I'm in trouble with my girls!

    Uh-oh.  I'm in trouble with my girls!  They reminded me this week that I haven't been sharing about my family with you lately.  Instead, it's been quite a few fiction book reviews, an occasional giveaway, and once in a while, a curriculum review.  Not so bad...but not very personal, either.  Oops!

    We've been educating our girls at home for over 10 years now.  Wow - over a decade.  Seems impossible!  Over the years, while we've encouraged the girls to pursue their interests, we've also tried to minimize the amount of activities in which they participate.  We've never wanted to be driving children around every day of the week to various activities, events, and lessons.

    Because it not only sucks the life outta you, all that gasoline is expensive!

    Well, this year is unique.  We have something going on almost every day of the week this year.  I'm so not used to this - and this is why I haven't taken the time to share as much with you about my family life.  Here's what's been going on since school began almost 8 weeks ago:

Brittany ~ our new 7th grader!

Do we really have to start our school torture treatments again? Nooooo.....

Kelsi ~ our new 9th grader!

    We began our school year in accordance with the local public school schedule, the day after Labor Day.  Why?  We don't HAVE to.  We aren't REQUIRED to.  We can choose to structure our school year however we see fit. 

    But since we live 12 feet from the public school property next door to us, and they can actually see us walking around in our living room through our big windows, we just follow their basic schedule.  It's easier that way.  I don't get teachers calling social services because my kids aren't "in class".

    The girls like it this way because they don't have to take out the trash until after 2:15 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.  Or do any outdoor chore until after the public school has released for the day.  Ha!

A new plan this year:

    When we first began homeschooling - oh, so long ago - we worked on every subject together.  As the girls became successful readers and writers, and have learned their basic math facts, I have released one subject or portion of a subject to them each school year for them to work on their own, mostly without me.  Our goal for the girls has been to teach them how to work independently and how to structure their time well. 

    But I still feel strongly that one of the #1 blessings of being able to homeschool is that we have the unique privilege to nurture and maintain a very strong relationship with our children, even if they are pre-teens and teens.  Think about it:  I'm able to spend 92+ waking hours each week with my girls.  If they were away at school each day, the number of our hours together would be closer to 55 hours each week, and about 10-14 hours of that would be spent watching them (or helping them) do their homework. 

    I don't write this to make anyone guilty.  Educating a child at home is a huge commitment, and the desire to home educate really needs to come from the Lord and a united parental decision if it's going to work well.  But when I realize that I would spend 40% less hours each week with my children if they went to school next door or were dropped off at the high school each day, my time with them would be much more limited.  And over 13 years of schooling, well, that's a lot of hours lost when I could have been building relationship with my girls!

    I find that to be very humbling.  I am so blessed to be married to Elmer, who gives up his desires for a bigger house, a boat, vacations away, and a lot more, just so I can stay home with our girls and educate them as the Lord has shown us to do.


    In the midst of all those blessings, we still need to have a plan for our school days.

    This year, we are still doing history lessons, geography, and writing together, most of the time.  Our geography and writing curriculum require teacher involvement.  The girls could do their own history readings, etc., but since I love history, we choose to do these lessons together.

    This year, because Kelsi started high school (!), I decided it was about time to get down to business and lay out structured lesson plans for her every week. 

    Just so you don't go thinking that she hasn't done any schoolwork for the last 9 years, she has.  In fact, amazingly, without me doing much in the way of lesson planning, she has accomplished a lot!  But since every homeschooler (and those who don't homeschool) just KNOWS that high school has to really count, we decided we'd better do some structured lesson planning - just to make it seem more official.

    Here's Kelsi's weekly planner.  You'll notice that it doesn't tell her what time of the day to complete her schoolwork.  Here's why:  how many jobs and careers tell you what you need to do every 30 minutes of the day?  Yes, there are a few: doctors, teachers, and teachers. 

:)

    But for most people, they keep in mind a list of tasks and duties that need to be accomplished, and they prioritize them in their heads and work on them throughout the day until they are finished.  If I tell my daughters what to do every 30 minutes of the school day, they'll have a harder time learning how to prioritize and schedule things for themselves.  And this will be important to know how to do when they arrive at college or at a new job.  So...their weekly planners identify what needs to be accomplished by Sunday evening each week. 

    Their goal is to complete each day's task on the appropriate day, but sometimes things happen to make that more difficult.  When something slows them down, they know that it all must be finished by Sunday evening when I start a new week's lesson plans.

    Occasionally, some days are lighter than other days.  For example, on this particular schedule, the load was a bit lighter on Monday because we drove out of town after lunch to visit with friends and to attend a Newsboys concert with them.  The girls still accomplished their required work for the week, but I chose to spread it out over various days so it would be easier to finish.  Thursdays are a bit lighter with their workload because Kelsi is involved in Homeschool Spanish and Youth Orchestra rehearsals.  And, once a month, we also have Homeschool Skating on a Thursday...the Thursday shown on this schedule.  You can clearly see that some days aren't as full as others - and this is intentional.  Yet the girls are still getting all of their work done each week.  Yeah!

We're busier this year!

    I mentioned that we are just busier this year than we have been in the past.  It's true.  Kelsi, our 9th grader, has been playing the violin for around 7 years now.  She continues with weekly private lessons and participating in our county youth orchestra.  This month, she added rehearsals for the local chamber orchestra to her schedule.  While it is quite an honor to be asked to participate in the youth orchestra while still in high school, it keeps her busier.  Her practice times are longer now each day, and she's away from home for more rehearsals and concerts.  She loves it, though!  She is so inspired by music!

    Kelsi also has two students that meet with her weekly for violin lessons.  Teaching music lessons is such a nice, easy way to earn some spending money.  In Kelsi's case, she puts almost all of it into her bank account after she sets aside some for a tithe.  She is such a little saver!

    Both girls are in a free worship dance class just a few blocks from our home - actually on the same street as our home.  This lasts for one hour, once a week.  About every 6-8 weeks or so, they'll share the gift of worship dance during a worship service at that church in both Sunday services.  I love the fact that they are able to dance in a modest yet expressive manner and that it is also a gift of community service to this church.

    Brittany has piano lessons once a week with a retired music teacher.  We've been friends with him and his wife for many years now.  Brittany's only in her third year of piano, but is learning so quickly!  No, she's not a child prodigy, but she is an excellent sight reader and often pushes herself to learn difficult music just for fun!  We have to tune our piano more often these days because she plays almost every day of the week.

    Mid-week, the girls and Elmer take off to church to help with our church's children's ministry program, Awana.  My husband is in charge of this ministry.  Both girls lead the opening singing from 6:00 - 6:30, and then Brittany helps with various groups of children for another half hour and then joins up with her youth group.  Kelsi has been attending youth group but may transition to helping Dad with Awana as his fill-in helper, to help out wherever help is needed.

    Kelsi is also in a new Spanish class for homeschooled high schoolers that I organized this school year.  She's enjoying hanging out with around 10-12 other homeschooled high schoolers and learning Spanish together.  While this does take us away from home for a couple of hours each week, it's been worth it to learn Spanish from a native speaker who is a former homeschoolin' mama, herself!

    The girls will also start participating in our local Christian Youth In Action teen group in a couple of weeks.  They generally help out once a month with a ministry or service project in order to raise funds for them to attend CYIA camp, where they learn how to effectively share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with children!  The skills learned at CYIA help develop public speaking, volunteerism, leading songs, being a more effective storyteller, and more.  This is such a worthwhile ministry!

    Kelsi is also praying about joining our county's youth court program.  She would volunteer several hours each week as a member of the youth court program, as an actual juror, or lawyer, or other positions in a courtroom, as teens are sentenced for actual crimes that they have committed.  Since Kelsi {hearts} law and politics, this would be a good fit for her.

    And then, of course, I plan homeschool teen activities for our local youth so they can have a fun social life during their junior high and high school years, too! 

    It keeps us busy, but we feel these are the activities in which we should be involved. 

    Next year?  Who knows what it will look like.  But for this school year, we are staying involved in more opportunities than we have in the past.  And while as a family, we're generally busier, I'm generally less busy in a few ways, which I hope to talk about in the future. 

    If you've actually taken the time to read through what our school year looks like so far and what our girls are doing, please take a minute to comment below and let me know how you feel about children being involved in too many - or too few - after-school activities.  How does your family decide what each child will do or not do during the school year?

Julieanne
Joy In Our Journey.com

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