See? I'm Flexible.
When I think of homeschooling, I have these dreams of a beautiful homeschool room, covered in books, and Kara sitting at a desk while I instruct on a chalkboard, and she does tons of homework, coming to class fully prepared.
Then there's real life.
I have that gorgeous homeschool room, covered in books. We never use it. I prepare our lessons in there, but nothing else. I have the chalkboard, but we rarely use it. *sigh*
We make homeschool work for us. In my bed, in pjs, snuggled and reading, reading, reading. We also read in the car. And at Grandmas. Well, it works, so who am I to rock the boat?
The latest thing I've been thinking about is Kara's night owl ways. I used to be a night owl (even up to a few years ago - I used to love putting Michael and Kara to bed and starting my serious house cleaning at 10pm). Now I'm turning into a morning person. My brain turns off around dinner time, the idea of being in pjs immediately after dinner is heaven, and going to bed early so I can be up early the next morning is wonderful. I love the morning light, I love the quiet, I love coffee, I love a new day. And Kara loves sleeping until 10. And she loves reading 200 pages for hours every night before bed. At midnight.
It's not super convenient to wake at 10, eat breakfast (for an hour - it takes a while to become un-groggy), then start school at 11. Usually we have to be going somewhere by then.
So, I've been waking her at 9 or 9:30 (waking her means it takes even longer for the grogginess to wear off), cramming in school, then leaving by noon or so.
I read a great article (well, I've read several on this topic - I need to be beaten over the head before I take a hint), about parents letting their homeschooled kids do school whatever time of day is natural for them. Whatever time of day their brain is functioning the best.
So, we tried night school tonight.
This is what I've learned: Kara loves reading at night. And writing. And Bible.
We read chapter 2 of Swiss Family Robinson cheerfully and she summarized the chapter. Then she begged for more, so I said yes, after some math.
Out came fractions, which she has mixed feelings about, and her brain shut down. Fractions are evil. Why would I teach her something Satanic? So I said let's practice some long division to keep it fresh (she loves long division), and she messed up a bit. A tiny bit. Her eyes welled up with tears and she said she was "even messing up long division."
*clap, clap!* Enough math! Let's get back to reading! Chapter 3 was divine and she wrote a nice summary on that also.
So concludes night school. Bible and many things English are good. Math is bad.
Meanwhile, we talked about what this sentence from chapter 2 meant: "This was a valuable acquisition, as I was now enabled to make the requisite observations, and direct my course."
How is she following this book? Her comprehension is off the charts. But I may be biased. :-)
I'm going to give it another shot next week and see how it goes. Meanwhile, no school in the mornings is really nice!
Then there's real life.
I have that gorgeous homeschool room, covered in books. We never use it. I prepare our lessons in there, but nothing else. I have the chalkboard, but we rarely use it. *sigh*
We make homeschool work for us. In my bed, in pjs, snuggled and reading, reading, reading. We also read in the car. And at Grandmas. Well, it works, so who am I to rock the boat?
The latest thing I've been thinking about is Kara's night owl ways. I used to be a night owl (even up to a few years ago - I used to love putting Michael and Kara to bed and starting my serious house cleaning at 10pm). Now I'm turning into a morning person. My brain turns off around dinner time, the idea of being in pjs immediately after dinner is heaven, and going to bed early so I can be up early the next morning is wonderful. I love the morning light, I love the quiet, I love coffee, I love a new day. And Kara loves sleeping until 10. And she loves reading 200 pages for hours every night before bed. At midnight.
It's not super convenient to wake at 10, eat breakfast (for an hour - it takes a while to become un-groggy), then start school at 11. Usually we have to be going somewhere by then.
So, I've been waking her at 9 or 9:30 (waking her means it takes even longer for the grogginess to wear off), cramming in school, then leaving by noon or so.
I read a great article (well, I've read several on this topic - I need to be beaten over the head before I take a hint), about parents letting their homeschooled kids do school whatever time of day is natural for them. Whatever time of day their brain is functioning the best.
So, we tried night school tonight.
This is what I've learned: Kara loves reading at night. And writing. And Bible.
We read chapter 2 of Swiss Family Robinson cheerfully and she summarized the chapter. Then she begged for more, so I said yes, after some math.
Out came fractions, which she has mixed feelings about, and her brain shut down. Fractions are evil. Why would I teach her something Satanic? So I said let's practice some long division to keep it fresh (she loves long division), and she messed up a bit. A tiny bit. Her eyes welled up with tears and she said she was "even messing up long division."
*clap, clap!* Enough math! Let's get back to reading! Chapter 3 was divine and she wrote a nice summary on that also.
So concludes night school. Bible and many things English are good. Math is bad.
Meanwhile, we talked about what this sentence from chapter 2 meant: "This was a valuable acquisition, as I was now enabled to make the requisite observations, and direct my course."
How is she following this book? Her comprehension is off the charts. But I may be biased. :-)
I'm going to give it another shot next week and see how it goes. Meanwhile, no school in the mornings is really nice!
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