The longest half
The first quarter of 2012 is almost over.
And we’re just now getting to the point where we feel like human beings around here, after prolonged and repeated bouts of illness. So far, 2012 has been pretty much a washout.
Today the Littles and I tried to ease back into schooling. We’re wrapping up the end of a week we started months ago, interrupted by the beginning of “the plague.”
This is Week 17 of our curriculum. If we manage to complete Week 18 next week, we will reach The Halfway Point.
If the first half of the school year took us seven months, that doesn’t bode well for our end date.
Of course, the freedom to take the time off is one of the important benefits of homeschooling. As is the freedom to take as long as we’d like to finish this “year” of curriculum, thank you very much.
But, for me, I would like to finish this year at some reasonable time, enjoy swim lessons and summer fun, and be able to start fresh on a new school year after Labor Day.
Which brings us to the realm of choices. The kind that, while appearing simple, require some real thought about philosophies and priorities.
Say my goal is to get through 1.5 weeks of the scheduled schooling each week.
(A) Do I just do a little more school every day?
(B) Or do I leave some things out (more than what I might normally skip), so that we can get through more in the same amount of time?
Or is that a silly goal to begin with, and do I need to re-think my plan for starting next year in September?
It probably makes a difference to understand that my daughter is in 1st grade. We’re not really learning things daily in the “schooling” part of our day that are of drastic lasting import, nor anything that can’t easily be caught up when we see the topic again down the road.
Working my way up to that statement seems to have pretty well clarified how I actually feel about it, doesn’t it?
I guess CHOICE B (above) is probably the right choice for us.
This time.
“Worry” image from the Health Freedom Alliance, a website about which I know nothing further.
LOL My siblings and I (taking after our father) would get chronically sick come wintertime. That might be why my mother decided on year-around school.