A Day in Our Lives

I don't exactly know what I can say about homeschooling, other than it is like having school, at home! :) I know, its such an epiphany isn't it?? Alex & I are in the beginning stages of figuring this whole thing out - we're doing the trial-and-error method at the moment - but it seems to be working so far!

Our first week went fairly smoothly. I was determined to stay with my lesson plans so as not to throw a kink into our days, but was worried that I may have over-planned to some degree. But, I'm happy to say that I didn't, and things went rather swimmingly. Its taking us longer to get through the lessons then I had hoped, but I figure it will only be a matter of time until we fall into a routine - if there is such a thing with homeschooling?

After getting "little toot" out the door in the morning for her 8:20 bus, Alex & I either run a few errands (with Ian in-tow since his preschool has not yet begun) or get down to business. Either way, we usually have our noses in the books no later than 10AM, which is great. I have been allowing him to pick which subjects he wants to tackle first, and have quickly discovered that he doesn't like math. This particular thorn-in-his-side takes us all of an hour or so to complete, which is painstakingly too slow for me! I always loved math and am doing what I can to help him through each lesson, without doing them for him. I have discovered that if I sit there with him and talk him through each problem (start with the ones column, 4 plus 2 is?, 6 plus 5 is, carry, now add the hundreds - good job!) then he can get through them very quickly. BUT, if I leave him to work a few problems for 10 minutes while I attend to something else, I find he is still staring at the first or 2nd problem when I return - which drives me crazy! So we are alternately getting along very well and working through things, or I'm getting ready to pull his head off of his body because he won't focus or is procrastinating.

I did discover, quite by accident, that he loves to race the clock! I decided to put some of his math work on the grease board I hung on the wall, then instructed him to go to the other side of the room and wait. When I say "go", he runs across the room, answers the problems on the board, then races back to the desk. His best time is less than 1 minute (57 seconds) for 5 2-digit problems, which is great for my little day dreamer. He now asks every day if he can do some board work, and I am happy to oblige, as long as we don't get too hung up on math facts, ignoring some of the other new things he's learning.

But, thankfully these have been the only obstacles we have hit so far, but I feel certain that as we 'get through' each day, we'll figure out ways to conquer the beasts that lay in our path. Its just a matter of time until he figures out that homeschool isn't going to be all fun & games - but for now, I'm happy to let him think that it is :)