The Challenge and Reward

It truly has been a great start to the whole home school experience. Admittedly it has been hard work and I am yet to achieve a reasonable balance between 'work', 'home school' and my other relationships/commitments. Frankly I have been stretched, a little bit stressed, tired, and generally not on top of things I consider important. I have allowed home school to take priority over the last 2 weeks, which in some sense was expected, but I simply can't continue with that kind of routine - i.e. it's taking too much time. What's made things harder is there has been other extra 'stuff' that has also had to be covered off these last two weeks, which has also involved extra time and commitment. I have a daughter in Year 9 who has needed extra assistance, plus another in Year 11 who had parent-teacher interviews this week and various issues there, so... there's just been a lot happening and I really am looking forward to striking a better balance next week. In terms of home school hours, I suppose JT is at it for about 6 hours a day, of which I have been involved alongside him for about half of those hours. His key subject areas are Maths (we would do about an hour and half a day on Maths), Spelling and reading-writing-comprehension-reporting. As well as these core areas we have also enjoyed going for a surf most days - short, but very enjoyable, and also watching 'Gallipolli'.

JT has been reading a fair bit and then completes a book review on what he reads. Today I asked him for a brief paragraph report on one book. He then spent 2 hours on doing a full on powerpoint presentation on the key themes of the book and more. It was a lot more than what I asked for or expected and it was nice not to ring the bell to make him stop.

Other activities that used to be regarded as 'extra curricular' e.g drums and soccer, are now regarded as part of the whole home school experience which I think is really healthy. His drum practice is much more regular and he is improving heaps.

So, alls good - except I just need to find those routines that are going to make it feasible to work well as well as teach well, because that's just not working how it needs to at the moment. The reward is worth the challenge that the experience provides.