Our Current State of School

Homeschooling a tweenager and a teenager has certainly posted it's challenges. First of all I still can't believe I have kids this old, not that they're old but you know what I mean.

After last year, which was perhaps the worst homeschool year of ALL TIMES!! We have gotten into a grove this year and it's been great! OK, OK, so I'm getting over a bit of burnout, but I just love how God takes my memories and sugarcoats them with His grace.

Here's what we've found that works. Early Bird is doing Switched on Schoolhouse for his language arts, history, science. He's using Saxon math and the D.I.V.E. CD's. Bible is taught by yours truly and writing comes from his language arts curriculum and writing to his grandparents in lands afar! If you've known me for any time you know I was always leery of computer based school programs. I just felt like I wasn't homeschooling if they sat in front of a computer all day; I have always liked the time spent. Anyway this is a new thing this year and it rocks! Early Bird is able to work at his own pace and get his work done early. He likes to get up with dad at 5:30am, sit at the dinning table and have devotions with dad before starting his schoolwork and laying back down for a nap from about 7-9am. He then wakes up around 9am and finishes his schoolwork by lunch! It is so sweet because he's learning to be self-sufficient, self-paced and he's getting it done! Not to say I don't get the occasional weekly monthly occasional plea for a day off or a "can I skip math today?". Overall God's really put a neat sense of git 'er done in that boy.

The there's my tween, good ol' Night Owl. Night Owl burns the wick at night that's for sure. Since bedtime is 9pm for him he has found this time works for his reading and writing. Currently he's reading the book of 1 Samuel and writing down everything that David did. I am always touched by David's faith and trust in God, looking at a huge giant, David, a boy, knew that his God was bigger than anything that came against him. He fought Goliath knowing he'd win, very inspiring as I run this race of life. Anyway, back to Night Owl who is busy writing down everything he can possibly find on the events of David's life. The next day we write the list on a newer, cleaner piece of paper in our "best" handwriting. For Night Owl it's Saxon math , only I teach it to him. For Science and history we are reading History of the World, adding new events to our TreeHouse SchoolHouse timeline weekly. He is also participating, half heartedly, in a computer programing class online. I find I'm enjoying it more than him right now.

So that's a brief summary of what's going on in our little homeschool neck of the woods. I'd love to hear about your homeschool adventure. Leave a comment and I'll check it out.