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***