Our journey to homeschooling Part 2...

So yesterday I talked about what led us to homeschooling. The journey didn't stop there.

I sat down to plan this all out. Once again, the planning thing is what always gets me into trouble. I had ordered the LifePac curriculum from Alpha Omega Publications. What I liked about it is everything you need is right there in the workbooks. There are 10 workbooks for each subject that you work through at your own pace and then test over at the end of each workbook. It is a student-led, Christian curriculum. It gave a few extra activities you could do for each subject and workbook... so I planned those, extra spelling and vocab activities, extra worksheets on various things, current events and book reports. I wanted her to not miss one thing! I decided my grading scale, class syllabus and goals for the year. I had the whole year planned out... in pencil... but still planned out. I was ready.

Well, the first day came. I had a "Welcome to Meyer Academy" session with Morgan. I went over all the plans I had made.

She looked at me with a blank stare.

And asked how on earth we would ever do all this work. If she had school 24 hours a day she didn't think she could do all this. Okay, so I'll chill a bit and not have you do the extra activities. And maybe not 5 book reports but 3. Ummm... yeah, that should work, I thought.

And then we really dug into the work. And after a few weeks we found that the LifePacs, as they were intended, were not the best thing for us. I never considered the way that Morgan learns best. And a lot of the material she already knew... so there was no reason to do 50 math problems for something like that. But I told her we had to do them... because that was our curriculum!!

She looked at me with a blank stare.

And finally I realized that I was her teacher, I was the principal and I was the superintendent of our school. What does that mean?? It means that I have the freedom to decide what is best for her to learn, how she learns it and how she is tested over it. So being the over-achiever, organized person that I am... I had to fly by the seat of my pants and figure out what was best for her. Even if it made me uncomfortable. And what happened?? It clicked. We found the freedom to explore different books, websites, tv shows and the world around us. What a concept!! Individualizing a child's learning experience to fit them!

So here we are half way into the school year and we are making it. We are still using the Lifepacs for every subject but History. For those subjects we use the LifePac as a guide, but we don't follow it to a "T" by any means. And we are making History a bit more interactive rather than just reading out of a book. She has sailed through some of the subjects and is already working on some Freshman work. Morgan is a auditory learner and a lot of what we do now is not on paper... until she takes a test over it. And a grading scale??? That was the most ridiculous. Morgan has straight A's... but because we go over it until she gets an A!!! Again... what a concept!

2010 was a great, big 'ol learning experience for all of us. Especially me. Patience, prayer and the faith that you can do it. I found the courage to do what my kid desperately needed. I still totally support public school. There are great teachers out there who gave me a smart pupil to start with. But it is not the only option. I want to share that with other parents. You have options!! You can do it!! There are tons of resources out there!! And other parents who were once in your shoes.

Is it hard? Yes. But is it worth it?? Oh, yes, it most certainly is.

Happy learning...