Sunday, December 26, 2010

changes.

I have been away from here for two long months. Not a very good blogger, am I...

However, I do have a good excuse for being incommunicado for so long. There have been many, many small changes in our household in the last couple of months. There has also been one huge, life altering (for us as well as our children) change that has affected every aspect of our lives since mid-November.

Starting November 15th, we pulled Bones out of the Public School system. We are now homeschooling through an online school, Ohio Virtual Academy which uses the K12 curriculum. We looked into homeschooling before we even put Bones into Kindergarten back in San Antonio, but The Hubs talked me into letting him do one year of public school first so we could see how it worked for our boy. Well let me tell you, it was terrible! Once we got to Ohio this summer, we decided to enroll him in the school here, thinking maybe the problem was just the system in Texas. Again, we were wrong. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty behind our reasoning right now, but I feel (as do many, many others) that we are doing the right thing for our children.

Come spring we will be heading to the Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati to pick out our curriculum for the 2011/2012 school year. We've had Bones academically tested now that he's out of public school. The school system refuses to test students until 3rd grade now (same in TX as OH), but his teacher said it's not law, it's just that there is no funding. Anyway, we had him tested and in Language Arts and Math, he is on an upper 3rd grade level. In Reading/Phonics he's at a mid-upper 5th grade level. So proud of that kid! He LOVES Music and Art as well, and is really enjoying History. His absolute favorite though, is Science. The Hubs likes to help with that.

Kayla had her developmental assessment at 30 months. The lady that does them was blown away by her. I won't get into all the details, but cognitively/developmentally Kayla could go into Kindergarten now and be academically equal to the 5 and 6 year olds. So we've been working on some homeschool stuff with her as well. If at 2.5 she is ready for school, I cannot put her in Kindergarten in 3 years and expect things to go well! haha She just soaks up everything I teach her, and Bones really enjoys teaching her things too.

So homeschooling is definitely not for the faint of heart. We've not established a real clear and good routine yet, which makes it even more challenging. I have 2 weeks of laundry waiting on me right now, the floors desperately need cleaning, I've not had a chance to read anything other than teacher's manuals in awhile, the dust bunnies are invading...it is definitely chaotic. I asked friends on Facebook how they do the schooling and the cleaning, and one friend who also homeschools replied "we're supposed to do BOTH?!?". I'm beginning to wonder if my house will ever be clean, or if I'll ever wear anything but yoga pants ever again. Time will tell...

I hope to establish a good, working schedule in the next few weeks. Hopefully that means my house will get clean and I'll have a little time for reading and blogging!!!

God Bless you and yours!

4 comments:

  1. Glad you are all settling in. I might be calling you next spring on how to go about this mess as I (not my child) am having issues with the school system here.

    I used to take one night before a new month to go to the library and make the following months schedule to help me stay on track. I would also catch up on any grading. It would take me anywhere from 1 to 4 hours and I needed that time out of the house. You might give it a try. Print up a generic calendar on the computer to take with you and fill in. This really helped when we started adding in homeschool activities from the local museums and such. Is there a homeschool co-op or group in our area?

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  2. I am in constant wonder how you do it all. I was homeschooled when we lived in LA, it gave me a great foundation for public high school. I learned great study skills and learned so much from my bible class. My mother homeschooled 6 of us. She made a dedicated classroom area and we had set hours. Great post. Keep em coming. Your kids sound fantastic.

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  3. Autumn-

    That is a great idea, and I LOVE the library. The one here is so much nicer than some others I've been to.

    There are several homeschool co-op's around here, including one JUST for WPAFB homeschool families.

    Once we get through it all, I don't mind helping you out. It still seems so confusing to me, the letters and everything you have to hand into the district. I'll get it figured out though.

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  4. Lacie! You never told me you were homeschooled! No wonder you're so great! ;) At least now I know my kids might not turn out weird...haha

    Also-I don't do it all...that's why my house is a disaster and I am always sleep deprived!!!

    My kids are pretty great. :D

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