But right now, I'm about to have a freshman and a junior in high school and a third grader. Now, the junior works hard. He procrastinates like crazy, but he does the work eventually and does a good job with it. The third grader kind of slacks off some, but apparently not to the same point her brothers did in Montessori.
But the point of this post was to talk about my beautiful soon-to-be-freshman. That's the homeschool boy. The subject of a post from November, "Some of the worst weeks of my life: a school story."
It's been a wild time. There are so many interesting personalities in homeschool, from the ultra-religious, to the ultra-hippie, to the free-thinking people. And, as a friend said recently about yet more tension in our homeschool group: Homeschool moms have strong personalities. What a nice way to say that! But yes, myriad reasons to homeschool: from religion to lack of religion, from allergies to disabilities to busy schedules, from not-fitting-in to not-wanting-to-fit-in-with-the-wrong-people.
Right now, my son's math, science, and art classes he took outside the home have ended (very successfully, I must say), so all we had left is history (finished the textbook last week) and English (spelling and root words to last a lifetime). So the last few days, we've been mostly goofing off. He can read all day, just not play on his iPod or on the computer. (Though today he apparently has been. I was out at the local history museum, seeing the vintage quilts with another homeschool mom whose son was going to take a nap at around noon. The two boys are supposed to get together later and finish the solar car they started the other day.)
And so it's ending not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Three and a half years, y'all. Time and money. Curriculum and classes were mostly paid for by the state through the homeschool charter, but I still spent a lot. I didn't have a job during most of it other than writing. I couldn't keep up with the proofreading work I was doing from home, when this adventure started. I should have found an evening and weekend job, but that was the time I had to spend with the other kids and my husband.
It was also my writing time. So I could have been earning money, but the plan was to write and try to get the first books out there and make those earn money. And it was selfish, because I need quiet, alone time.
I have learned a lot about myself, my kid, and his curriculum. It had been a long time since history and science. And we read some things I had read a long time ago and hadn't appreciated. I mean, Canterbury Tales is a comedy! Who knew? I relearned all of Algebra this year, which is less exciting.
We confirmed he's dyslexic this year, though I've been working under that assumption since we started. One person said he's also ADD, but not far on the spectrum. Turns out dyslexia isn't only seeing letters and not being able to understand them. There is a host of other things frequently linked to dyslexia, several of which my son does. He needs to practice more with the speech-to-text program and needs to keep reading.
In August, he will be going to a regular public high school. I'm not ready, but I hope he is. Fingers crossed.
But every so often, my daughter makes noises about wanting to be homeschooled.
Coming soon: COVER REVEAL for The Chevalier. And I'm thinking that will be on the same day as my NEW AUTHOR WEBSITE launches (Don't bother looking at the old one: it's crap).
And I've got those two fabulous 17th century French romance novels out.
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| Indispensable Wife |
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| Honorable Officer |
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