As some of you may know, we jumped with a huge leap of faith and began homeschooling our youngest kiddo (2nd grade) this year. After realizing that he doesn't thrive with traditional learning, we looked into every single option we could think of this summer.
After a million lists of pros and cons, it came down to homeschooling. This was a pretty difficult decision to make, especially since it would effect my business (not to mention, I had never even considered homeschooling before!). So...three weeks ago we made a final decision. I gave notice to the landlord of my studio space (and my clients). We ordered his curriculum. We rearranged our living space for school. And here we are.
Wow.
We are only a few days in to homeschooling Westley at "WZ Academy" and this is what Westley thinks about it:
Notice his cool shirt? West picked his own mascot and school colors. He also picked his school's mantra which is "Observe, Respect, Contribute" - which anyone in love with PBS Kids will recognize that from the Webonauts! Seemed like a perfect mantra to me, so we rolled with it!
I am certainly no expert, and I know that the next few months will be filled with trial and error...but....I am loving this! His curriculum is fairly structured - but I am making it hands on and creative which is really helpful for West. The best part about home schooling? It is only 3 hours of core subjects a day. By the time 12:30 rolls around, we are already done with our day and we can focus on art, music, PE, and other fun stuff (or just chilling out - depending on the day).
Right now, I am doing one hour of structured learning in the morning. This includes phonics, spelling, reading and poetry. Then we have an hour of self-led creative play learning (which I will explain in a bit). We break for lunch and then end with another hour of structured learning with mathematics and writing.
The self-led creative play is going to be my favorite part of the day. One of the things I am most excited about is seeing what Westley wants to learn about and explore. Today, for instance, he started talking about a boy he knows that is from Russia. He said he wanted to hear what the Russian language sounded like.
So, I went online, found a Russian kid's movie and we watched half of it. All the while, West was reading the sub-titles, learning about another culture and was amazed by another language. After watching half of the movie, we learned a few facts about Russia on factmoster(like how it is the biggest country in the world, it is on two continents and they really like to play soccer).
Here is Westley's photo of Russian Soccer:
We also learned that Tetris (a family favorite) was invented in Russia. Which led to ten minutes of playing a game that was a mix between tetris and tangoes.
Tonight, I ran out for a bit (alone time!) and I stopped by the library. When I got home I told Westley I got some books about Russia and he actually danced and laughed. Over books! You'd have to know Westley to know that it has been a long time since he has been excited about a book! This is exactly what we were looking for....the Westley that loved learning! I think he is back. I love seeing him smile again!!
I think that most of the creative play learning hour will focus on science and geography. Those aren't really considered core subjects in his curriculum, and they obviously are core subjects required by the state. Thankfully, West is sort of gravitating to those subjects on his own this week.
Anyway, I suppose that is enough rambling for today. I am proud of us this week! Stay posted for more on our homeschooling shenanigans. :-)
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