Refocusing the lens - Caution! May only be relevant to hs'ing geeks

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As I mentioned in my previous post, school planning is always a reflective time.

As I looked back at our year(s) I came to some surprising conclusions as to what I might like to change. When I started with the homeschool idea I was all about the adventure and breaking away from the mold. I didn't want to be trapped into a 9-5 life, running the kids everywhere, never being together. I wanted to have family adventures and learn along the way and really enjoy each other!  I just wanted things to be *different* than what I saw as the "typical" lifestyle.

Well, since we haven't yet travelled North America in an RV for a year or hired private guides to take us through Europe :) is this lifestyle really meeting my goals? Since I live it everyday I don't feel very outside the box and I'm disappointed. It seems like we spend most of everyday just doing basic learning although over the years I've tried to find innovative and exciting curricula to capture some of that "adventure". We use lots of "real" books, few graded readers or textbooks, manipulative based Math, creative notebooking for Science that everyone can participate in, a "natural" methodology of learning Writing and Grammar, that sort of thing. All well and good, wonderful ways to learn but I can see that this takes a lot of extra time and effort on my part and I'm not sure anyone else really appreciate it!

I've changed my tack; this year I just want to get school done and get on with life!  I've invested in exciting online class opportunities for my oldest, leaving me more time to work with the littles while giving him some independence and a new voice to listen to.  He'll be doing a great real-time online literature course with a wonderful classical academy (Veritas)  in the US.  The books he'll be delving into are terrific!:

Around the World in 80 Days
A Christmas Carol
Kidnapped 
Fahrenheit 451
The Yearling
Fellowship of the Ring
Call of the Wild
White Fang
Little Women

He's a thinker and an excellent reader. I think he can handle it. He'll be doing an online Canadian Social Studies class with the school with which we are affiliated.  And he'll be accessing his Math lessons online, though not interactive, using the same curriculum as usual.   There are so many great ways to learn these days!

The rest of the changes involve heading to a Grammar text book (Rod & Staff), an excellent writing course on dvd (Institute for Excellence in Writing), a very solid formal Spelling program (Rod & Staff) (we need a bit of this!) and drilling the basics for those grade 4 and under.

I think it promises to be a varied and thorough year although next year my blog may reflect the complete opposite. Who knows?  I do know this year has been approached thoughtfully with much prayer and great expectation!

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