I thought I'd update you on the latest installment of Adventures in Homeschooling, because a) I haven't talked about it in a while; and b) I'm feeling rather excited about where we are.
First, the thing that makes me really really really happy is that, considering how reluctantly I came to this whole homeschooling thing, it has worked wonders around here. Miss C is happy and doing great. We don't agonize over whether to call in sick from school when a migraine seems like it's approaching. We don't agonize over hours of homework. Miss C has even grudgingly admitted that maybe learning IS NOT quite as awful as she thought. (See that? HUGE victory.)
One of the cool things about homeschooling is that it lets you look hard at your child and consider ways to shape the education FOR them. And one of the ideas that hit me last summer was that no matter how well Miss C does academically with the content (and, I say shamelessly, this kid is SMART), she gets stressed out by having to juggle a bunch of things at the same time. I think it's an Asperger's issue, that too many things to keep track of is overwhelming and stressful for her even if each thing is not hard at all.
So I proposed an experiment, with the idea that we could adjust if we didn't like it. Rather than start her off in September with a year-long courseload of 5 core subjects and the occasional elective, I suggested that we try something different and do fewer classes at a time but in bigger time blocks. So, over the last months, Miss C has done "double" English and Geometry and a semester's worth of Japanese, in order to finish a year's worth of English and Geometry in a half of a year. The idea was that she'd do the same work, but just be juggling fewer things. (I know some homeschooling families who do ONE subject at a time intensively -- math for a month, english for a month, etc. But I thought that might be too boring, to just work on one thing all day every day.)
And, so far, it has worked beautifully. Miss C has just finished her English unit and Geometry. She did great academically, found the workload manageable, and really did seem less stressed with fewer balls to keep up in the air. She even took on the task of writing a first draft of a 50,000 word novel for National Novel Writing Month in November, and blew me away with her creativity and writing skills. So I'm feeling very successful. But really, the best part? The smile on her face every day, and the way she tackles her school work without complaint.
So today we start Semester 2, and begin History (World History from 1000 to 1800) and Biology. Japanese will continue along. I'm excited because the materials look fun plus I've ordered some lecture sets from The Teaching Company to supplement. (I'm excited to see the lectures by Linwood Thompson, an award winning teacher from Los Angeles who dresses up as historical figures and talks to the class from the perspective of the person. Sounds very creative and fun.)
I'm gonna go sharpen some pencils now.
