Looking forward - Maths

For the last couple of years maths has been a subject on auto -pilot:

Miquon for the first years,

A mix of Keys to ... and Singapore for the middle years,

followed by Jacobs Algebra and Geometry.

While I have a mix of love maths children and bright but not so confident students this has served us well.

However since Jacobs only has the two books we are left looking for another program to see out the senior years. Veritas recommended that we move to Foresters, and we did. So far we are struggling through the first 4 Chapters, redoing, backtracking , trying to get our heads around the specifics and the proofs rather than intuitively accepting what we know, but the love of Maths is dying fast. The jump from one style to another needs a transition that we simply don't have.

 So I'm starting to look at the options. KHAN Academy is definitely one option, and my daughter likes it, but I'm not quite ready to take on a program which I can't plonk down on the desk in front of me and say yep there it is.

So we've taken a risk and purchased the Advanced Algebra book of Life of Fred. Hopefully it works, at least it should be fun, and right now having some fun back in school is what we need.

 But if anyone reading this has any thoughts, I'm still open to suggestions. I need something that will give a bright but uncertain young lady the confidence that she knows what she is going and will succeed.

 

Providence

This Quote, and its various offspring have had me thinking over the last weekend.

 It's from the Knight's Tale 

by Chaucer 

 " Alas, why is it people so dispraise 

God's providence of Fortune and her way's 

That oft and variously in their scheme 

Includes far better things than they could dream. "

Guilty, although I wouldn't always have seen it, but it occurred to me after talking about the latest set of dreams shelved for this homeschooling thing, and the difficulties that we face that all in all there would have been a choice.

To wander headfirst into something that  I wasn't ready for and which without support would never have withstood, or to walk forward in setting a new foundations, to build a second generation of Christians upon our new foundations and provide them with the tools either to add another stronger layer or to move forward in service as God directs. The bigger picture is just that bigger than my small hopes of  "grand service" destined more than likely to crash under the pressure of lack of support around us.

Rediscovering routines

Since we started back into the formal learning side of the year we've been working on a few new routines and more importantly re-instituted some old ones.

• We've picked up a good book for story time - well some of us are enjoying  it  - we started on the Lord of the Rings - unfortunately it is a little on the scary side for my youngest. I want to read it aloud before my oldest gets to it in Omnibus. While the choice of book might be causing problems, getting away from the TV and back into a good story has been good. 

• We have a new learning time routine - instead of trying to juggle each child individually we are running blocks of maths, Greek, Latin etc. I sit with the kids and work alongside in Latin and Greek, hand-hold everyone in maths, and mark/discuss when they head into their omnibus/science/ history type subjects.
  

• I've turned morning tea into a mini circle time and brought back those CM things that I miss from our Ambleside days - artist, poetry and music studies, as well as a slot to work through the fallacy detective - which really is too much fun to do alone
  . 
• The last change is more practical that fun - we dropped writing out of the daily plan and have consolidated it into our Fridays art and writing day. So far the fun projects have been put aside in order to do Classical writing. this is the change that still needs work. I love what classical writing covers, but I also enjoyed having a more fun project day.  Omnibus almost gives us the Omnibus but not quite. Doing both is an overkill and yet I haven't managed to find the balance yet.

The History Delima

As I said I love Veritas's history and the Christian emphasis that is incorporated into the work. I like having a solid base if Christian thinking in the middle ages and the reformation. When it hits the Explorers and American History we become unstuck. It's here that the resources get expensive and well as a Kiwi it doesn't really fit our needs. But it does provide a good launching pad into Omnibus.

Hence the Delima.

For my oldest we simply jumped around so much that we never got to this period of time. Ok we came unstuck here and I wasn't sure what was happening. But now my middle child is struggling with not having a spine to read from, and I'm struggling with being pulled away from the narrate and then have some fun pattern that we all are familiar with.

Hopefully this will make history both more meaningful and increase his confidence in what he is doing. It does mean that we will hit Omnibus a little later - 2nd or third term of next year. But it seems worth it and in truth I can se that we really aren't all that ready for Omnibus year 1 yet.

For now its back to the Story of the World with  Veritas added in for projects when we get to it.

Settling an out of control year

This morning  I woke up, still chewing over the stress that has crept into our home school and a steady stream of posts like this one that has me revisiting the idea that our home school is not meant to be a stressful race to finish each lesson. I've been tossing around all week what to do.

Do we combine back to our routine of  one humanities subject a week, essay and art project at the end...freedom, or do we race to get through what we have been struggling to achieve...a full Veritas humanities program.

Do I combine kids who, well truly are benefiting from separate courses, especially the youngest who is a visual learner and loves his independence and isn't ready at all for omnibus related conversations. Or the oldest who has tried to step up to the mark but missed out from art and writing sliding off the desk because we aren't finished the week yet.

Ahaa... instead of combining, but still taking back control of our curriculum, I'm going to drop back to one humanities subject a week, just one focus for our learning, one book or idea to play with. Yes. I'm actually staarating to enjoy my weekend and look forward to next week.

Pondering the Homeschool

After twenty plus weeks of running a school year of busy-ness and newness we are all a little jaded. Its been a big step up. for some of my children a struggle to focus on learning not playing at learning. We dived into the Veritas Press history and bible curriculum, and I have to say that in so many ways I love the ideas that this curiculum pulls together. I love the cross over in thoughts and ideas, the reformed basis to the questions. The pondering.

But its busy. Our days struggle to find a balance of learning and growing. The space to stop and think and enjoy is lost in acquiring facts, getting it write, finding the next part of the equation. The worksheets give nuances at times that the kids miss on their own. So do the discussions in omnibus. But in the business there isn't room to grow together and enjoy the beauty. 

I've enjoyed this morning looking at this post and seeing the possibilities..journaling reflecting processing.  When we went through Bible college the information in its own was good but there was always a sense of so what, what does this mean in our lives, what are we really learning. In other words we were encouraged to grow from what we were learning, not just gather information.

Classical education has always been about the idea of seeking truth, beauty and virtue. Its there in all the curriculum that we use, and yet its hidden by the business.  When we combined everyone's studies that was what we were focusing on, the reflection, the beauty the good in what we were learning. I could listen and interact with my children and see all of that journey. as we have separated them out and leaned more heavily on curriculum it is harder and harder to have that sense of what are we learning as opposed to what information are we collecting. Maybe we need both. I really don't want to add in extra to our already burdened lives.

I want to being in more freedom and peace.  Its a case now of pondering how.

Musings

Its been a long time since I've blogged... a very long time. In the earlier parts of this week I've come to wonder if blogging is something useful, or something distracting. I haven't necessarily missed the world of cyberspace as the world around my desk descended into chaos. Another learning journey that didn't quite hit the mark. I am getting a smaller field of what does and doesn't work both for me and for my family.  So after a 20 week experiment with curriculum that I love. yes mostly i do enjoy the mix of Veritas, classical writing, Latin, Greek and maths that make up our lives...I'm back to fine tuning. Not changing the content but definitely the delivery.

So for the next week I'm looking at a return to the old units, having one or two per week per child, and then being able to  amend what we do according to our learning. Running the Omnibus straight for my eldest has proved to be more of a challenge than either of us need.  I need to take a teaching not a student role and manage her work more. Doing the next thing isn't going to get us through this one.  For one she isn't getting the creativity. And were ending up in a bogg where she has to do narrations for all her reading and then written answers to all the discussions because discussions require a level of thought that just isn't happening on the spot. So we're looking at modified Omnibus for her. Hopefully without me having to work through more than I am already doing.

Simplicity if definitely a bonus if we can achieve that.

That was encouraging

This morning amidst the chaps of hyper kids and boys wrestling on the couch... do I get to admit that in homeschool cyber pace, I had a wonderful discussion with Hubby about our curriculum choices. My husband teaches science for a living at the local Chrsitian/ACE school. While he's always been supportive and trusted me, the whole classical thing is something that I've grown in independently of him. Our paths of research have always been separate.

In the last year, amidst all the doubts and all the challenges of three homeschooled kids who still think the emphasis should be on home and not on school, my husband has been looking at my curriculum choices and seeing the possibilities. I'm finally seeing not just the good idea but the fruit of how Latin and Greek, Grammar and Progym, Maths and Logic, Art, Narration and discussion, all fit together into a unified whole and it is good. This morning he looked into the book I've struggled with the most. Veritas' Omnibus. It is good to have his seal of approval and to know that the toil is worth while.

"When Children Love to Learn" editied by Elaine Cooper

I first had this recommended on a email group last year.. Is sounded good but well never made it into my final Amazon order. After all I was sure I didn't need to go back down the Ambleside route. I really didn't need another major change in the content of how we home-school.

Last term was good. We made lots of progress, my Engineer finally started to find school enjoyable. The kids grew in confidence and learning was consistently happening. Only I was exhausted. It was easier to curl up at my desk and potter than connect with anyone. In the middle of it a copy of this book came up on the second hand list and I brought it. So it arrived I looked at it and put it on the bedside feeling like this wasn't something I wanted to read yet.

As it dawned on me that I needed a break, time to relax, time off coffee, time to laugh I took some days off with hubby and the kids and chilled. Hubby cooked, I rested, we walked, shopped, visited the farmers markets, soaked in the thermal hot pools, a relaxed.

I picked up the book.
Good choice...lots of ahah moments.
CM didn't need to be Ambleside,
Maybe it didn't need to be bouncing through more subjects in a day than my brain could cope with.
Maybe there was a little freedom here to enjoy what we were doing right, and freedom to let everything else happen without the stress that dominated last term.

Umm...

So now we have a book basket of the books we need to read over the next few weeks. Now there is a little more freedom to add back some read-alouds and not worry about the boys listening in, maybe there is room for some group discussions. Hopefully this is just a fine tuning of the balance... a return to more us without loosing the independent learning paths that seem to be working.

I need to keep reading but hopefully "everything will stay the same, but something will change so that the connectedness returns to our school days.

Autumn Break

Its kinda a break, I think both hubby and I are enjoying the change of pace from teaching to planning, although life is short and it seems that school needs at present, both where he teaches and the home-school could easily become overwhelming.

I will be happy when we finally settle in some of the big changes that we have made this year in the home-school. I'm happy with getting back to my roots with Veritas, even if I am a very eclectic user of the program. Veritas with a hint of Charlotte Mason in the background seems to suit us, although I am hoping that in the next few weeks we can get the balance right between mum teaching and independent work. In General our days look like this

Maths

• Singapore "My Pals are Here" level 5 nearly 6. It isn't the perfect program, My youngest thrives, but there are always those word problems that get just a tad obscure. Some days I do wish we had an answer book just so that I could understand what they were wanting in terms of an answer.
• Following Singapore we're using Jacobs Algebra. I like it, but it has taken a while for my daughter and I to find a pattern where she is confident in maths, so for the last we while this has been a 12 hour a day joint exercise. Its getting better. The boys will have a much better time of it when they get there simply because I now understand the book so much better.

Latin

• Henle book one for the boys - my youngest wanted something he though was more straight forward than Wheelocks. I much prefer Wheelocks.
  
• For my daughter and I Wheelocks. Yes, I didn't think I would say that but it is a much nicer program than Henle.
  

Greek

• Yes two ancient languages is madness, but it happened and now two of the kids don't want to let go of it. We're using Elementary Greek. Nice program, but lots of errata to wade through.
  

Writing

• After a love hate relationship we are firmly back with Classical Writing. My youngest is flying through Aesop, the middle one in Homer A and my daughter in Homer B. Its challenging enough although I wish I could speed my daughter up a little. She's a good writer, handles it well, but we haven't done the grammar like we should...

Spelling and Copywork

• A dictation bases spelling program Simply Spelling rounds out our language arts, copywork, for reflection more than anything else finishes off this section.
  

Science

• Apologia, General Science and Elementary Science Botany cover the bases here. Its a bit sad because my husband has put together a great hands on Science program at the level of Apologia General and Physical Science but for now it is so much easier to run with the text book than set up equipment for a lab based course. I truly wish I had the time to convert it from the classroom to the home because I like it much better.

History and Bible

• Veritas for the boys, CM style, I use their time-line, readings and their projects, but we generally work on a read, narrate and then think deeper or play approach than the worksheet and test model.
  
  
• Omnibus 1 for my oldest. Its a fairly good program, but very very busy. This is the one I am still customizing for our needs. How much do I keep how much to I make ours. I suspect it will take a while more before we own it like we need to but I like it as a base for the areas I don't know, and because it stretches me in the areas where I have studied before.

Literature

• Simply read and narrate unless some project jumps out from what we are reading. I've enjoyed having a softer program here.

In all that's us busy but seeing the benefit of what we are doing.

Independance revisited.

For now hubby is encouraging me to try and split up the kids and let them work separately from each other. Since I have been going back and forward over the advantages and disadvantages all term - ie for the last 6-8 weeks its nice to have the stress of decision over-ruled. To him the meed to let her be extended exceeds the need for togetherness in studies and discussion. But as he states we can build the discussion into our day elsewhere.

So for now I'm hoping to get plans for each child's afternoon studies posted this evening so that we have some order next week.

Learning at the Dining Room Table

Sometime in the last few months, we seem to have made a transition. Somehow I'm less tossed by the fear of what we should be doing in our home-school. More sure about the choices that we have made, more content to let things take their right path.

We have made some interesting changes to the way we do school. Changes that wouldn't be standard opinion, but changes that work for my trio. The biggest change has come from running as one class in everything but Maths. This means we are all starting at the working at the same place in Latin, Greek, Writing, Grammar and on the same topic for History, Bible, Science and Literature. It wasn't an easy choice. Lots of prayer, some occasional panic, but a sure feeling that this is what we need to do for us.




At the heart of the change is the pull between actively teaching and independent learning.

Independent learning is great, its how my 10 yr old has taught himself to draw/design engines, planes, anything that challenges his engineering brain. Its how my daughter has learned to sew.

But when its a subject that they are told they need to learn it seems to be more of an issue of struggling through what they hope is right. For two of my kids, if not all three, independent learning is a case of trial and error that slowly has sapped their love of learning, their confidence and their achievements. Independent learning here seems to be a case of working through the book, hoping that we get it, panicking that we missed something, never really being sure of ourselves, and sadly not realizing that help is just a question away.

Slowly over the year subjects have been combined, often so that we are all in the same place, learning together, sometimes slowly, sometimes faster, but happier, stronger and with far fewer corrections and re-works. Sometimes it gives out some strange results - like my 9 yr old getting logic faster than the 7th grader, sometimes we learn to wait for someone, sometimes its way to loud, sometimes quiet and steady. Slowly each day our confidence is growing.

Eventually I will have to work on a balance between the two, but for now this is good, this is encouraging, and this is teaching us how to learn from each other.

I didn't see that coming

Change hit our home-school this week. I didn't realize we were heading for change... or that we needed it. Or even that it is real. I've been settled with my weekly blocks of learning. Having just one or two things to think about and plan made life easy and comfortable.

Last weekend I looked over the subject list and while they were all good things to study none felt right for this week. Nothing made sense in terms of what we were studying although by Monday morning I had a plan of sorts.

Across the week hiccup after hiccup disrupted the plan. Along the way a new plan evolved. Firstly a recognition that nature study was important. Then a realization that those subjects that incorporate beauty (poetry, music and art works) were missing.

Slowly its began to dawn that interspersing out days with reading and discussion doesn't need to be stressful. We can simply keep a pile of books and read the portions that we need to do throughout the day. With weekly writing projects we don't need written narrations, crafts or experiments on every subject. Where we do we can slot them in as required without having a big block for afternoon studies. I didn't have to be tied to a schedule. If we lose a day to skiing, the pools, sickness or just needed to get on top of life it was OK. My biggest challenge in homeschooling has always been dealing with the challenge of having an afternoon disrupted and wondering what to do about it. Many weeks have been lost simply on the realization that by Tuesday we weren't going to be able to finish the plan - and then what did I do.

The realization that we could use our existing program CM style without taking on board the whole plan of Ambleside is appealing. For some reason I've always felt I had to do all of Ambleside using all their selections. When we got to the stage of having alternative preferences it came apart.

Now I'm feeling content with our curriculum choices but seeing the option for a stress free implementation. No detailed plans. No schedules that we have to meet, no deadlines. No more subjects than we are happy learning from. It sounds refreshing and good, the kids are keen... and so we head forward.

I wonder where this journey leads.

Putting it together

I have been trying to work through a daily rhythm that lets us move from a textbook school at home base towards something more natural, multi-level and yet retains a christian classical undertone. What does that mean for me. I want us to grow in the search of truth, beauty and virtue. In doing so I want the freedom to recognize that the ultimate expression of all of these are found in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, I am also aware that God sends his good gifts on all people and that truth, beauty and virtue can be found throughout the world and the people he created.

I want each day, or rather group of days to be centered on a single topic or book one read-aloud that we can share, discuss and bounce off. Some of these by necessity are story based textbooks, others will be more of a true living book.

For Latin, Maths and Greek I simply want to keep us moving forward in our respective texts spending time each day discussing the lessons, so board work and some time working independently of the topics we are studying. These three subjects seem to form a separate group from the rest of the topics, they are not easy to integrate, and they need a fairly consistent approach if we are not going to get bogged down in them. I still have to work out how they will look in practice.

My other block of subjects that I want to see as a block are those skills that allow us to express ourselves, and which we need instruction in to develop skills. Spelling, Writing, Grammar, Comprehension skills, Logic and Art.



For daily routines I can see some conflicts between my ideas and the preferred rhythm of my children. My choice

Circle time, poem and drills,

Maths, Latin and Greek

Skills work, dictation (Spelling) diagramming, parsing, skill development ... and then indepth inWriting, Grammar, Comprehension skills, Logic and Art.

Notebooks studies, where it all comes together and we start to put our skills in practice.

The kids would do it differrently probably they would run it:

Circle time and notebooks,

Maths, Latin and Greek,

Skills work.

It sounds simple and at the moment simple sounds good.

Feeling Nostalgic

As we started this school year I had some decisions to make. What level my dd studied at and whether we spent the year in one time period with lots of read-alouds or three with lots of independent work.

It wasn't an easy choice.

For background I have three children all two years apart, the artist (12) struggled with reading and in lots of ways lost confidence, the engineer (10) struggled with school and the youngest 8 is a get on and do it seriously independent learner.

The pluses of keeping them together are

• Its easier on me - only one period to research and think about, one set of books to pre-read.

• Much easier to just pick books up as read alouds and go for it,

• easier selecting family read alouds,

• and the kids can play with each other acting out scenes from battles, or events in history.

• and Great discussions with the kids.

• More flexibility to make it a family thing, and include field trips etc into learning.

The pluses of keeping them separate,

• It eliminates competition, and trying to live up to other children's expectations.

• It lets me allow my artistic daughter to delve into art more while my engineer gets into the inner workings of a matchlock rifle or ship.

• The youngest doesn't always feel like they are behind - and homeschooling they don't necessarily get that 2 years older means I can do more than you.

• If one child has a bad week, or month everyone doesn't stall.

At 7th grade or similar the work changes significantly and keeping them all together looks like it will be harder than running separate courses. Stepping everyone up to Apologia General science, or Daddy's computer based science course isn't quite as useful as it might be. Having the my daughter separate and the boys together well that doesn't seem fair either.

But the main reason is probably my youngest - was seeing my very bright 8 yr old (he's up to the third year of Elementary Greek and half way through LC II tell me that he feels stupid.) Part of that is his strong will coming out and that he wants to be the leader in the family, but part of that is that he can see each day that his older siblings draw better, and write deeper. On separate tracks he is so much happier and relaxed and his work is more about what he is learning. He stops trying to achieve and starts relating to what we are learning

It takes the pressure off my engineer as well - he isn't being pushed to keep ahead of my youngest and feeling a failure - because being in the middle he gets that their is a difference in two years and he should be ahead of his brother.

There are other reasons and I would love to hear where others have got to as I am still a little undecided. Or rather a little sad that the afternoons crashed out on the couch as a family with a good book are ending.

Transferring over some old posts ....

I've wanted to be on one place for a while... and now as we re-mediate some of the excesses of trying to fit the kids into curriculum designed by others I figured it was a good time to move over the posts that outline this journey form trying to do it all to learning to rest in God with our home-school... we aren't there yet. Each day I want to plan out where we are going. To make sure we hit the target. Each time I do so I see the joy vanish..Am I just torn by modern ideas that childhood should be fun.. or brainwashed by the modern ideas of planning and striving so that we achieve our goals. umm...

Because this is a journey I have shared what is happening with my middle child and I. Sometimes we get caught up in acheiving and need to accept that we took a wrong path.

But underneath it all I realize that God has a plan and purpose that we need desperately to get on board with.

The posts are all in the April section it seemed the easiest and right place for them . I will keep adding them across as school this morning allows.

Another battle - a new ending

Slowly we are moving forward again. slowly.

My boy has turned from the defiant challenging I don't get it lad of last week to a listening, trying to be good. At least the discussions are promising. We aren't always succeeding, but he is trying.

He did manage to do his morning work today with a good attitude, and in a timely way. He wanted it to be right.

This afternoon the effort got to be a little much, and we had to work hard to not fall back into old habits.

I want to be hopeful, that soon we will round that corner where schoolwork becomes something that we do, grow in and occasionally enjoy without all the fuss.

Pruning and Planning

While our mid-winter break was a good time to prune the roses, yep all 42 of them. I didn't prune the five in the small garden or the 6 in amongst the trees on the back fence - but I did prune the other 42. (which makes our estimate of 50 a little light.)

It gave me time also to relax and schedule out the next ten weeks with all the changes that have been creeping into the curriculum during the first half of this year. I still have a couple of subjects to enter in and some changes to the timetable to make but I an happy. Along the way I tried to tweak most subjects to each child, select copy work from what we were studying, and par down those courses and books that are to heavy for my kids. All in all I feel good about what we are doing.

Dare I share the details - feel free to skip over this.

My Artist is working on not getting herself bogged down, I'm trying to be avalaible to nudge her around when she gets overwhelmed. (She's 11, a young grade 6)

• Maths - Keys to ... Decimals 4, Measurement 2, Geometery 1, or Percents 1, she can choose which at her leisure.
• Latin Henle 1 first year continuing
• Elementary Greek year 2 continuing
• Classical composition - Fable, but only 1 week per fable, and only selected parts.
• Mother Tongue book 2, part 1 Adverbs onwards and adding in Mary Daly's diagramming Book.
• Simply Spelling - dictation selections.
• Bible - the Gospels using Veritas press cards,
• History - Columbus to America, and the start of the Reformation, using Veritas and Genvieve Fosters World of Columbus and Sons.
• Literature - continuing through Tales by Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb.
• Science/Nature Apologia Flying Creatures the birds section.
• Art - Artistic pursuits and whatever else sneaks in. We cover a few artists in History and well they took over a bit.
• 
  

For my engineer 9 yrs approx grade 4

• Maths - Singapore - My Pals book 4A
• Latin Latina Christiana 1 Hoping to finish this term.
• Elementary Greek year 1 continuing
• Classical composition - Fable, Just starting and working through a couple of re-writes for each model.
  
• Mother Tongue book 1, part 2 only the grammar bits and adding in Mary Daly's diagramming Book.
  
• Simply Spelling - dictation selections.
  
• Bible - Judges using Veritas press cards,
• History - Greece and Rome using the Vertias activities and Famous Men of Greece / Rome.
  
• Literature - continuing through d'Auldaires Greek Myths Book.
• Science/Nature Apologia Flying Creatures the birds section.
  
• Art - Artistic pursuits.
  

The Naturalist 7 yrs grade 2 going onto...

• Maths - Singapore My Pals level 3B trying to slow him down a little and let his brother sneak ahead.
• Latina Christiana II Lessons 1-5 spread out over 10 weeks.
• Elementary Greek year 2 continuing
• Mother Tongue book 1 part 1
• Simply Spelling - dictation selections.
  
• Bible - Genesis Noah to Joseph using the Veritas press cards,
• History - Egypt and Israel using the Veritas Press Cards and activities.
  
• Literature - Finishing Tree in the Trail and then Seabird.
• Science/Nature Apologia Flying Creatures the birds section.
  
• Art - Artistic pursuits.

Monday on a Tuesday

Settling onto the week after a long weekend is always interesting. After all mum has had an extra day to think and to tweak things a little, and so far I'm still tweaking us towards individualized programs.

This week poetry crept back in - hopefully both reading and writing. In the last few weeks our poetry memorization has slipped, it simply doesn't fit in so well now. But I didn't want to loose it. So we still have poetry, and I will choose from the kids books which one we will memorize together. In the meantime, we have a place each week for my children to read poetry - and enjoy it. My children get to read as many of their poems as they like, decide if they like a particular poem, or poet and write down the things they like or dislike about them. (I'll add in writing poetry with the oldest latter in the week - I think she misses what we were doing in this area. )

We also went back to time based learning - simply working on a subject until the timer rings. This change is simply the realization that if my middle child isn't held accountable - he simply dreams the morning away.

Generally the changes went down well. Having poetry back and as a reading subject was a hit with the oldest and youngest. My engineer was trying hard to stay focused on what he was meant to be doing, so it will be latter this week before I see his reaction.

Faith or Fear

As a home school mum, I've often felt the need to show a perfect image. The idea that because we were doing something different I had to prove it was right.

Tonight it is time to recognize the fear as what it is - fear.

Homeschooling is a faith journey. Just like normal school journeys sometimes our kids fly sometimes they struggle.

Proving that it is right doesn't help us home school. It only makes Mum stress over the small stuff.

My faith challenge for the week, to home school without the fear that my family and friends won't approve. They either do or don't and I can't change that.