Education for Fun

We are coming to the end of our three-week homeschool break.  These long breaks are good for the kids and they are good for me.  With four children to keep up with, I miss things in the rush of normal weeks.  These breaks give me time to reflect and redirect.  After nine years of homeschooling, I have grown sensitive to children resisting work.  I used to think it was laziness or being obstinate, but now I tend to think that it's a curriculum problem.  I hate to spend money to replace materials, but it's better than more trauma... and I love to review new stuff. 

Language has been difficult for the twins.  They are such good readers that it seems out of sorts for writing to be difficult.  I got them First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease from an author who wrote a wonderful history series.  It seems simple and easy to do with the potential for really deep learning.  Easy and effective, that's what I like!  I printed out some samples from their website and the twins enjoyed what they did.  So, we dropped the money and got the whole thing.

My older daughters have been using a classroom Chemistry text and are starting to have problems.  I haven't found many options for high school science and have felt stuck with what we have.   But they're having troubles so I searched some more.  I chanced upon a mention of Singapore Science's Chemistry.  We use Singapore Math for younger grades and my oldest used the Junior High level science.  I also found some online video lessons from Khan Academy that we might use to supplement.  We have a cabinet full of laboratory equipment and chemicals, but it seems that whenever we switch, they always need different stuff.  Switching means that I have more homework getting the labs figured out and it's feels messy to me to switch in the middle of the year, but I remind myself that this kind of flexibility is what makes homeschooling so good.  Remember... remember... remember.

The older girls are studying U.S. History with Hakim's History of US.  I've read much of it myself and loved it.  They decided they'd like to add in some additional preparation and get ready for the AP U.S. History test.

As I got the schedules ready for next week, I finally worked in the Kids Greek that the twins have been asking for.

When we started our break, I was so tired and ready to be done with homeschooling for a while.  Now I'm having to exercise will power to wait until Monday.  Watching kids' eyes glisten as they figure something out is one of the most amazing things to witness.   Seeing their look of confidence as they share something they've learned fills me with pride too.  It's so much fun to homeschool!

Wait!  Right before our break, we decided not to start the next read aloud for the twins because it was just beginning the book.  We decided to start it a few days early and be on schedule for the first day back.  I don't have to wait!  We'll start reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond tonight.

(My 13 year old looked over my blog post and said, "Education for Fun!  You call doing a timeline fun?!"  One of the 9-year-olds said decisively, "she calls everything for homeschooling fun!")