Summer for us is officially over. We tried to make summer break as "normal" as possible. Owsley and I took multiple trips to Six Flags, the kids spent the night with their aunt and uncle a handful of times and went rock climbing and to the movies. We went to the library tons. They went to Dave and Busters twice. Gage had a real birthday party this year, and Owsley went swimming once or twice. My mom took the kids out to lunch on Thursdays when I was at the food bank, and Fridays are Sonic mornings with my dad. It wasn't exactly the summers of the past, but we tried to make it the least depressing as possible. At least we have a bit of a routine. That definitely breaks things up and helps the days seem less endless. And I do understand just how lucky we are in comparison to others. I know many people didn't have the privilege to do anything over their summer break.
We are starting our school year tomorrow. A ninth grader and a fifth grader. Every year I'm a little more confident in my ability, but a little more overwhelmed at the things kids learn at an earlier rate. Every year it seems like they are rushing kids to grow up as fast as they can. In the fourth grade I was listening the basic multiplication rap songs. Last year in the fourth grade, Owsley was learning long division. Let them be kids!
I'm still teaching Owsley 100% of his work. He does much better with me explaining his lessons one on one, and then he retreats into his room to do his assignments. Gage, on the other hand, hates the thought of anyone looking over his shoulders. Up until this year we had mixed his curriculum with books and outsourcing subjects like math and typing. But this year we are trying something new with him and he's doing everything online. Gage has a bit of a defiance towards authority, so I'm hoping this will help him be more disciplined with his assignments, because he won't be answering directly to me. We also incorporate daily reading and writing and spelling tests every week, as well as time spent outside getting some exercise. It's mostly just me and Owsley walking for an hour, but we also sometimes dance up and down the driveway, so that counts as some cardio. And on nasty rainy days when no one is feeling it, we will watch a nature documentary. (Hey, they do that in 'real' school too!)
The way we have homeschooled the past four years is that we begin school at 9 and work until about 11 and take a break until 1. Then they work until about 3 pm. Our umbrella school requires at least three hours of school a day, at least 135 days a year. I don't keep up with the days, but I know we do more than 135 per year. Community service hours also count towards school hours, but the kids haven't gone back to the food bank with me since the plague began. I'm going to try and see about Owsley coming back though, because all the volunteers have been asking about him. As the youngest volunteer, my kids kind of became the surrogate grandchildren at the food bank.
My only concern this school year is our internet. It is absolutely terrible, and Peppy has to have it for work. The kids and I actually try to limit our internet usage during Peppy's working hours. We are supposed to be getting fiber around here before Christmas (please, please, please.) Our other option is to just go to my parent's house every day and let Gage do his work there. We'll just have to give it a trial run and see how often Peppy gets kicked off when Gage is doing work. I think I can also download Gage's lessons in advance and he can at least do the assignments offline, even if he will need the internet to listen to the instructors.
My friend Sara has asked me to talk about our homeschool setup, and to be perfectly honest with you, it was much more interesting when we were still living in the RV, especially when the pandemic first hit and Peppy had to share our only table space. He often ended up working on the deck under the awning. We would regularly have to take turns at the table in shifts, because Gage requires absolute silence and Owsley likes to hum while he works. There were quite a few daily arguments that left me questioning God if this was really what I was supposed to be doing.
But now, with an actual house (that this time last year we didn't even know if we would even get,) we are able to scatter out with school work. Peppy has his own office, Gage sits at the bar, and Owsley and I take over the dining room table. It is a remarkably much more pleasant experience than trying to share one table in the RV. Not that I'm complaining about the RV, because it allowed us all to visit places we'd only ever seen in books or on tv. And that has also come in handy with homeschool. It makes these places really jump off the pages to my kids, because it's not just words and dates, it's actually places they have seen in person.
Like I said, I feel very fortunate.
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