Anyhow, we got some good materials at the PX yesterday, and I made my first hard and fast set of lesson plans this morning. It's going well. We're WAY ahead of the game in math. We're behind in reading, but we knew that already. She lost everything she learned in GA when we moved out here and put her in that awful public school last year, so we knew we were playing a little catch-up in that way. She'll catch up fine at home with us, but in that school, I really believe she'd have fallen through the cracks.
We've decided to go with something called Unschooling. Basically, we're not buying a canned curriculum. We're making our own, and it's tailored to Erin's interests. Her biggest interest right now is agriculture, and since it's about time for us to put in our fall garden, that's an easy thing to plan lessons around. I feel like we'll make better progress this way than if we tried to get a canned curriculum, knowing that we're so far ahead in one area while being behind in another.
The other thing that I've found is that the deeper we get into this homeschooling thing, the more we like it, but the less our friends understand. I keep getting questioned by my friends as to why I don't go bitch to the superintendent, and try to get her into a better public school, and even some people trying to tell me that unschooling is against the law in the state of Texas, when in fact, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I never knew how strong homeschooling parents really had to be in sticking to their guns about their decision to home school, especially if they, like us, choose unschooling as opposed to a canned curriculum. For the record, the State of Texas Supreme Court ruled that a home school must be operated as a private school, meaning that children must be taught using books, workbooks, and electronic media, or any combination thereof, in the areas of reading, writing, math, and good citizenship. THAT'S IT. Not "Thou shalt pay someone a million dollars for a curriculum you could have written yourself." No, for once, this is one way in which Texas is a freer state than GA. Homeschooling is far less regulated here, and frankly, for someone just getting started, that's nice. Georgia may beat Texas by a mile in gun rights, but for homeschooling parents, Texas is definitely the best.
OK, so that's Home School Girl. Now, some pics of Finger Food Boy.
No comments:
Post a Comment