Head Spinning
As much as I love the K12 curriculum that we're doing (using a virtual academy here in California that pays for it), I'm finding myself so stressed. I'm trying not to stress and not to let my stress show. But I'm still worried.
This is the beginning of our 4th week homeschooling. Part of me really loves it. Part of me is scared half to death. I'm so afraid that my kids won't "catch up" and will fall even further behind as time goes on. There is just so much that the K12 curriculum demands of my kids and not enough time in the day to do it all. If we did everything every day then we would have to start at 7 am and finish at 5 pm. That's way more than I can reasonably expect, let alone want, my children to have to do.
I'm going to give K12 till January. If I still feel this way then I'm going to consider doing this without them. I figure by January we'll have been homeschooling for 2 months and I should have a more accurate assessment of what we're capable of under their intense curriculum.
Part of me really wants to do this on my own. There are so many things that my area, San Diego, has to offer kids. There are workshops, free museum days, clubs, and just all around fun and educational events and whatnot. I keep picturing us doing all these fun and exciting things. Instead we're pouring over books and its a struggle to get them to do any of it.
I have so many ideas. Some of it will be book based. However, I also want my children to explore things. They're both very much kinesthetic learners. There's a group I signed us up for that does nature Walks and the kids do all sorts of science stuff. The aquarium used to have workshops on the weekends for kids. There are always cultural events. We have Sea World, the Wild Animal park, the San Diego Zoo, and all sorts of other things which could really enrich their science. There are tons of libraries throughout San Diego and each one has events, workshops, and clubs geared towards children (some fun adult stuff too).
The way I see it, if I wrote my own curriculum we could utilize all of this. We could use the library's book clubs to help get the kids more into reading. We could do all sorts of hands on science (for example they could learn about eco-systems by looking at the tide pools along the cliffs at low tide). When we do history and social studies they can do projects that teach them way more than just plain old reading would. We can learn foreign languages as a family (which we are doing now and loving). The possibilities are endless.
That is what I think of when I think of homeschooling. I don't think of children locked inside their homes pouring over volumes of books only doing one or two fun (ie. hands on) lessons a week.
I don't know what I want the most. To have a charter (ie. the virtual school) tell me what to do, when to do it, and focuses more on overall progress rather than individual learning. To be fair, K12 does a lot for the kids. I just feel like we could be doing so much more, in more depth, and if it's more enjoyable then the kids will learn more.
Am I being realistic here or does it sound like I'm being more of a dreamer rather than having my head rooted in reality?
This is the beginning of our 4th week homeschooling. Part of me really loves it. Part of me is scared half to death. I'm so afraid that my kids won't "catch up" and will fall even further behind as time goes on. There is just so much that the K12 curriculum demands of my kids and not enough time in the day to do it all. If we did everything every day then we would have to start at 7 am and finish at 5 pm. That's way more than I can reasonably expect, let alone want, my children to have to do.
I'm going to give K12 till January. If I still feel this way then I'm going to consider doing this without them. I figure by January we'll have been homeschooling for 2 months and I should have a more accurate assessment of what we're capable of under their intense curriculum.
Part of me really wants to do this on my own. There are so many things that my area, San Diego, has to offer kids. There are workshops, free museum days, clubs, and just all around fun and educational events and whatnot. I keep picturing us doing all these fun and exciting things. Instead we're pouring over books and its a struggle to get them to do any of it.
I have so many ideas. Some of it will be book based. However, I also want my children to explore things. They're both very much kinesthetic learners. There's a group I signed us up for that does nature Walks and the kids do all sorts of science stuff. The aquarium used to have workshops on the weekends for kids. There are always cultural events. We have Sea World, the Wild Animal park, the San Diego Zoo, and all sorts of other things which could really enrich their science. There are tons of libraries throughout San Diego and each one has events, workshops, and clubs geared towards children (some fun adult stuff too).
The way I see it, if I wrote my own curriculum we could utilize all of this. We could use the library's book clubs to help get the kids more into reading. We could do all sorts of hands on science (for example they could learn about eco-systems by looking at the tide pools along the cliffs at low tide). When we do history and social studies they can do projects that teach them way more than just plain old reading would. We can learn foreign languages as a family (which we are doing now and loving). The possibilities are endless.
That is what I think of when I think of homeschooling. I don't think of children locked inside their homes pouring over volumes of books only doing one or two fun (ie. hands on) lessons a week.
I don't know what I want the most. To have a charter (ie. the virtual school) tell me what to do, when to do it, and focuses more on overall progress rather than individual learning. To be fair, K12 does a lot for the kids. I just feel like we could be doing so much more, in more depth, and if it's more enjoyable then the kids will learn more.
Am I being realistic here or does it sound like I'm being more of a dreamer rather than having my head rooted in reality?