How it all Began

I am hoping next week to be putting some pictures on here.  Pictures of us, pictures of Jane's finished projects, etc.  Husband, Marty, is off all next week and so we have a LONG list of projects we are excited to be doing.  We shall see how that affects our work here.

I thought I'd take a minute to address the questions I've gotten regarding how we came to be homeschoolers.  It was a seed planted years before we had children.  I worked with a guy whose wife homeschooled their four kids and thought that was very interesting.  I wasn't closed to it; nor was Marty.  I did think that I was not "qualified" to teach my kids at home.  Once our oldest came on the scene, a friend of mine told me (at a Tupperware party of all places) that she planned to homeschool her kids.  Again, interesting.

When Martin, our oldest, was ready for kindergarten, another friend told me about a woman she knew through her job that was homeschooling her three little ones.  At this point, I really admired that choice, but felt "unqualified" to do that myself.  Over the next several years, our family was growing.  I even explored the idea by calling some of these friends I knew that homeschooled and "picking their brains."  I went so far as to get peoples names, perfect strangers, of people who homeschooled and their kids were now in college.  Because I wondered if the kids were happy with the choice.  Also, MANY times, I would be out with the kids and someone would approach us and ask if I homeschooled.  It kind of bothered me.  Why do people ask me that?  Of'course, the people who asked me were, themselves, homeschoolers.  They could never tell me why they thought I was also a homeschooler; something about the way I interacted with my kids? 

Then, in fall of 2000, my uncle was very ill.  My dad visited him in Michigan where he lived with his daughter, my cousin.  My dad came back from the visit and was telling me about my cousin homeschooling her four kids.  The way I remember it, he was going on and on about how impressed he was by it.  All I kept thinking was how I wished I was doing that. 

That night and for a couple weeks after, Marty and I kicked the idea around.  Should we....should we not?  I finally decided that I would miss all the friends I had made up at the school so we decided not to.  At the time, my oldest was in 3rd grade, his brother was in 2nd grade, their little brother was in preschool and the baby (Jane) was two.  Now, Marty and I both felt we had kept our conversations private.  These talks about whether or not to homeschool were "bedroom" talks or "out to dinner" talks.  Shortly after deciding not to homeschool, our oldest, Martin, told his dad that he wished we would homeschool.  Now, he probably did overhear us, but the important thing to me was his reason.  NOT to have perpetual recess or to not have homework, but because he hated recess.  What??  What kid hates recess?  He told his dad that all they ever do is fight and argue over the ball and what to play.  That got us thinking and talking again, but again concluded not to homeschool.

Now, we get to the climax of the story.  At the time, Marty was a consultant and his company had a Xmas party.  We went and ran into the lady from the Tupperware party, all those years ago and her husband.  They were still homeschooling and loving it and she spent time trying to convince me that I could do it.  I told her that what I really needed was to talk to a young adult who had been homeschooled to hear their take on it.  Right at those words, the dinner bell rang.  There were about 200 people there and the tables were set up for 4 couples each.  So, Marty and I and my old friend and her husband picked a table and pretty soon two other couples joined us.  One of the couples explained that his wife had taken ill at the last minute and knowing that there would be a plate for her, he brought his college age daughter, who (can you guess?) was homeschooled all the way through highschool!  I couldn't believe it.  Nor could Marty.  We looked at each other, and we both knew that God had just knocked us on the head and we better take a serious look at this choice. 

Well, a lot of praying followed, talking to people (even strangers), and googling.  We read books on homeschooling from the library and we talked to family and friends.  We both felt like God was calling us to homeschool, but we wanted some kind of reassurance about it.  Finally, in February of 2001, we decided that the only thing to do was to try it.  We've been homeschooling ever since. 

I'd like to say that I wish we had always homeschooled, but that seems like a challenge to God's timing.  His timing is perfect so I try not to ask why.  Each child has been given the choice of whether to homeschool high school or go to high school.  All of the boys chose to attend an area Catholic high school.  Now, you are up to date.  Here we are embarking on this new adventure of homeschooling high school!

Next time I blog, I'm going to talk a little about the disappointments of sending my boys to high school and what I think Jane and I can do better.  - Mary

colors

Hello, my mom let me choose the school colors. I chose green because that is my favorite color, and I chose blue because it`s Ruth`s favorite color.
I am almost finished with my science project, all I have to do is put it on a post it board. I am also almost done with my time line, then I`ll be officially done untill July 9. - Jane

Graduation

We are officially done with school this year, however, Jane is still wrapping up her timeline and science project.  She's having fun with the science project, it's just hard to get the time with each participant.  She hasn't been able to finish the timeline because I have not gotten the roll of paper she needs!  But this is an art project for her, really.  She is copying the information that she's already recorded and color-coding the items.  One color for personal history (family births, deaths, etc), another color for historical events (presidents, wars, etc), and a third color for trivia (yo-yo invented and such).  Jane is an awesome reader; even with her dyslexia, she rocks at reading.  I plan to use the library a lot for her history, even for highschool.  Reading and writing papers.  As a Junior/Senior we may enroll at Pillar or even the community college.

We are having an eigth grade graduation party for her and another homeschool friend this Sunday.  A pizza party with ice cream sundaes for dessert.  She has picked our official school colors - I let her tell you what they are.

Now, that this year is over, I have to start planning for next year which will begin July 9th.  My biggest question is whether to do traditional simultaneous courses, or 6-10 week consecutive studies?  Of'course, at Ruth's level, she needs to do all her studies daily.  You'll hear soon what we decide!

Bad Days

Yesterday was a bad day for our homeschool.  So many distractions - so much to do.  I worry about days like that with Jane going into high school.  It's one thing with elementary, but quite another with the heavier course material of high school.  I had doctor's appointments and the phone kept ringing (I usually try to ignore! but there were pressing matters to attend to) and of'course the weather was Beautiful so Ruth kept wanting to go outside.  Ruth is in her 3rd grade material, so while I feel it's important to keep her brain "well oiled" what we do now is just icing on the cake.  Don't tell her that!

Jane has worked hard this past school year to convince me that this will work.  We would have talks about what has to happen (really, I talked and she listened).  Often, she didn't say much, but in the days after one of our "talks" I'd see her doing things differently.  She would show me that she had listened and would implement things we had "discussed." 

I'll be going to the Pillar Foundation for a class on records keeping where they teach you how to keep track of credits (120 hours = 1 credit) and how to prepare a transcript for your child.  I haven't ruled out paying a records keeping service; I know people who went that route.  It just seems to me that it would be just as much work to have to keep of all the stuff and then send it in as to just keep track along the way.  We'll see.

Here's hoping today is better.  We have a lot to accomplish if we want to be done in two days!

home school

Yesterday when we were making the book list I was thinking "Wow I didn`t think I read so much". But then again my bother says I`m always reading. Mom I don`t think I`m having a hard time finishing up I just think it`s taking a long long time. The reason I want to home school high school, there are a few. One, I want to be able to demonstrate dance, and two because we have more flexibilityin what we do.

Little Steps

So, today, Jane and I figured out how to put a book list on our blog.  It took some time; enough time that it was all we could get done on the site today.  But we did it!  I'm so proud of us.  It was fun and tomorrow we are going to figure out how to add links.  We'd like to link to our homeschool resources.  Then, finally for now, we will see about adding a picture or two to pretty up the blog.

This is our last week of homeschool for this year and it hardly feels like work.  I'm looking forward to taking a break.  We will then start up again July 9th. 

Jane, are you having a hard time wrapping up your school work for this year?

Social Bug/I Love Dance

     I am not concerned about missing out on social stuff, because I dance 5 or sometimes 6 days a week. I also have allot of friends from homeschooling, in the neighborhood, and in dance so I`m good.
     Today is my favorite day of the week, because I have tap and jazz from 4:30 to 6:45. I LOVE DANCE! Monday`s and Wednesday`s are ballet from 4:30 to 6:00. Friday is modern from 5:00 to 6:30. Last, but not least, is Saturday which is an extra class that I don`t have to take from 10:00 to 12:00 which is a ballet and point class. I also demonstrate (dance) for the little girls 3 days a week, but 4 classes. Monday at 3:30 to 4:30. Friday at 9:30 to 10:30 and 10:30 to 11:30. Saturday at 12:30 to 1:30.

The nitty gritty

5/14/12 - So we tweeked our blog a little today; hopefully, more tomorrow.  It's a HUGE learning process for both of us (which I think is sometimes the best learning - learning together).

I thought I'd outline a little of what Jane will be doing her freshman year in high school.  So far, we know we are going back to year round school.  That consists of 6 weeks on, 1 week off with 2 weeks at Christmas and the month of June off. 

She is enrolled in two classes at The Pillar Foundation in Chesterfield.  These classes are free and taught by certified teachers OR professionals.  I want to start Jane slow, so we enrolled her in a class called Understanding Temperments.  It's a semester class and she is currently wait-listed (they only accept 15 students in that class) so we cross our fingers and say a prayer. For second semester, she is enrolled in a sewing class that is taught by a 24 year old, self-taught, apprenticed (she made wedding dresses!) seamstress.  Jane will be getting a sewing machine for Christmas this year!

She's also taking classes at the Catholic co-op.  The teachers here are certified teachers and some parents (they usually are teaching the non-core offerings). You pay $100 per year and buy the books and pay whatever nominal fees are associated with the class.  For instance, she's going to take biology (we were going to do this at home, but since they offer it and use the same apologia text, why not) and there are some lab fees.  She's also taking a memory skills, organizational skills, study skills and speech class.  They are each a semester long and I think they will serve her well throughout; give her a solid foundation of skills.

We are going to tackle history, literature, and algebra ourselves.  Tune in later to hear more about that!

Jane, are you worried about missing out on the "social aspect" of going to high school?

-Mom

Monday, May 14, 2012 Hi today is my first day on here, and it is better then I thought it would be.  Right now I am eating my breakfast, writing on this blog, and thinking how much I want to finish the book I`m writing.  I know this sounds like I`m a geek, but I`m not, I just like to write.  I have already written a book, but I haven`t finished drawing the pics for it yet. -Jane

Day 2, Mother's Day

May 13, 2012  Happy Mom's Day to all.  I told Jane about and showed her the blog this morning.  It was not an entirely enthusiastic response, but not negative either.  We will start tomorrow with her working on it, becoming familiar with it, and posting to it.  She just finished her paper on Red-tailed Hawks and that will be her first writing sample for high school.  She needs to finish her history time-line and her science project to complete eigth grade.  Then, we will start high school in July; yup! back to year-round homeschooling! See you tomorrow, hopefully with posts from both (or possibly all three) of us.

In the Beginning

05/12/2012  Have I really created a blog?  I am not sure I know what I'm doing but am sure I will get better at this.  I intend for this blog to be a record of homeschooling Jane, my 14 year old daughter, through high school. 

I began homeschooling in 2000.  My oldest was in 4th grade that year, followed by his brother in 2nd grade, followed by their brother in kindergarten, and Jane was 2.  We have since added another child, Ruth. 

Jane is the first to choose to homeschool high school.  Her brothers all went to a Catholic high school but she insists she wants to do this and honestly, she's braver than I am.  I want to do this; I believe this is wonderful, right and good.  But OVERWHELMING and slightly scary.

I hope with this blog to do two things.  First and foremost, I thought it would be a wonderful outlet for both Jane and I (and maybe Ruth as well).  But also, I will count at as hours toward her graduating high school; log it as computer science.  She's the creative one, so she will be tasked with dressing up this site.