Home Base For Learning: Week Three: What is Normal Education?

This year, most of my kid are in public school. I've decided I'm not a very good at being a traditional school parent. Not only do I cringe at all the over priced PTA activities, book fairs, and picture day packets, but none of my kids are getting the "traditional" education of going to school for 7 hours and then coming home, doing homework, maybe a sport, and then repeating every day.

My kindergartener is the only one in her grade doing half day, but I value giving young children ample time for imaginative free play and creativity building.

The high school also doesn't like the idea of a 9th grader leaving campus during the day, but with an online course in PE and no scheduled A3 class, she comes home during the day and we exercise together.

Then there is my 6th grader who went back to public school this year but didn't want to give up piano. His piano teacher only teachers during the school hours, so we pull him out early once a week so he can continue to develop a talent he loves.

Even around public school parameters, we are working on giving them an individual education that works for them.

Ironically, a lot of our current homeschooling subjects look like public school, because I believe knowing basic math and grammar are important life skills. But I also love curating an education that naturally leans into a child's interest. For example, for K, we use a lot of Legos in both math and writing.

Here's an overview of this week's work:

Math: Multiplication of 2's.

LA: Nouns, plural nouns, proper nouns. Penmanship and beginning cursive.