Ben's Program continued....

I often have people say, "Oh homeschooling, I could NEVER do that." And honestly, it is not for everyone, or everyone all the time. But I have realized in my most recent conversations how very advantaged I am to be a second-generation homeschooler. The things that are hard for others I have seen modeled. And I think my kids are better because their Type-A, goal-oriented, scheduled mother was homeschooled by her own Type B, unscheduled mother.

I'm still not as good as she was at dropping everything to play a game. But if I didn't know better, I would FREAK out every time we didn't finish something at the end of the day. I would think that we needed to spend hours on school every day, and I would spend more time with work books than reading to my kids. These are not problems for me.

This year we added in a lot to 3rd grade. And with it came a certain juggling. And the realization that we don't need to do Art every day. And we can get by with Science once a week. It will be ok. It is 3rd grade. What do I remember from 3rd grade science? NOTHING.

Science is important. Experimentation and cause and effect are MORE important than reading at this age. But formal science, a curriculum, is not.

One of the best parts about living in Michigan is the opportunities that are available for homeschooled students. We live 20 minutes from an amazing nature center, where every other week, I pay $7 for two kids to spend 90 minutes tromping through the woods with a teacher and other students learning a particular subject. Last time it was amphibians and reptiles, with a real snake, frogs and salamanders ( the latter two that they found in the woods); tomorrow it is mammals. They will study Michigan fur trapping this winter, astronomy, and insects. During this time, I run to the store, take Evie to the park, or sit in the nature center while she plays in the free and wonderful child activity center, touching furs, looking in a microscope, doing puzzles, coloring or reading a book.

In the off week, we do an experiment (we've made fake snow), talk about a concept (Ben can tell you about Isaac Newton and the law of gravity), or talk about the geese flying overhead.

I taught Art so religiously throughout the last two years that I have to do very little at this point. I buy art supplies and people make art around here, while talking about Edgar Degas and whether Leonardo da Vinci or Rembrandt was the better artist.

The weakest link in my homeschooling chain: MATH. We do it. Ben is using Horizons but I do not LOVE it. I have looked at and sought the opinions of so many on this subject and the consensus I've gathered is this: someone needs to write a good math curriculum. Unfortunately, math education has risen in our culture since most parents were educated and so while they are inclined to think something is good, they are missing that expectations and abilities to learn math have risen in recent years. I don't love Math enough to do much with flash cards and manipulatives. So boring. Next year, I'm going to explore Math-U-See and Singapore and see what Ben prefers. But the best part of modern homeschooling: recognizing when you need to outsource. I will be doing this with math whenever I find a way for him to learn it better than what I can give him.

(to be continued)