We made some big decisions this week which has changed our lives in a big way.
It’s a super long story, but we have decided to pull the boys out to homeschool! The short version of it is that it’s best for Ethan’s mental health and Levi wanted to homeschool since Ethan is homeschooling (it’ll be good for him as well). There has been some negative opinions about it, but I’m letting that go because they are based on my past and things are so different these days! Robert was on board from the beginning which is super different than usual which helped me to KNOW this time that it was right.
Karis is choosing to stay in school at this point in time and we are so supportive of that because she’s doing SO well. She has the best friends a mom could want for her kid and she loves her classes and teachers. I’ve never known a junior high kid to feel that way about school so I’m thankful!
This week I have been getting up by about 6:15 or so and staying up and it has made a huge difference for me. And now that I have something specific to get up for, I’m not struggling to get up and stay up. We haven’t officially started school yet because I am waiting for our income tax refund to buy curriculum, but we are doing daily independent reading, read alouds, and poetry teatime. Next week we are going to my best friend’s for our boys to spend time together! Robert asked me to give the boys a bit of a break. Then the 1st through 3rd we will be in Abilene for Ethan’s bike race and to spend time with family, then we will start school on the 4th.
Everything else will stay the same. We will still go to church on Sundays and Wednesday nights, we are still planning to go to 4H on Thursday evenings, and I will go to AA on Mondays. Only difference is I won’t have time to go to the gym so we will have to make exercise a priority here. That’s fine. I want to go hiking and do yoga together. They are actually looking forward to those things as well. Ethan rides his bike alllll the time and does bike races.
I feel so differently, more relaxed, and less anxious about homeschooling this time, and I think it’s because I come with some experience already (I know what curriculum and practices that we will be using). I have also had a lot of life change in a positive way since I homeschooled them last. I also know that Ethan has missed out on so much instruction due to losing so many teachers over the past few years that anything I do will be better than what he has had. So I feel super content with what I plan to do. The fact that the boys have so much time to be outside and moving and they aren’t just stuck at a desk all day is so great for both of them (with adhd). Again, Levi’s teachers were fantastic, but this is going to be so good!
This morning Ethan took it upon himself to do everything for Poetry Teatime. He did the majority of the process to make breakfast cookies, set the table, and got the poetry books out. We had such a great time and they wanted to keep going when I thought we were finished. Haha. Levi read to his Transformer and sometimes the Transformer “read.”
Then we started our read aloud (The Hotel Between).
Now they are doing chores. So far they have been really cool about everything. They aren’t arguing about chores (yet)… we’ll see how it goes. Ethan is currently cleaning his part of the room really well. Again, I’m not sure that this will last a long time, but I’ll take it for now. Haha.
Curriculum
I have tried soooooo much over the years, but what I had landed on the last time I homeschooled I’m picking back up this time. I love it so much.
We’ll use The Good and the Beautiful (for language arts, science, and history), Teaching Textbooks, and some Bravewriter units/projects thrown in for fun (because I already have the pdf files for the ones I paid for a long time ago! We’ll do a read aloud each day and Poetry Teatime once a week. That’s it! Super simple.
I’m not letting myself even look at anything else. I want to keep it as simple as possible. I feel that G&B is simple (open and go) yet thorough. Bravewriter is super relaxed and a great addition to G&B. It’s where I learned about Poetry Teatime a few years ago. And Teaching Textbooks is an online math program which is great because it teaches all of the concepts and is self grading. I’m going to have them use a graph notebook to do their work.
I’m using the same level on everything with both boys because Levi is a bit ahead and Ethan is a bit behind.
I’m so relaxed and excited and at peace and now I feel some purpose again. I love this.
Simply Courtney 