Wow, I’m still in shock.
I have been talking with Karis about homeschooling for months and months. She has been adamant that she didn’t want to homeschool, no matter what. I finally let go and just accepted the fact that she wanted to be in school. And I was kind of okay with it because she has great friends at school (but I worried about her academics).
This past week I was telling her that since we are considered transfers and the principal/superintendent aren’t thrilled with camp families (because we were vocal about the issues with teachers), there’s a chance they won’t accept our application for transfer. I mean, he even emailed saying we need to get those transfer applications in so that they can decide.
She said, well then I would want to homeschool.
Then she just sat and thought about things for a while.
After a bit, she said, do you really think homeschooling is best for me? I was honest and said yes. She said, yeah, I’m thinking it is also. I think I want to homeschool.
Then she sat with it for a bit. We discussed the pros and cons. She told me that she learned about pros and cons at school (by the library director), and they actually discussed pros and cons of homeschooling.
Pretty much the only reason she wants to stay at the school is because of her friends. Her favorite teachers have left (which is common at this school- the turnover is high). She told me that if we can find ways to stay in contact with her friends, she wants to go ahead and homeschool. She has been concerned about not learning what she needs to learn in school. She didn’t do well on her writing state test, some of her teachers just let them sit and play on their phones or listen to music, etc. She decided that she wants to homeschool.
She was excited about the possibility to graduate early with homeschooling, with not having to get up at 5:30 and be gone for 10 hours every day, being involved with our whole staff retreat, getting to do art at home, using a great curriculum that she really likes for language arts, doing school for maybe 4 hours instead of 8, being able to hang out with her homeschooling friends here more often, and on and on.
She told me the other day that she just wanted to finish the school year and to take some time to think through it. She’s growing up and getting more mature! I just love her!
We did assessments for curriculum, and I’m going to have to fill in quite a few gaps. I think we can move through the lower levels pretty quickly, but I’m having to start her several levels below her grade level for language arts and math. Luckily she’s a very strong reader so that helps a lot of things. She will be able to do many things independently like science, some history assignments, and her reading/grammar.
So. After processing through homeschooling a lot since February, I have landed on a literature rich homeschool, fun writing projects, lots of reading aloud, hands on activities, nature rich environment, art appreciation/artist study/art activities, etc. I’m trying to follow the “Brave Writer Lifestyle” as much as we can! I’m going to give myself grace when things don’t go as planned, because life happens.
The next post will share my whole plan for the year!
Simply Courtney 