The Homeschool Journey - It Only Gets Better With Time

Wonderful week of sunshine and lots of walks.

Sitting at my keyboard this morning, attempting to write a Weekly Wrap-Up post, I got a little nostalgic. In cleaning out some cupboards the other day I had found a photo of my family in 1996. This was the year we actually started homeschooling. I decided to put the photo up on my corkboard right near my computer just so I could gaze on the adorableness of those four cuties from time to time (okay, five cuties).

1996 - Our First Year Homeschooling

That photo made me journey back all those years ago to when we were just stepping onto the homeschool path. I couldn't see far down the trail and was not really equipped like so many of you are today. In fact, I was terrified to even tackle the project. I had little direction or support but I did have the fervent desire to have my children home where we could do some real learning together as a family.

Our homeschool today looks nothing like the homeschool of 1996. I would dare say nothing we do today is like that first year, especially with only one child left homeschooling. Mr. B has adopted a very interest-driven, project based, Charlotte Mason relationship-building style way of educating himself (for the most part). It is as close to unschooling as we have ever been.

Mr. B spends most of his days reading, writing, ranting, and researching....not much can be shown with photos anymore. Writing a summary of our week is sort of hard, unless I show you his notebook pages.

WW1 Notebook Pages

I had him pick a few of these World War 1 pages that are available on Scribed (I think I originally got the link from Jimmie.) These pages made for some really good discussion and a place to jump off for some additional research.

Mr. B started writing a formal essay as a follow-up to his finishing The Grapes of Wrath. I found a quote that I wanted to share in relationship to offering more gritty books to our children. I think it sums up my feelings very well.

"I don't think we allow life and normal circumstances to just naturally occur in children's lives. We control too much, as if we were shielding little lambs from the wind. We shelter them from knowledge about pain, sin, need, suffering, disease, death and other hazards in ordinary life. I'm not saying we should expose children's tender souls to distress with careless abandon, but we should recognize that life has a calling for them, as much as it does for us."
Charlotte Mason, volume 3, page 183

Now the Fun Stuff:

• Listened to Stravinsky.
• Started a unit on Cubism.
• Read and memorized some Robert Frost poetry.
• Watched numerous videos from Khan Academy on Python Programming.

My son is loving these videos and my Kindle Fire has been non-stop in the evenings with video after video. I think Mr. B is going to be like his older brother and take to computer programming like a duck to water. If you have not checked out Khan Academy before ..... run, don't walk over to the website and see if there are lessons you can use with your kids. There is a series of basic math videos as well so don't be deceived into thinking this is only for older kids.

We have a full weekend ahead with lots of family stuff planned. The weather may play a part since the forecast is for snow but we will take it as it comes. The leaves are falling down as I type and it makes me want to go make a cup of cocoa and spend some time looking out the window. Perhaps a walk will happen if the we can manage to squeeze it in this afternoon. Hope everyone else has a great weekend!