Some Explaining to do

*** I have written this post very long ago, but never clicked the publish button, don't know why!


Firstly, most of my friends and family knows why we have been so quiet lately. No pictures, no projects, no blogging. Well, the short explanation is that I had some health problems, but because we have been AWOL for so long, let me give you some detail... In the beginning of March my appendix decided it wanted out! So we ruched to hospital on a Sunny Thursday morning and by ten that evening, it was all over and done with and I only had to take a couple of days to heal. However I have found that the healing didn't go as quickly as I wanted and a week later I was feeling very poorly, but decided to wait for the 14 day appointment to see the doctor. Well, this time it was a sunny Thursday afternoon as well. When the doctor was finished listening to my symptoms, he said that we should do a CT scan of the lungs immediately. He tried to downplay it, but somehow I knew this was serious. It turned out that I had Pulmonary Embolisms - which is a big word for blood clots through both my lungs! The following day I also found out that I had a DVT - blood clot in my leg. So, I stayed in hospital for a week, drinking Warfarin and injecting in order to thin my blood. I read up about my condition and found that I was indeed very "lucky" to still be alive - it could just as well have been fatal. It scared me and still do....
Two weeks later I went to see the doctor on a - you guessed it! - sunny Thursday afternoon. It was my third doctors visit, on a Thursday, wearing my green top and before I knew it, I was back in hospital for my third CT scan. This time for the headaches/migraines I was getting (supposedly) from my medication. But first we had to rule out anything sinister. Luckily that Friday night I was released from hospital.

So, all of March and half of April no schooling happened. I was concerned about it, even worried that my kids are "not learning anything". My husband assured me that they were always learning through reading and playing. Also, that school was not the most important thing at the moment, but their mother's health. However, being a Mother and it being our first home school year, I did not stop worrying about my children especially being pummeled with questions and accusations every time someone (nursing staff at first) asked me in which school was my children. I also experienced first hand the misinformation (if any) people have regarding homeschooling and the preconceived ideas about me as a homeschooling mom.

Homeschoolers around the world will nod their heads when they hear me rehashing these questions. The favourite of course is the socialization question.  Now, in all honesty, this year has not gone as planned and that includes making time for social events and visiting friends.  To the point that both my kids have not had their Birthday parties and they had their birthdays in the beginning of March and April!!
However. The homeschooling community here is VERY busy, and you have to pick and choose your outings very carefully, or you won't get any other schooling done. There is definitely no shortage of socializing opportunities. My kids also each have their best friend, whom they visit often and a few other friends whom we visit too.
Then again, they have no problems playing with kids at the kid-friendly Restaurant, or friends birthday parties. They do not seem odd or out of place.

How do you TEACH them. People think you are standing in front of your "classroom" giving a lesson. They do not see that one can teach your child while sitting next to him in any room in the house. But how do you teach BOTH kids of different ages at the same time? Well if it is history or biology we use the one schoolhouse approach, where the same lesson is presented to both age-groups and they give account of what they have learned through different ways depending on their ages.
When it is Languages of Maths, one gets put to work while the other is busy doing something else and visa versa.

Now, my favourite. You probably have the most patience ever! NO, I don't. You probably never shout at your children. YES, I do - I'm only human.
It doesn't happen every day, but at times things get too much for either one of us. Sometimes we are both in tears.

Well, do you see it as a job? Don't you miss having free time? Don't you want to pursue something else in your life, that you really want to do?

Yes, this is my job. It is something we contemplated doing when my oldest were just a baby. Sometimes I see it as a calling, but most of the time, for us, it is what was needed to be done when we had to change the situation we were in.  It is difficult and it is a joy, to name just two of a myriad of things homeschooling is.
Of course I have other interest, but for now, they will stay a hobby, because homeschooling my kids won't last forever and it is the most important job (next to being their Mom) that I have ever had the privilege to do. 

Nine month training coming to an end

When I started off with Home schooling in the beginning of the year, I was feeling very overwhelmed. Phoning my curriculum provider with a lot of questions and getting answers to them, I also got a very good piece of advice, that, might I admit, didn't remember most times. The advice was this: Go to your calendar and circle the date nine months from now. Mark it as Day ONE. - that is how long it takes to find your feet.
I'm six weeks away from that date. I should have remembered those words more often and stressed less,  relaxed more and have more fun.
However, we have settled into a routine. Some days are harder than others, while there are days we just breeze through. The kids are less reluctant and with a few changes we made to our Study, it is easier to  communicate better and work gets done faster. (Can you imagine that changing around furniture can accomplish that?!)

I was staring at that date, and I was thinking.... What if? What if we just have a "vacation" for the rest of the year? (My kids already think that we have been on holiday since the beginning of the year. Well, my 7 year old is convinced of it (and she is my most eager student)!)  What if I do not use the lesson plans from the curriculum and just read whatever the kids choose from the books we got from the curriculum providers. My children love those books, but could we not make it even more informal than we do now? What if we did not write a report on everything? What if we don't learn about "voornaamwoorde", prepositions, verbs, etc, for the next couple of months and just read, read, read as much as we can? What if Maths didn't come from a textbook?  What if we spend hours and hours drawing, doing crafts, painting?
Just until DAY ONE - 5 November 2012?

Then my son came to me this morning, telling me a story of his schooldays where he got bullied once again. (Sometimes he gives me some insight into those days, but I suspect we will never know how bad it was.)  My heart cringed. It dawned on me that he never talks about Spelling, Mathematics or any of the subjects he learned. Although he struggled through his schooldays because he couldn't manage the pace and that was the number one reason we decided to Homeschool. The bullying came a very close second.
I wondered what he would remember of his time being Home schooled? He will certainly remember facts and such, but will he remember it as fun and interesting, or dull and boring?

So, what if we threw caution to the wind for a short while? Will it undo all the 'training' that we have done up until now?


***After writing this blog, my kids reported to me that they DO like to be homeschooled!! My son said it is MUCH better than school. "There is no bullying!" "Schoolwork is also a lot better!" "The books are a lot better" - My son was interviewed (more like interrogated) by my daughter***