Our First Full Week of Homeschooling

Posted by
Jenn Greenleaf
Mar 30, 2009

That’s right, it’s finally here. It seems like a long road traveled, but we’ve finally made it to our first full week of homeschooling. I’m starting my nephew off slowly because I don’t want him to become overwhelmed and frustrated the first week into this program. Right now, he’s working on getting all of his notebooks and assignments from school organized. There was a LOT in his locker that he “never got around to doing” that my fiancé and I thought would be beneficial for him to finish. Especially since we’re trying to finish off the credits he already started at the beginning of the year.

It feels strange working with someone sitting at the desk behind me. My entire routine is going to change, but that’s okay. It’s going to be a different routine for him too, obviously, so it looks like the transition is about to begin! We’re going to be spending time here, at the library, and other various locations throughout his program. This summer is going to be interesting because I start school back up, too, and we’ll be managing the summer schedules of the three little ones. It’s going to be busy around here!

I was going to move my easels up into the living room this weekend and start a new painting, but those plans never came to fruition because:

I have the beginnings of a cold that wants to kick my butt, but it’s taking it’s time . . . long, drawn out, and torturous symptoms.

My easels are folded up, and under a bunch of things I had to stack up on top of my work surfaces when cleaning up after the flood.

I will work on this, though, because the ideas won’t leave me alone. This isn’t a complaint, mind you, but rather an observation. I love it when this happens, actually, because it reminds me that a creative part of me is living and breathing – and deserves as much attention as the rest of me!

Mar 30, 2009 9:02 AM

Guest :

Been where you are, be prepared to allow time to detox and start reconnecting him to you. Its kinda like the tomato staking you did as a child, simply learning to be home is an education to. We started ours with a simple routine based on her learning best times and functions. After years as a public school teacher, I had to detox as much as she did on learning that home schooling is not about recreating public school at home. Chose a few (3) thoughtful things you'd like to accomplish this month. For us it was 1. writing every day. 2. math every day 3. choosing one thematic activity that would allow for research, reading, writing, and organized learning to be collected as the research activity grew . (example: my thirteen year old just studied painters from the period 1750-1900 in France because her love is art) Because you want them to learn, what was going on, how it went on, what government factors mattered, economics of that period, science discoveries that shaped perceptions...the learning becomes complex and self driven as she loves to learn about things she is interested in (art) and the level is much more difficult than I would have ever expected as a high school teacher. We balance into the 7 base subject area in each thematic exposure for about 18 weeks at a time, but when we began we simply tried for 3 weeks on a topic. Math has been a constant for us...daily...since it was weak area.