Recalculating...Recalculating

When I'm driving by GPS and I made a turn Gladys, my GPS, doesn't agree with she gives me a lecture. She will get huffy with my choice (or circumstance) to take a different direction. Gladys then advises me that she is "recalculating my destination". Actually she hollars at me "recalculating...recalculating" as if I've turned her world upside down. Maybe I have.


It's a little like that with our new homeschool schedule.


Last week we took off from lessons to decompress and deschool. I think we are sufficiently decompressed, but deschooled is feeling like it will take a bit longer. For 8 years I've lived my life BPU/APU, Before Pick Up and After Pick Up. My whole body is on pointe waiting for half past 2 p.m. I've had an alarm on my phone to mark the time left before I needed to be on campus. Now there is no where we have to be at any given time. That doesn't mean we've gone all where-ever-the-wind-takes-us with regards to the structure of the day, but we are learning to be flexible. It's a long unused muscle.


The schedule was a bit part of why we choose to homeschool. There are so many cool things that happen during school hours. Museums are open, workshops are happening, government is running and art is all around us. It seems a bit disconnected to read about these events in a textbook rather than experience them firsthand. We're even planning a trip during what would have been The Test Week if we were in public school. Now we're going to take advantage of low-rate season and lovely weather to explore educationally relevant places. And isn't it all educationally revelant?


Tomorrow we start our Back To School. We have changed up the schedule to include waking up at 8:00 a.m. rather than the butt-crack of dawn to be at a building at 7:30 a.m. There are chores to be done first. The boys have a heavier workload than they did in their public school, but they're able to take breaks when they want and there aren't the usual distractions of rowdie classmates or changing classrooms. It's amazing how much can be accomplished when they are just working on the tasks at hand.


After all these years I wonder how long it will take before I stop watching the clock for 2:30? It's weird to live your life at the ready. For years I've felt I couldn't get momentum on a project because I had to stop what I was doing to deal with pick up. I can't go to the grocery store because it's almost 2:30. I can't run a quick errand because it's almost time for carpool. It's this odd little mantra based, not on what worked for us as a family, but on some arbitrary schedule set up by the school district. It's that same free-fall feeling I got when I graduated from university. That feeling that I should be doing something, shouldn't I? I have to learn to not fill every minute of the day to be "productive".


Recalculating...recalculating....

Feels Like Any Other Break-Up

Today we said good-bye to Z's school. At first we had planned to leave him in public school through 6th grade. Then we moved it to completing 5th grade. February 10 was his last "unofficial" day of public school.


Having two kids on two different schedules was not working for our family. Homeschool day was done by noon, sometimes 1 p.m. It would have been great to head out and do something fun or do life or whatever, but we couldn't really start anything because we had to be back by school dismissal. We weren't fully living the homeschool lifestyle, but we knew we'd be leaving the public school system. You can't ride two horses with one ass. It was decision time.


The end came honestly. He was sick on Monday and still a bit puny on Tuesday. Z was getting a bit weepy thinking about leaving school. Not because he wanted to be there, but because of the *anticipation* of the change. Well, that was an easy fix. We ripped off the band-aid, so to speak, and withdrew him. Daddy did take him to say good-bye to his teacher (we love her so much and were very sad to leave her class) and clean out his desk. Z was still a little teary Thursday, but by the end of the day he wanted to know what kinds of lessons he'd be learning.


Kids are so resilient. Adults not so much.


The song that keeps running through my mind is Reba McIntyre's "Falling Out of Love". That, along with Adele's "Rolling In The Deep", is one of the best moving-on songs of all time. The hook of "Falling Out of Love" that I relate to is "finding out that nothing feels as good as letting go". I wept in the shower so the kiddos couldn't hear me for a good long while. I set the tone for how we process this new adventure. I want them to be excited, but I am scared shitless. Yes, I said it. I. Am. Scared. I know second guessing is natural, but I feel so responsible. It's a heavy burden.


So I'm owning the feeling that I'm scared, but don't mistake my anxiety for regret. This IS the right decision for our family. Homeschooling works for us. I know it's not a choice others would make. That's okay. I know that as soon as this initial angst has passed we will be just fine.

Current Events

We've added a component to our curriculum last week. In order for Daddy to participate in the learning process he's taken over P.E. and is leading Current Events. Each day J and Daddy select an article of news and answer the 5 W's - who, what, where, when and why. Then they cover the pros, cons and their thoughts on the topic of the article. I love listening to them have these sometimes-deep-discussions. I also have had the opportunity to hear my boy's position on several issues. I am sometimes-quite-surprised.


Recently we joined the YMCA near our house. We haven't exactly been disciplined in our attendance, but I feel the membership will be put to good use as soon as the weather warms. The other thing I like about the YMCA is that their mission is more about community than just fitness. The facility has all the standard exercise equipment, but they also have a teen room (which my kids love), a cafe/social area with wireless internet, homework help and scheduled family activities. Our Y has also reached out to the homeschool community. The programs are still hit-or-miss, but I think that's because homeschoolers are so disparate in their wants and needs when developing their curriculum. I hope the YMCA makes use of daytime schedules and creates programs that we are able to participate in while the district kids are in class.


Having Daddy take over these two areas has freed me up to create systems for monitoring J's progress, research unit studies and gather materials for upcoming lessons. Finding our groove has been the most challenging part of this transition. It's not as if I can take somebody else's system because they're not doing what we do. This individualized learning is crazy.


Dude.

Scattered

Ugh.


I'm overwhelmed.


I still love homeschooling, but the choices are madness. When you send your child to a public school you take what they give you. It's a one-size-fits-all arrangement. Oh sure your child can choose between choir, band and orchestra, but the means and manner of each decision, as parents, we should not have to concern ourselves.


Bless our hearts.


Though, if I'm being honest, having some of those choices ready-made is a delicious cop out. Like picking up McDonald's for dinner when are soooo tired from everything going on in your world. Still, just like fast food, a steady diet of not-very-nutritious-educational-consumption will take its toll on a kiddo.


The other side of that coin is that I have to decide on my child's curriculum. So that means there are decisions to be made. Which means there is research to be done. For a perfectionist like me the process of narrowing down and then picking something has been a little slice of hell.


I'm on all the appropriate homeschooling groups and boards. These connections are vital in order to disprove the whole "weird, unsocialized homeschooler" stereotype. We are weird. I'll give you that, but we come by it honestly. Our town's motto is "Keep Austin Weird" and by comparison we are downright Beaver Cleaver-eque.


But I digress...


I've started out with an online curriculum that says it's from grades PK to 8th. Well, that's partially right. The science stops at 6th grade. So I've felt the need to fill in their science lessons in the form of unit studies. So far I'm loving Kahn Academy, BrainPop, YouTube and Netflix documentaries. The Social Studies lessons are pretty general too so I've expanded a bit on those lesson plans as well. The material isn't different from 5th grade to 7th grade, but the level in which the information is given is different. I see no reason to plan for only one kiddo so we're not using the subscription curriculum as much as I thought we would for some of the subjects.  For this particular curriculum I pay very little, though now that I think about for the amount I pay annualized that I could afford a traditional textbook/workbook/teacher's aid system. Okay for 1 or maybe 2 subjects. Decisions.


That's another thing, it's not cheap homeschooling. It doesn't have to be that way, but there are some activities I'd rather pay to have someone to teach them. For example chemistry. I would likely figure it all out, but why when there are wonderful people who love what they do and want to share their knowledge with my kid for the low, low price of ...wait, what? How much?? But if doling out the cash makes it easier on me then youbetcha I'm happy to pay. On the other hand public school isn't exactly a bargain with all the supplemental material purchases, fund raising and in-kind contributions. I'm probably spending about the same the funds have just been reallocated. Putting it into accounting terms makes me feel much better. Thank you.


Thankfully my village of homeschool veterans is growing. I'm learning about so many amazing opportunities that we never would have had in the public school system. Classes, workshops, field trips and co-ops are a normal part of the homeschooing community. It's been especially gratifying to see so many businesses in Austin cater to our eclectic little community.


Thanks for the virtual ear. I'm feeling much less scattered.

Public v. Homeschool

I've told you some good and some bad of our homeschooling days. Today we cover the ugly.

I am so over having a child in public school and a child who homeschools. I want to give Z a chance to experience all of elementary school, but the two different schedules are killing me. ::whine...whimper::

I want Z to homeschool. I want to not be beholden to the school district clock. I want to be free to take field trips or workshops to expand a lesson. I want to do our reading at a park on a blanket in the sun with a half-price diet cherry limeade from Sonic.

What I don't want to do is push Z before he's processed this change in his head. Still every day his leave-by date gets a little earlier. I feel one day soon he'll just be done too. He misses out on the cool stuff J and I do for school. He says he's worried he'll miss his friends, but he doesn't really get a chance to talk to them in school and he never makes time to see them after school so what's the diff?

But I get it. We all hate change and this little guy needs to sit with his options before he makes a move. He wants to be homeschooled. At this point it's just timing.

Please, Lord, give me patience through this transition.

Never Not Working

You know what I've learned these past few months? When you school at home and work at home you are never NOT working. There is always something to be done in between doing something. It's a paradigm shift I'll tell you what.

One of the losses of a Bricks & Mortar Education is no more centralized location. We go to co-op. We go to art class. We go somewhere else for park day (okay that's not so bad). Since my kids aren’t old enough to drive themselves that makes me the chauffer. I’m so thrilled that J’s music teacher comes to us every week. It means I don’t have to get up to leave just as I’m getting momentum behind my workload.

Lesson planning is another never-not-working situation. I’m constantly looking for, planning, creating and constructing lessons in areas that I feel so ill equipped to manage. Oh, and I’m doing this all without an IPG net because as a private school I don’t have to conform to the federal/state/local/district minimum standards. Of course I look over what public schools are required to teach in order to keep my “students” on the same playing field, but then !BAM! I take it up a notch.  We are working Science in units and I’m using several methods to facilitate learning. For example, we are studying the solar system right now. We’re reading about all the planets and their characteristics, their order in relation to the sun and the consequences of the location and what history we know. We’re also watching documentaries on the planets and solar system (Have I said that Netflix is the best investment for a homeschooling family? Well it is.). We will wrap up this unit by creating cakeball planets. Don’t worry I’ll post pictures when we’re done. We’ve been to NASA in Houston already, but if I can find another field trip locally we’ll take a day expand our knowledge base in that way too.

Of course I’m never-not-working as a small business owner as well. If I’m not actually doing billable work for clients then I’m cultivating relationships to build my client base. You have to be able to produce and market at the same time. I have to network to get my name and service out to the bookkeeping-buying public.  I get a little giggle when people say they don’t think they’d be good at “sales” (you know sales is just marketing without the expense line). But let me frame that perspective in a different way. One thing I’ve discovered as a small business owner is that you better get good at “sales” like it or not. Just because you buy office supplies and hang out a shingle doesn’t mean that the customers are going to start calling. You have to let people know who you are and what you do. And that, my sales-fearing friends, is the hard truth. You are selling you. So here I am never-not-working on my business plan, marketing plan, website, continuing education, client contact and potential-client follow up. I’m a clown with this many balls in the air.

I’m learning to live with our new “normal”. I must overcome the persistent voice of the Committee (in my head) that tries to convince me that things will slow down after XYZ. Or I can catch up as soon as ABC is behind me. When you’re never-not-working there is always something else next.

Carpe diem, baby.