We just kicked off our third year of homeschooling. I wonder if this will be the year I really start to blog…I hope so, because I’m starting to feel like I have something to say. Not just about homeschooling, but about the “life deliberate.” Anyway, back to homeschooling. E is in fifth grade, N is in 3rd grade, and A is 4 years old. We kept most of the same curricula that we were using last year, so we’re kind of in a groove with all of our core subjects. We are trying a different spelling curriculum this year: Soaring with Spelling. We had been using Spelling Workout, but a list of twenty words was somewhat overwhelming for E. Soaring with Spelling has fourteen words per week, so hopefully that will work a little better for him. We’re still using Singapore Math, Story of the World, Growing with Grammar, and Building Thinking Skills (from the Critical Thinking Company). In addition to all of that, E and N are continuing to take piano lessons, they are using Rosetta Stone (along with conversations with me) to learn Spanish, and we’re still doing our co-op. Our Hebrew tutor has started a master’s program this year and will not be doing private tutoring, so we have enrolled E and N in religious school at a synagogue. I am not thrilled with giving up my Sunday mornings (and driving over there on Wednesday afternoons), but it seemed like it was worth trying for a year for three reasons: it is cheaper than a tutor, they have the opportunity to socialize with other Jewish kids, and this particular religious school seems to be very highly regarded. So we’ll see how it goes.
This year has begun at a rather hectic pace, and I have already had several “I think our kids need to go to school, because I can’t keep up with this workload” kind of days. It has really been a struggle, and the sleep deprivation has been more intense and harder to cope with than when we had a newborn in the house. So I will be trying to figure out how to really and truly find balance in my life. It can be done! Right?
