Saturday, May 06, 2006
Introductory post
I am creating this blog as a sort of journal where I can record our adventures in home schooling. i am 42 yo mom to 4. I made a couple of mistakes this school year. I was doing five in a row with my oldest....and last summer decided to try sonlight. Then I put my 5 yo in a private preschool 2 mornings a week so he could play with other kids. Then I had a baby in nov and when I tried to start school back up with my 8 yo in jan, I met with so much resistance, got tired of fighting with him and put him in public school at the start of march. In retrospect I feel I should have taken more time to figure out what was not working. Then I took my 5 yo out of the preschool and we occasionally do reading, writing, math, when he wants to. I am reading the before fiar stories to him and my 3 yo, and doing some of the activities. I plan to move on to fiar when he is 6.
my plan for my 8 yo....well, there are only 4 weeks of school left. i will let him stay....he likes it, but doesn't want to go next year. i don't want him to go either. if there were more than 4 weeks left, i'd take him out. i am trying to develop more of an unschooling philosophy. i have realized i don't need to teach history via sonlight. fiar is much more relaxed. i hope to do that with him (he will be 9 in sept, 3rd grade) along with math. i know, that's still not unschooling. i am working on it. i do want my kids to be good readers, know how to write, and understand math. but i am going to take a different approach. in fact what we need to work on most around here are behavior and character issues. my kids need more parental supervision and involvement. i can tell you that unparenting does not work, not that we set out to "do" unparenting, but that seems to be what has evolved.
though i am dreading dealing with his behavior, i am trying to arrange things so that I can spend more time with the kids (instead of on the computer or whatever lol) i do feel that going to school is not necessary, and regret that I am not the one teaching him math. I want them home! preschool was ok, but i wish i hadn't sent my 5 yo there, either. live and learn...
well unfortunately we have to leave for a baseball game at which I must help run the concession stand during the game. time to get dh up from his nap!
my plan for my 8 yo....well, there are only 4 weeks of school left. i will let him stay....he likes it, but doesn't want to go next year. i don't want him to go either. if there were more than 4 weeks left, i'd take him out. i am trying to develop more of an unschooling philosophy. i have realized i don't need to teach history via sonlight. fiar is much more relaxed. i hope to do that with him (he will be 9 in sept, 3rd grade) along with math. i know, that's still not unschooling. i am working on it. i do want my kids to be good readers, know how to write, and understand math. but i am going to take a different approach. in fact what we need to work on most around here are behavior and character issues. my kids need more parental supervision and involvement. i can tell you that unparenting does not work, not that we set out to "do" unparenting, but that seems to be what has evolved.
though i am dreading dealing with his behavior, i am trying to arrange things so that I can spend more time with the kids (instead of on the computer or whatever lol) i do feel that going to school is not necessary, and regret that I am not the one teaching him math. I want them home! preschool was ok, but i wish i hadn't sent my 5 yo there, either. live and learn...
well unfortunately we have to leave for a baseball game at which I must help run the concession stand during the game. time to get dh up from his nap!
# posted by Anne @ 9:20 AM 
