Update on Mackenzie

She is doing great! She is just finishing up her 2nd week back to public school and I have to admit, she is really loving it. Her teacher, Mrs. Haines is thrilled with her, she told me this morning that Mackenzie fits in great and is a great asset to the classroom.

Mackenzie is pretty much on track with all they are studying, she has slipped right in with her friends and I am pleased with that. We are still doing our Teaching Textbooks math at home and also continuing to read from the Sonlight list of books that we have.

And things have really settled down at home during the day. Katy is able to focus better and I have been getting all of my work done...on time. I don't know what the future will bring for all of us, but I think Mackenzie will stay in public school at least for the remainder of elementary school. It suits her and after all, isn't that the best part of being able to homeschool, to give each of your children the unique combination of what they need to be successful in learning.

Homeschool Dropout

I am sad to say that I have decided to send my 2nd daughter, Mackenzie, back to public school.

This is not a rash, reactive decision. I have been thinking about this for a long time.

You see Katy and I had the most awesome first year of homeschool. I am not saying everything went according to plan. It definitely wasn't a perfect year. But it was a great year. She learned so much, both academically and emotionally. We became so much closer, spending a lot of time together working on the same goals will do that for you. And I dreamed of including Mackenzie with us.

And I am glad that I did. I think she learned a lot also, and I have to say here, this decision had nothing to do with our curriculum or her learning. Homeschool itself went great! It is after school that did not work.

You see the girls are finished with school around 12 noon or 1pm. We eat lunch and then they are supposed to pick from a myriad of choices what to do for the rest of the afternoon. That is if we don't have dance or voice or errands or whatever...you get the picture.

And most days we really do have a lot of things to do after homeschool is finished. But right now is tax season, and I need to work. So during lunch I head to my office which is about 10 feet away from the kitchen table! I need to be able to close my office door and work for an uninterrupted 2-3 hours...that's all I ask! I do the bulk of my work at night when they sleep.

The girls have a list they can pick from, and they can do these together or separately:

Read

Chores

Art (We have a 700 square foot art room in the basement with every kind of supply you can think of!)

Sewing

American Girl Dolls & Accessories

Puzzles

Games

Dance

Sing

Listen to books on tape

And more that I have probably forgotten. But the only thing they want to do is fight and torment each other! One pokes the other, then the other hits back. This goes on for the whole afternoon!

I scream from my office, "Don't make me come out there!" Yeah, they're totally scared!

I know what is going on. They want my attention, I get that. But at this time of year, for the next 4 months I can't give them my undivided attention. As I tell my children..."If I don't work, you don't eat!"

So last Tuesday, as Mackenzie was crying for the tenth time that day that Katy was being mean to her. I announced that we were giving up! I made Mackenzie get dressed and we drove up to the school. I think she thought the whole way up there that I was NOT serious, until we walked into the school office and I started filling out the paperwork.

They had Thursday and Friday off because of conferences, so she will officially start back to school on Monday. I am not excited about this, and I may live to regret it. But I am fond of food and so are my children!

A Good Reason to Homeschool

One of the reasons we homeschool is to have more time for extra curricular activities. My daughters love to sing and dance and act, so by homeschooling we have plenty of time to take classes and go to rehearsals.

When they were all in public school, it was hard to balance school, dance, voice lessons, rehearsals and HOMEWORK. Of course the biggest problem was the homework. When my son Randy was younger I had him attend a private Montessori school. He started when he was 3 years old in Preschool and stayed there until 5th grade. Part of the philosophy of the school was that school was for school work and home was for family life. Therefore there was no homework!

It was wonderful! Although he was in school until 4pm during the week, we were free to pursue lots of fun things after school and on the weekends. There was never a night that we would arrive home after a late soccer practice only to remember that he had to finish a project or a math page or whatever!

I am certain that if I had known more about homeschooling when Randy was ready to leave the Montessori school that I would have definitely homeschooled him rather than put him in public school.

Katy during a performance at Miller Marley School of Dance. She takes ballet, tap, jazz and performs with the Senior Showbiz Performers. She also takes Voice lessons with Elizabeth Luthi at her Voice Studio.

Mackenzie with her group at Halloween. She is dressed like a "Nerd." Mackenzie takes ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop and performs with the Junior Showbiz Performers. She also takes voice lessons with Elizabeth Luthi.