Wouldn't it be fun to have a homeschool tour and admire each other's set-up in person? I have a bell, too, Geeky. I use mine to call the students in from chores or the shop for class, and often the dogs start yodelling along at the same time. It's quite a cacophony, and the kids can either hear the bell or the dogs from a long ways away!
Prairie, You brought back a fond memory of Matthew's first dog. Jimbo was a snoopy lookalike from the pound and was so devoted to us all. When the twins were small and I would call, them he would howl every time I called Maggie. He didn't do it for Matthew or Katie. And Matthew couldn't whistle so the dog would come when Matthew would yell fwerp fwerp! That dog would have loved homeschooling. He hated for the kids to go anywhere.
Newbie Update As mentioned previously, I started out HS'ing after the kids got out of their school at the end of the year. I thought I would update everyone since it's been a month now. (long time, hahaha). I orginally dropped Friday's off the school calendar to give everyone a break and to enjoy the freedom of hs'ing. A couple of weeks ago I decided to drop Monday's too during the summer. I felt the kids were missing out a lil bit on summer break. (ok, me too). I don't know if I will continue to hs as regularily as I am doing now during the summer but thought this was an excellent time for me to both get started and to have the kids get acclaimated to see where I needed to go with it. Today while having art with them I looked at their Agenda and realized since I wasn't using the website I had used as a writing springboard anymore; I had gotten away from the "writing" part of my curriculum. I decided to drop one subject for the summer and replace it with more reading, writing and some speaking. As I am a firm believer in good spoken communications, and my kids do not master this skill to my satisfaction for their ages. I let each choose which subject to keep beween History and Science, my daughter picked Science and my son picked history. I feel this approach better allows them to own their education, rather than me making all the school decisions for them. Today I spent hours it seems on the internet looking for exactly what I had in mind to fill in these holes I'm feeling are there. I'm also looking for a good AESOP site with printables, but with blanks for them to analize the parables in writing. I feel the beauty and power in hs'ing is in being able and excited about their education and seeing them reach set goals. Actually, I find it hard to turn teacher mode off, as I am constantly thinking about how they are doing, what I need to do, etc. :angel: P.S. Bethany came to me yesterday and asked if they could have recess. I paused, thought about it and said "sure." I put it on their Weekly Agenda page after lunch, reprinted it and it's official. I think they got a kick out of being able to call some shots.
I know how it is doing hs through the summer. Taking a day off here and there is a good idea. It sounds like all is going well for you too I have several links for aesop's fables if you interested pm. I know here it's hard to turn off the teacher mode. I find myself asking them stuff when were at the park or something. It was a great idea you had about letting them choose their own subject Have fun!
GM - I have to say if you are a parent you should be in "teachermode" all the time! Whether a homeschooler or not! Even when you're relaxing with your kids, those are the best teachable moments of all! My daughter and I went to a seashell museum at the beach last year (a glorified souvenier shop!). But it spawned so much conversation, discussion and learning. We just went to look at the shells and instead found out a bunch of stuff we didn't know!
