It is so much fun to blog about the successes in life, be it homeschooling or your kid learning to ride a bike. What about our setbacks? Writing a blog about a failed venture is not fun. No one likes to admit when they make a mistake. It's interesting how difficult it is. I always tell my kids that the greatest lessons in life are the lessons we learn from our mistakes. While I tell them this, I also have a very difficult time with my own mistakes.
Now, this particular blog is not about a big mistake. It is more about an experiment gone wrong. It is about being excited about a venture and then realizing that maybe it was not such a great idea after all. Or, maybe it was a good idea, but just not a good time.
I have many friends who homeschool through the summer. It makes sense...especially where we live. It is so hot in the summer, who wants to go out and do anything. If you are going to be at home anyway, why not get school done. This made total sense to us. Our summers are usually a time when everything slows down to a crawl. Oh, we might go to the pool now and then or head down to the beach. We might go to the movies once in a while or go out for ice cream, but, overall, we stay at home and I get to hear the constant "I'm bored", "there's nothing to do" chants. It made sense to do summer school...to get my daughter ahead of the curve.
But, in life, there are no guarantees. Just because we have had 13 years of slow moving summers does not mean that the 14th year would also be slow. In fact, plan on it being slow and decide that you will take advantage of that and see what happens!
Here are our challenges:
So. Today I am calling summer school officially over. It sounded good. God bless those who do it. It is clearly not for us. Oh, I will try to slip some math in here and there....make sure they are reading....but it is summer, and they are only kids for such a short amount of time.
Now, this particular blog is not about a big mistake. It is more about an experiment gone wrong. It is about being excited about a venture and then realizing that maybe it was not such a great idea after all. Or, maybe it was a good idea, but just not a good time.
I have many friends who homeschool through the summer. It makes sense...especially where we live. It is so hot in the summer, who wants to go out and do anything. If you are going to be at home anyway, why not get school done. This made total sense to us. Our summers are usually a time when everything slows down to a crawl. Oh, we might go to the pool now and then or head down to the beach. We might go to the movies once in a while or go out for ice cream, but, overall, we stay at home and I get to hear the constant "I'm bored", "there's nothing to do" chants. It made sense to do summer school...to get my daughter ahead of the curve.
But, in life, there are no guarantees. Just because we have had 13 years of slow moving summers does not mean that the 14th year would also be slow. In fact, plan on it being slow and decide that you will take advantage of that and see what happens!
Here are our challenges:
- My daughter is going on a missions trip to Germany at the end of July...lots of planning involved in that...fund raising....getting things together like passport....etc.
- My kids can be the healthiest kids in the world (and so can I) until I plan to do summer school. Then, one kid gets a bacterial infection from the pool, I get a UTI, another kid has allergy issues requiring more trips to the shot clinic, same kid has a dermatological outbreak (doctor), same kid needs wisdom teeth extraction (consult visit done, surgery scheduled), and more to be inserted later, I am sure.
- Social calendar. Never a problem before....and than my poor, unsocialized homeschoolers have social calendars that rival any others. I have spent more time driving around in the past few weeks than ever before. Church events, pool, movies, bowling, beach, etc.
- The challenge that hurts the worst to admit is me. I only have one kid doing summer school....ONE KID.....and I am in summer mode. No supervision on my part. Oh, I say I need to check this work or that work...but I don't. I don't give proper instruction. I am in summer mode (and I am driving all over tarnation). My brain is on vacation. The only thing I want to think about is what is on the schedule for fun for the week.
So. Today I am calling summer school officially over. It sounded good. God bless those who do it. It is clearly not for us. Oh, I will try to slip some math in here and there....make sure they are reading....but it is summer, and they are only kids for such a short amount of time.
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