Right now I am still using the workbox system to help our day run smoothly. I love how streamlined it is and my children love that they can finish their work quickly and move onto the serious business of playing or visiting with our homeschool friends. We have enrolled in art classes and soccer and a science class. We still have our wonderful Tuesday Co-op weekly. This week we have the Tallahassee Home School Group starting their weekly "Park Days" on Thursdays where we plan on meeting many other families and visiting with our treasured HS friends, too. Here is our schedule so you can see what a "Week in the life" looks like: (We HS year-round so we follow a 4 day a week schedule)
Monday- Our first day of the school week. - Workboxes
Tuesday- Early wake up and workboxes followed by our weekly Co-op at 10am. Andy has art class at 5pm.
Wednesday- workboxes followed by pottery class for all the children at 12:15
Thursday- No workboxes today. Soccer from 9:15am-11:30am. Then, THG Park Play Day from 2-5pm.
Friday- Workboxes then Science Class at 10:30 followed by park play with friends.
Whew!!! That is a full schedule! However, I like it because it has a lot of times for frolicking and visiting with friends as well as art and even exercise built into it. After studying so much about unschooling I feel that a majority of our time shouldn't be spent "hitting the books' but instead, "living life". Maybe I am reaching here but, I am striving to have the best of both worlds.
I have started reading a book called "The Well-Trained Mind; A Guide to Classical Education" by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise. It has a very different perspective to the idea of home education in contrast with unschooling. While I do not feel the need to follow the curriculum full force by any means, I see the benefit of some of the principles in it. I like the idea of small "lessons" where I work on helping my children work on their writing skills by using the methods of narration, dictation and copywork. I like that there may be some memory work that I would implement with the kids. This may seem odd coming off of a week of unschooling but, I realize that my kids may not ever have the opportunity to have any memory work since I don't do tests and do not plan on starting. Memory work can be fun if it's done right. This method uses songs. My kids enjoy singing and so do I.
As you can see, I am expanding my idea of what homeschooling looks like for our family. I am trying to not be boxed into a particular style. My focus is on helping my kids get the most out of this year while enjoying our time together. We have started doing our Rosetta Stone Greek and it's be wonderful to hear the kids cautiously try out their new language. We have had some tough days so far but, the contentment and freedom far outweigh any negatives we have faced. We have started to feel welcome in the homeshool community and the school year hasn't even started so I am really thrilled and excited for what our future holds. I will keep you posted. Til next time... Happy Homeschooling!
sounds like exciting stuff. Sheila
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