Hurdles, Kinks, & Schedules, Oh My!

For friends and family down south, school is either starting, or has started already. This seems crazy to us northerners since many of our schools did not conclude the 2007-2008 school year until the last week of June - just a little over a month ago. Of course these southern schools that begin their sessions in August, are done by early May. It all balances out, so to speak.



As I prepare to begin homeschooling JR , I am torn. You see the idea of completing school session by early May is quite appealing but I'd really be depriving JR of a good chunk of summer, this year. Subsequent years will not be a problem, since, if we finish school in May, we'll be ready to start in August - we'll have had our summer and be ready to learn again. But this year, we're only at the midway mark as far as summer is concerned. This has weighed heavy on my mind, but I've decided we can be creative, achieve our goals, and make everyone happy. We've tentatively declared 18 August as our first day of school. A few weeks earlier than local schools, but soon enough to be able to get our required school hours in and still be done by early/mid May. If we survive our first year of homeschooling, I"ll shave another week off next summer, and then we'll be about where we need to be.



Having decided that, I have finally devoted my efforts to getting down to the fun stuff - setting up our learning room, working on curriculum and lesson plans, and choosing monthly themes. We still have a lot to do, but we're moving forward. Today JR helped me Put up our Interactive calendar, and Number charts. Next week I'll be painting walls, installing a magnetic display board, and hopefully finish completing the first quarter curriculum. Since Kindergarten is 1/2 day in our town, we're not looking at a heck of alot of required school time, but JR loves to learn, and is counting down the days until homeschooling begins. Over the summer we've explained the whole concept to him, and as time has passed, he has become increasingly excited about it. Since he had a strong need to have a name for our homeschool, we've come up with "The Discovery Zone". He is getting very excited, and can't wait to get back to structured learning. Classes will include Bible, Math, Language Arts, Science, History, Citizenship, Creative Arts, Fitness, & Russian. It's all a bit intimidating, but alot exciting. While I'll have a curriculum and specific goals, I'm working hard at leaving lots of room for flexibility, and not setting goals we can't possibly achieve. Our focus will be on fun and our motto will be "play, learn, grow." JR and I have been playing around on the computer, trying to come up with a logo to go with our motto. Suddenly it all seems to be falling into place. I can't promise total organization and perfection, nor will I be striving for them, but I do know it will be yet another adventure for this family. Yep, just another adventure...