The End of Another Homeschooling
Year"Life is either a daring adventure,
or nothing." ~Helen Keller
Well, here we are at the end of another
homeschooling year. Tomorrow is the last day of
classes at the resource center, and we are having
our "Yearend Party" on Tuesday. Elias just
finished his final project for Applied Technology,
the girls have handed in all of their final
homework, and we are looking forward to some
relaxed days of summer.
At least, until the novelty wears off in a week or
so. One thing about being a homeschooling family
is that we never stop learning. It’s too much fun.
And, besides, what else is there to do anyway?
We’ve already lined up our summer projects. As
a public school student, summer school was always
my favorite part of the schooling year—that’s when
I got to take all the fun subjects. Like
Printing—where I learned to set type and print a
book. Or Photo Developing—where I learned to
develop and print my own pictures. Or Drafting,
Woodworking, and French Cooking. All classes that
I enjoyed.
Maybe that’s what I’m up to with
homeschooling—arranging things so that all the
learning year is just like the summer school I
remember as a child—fun and interesting.
This summer, we are going to learn to make
glass beads. I’ve already ordered the supplies and
they are on their way. We’re taking classes at the
Sequim Gemology Club, where we will also be
learning to make wire wrapped jewelry.
The book about making our own Native American
Wooden Flutes should be on its way, as well as the
two books about weaving with a Tri-Loom that we
will build ourselves. The girls are looking
forward to wearing the shawls they will be
learning to weave.
A busy summer, to be sure. But if we don’t get
it all done this summer, we’ll just keep working
on the projects into the next school year. Ah, the
beautiful flexibility of homeschooling.
I thought some of you might be interested in
some of the many homeschooling magazines that are
available. A lot of them also have Websites, which
makes them really easy to check out. Homeschool
magazines offer great articles about every aspect
of homeschooling and can really inspire you when
the well is running dry. The magazines are all
very different, so you might want to try a sample
issue or two before you subscribe, to make sure
you’re finding the magazine that is just right for
you and your family.
Here are some to get you started:
Homeschooling Today Magazine
http://www.homeschooltoday.com/
Classical Homeschooling Magazine
http://www.classicalhomeschooling.com/
The Teaching Home Magazine
http://www.teachinghome.com/
Something else that is invaluable to
homeschoolers—oldtimers as well as newbies—is a
good support network on-line. This is a group of
people who quickly become friends and who
understand the kinds of problems you are dealing
with while homeschooling—because they are
homeschoolers themselves. One of the great things
about the Internet is its ability to connect
like-minded people, no matter what topic you are
interested in. There are also many lists (groups
of people who email back and forth) about
homeschooling—Yahoogroups.com has several, and
here is a link for another:
Homeschooling Friends Web site
http://www.homeschoolingfriends.org/
Remember to try to locate a support group (a
real people one) in your area too. You may have to
try a couple before you find one that works just
right, but it’s well worth the search. When I
first started looking for a support group, the one
I joined had families with younger kids—it didn’t
work for my older pre-adolescent children. I kept
on looking, and eventually found a group with
older kids.
Some of our discussions this week have been
about next year. What do we want to study? What do
we want to do?
Elias will continue with Applied Technology
class. They will be building a real
honest-to-goodness fuel cell car, full size. He’s
ready to learn about cars, so we found a gasoline
engine model he will be building, and then we’ll
start looking for a useable small car for the fuel
cell project. It sounds very exciting.
Mallory has decided to go ahead and get one of
her manuscripts ready to submit for publishing,
and we just might print and bind a small book of
her poetry. (Bookbinding is another of our family
interests.)
Courtney is looking forward to the Astronomy
class, and Wren is already planning his projects
for his robotics and woodworking classes.
Another wonderful homeschooling year is just
ahead and we can’t wait.
Happy planning!
Resources:
Homeschooling Today Magazine
http://www.homeschooltoday.com/
Classical Homeschooling Magazine
http://www.classicalhomeschooling.com/
The Teaching Home Magazine
http://www.teachinghome.com/
Homeschooling Friends Web site
http://www.homeschoolingfriends.org/
