeschooling and being a stay-home mom isn't for every family, but for me, it is a cherished season of life.