Homeschool – First Month Review

 The first time is the hardest…

I can’t get that tune out of my head. Homeschooling hasn’t been all that hard. It’s life in general that’s been a bit much.

So, OK, Alex and I love homeschooling! Yeah!

The Good – He is self-motivated to learn and loves to read. He loves his blog so that has been a great way to encourage his writing. It’s also a way to sneak in some math when he checks his traffic statistics. Alex’s frustration with writing has been significantly helped by allowing him to mentally compose and verbally articulate his “writing.” Freed from the constraints of using a pencil, Alex is an awesome writer!

The Bad – He hates doing math drills or any work that involves handwriting.

The Ugly – We have a lot going on in our life right now so it’s hard to drop everything and focus on homeschooling. My sister is getting married next week in southern CA, and we’re going to be there for a week. Also, Dave is switching to a new group practice and we’re living through a 4 month notice & severely reduced income. Stress, Stress, Stress

Unexpected benefits – Alex recently fell in love with tennis so we took advantage of his free homeschooling schedule to arrange for several morning tennis lessons during ideal weather conditions.

Challenge – There is so much that we can do in any given subject, that it’s difficult to keep it manageable. Also, the projects and ideas that I find fascinating are not always so cool to this 8-year old.

My Lesson – I’m finding that if I back off a bit and give him some room to explore, he does end up choosing to learn.

Alex usually can’t wait to rush through the lesson plans, and he negotiates every precious word or number that he has to write. However, he will sit for hours reading, or playing math games on funbrain, or watching educational programs like the BBC Walking With Cavemen or Walking With Dinosaurs DVDs. Alex likes to initiate his own projects. This week he convinced his Dad to help him dissect a round battery; he asked me to save boxes for a mysterious construction project; and he’s working on a comic strip inspired by Calvin and Hobbes .

So, I’m sticking to the daily math plan and playing around with everything else.

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