Looking back!

We started Grade 1 with a whole plan and with everything necessary to follow The Well-Trained Mind which is a Classical/Trivium (Literature Based) style of homeschooling. There were aspects of it that worked and some aspects that didn't work, AT ALL. First, I have to say that one of the main reasons I homeschool is to keep the enthusiasm of learning that kids naturally have. I wanted my kids to be life long learners.

So, I sat down just about everyday (still flexible, or so I thought) and worked through some of our subjects, but very quickly I started to notice a change in Austyn. He started to say things like, "I feel like I have to sit here". He would get distracted easily because he lost interest in what we were learning even when he seemed one minute to be excited about what we were doing. I decided that it just wasn't working for us. I didn't want to feel like I was fighting him. In fact I actually felt like I was interfering in his learning or insulting his intelligence. To some that might seem strange, but that is how I felt. I could see that he really wasn't getting anything out of it if he wanted to be building a road on the floor or assembling a robot with his Lego. I wanted to see him excited about what he was doing and knew from all of my years of homeschool research that his lack of enthusiasm was a warning sign that something wasn't working. I just needed to step back and see what it was. That is exactly what I did.

I stopped our lessons and only did things if he seemed interested. I focused on what was more important but only did that when he wanted to and if he lost interest I cut the lesson short. When something wasn't working I tried another angle or did my best to find opportunities in life to learn instead. I read, read, read and talked to people. I have one friend who is an unschooler and she said that he seems to be that kind of kid. Each child is different, each homeschool is different and every parent is different and every situation is different. So, I sat back, watched and waited for opportunities and documented how much he was learning all on his own and just helping him facilitate what he was interested in. The first few days of documenting I got writers cramps. Literally!  I couldn't believe how much he did that was educational.

I felt like we didn't accomplish much at first when I thought about the books I ordered for him for the year but when I sat down and started to type out what we had accomplished I was impressed. We kept up well in Math and Science. History was a bit slower, but we really learned a great deal about Ancient Egypt. We are more into History now and he is enjoying parts of it. What he seems not interested in I just leave and more on to the next story. Or I just read it at bedtime, which he really enjoys.

We read many books that covered a whole list of subjects. We love to read together. Speaking of reading, he is reading but not much. He hasn't picked up books to read on his own for example and I am not pushing him. He will do it when he is ready. He prints well but not often. It's not his favourite thing to do, but when he is fueled by something he delves right in and can print out a whole booklet or page. I stayed far away from the handwriting lessons and went slow with reading lessons. I want him to enjoy both. I want him to feel like it was his doing to decide to learn both. Just like he enjoys learning math and science. He is slowly coming around.

When we moved away from using our curriculum I downloaded some lap books. We have finished a couple but are still working on a couple more. One is HUGE and will be something that we'll go back to every once and a while. We traveled with the lap books and did a bit of roadschooling. I think that this is a direction we still may want to go in the future. There is so much to learn while traveling around. And learning it in that way can be so much fun, not to mention memorable!

Through our homeschool groups he went to many interesting places and saw many interesting things. We joined a couple of Mini Co-Ops. We got into some online blog challenges, watched more educational DVD's (Spanish, French, Science, History), and spent a great deal of time together just learning in life.

I think we did wonderfully. I hope that by ironing things out this past year we can move forward more enthusiastically. I think that this next year will be for me to deschool myself more. As you'll read on my next post, which will be on looking ahead, I'm still ordering the next year of material from The Well-Trained Mind. This is happening because he is interested in the subjects coming up for Grade 2 and I like the material to have on hand for when he is interested anyway. It is sometimes hard to let go, but I'm getting there. I need to just trust him. He will learn and I'm here to help!