When we first became a full-time RVing family, we enrolled our boys in a traditional curriculum for an online school called “Connections Academy. They have one for nearly every state. The problem was I spent 12-14 hours a day trying to keep up with their curriculum which was not accommodated for my special needs boys. And then, one afternoon after about eight weeks. I was exhausted and spent Saturday also in school–making my husband help two boys get caught up while I focused on tutoring my oldest son. I finally told my husband, “I have a Master’s in Education and I can see that this is not working any better for our boys than it did when they were in public school. Plus, the school does not account for a parent’s education level!” We were literally being blocked from continuing assignments until our paperwork was mailed to the school to be graded by their teachers or specialists. Also, they set our schedule requiring us to log in at this time or that for therapy, group lessons, chatting with their teacher etc. It was frustrating that we chose this lifestyle and school was hindering us from getting outside and enjoying the environment. I did a thorough search of parents who homeschooled and found a blog from a mother that made a very enlightening comment; “If the traditional did not work before, why would it work now!” I found Time4Learning.com. You have to pay for it but it’s affordable and it is designed to work around your schedule and the kids’ progress. I supplement with lessons a few times a week to account for writing and teaching things like cursive and typing. We also work on more reading because if they cannot read, they cannot progress themselves in life. Though space is limited, they get a brand new book of their choice to work on reading strategies and reading and they get to buy their replacement when they have “graduated” from their previous selection. I love this alternative and though I moved my oldest back two grades to get his skills and strategies where I felt they needed to be for him to be successful, in four months he has finished Sicence, Social Studies, Language Arts, Language Extensions, and Math curriculum for one whole grade and we “graduated” him this weekend. He is now returning to his 3rd grade curriculum today and said, “I’m so excited Mom! Because I know I can do this! I’m ready!” This from a boy who I tested to be below Kindergarten level when we first started in September. I’m proud of him.
I admire That you have all found time for exercising. This is where I struggle the most. But I do find “me” time in writing late at night and that is going to have to be enough for a while. We did just buy a trike/stroller for our toddler to help with this and the weather is just clearing up enough for us to arrange to go back to storage for our bikes!
You are truly all inspiring to us.ReplyCancel