generalparenting

Today is Monday and that means back to school and, for us parents, back to work though in reality there is no day off for parents. Making breakfast and getting the kids off to school on time can be a chore sometimes even when we did get to bed at a decent time. It always seems so rushed at my house in the mornings. My day begins like this.. get the kids up, make breakfast, get them to feed the baby bird and the ferrets, have them eat breakfast and brush their teeth, clean up after breakfast, make sure everyone has all of their homework and anything else they need for school, get the girls out of the house and start with my son and his homeschooling.

Monday’s are always more busy than the rest of the week because during the week I have him write facts about what he learns in each subject to make sure he understands what he is doing. On Fridays he has to write a paper using the facts he took during the week so Monday I go over those papers as well as get him started on the new week of work.

I am not using one particular method of homeschooling, we have our own thing going on here. I was using a particular web site to get all of his information when we started but now we use books for the most part. We use many Encyclopedia books for Science, History, and Social Studies. We also use things like Spell to Write and Read, timeline books, and The American Sign Language Phrase Book. The Math has been a difficult one, we have used a different Math program every year and don’t have a favorite yet.

 My son works on his school work while I write my blog first thing in the morning and as he finishes each subject he tells me what he’s learned. If he has any questions either during or after his lesson we talk about it before the next subject and again at the end of the day. We take a break around lunch time and get chores done before we eat and then it’s back to work. He does extremely well with this routine and it works for both of us. I am as involved as he wants or needs me to be, more on some days less on others, and he works hard wanting to learn as much as he can. He has so much more freedom to learn at his own pace than he did in public school and because of that freedom he is advancing much faster than he did there.

He was a child in need of Special Ed when he was in public school and now he can out read and write most of those kids. He works hard and I’m proud of him but not just proud of him but happy for him as well because he has found knowledge is something wonderful and he wants as much of it as he can get. Homeschooling has encouraged him to do this for himself and his future and I have no doubt that when all is said and done he will come out on top.