History Fair

On Tuesday the girls participated in a History Fair co-op. Audra chose Clara Barton, and Claire chose Elizabeth I. Basically, their entire criteria for choosing somebody was that they be a girl.

They both did a great job! Claire was a bit nervous and didn't want to present, but she did fabulous.

This past week has been a bit of introspection for me. We have been doing a lot of co-ops (the co-op offerings this semester were simply fantastic- I had no choice, I simply had to sign up for several). It has kept us really busy, Which is awesome. But, it has left me with this constant low-level stress because it can be difficult to get our curriculum done. That low level stress has caused me to think.

We are still loving homeschooling, that isn't the problem. We definitely still want to continue with homeschooling. But I'm also realizing that I don't like having this low level of stress to make sure all of the boxes get checked off each day. I know that the kids are thriving and learning- they have both decided that Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet are some of the best plays ever written, sit and read for hours at a time, and are learning all of their math facts. Check, check, check.

But how do I balance the check marks with the co-ops, experiential learning, nature walks, and all the other wonderful things that life has to offer? Do I back off of co-ops? I don't think so- that's a major reason we homeschool: To make learning fun and participate in activities that schooled kids don't necessarily get to.

So I've been thinking. I don't have any formal plans, but I wonder: Can we take a year "off" of our current curriculum?

Don't freak out.

We actually really love our curriculum. We use a program called Sonlight, which is a literature based curriculum which combines read alouds with history. But, it requires almost 2 hours of reading a day, in addition to the 2-3 hours of other subjects that we do each day. That's a lot of reading. When you have a 2-3 hour co-op on top of that, it makes for a busy and somewhat stressful day.

What if we took a year where I let the kids decide what they want to learn, and then design all their work based on that subject? More like unit studies. If they choose space, we can read about Neil Armstrong, write stories about life on the moon, go star gazing, learn astronomy, etc. We would still do all the core subjects (and more!) in, perhaps, a more relaxed way so that we can include more of the wonderful learning opportunities that make learning fun.

I am not sure what we will do. There's so many possibilities! It's exciting and daunting all at once, and just goes to show that I still don't really have a clue. Hee hee!