Jane

Thank goodness I have a home school mom pal. If it wern't for Jane I would lose my mind. I received a link from her that helped me cope with bad home schooling days. Click here. I didn't realize or had never stopped to consider that kids in school really only spend about 1.5 hours on on-task instruction and receive about 10 minutes of one-on-one from the teacher. And as the post said, "and for this they spend 6-7 hours a day in school." Phfew! I feel better.

That said, I doesn't totally diminsh my feelings of guilt when I throw a science video on or let them play a computer game. I guess when I've been at this longer I'll feel better. I just hate February and the gloomy, gray weather it brings and can barely get myself motivated much less prepare something fun and meaningful for my guys to engage in. But the resources out there are amazing and having a serious right-brained learner in the house, I need all the help I can get.

I'm also on a local list of home schoolers which I mostly lurk, but the resources and insight are also invaluable. I hope all home schooling parents have a "Jane" because even with the easiest of kids, it's not always easy.

So all the students in the Open Highway school are on the road in Texas this week. We are studying Texas, duh. This will include a trip to the Alamo; where I have it on good authority, there is NO basement; the hill country, a lake or two, lots of Tex/Mex and family.

Most of the family requirement has been fulfilled with 24 hours in Big D to see grandma, aunt/uncle and baby cousin. The 2 students dearly love baby cousin(t) and miss him greatly. We'll post the requisit photo soon.

The bonus famlily came in the form of an older cousin's wedding where 5 first cousins we're all in the same room for the first time in I'm sure 25 + years. It was a brief, but special occasion and the remaing 2 cousins, who live out of town were missed and will be included in the impending "family reunion" that the oldest cousin suggested. Also present were, of course, my parents, long divorced, but amicable as ever. I have to say, while there was drama, as there usually is with families...it was drama that I'm glad I didn't miss.

So, onward down the highway to the next cowboy adventure. If I can get the boys out of the pool, unheated as it is February, we'll do some learnin' somewhere here in Texas.

First Day of Homeschool or was it unschool?

So it went with the first day of schooling at home, 2 boys, 5 and 7 years old and me. Not so bad. We jumped into a loosely constructed language arts activity and before I knew it, an hour had past. And they said he couldn't stay on task for more than 10 minutes...

I know I won't always be "successful" but the small amount of stress reduction that I can already see in my son will hopefully serve as a reminder of why we embarked upon this journey.