Homeschooling & other options

So I went to the Oklahoma Christian Homeschool Conference last week. They had a grant that allowed people who had never been to the conference, to go for free. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there, it was a huge deal. LOTS of long hair and long skirt families, lol, of all the places I go in life, this was one place that I stood out like a sore thumb the most. :) But that's ok, I never mind being the odd one (I'm sure this is where roman gets it....) :)

They had 5 different workshops every hour, so it was hard picking and choosing which ones to go to. Thankfully I have a friend that also went, that purchased them all on MP3's and has offered to give me copies of them all so that I can listen to all the ones I missed, and so alan can listen to them as well. Her & her husband were so concerned with what curriculum to purchase, that they didn't want to spend the conference in workshops, instead they spent the entire 2 days out on the vendor floor, sampling the dozens and dozens of curriculum vendors there so they could make a decision.

So Tuesday I went to "What is Education?", "Choosing Curriculum" & "Scheduling & Planning" workshops, which were very informative and helpful. It helps put homeschooling into perspective and to see what that could look like. One thing I find fascinating and an exciting option, is that you can plan the day around your own schedule, and the entire school year however you want. You get to choose, just like public schools do, to go on a daily or hourly count. You must have 180 days of school, or 1,080 hours. You can pick wether you want to go by hours or days. So I would do days, that makes it much simpler. So then you have your 180 days, you can now take a traditional 5 day a week for 36 weeks, broken up any which way you like. Or you can do 45 weeks of 4 days a week, or 3 months on and one month off all year, or whatever works for you!!I love that idea.

I had already learned this in my teaching classes, but studies show that during an hour at public school, only approx 25 mins is used for instruction/learning time. The rest is passing out papers, collecting papers, sharpening pencils, grading, bathrooms breaks, etc. So with homeschool, even though traditional school, may be 6 hours a day, you really don't have to teach that much with homeschool to still get the same amount of learning in.

And I LOVE the idea of planning out what they learn. I would not buy a curriculum, they are expensive and not too different from public schools textbooks and worksheets. Some are better than others, but it's the same concept. I know I can lesson plan and create the cirriculum with just supplemental stuff, like a math book and free worksheets from online. (There are MASSIVE amounts of free lesson plans and worksheets available for educators onlne, or anyone who wants to use them really). I love that I could take the kids interests and create units on them. In college we were taught that the best way for kids to learn was to create fun, interactive and exciting themed units for them, that would include all of the subjects. Like a medieval unit, or a space unit, or a greek mythology unit. I would love to do that for the boys, take things that they are interested in and teach all the subject related to that unit. And I know how to look up the Oklahoma PASS skills (what each child needs to know at each level) which is how teachers create lesson plans, with the objectives of what that grade needs to know thaat year, and I can make sure the boys are on track for their grade level, and possibly beyond, because I am sure they are capapble of doing that. I love that we could have hands on projects, building and problem solving and creating. I love that every day we could have a bible lesson, and I could make sure they know God's word and have the time to really dig in and study it at their own level. I love that we could do character development, and values, and community projects that would teach them how to be productive citizen and a good person. I love that I could spend all this time investing into my children and their lives and that they could actually learn much more than they are in public school. It excites me.

so Wed. I went to the "Who's walking the wall? How to prepare Godly children for an ungodly world." and "Raise them up, don't crush them down." which were amazing and wonderful parenting workshops that just made me feel even more empowered and supported to be a good parent and do what's right for my children. They really had nothing to do with homeschooling, it was all just about how to prepare your kids for the world, and how to nurture them.

There were a ton more great workshops, I am looking forward to getting the others from my friend and listening to them.

I know homeschool wouldn't be easy, or free of problems. But I really think it is the best choise available at the moment. The boys are both struggling right now in school, not because they aren't smart, but because they are bored and just don't care. i want to challenge them, and make them care about what they are learning. I want to see them thrive. I want to spend more time with them and help make sure they know how to make good choices. I want to raise my children in the way I see fit, not let the public schools raise them, or the world raise them. I really want to do it.

But just in case we decide it's not going to work, Starla has been enrolled into pre-k at Traub, just to make sure she has a spot since it is first come first serve. Our options for next year are; she can go to traub with roman, either from 9a-11:45pm, or from 1p-3:45p and I can get a tutoring job those 2 1/2 hours a day. Or she can go to smallworld again and stay there for 3 days a week and I can keep working there, or we can homeschool and I won't work. Alan & I haven't worked through it all yet ad decided what we are going to do, but hopefully we will figure it out soon.