The state of my homeschool address

Just after getting set up to start contributing here, life sort of got in the way. I have felt bad about never even getting around to at least posting an introduction, but I guess not bad enough to actually do it. I see Tricia has posed a nice question to begin on, so I suppose it can serve as an introduction of sorts.

How is our homeschooling going?

Well...that depends on your definition of school success. Maybe I'll come back to this one.

What new things are you trying?

1. A more clearly laid schedule was my pride and joy for this homeschool year. My daughter and I sat down together and looked at what needed to be learned. She really enjoyed having the input and seeing her favorite activities put in writing. It worked really well for a whole week.

2. Having my husband work in another state for six weeks. One week after writing out our schedule. Leaving the state for four or five days at a time to visit dad has introduced an interesting dynamic to our homeschooling. He is home now, but he might be moving to Kansas City next so this phase might not be over yet.

3. Going on vacation almost three months into our school year. This actually went well. We learned geography, history, reading and science...not to mention all the hiking. Actually, if you like pictures, I posted some.

What is working?

Now we are back to that definition. What is working is the flexibility. I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the volume of work that we have not done that I had planned to do. I am feeling behind and that is a stressful state for me. It is not that the children have not been learning. They have learned a lot, both as a direct result of the travels we have undertaken and the hours of audiobooks we have listened to. I have a learned a lot. But it isn't what I had planned. And that seems to be a bigger issue for me than I previously realized.

But what would have happened if we were not homeschooling? My children would have gone a month without seeing their father. Are the two chapters of the math book we fell behind in that important? Two chapters can be caught up. We can always work into the summer like we did last year. But how do you make up time with your father?

What is not working?

This schedule. I like the idea of it. I like how excited my daughter was to help put it together. I like how it helped my daughter do the things she doesn't like because she saw on her calendar that there were more exciting things to follow. But straying from it is stressful for me, and straying from the schedule is a part of life when your husband works for the railroad.

So, how is our homeschool going?

A lot like life. With its ups and downs, advantages and disadvantages. Our family is doing pretty well, despite the upheavals of late and I attribute that to homeschooling. We do not have a nine-to-five life and it is wonderful to have time together as a family despite my husband's odd work hours. I don't know that I could ask for much more.

Dana @Principled Discovery