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Turtle
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| Posted: Nov 26 2011 at 12:51pm | IP Logged
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My question is more about a homeschooling way of life than about curriculum per say.
We have had a really horrible 12 months of school. It seems like "life" happened way too many times this past year. Let me illustrate what I mean.
Jan. was the last month of an . . . eventful. . . pregnancy.
Feb. my beautiful boy arrived by c-sect; my 4th and longest recovery yet. While in the hospital, my basement and schoolroom were being inundated with water due to ice buildup. My husband moved school (nuf said  ).
Spring came and I figured I'd be homeschooling thru summer anyway so I let the kids play more than they schooled. Less stressful with the baby that way too.
May comes and I'm starting to get my feet under me, really sorting thru the damage downstairs, and my fil enters into what became his final illness. Fast forward thru emergency hospital visits, nursing home stays, and the icu, to funeral arrangements and bringing my family thru this greiving process.
Then the decision to sell the home quickly (which it did; praise God) and empty his home of a lifetime's worth of belongings.
Sept. brings contractors to finally start fixing the schoolroom. Really hard to school thru all that noise. Oh, and an emergency hospitalization for me. (Goodbye gallbladder!)
Oct. brings our family vacation (yay!), more contractors, and a crazy winter storm with some significant damage to our home, living elsewhere for a week (thank you for generous friends) and the promise of contractors visiting us in Nov. and Dec.
Now I'm looking at just a lot that needs to be done in the home to make it livable (meeting with contractors, sorting thru my fil's belongings to fit them into our home, trying to move back into spaces we've fixed. . . )
and trying to get my family back into a schedule that's somewhat normal AND getting some school done.
And really, we haven't gotten a lot of school done this past year.
So my honest question is, should I have tried harder to maintain some sort of school schedule? Is this just life? Do all of you just kind of work through these situations? Or did we really have one of those years?
Right now I'm just praying for normal. My husband's been home a lot the past week and I feel ready to start again.
Thanks,
Melissa
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cathhomeschool
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Texas Bluebonnets
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| Posted: Nov 26 2011 at 1:31pm | IP Logged
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I can tell that this has been an incredibly hard year for you all! 
My objective opinion? You really had one of those years! Yes, there will be some amount of "life" every year. But I think *any* family would have had trouble getting much "traditional" school accomplished with the year you've had, especially when all of your children are very young (as opposed to high junior high kids who can do more independent work). Can you imagine having to juggle school drop-off/pick-up, early mornings, homework, and tired kids at the end of a long day away in addition to your year? My experience has been that particularly with "those years" it is a blessing to be homeschooling. The kids learn invaluable *real life* lessons, they have time to heal, to recover, to help mom and siblings. You bond as a family. This -- especially when they're young and "school" doesn't matter anyway because they can easily "catch up" on math and reading -- is worth so much more than any schooling they might have missed. And if you look hard at your year, I'm sure you can find "school" subjects that they learned amidst all the changes and "life." It can't be helped. Children are always learning. 
For future reference, when I anticipate very little mom time or lots of turmoil (when we re-floored our whole house), I get lots of great books on tape. I keep them in the car too. Then schooling can continue in an easy way and I get to listen and learn too. 
I'm glad that you're feeling ready to begin again. I'd ease into it, though. And I would try hard not to have the mentality that we've missed a year of school and our now behind. You're not behind. God had a different plan for your year and He knows best.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Nov 26 2011 at 5:43pm | IP Logged
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Ok...no advice but that sounds like a GREAT Christmas letter for family and friends this year. Copy and paste that to some pretty Christmas paper and:
CHECK - one thing off the holiday "to do" list. 
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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kristinannie
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| Posted: Nov 26 2011 at 6:22pm | IP Logged
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I'm not sure what the ages of your kids are so it is a little hard for me to give you a solid opinion. Is formal schooling important...yes. BUT, sometimes life is just too crazy and it sounds like you had a very eventful year. During times of personal family chaos, I still try to do a little formal school each day (about 45 minutes, but my kids are very young). If that isn't possible, I still try to do some read alouds and things like that. I don't think your kids are going to be harmed by taking a really light year. Honestly, if you are homeschooling, they are probably ahead of their peers anyway. Just make a fresh start now. Everything is going to be fine!
BTW, aren't you glad that you got to take a relaxing year with your family as you were going through all of this instead of dealing with public school, homework, events at school, etc?
__________________
John Paul 8.5
Meredith Rose 7
Dominic Michael 4.5
Katherine Elizabeth 8 months
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Turtle
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| Posted: Nov 29 2011 at 10:59am | IP Logged
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Thank you all for your responses.
Janette, you almost had me in tears. Thank you.
Kathryn, your idea almost made me wish that we did do Christmas letters!
kristenannie, thanks for your advice. I saw somewhere recently that as much as we plan for good days, we need to plan for the bad days too. I think I really need to take this to heart and sit down and plan out what my day should accomplish under less than hoped for circumstances.
Thank you,
Melissa
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Mimip
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| Posted: Nov 29 2011 at 11:38am | IP Logged
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I've shared this story before on this board but I think this merits a repeat. 
One of my closest friends lost her twin boys at 32 weeks. (anyone pregnant should stop reading now ) They were stillborn in September 6 years ago. You can imagine the pain and the agony that my dear friend went though. So many people suggested that she put the children in school that year. At the time she had 5 living children ages 3- 12. She was horrified at the idea. Having lost her two precious sons she clung to those children and barely let them out of her sight that first year.
But they did NO SCHOOL all year long. She literally packed up the books in October. She just could not handle the pressure and the pain at the same time so she just figured that they would repeat a year in school. They did read a lot in bed and listen to history and stuff but for the most part they just "were" as a family. In May, she registered them for the state testing to just see which ones were where. ALL OF THEM PASSED TO THE NEXT LEVEL!!! My dear friend says that our prayers were translated to knowledge for them all!!!
Now they were behind in certain subjects but you get the gist of what I am saying, right. Even in the worst of situations there is grace. Grace to get down on your knees and pray that homeschooling is the right option for you and then plow through. The Lord blesses our efforts.
I think what Kristenannie said makes so much sense. Plan for the must haves. Books on tape is a great option, so are some of the educational websites out there like Starfall when you need some down time. What is non negotiable?
The best of luck and remember that they learn so much in our daily life as well.
__________________
In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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Topic: Please give me an objective opinion
